Ship Builds & Load Outs Good compliment to rails? Need advice, CMDR's!

[Tiny_Rick]

I'm currently not flying safe since I decided to do a little RES bounty hunting to break up the monotony of taxiing slaves, so I upgraded my Viper to a MkIV (which is a beast, but not as spry as its snub fighting younger brother) and went a little crazy outfitting it to the nines.

I digress. I currently have rails fitted to my mediums, which I've now fallen in love with, but I'm waffling on what I should fit into my smalls. I currently have cannons, which make for slow, but immensely satisfying dog fights. However, the ammo costs are biting, and I'm not sure if the setup is relevant for one-on-ones (I'm always fearing that one interdiction that doesn't go my way).

Any and all critiques are welcome! Fly safe, God knows I won't!

 

[Arius]

...what I should fit into my smalls....Any and all critiques are welcome!

Innuendo...too....strong. Must....resist......Nope, failed...
:
I keep a torpedo in my smalls!

 

[Ceekay]

Try some laser turrets in your smalls but be careful you don't get burnt if the temperature gets too high you might need some heatsinks in your pockets (I mean utilities!)

Seriously though I use small turrets on my Viper 3 and 4 as they keep hitting the target until you can bring the main weapons to bear, this is very important with a low ammo weapon like rails and PA's

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Hmm, if you are into powerplay I'd recommend siding with Antal for the 3 weeks and getting a pair of enforcer cannons, they are slower yet more powerful multicannons. <- Also get some imperial hammers if you like railguns, they are fun

Otherwise I'd go pulse lasers or multicannons.
For enjoyment maybe frag cannons or quad railguns...

 

[CariadocThorne]

Rail guns are ineffective for stripping hull, but good at stripping shields and sniping modules.

IMO, you need to either negate the weakness vs hulls, or capitalise on the strength vs shields and modules. So I recomend either:

Frag cannons. Excellent hull damage, respectable shield damage and good for hitting nimble targets which may be hard to hit with railguns. Low Ammo, but the railguns will run out first anyway. Only effective at close range.

OR

Gimballed Cannons. People look down on Cannons, but they're useful if you understand them. Their shield damage isn't great, and due to the projectile velocity, you don't want to be too far away. They don't deal particularly great hull damage, but this is largely because they have great penetration, so a lot of their damage is hitting modules rather than the hull. Since the railgun also specialises in module sniping, this is a highly effective combo for sniping powerplants. Once the powerplant is at 0%, your target is a sitting duck, use your cannons (more ammo than the railguns) to keep hitting the powerplant until it explodes. Using gimbals also makes small nimble targets a little easier to hit, and the low shield damage doesn't matter if your target has weak shields anyway.

 

[Tiny_Rick]

Rail guns are ineffective for stripping hull, but good at stripping shields and sniping modules.

IMO, you need to either negate the weakness vs hulls, or capitalise on the strength vs shields and modules. So I recomend either:

Frag cannons. Excellent hull damage, respectable shield damage and good for hitting nimble targets which may be hard to hit with railguns. Low Ammo, but the railguns will run out first anyway. Only effective at close range.

OR

Gimballed Cannons. People look down on Cannons, but they're useful if you understand them. Their shield damage isn't great, and due to the projectile velocity, you don't want to be too far away. They don't deal particularly great hull damage, but this is largely because they have great penetration, so a lot of their damage is hitting modules rather than the hull. Since the railgun also specialises in module sniping, this is a highly effective combo for sniping powerplants. Once the powerplant is at 0%, your target is a sitting duck, use your cannons (more ammo than the railguns) to keep hitting the powerplant until it explodes. Using gimbals also makes small nimble targets a little easier to hit, and the low shield damage doesn't matter if your target has weak shields anyway.

Outstanding advice, thank you! I think I'm going to keep those cannons, per your guidance. Besides, there's nothing like outpacing an FDL to line up those perfect shots rather than spray n' pray with the automatic versions. I have having a blast light night measuring my shots and making them count. Sure, the ammo prevents sustained hunting, but that's trivial IMO.

I will definitely take you advice in module sniping, I think that's a better way to go with my loadouts.

 

[thirstyfish]

try using beam lasers, two of those will drain most shields in a hurry. At least that's what I have on my viper mkiv. but I put gimballed multicannons on the mediums.

 

[CariadocThorne]

try using beam lasers, two of those will drain most shields in a hurry. At least that's what I have on my viper mkiv. but I put gimballed multicannons on the mediums.

This actually reminded me of something I do sometimes on my DBS.

I fit a small fixed beam and a medium rail on one side of my DBS, in the same fire group, with gimballed small and medium cannon on the other side (for module sniping as mentioned above).

When I pull the main trigger, it fires the small beam and charges the rail. So long as the target's shields are flaring from the beam, I know the rail is going to hit, but if the beam loses the target, I release the trigger before the rail fires. It doesn't make it easier to hit exactly, but it does reduce the number of rail shots I wasted on narrow misses, especially at range. The small beam also helps whittle down shields on small agile targets when I can't keep them in my crosshairs long enough to fire the rail, and gives me a backup shield stripper when I run out of rail ammo.