The post-1.4 FDL was at least as dominant pre-Engineering as it is currently, and this will be even more true with modern thermal mechanisms. Other ships can certainly work, but few will really be competitive. Back in the day I tended to favor medium gimbaled kinetics and a large fixed beam or burst laser, but the fixed medium MC + huge PA setup was much more common. I also had some success with fixed pulse lasers and a frag cannon. However, that was all before there were any huge hardpoint weapons other than cannon and PA; there is more variety possible now. I'd probably go with a huge gimbaled MC, and fixed pulse lasers, plus rails.
SCBs were even more effective pre-Engineers, as there was no counter to them and they restored proportionally more shielding. Since there was no way to by pass shields either, keeping them up, in ships that were at all shield focused, was even more critical than it currently is. My final pre-2.1 FDL setup had an A5+A4 SCBs.
Beyond the FDL, the FAS and Vulture could be fairly competitive, as could certain Clipper loadouts. The Chief and Kraits would probably also do well. I still the the FDL would be the most effective all-rounder, however.
I am personally curious about how the Mamba performs in un-Engineered PvP...I have a fair bit of experience with the ship, but I never played with it much unmodded.
![[PS4] Filthymick420](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/201/201444.jpg?1555738739){kind=avatar}