I've been thinking of building one of these as thargoid hunting isn't something I've done. Curious how others go about it and to see some builds. I want to use the DBS, but maybe I'd change my mind based on the responses. I have a fully engineered Vulture, Courier and iEagle. Not adverse to a different ship either. I ran a few DBS builds through Coriolis and impressed with how fast and agile it is, seems well-suited, but looking for the finer points of scout hunting, especially weapons, shields and hull engineering.
Diamondback Scout How do you build a scout hunter DBS?
- Thread starter sinisalo
- Start date
The DBS can be pretty tanky if you skip the shield and just go "oops all HRPs".
I've thought about trying one against a cyclops since the weapon convergence is fantastic, but I'm wary that the distro might have trouble keeping up.
For hull engineering, the answer is "heavy duty, deep plating" on everything. Resistances don't matter against thargoids and the the tiny amounts of caustic resistance you get from guardian and meta-alloy HRPs don't make up for the fact that the raw HP of regular heavy-duty engineering is so much higher - and if you do run shields, caustic resistance is irrelevant against the bleedthrough.
You will want to pack decontamination limpets against scouts though, which might be tough on the DBS as it doesn't have a lot of internal space if you want to take HRPs, at least one MRP, an AFM, cargo rack and the limpet controller.
I've thought about trying one against a cyclops since the weapon convergence is fantastic, but I'm wary that the distro might have trouble keeping up.
For hull engineering, the answer is "heavy duty, deep plating" on everything. Resistances don't matter against thargoids and the the tiny amounts of caustic resistance you get from guardian and meta-alloy HRPs don't make up for the fact that the raw HP of regular heavy-duty engineering is so much higher - and if you do run shields, caustic resistance is irrelevant against the bleedthrough.
You will want to pack decontamination limpets against scouts though, which might be tough on the DBS as it doesn't have a lot of internal space if you want to take HRPs, at least one MRP, an AFM, cargo rack and the limpet controller.
Thanks mate, that's helpful.
I had the idea to buy a Diamondback Scout and turn it is to a scout hunter. I bought it, and A-rated it, but after a bit of theory-crafting, decided I didn't want to go through with engineering it, at least until I tried the scout combat to see what I'm getting in to. I didn't think I'd do so much of it that it warranted building a whole new ship for it. That, and I have Kraits!
So instead, I repurposed Poison Whiskey, my combat sweeper. for the role. The key for scout hunting is raw hull. Resistances mean nothing, and even shields are only partially effective. So you need some meat on the bones. In a virtuoso display of lack of self-awareness, I had only just removed the military grade armor from this ship and replaced it with heavy-duty stock alloy. The armor just isn't needed in PvE and slows me down. But it would have been nice for scout hunting.
So I removed all the weapons and the collector controller from the ship, and mounted two medium thermal vent beams stolen from my FDL, and a G5 heavy-duty 5D HRP from my Vulture. I then flew to Shinrarta, where I installed a C3 decontamination limpet controller, a Xeno-scanner and three C3 turreted AX multicannons, and then flew to Maia to hunt some bugs.
I kept the C5 scoop and C5 GFSDB to get to Maia, which is a bit of a hop of course. After arriving in Maia I docked at Obsidian, only to find out there is no outfitting there. That's odd for a full-size station. So then I flew to Moni's Hub, where I dropped the scoop and FSD booster, and replaced both with 5D HRPs. I put G4 heavy duty on each, bringing total integrity to around 3,100, and then took off to hunt some scouts.
I FSS'd the system and there were NHSS everywhere. I dropped in to a threat 3 and found my first scouts. They were not too much trouble, but I didn't avoid the caustic clouds at first and needed the decontamination limpets and those work as advertised, removing the caustic goo and even repairing the hull by a point. I then hit several more, having the most fun in the threat 4 instances, and by the time I wrapped it up I had gotten my first 21 thargoid kills.
Glad to have given it a go, and I plan to hang around for a couple days and run up the score. Poison Whiskey is plenty of ship for this, the scouts aren't hard, but damage is inevitable, so the right ship is needed. My hull had been shot down to 64% at it's lowest. Good stuff.
I had the idea to buy a Diamondback Scout and turn it is to a scout hunter. I bought it, and A-rated it, but after a bit of theory-crafting, decided I didn't want to go through with engineering it, at least until I tried the scout combat to see what I'm getting in to. I didn't think I'd do so much of it that it warranted building a whole new ship for it. That, and I have Kraits!
So instead, I repurposed Poison Whiskey, my combat sweeper. for the role. The key for scout hunting is raw hull. Resistances mean nothing, and even shields are only partially effective. So you need some meat on the bones. In a virtuoso display of lack of self-awareness, I had only just removed the military grade armor from this ship and replaced it with heavy-duty stock alloy. The armor just isn't needed in PvE and slows me down. But it would have been nice for scout hunting.
So I removed all the weapons and the collector controller from the ship, and mounted two medium thermal vent beams stolen from my FDL, and a G5 heavy-duty 5D HRP from my Vulture. I then flew to Shinrarta, where I installed a C3 decontamination limpet controller, a Xeno-scanner and three C3 turreted AX multicannons, and then flew to Maia to hunt some bugs.
I kept the C5 scoop and C5 GFSDB to get to Maia, which is a bit of a hop of course. After arriving in Maia I docked at Obsidian, only to find out there is no outfitting there. That's odd for a full-size station. So then I flew to Moni's Hub, where I dropped the scoop and FSD booster, and replaced both with 5D HRPs. I put G4 heavy duty on each, bringing total integrity to around 3,100, and then took off to hunt some scouts.
I FSS'd the system and there were NHSS everywhere. I dropped in to a threat 3 and found my first scouts. They were not too much trouble, but I didn't avoid the caustic clouds at first and needed the decontamination limpets and those work as advertised, removing the caustic goo and even repairing the hull by a point. I then hit several more, having the most fun in the threat 4 instances, and by the time I wrapped it up I had gotten my first 21 thargoid kills.
Glad to have given it a go, and I plan to hang around for a couple days and run up the score. Poison Whiskey is plenty of ship for this, the scouts aren't hard, but damage is inevitable, so the right ship is needed. My hull had been shot down to 64% at it's lowest. Good stuff.
That's how I built my PvP DBS.
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
Nice and timely Sir Ganksalot.
Are you a Monty Python fan? Whenever I read your username I think of the Trojan Rabbit scene in the Holy Grail. Arthur looks at Bedivere and says who leaps out of the rabbit?
Ganksalot, Gallahad and I, leap out of the rabbit, taking the enemy completely by surprise!
Anyway, do you use it for scouts? Your build made me think maybe going shieldless for scouts is a viable alternative.
I did some build crafting in Coriolis and this is what I've come up with for a Diamondback Scout Hunter. It seems just enough integrity and can only carry four limpets. The low limpet count and relatively low integrity compared to other ships would limit the DBS's combat endurance. I have plenty of mats to keep refilling the limpets through synthesis, but at 10 nickel per four limpets it won't last forever. So a ship like this would have to return to a station a little more often. Because it has lower firepower than the Krait I used it would take even longer to kill the scouts, meaning more damage taken and the integrity seems even lower as a result.
Diamondback Scout Hunter
It's faster than the Krait and more agile too. A smaller target even, but I don't know if that makes much of a difference. The main appeal is a dedicated Scout Hunter and a little more challenge using it for the role, as well as adding a ship to the fleet with a clear and defined purpose.
What's a good weapon for the small hardpoints for scouts?
Are you a Monty Python fan? Whenever I read your username I think of the Trojan Rabbit scene in the Holy Grail. Arthur looks at Bedivere and says who leaps out of the rabbit?
Ganksalot, Gallahad and I, leap out of the rabbit, taking the enemy completely by surprise!
Anyway, do you use it for scouts? Your build made me think maybe going shieldless for scouts is a viable alternative.
I did some build crafting in Coriolis and this is what I've come up with for a Diamondback Scout Hunter. It seems just enough integrity and can only carry four limpets. The low limpet count and relatively low integrity compared to other ships would limit the DBS's combat endurance. I have plenty of mats to keep refilling the limpets through synthesis, but at 10 nickel per four limpets it won't last forever. So a ship like this would have to return to a station a little more often. Because it has lower firepower than the Krait I used it would take even longer to kill the scouts, meaning more damage taken and the integrity seems even lower as a result.
Diamondback Scout Hunter
It's faster than the Krait and more agile too. A smaller target even, but I don't know if that makes much of a difference. The main appeal is a dedicated Scout Hunter and a little more challenge using it for the role, as well as adding a ship to the fleet with a clear and defined purpose.
What's a good weapon for the small hardpoints for scouts?
I did it, found the Krait Mk II to be much better for destroying Thargoid Scout ships ...
I used a Crusader taking on scouts to get from deadly to elite on main.
I'm using a DBS as pirate hunter using 2 cytos and 2 dumbfires
For a Scout Hunter DBS i'd go like this.
No decon limpets - you cant use them during fight - the scouts will kill them the moment you deploy them.
So simply use the rails to burn your ship to get rid of the corrosion then a heat sink to cool down and the AFMU if really needed (you can repair in fight the MRP)
I'm using a DBS as pirate hunter using 2 cytos and 2 dumbfires
For a Scout Hunter DBS i'd go like this.
No decon limpets - you cant use them during fight - the scouts will kill them the moment you deploy them.
So simply use the rails to burn your ship to get rid of the corrosion then a heat sink to cool down and the AFMU if really needed (you can repair in fight the MRP)
-WHAT is your name?
-Sir Robin of Camelot
-WHAT is your quest?
-To seek the holy grail
-WHAT... is the capital of Assyria?
I love that movie.
I would probably suggest either gauss or shard cannons or maybe gimballed beams. I've never used small hardpoints on scouts before but I would think that gauss or shards would be the most effective.
If it were me, I wouldn't worrying about decontamination limpets on the DBS and just be extra careful not to fly through their death clouds when you kill em. The DBS just doesn't have enough internal slots and running without at least one MRP might be a mistake IMO.
Also, if you decide to run with a shield, I would suggest running it with no boosters to ensure that it comes back as fast as possible. Removing the boosters on your build dropped the MJ's to 145 but decrease the broken regen to 45 seconds.
I just threw this together real quick. Might go try it out tonight for
and giggles.Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
Oooo I might have to try that
Did you mean to put standard rail guns on your build? I didn't think they worked against thargoids
Against scouts all weapons work.
I used the limpets for the first 50+ scout kills. I did them all in threat 3 or 4 NHSS and doing it this way there is plenty of opportunity to use the limpets. Maybe if the scouts are in an AX CZ it's a different story? Maybe there you need to use heat to remove the goo since you don't get a break. This also maybe affects the shield theory, since in a signal source the targets are limited and once dead there's plenty of time to recharge. With at most 7 scouts they'll all be dead by the time I both lose shields and recharge them. But without boosters it drops the recharge to just 35 seconds on my mock-up so that's a good tip, thanks.
The ability to add even more integrity by dropping the rack and controller is a good reason to switch to heat-based goo removal. Thanks for the builds.
I agree the Krait is better, but that's not always why I fly a certain ship. I see the appeal in flying one less capable and more challenging. Honestly scouts aren't much of a threat so I was thinking of the DBS to make it a little more dangerous than the Krait is and give me a reason to bring a new and different ship in to the fleet. As long as I stick to NHSS I don't think it's an issue really.
The ability to add even more integrity by dropping the rack and controller is a good reason to switch to heat-based goo removal. Thanks for the builds.
I agree the Krait is better, but that's not always why I fly a certain ship. I see the appeal in flying one less capable and more challenging. Honestly scouts aren't much of a threat so I was thinking of the DBS to make it a little more dangerous than the Krait is and give me a reason to bring a new and different ship in to the fleet. As long as I stick to NHSS I don't think it's an issue really.
I thought only thermal weapons worked on scouts? Or maybe it's the big baddies that only thermal works on that I'm confusing it with. It's been a loooong time since I've hunted goids.
On interceptors only ax/guardian weapons are working.
I have that DBS, and I've A-rated it and put in some engineered modules I had in storage, but I've built it no further yet. On a different board we were talking about scout hunting and one of the guys there posted his Clipper build, which looked well-suited to the scout role. I've wanted to add a Clipper to my fleet, being Empire and all, but never worked out a role for it. It always seemed a ship caught in two minds, not quite sharp enough to do the things I want to do.
So I took his build and made it mine and this is what I came up with. It would have scoop and GFSDB to get there, but once on-station those could be dropped and replaced with HRPs, resulting in a mission-ready build like this
Clipper AX
Very fast, can mount all four AX weapons. Great integrity without needing to install armor, keeping it light and fast. Good shields for the role, decent mj and fast recovery. What I don't know is how agile it is. Does anyone have something similar and care to share your pitch/roll/yaw numbers? I've never bothered to fly one. What other ship is it comparable to it agility-wise?
Does a point defense engage the caustic missiles?
So I took his build and made it mine and this is what I came up with. It would have scoop and GFSDB to get there, but once on-station those could be dropped and replaced with HRPs, resulting in a mission-ready build like this
Clipper AX
Very fast, can mount all four AX weapons. Great integrity without needing to install armor, keeping it light and fast. Good shields for the role, decent mj and fast recovery. What I don't know is how agile it is. Does anyone have something similar and care to share your pitch/roll/yaw numbers? I've never bothered to fly one. What other ship is it comparable to it agility-wise?
Does a point defense engage the caustic missiles?