I haven't played around with weapon engi mods simply because I find the special effects even more of a gamble than I'm comfortable with. Anyways, I don't do enough combat to make it worth my time. So I'm just equipping the best base weapons I can for now.
I'd love to have pack-hounds, mind you. But I don't want to power play for a month and suffer non stop interdictions because I can't turn it off
Pack hounds are great. Consider, the KB's biggest weakness is its turn rate, meaning that enemies are going to get out of line of sight far more than with other ships. But a missile lock lasts for a few seconds after you are out of LOS.
So typically what I try to do is fire with my overcharged pulse/MCs as much as possible, and then once I lose the gimble lock (either moved out of LOS or using chaff) I let loose the packhounds. With the extended clip mod I can fire 22 missiles at a go before needing to reload, and these do thermal damage as well as explosive (oh, and I got a damage buff per missile as a bonus). So good for hurting shields, and a crap load of them to boot. Target the external weapons and once their shields go down you can defang an enemy pretty quick.
Corrosive shells on the MC increase overall damage output, while the scrambles on the pulses give you a chance at fortunate shutdown. All in all a deadly combination.
I also got very lucky upgrading my armor and shields recently, and my power distributor.
The only thing left for me is the engines. Once I get the Class 5 dirty drives, the only thing I'll have left to do is take a level of Low Emission Power Generator that will still allow me to function. Dirty Drives are great for speed, but there is a heat issue to contend with already (firing off 22 missiles tends to start to cook you
). Honestly the missiles really are something you want to have because they don't get affected by chaff, keeps your options open in fight.
Once those two things are done we'll see if the KB makes for an impressive PVE ship or not
UPDATE. Got the 5DD - actually went sightly over the max possible roll due to a bonus, but the heat and power use was hit hard, and I only had the one roll.
Boost speed is 415 dry for now. I say for now because the weight will change as I tweak further. Hoping to increase FSD range over 30LY loaded, and will look to try and trim weight and heat elsewhere. Got level 1 low emissions power plant and had 50 tries at it (only needs one iron
) so I managed to max out its benefits. With luck it will be enough heat reduction to function well in combat.
We'll see how the next few combat encounters go and report back
Right now my big question involves the hull reinforcement package, and the effective difference between lightweight and heavy duty mods. It's hard to tell from the blueprints just how it will affect the bottom line