@CptArcher Good direction with your build. Take a look at my "3x800" Courier. 800 of shields, hull and speed, hence 3x800. I love this ship, beast to fly with cruise speed over 600m/s , boosting up to 850m/s. I never died in this ship, she is ungankable, amazingly well protected and tested in pvp. Gankers in Shinra seeing Couriers are aware of super speeds so they will leave you alone in most cases. Their fdls are fat cows with ugly strut across the canopy. Instead you can gank
ruin their day by interdicting them, try hitting with weapons, exchange first blows, with that speed you will be always safe by leaving your opponent far, far behind when things take the wrong turn. This is a perfect platform to accustom yourself to player vs player combat where there is always panic button under - boost to 850 m/s. And if you're bored go to Buckyball Racing and show them how that racing ship doesn't have to be made of glass. Funny thing, the Courier can have it all!
At first you will notice smallest reinforced shield (with very balanced resistances from, four SB's), smaller fuel tank, small and overcharged power plant, D class distro and D class fsd - properly adjusted for jump range and recharge intervals, she is not wheezing in combat while waiting for another boost. And with that speeds you're resistant to most weapons due to attacker not being able to hit, nevertheless hitscan weapons like lasers and railguns might be problematic. In combat I fly with 1,4,1 or 2,3,1 pip profile. Lightweight weapons are pretty much like efficient, so distro drain is really low allowing you to divert more power to eng and sys.
Two main weapons are kinetic, lightweight frag cannons with incendiary ammo, highly effective against shields and with that speed I can always get up close and personal. Third weapon is interchangable - depending on the situation, I mostly use a trademark Imperial weapon, a lightweight imperial hammer with penetration rounds (no distro issues whatsoever).Generally I have a set of lightweight weapons for this baby from pulse lasers, cytoscramblers, multicannons, plamsas to railguns.
To maintain 800m/s and above speeds at least two weapons have to lightweight, but even with 100 m/s lower when three non-lightweight weapons are mounted the speed my ship is still very good. The hammer, the prismatic shield and the ship itself. Grace, power and performance - the synergy. Arissa would have approved.
PS. You can take off two HRP's and fit those flight assists or anything - like small cargo racks. Also regular 1A shield (reinforced with hi-cap) should give you ~650 MJ of shield. You can also take off one shield booster, but remember to balance out the resistances. There is definitely space to work with fsd and distro, but if you want to be a speed demon leave them as they are.
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
coriolis.io
