Meta Discussion Ships What are some current meta, gold standard weapons PvE loadouts for conflict zones & assassination missions?

[Slange Lands]

PAs do fantastic damage - when they hit. For anything less than a skilled pilot (so - me), gimballed multis will stay on target more than enough to do more damage. I use a triple PA setup for fun on my Chieftain, but for killing quickly, it's beams/multis every day of the week.

Indeed, PAs especially efficient, are perhaps the most difficult to use weapon in game. It took me over a year to get better at them ( I am a 55 year old bat). And I still need improvement. Please don't be too hard on yourself!!

Just in case, below is what I did to get better with PAs:

I used a FDL with four medium gimballed multicannons and one huge PA to learn. If you don't have a FDL or don't like them, a Viper mk3 would be fine, too as well as any other agile medium ship. I have a Chieftain with PAs rails and a turreted MC. The multicannon reticle is key because it is on the same vector as the PA reticle but is closer to the ship. I used the MC reticle to train my eye to track the PA reticle. The further you are from the target, the more spread out the MC and PA reticles are from the ship. You want to fly in such a way as to get the reticles to bunch together. The closer you are to the target, the closer the PA reticle is to the ship, and the more likely it is for the PA to connect. The PA reticle is very deceiving and a feel for the target vector is at all times is necessary. You could aim precisely but not hit the target because your PA shot was not on an intercept course with the target ship vector.

I farmed czs and massacre missions with the 4mc 1 PA build until I was able to connect the PA almost Every Single Time. It is especially difficult to hit small ships with PAs, for example, Viper 3s. However, since I PvP, I needed Viper 3s to be easier because humans are even more difficult. Then I gradually substituted the rest of the MCs with PAs. One of my favorite builds is four PAs mostly thermal conduit and one target lock breaker and one turreted corrosive mc. I love having the mc reticle reference in especially asteroid belts, where the rocks often obscure reticles. In open space, I no longer need the MC reticle as a crutch.

PAs are extremely frustrating at first, however they are really one of the best weapons in game. You will gain significant skill in range control because you will realize the closer you are to the target, the likelier the shot will connect.
Also:
1. As I said earlier, the damage dropoff is 2km. That's huge. Some lasers have drop offs of 600m, which means at greater distances your damage will be diminished significantly.
2. PAs do absolute damage which means no manipulation of resistances will help your targets.
3. After you become more competent with PAs, you will have to rearm far less often and target destruction will be much faster. I usually solo and win two low intensity conflict zones back to back without having to get more ammo.
4. The most damage a single player in a medium ship can do is a plasma ram with corrosive.
5. You will be a master at range control.

Anyway, best wishes!

o7

 

[Stabby_Dave]

I seem to remember someone saying that if you engineer your PA to focused G4, it's the same projectile speed as a gimballed m/c.

 

[Kayvan]

I'd like to add that for PVE purposes, Plasma Slug will do absolutely fine on PAs. You can stay in a respawning instance for HOURS. For instance, just this evening I went pirate hunting with 2 Large PAs and kept fighting until my main fuel tank was low -- I just calculated that I must have fired my PAs about 350 times in that session. So without that experimental I would have had to fly home to reload 3 times, or alternatively use basic synth 10 frickin times. Slugs, baby.

 

[puca]

This is what I use.

Krait MK 2 is a lot faster than the Corvette (so can get from one group in a HAZREZ or CNB to another), and has a class 7 distributor, unlike the Mamba or FDL. And so can support a lot more sustained damage. I think it's the best tradeoff between mobility, damage and tankiness when farming bounties. Another nice thing about the Krait compared to big ships or Mamba/FDL is that it uses a class 5 FSD, and so can use the new GC overengineered one.

One corrosive MC is a must, the damage buff is too good, and it's particularly important because the Krait has size 2 hard points, which have a damage debuff against the hull of large ships. The penetration from corrosive helps a lot, not to mention the flat 25% damage bonus.

A lot of people like overcharged MCs to go along with corrosive, but if the goal is to stay out as long as possible to farm bounties, high capacity is better. You do about 20% more total damage from the MC per outing that way. I also chose a class 3 because the amount of damage it does to hull is much more than a class 2.

The emissive pulse is to keep the target lock when NPCs use heat sinks (often after SCBs). It also makes the total set of energy weapons efficient enough that they can run forever with 4 pips to weapons (about 9.2 MW/S).

Beams are all thermal vent which cools the ship down a lot and cuts down on incoming damage.

The fighter is amazing once the crew hits elite, I use Rogue F which is multicannons, and this adds quite a lot of hull damage.

As much as some folks swear by fixed weapons, gimbals just do a lot more damage over time against NPCs, because of their superior time on target, especially against smaller ships. This is true even if NPCs use chaff (and smart CMDRs will de-select and revert to a fixed weapon setup with gimballed damage debuff).

 

[Jaxterix]

The video you linked was that of Hazzmango. Many of us fly the SRB rail MC meta with great success. Yes, it does get spicy with only two sinks, but the heat management is part of the fun. And no, all four fire at once. The SRB hammer is another story. I have cooked myself into a crisp with those hammers. The following videos show SRB Rail Guns shown to great advantage, most notably the PvP League finals. Here the SRB shines because Thermal Conduit was banned.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbkpYzM2-N0


And Yamato vs a meta PA FDL

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn8W0ktizWQ&t=1s

I'm just an amateur noob pvpr, so pardon my ignorance, but.....why was Thermal conduit banned?

 

[Slange Lands]

I'm just an amateur noob pvpr, so pardon my ignorance, but.....why was Thermal conduit banned?

It's a great question, especially considering the huge variety of weapons at our disposal.
The number of organized PvPers is probably less than 200. A very small minority of the total player population. Therefore, when squadrons or players host tournaments, absolutely everyone is invited regardless of experience.

Yes, the top tier pilots of Prism and NATO usually dominate and win, but 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. are up for grabs.

Thermal Conduit provides iirc a 50 to 60 percent increase to damage to an already high damage dealing plasma accelerator once your heat reaches 100 degrees. It's very easy to procc the damage and due to a heat bug being "fixed" by increasing the amount of damage a ship can take, all ships are now viable at higher heat and for longer periods of time. At least as long as a usual 3v3 or 4v4 wing fight. TC was not over powered before the heat bug was "fixed" because one fried to death.

The amount of damage of a procced TC PA renders every other weapon useless because a wing fight is basically a race to see who can deal the most damage in the shortest period of time. If one is serious about winning, one would be forced to use TC PAs then.

And as you undoubtedly know, using PAs is not easy for everyone, myself included. So the banning of TC results in other weapon types being more viable in competition. Banning TC gives the less talented (myself) or the newer Commander more options. Since we pvpers are so few, it really is important to the health of the genre to encourage everyone to participate in tourneys and to have a great learning experience.

 

[Jaxterix]

It's a great question, especially considering the huge variety of weapons at our disposal.
The number of organized PvPers is probably less than 200. A very small minority of the total player population. Therefore, when squadrons or players host tournaments, absolutely everyone is invited regardless of experience.

Yes, the top tier pilots of Prism and NATO usually dominate and win, but 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. are up for grabs.

Thermal Conduit provides iirc a 50 to 60 percent increase to damage to an already high damage dealing plasma accelerator once your heat reaches 100 degrees. It's very easy to procc the damage and due to a heat bug being "fixed" by increasing the amount of damage a ship can take, all ships are now viable at higher heat and for longer periods of time. At least as long as a usual 3v3 or 4v4 wing fight. TC was not over powered before the heat bug was "fixed" because one fried to death.

The amount of damage of a procced TC PA renders every other weapon useless because a wing fight is basically a race to see who can deal the most damage in the shortest period of time. If one is serious about winning, one would be forced to use TC PAs then.

And as you undoubtedly know, using PAs is not easy for everyone, myself included. So the banning of TC results in other weapon types being more viable in competition. Banning TC gives the less talented (myself) or the newer Commander more options. Since we pvpers are so few, it really is important to the health of the genre to encourage everyone to participate in tourneys and to have a great learning experience.

Thank you for the detailed explanation! Ok, so this is actually good information for a casual pvpr like me. So, if I understood you well, while TC may be banned from organized competition, it is good for someone like me that engages in whatever random organic pvp happens to come my way. What would you recommend as the main engineering for the plasmas? Focused for the speed? (or long range), or efficient?

 

[Slange Lands]

Thank you for the detailed explanation! Ok, so this is actually good information for a casual pvpr like me. So, if I understood you well, while TC may be banned from organized competition, it is good for someone like me that engages in whatever random organic pvp happens to come my way. What would you recommend as the main engineering for the plasmas? Focused for the speed? (or long range), or efficient?

Absolutely for casual PvP TC is awesome.
From your description, I see you prefer the Krait Phantom. I am not familiar with the Phantom so I can't tell you which type of PA. Maybe someone else here can?

My experience is with the FDL where efficient is king.

If you do duelling a very strong build for the phantom is frags with a bi weave, right? But I also think that involves reverski. You might ask around a bit for that.

I do mostly wing fights in rings, where frags can be avoided.

You cant go wrong with efficient PAs, however their slower speed makes them require better range control. Which makes them more difficult. But if you succeed with efficient, every other weapon will be easy for you to use. You are guaranteed to be a better pilot .

 

[Kayvan]

I have never tried, but theoretically I think the Phantom could do great with Rapid Fire. RF has the highest SDPS but also highest heat per second (if you do fire as fast as possible) - but with its oversized distro the Phantom might cope with that pretty well.