Ship Builds & Load Outs Reccomend A Weapon Fit for Viper mkIII

[jasonbirder]

Fairly new to ED...just upgraded from my basic Sidey to a Viper MkIII
Whats a reccomended Weapon fit out?\
I've currently loaded Medium Gimballed Beam Lasers, Small Gimballed Multi-Canon & 2 Chaff launchers on the Utility Mounts...
What are more experienced players thoughts?
Cheers!

 

[InMemoriamSirocco]

Small beam lasers and medium multicannons have proven very effective.

 

[Ceekay]

There's plenty of options I run small turreted pulse and medium gimballed pulse, the small turrets compensate for the Vipers lower agility so you can evade incoming fire, when you get lined up on the target fire all weapons!

I'd suggest trying a similar approach with medium gimballed m-cannons and small turreted pulse or small gimballed pulse, have a look at this vid from VJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj7Tv6Hkzks

 

[noldunar]

Depends on what you want to do. I will assume we are talking PvE here. This is what I use for different jobs:

all-purpose combat and assassinations up to Anacondas:
small gimballed beam lasers
medium gimballed multi-cannons
I would always use small lasers and medium kinetics because laser damage vs. shields is not penalized by size difference and you need the bigger punch to kill the hull.

big target assassinations (vs. Anacondas or Federal Corvettes):
4x gimballed multi-cannons or 4x fixed multi-cannons, all in one fire group
With this set-up I can keep 4 pips to shields and only need about 1.5 pips in weapons. It takes a little longer to get the shields down but once they are down you crack the hull before they are back up most of the time.

prolonged RES site "grinding" (where you don't want to take a break to reload):
2x small gimballed or fixed pulse and 2x medium gimballed or fixed pulse
I am using fixed pulses because enemies in RES sites do spam a lot of chaff and I like the little extra damage. You will need at least three pips to weapons to have enough juice to keep up your fire. With an all laser set-up you need to be a bit more on top with your pip management and assing pips as needed. When you are in a superior firing position (slightly above or below and behind) quickly put 4 pips to weapons and when you take fire or need to maneuver adjust accordingly.

In my experience larger beams or even burst lasers drain the capacitor to fast so that your average damage output over time actually decreases because you have longer firing breaks.

 

[xdemetrios]

Most powerful load out I run is 2x PA's and 2x Gimballed Cannons with no shields, just hull reinforcement. Run with 1x Chaff, and 1x Heat sink. Gimballed and Turreted weapons cant lock at all when you pop chaff and sinks and the PA's take down shields near instantly and the cannons I use to target their Power Plant.

 

[LegoRobot]

This is the build I used while I was in a MkIII: http://coriolis.io/outfit/viper/03A3A3A2D3A3A2C27271212000202402o2f.Iw1+kA==.IwBj4yyA
Its a solid setup for pretty much any PVE situation. The burst lasers alone can fire indefinitely. When fired with the multi-cannons, the mix of thermal and kinetic damage is formidable. As for the other fittings, you can probably change them to suite your play style, but I've found that this setup offers most all-around versatility.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

A long while ago I used small bursts and medium cannons. The viper's kit is perfect for dropping a pair of cannon volleys on a critical subsystem. Bursts do well on it too, as it lends itself to jousting better than beams and pulses do (the same strength cannons have over multi-cannons in that regard). One and a half pips are plenty for bursts, allowing you to put pips into shields on approach and engines on turn around.

Due to its speed, a viper has a larger turning circle than other ships of similar maneuverability. So definitely force a joust using unassisted somersaults to realign.