Need advice on shieldless combat (interceptors and Titans)

[Landorin]

Hey all,

I'd call myself a veteran when it comes to combat experience with Thargoid ints and also joined quite some attacks on the latest Titan. I do this in my favorite ship the Corvette with Prismatic shields (and yesterday also tried with bi-weave). This all works well but the downtime on shield recharge is quite long. It always felt easier looking at the shiedless ships that stay possibly cold enough to avoid some hits and burn off caustic. Both something I cannot do.

Yet I am not sure how to play shieldless right (or is that simply not an option on certain ships? And if so, how can I tell which ones?). I tried it a few times and they burn down my hull. Not that fast but modules get hit too fast (or perhaps I need more module reinforcements?) which is the bigger problem I guess. Also, it feels like they hit my big ship no matter what (it also does not turn as quickly), flight assist turned off helps but not that much.

So if you have hints, guides, and especially how to tell which ships should go shieldless (and why so I can understand the concept completely) and how to play them, I'd be happy to hear it.

 

[Rhialto]

I use this Krait Mk2 build fir the Titan attacks.
On the empty hardpoint is an nanite torpedo pylon, Edsy doesn't seem to know that yet.
Shields aren't of much use against the Thargoids.
The repair limpet controller isn't of much use, the grade 3 is just too slow, so i am still experimenting.
On the power plant thermal spread might be a better option, or use one size smaller, it's quite overpowered now.
When close to the titan i switch off the fsd and the cargo hatch to reduce the heat, it mostly stays at or under 20%

 

[BetaToaster]

Burning off caustic is no longer necessary since you can just fit several caustic sinks (buyable for credits at rescue megaships).
If you're fighting shieldless, invest in the biggest repair limpet controller you can fit. Repairing my Cutter with a size 5 (or, equivalently, Universal) took forever. With the size 7 repair limpet controller, it's reasonable.
As for module reinforcements, the way it works is that all the protection percentages stack multiplicatively, but only the largest MRP (actually, topmost in the right-hand-side "Modules" screen) takes the damage, until it is destroyed. Thus, it's most efficient to fit two (maybe three) D-rated MRPs into the smallest slots you have available to increase the absorption%, and one size 5 MRP into a non-military slot to take the damage. If that's still not enough, consider taking an AFMU and repairing between fights.

The decision about shields is mostly about temperature management. Being above 20% heat makes you more visible to the Thargoids, and then you'll draw a lot of aggro. It's easy to stay cold in a shieldless build (fit a low emission thermal spread power plant and you should be done). Staying cold in a shielded ship requires tactical heat sink and/or thermal vent beam use, so it's somewhat more advanced.

 

[Kira Goto]

fit a low emission thermal spread power plant and you should be done

It’s really not that simple. Once you start firing weapons, you will spike above 20% heat and that makes an Interceptor’s weapon accurate almost to the point of not missing. For AX multicannons or similar, a thermal vent beam(or two depending on size) is sufficient to keep their thermal load under control.

Guardian weapons? Heatsinks, no way around it. Even a Krait with a low emissions plant and four pips to wep, starting at 0% heat will spike above 20% heat in one or two trigger pulls(if you use gauss or the modified Guardian weapons for shards and plasmas).

 

[BetaToaster]

It’s really not that simple. Once you start firing weapons, [..]

Yeah, sorry, I derped out when I wrote that. What I was thinking was: a proper PP will keep you cold enough while not firing weapons. But since this thread is about combat...

 

[Landorin]

Thanks for your info, guys. I totally did not think about thermal spread or low emissions on the power plant! Thanks for that! I optimized this now and played around with a shieldless Chieftain against a Titan and so far I like it. It is a lot faster and maneuverable as well as temperature is around 26% when hardpoints are deployed. Seems to be the better option. It is just damn fragile compared to my shielded corvette (a glaive struck me with its lightning attack and I died a few seconds later).

Also, thanks for the explanation about the MRPs, I will adjust my build accordingly. I already bring caustic sinks, repair limpets and an AFMU along (quite nice that you can repair MRPs). Most of the stuff I never needed for interceptors but for the Titan it feels essential. And yeah, burning off caustic is not really an option there (I love the caustic sinks anyway now).

However, what I totally was not aware of and just found out by coincidence: you can shoot the Titan ANYwhere with thermal vent lasers and it cools you down. Until now I thought I had to target some component for that. This along with flight assist off makes it a lot better.

Btw, what are those pulse scanners good for? The AXI website recommends it but I am not sure if and why I should scan anything on or around the Titan?

edit: I just visited the Titan again and wow, I was able to stay at 0% most of the time. Nothing apparently was able to detect me! At some point some Interceptor apparently got suspicious as something was hitting the TItan's core, namely me (no one else was there). It came close very slowly and really had to face me extremely close until it finally detected me and opened fire. That was pretty immersive!

 

[CMDR Davanix]

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

edsy.org

Mine from Edsy, getting the extra ammo mod for your Caustic sinks is very helpful, also the 64 cargo with limpets and Auto maint mod for staying in the battels longer, just fly off, repair come back no need to go home and also keep that canopy up! this thing flys at less than 13% heat with the AFU and Cargo hatch off can get less with (FSD and others not needed at certain times) so check out the engineering mines are no real problem, iv only got to grade 4 on the lower circle for the power plant, getting max grade 5 will make the heat drop even further almost silent running levels

note i do have a thermal vent beam on i just had it off while doing some quick combat zones on the side

 

[BetaToaster]

Btw, what are those pulse scanners good for? The AXI website recommends it but I am not sure if and why I should scan anything on or around the Titan?

Firstly, it works as a Xeno scanner with 1km range (better than the 500m plain Xeno scanner, worse than the 2km Enhanced).
Secondly, its pulse mode highlights (in dark green) the spots where you can mine for titan materials/human pods. You need to be fairly close tho.

If you don't want to mine stuff or spread Thargoid sleeper agents over the galaxy rescue fellow humans, get an Enhanced Xeno scanner if you're going to engage normal Interceptors (you need to scan them to be able to subtarget hearts). Otherwise, you can save a bit of power draw by using a standard Xeno scanner.
I don't think having any Xeno scanner is strictly required for Titan bombing, but being able to see which direction interceptors are facing is useful enough that I would not go without it.


Glad things are working and you're having fun!