The Cutter sucks at combat. Change my mind.

Yes, clickbait title is clickbait. :p

Having played around with Coriolis, and realised just how much shield you can bolt to a Cutter, I decided to build something just for farming CZs, Pirate POIs and similar stuff.

Thing is, erm, it actually isn't very good. :confused:

Sure, the shield is all but impregnible but combat is just plain dull.
It can't really keep targets in it's sights and I was, literally, nodding off while I was waiting for it to turn and re-acquire a target.
It doesn't really have insta-kill DPS and a lot of my targets would run away and, because it takes so long to turn, I couldn't chase them, mass-lock them and finish them off.
Honestly, the Outlaw Annie that I built a few months ago is better at PvE combat-farming.

I think the biggest problem is the weapons.
It's using a 4A beam, a bunch of MC's and a couple of PAs.
It does a decent enough job of exploding things like Annies but, for anything smaller, they take a couple of hits and then flee... and I can't turn fast enough to chase them.

Funny thing is, my Trade-Cutters just have an "average" weapon loadout (combination of lasers and MCs) and I've never felt like I was at a disadvantage but I guess, when flying a trader, if you can make your attacker run away it's a "win".


Anybody got any suggestions for tactics to use when flying a Cutter in combat, or weapons that work well with it?
Just fit turret mounted weapons everywhere except the huge hardpoint and fit a gimballed weapon there, alternatively fit speaker missiles everywhere and get your NPC or multicrew fighter pilots to knock the shields down for you.
 
Cutter is fine, tbh.
It was my first large ship and i did quite an amount of combat in both res and cz.

Dont engage in turning battles, fit turrets and gimbals or rely to reversky
Dont boost

Simple

Oh, and i forgot. Ram the enemies whenever you have the ooportunity.
Everything dies really fast when being rammed by a Cutter. Except the damn Vipers, they will just bounce off with little damage.
 
I use flight assist off and LR weapons. 2 LR plasma in the large slots, LR MC underneath and 2 packhounds to take out thrusters of anything trying to run. LR MC work surprisingly well when you are orbiting the enemy ftom like 3km out. They cant touch you but are well within your range.
 
And for conflict zones ensure the corrosive effect is enabled still...then the Armour rating will drop and the Beams will work on Armour better not just kinect weapons...
Gimballed large items on the roof have a massive aiming arc...
The huge under the nose is very limited aiming so is not to be relied on and is better for limited manual aiming or gimballed... the two medium also have limited use with manual aimed weapons as having the target under the nose does not feel fun... but can be required...
Get to close to a target and you can't combine hard points... cutter works best at a longer distance so that all hard points combine...
 
Sure, the shield is all but impregnible but combat is just plain dull.

Yup. I don't mind big ships but the Cutter drifts far too much for combat. I don't like how the boost lasts forever either, so you can't use it for combat turning/positioning as your momentum is carried for entire kilometers before slowing down.

My "combat" plan for the Cutter is using that impregnable shield and turrets to make an AFK credit farming ship. Fill it with gold, park it in the HazRez with the turrets set to Fire At Will and go Netflix or something while the credits roll in as pirate after pirate self-immolates himself💰 :unsure:

For now it's strictly a mining/trade ship.
 
And for conflict zones ensure the corrosive effect is enabled still...then the Armour rating will drop and the Beams will work on Armour better not just kinect weapons...

I wish we had real numbers on some of this stuff. Like I want to use pulse's on my Krait and eventual Corvette because I'm tired of running out of milti-cannon ammo. So okay, how does the pulse lasers armor piercing values (G5 Focused) compare to the corrosive experimental effect for multi's?

No clue, no data or numbers. Just player impressions.
 
I wish we had real numbers on some of this stuff. Like I want to use pulse's on my Krait and eventual Corvette because I'm tired of running out of milti-cannon ammo. So okay, how does the pulse lasers armor piercing values (G5 Focused) compare to the corrosive experimental effect for multi's?

No clue, no data or numbers. Just player impressions.
We do Know due to the CAPI from Fdev releasing the data on imports to web sites...
Focused lasers are still worse than corrosive multi cannon once you go over medium class weapons..

As the CAPI and player logs gave the weapon stats which are cloned on ship building web sites via CAPI ship imports...
and we know the T10 has the highest armour... So set target as t10 and set up both items..
We know laser fall of distance is very bad so focused is bad for cutter as cutter works better at range...

No Armour can resist focus as the focus laser is stupidly high pen rating... the issue is that focus lasers do not do as much damage to start with on large and huge enable ships...
Having to use Pulse over burst lowers the damage even more over multi cannon...
 
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The only real thing I can think of to improve the Cutter in pve is to get a Corvette.
The Cutter has enormous shield capabilities that will keep it alive almost forever but combat wise it's a drag and very unenjoyable imho.
So my answer is, get a Corvette.
Yes, many suggestions I offer work better on a Corvette and even an Anaconda at times. But they are so UGLY versus the awesome beauty of a Cutter developed in the Empire who will eventually rule the galaxy. :)

cutter02.jpg
 
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We do Know due to the CAPI from Fdev releasing the data on imports to web sites...
Focused lasers are still worse than corrosive multi cannon once you go over medium class weapons..

As the CAPI and player logs gave the weapon stats which are cloned on ship building web sites via CAPI ship imports...
and we know the T10 has the highest armour... So set target as t10 and set up both items..
We know laser fall of distance is very bad so focused is bad for cutter as cutter works better at range...

No Armour can resist focus as the focus laser is stupidly high pen rating... the issue is that focus lasers do not do as much damage to start with on large and huge enable ships...
Having to use Pulse over burst lowers the damage even more over multi cannon...

I used beams to strip shields in my Krait (and manage heat w/vent) and then 3 large G5 overcharged multi's, one with corrosive, just like everyone says. But high level mobs are just total bullet-sponges so in Rez farming ammo become a constant annoyance.

If there was an all lasers setup I could use that was viable, it would be worth it to me to kill things a bit slower if it meant not dealing with ammunition.

I'll switch out to Bursts and G5 those if they are the way to go. Thanks ;) If it's viable I will scale this up to the Corvette obviously. My Cutter will be a strict mining ship I suppose....
 
Just pay notice to truesilvers cutter guide.
Railcutter ftw!

 
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