PvP PvP Diamondback Scout Weapon Choice

[Morbad]

One problem I forsee with rails and PAC builds is fighting anything with a fighter bay. Those little things would be amazingly difficult to punch out, especially if the enemy cmdr hops into one. You would need to put huge pressure on their main ship or be an exceptional shot to survive that one. To that end once I get a better feel for rails and plasmas, I might diversify into frag cannons. They've a big enough spread to probably take those fighters out, maybe. Then again I doubt a DBS has any business blowing up the big three in the first place.

Rails are the single biggest threat to SLFs in the game.

Unless you can keep the SLF very close, you'll be easy pickings for anyone that can time a rail shot. A dirty drive DBS is fast enough to open a gap with an SLF, even if it misses the opportunity to snipe it as it's launched. That micro-gimbal/snaplocking of fixed weapons makes it easier than one might suspect to land rail hits on small targets.

Fragment cannon, on the other hand, are virtually useless against SLFs. The spread is extreme and even at close range it's rare for more than one or two of the pellets to land. You have to be caught within a few tens of meters of the weapon. I've occasionally been able to drive off CMDRs in all frag or even frag/PA FAS, FGS, and Clippers with nothing but a single Condor. A DBS might have enough of an agility edge to be more of a threat with frags, but it much harder to stay that close than it is to open up a gap.

 

[nosleepdemon]

Rails are the single biggest threat to SLFs in the game.

Unless you can keep the SLF very close, you'll be easy pickings for anyone that can time a rail shot. A dirty drive DBS is fast enough to open a gap with an SLF, even if it misses the opportunity to snipe it as it's launched. That micro-gimbal/snaplocking of fixed weapons makes it easier than one might suspect to land rail hits on small targets.

Fragment cannon, on the other hand, are virtually useless against SLFs. The spread is extreme and even at close range it's rare for more than one or two of the pellets to land. You have to be caught within a few tens of meters of the weapon. I've occasionally been able to drive off CMDRs in all frag or even frag/PA FAS, FGS, and Clippers with nothing but a single Condor. A DBS might have enough of an agility edge to be more of a threat with frags, but it much harder to stay that close than it is to open up a gap.

I didn't figure that the wee aim assist on fixed weapons would be enough, but I'll take your word for it. I suppose I ought to find some ships to duel. Where does everyone do their pillaging these days? I checked out Lave and Eravate last night, the former was dead and the latter while more lively had (obviously) lots of new players.

 

[Morbad]

I didn't figure that the wee aim assist on fixed weapons would be enough, but I'll take your word for it.

This is typically what happens to my SLFs against rail users:

[video=youtube;sja0D9F381E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sja0D9F381E[/video]

I suppose I ought to find some ships to duel. Where does everyone do their pillaging these days? I checked out Lave and Eravate last night, the former was dead and the latter while more lively had (obviously) lots of new players.

CG's are always a good bet, as are Thargoid infested areas and other hotspots for current events.

 

[Arguendo]

I suppose I ought to find some ships to duel. Where does everyone do their pillaging these days? I checked out Lave and Eravate last night, the former was dead and the latter while more lively had (obviously) lots of new players.

If you're looking for straight up duels with other PvP players, your best bet is the PvP Hub in San Tu.

 

[Achilles7]

My Little Tiddles (DBS), is a solid Stealth, cool running ship i use to totally frustrate griefers. It runs at 17% heat and with 12 heat sinks and Silent Running i can dissapear and stay behind any large ship firing my 4 Frags. The big ships just panic trying to find me.

Great Fun. Ultimately it lacks the power to destroy a tanky shield ship, but i can really annoy a Griefer or group of griefers for ages.

Even engineered Pacifiers on a Vulture can't deal with Prismatic Corvettes/Cutters with SCBs without reloading mid-fight; even then, destroying them is out of the question since the moment the shields go down...invariably it's high wake time!

Rails are the single biggest threat to SLFs in the game.

Unless you can keep the SLF very close, you'll be easy pickings for anyone that can time a rail shot. A dirty drive DBS is fast enough to open a gap with an SLF, even if it misses the opportunity to snipe it as it's launched. That micro-gimbal/snaplocking of fixed weapons makes it easier than one might suspect to land rail hits on small targets.

Fragment cannon, on the other hand, are virtually useless against SLFs. The spread is extreme and even at close range it's rare for more than one or two of the pellets to land. You have to be caught within a few tens of meters of the weapon. I've occasionally been able to drive off CMDRs in all frag or even frag/PA FAS, FGS, and Clippers with nothing but a single Condor. A DBS might have enough of an agility edge to be more of a threat with frags, but it much harder to stay that close than it is to open up a gap.

Agreed, the micro-gimbal makes LR super-p rails an idiotic addition to the game because of the nature of evasion at distance, it is actually easier to target modules from long range & Frontier haven't fixed that for some weird reason. The easiest way would be to cap the micro-gimbal to 3km or whatever arbitrary figure.
------------------

'Pacifiers' are ofc viable against SLFs...but obviously not available for the DBS.
​

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

I figure if you're going after a ship big enough to house a fighter bay, it's going to go one of two ways.

1. The target is unengineered/underbuilt, and dies/leaves before the fighter is even a problem.

2. The target is well defended, and you wouldn't have enough ammo to kill it even if you wanted to, so the fighter will eventually pick you apart.

You'll find out pretty quick once the fighting starts.

For that reason alone, I don't generally have fighters in mind when building a small ship. Rails work fairly well with practice, anyways.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

I figure if you're going after a ship big enough to house a fighter bay, it's going to go one of two ways.

1. The target is unengineered/underbuilt, and dies/leaves before the fighter is even a problem.

2. The target is well defended, and you wouldn't have enough ammo to kill it even if you wanted to, so the fighter will eventually pick you apart.

You'll find out pretty quick once the fighting starts.

For that reason alone, I don't generally have fighters in mind when building a small ship. Rails work fairly well with practice, anyways.

Being a big fan of Vipers, I just prepare myself for a lot of deaths when I go out to find some PvP. As much as I engineer them, and as well as I can fly them (not the best, but better than average, IMO), they just aren't going to stand up to FDLs, Condas, Corvettes that are also well engineered and well-flown. It is nice to duke it out with a more reasonably sized opponent now and then.

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

Yeah, it's more for fun than anything. I like to see how long I can last against a whole wing.

Problem is, a good deal of the PVP folks don't want to get out of the mediums/heavies to play around with small stuff.

You have no idea how excited I get when there's an elite Cobra III in the same system I'm in.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Yeah, it's more for fun than anything. I like to see how long I can last against a whole wing.

Problem is, a good deal of the PVP folks don't want to get out of the mediums/heavies to play around with small stuff.

You have no idea how excited I get when there's an elite Cobra III in the same system I'm in.

I know, right?

Well, I tried modding my DBS for 4x rails, but I just didn't dig it. Instead I went with a Viper IV with small rails and medium cannons.

I think I'll repurpose the DBS for that silent running frag ship.

 

[nosleepdemon]

I know, right?

Well, I tried modding my DBS for 4x rails, but I just didn't dig it. Instead I went with a Viper IV with small rails and medium cannons.

I think I'll repurpose the DBS for that silent running frag ship.

I finally met another DBS last night in Eravate. At first I thought he was going to be a noob. Then his Elite rank showed up. And his lack of shields. I congratulated him on his fine and gentlemanly ship choice. On other news, I cannot hit the broadside of a barn with these PACs Jesus Christ. Players in Cobras and Sidewinders are suffering a slow and undignified death as I spew flaming death in just about every direction except toward their ships. Inevitably enough rounds make contact to finish them before they jump out for the *second* time. But good God. I even removed the spring from my joystick to stop it from getting stuck, at least it's more or less impossible to miss the bigger ships.

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

Cobras and other doorstop shaped ships are difficult to hit head on with PAs.

They're a nice wiiiiiide target at the right angle, though.

 

[nosleepdemon]

Cobras and other doorstop shaped ships are difficult to hit head on with PAs.

They're a nice wiiiiiide target at the right angle, though.

Yes usually one of the rounds makes contact while the other skitters off into deep space to become somebody elses problem in a couple of billion years. Works fine on larger ships, which I cannot masslock. Apparently poorly shielded big ships and badly flown medium ships get all uppity when they start taking hull damage and flee. I suppose I could fit a torpedo pylon with FSD reboot, but the next step in the "Brave Sir Robin" guide to surviving open is a process kill, and sadly FD don't have an Anti-Task-Manager engineering mod in the game yet.

 

[-Denali-]

I started building a silent running hull tank DBS a year ago and just finished it last week. If you have all hrp's on, you may want to reroll them. Mine's got over 2k hp. The rolls are fairly average too. At least I think they're average after stalking every "post your god roll" thread out there. If you intend to use silent running, I'd go with multi's (two enforcers if you have them) or frags. They both have a low thermal load. Cannons are also a hell of a lot of fun on it. If you don't care about the heat, rails and pa's. With efficient multi's I can fly around and fire in silent running for over a minute before hitting 80% heat.

The biggest problem I've had so far is the canopy is pretty easy to shoot out on the DBS. I might adopt a MRP or AFMU. It's a fun ship to fly though! If you find a weapon loadout you like, I hope you'll post it. Nothing ever seems completely satisfying to me.

 

[S-O-nar]

The biggest problem I've had so far is the canopy is pretty easy to shoot out on the DBS. I might adopt a MRP or AFMU. It's a fun ship to fly though! If you find a weapon loadout you like, I hope you'll post it. Nothing ever seems completely satisfying to me.

The biggest problem are railguns

3 seconds before exploding:

Spoiler

 

[-Denali-]

I've taken a rail hit or two. Usually if I'm head on something I'm thrusting down and rolling while boosting past at 550. Face planting a fight in a hull tank is a silly idea anyways. If I get hit with rails, I deserve it.

 

[Ethaidan]

I tried long range rails, and I must be missing something... is it the damage drop-off & possible heat efficiency combination that people are after? I'm often at a loss to see small/med ships once they're more than 3000m. (let alone hit them consistently) I swapped a G1 long range for a G5 sturdy with super penetrator rounds, and had way more success taking out power plants. Granted, I'm still on the low end of the learning curve for FAoff courier with rails combat, but I did seem to be alright at avoiding many counter attacks with those insane vertical thrusters.

 

[S-O-nar]

The best distance of using railguns - 3-5 km.
"Pseudo-Gimbal" effect is more effective in max range.

 

[StiTch]

I would personally run with one med and one small rail, and pick the others situationally. Don't care about ammo?MCs perhaps.

Considering your hardpoint allotment is important and giving both your C2s to one weapon type, and your C1s to another, is the "standard" way people do weapons...but I consider it to be highly overrated.

One C2 and one C1 rail on the same side of the ship are so close together they share the same targeting reticle. Us erails like that and say MCs or cannons the other side and you will only actually have two reticles across all 4 hardpoints.

Good ship choice btw. The DBS is not always great for beginners on account of "okay" shields and easily broken canopy but it is agile as hell, cool running, and IMO the second most fun ship in terms of handling after the iCourier.

 

[nosleepdemon]

I would personally run with one med and one small rail, and pick the others situationally. Don't care about ammo?MCs perhaps.

Considering your hardpoint allotment is important and giving both your C2s to one weapon type, and your C1s to another, is the "standard" way people do weapons...but I consider it to be highly overrated.

One C2 and one C1 rail on the same side of the ship are so close together they share the same targeting reticle. Us erails like that and say MCs or cannons the other side and you will only actually have two reticles across all 4 hardpoints.

Good ship choice btw. The DBS is not always great for beginners on account of "okay" shields and easily broken canopy but it is agile as hell, cool running, and IMO the second most fun ship in terms of handling after the iCourier.

That's how I played mine back in the day before engineering mucked everything up. I had a c1 and 2 rail on one side and a c1 and 2 burst or pulse (honestly forget which) on the other.

I've settled for PACs dealing my damage for now with TLB and dispersal field, and the c1s are for utility. I was using two feedback cascade rails but I swapped one out for, of all things, a turret scramble spectrum rapid fire pulse laser. What can I say, I got bored and was having my canopy cracked repeatedly by other SR cmdrs. Flipping annoying ending a fight the moment it begins when some nipple shoots you with a cannon. I wanted something to bother shieldless ships with so maybe this will work.