Noob cz combat help with choice of ship and loadout

[Dragsham]

Been playing since Christmas and have a chieftain mining painite for wealth. That's all good.
So now I want another ship (not exchanging my lovely chieftain) to go into combat zones.
I'm ok at combat the chieftain is specced for evasion but can hold it's own.
I deleted a stupid fsd buff an went with the range one. Also dirty drive and extra power booster choices made. Gives my chieftain a 420ms speed at boost.
Will those engineer choices carry onto my new ship?
Do I need a cargo bay for combat only?
Yeah collector limpets to pick up salvage which is why I need combat so much.
Can l have 2 shield modules in a fer de lance for example?
Overheating??? Which combo of guns?
I want fast armoured and npc combat only predominantly.
It'll be my 2nd ship just out to build rep and grind mats.
Don't care so much about range or other roles just that single objective. Advice would be appreciated. My eye is on the fer de lance.

 

[Bigmaec]

FdL is a good choice for Res / CZ.

Classic build is a c5 bi-weave, with fast charge
4 boosters (balance your resistances at roughly 50% with the shield generator and the boosters)
one kill warrant scanner
one chaff launcher
quad c2 medium efficient beams
one c4 overcharged corrosive multicannon

Will chew through Res sites like a hot knife through butter.
CZs are a bit more tricky, I advice to skip on medium&high CZs until you're somewhat high engineered and comfortable in combat, as
spec ops tend to ruin your day quickly.

 

[Dragsham]

Ha!@ I went into a medium cz as well as small cz's and shot down 2 pythons but had to go back for repairs.. and yes I got a kicking. So quit it before I lost a ship.
What's a res?
Ok so 4 beams? Won't they overload even with 4 pips in the heat of the moment?
Keep it simple I don't talk much in game and have to Google this terminology hehe

 

[d8veh]

RES is a Resource Extraction Site that you find in many ringed planets. Miners go their to mine and a never ending stream of pirates come to steal their cargo. If it's a high, normal or low RES, police wil be there to deal with the pirates. Low RES has low skilled NPCs and low bounties, high RES has high rank NPC and high bounties. A hazardous RES has no police, but you often get help when the pirates fight amongst each other, and the NPC are high ranks.

I wouldn't use beams in a high, low or medium RES because you will get bounties on you when you accidentally shoot innocent ships, like the cops. Pulse lasers and multi-cannons are safer.

 

[Dragsham]

Ahhh...so I'll start in low res sites and work upto no cops hazardous. Do l bother with those mission bountys ie go kill so on or so many etc? Or just focus on res progression then onto cz's?
And will I get the mats I need to engineer modules?
Questions but l can never find upto date answers lol.
But thanks for the clarity. Cos I was getting caned in cz's lol even though I had a lot of luck I still got huge repair bills.
I've even got voice attack freeing up 4 buttons on my hotas today yay.

 

[Ashnak]

You will get some of the manufactured mats. Unfortunately, the high end mats will only drop (occasionally) from high end ships - i.e. Anacondas and Corvettes. For those, it would really be easier to go after HGEs (High Grade Emission USS). If you're looking for specific mats, check e.g. the recommendations at Inara regarding the system's allegiance and state.

For data mats, you'll need to scan - ships with your ship's built-in scanner, wakes with a Frameshift Wake Scanner and datapoints with a Datalink Scanner.

For raw mats, you'll need to mine (low grade stuff) or go surface prospecting in your SRV. General shootable rocks on a planetary surface will give you all kinds of mats specific for that planet. Geo and Bio sites will give you all the locally available mats in one location, and Crystalline Shards sites will give you that planet's grade 5 mats in abundance so you can easily trade them down at a raw material trader for the more common stuff.

Back to your combat ship. I, too, prefer a heavy fighter for combat. Vulture or Mamba (over the FdL, just for the looks) - something that can move. The Alliance ships also make decent fighters, as does the Viper. And for close infighting with the possibility of friendlies around, pointable weapons (i.e. no Frags/Pacifiers, as much as I like them otherwise). Lasers have the advantage of not needing ammo, Multicannon need less power and usually generate less heat, Railguns can be very effective, but I can't aim with them, Plasmas can be nice if you can aim them (I find them easier than rails), but are still prone to miss a lot.

But: collecting mats in a CZ is a risky business, since you'll always have enemy ships coming after you. Not really a quiet corner for you to deploy your limpet(s). RES are better, since the remaining pirates you didn't shoot yet will ignore you (unless you have stuff besides limpets in your cargo). If your reputation with the local faction and your combat rank are high enough, Pirate/Terrorist kill missions are also nice, since the higher end missions tend to have a Corvette as the target. If you have no moral scruples, you can also go after cargo (or other) convoy beacon RESs - if you do that in Anarchy systems, you shouldn't (I don't plunder convoys) even get a bounty. And, since in HAZ RES or on kill missions, there are usually no (or only very few) non-wanted ships nearby, I can use my favourite weapons: Pacifiers.

Shields - you asked about multiple shield modules (I assume you mean generators). Yes and No. No, you can't use multiple shield generators in one ship. What you can use, though, are shield cell boosters (SCBs) to quickly recharge your shields (optional internal modules - no experience here myself), Shield Boosters (utility modules that can also be engineered for resistances) and/or Guardian Shield Reinforcements (again, internal modules that add raw shield points and need to be unlocked from a visit to a Guardian site first).

 

[Mrat13]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ1oBDQHhfM&list=PL2bo8-QGzY3CvmKgPudwmw9cbES9vgo_Z&index=2&t=0s


I'll just leave this here....

 

[Lightspeed]

Combat Zones have tougher ships to deal with, so there you need best Shields possible and, if you can afford, best Hull Armour for survival when your shields go down (to make an escape while they recharge).

You need powerful weapons to take down opponent ships quickly before they eat into your shields and armour.

RES sites are a better place to learn combat, since all but HAZ RES have law enforcement to help you out.
CZ sites are a level above those, especially since the ships appear to have high levels of engineering either with shields, armour and/or weapons. Engineering your own ship would benefit you immensely when you have time to take this on.

 

[zipline]

All of the Alliance ships have the same class core internals, so you could transfer all your engineered gear into a Challenger that has better base hull, shields and manoeuvrability. Put a 6A shield in there and fill up the opt internal slots with hull/module reinforcements and fill up your utility slots with shield boosters. This should give you decent survivability in CZs. Engineering your armour, shield, HRPs and shield boosters will keep you going a lot longer, but you can do that over time as you collect more engineering mats. Just watch your six in those CZs and boost away when the NPCs start ganging up on you.

 

[wrmiller]

I've not played in CZs in over a year. Looks like I'll have to go back and pay them a visit.

 

[d8veh]

Ahhh...so I'll start in low res sites and work upto no cops hazardous. Do l bother with those mission bountys ie go kill so on or so many etc? Or just focus on res progression then onto cz's?
And will I get the mats I need to engineer modules?
Questions but l can never find upto date answers lol.
But thanks for the clarity. Cos I was getting caned in cz's lol even though I had a lot of luck I still got huge repair bills.
I've even got voice attack freeing up 4 buttons on my hotas today yay.

The high RES is extremely safe to start with and you'll make a lot more money there than in a low RES. Also, there tends to be a lot more action. The ones in Brani, Kremainn and LTT 15574 are all good. Start by only shooting the ships that the cops shoot at because the cops will continue to help you, then do a few preemptive strikes on some of the smaller or weaker ships and work your way up. At first, concentrate on pip management until it becomes automatic, then get a Vulture and practice using the vertical and lateral thrusters to stay behind the enemy and dodge their fire.

One more thing. Be very careful to check whether Gunships, Anacondas, Kraits, etc are carrying a fighter hanger. If they are, the fighter will get you from behind the moment you open fire, assuming that the mothership is already fighting and the fighter hasn't been killed. You check under the modules tab on your right hand panel.

You have to be careful with missions because it's often not clear where you have to go to kill the targets. Kill x number of pirates are normally the type you're looking for. Personally, I wouldn't bother with missions. If you need credits, you can go painite mining and get 200+ mil per hour, so you can relax and enjoy your combat without complications.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Been playing since Christmas and have a chieftain mining painite for wealth. That's all good.
So now I want another ship (not exchanging my lovely chieftain) to go into combat zones.
I'm ok at combat the chieftain is specced for evasion but can hold it's own.
I deleted a stupid fsd buff an went with the range one. Also dirty drive and extra power booster choices made. Gives my chieftain a 420ms speed at boost.
Will those engineer choices carry onto my new ship?
Do I need a cargo bay for combat only?
Yeah collector limpets to pick up salvage which is why I need combat so much.
Can l have 2 shield modules in a fer de lance for example?
Overheating??? Which combo of guns?
I want fast armoured and npc combat only predominantly.
It'll be my 2nd ship just out to build rep and grind mats.
Don't care so much about range or other roles just that single objective. Advice would be appreciated. My eye is on the fer de lance.

While the Fer De Lance is an excellent ship for pure combat, I never really found a loadout I was happy with.
For PvE medium combat, I tend to use my Krait MkII.
Fitted with 5 gimballed frag cannons, modified for overcharged (2 being thermal damage), it makes very short work of even the toughest NPC's.
It does require you basically stick your cockpit up your targets exhaust, but it's plenty fast enough to chase any NPC down for this.
Plus you can bring an SLF along, and have room for cargo and a collection limpet to scoop up the goodies.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

 

[Vandaahl]

What's a res?

A Resource Extraction Site. A designated area in a ring of a planet where NPC mining (and pirating) takes place. Fun, but watch the roids. Also, Low- to High res sites are patrolled by law enforcement, Hazardous are not and are more dangerous.

Ok so 4 beams? Won't they overload even with 4 pips in the heat of the moment?

4 efficient beams, those consume way less energy and deal greater damage to boot. If you even take the vented experimental effect, you'll be flying around iced up most of the time (or cook yourself depending on your aim ), and use that negative heat to compensate for for instance a C4 plasma accelerator.

Watch out you don't loose yourself in engineering, there is a awful lot you can do with it.

 

[Screemonster]

One thing about CZs is that the enemies are much tougher than in a res. Not so much in terms of the shields, but even the eagles and vipers have military hull which makes a laser build slightly less viable.

It used to be the case that CZs went on forever and enemies didn't flee, so lasers were perfectly fine, but now you need to be able to finish them off before they get away so high-alpha hull-damage weapons are more useful to you in a CZ than they are in a RES.
I wouldn't take an all-multicannon build to a res site as it chews through ammo too fast, but with CZs ending once the bars are full, even a high-intensity zone will finish before you empty your guns. Personally I tend to get myself into a loop of hitting up two low zones, or a low and a medium, before rearming as that's how long it takes for my medium multis to run out.

While the Fer De Lance is an excellent ship for pure combat, I never really found a loadout I was happy with.
For PvE medium combat, I tend to use my Krait MkII.
Fitted with 5 gimballed frag cannons, modified for overcharged (2 being thermal damage), it makes very short work of even the toughest NPC's.
It does require you basically stick your cockpit up your targets exhaust, but it's plenty fast enough to chase any NPC down for this.
Plus you can bring an SLF along, and have room for cargo and a collection limpet to scoop up the goodies.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

I've been looking at putting another KmkII together for CZs, or maybe a phantom. Not sure which. Sometimes I have a need to go to a warzone that's away from where I'm parked and I really can't be bothered taking my 'vette there, and I'm torn between stuffing a GFSD booster in the corvette and lumping it at a 25ly range, or putting together a mk2 or phantom at 36 or 39 respectively.
I guess I could give my cutter an FSD booster too and that wouldn't have a terrible range but I'd rather have something that's more fun to fly and being able to do my thing at systems with only outposts would be a bonus.

 

[Dragsham]

I will swap this chieftain out.. but for what idk. She does 420 boost which deals with most interdictions and I run back fast as I can.. 64 painite per run. Now I had a krait ll last week and got ganked losing 2 loads so speed is the thing. Gonner keep her for mining runs to pay for a bigger faster ship.
In the meantime.... I swapped out the chief wiv big guns armour and cells and went into the areas you guys told me too. Easy one first.. and not an issue at all..I'm one shotting little ones and tanking down big ones. Got promoted yay. Hour later I go for a middle one. Yay holding me own... another promotion on the horizon. This beats the poo out of mining.!!
Several dozen kills later...following all your advice...groupie with the cops...wait for em to find and starting shooting.. then I join in..soon as l get any stick I legs it lol.
Back in ...he dead so aggro gone...phew.. oh look another one...but I'm too busy scooping it all up with the little fellas love em..can't fight with retractor open...learned that the hard way lol.
Wanna thank you all for the wicked advice.
Will eventually mothball her till I need dosh. And see this combat progression, guardians, engineers, grind out.
Such a huge curve. But that's gaming. Great game. 40 years I've played em all. Nothing holds a candle to elites potential. VR gives the pilot a huge advantage over 2D screenview. I can see right over my shoulder hell I can get up and walk around the cabin.. in combat being able to keep your target within eyeshot is essential. VR does it fantastically.
Thanks again you all.

 

[photomankc]

Challenger is one of my favorite fighting ships. Nimble as hell. Fast enough for most things, easy boosting, and can be made into quite a tank. I armor it up, use reinforced bi-weave shields so they re-gen more quickly and let the armor do it's job. I'm not putting it forward as an uber-build but I do pretty well in Low/Med CZs with it Armed with 1 L Overcharged M/C, 2 M Rapid Fire Pulse, 1 M Long Rang Rail, and 3 S Long Range Rail. It's main weak spot is the big ships. Getting enough damage in that they can't run. For them I use the rails to knock out the FSD and pin them down so they can't run, then I go to work on the Power Plant. In any of the resource extraction zones, it's a cake-walk other than the low ammo capacity of rails.

Please FDev can't we at least get 100 rounds for the rails?

PS: I just took it to fight the Thargoids, with rails swapped for guardian gauss cannons and a shut-down field neutralizer it worked just 'okay' on those big interceptors. I was good as part of a wing, but not fast enough to kite the interceptor along in between strikes on my own. Needs more boost speed. Did great on scouts though. Chews through them quite well. Will be even better with AX multicannons someday.