Ships Which Mods for Frag Cannon? (PVE)

[Kayvan]

I've heard good things about Frag cannons, so I'd like to try them out. My main combat ship is a Chieftain, currently with 2 Large (overcharged) MCs and the rest assorted Burst and Beam Lasers. So generally I first wear down the target's shields with the lasers, then riddle the hull with MC bullets. So far I've been using all gimballed weapons as these give me the most time on target.

What are the most recommended engineering mods for frags? I tried a forum search but results are inconclusive.

 

[Fenwe]

How hot are you running? How is your power and distributor draw?

The meta seems to be Double Shot\OverSized with probably a Drag Munition and possibly a Dazzle. On paper Double Shot does nearly double the DPS.

But Efficient has no downsides and includes an increase in DPS, drops power draw, distributor draw, and thermal load.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

My Beams kill anything medium and smaller. I close the distance on anything bigger and blow it apart.

I do not PvP.

The thing to keep in mind is the limited ammo. The more you use the frags, the quicker you have to synthesize ammunition or leave the area. I use the linked ship in HI CZs and Pirate Activity Detected

Good Luck commander.

 

[GeoJase]

Frags are awesome. My favourite ship is a Vulture with dual frags.

Frags have a great DPS but they have two main limitations. The are a close quarters weapon, and they have a 3 shot clip.

Played with these limitations in mind, frags are devastating. Especially effective in agile ships, like the Chief.

My favourite primary engineering is Rapid Fire, which almost makes them able to fire continuously. The downside is RF adds a large jitter, meaning you need to get even closer to target to maximise DPS. Up close the Rapid Fire allows you to take advantage of any good firing positions rather than having to wait for a reload.

I typically go with Incidiary and Corrosive experimentals, but that's mostly a function of only 2 guns on the Vulture.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

Since I installed engineered frags, npc's are not an issue. Because npc's generally like to jouist. I use long range beam lazer's to get their attention, and when they come at me, hit'em with the frags. Gathering mats is easy peasy in my Vette at res sites. I just sit there, get their attention and wait for them to come to me. Destroy, pick up mats.

 

[Bigmaec]

Overcharged or Double Shot.
Include one drag, corrosive and some incendiary if you have no other anti-shield weapons.

 

[Kissamies]

Double Shot for short duration PvE, like assassination missions. Overcharged for res sites and such.

 

[Screemonster]

I played around with a few mods. Overcharged/screening shell is my go-to on fixed ones if I don't want to bother with other engineering effects, which is a big thing on a vulture since it's only got the two hardpoints. The reload time on them can be painful and screening shell helps with that a lot.

Rapid-fire/screening shell is like a sandblaster while your ammo lasts, but you'll hurt your trigger finger trying to fire it manually. It can be a handy thing to put as a fire-and-forget thing on turrets though - I've got one on the large hardpoint on my corvette 'cause it's a horrible hardpoint to use for most other things, but it's fantastic to be able to follow up a ram with some shrapnel.

Also - get pacifiers if you can tolerate the PP grind. They're amazing on a vulture.

 

[Old Duck]

Out of curiosity, are there any good counters to frags? I'm assuming most players (and NPCs) run fixed frags, so chaff isn't a counter. Unlike plasma or even rails, it's kinda hard to dodge a shotgun blast. Are shields buffed for kinetic resistance the only defense?

I ask because when I die to a griefer (I know, the topic is PvE), it's usually to frags.

 

[Screemonster]

Out of curiosity, are there any good counters to frags? I'm assuming most players (and NPCs) run fixed frags, so chaff isn't a counter. Unlike plasma or even rails, it's kinda hard to dodge a shotgun blast. Are shields buffed for kinetic resistance the only defense?

I ask because when I die to a griefer (I know, the topic is PvE), it's usually to frags.

IIRC, the gank mamba is gimballed frags since the hardpoints are spread out far enough for fixed to suffer (plus they're firing off-bore while jousting, which gimbals help with) so chaff will help a bit. They'll probably have incendiaries in there, so high kinetic/thermal resist will help.

The main counter is flying a small ship so most of the pellets go wide of you even if they're on-target, and keeping your distance.

 

[wrmiller]

I've heard good things about Frag cannons, so I'd like to try them out. My main combat ship is a Chieftain, currently with 2 Large (overcharged) MCs and the rest assorted Burst and Beam Lasers. So generally I first wear down the target's shields with the lasers, then riddle the hull with MC bullets. So far I've been using all gimballed weapons as these give me the most time on target.

What are the most recommended engineering mods for frags? I tried a forum search but results are inconclusive.

I have a couple of ships that I like using frags on. I started with double-shot, but lately I've been using overcharged with drag, dazzle, or corrosive on them. I use gimbaled frags and if the NPC starts puffing chaff I unlock the target and have at it. The spreadsheet flyers will tell you that fixed is better, but in my experience it's not that much of a difference from the perspective of how long it takes to kill a target.

 

[Kayvan]

I did a little testrun with 2 large unmodded Frags on my Chief and that didn't work that brilliantly. Went to a High RES, and apart from a couple of small ships that I was able to jump, it was rather a drag. I'm generally not afraid of the FAS or its siblings, but here I was fighting one forever and he kept getting his shields up at least 4 times; I just didn't manage to get close enough to frag him, we just kept circling each other at ~650m. Another big target (a Clipper or so) simply jumped away when I almost had him and there was nothing I could do about it.
Both of these situations are not such a problem with Multis; in a circling fight I can keep blasting away and score more hits due to better hardpoint placement, and when someone tries to run away the Multis can also reach significantly further.

I have a feeling that these issues might be influenced by my control setup. I only have flightstick and keyboard, and adjusting thrust with keyboard only is a very clumsy affair. Theoretically I know what I'd need to do to get close to a circler like the FAS, I just can't get the ship to do it with the keyboard. So maybe I do have to get a second stick if I want to use frags (I've been putting off that decision).

So for the time being, I'm guess sticking with MCs. Might do some test runs with PAs though, just for kicks.

 

[Non Grata]

For me it's Vulture, pacifiers, high capacity, screening shell. If you can land the 6 shots in quick succession I think it may do more damage than the other options and your ammo lasts longer though ISTBC.

 

[Screemonster]

For me it's Vulture, pacifiers, high capacity, screening shell. If you can land the 6 shots in quick succession I think it may do more damage than the other options and your ammo lasts longer though ISTBC.

100% more shots, compared to 75% more damage per shot. High-cap does slightly beat overcharged in the overall-damage-capacity stakes and the SDPS isn't too bad since you're reloading half as often. Either mod is pretty good.

 

[Innocentius]

Doubleshot+screening shell or overcharged+screening shell depending on your tastes.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Just tried putting some on my vulture, swapping out the beams I was using for some variety. Doubleshot/screening shell. Took them to a hazres and I think I made about 4 kills before running dry, right when I had another vulture down to 23% hull. I knew I was going to run through ammo pretty quick but I wasn't expecting it to run out quite as fast as that. I'm a little disappointed tbh, more so because I was thinking of eventually getting a chieftain with a pair of these on at some point. Now I may have to rethink that plan, or at the very least try a different mod.

 

[Fenwe]

Just tried putting some on my vulture, swapping out the beams I was using for some variety. Doubleshot/screening shell. Took them to a hazres and I think I made about 4 kills before running dry, right when I had another vulture down to 23% hull. I knew I was going to run through ammo pretty quick but I wasn't expecting it to run out quite as fast as that. I'm a little disappointed tbh, more so because I was thinking of eventually getting a chieftain with a pair of these on at some point. Now I may have to rethink that plan, or at the very least try a different mod.

What I did with my chieftain is this.

The beams take the shields down, the frags are for hull only. You end up using a lot less ammo. You can also save the frags for just large ships, but that gets boring.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

What I did with my chieftain is this.

The beams take the shields down, the frags are for hull only. You end up using a lot less ammo. You can also save the frags for just large ships, but that gets boring.

Yeah that was kinda the idea I was thinking, except I was going to have the frags in the large slots and beams in the smalls (hence testing them out now on the vulture). Eh, I guess try it both ways and see what works best I suppose.