Okay ... final (yeh, right!) round of tweaking!
- 1x C4 Beam Laser (G3 Efficient / Thermal Vent) + 2x C1 Pulse Laser (G4 Rapid Fire / special FX not done yet), all gimballed
These sit on the secondary trigger for all fire groups and are quite satisfying to use with the "pew pew" of the rapid fire pulses being far more interesting than the continual drone of the Beam. They make short work of shields, the Thermal Vent on the C4 Beam is more than enough to keep the heat under control and the Pulses have such a low power draw that the capacitor is nowhere near as strained as it was with 3 Beams.
All of which allows for ...
- 1x C4 Plasma Accelerator (G2 Focused / special FX not done yet but probably Plasma Slug when I have the mats)
The big guns are back! Well, one of 'em anyway. Way easier to hit with this than the under-nose mounted C3 and - of course - it does a shed load more damage. Also still just useful as a fixed weapon option if the enemies start spamming chaff! Sits on the primary fire trigger for my "Shields / Big Ships" fire group.
- 1x C3 MultiCannon (G5 Overcharged / AutoLoader) + 2x C2 MultiCannon (G5 Overchared / AutoLoader), all gimballed
That C3 slot seems to have most success with a MultiCannon - don't know why but seems to be able to stay on target better than a gimballed Beam or Pulse and - of course - no horrible pitching up to aim a fixed weapon m'larkey. It's also only ~9 DPS down vs the Huge MC I had before so not losing too much in order to get the big PA back! These sit on the primary trigger for my "Hull / Small Ships" fire group.
So far ... I may be starting to love my 'vette again! It's still annoyingly slow (yeh, yeh ... hoops to jump, Palin's to unlock ...) but now has massive shields and hull and the new weapon load out is very enjoyable: enough lasers to strip shields very quickly, the MCs are devastating against medium and small ships and it has the fun factor of the huge PA against large ships again. So far, the only things which have even scratched the shields are wings (where you have to kinda let one or two of 'em wail on you whilst you swat the flies!) or Deadly/Elite FAS and FDL pilots, where they're just a little too quick/agile to stay on 'em continuously but tough enough that they can get a few passes in. Still, losing 50% of one ring of shields isn't exactly an issue and I've taken out wings of three ships without losing that first ring entirely so it seems solid.
- 1x C4 Beam Laser (G3 Efficient / Thermal Vent) + 2x C1 Pulse Laser (G4 Rapid Fire / special FX not done yet), all gimballed
These sit on the secondary trigger for all fire groups and are quite satisfying to use with the "pew pew" of the rapid fire pulses being far more interesting than the continual drone of the Beam. They make short work of shields, the Thermal Vent on the C4 Beam is more than enough to keep the heat under control and the Pulses have such a low power draw that the capacitor is nowhere near as strained as it was with 3 Beams.
All of which allows for ...
- 1x C4 Plasma Accelerator (G2 Focused / special FX not done yet but probably Plasma Slug when I have the mats)
The big guns are back! Well, one of 'em anyway. Way easier to hit with this than the under-nose mounted C3 and - of course - it does a shed load more damage. Also still just useful as a fixed weapon option if the enemies start spamming chaff! Sits on the primary fire trigger for my "Shields / Big Ships" fire group.
- 1x C3 MultiCannon (G5 Overcharged / AutoLoader) + 2x C2 MultiCannon (G5 Overchared / AutoLoader), all gimballed
That C3 slot seems to have most success with a MultiCannon - don't know why but seems to be able to stay on target better than a gimballed Beam or Pulse and - of course - no horrible pitching up to aim a fixed weapon m'larkey. It's also only ~9 DPS down vs the Huge MC I had before so not losing too much in order to get the big PA back! These sit on the primary trigger for my "Hull / Small Ships" fire group.
So far ... I may be starting to love my 'vette again! It's still annoyingly slow (yeh, yeh ... hoops to jump, Palin's to unlock ...) but now has massive shields and hull and the new weapon load out is very enjoyable: enough lasers to strip shields very quickly, the MCs are devastating against medium and small ships and it has the fun factor of the huge PA against large ships again. So far, the only things which have even scratched the shields are wings (where you have to kinda let one or two of 'em wail on you whilst you swat the flies!) or Deadly/Elite FAS and FDL pilots, where they're just a little too quick/agile to stay on 'em continuously but tough enough that they can get a few passes in. Still, losing 50% of one ring of shields isn't exactly an issue and I've taken out wings of three ships without losing that first ring entirely so it seems solid.