Quick question about equipping cobra with weps and armour

[flexy123]

I read LOTS about how to equip my shiny new cobra, and as it stands....it looks like the "best" choice would be 2x C4 cannons and 2x C1 Gimbal Multi cannons, at least for my purposes. ("multi purpose" with a focus on trading but I also dont want to go all defensive...)

Question I have...should I perhaps instead of mounting 2x C4 take 2x C3 Gimbaled? I am afraid I am getting 2x C4 and then wish I had gimballed because I can't hit stuff...

Uh..and also..what about armour? I don't know anything about it...which one should I get?

 

[Clifford]

Just so you know, if you try to fight a player in a Viper, the Viper will most likely win against the Cobra.

I personally would get either all-gimbals or missile racks.
Because if you go up against a Viper, it will be too quick for you to track it precisely but gimbaled weapons can still do some damage. And for the most part, some people will break off the attack if you break their shields.

Against NPC's, just getting a missile lock will sometimes cause them to run away.

The problem with Armor on the Cobra is: by the time you add all weapons and Armor your jump range is severely restricted , almost as low as a Viper. So you are stuck in some small cluster of systems. Try to load up that cargo hold in the Cobra and you are really limited.

The Cobra tries to be an all-around ship, which means it is always a compromise. IMO it's the worst of both worlds: the short jump-range of a Viper and the combat maneuverability like a Sidewinder.

Maybe running small loads of cargo into dangerous systems is why you are using a Cobra?
You have to decide. If you want to make money trading, get a Lakon type 6. If you are going bounty-hunting just switch to the Viper.

 

[Astronaut Teemo]

Well for the armor, mirrored is better vs lasers and reactive is better vs cannon based. I always take mirrored because it seems lasers are the more used weapons overall.

The c4 cannons are pretty good, just takes some practice. You will never run out of ammo for them, which is a plus over multicannons, and when you hit with both at close to med range they do a ton of dmg. I'd recommend gimballed for the c1s f cobra, as those hard points are far apart and wonky with fixed weps.

Alternatively, I've found a really good and super easy setup is c3 multicannons and c1 pulse lasers. Gimballed accuracy over fixed is so much better IMO, until they nerf the damage or something else about it.

 

[EAGLE 5]

Honestly I attempted the full gimbal loadout and it is a waste on the nose piece. The guns don't pivot enough to make it worth the loss of firepower you could have had had you gotten class 4 fixed weapons. On the underside of the ship they are necessary because of the lack of fire convergence. As it stands my Cobra has 2 C4 cannons and 2 C1 Burst (G). I may go to 2 C1 Pulse lasers (G) because the Burst don't seem to be very accurate as the pulse lasers were. Another option for me is to get 1 Beam laser (G) on one side and install a missile launcher or a railgun on the other but that would mean multiple fire groups which can be a bit much in the heat of battle.


Hope I didn't totally confuse you at this point.

 

[flexy123]

Honestly I attempted the full gimbal loadout and it is a waste on the nose piece. The guns don't pivot enough to make it worth the loss of firepower you could have had had you gotten class 4 fixed weapons. On the underside of the ship they are necessary because of the lack of fire convergence. As it stands my Cobra has 2 C4 cannons and 2 C1 Burst (G). I may go to 2 C1 Pulse lasers (G) because the Burst don't seem to be very accurate as the pulse lasers were. Another option for me is to get 1 Beam laser (G) on one side and install a missile launcher or a railgun on the other but that would mean multiple fire groups which can be a bit much in the heat of battle.


Hope I didn't totally confuse you at this point.

Nope, VERY helpful because it answered my question whether to go C3 Gimbals or C4 cannons at the nose! Gimbals at the wings was already clear from what I read.

 

[forger]

i think you need to put on anything you like and go to Eranin 2 - Federal Distress Signal - and just test it, you will be surprised how many different opinions are out there. also this will give you some practice.

i would never trust anyone's opinion about weapon load out, well, maybe except very few cmdrs, mainly because we are different and sometimes what annoys someone is what we like, so just try different load outs on poor unsuspecting npc's and find your best weapons of choice for cobra

also keep in mind that weapons are undergoing balancing and what is good now might be worthless in SB2, but well, this is beta after all isn't it

 

[Andy Kappa]

With armour, the basic stuff is pretty flimsy once they get through your shields. Armour (actually it's bulkheads but hey!) gets tougher the more you spend. I have mirrored composite on my Cobra which is extremely tough (but also *very* expensive and fairly heavy). There may be a comparative thread on armour if you hunt around the forum, but long story shredded is that you get what you pay for.

I find the Cobra an excellent all-round ship that is able to take on pretty much any role within the game. If combat is your thing then the Viper is faster and more manoeuvrable but not as tough and its range is seriously compromised as soon as you start adding weight with big guns and heavy armour. If you want the option of trading and still having a ship that's handy in combat then you should give a kitted-out Cobra an extended test drive. You do lose range (as with any ship) but still have something that can carry a full load a half-decent distance and still give a good account of itself in a scrap.

As for lasers, a good pilot will make the best of whatever he has anyway. Fixed lasers can do more damage, but unless you're very good you'll get very similar results with gimbals. There's been quite a lot of adjustments made to the gimbals throughout the Alpha and Prem Beta (and is still ongoing I think). I wouldn't judge either too harshly just yet because there's still some balancing to do.

 

[Zvanya]

Try them all and see what works best for you. Gimbals are nice if you new to combat because you can concentrate more on your maneuvers and less on aiming. Stations buy stuff back for the same price you paid so no reason not to experiment.

 

[Johnny Alpha]

I'd follow CMDR Forger's advice. You get 100% rebate on your guns atm so go test out various load outs.

I'm currently running a C4 cannon, C3 (G) Multicannon and two C1 burst lasers and find it very effective. I'm also using Military Composite because it gives you the best of both worlds re Mirror vs. Reactive as players use cannon's a lot once shields are down and it's still pretty good against lasers.

I don't agree with CMDR Clifford's argument that the Cobra has a limited range similar to the Viper when fully pimped. It's still roughly 3Ly better range and will take you to twice as many systems as a pimped Viper. And you can reach double that if you're prepared to drop your C4 cannon and replace it once you get to LHS3262.

EDIT: I'm now flying with a C3(G) Multicannon and a C3(G) Beam laser and nothing on my C2 hard points. I can now get to 28 of the 37 populated systems and still put up a good fight if I need to.