T10 question

[dubsdj]

Bought a type 10 defender recently and have upgraded it + military bulkheads and engineered level 5 shields. But I am not sure why the shields on this thing are so weak? I dropped in to a distress call where there were 3 npc ships who opened fire. Shields went within 2 seconds and the hull didn't last long either, I had a hull reinforcement package installed. I wouldn't call it a defender, My Conda can take more damage than this.

Are shields pointless on the T10?

 

[bicarbon8]

Bought a type 10 defender recently and have upgraded it + military bulkheads and engineered level 5 shields. But I am not sure why the shields on this thing are so weak? I dropped in to a distress call where there were 3 npc ships who opened fire. Shields went within 2 seconds and the hull didn't last long either, I had a hull reinforcement package installed. I wouldn't call it a defender, My Conda can take more damage than this.

Are shields pointless on the T10?

mass is very high on the T-10 and because shield strength is related to mass ratio for shield, it can give the ship a low shield strength if not engineered or setup properly. That said, I have the following and my shields and hull have even resisted a ganker's attempt to destroy me before I could dock at Obsidian Orbital (was left with a large repair bill, but no rebuy at least):

https://eddp.co/u/58H9VqEj

 

[Only Mostly Here]

The T10's problem isn't so much its hull mass as the fact that its base shield stat is comically low for a 'combat' ship of its size - not much better if at all than the T9 that it's based on. You need to make use of its many utility slots to shore them up with reinforced and/or resistance augmented shield boosters. Even with 6 boosters, the shields still aren't great so it's a good idea to pack some SCBs. Meanwhile, despite having the highest base hull stat in the game, hulls are still pretty fragile regardless so in order to have a usably tough hull you really need to go all in with military grade armour and more than one HRP.

The build I'm using looks somewhat like this: https://eddp.co/u/5diWQTJc
I've been using it to solo wing assassinations and it holds up just fine - but does need to chug 1-2 of its C7 shield cells per fight. For a more multipurpose setup, you can change out the HRPs and one of the SCBs - just don't stick around in heated combat with it. You could also consider using a 7A reinforced shield which will give you more initial beef and open up the C8 slot for cargo but can't be expected to come back up before your hull and/or modules get badly beaten up.

 

[dubsdj]

Thanks for the advice. I always avoided SCB and shield boosters because I thought they cause very low recharge rates on the shields.

 

[Bortas]

You can push the T-10's shields to "reasonable" strength by using a reinforced prismatic shield generator and slap on 5-6 hd-boosters and 1-2 thermal resistant/resistance augmented boosters. Preferably use a C7 generator and a C8 SCB. "Reasonable" as in reasonable for PvE... the ship is mostly useless for PvP because of its weak shields, unfortunately, since SCBs are useless in PvP thanks to feedback cascade railguns.

 

[pzykozomatik]

It's just as it is. Some ships just have especially low base shields; a 7A on the T-10 results in about the same shield strength as a 3A on the iCourier (which has one of the best shield/mass ratios in the game). People tend to call these ships "hull tanks", which only distracts from the fact that for combat, good shields are just infinitely better than having to soak up damage with your non-regenerating hull armour. Best thing you can do is follow the meta and up your resistances by thermal-resist your base shields and resistance-augment two or three shield boosters, then add heavy duty boosters for more MJ. Additionally fill up with heavy duty HRPs. Fly it like the brick it is.

 

[Lightspeed]

Did you upgrade to the class 7 Distributor? That has been a recent modification, and helps the shields to recharge more quickly. It was underpowered with the previous class 6 before.

 

[Bortas]

People tend to call these ships "hull tanks", which only distracts from the fact that for combat, good shields are just infinitely better than having to soak up damage with your non-regenerating hull armour.

Apart from that, hull tanking in general is only viable on smaller, fast and maneuverable ships, which can rely on their agility to doge shots and - more importantly - avoid module sniping.

For big ships it's completely out of question. Regardless of how much total hull hp these ships have... they will succumb to module damage with >90% hull hp left in a matter of seconds, power plant and/or thrusters being the preferred target. Hull hitpoints serve only one purpose on a big ships... buy enough time to jump out, once shields fail.

 

[Lightspeed]

The T10's problem isn't so much its hull mass as the fact that its base shield stat is comically low for a 'combat' ship of its size - not much better if at all than the T9 that it's based on. You need to make use of its many utility slots to shore them up with reinforced and/or resistance augmented shield boosters. Even with 6 boosters, the shields still aren't great so it's a good idea to pack some SCBs. Meanwhile, despite having the highest base hull stat in the game, hulls are still pretty fragile regardless so in order to have a usably tough hull you really need to go all in with military grade armour and more than one HRP.

The build I'm using looks somewhat like this: https://eddp.co/u/5diWQTJc
I've been using it to solo wing assassinations and it holds up just fine - but does need to chug 1-2 of its C7 shield cells per fight. For a more multipurpose setup, you can change out the HRPs and one of the SCBs - just don't stick around in heated combat with it. You could also consider using a 7A reinforced shield which will give you more initial beef and open up the C8 slot for cargo but can't be expected to come back up before your hull and/or modules get badly beaten up.

Your build hasn't upgraded to the new class 7 power distributor. See here to start a more updated build scheme. https://beta.coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/type_10_defender

 

[Only Mostly Here]

Your build hasn't upgraded to the new class 7 power distributor. See here to start a more updated build scheme. https://beta.coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/type_10_defender

Yeah, I accidentally used the outdated version of coriolis to slap that together. Normally do use the beta one. It's still sufficient as an outline of what I was talking about though.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

As of the Engineers in 2.1 and 2.2, the generator is no longer the most important factor in shield strength. Most of it comes from boosters and/or SCBs.

The T10 can take an 8A prismatic shield and up to 8 boosters for a ridiculous shield strength of potentially 3000MJ (raw/absolute strength).

I would probably run an 8C thermal bi-weave, 3x resistance and 3x heavy-duty boosters to make the regen after a fight less painful. That setup will net you at least 10K MJ effective shield strength with 4-pips to systems, that should last a while and since the raw value is only 1350 with this setup, a 7A SCB brings back around half the entire shield per use. I'd use the other two slots for heatsinks, or chaff & EMP.

 

[Codger]

I have a T10, Cutter, and Corvette, all with nicely engineered biweave shields and a mix of resistance and heavy duty boosters. They all do fine against NPCs, but the T10 definitely has weaker shields than the other two, even with similar setups.

But the T10 has lots of guns and mine is bristling with turrets -- it can handle any PVE stuff. Plus it has the best cockpit view.

It's a brick, but it's a fun brick, and plenty tough enough for PVE.

 

[Lightspeed]

The Ship Launched Fighter is the key to improving the T-10's defences. If you can launch the SLF quickly and instruct it to attack a target with a key press, you have an excellent defence that distracts your attackers while you work out where to point your ship, or make your getaway.

In fact, very often the SLF will deal with the attacker(s) alone! I discovered this after losing three T-10s in PVE, no matter how tanky I built the ship. The shields have never dropped since.

 

[Unknown Zombie]

I just started playing again last week because I took a break before 3.0 came out. I bought a T-10 and outfitted it and engineered it, and I think it definitely doesn't live up to what I thought it would be.

Ships that interdict me seem a lot harder to fight off than I remember.. or did pirates get buffed in 3.0?.

 

[SpaceScania]

I think the Type-10 does a poor job in some important ways as a pure combat ship. I am not a Thargoid hunter but it appears that those who are good at it never use this ship. However, I do think that the Type-10 is okay as an armed trader, like the old Type-9 but with better defenses. I think it is similar in capability to the Anaconda in this role.

The Type-10 seems like a capable miner as well, especially with the new power distributor. The Anaconda is probably even better as a miner, but the cockpit on the type-10 makes it much nicer as a miner in my books.

Because I love the design of this ship I use it for both mining and doing general missions. It’s a really fun ship to fly in many ways and it will stay in my fleet.

Sadly I don’t think that this ship will be as popular as FD hoped because other ships can perform better in almost every role the Type-10 can do. I own one and like it, but I will ironically spend more time now in my Type-9 now that it carries so much more cargo and I am primarily a space trucker. It’s ironic but the new Type-9 may make the Type-10 less appealing for many CMDR’s.

Frontier seems to have concluded that the older ships like the Anaconda are overpowered and they don’t want to exceed those ships so the newer ones are “more balanced”. The problem I see with this approach is that many people will just stick to their Pythons and Anacondas which is bad for the game in the long run.

 

[Mac Ingram]

I started the day living in hope that the T10 would make a good mining ship, but in reality, the available slots are, IMHO wrongly proportioned. In order to travel distances to mining sites and to survive, given the lack of mobility (or perhaps agility would be a better description) I feel that it needs more protection and if playing solo, when mining, that can only come from shields, point defence and a fighter providing a CAP against pirates. When I tried to set up using this philosophy I found there to be insufficient slots to deploy 2 collector limpet controllers and a refinery. and that the Anaconda is a far more adaptable platform for the purpose of mining. Other than having room for an 8A cargo rack, I am now actually still no nearer to finding a purpose for such a large, expensive and uninspiring white elephant. So, having spent a day travelling to Jameson Memorial to by it, and several hours trying to kit it out as I had hope would be possible, it is now about to be sold, I suppose I could keep it as a virtual door stop........ Would I recommend it to my friends? Noooooooooooooo!

 

[777Driver]

I started the day living in hope that the T10 would make a good mining ship, but in reality, the available slots are, IMHO wrongly proportioned. In order to travel distances to mining sites and to survive, given the lack of mobility (or perhaps agility would be a better description) I feel that it needs more protection and if playing solo, when mining, that can only come from shields, point defence and a fighter providing a CAP against pirates. When I tried to set up using this philosophy I found there to be insufficient slots to deploy 2 collector limpet controllers and a refinery. and that the Anaconda is a far more adaptable platform for the purpose of mining. Other than having room for an 8A cargo rack, I am now actually still no nearer to finding a purpose for such a large, expensive and uninspiring white elephant. So, having spent a day travelling to Jameson Memorial to by it, and several hours trying to kit it out as I had hope would be possible, it is now about to be sold, I suppose I could keep it as a virtual door stop........ Would I recommend it to my friends? Noooooooooooooo!

Congrats on the necro. If you have trouble building a ship, best thing to do is ask for advice or links to builds. The T-10 is an excellent heavy miner, just needs a half decent build and someone that knows how to fly.

 

[psefergr]

Try this

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

I managed some healthy (for a T10) shield numbers pre 3.0. 2800mj or so on a 7 prismatic generator. Had an 8 and a 6 bank and a stack of armor.

It was plenty for PvE activities.

 

[Nadreck]

Don't forget the Guardian shield reinforcements. As they add a fixed amount to shield strength regardless of the ship's base shield strength, and fit in the military slots (handy for a miner build, as you don't otherwise need those).