Ship Builds & Load Outs The Eagle Dilemma - or, how to blow things up with smalls-only

I can't find any recent talk on the topic, and I don't want to bother anyone personally, so I'm just going to throw out a question - if you're flying an Eagle, do you have the right destructive power to take down much at all?
Three small hardpoints is barely anything, and the Eagle, at least on paper, seems to lack the ability to effectively attack. Even with a super-pilot who could avoid all damage and land all shots, I'm fairly certain that the Eagle is doomed to failure against anything moderately tanky. It just can't do enough damage.
(I'm not sure if rails would be an exception, but I also don't know if the Eagle can handle triple-rails.)

Is this just an inherent flaw of the Eagle (which I understand is less than 100K credits and very much an early-game ship) or are there some nuances I'm missing out on here?
 
What about a massivley spanky all frag flying falcon fing of fun? I also once saw a video of a shieldless Eagle take on an FdL with mines and win.
 
... all frag flying falcon fing of fun? ...

Yea, i fly one from time to time at a Nav Beacon. Non engineered as well - only a small bump to the powerplant
Great fun, but one needs to stay really close to the target and outside their line of fire
 
3 enforcers are quite a thing. also rails, but yeah, heat can be an issue ... fixed thermal vent beam on top?

just fly the thing and let it howl. it's impossible not to fall in love. it does damage. it has its limits, but it is incredibly fun. so zippy ... and the cockpit! i've been thinking of taking it into the black aswell. it's just ... i seldom go into the black.
 
also, engineers of course did make the divide between small ships and the rest much deeper, re damage and resistance. really genius move. you can still easily best an npc conda with an eagle, though.

but anyway, why bother? just go after small ships. it's actually what it's meant to do! :)
 
As big fan of small ships i must say eagle is useless now, what make it bad are not small hardpoints or weak shields but relatively large hit box, low top speed and boost that require a lot of capacitor power, another issue is mines nerf(5sec arming time), what is even worse is enforcers synthesis bug as 3 enforcers eagle is quite good.
 
I always wondered about putting rails on an eagle with long range and sniping. If you can keep the distance I think you'd be mostly okay. I used to run a dive bomber but they nerfed the mines. Why did they nerf the mine? I honestly don't get that.
 

Craith

Volunteer Moderator
I am an Eagle MK 2 enthusiast, this is my current build:

Fast, good firepower for its size (at least against shields the cytoscramblers hit way above their weightclass), and even a bit of shields with the guardian boosters. Most large ships don't get any shots off unless they run turrets, and if my shield ever drops I can easily disengage using boost and silent running and recharge shields.

Rails are better than plasma chargers, but they lack the ammunition to last a conflict zone.
The FSD is essential, downgrade it as soon as you arrive in the target system for a nice +40m/s
small shields because of weight, and they recharge fast. Usually I don't get a lot of damage, unless the others have a wing.
 
I am an Eagle MK 2 enthusiast, this is my current build:

Fast, good firepower for its size (at least against shields the cytoscramblers hit way above their weightclass), and even a bit of shields with the guardian boosters. Most large ships don't get any shots off unless they run turrets, and if my shield ever drops I can easily disengage using boost and silent running and recharge shields.

Rails are better than plasma chargers, but they lack the ammunition to last a conflict zone.

i just realized there is such a thing, small plasma chargers ... o_O
 

Craith

Volunteer Moderator
needs a lot of pip management but works great ... i use charge enhanced capacitors, but you can charge them while getting into a good firing position and then let them fly. They are faster than normal plasma bullets and you are ususally near point blank anyhow.

Just make sure you don't black out in a tight turn, because your pilot will release the trigger and the charge is wasted.

Against shields I only shoot the chargers when the cap is full, otherwise I reduce damage dealt.

It is also fun to run 3x cytoscrambler with phasing effect and annoy gankers - of course you don't do anything to them as soon as their shields drop ;)
 
needs a lot of pip management but works great ... i use charge enhanced capacitors, but you can charge them while getting into a good firing position and then let them fly. They are faster than normal plasma bullets and you are ususally near point blank anyhow.

Just make sure you don't black out in a tight turn, because your pilot will release the trigger and the charge is wasted.

Against shields I only shoot the chargers when the cap is full, otherwise I reduce damage dealt.

It is also fun to run 3x cytoscrambler with phasing effect and annoy gankers - of course you don't do anything to them as soon as their shields drop ;)

Maybe 2 Cytoscarmbers with 1 Super pen rail.
 
2 lightweight railguns and 1 cannon. Both of those weapon types have higher piercing that other weapons of their type so they do not lose that much damage against larger ships because of their small size (railguns lose nothing).
 
PvE? I've taken on and taken out larger ships in my Sidewinder equipped with fixed cannons, engineered of course. I'm talking about things like Kraits and Asps, not Condas or FAS. Never take a BB gun to a tank fight!
 
With dpe of 2.5 on c2 distributor, i want to see this!

You can stagger the charges and hold a charge while the distributor fills, but they are still annoying to use, have middling projectile velocity, run quite hot, and have mediocre DPE.

Not bad against big NPC ship, but not good against much of anything else.
 
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