Good FdL Build?

That's highly debatable
I pretty much prefer the Overcharged MC over Short Range MC.

That's really a non-argument. Overcharged also does 100% damage at 1.8km
And no, 2km is not plenty of range, not when the target is spinning away from you, without thrusters, at 500+ m/s

ShortRange has a minimal damage increase over OC, but at least with OC i can still nail a limping ship from 3+ km away... With SRB anything over 1.9km is basically gone
So, 50% damage at 3km is way better than 0 damage at 2km

Sure, my preference for Overcharged MC comes from doing a lot of CZ, way more than bountyhunting and massacre missions
I run that ship in CZ as well. NPC very rarely spin away at 500 m/s, they can't go that fast. And even if, my FDL is still faster than that. Beyond 2km the precision of the (gimballed) MC becomes way too low, waste of ammo vs actual damage done. The efficient beams have a better hit rate and longer reach as well.
 
The efficient beams have a better hit rate and longer reach as well.

Not at 3km, no :)

I run that ship in CZ as well. NPC very rarely spin away at 500 m/s, they can't go that fast.

Not natively, but they can be pushed by either collisions or weapon effects (a from behind rail shot will increase their speed)
So i did found myself more than once chasing a ship in CZ that had their drives knocked off, with 2-4 greens hopelessly chasing them, while the rest of the greens were outnumbered and losing the battle.
 
Im using rapid firing huge MC with incendiary rounds and four gimballed cannons (two short range g5 + two long range g1 with force shell mod to match shot velocity).
Only you will get problems with such a build if the ammunition runs out in the middle of the fight.
In addition, I don't think these cannons can hit more flexible small ships.

Sweet RNGsus, docking comp on a Lance :)

Just use one of the pvp builds, for example:

Either plasma (5 eff tc pa or 3 eff pa+2 lr rails) or the yeeter build (c4 gimb oc/rapid corrosive mc + 4 srb rails). There are a couple more viable builds (like 3 tc beam+2 c2 mc, corro+emissive, or the dakka dakka 5x multi, either gimb or fixed) but all of them tend to have lower potential damage output or other problems.
Not this PA -.-
 
This is my take on the PVE FDL. I switched to fixed weapons a while back and of all the combo's I've found this works the best for me: https://s.orbis.zone/jn14

Even though Prismatics don't really recharge I've also found that there's plenty of opportunity to reboot/repair shields when they drop below 50% so really most of the time my shields start an engagement at ~1900 MJ's, which is good enough.
LOL fragment cannon less ammunition than an MC.
Why a Supercruise Assist?
 
In addition, I don't think these cannons can hit more flexible small ships.
You are correct that cannons are too slow for small targets.
Consider them "close range" weapon. Apply short range and use as a shortgun.
Small targets will get a lot of modules damage because their modules are very close.
That's a good toy to play with.
 
Why a Supercruise Assist?
My combat Vette is usually sporting a SCA.
Valid for other combat ships that are doing a lot of signal-source-hopping

It makes dropping in POIs and SignalSources so much faster
And it's not like a g5 pve murder boat cannot spare 1-2 internals for non-combat stuff

Sure, for wingplay it's not really needed since one can use wing beacons for even faster dropping, but for solo play it shaves a lot of time.
 
Only you will get problems with such a build if the ammunition runs out in the middle of the fight.
In addition, I don't think these cannons can hit more flexible small ships.


Not this PA -.-

I'm using this ship solely for pvp against other medium ships. Although you're right, If I'm doing two medium CZ in all cannon fdl ammo is an issue and for such actions I switch to all mc build. Speaking of smaller ships - that huge rapid MC turn them into a mince.


ShortRange has a minimal damage increase over OC, but at least with OC i can still nail a limping ship from 3+ km away... With SRB anything over 1.9km is basically gone
So, 50% damage at 3km is way better than 0 damage at 2km

On some of my builds SRB serves better than OC. SRB is lighter on ditro especially of you power other weps as well. Speaking of accuracy, mc accuracy is pitiful on range greater than 1200 m and trying to hit something at 3km with a mc is a waste of ammo, unless you run long range mc.
And those spinning ships with disabled drive moving away from CZ at 500 m/s. That is what Mamba is for :) But whan I do Cz uns ina Vette I usully don't bother with spinners unless they are close and it is good to target their pp to score citical hit and premature destruction.
 
Think it depends on the build and what you're willing to live with as a trade off. Comparing the 2 the downsides of overcharged are slightly reduced damage and increased power draw and distro draw, although it should only need a brief shuffle of pips to bring multis back into line. The downside of SRB is heat and melting your modules if you're not careful and are using incendiary experimentals.

Don’t need much ammo when they’re doing 300+ damage each.
Why supercruise assist? Why not it’s a huge QoL timesaver - this is mostly a PVE build.
Psst You seem like a person of culture and sophistication who might understand that the only thing better than frags is more frags. Have you tried using 4 frags and a huge short range thermal conduit plasma accelerator? Just stick incendiary experimentals on 2, drag on one and corrosive on the 4th. You might want to switch to gimballed to make sure you have the convergence right with 4 but the best way I can describe what it does in a CZ is this.
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Think it depends on the build and what you're willing to live with as a trade off. Comparing the 2 the downsides of overcharged are slightly reduced damage and increased power draw and distro draw, although it should only need a brief shuffle of pips to bring multis back into line. The downside of SRB is heat and melting your modules if you're not careful and are using incendiary experimentals.


Psst You seem like a person of culture and sophistication who might understand that the only thing better than frags is more frags. Have you tried using 4 frags and a huge short range thermal conduit plasma accelerator? Just stick incendiary experimentals on 2, drag on one and corrosive on the 4th. You might want to switch to gimballed to make sure you have the convergence right with 4 but the best way I can describe what it does in a CZ is this.
View attachment 313452
Why thank you very much!

I do indeed think I've tried that combo, although likely it was with Focused huge PA as I like the increased shot speed this gives for the PA. Why am I not using that at the moment? I think because the 3 x beam set up just crushes shields so fast and can handle those nippy wing men OK - because while I'm obviously a dead eye shot with the PA's it really grinds my gears when I miss those Eagles and Vipers!
 
For clearing a CZ quickly I use

1x class 4 OC MC with autoloader
1x class 2 OC MC with autoloader
1x class 2 OC MC with corrosive
2x class 2 eff beams with thermal conduit

I found that with only the huge MC it took too long to get through the armour on hull tanks.

These days I fly with the PA/RG loadout whilst bounty hunting just for the practice although I go back to beams/MCs for BGS CZs as it takes too long otherwise; but I like the huge PA + frag idea. I have endlessly messed about with different weapon combos (even cannons) just to see how it affects combat.
 
For clearing a CZ quickly I use

1x class 4 OC MC with autoloader
1x class 2 OC MC with autoloader
1x class 2 OC MC with corrosive
2x class 2 eff beams with thermal conduit

I found that with only the huge MC it took too long to get through the armour on hull tanks.

These days I fly with the PA/RG loadout whilst bounty hunting just for the practice although I go back to beams/MCs for BGS CZs as it takes too long otherwise; but I like the huge PA + frag idea. I have endlessly messed about with different weapon combos (even cannons) just to see how it affects combat.
Read this Boy : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/good-fdl-build.604335/page-2#post-9881825
 
Frags don't do "300+ damage each" though. Not even close.
Yes they do - why would you even say that they don’t? 🤷🏻‍♂️


I mean never mind the above link I’ve posted to help you out - my OP on this has the full build which includes two fixed medium frags at 306 and 315 dps each.
 
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Paper sheet DPS on frags is meaningless. Damage per shot counts, that is the damage per pellet. Add the rate of fire and you can calculate the DPS per pellet. The actual total damage then depends on how many pellets actually hit. Against small ships a lot will miss due to the spread, and even against big ships you need to be really close to get all to hit.
 
Yes they do - why would you even say that they don’t? 🤷🏻‍♂️


I mean never mind the above link I’ve posted to help you out - my OP on this has the full build which includes two fixed medium frags at 306 and 315 dps each.

DPS is not the same thing as damage per shot/volley. DPS stands for damage per second and those 300+ DPS figures are very misleading because they don't take reload time into consideration.

Frag cannons are basically burst weapons with one burst consisting of 3 volleys shot with 5.0/s rate of fire (0.2 seconds between volleys). Therefore the full burst lasts for 0.4 seconds after which there is a cooldown (reload) period of 5 seconds, during which the weapon cannot fire at all.

In other words, every 5.4 seconds your weapon will have 306 DPS for 0.4 seconds and then 0 (zero) DPS during the next 5 seconds.

That's why the actual (=sustained) DPS of the weapon is 34 (displayed in parentheses by Coriolis after the DPS figure).

And all that only if every single pellet lands (which they won't most of the time unless you are shooting at a big ship from up close), and that's not even absolute damage btw.

Frags are not good weapons on a FDL. There is only a handful of weapon loadouts worth using including the yeeter (4 c2 SRB rails + 1 c4 gimballed corrosive MC, either overcharged or rapid fire), the standard 5PA (5 efficient thermal conduit PA's, maybe one of the c2 ones can be SRB) and the standard meta 3+2 (3 PAs +2 long range rails).

Every other loadouts are either meme builds or just straight up crap.
 
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I have recently modified my FdL a bit. It works beautifully in combat zones. I usually have half my ammo still left after a high CZ. The hardpoint layout is no good for someone with OCD though. But somehow it fits a ship with offset pilot seat and a bar in the view.
 
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