Fer-de-Lance Pirate Interdictor

Coming from the world of EVE Online where piracy really does run rampant, I have had to learn how to build ships designed for specific tasks. Given Elite Dangerous's piracy is an entirely different issue, the pirates in Elite are much more forgiving, usually disabling a ship and stealing the cargo rather than blasting you into oblivion like they do in EVE. Also piracy in Elite is much LESS of a problem but, there is still good bounty to be made on their heads if you can catch them, that's where the FDL shines.

Please remember that this build is specifically engineered to combat pirates through INTERDICTION, and of course dogfighting. Utilization of proper bait and kill is still paramount to success, and this is not a "god ship", its a solid build and with the right piloting skills is extremely formidable, but it is NOT FOOL PROOF.

http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60O,7RK4yH4yH4yH4yH0__0-80-I0-I01Q3hA,2-7_7_6Q6u9Y6u5A,7Sk7fE9tu

For those that do not want to click links....
Code:
[Fer-de-Lance]
H: 4B/F Cannon
M: 2D/G Beam Laser
M: 2D/G Beam Laser
M: 2D/G Beam Laser
M: 2D/G Beam Laser
U: 0C Shield Booster
U: 0D Shield Booster
U: 0E Shield Booster
U: 0E Shield Booster
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0E Frame Shift Wake Scanner


BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 5A Power Plant
TM: 5A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 4D Life Support
PC: 6A Power Distributor
SS: 4D Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)


5: 5A Shield Generator
4: 3A Shield Cell Bank
4: 4D Frame Shift Drive Interdictor
---
Shield: 608.13 MJ
Power : 15.28 MW retracted (75%)
20.80 MW deployed (102%)
20.40 MW available
Cargo : 0 T
Fuel : 8 T
Mass : 405.6 T empty
413.6 T full
Range : 14.00 LY unladen
14.00 LY laden
Price : 77,463,513 CR
Re-Buy: 3,873,176 CR @ 95% insurance

Thoughts on this build?
 
Have you tried it at all? I was trying to use 2 beam lasers only and the heat was unbearable. Now i have one beam and 3 pulses and it still overheats when i shot and boost at the same time. I highly doubt you can use 4 of them without taking a lots of heat damage. Unless you dont care...
 
The weapons can be adjusted, I still prefer gimballed burst lasers, I used the BEAM Lasers to show MAXIMUM WEAPON POWER DRAW, once you go into the lower drain weapons you can adjust other parameters to suit your specific style, however the base remains the same.

Example, say you dont use 4 beams, you switch to 2 beams and 2 pulse, less power draw, and you then change the shield booster to a higher grade to keep the shields at 608, now you have an open slot, so you add in a heat sink.

The 14ly jump range will obviously change, albeit not by much, perhaps .6-.8 however as long as the shields are double the base you should be fine in combat, with that you have room to design to your needs, its still a very effective pirate hunter.
 
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I'd consider some armour for the FDL if you can stand the extra weight. The shields are powerful but they charge ever so slowly, so when they go down they'll almost certainly stay down for the remainder of the fight.

While were on this subject I wonder if you can help me. I'm fuzzy on the whole weapon thing. Intuitive logic dictates the more expensive a weapon the more effective it should be, and I haven't often seen people with a load out like that. If beam lasers aren't the absolute best things ever why are they often shunned in favour of much cheaper weapons like gimballed pulse lasers or multicannons?
 
I'd consider some armour for the FDL if you can stand the extra weight. The shields are powerful but they charge ever so slowly, so when they go down they'll almost certainly stay down for the remainder of the fight.

While were on this subject I wonder if you can help me. I'm fuzzy on the whole weapon thing. Intuitive logic dictates the more expensive a weapon the more effective it should be, and I haven't often seen people with a load out like that. If beam lasers aren't the absolute best things ever why are they often shunned in favour of much cheaper weapons like gimballed pulse lasers or multicannons?

1. Energy consumption
2. Heat generation
3. Cost (not really a big issue but still a factor)

There are many ways to get good DPS that is sustainable for an extended period. The big issue with the FDL and Anacondas HUGE hard-points is that there are simply no weapons for them at the moment. IMHO I believe the entire Laser weapon range should be available through all classes 1-5 alongside Rail Guns, I also believe that once you get to tiers 4-5 the multicannon should become an AUTOCANNON like an Apache's 30mm LW Chaincannon; but that is a different discussion for a different time.
 
Up the shield boosters then use power management to turn off cargo hatch / interdictor / fsd / fuel scoop, drop 2 beams (imo) for something less hungry, gimballed pulses for subsystem hits or fixed for maximum efficiency.

If you interdicted me in this, you'd lose unless you were a spectacular pilot it isn't playing to the FDL's strengths

Edit: and don't use a wake scanner, pointless.
 
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Not sure how successfull you are going to be chasing pirates around the galaxy in one without a fuel scoop to be honest.


Other than that its pretty solid.
 
Four beams is an overkill. Here is my build:

[Fer-de-Lance]
H: 4B/G Cannon
M: 2D/F Beam Laser
M: 2D/F Beam Laser
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0E Kill Warrant Scanner

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 5A Power Plant
TM: 5A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 4D Life Support
PC: 6A Power Distributor
SS: 4D Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)

5: 5A Shield Generator
4: 4C Fuel Scoop
4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
2: 1A Frame Shift Drive Interdictor
1: 1E Basic Discovery Scanner
---
Shield: 855.18 MJ
Power : 18.23 MW retracted (89%)
21.70 MW deployed (106%)
20.40 MW available
Cargo : 16 T
Fuel : 8 T
Mass : 401.9 T empty
425.9 T full
Range : 14.13 LY unladen
13.60 LY laden
Price : 80,026,576 CR
Re-Buy: 4,001,329 CR @ 95% insurance
 
I like your build better Moriarte but a 1A interdictor is risky, your basically saying if they can play the minigame they can escape, you might as well fit a 4A fuel scoop too, because you'll be turning it off when you fight :p, no idea why you're carrying a space horn either :p I would however be worried if this loadout came after me, it suggests competence - extremely high shield strength, pewpew that fits its capabilities.
 
Four beams is an overkill. Here is my build:

[Fer-de-Lance]
H: 4B/G Cannon
M: 2D/F Beam Laser
M: 2D/F Beam Laser
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0E Kill Warrant Scanner

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 5A Power Plant
TM: 5A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 4D Life Support
PC: 6A Power Distributor
SS: 4D Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)

5: 5A Shield Generator
4: 4C Fuel Scoop
4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
2: 1A Frame Shift Drive Interdictor
1: 1E Basic Discovery Scanner
---
Shield: 855.18 MJ
Power : 18.23 MW retracted (89%)
21.70 MW deployed (106%)
20.40 MW available
Cargo : 16 T
Fuel : 8 T
Mass : 401.9 T empty
425.9 T full
Range : 14.13 LY unladen
13.60 LY laden
Price : 80,026,576 CR
Re-Buy: 4,001,329 CR @ 95% insurance

2 medium beams is not really enough alpha to take down the shields on a shield boosted combat rig - which any decent pirate will have.
 
I like your build better Moriarte but a 1A interdictor is risky, your basically saying if they can play the minigame they can escape, you might as well fit a 4A fuel scoop too, because you'll be turning it off when you fight :p, no idea why you're carrying a space horn either :p I would however be worried if this loadout came after me, it suggests competence - extremely high shield strength, pewpew that fits its capabilities.

These words become music to my ears, coming from notorious pirate, like yourself. :)

I will consider putting a stronger interdictor, like you suggest. Thanks for the assessment.

Oh, I was just testing the stallion gun for the first time against NPC's yesterday, not that it matters against human pilots or NPC's, just looks cool. All I need is a couple of near-infinite lazors anyway.

Now that I think of it, a level 3 pulse (gimballed or fixed) might be more useful instead of a cannon.
 
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2 medium beams is not really enough alpha to take down the shields on a shield boosted combat rig - which any decent pirate will have.

4 medium beams isn't either, once the capacitors empty 4 beams = 2 beams, the difference between the two is only going to kill shields on smaller pirate vessels, it might let you rag through a cobra for example, but a cobra is also likely to be 30-50m/s faster than the fdl, might make a difference on an asp - and an asps slow, however you'd have to be drunk to lose to an asp in an FDL whatever the weapon setup lol.

Note i'm not saying don't fit 4 weapons, i'd probably put something in the additional slots that was power light, multi cannons for example. If you want to have any power to play with on an FDL though you can't really fit 4 beams.

Personally i fit a C3 on the huge hardpoint and run C3 pulse 2xC2 pulse 2xC2kinetic (whatever you fancy) for pvp.
 
Code:
[Fer-de-Lance]H: 4B/F Cannon
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0I Point Defence
U: 0I Point Defence
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster


BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 5A Power Plant
TM: 5B Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 4E Life Support
PC: 6A Power Distributor
SS: 4C Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)


5: 5A Shield Generator
4: 4B Shield Cell Bank
4: 4B Shield Cell Bank
2: 2A Frame Shift Drive Interdictor
1: 1D Hull Reinforcement Package
---
Shield: 665.14 MJ
Power : 17.67 MW retracted (87%)
20.99 MW deployed (103%)
20.40 MW available
Cargo : 0 T
Fuel : 8 T
Mass : 461.1 T empty
469.1 T full
Range : 12.34 LY unladen
12.34 LY laden
Price : 74,795,120 CR
Re-Buy: 3,739,756 CR @ 95% insurance

I wouldn't bother with a wake scanner, just look at the direction they jumped in.

The above should do better in a dog fight either way, slightly slower but better survivability and more sustained DPS for subsystems.
 
I'm a little irritated you don't have a kill warrant scanner. What if you happen to meet Derath in an anarchy system?
 
I'm a little irritated you don't have a kill warrant scanner. What if you happen to meet Derath in an anarchy system?

ahh the irony that the only time I've died to a player was a 5v1 in yembo where i made many bad choices in a row, (though i'd probably make them again) for a 16k bounty because they didn't KWS, so tbh probably a valid statement lol.
 
4 medium beams isn't either, once the capacitors empty 4 beams = 2 beams, the difference between the two is only going to kill shields on smaller pirate vessels, it might let you rag through a cobra for example, but a cobra is also likely to be 30-50m/s faster than the fdl, might make a difference on an asp - and an asps slow, however you'd have to be drunk to lose to an asp in an FDL whatever the weapon setup lol.

Note i'm not saying don't fit 4 weapons, i'd probably put something in the additional slots that was power light, multi cannons for example. If you want to have any power to play with on an FDL though you can't really fit 4 beams.

Personally i fit a C3 on the huge hardpoint and run C3 pulse 2xC2 pulse 2xC2kinetic (whatever you fancy) for pvp.

Yeah i run similar. I stick a big beam on the huge hardpoint and 2 medium beams and 2 cannons up top.


My point is that 2 medium beams against a beefed up shield is not really gonna work if the pirate is even half competent to be honest.


A boosted Python or FDL will just shrug off a pair of medium lasers if they have 4 pips in sys.
 
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