Ship Builds & Load Outs Federal Corvette Test driving different Corvette PvE hardpoint builds

Manzana · May 10, 2020

Went a bit silly with the engineers and tested out a few different PvE Corvette models I've seen posted on these boards. Burnt through a ton of materials. Aim was to settle something that can own any PvE space, but also open to other hunt& gather missions. Learnt a lot along the way, like how pure DPS is meaningless if you can't lock on your target. So, here we go. Will cherry-pick the best and put them together into a future build.

All Overcharged Multi's. 150 DPS.
https://s.orbis.zone/6sc8
The incendiary rounds cut through shields surprisingly fast. Yep, you chug through the rounds so you better be in range of your resupply. The big red tracers do feel epic though, but equally, you're only taking max damage on things closet to you. Map everything to the 1st firegroup button and blast away, it's all a bit too easy. Until you hit chaff, then you're on the bench. It's fun and viable, but using bullets to take down shields just doesn't feel right. And the turrets are just annoying.

All Overcharged Beams. 192 DPS.
https://s.orbis.zone/6sc6
Overcharged huge fixed beams on the roof, one oversized, the other thermal conduit. And overcharged gimbal beams on the large & mediums too. You're king of the world, for the first half-a-second... Then the tank runs dry and you're dead in the water. Kind of viable if you balance it by putting the rooftop Huge beams on 1st firegroup and all the others on 2nd.
Good: Melts everything in a disco inferno. Bad: Empties your distributor instantly, has massive over-heat issues, desperately needs a thermal vent in there. All-gimbals mean you are exposed to chaff. Fun to take for a short walk, but not a viable long-term build.

Mix of Fixed & Gimbal Beams. 175 DPS.
https://s.orbis.zone/6sc9
Was getting tired of being chaffed, so on the roof I put two fixed huge efficient, oversized beams, backed up with two fixed small beams with thermal vent. Anything close enough to fill the screen gets it in the neck. Then underneath is firegroup 2 where I run long range large & medium beams on gimbals, so I can snipe at things a good long way away. Typical jousting passes mean while they are inbound I can grind down their shields from 6-2km, then as they do running passes I can shave off their eyebrows with the huge beams. This rig is so well balanced as your thermal vent takes all the extra heat and spits it back at the target, meaning no heat sinks needed. And you have a couple of pips spare for shields and engines. Firegroup 2 feels a bit toothless though, and I'm wondering if I could swap out a corrosive multicannon in there somewhere.
Overall has the bones for a viable build for long term PvE, just needs a few final tweaks. Always keen to get advice.

Innocentius · May 16, 2020

Here is my full laser vette that I have used very succesfully in PvE combat zones. The main idea here is that the capacitor actually lasts long enough to burn down ships and I can use pip management also because my lasers are not that hungry. The smaller lasers are turrets and I use them healing my wing mates when I have them or just burning down eagles and such. I can use my C3 beam as a heatsink substitute in PvE combat. The shields are just geared for maximum regen and resistances (for even more effective regen).

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Badman76 · May 16, 2020

Still engineering her but this is what im aiming for

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I like the huge beams, not sure about the MC's, i also find how i fly the large multi cannon hardly shoots, thinking of swapping it to a long range weapon

S0rkvild · May 16, 2020

Badman76 said:
Still engineering her but this is what im aiming for

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I like the huge beams, not sure about the MC's, i also find how i fly the large multi cannon hardly shoots, thinking of swapping it to a long range weapon

Try using turret on that large hardpoint, it has much better reach the gimballed version. The large hardpoint is situated much lower than the rest and it will never fire with upper hardpoints or it will - but under specific attack angle which you may not find comfortable. In your build a turreted multi with corrosive shell should work great on that hardpoint.

Other large hardpoint ideas for the Vette, tested by myself:

turreted long range laser. If beam - thermal vent, other lasers - with scramble effect or phasing seq.
missile rack / torpedo tubes / mine launcher
frag cannon (can be turreted - fires at 500m and less) or pacifier frag (fixed) for melee.
large plasma (long range for quickly placed shots) / railgun (cascade for deleting SCBs)

Badman76 · May 17, 2020

For anyone interested...

I've been testing turret long range beam, gimble overcharge MC, turret over charge cannons and turret double shot frag cannon in the large hardpoint at high combat zones

I didn't notice the beam or MC doing much damage. I noticed the cannon damaging targets WHEN it hit, However it did seem to shoot abit willynilly and missed quite a few shots, I ran out of ammo too early on in a High Combat Zone battle.

The Frag i found does decent damage, it even finished a number of kills for me, it didn't seem to waste ammo, plus slamming into anaconda's and then watching it unloading into it is very satisfying

My frag was only engineered up to lv3 btw as i didn't have access to lv4 up, so interested if lv5 makes much difference.

I still want a long range weapon so im going to test long range on both the 2H beams and 2M and 2S MC's.

Three Stars · May 17, 2020

A fixed long range beam with regeneration sequence on the large hardpoint is good for wings. Heal your buddies from 6 km away.

Starman 1966 · May 17, 2020

Either long-range hitscan down there or an opportunity weapon such as a PA or a fixed (Pacifier) frag cannon. Everything else is a waste.

Manzana · May 18, 2020

Good advice, @Badman76 and @Starman 1966 are making a lot of sense with the frag cannon idea. Seems the DPS is huge, if you can land a shot within the 2km range.
Am going to build out some gimballed medium frag-cannons (overcharged, one incendary, the other corrosive) and see if this is fun to fly in a CZ, even with the 180 magazine capacity limit.
There's a solid 'Vette build here by @Sir Ganksalot that is good for inspiration https://s.orbis.zone/6vjy

Starman 1966 · May 18, 2020

This Pacifier combination together with two medium gimballed frags is a blast. I put those myself (three incendiary, though) on my CZ Vette and it rips shields apart. Two huge OC MCs (corrosive and autoloader) do the rest.

Captain Willard · May 18, 2020

So many interesting builds.
Not even going to post mine, most likely be shouted down.

Dragsham · May 18, 2020

Like the Op I too tested alot of configurations. Hell bent on all lasers. The efficient thermal vent build was balanced but too slow to kill.
So.....
Ended up as...
2x huge overcharged corrosive/oversized multicannons.
2x medium beams efficient thermal vent.
2x small beams overcharged thermal vent.
1 large overcharged thermal vent beam.
ALL GIMBALLED.
the multicannons i use once the shields are down. I can combine the whole salvo but drain the dizzy. But all the beams fire simultaneously for over a minute before switching to multi cannons o) to allow dizzy to charge.
Works well.
Don't use a cell bank or wingman etc to save power. Just 4k biweaves to save power. Tanked hull to save power.
Weapons focused obviously.
One more thing seems obvious to me before a cz or haz res. Shut down fsd. It uses power and does nowt in combat. But!! Be prepared to fire it up if all goes south!!
Cargo hold too. Till your wombling afterwards.
Fuel scoop, planetary hangar etc. Anything you don't need in combat. Saves a potload of power. And beams are ALL about power.
The heat is not an issue with my build. Mostly below 10 degrees hehe.

Sir Ganksalot · May 18, 2020

Captain Willard said:
So many interesting builds.
Not even going to post mine, most likely be shouted down.

Never shouting just constructive criticism. All I try to do is show people the best way to tear through NPCs with the least amount of effort.
Also, although many players don't bother with open, I try to provide them with the best build possible to protect themselves from other players, and me

Klemyr · May 18, 2020

There was time when I was running my Corvette with some mix of S Multi-Cannons, M Burst Lasers, L Beam with Thermal Vent and...
2 HUGE OVERCHARGED PAs. They used fuel as ammo, and huge damage. But they used 85% of my capa to shoot just one time.
Sad but Efficient mod just not feels so powerful to me as it should.

So I switched to Rapid Fire Multi-cannons with auto loader. They are really fun to use!

Badman76 · May 18, 2020

Klemyr said:
So I switched to Rapid Fire Multi-cannons with auto loader. They are really fun to use!

I bet these use ammo like fuel...

Starman 1966 · May 18, 2020

Yeah. Never use rapid fire on a kinetic weapon.

Sir Ganksalot · May 18, 2020

Klemyr said:
There was time when I was running my Corvette with some mix of S Multi-Cannons, M Burst Lasers, L Beam with Thermal Vent and...
2 HUGE OVERCHARGED PAs. They used fuel as ammo, and huge damage. But they used 85% of my capa to shoot just one time.
Sad but Efficient mod just not feels so powerful to me as it should.

So I switched to Rapid Fire Multi-cannons with auto loader. They are really fun to use!

Try this loadout next time if you still want to use the PA's. For PA's you always want to use short ranged instead of overcharged because it doesn't increase distributor draw and the range penalty makes no difference cause it's still within a PA's range of actually hitting something.
Use one efficient and one SRB. Hits like a freight train but doesn't drain your distro or cook you.

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[VR] DDM_Reaper20 · May 18, 2020

Thank you, Sir Ganksalot!

I am a long way away from owning a corvette again, but once I do, I shall create something similar to yours... mainly for PVE, with an eye towards surviving a ganking in Open.

Sir Ganksalot · May 18, 2020

DDM_Reaper20 said:
Thank you, Sir Ganksalot!

I am a long way away from owning a corvette again, but once I do, I shall create something similar to yours... mainly for PVE, with an eye towards surviving a ganking in Open.

My pleasure. If there's any other ship builds you need help with I'd be happy to give you my advice.

[VR] DDM_Reaper20 · May 18, 2020

Sir Ganksalot said:
My pleasure. If there's any other ship builds you need help with I'd be happy to give you my advice.

Since you asked...

With my second, now primary, account, I am working on a Mamba. I have the following config: Huge plasma accelerator, G4 efficient, 2 large gimballed MCs, G3 overcharged (incendiary, against shields), and two C1 railguns, G1 long-range (feedback cascade). Reactor: 6A armoured, monstered (G3), 5A thrusters (DD3, haven't had the chance to put drag drives), class 5 biweaves (G3 thermal, fast charge), 1 chaff, 5 SBs (3HD, 2 res aug --I'm still working on those; G2 for the res aug, G3for the others. I have unlocked Vatermann, but I am lacking mats).

Other internals: Class 4 HRP (HD), class 2 HRP (HD), class 3 Fuel scoop (I like to move around a lot), class 1 interdictor (A).

Framshift Drive is a 4A (long-range G1). Hull armour is still light alloy (not enough funds), but I am aiming for reactive w. HD and deep plating.

What would you recommend? I plan to be playing exclusively in Open, and wish to be prepared to fight long enough to ensure flight, should a fellow CMDR wish to teach me not to fly without rebuy . . .

Edit: I'm not a very good pilot or gunner. I have, recently, trained a lot with the plasma accelerator, and since I am still mostly harmless, my PVE enemies tend to be not very skilled (though I did kill an elite enemy yesterday...).

Sir Ganksalot · May 18, 2020

DDM_Reaper20 said:
Since you asked...

With my second, now primary, account, I am working on a Mamba. I have the following config: Huge plasma accelerator, G4 efficient, 2 large gimballed MCs, G3 overcharged (incendiary, against shields), and two C1 railguns, G1 long-range (feedback cascade). Reactor: 6A armoured, monstered (G3), 5A thrusters (DD3, haven't had the chance to put drag drives), class 5 biweaves (G3 thermal, fast charge), 1 chaff, 5 SBs (3HD, 2 res aug --I'm still working on those; G2 for the res aug, G3for the others. I have unlocked Vatermann, but I am lacking mats).

Other internals: Class 4 HRP (HD), class 2 HRP (HD), class 3 Fuel scoop (I like to move around a lot), class 1 interdictor (A).

Framshift Drive is a 4A (long-range G1). Hull armour is still light alloy (not enough funds), but I am aiming for reactive w. HD and deep plating.

What would you recommend? I plan to be playing exclusively in Open, and wish to be prepared to fight long enough to ensure flight, should a fellow CMDR wish to teach me not to fly without rebuy . . .

Edit: I'm not a very good pilot or gunner. I have, recently, trained a lot with the plasma accelerator, and since I am still mostly harmless, my PVE enemies tend to be not very skilled (though I did kill an elite enemy yesterday...).

First of all, you're gonna have a hard time using a PA on the Mamba once you get it fully engineered. Most people, including myself, run 3 pacifiers (if you don't have them yet I HIGHLY recommend pledging to Hudson asap) with either small gimballed frags, rails or force shell cannons.
You should also try to get Hera Tani unlocked asap if you don't already and get that pp to G5 armored + thermal spread.
And finally, this is not always the case so don't take it as gospel but I run reinforced shields on ALL my shield tanks. There are many cases where thermal resist is used instead but on run around ships where a fuel scoop is used, reinforced is always the way to go. When going reinforced, two thermal resist boosters, maybe one resistance and the rest HD is the way to go.
This is my Mamba build that is almost strictly used for PvP to give you an idea of how to build it.

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Here's maybe what I'd aim for with the build you described, especially if you want to have any chance of winning a fight against another player.

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Don't worry too much about your piloting skills. You're already on the right path practicing with PA's. And even if you never get that great at it, there's nothing wrong with that. There's always gonna be a player that's better than you. I've been pvping for 3 years and I still get taken to school by players like @Morbad
If you're PC want some pvp practice or training, shoot me a PM and I'll add you in game. I'd be happy to take you under my wing.