Anyway, the reason I randomly passed through a system with triple stellar phenomenon was because I was re-engineering my iCourier into a sniper. Because I have accepted that NPCs in a CZ are very tanky and you need a lot of big guns if you want to kill them - but I feel like that doesn't mean you can't
win the CZ. Now running 2x long range burst lasers and 1x long range multi cannon.
Which won 3x low CZs with it after the pilot had had quite a lot of alcohol.
It
is slow to reach victory, and doesn't get a lot of kills, but it seems like it can consistently pull wins, so if you're pushing the BGS this is an option. Also, I'm pretty sure that winning CZs does good things for your combat rank however many kills you get.
Rules of engagement: this ship is a distraction, not a blaster. It works because the AI will focus a player vs other AI if that player damages them at all. That savage, brutal, annoying focusing is now a strategy.
If there is a target your allies are hitting hard at the start; join in and finish it faster. If not, pick the biggest enemy asset on the field and remove it. Not as in destroy it, but literally, just take it
away. Annoy it. This ship absolutely can, and should, joust the other team's anaconda; at 2-4km your shots hit, his don't, but he will still peel out of the battle to follow you every single time. He will never forget you for the entire fight once you've tagged him. Reverse out of the hairball, he'll follow.
You can watch your scanner, every time you drag him more than 5km from the centre, he'll turn around and go back, every time you chase him, he'll turn back to you. This is fine. You're depriving the other team of their biggest gunship. While he's chasing you, your team is mopping up his buddies. I am pretty sure there is a matchmaking algorithm that tries to roughly balance a CZ, so taking the big guy away with a tiny ship does
things to the balance.
Down sides of this build:
- Not actually getting a lot of kills or materials.
Advantages:
- No repair bills. Shields don't go down because this ship won't be within 2km of anything that is shooting at it. I'm sufficiently confident of this that I'm going to swap out the reinforcement modules for cargo or cabins.
- Seems to be decent combat progress from winning a CZ even with just 1-2 kills. I've gained what looks like about 5-6% through Competent.
- Can probably do this with one long range laser... the entire strategy revolves around weaponising how the AI is prioritising players. FDev say it prioritises threats... no, it doesn't. These long range lasers barely tickle vs other AI with plasmas and rail guns, but they really prefer to target this ship.
Full ship deets for the curious:
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