Does anyone have a viable build for CZ’s that is energy only so no need to reload after each one? Useful when doing the kill xxx ship missions as you can dive right back in when it finishes. Need something with high DPS so you can kill quickly. Can’t really take 15 minutes jousting or your side starts losing while your busy. I know you can put plasma slug on rails and PA’s, but that just swaps the problem from ammo to fuel. Tried the SRB FDL with plasma slug on 2 and after the CZ was down to 15% fuel from a full tank at start. I suspect might have to go with one of the big ships for this, but interested on what others have tried.
My favourite combat ship is a Krait Mk2 equiped with 4 efficient beams (2x thermal, 2x concordant) and a medium short range corrosive multicannon. All 4 beams on one fire group to take down shields, and a separate fire group with all weapons to take down hulls. It's not 100% energy, but the corrosive really helps soften hull and doesn't really go through much ammo as you can be selective in MC use, and not necessary for small targets. Absolutely shreds in CZs and assassination missions.
All energy builds require a lot of distributor power, so mediums like both Kraits and Federal Gunship are good options.
All energy builds require a lot of distributor power, so mediums like both Kraits and Federal Gunship are good options.
The problem with all the energy builds, is then taking apart the hull. Some CZs give you enemy ships such as Vipers and Cobras packed with HRPs that take forever to burn out.
In the past I've run a Krait Mk II with 3x Efficient beams, which was great but really struggled with this. I'm currently running a Mamba at the moment, with a Huge Gimballed Beam and a pair of CytoScramblers. This rips shields off in no time, even if they spam shield cells. I have a pair of Large MultiCannons for the hull and this works really well. In this way, I don't need to re-arm for 3-4 medium CZs.
I've not had the chance yet, but I want to try out the Corrosive effect. It should mean I can MC until the hull is weakened, then use my energy weapons to do all the real damage, even those non-hull damaging CytoScramblers, and this should extend further the time before re-arm.
In the past I've run a Krait Mk II with 3x Efficient beams, which was great but really struggled with this. I'm currently running a Mamba at the moment, with a Huge Gimballed Beam and a pair of CytoScramblers. This rips shields off in no time, even if they spam shield cells. I have a pair of Large MultiCannons for the hull and this works really well. In this way, I don't need to re-arm for 3-4 medium CZs.
I've not had the chance yet, but I want to try out the Corrosive effect. It should mean I can MC until the hull is weakened, then use my energy weapons to do all the real damage, even those non-hull damaging CytoScramblers, and this should extend further the time before re-arm.
The build I'll share below I wouldn't necessarily recommend for CZ's. The intent in sharing is that it's an all energy build that does decent kinetic damage. You can get some decent DPS out of short ranged burst lasers with the inertia impact experimental.That experimental adds kinetic damage at the cost of 3% jitter. If you can stay close to a target, short range inertial impact bursts rip through ships significantly faster than what you would expect from energy weapons in general.
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
The corrosive effect is highly recommended! It weakens hull enough that all your other weapons are more effective at hull damage. In a high energy build, I find corrosive is even more important.
Beam Vette seems pretty quick
s.orbis.zone
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
I used this https://is.gd/baIwO8 for a war that was 18k lys out. Could do 3 high CZ before I needed to go for some gas.
Agreed the hull is the challenge with energy weapons. I generally try for a power plant kill and have been experimenting with focussed burst lasers for the buff to penetration, plus you can have things like scramble spectrum randomly shutting down systems on the target which helps, but on an all energy weapon build you run out of distributor very quickly, even with a weapon focussed PD.
i have tried MC’s on the FDL with a huge beam, with a mix of corrosive and incendiary, but find you can get low on ammo by the end of a CZ even with those. I might try flipping that with a huge MC and 4 medium lasers.
Thanks I will try that. I have the weapons I can swap in.
Yeah I had a feeling one of the big ships with all beams would do the job. I will put it on the list of things to try.Beam Vette seems pretty quick
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
My Vette almost comply.
She still sports a huge MC overcharged with corrosive, but if you can use it carefully, you dont have to reload it... but incase you do, reloading a single MC is really cheap
As SLF you have to use an F63 with fixed multicannons to help knock off the enemy hulls faster. But you really need to keep it on a short leash - always have it attack your target and you have to watch its back too and attack whoever goes after your SLF
With that build i can chain CZ all day long.
The SCB are there only for emergencies and i rarely use all the charges.
Thanks. A tweak on the all beam Vette. I will give it a go once I unlock the Vette. Still got a bit of Fed rank to go.
I'd consider rail guns with plasma slug experimental and long range engineering for the two small hard points on the Federal Corvette. It has a big enough fuel tank to last several rounds, and the rails help to reduce hull, can target modules and with long range can be used to stop fleeing enemies. Small lasers have very low piercing.
Did you know that you can synthesize ammo using mats? Select the weapon you want to rearm in your right panel on the modules tab and synth ammo.
Apparently a lot of people aren't aware of this.
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This is my CZ build. You can adjust it to taste, but the short version is two large and two medium efficient beams with thermal vent, and a high capacity corrosive frag on the centre large to speed things up once their shields collapse - which will not take long at all for most NPCs. Backed up by a 7A charge-enhanced super-conduit distributor and you can fire almost continuously with 4 pips. The frag is mainly for applying corrosive, so unless you go crazy with it you'll be returning to give your controller hand a rest long before you run out of ammo for it.
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This is my CZ build. You can adjust it to taste, but the short version is two large and two medium efficient beams with thermal vent, and a high capacity corrosive frag on the centre large to speed things up once their shields collapse - which will not take long at all for most NPCs. Backed up by a 7A charge-enhanced super-conduit distributor and you can fire almost continuously with 4 pips. The frag is mainly for applying corrosive, so unless you go crazy with it you'll be returning to give your controller hand a rest long before you run out of ammo for it.
It's a big tip and worth using so long as you're willing to do the odd pit stop in your SRV for a session.
I'm doing that now after switching my build to try out frags (insane by the way). I'm guessing material trading will hasten the process but at some point I'm guessing I'll need an extended SRV session to replenish a decent enough stock to at least emulate a semi dependent build with frags.
As fun as they are to use, I still might wind up trying fixed vent beams and long range slug rails, where my previous favourite was gimble beams and slug pas, which is lots of fun.
I've found slugs work really well. I've read a lot of comments about fuel running out but I've found the Chieftan and slapping on a size 5 fuel tank in place of the scoop meant I'm never getting close to running out of fuel.
I found it the most liberating build so far. And pas are so much fun in PVE. But I think it's time to give the rails a try again with the Chieftan's great convergence.
All that said... I might end up coming back to the frags. The damage they put out is mental. I might even try a 30% boost once for a laugh
I use this as my pure energy build in CZs
s.orbis.zone
Pure PVE though.
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
Pure PVE though.
Yes I was aware of it and I have done it, but that just replaces having to rearm with having to collect mats to synth. So prefer to use just when I have to.
All energy requires burst and inertial impact mod. That jitter is such a pain though.
Plasma slugs are the next closest thing, but running a full set of plasmas or rails using plasma slug actually can deplete your tank pretty quick.
I agree with Ganksalot - the synth for multicannons is very cheap, and that corrosive shell is too sexy to pass up.
Plasma slugs are the next closest thing, but running a full set of plasmas or rails using plasma slug actually can deplete your tank pretty quick.
I agree with Ganksalot - the synth for multicannons is very cheap, and that corrosive shell is too sexy to pass up.
I just switched to my PvP Conda (https://is.gd/2Mzudz) and it does pretty well, never ran out of ammo in high CZs and it just fun to fly. Also ttk is much lower and I'm done pretty fast. Rearm and heat related repairs are no issue with the carrier right next to the CZ.