Fer De Lance - Best 'Laser Only' Build...?

[N3rd Murd3r3r]

As title, for PVE. All Engineers unlocked, G5.

I know, I know, MOAR MULTI-CANNON. Yes, lasers will do less damage. Significantly so. I just prefer the insta-hit of lasers from a fun point of view. The rails and plasmas options have been explored.

Any ideas for maximum fun that remains fairly useful?

Currently rocking the Efficient beam on the huge and two mediums with Efficient burst on the other two (with Scramble Spectrum).

Reason being that the Efficient bursts can be fired continually (cap will actually charge whilst they are being fired with G5 Charge Enhanced, which 'feels' better).

Just looking to mix it up.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

While i don't actually use this setup on my FDL, I do use something similar in my PvE Python and Anaconda, it's by no means meta, but it's a lot of fun.

Basically, for your FDL, equip;
1xC4 Multicannon.
2xC2 Burst/Pulse Lasers.
2xC2 Packhounds or Guided Missiles.
Modify the missiles for high capacity, so you don't run out every 3 minutes.

You can swap the multicannons and lasers around if you prefer.

And enjoy the mix of weaponry, rather than just endless dakka dakka or pew pew.

The build also keeps you combat effective if chaff spamming is going on, and while not an issue with the FDL, if something is out manoeuvring you, the missiles can track for a while once the target is out of your forward view.



I'd really like it if there were class 3&4 missile launchers (and Packhounds) too. No additional DPS needed, just a really high magazine and total ammo capacity, which would increase the DPM slightly.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Do not use beam lasers, especially not as the main DPS source. Extremly inefficient, even with efficient it's meh even though forums will try to convince you otherwise.

Efficient isn't the best way either. It looks great when you can fire indefinitely due to low capacitor draw. But lasers have INSANE damage penalties even at medium range. Unless all your fights happen at point-blank range, efficient is not the best mod.

Use long range. It completly removes the damage penalty. It's a massive total damage boost and gives you ridiculous flexibility.
A full laser build doesn't work though, lasers use too much distributor draw. On the FDL, a huge+med+med fixed long range pulses are ideal, put whatever you like in the empty two hardpoints (railguns with superpen and feedback are good, high yield fixed cannons are good, missiles are fine, corrosive MC is good).

 

[Truesilver]

During the course of preparing No.3 in my "Top Tips" series ...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/341107-Truesilver-s-Top-Tips-No-3-Gimballed-Duelling

... I found a FdL with 5 x gimballed lasers to perform better in Engineered PvP duelling than expected. Their lower DPS than multis is made up for to some extent by lack of reload time, but more importantly by the fact that a gimballed laser will almost always hit a shielded target (even a small one) at more or less any range or angle, whereas beyond 2 km a vast proportion of multi bullets can miss.

I therefore experimented with the various laser options - beams, bursts, long range, efficient, combination of long range and efficient, combination of bursts and pulses ... huge long range, rest efficient, etc etc etc ...

... and I found that what worked best for me was just 5 x efficient pulses. This was actually better on the Distro during a long fight than bursts, notwithstanding that bursts have ostensibly slightly better DPE (as they still draw more per second, meaning the relative Distro use is worse with several pips in the Distro).

Although there are strong 'tactical' arguments to be made for long range, a large part of my own choice was that my preferred fighting range is around 750 m to 1.5 km, and 5 x efficient pulses simply offered the best combination of low heat and draw with acceptable damage at that range. Also, three (1 x c4 and 2 x c2) were phasing, which is unaffected by range. (The other two were emissive and scramble spectrum.) And long range is more of a fixed thing, whereas the point of this exercise was to explore gimbals.

As I emphasise in the thread, none of this is supposed to mean that pulses are currently better than, eg, multis or rails (they aren't) but they're certainly viable.

I offer the opening vid from the above thread as proof of that...!

[video=youtube_share;reVQ4FXxkxU]https://youtu.be/reVQ4FXxkxU[/video]

 

[N3rd Murd3r3r]

Obliged!

 

[Mohrgan]

Listen to TrueSilver.

 

[Spacecat]

The major downside is having to listen to the sound of 5 pulses firing all the time.

 

[sb413197]

Size 4 efficient pulse, rest efficient burst. Maximal distributor efficiency - I think size 4 bursts are still messed up and not working properly with their efficiency. I run a similar build on my anaconda and it shreds NPCs and can even do some lighter PVP.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

i know its a little off thread (although i wish to own an FDL one day so its good to know) but my FAS i have 2 gimbals beam lasers mainly to do the shields and then i hit them with gimballed multis. all efficient weapons. are beams the most efficient way to get the shields down or would pulse be better? or burst? i do have to jam all my pips between shields and weps because i can run out of wep if i dont have 4 pips in on the beams.

 

[wrmiller]

Size 4 efficient pulse, rest efficient burst. Maximal distributor efficiency - I think size 4 bursts are still messed up and not working properly with their efficiency. I run a similar build on my anaconda and it shreds NPCs and can even do some lighter PVP.

Could you elaborate on the huge burst efficiency? I've though of trying that. On my Corvette I use huge efficient beams up top with efficient burst everywhere else. PvE only.

I hate leaving a good haz res or CNB because I ran out of ammo, so I switched to all energy weps a while back.

 

[Marklar_]

For PvE, all-lasers can be great because you can stay and fight longer without having to go restock ammo. But I really like MCs because I don't have to put so many pips to weapons, and MC ammo lasts a good long while. I've tried to get away from pulse lasers and MCs, but really, they are just so effective and practical. Beam lasers can be good if you have the spare capacity, I use one on the large hardpoint on my 'vette and it can fire just about forever with two pips to weapons.

 

[wrmiller]

For PvE, all-lasers can be great because you can stay and fight longer without having to go restock ammo. But I really like MCs because I don't have to put so many pips to weapons, and MC ammo lasts a good long while. I've tried to get away from pulse lasers and MCs, but really, they are just so effective and practical. Beam lasers can be good if you have the spare capacity, I use one on the large hardpoint on my 'vette and it can fire just about forever with two pips to weapons.

I too like MCs, but a number of times I ran out of ammo after spending a hour or two in a haz res and got frustrated. So I switched to all lasers. It's not perfect, but at least I don't run out of ammo.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

For PvE, all-lasers can be great because you can stay and fight longer without having to go restock ammo. But I really like MCs because I don't have to put so many pips to weapons, and MC ammo lasts a good long while. I've tried to get away from pulse lasers and MCs, but really, they are just so effective and practical. Beam lasers can be good if you have the spare capacity, I use one on the large hardpoint on my 'vette and it can fire just about forever with two pips to weapons.

thanks for the info. im def running into power problems with the beams on the cap. thats why i like to finish up with the mcs and targetting the powerplant. if pulse lasers could do the job using less power just taking only a little longer i would swap to them, but i need the shields down ASAP generally. because when mine go in my FAS im basically hull tanking until wake. and if they go on my cobra3 or 4 or asps its too late to wake for me.

 

[yolomcbobbinz]

5 efficient beams no more enemy ships and 2 resistance augmented shield booster 2 heavy duty shield boosters 1 thermal resistant and 1 Kinect resistant shield booster and 5c reinforced biweave if heats an issue drop the thermal and kinetic boosters for heat sinks

then for the rest of the internals you'll want a fuel scoop and hull packages or scbs but with all those resistances stacked up on biweaves you'll end up with a bit over 1k sheilds but the resistances according to coriolis you'll end up with an effective 5-6k mj so I don't think you'll need scbs

But if beams are just too heavy on the capacitor then rapid pulses will do

 

[Shir]

I like all gimballed laser builds and have them on a few ships for pve: corvette, anaconda, python. All ships engineered, charged enchanced weapon capacitors. I have found pulse lasers to be inferior to beams, plus the sound they make is extremely tiring. So i use 2 small efficient pulse turrets (need to experiment with replacing them also) and all the rest gimballed beams. Efficient and long range beams both work great, they kill all npcs fast and easy. Key is to use the thermal vent special effect, so they dont produce any heat as long as you hit the target. Obviously you can fire the efficient longer than the long range before the capacitor empties, (on the python i can pretty much keep firing for ever). Power wise i use the module priorities so some non combat modules automatically switch off during combat and i have no problems, on the big ships powerplant is armoured. So:

Efficient, you keep firing, the enemy dies. Pretty much they always hit the target so no heat problems. I made 16 millions on the ongoing CG, top 10% in 3-4 hours, npcs spawn, they die

Long Range, you fire with some pauses in between, but you start out at a greater distance. Also, not often, but sometimes you miss, so you get a few temperature warnings. Overall i prefer long range for the style, and cause you pretty much kill small ships before they can do anything to you

I m sure with multicannons you can kill npcs a few seconds faster but i can stay in battle for ever with lasers, they dont make noise, i like the visuals and they are easier to hit the target with

 

[Ziljan]

The major downside is having to listen to the sound of 5 pulses firing all the time.

Lololol

 

[Gunnet]

The major downside is having to listen to the sound of 5 pulses firing all the time.

At least rapid fire isn't the go-to pulse mod any more. Now that was an irritating sound.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Quad plasma FDL Can also put a kettle on your dashboard and brew some good tea.

 

[jasonbarron]

I haven't gotten around to building it yet, but I rather like the idea of 1x huge & 2x medium pulses modded for long range coupled with my already awesome long range rails.

 

[Truesilver]

I haven't gotten around to building it yet, but I rather like the idea of 1x huge & 2x medium pulses modded for long range coupled with my already awesome long range rails.

Yes, this ^^ would be a strong contender for the most effective all-fixed PvP duelling build in the current version of the game.

(But we're talking about five lasers, not three lasers, Jason!!) Modz ban im plz