Interceptor class guide

Game Discussion Ships
1

Hello players of the universe…

For the Interceptor class you must follow one rule:  The best way to protect yourself it maneuvering.

 

A lot of players underestimate the interceptor class, preferring Fighters or Frigates, and I think it’s wrong to underestimate Interceptors.

I think many of you would agree that it’s interesting and fun to play in close combat, maneuvering and then attack the enemy from the back. There are a lot of fun and useful things that interceptors can do, for example, killing enemies in 1v1 situations (or even 1v3), capturing beacons or destroying the enemy Captain.

In-game I main Covert Ops Interceptors and I’ll proceed to describe how to use it:

In the past I only cared about maneuverability and I wasn’t interested in strafe, and that was my mistake and the mistake of many other players that don’t know how useful the strafe is. I tried to find a balance between high strafe and high maneuverability, to make sure I would be able to fight in fast and slow speeds equally well. After that I discovered Adaptative Shield, wich in combination with high strafe works wonders almost all the time, regardless of wich axis you are maneuvering. 

Because of that I chose the 5th Federation Implant, and Collision Compensators as optional strafe increasing mods.

After that I needed to find a weapon that would allow me to cause great damage to the enemy while I fight in high speeds and with huge maneuverability, so I started using the Sharpnel Cannon, but his huge spread made me chose the Electronic Guidance as a must in my CPU, followed with an Electronic Guidance to prevent ECMs to take me down.

Because of that I use the 2nd Jericho Implant wich gives me more spread reduction and protection against ECM.

After Tackler and Guards became popular I needed a way to escape from their slows, that’s why I use Federation Rank 8 Implant, wich allow me to scape from them each time I use a survival module. Originally I used Orion + Adaptative Camo + White Noise + IR Flares, wich didn’t allow me to get away from the slowes. I changed the White Noise with a Shield Booster. Shield Booster also protects your ship from other CO Plasma Web. 

At the end I didn’t fear anymore Tackler Fighters.

When you fly Interceptors, you also notice that you’re usually a priority target since you can’t resist much after the shield is gone. So I had to find a way to protect my poor hull against enemies and Federation’s 1st and Empire’s 9th Implants give me all hull resists you need, specially against the dangerous missiles and when you are being attacked by a lot of enemies.

In the end you will be able to have a versatile ship that can kill, survive and scoff opponents :slight_smile:

Good luck and don’t make my mistakes! Don’t forget to use Q, E, alt and Spacebar as much as you can!

 

Thank you for your attention, with respect,

Takamina.

Thanks to residente for helping me with the english language)

2

Just a note, adaptive shield activation has nothing to do with strafe be it 100 or 300, it only checks your forward speed.

3

in fact, with high rates of strafe you don’t lose the maximum speed of the maneuver and it will work. I would not have written this if it were a sham.

4

in fact, with high rates of strafe you don’t lose the maximum speed of the maneuver and it will work. I would not have written this if it were a sham.

From your original posts, the way you (or residente) chose words is that it sounds like strafe has some kind of relation to adaptive shields, where amount of strafe has nothing to do with adaptive activating, as long as your forward speed is enough to activate adaptive you can no strafe or strafe like a flash crab, it has no effect on adaptives. I am just trying to clarify your statement.

5

in fact, you can press alt + shift, when the ship will fly at maximum speed on this axis shield Adaptive would work.

If you haven’t noticed, no conditions, which include adaptive shield only when moving forward. You can move in any direction of the strafe at maximum speed  and it will work.

6

in fact, you can press alt + shift, when the ship will fly at maximum speed on this axis shield Adaptive would work.

If you haven’t noticed, no conditions, which include adaptive shield only when moving forward. You can move in any direction of the strafe at maximum speed  and it will work.

no it will not, if it does work now it is bug

it suppose to work only on forward speed and suppose to have only checks for forward speed.

7

no it will not, if it does work now it is bug

it suppose to work only on forward speed and suppose to have only checks for forward speed.

Why do you think so? a description of the Adaptive shield is the only condition is that the ship should move at top speed. each axis has a limit of maximum speed.

8

Why do you think so? a description of the Adaptive shield is the only condition is that the ship should move at top speed. each axis has a limit of maximum speed.

that thing was discussed over and over, and has been answered by devs many times

9

If it is not, then okay, but I like to believe it :slight_smile:

In any case, if you move the axis provided high strafe we lose a little speed and you can quickly restore it, thereby enabling Adaptive shield work.

10

Anyone who underestimate any class is making a mistake.

 

I find usefull your guide, but playing with interceptors makes me dizzy.  crazy.png

Yesterday I started to play with ECM. Nice little ship but not for my playstyle.

 

I will stick to engineers.

11

Takamina, I like how you also describe the historical changes in your fittings :slight_smile:

 

I was using strafing speeds from the start, additionally, I was using mostly high speed (1CC, rest speed) and flew my Ceptors like flying jets, while I kept the manouverability just good enough to circle targets; but I can recall a match last december, where I noticed your fit, and also adapted to use more Vernier engines / manouverability.

 

I think I saw you flying an ECM, Ludwig :slight_smile: I was quite surprised. The only ECM I usually like to fly is the Kris, because it’s almost a (slow) Covert Ops. I think, Recons and CovOps are far more “ceptory”; ECM is a bit different;

 

I actually never thought I will fly frigs or fighters, but now I do, I think it’s good to sit in every ship once in a while, even outside of the comfort zone. :slight_smile:

 

The dizzyness however goes away, and being disoriented sometimes happens :slight_smile:

12

 

I didn’t describe Adaptives properly, in order for Adaptives to activate you must reach the speed (in any axis) equal to base forward speed +50% of Afterburners power, i.e. if in your ship stats you have 400 Max speed and 500 AB speed, in order to have adaptives activated you have to move at 450 speed(doesn’t matter the axis), if you have 150 max speed and 220 AB you gotta move at least at 185 speed.

In order to reach strafe speeds close to your forward speed you gotta use strafe engines pretty much in every engine and use hwy armor plating to drop forward speed value. It might be possible to do this on one or two ships in the game, never really bothered to try.

 Apparently there use to be(and most likely still in place) a limitation for max strafe speed, strafe speed can not exceed your max forward speed (just max speed, not AB speed), so following this rule it is impossible to reach adaptives activations on raw strafe, without other external modificators.

13

Apparently there use to be(and most likely still in place) a limitation for max strafe speed, strafe speed can not exceed your max forward speed (just max speed, not AB speed), so following this rule it is impossible to reach adaptives activations on raw strafe, without other external modificators.

i hope not. I’m really looking forward to going faster sideways than forwards with my gunship

14

All your tips are good, but people should understand that this is not an interceptor guide, is a federation covert ops guide.

15

in fact it is available on all ships of interceptors. I described what really they need and why. 

16

in fact it is available on all ships of interceptors. I described what really they need and why. 

Not really, imperial ceptors don’t use adaptatives, and ecms can play perfect with plasma guns or superchargers out of melee range. Recon cloak also breaks tackler debufs. Pulse lasers and RF blasters are great guns also, you don’t need to use sharpnel cannons in all ceptors.

 

Saying that all interceptors fly the same way is not true. Each class and faction has its own perks.

 

Although I must say that if you are ONLY flying interceptors, some of the implants you said are good.

 

Don’t get me wrong, you are the best cov ops pilot I have ever met, but you can’t say that all the interceptors fly the same way, because is not true.

17

Not really, imperial ceptors don’t use adaptatives, and ecms can play perfect with plasma guns or superchargers out of melee range. Recon cloak also breaks tackler debufs. Pulse lasers and RF blasters are great guns also, you don’t need to use sharpnel cannons in all ceptors.

 

Saying that all interceptors fly the same way is not true. Each class and faction has its own perks.

 

Although I must say that if you are ONLY flying interceptors, some of the implants you said are good.

 

Don’t get me wrong, you are the best cov ops pilot I have ever met, but you can’t say that all the interceptors fly the same way, because is not true.

 

He said his build and guide works on any interceptor despite of the role and faction. 

Of course you don’t have to fly all of them as agressive assassins, but you can. Kris AE and Sai are good examples of that. Same with Storm Viking or Jarl. They can be very fast if you want too, and very deadly. Others can be flown like that too, but they lose effectiveness tho, so it’s better to use them as supportive ships. But it’s matter of tastes afterall. 

18

:slight_smile:

19

“Its the pilot, not the ship.” - Old Retired NASA pilot. 

 

Wise words indeed. 

20

On the adaptive shield discussion: OP is correct that they work in any direction. You can full well build an adaptive strafe setup. The only “problem” you have is that adaptive activation speed is only displayed on your HUD for forward speed, not for any other direction, but that aside adaptive strafe builds are fully viable (and can be particularly interesting on non-interceptors IMHO).

I fully agree with this part of the guide:

For the Interceptor class you must follow one rule:  The best way to protect yourself it maneuvering.

How exactly you maneuver depends on many factors, from the ship you fly, its loadout and your implants and last but not least your capabilities and preferences as a pilot. I’ve flown all sorts of builds and they all have their pros and cons. Don’t get stuck with a single idea of what is best. Even if it may be true (which it isn’t), fitting and flying everything the same way is above all rather boring.

One factor deciding fights that I never see mentioned in guides is timing. When to engage, when to use a module (and whether to use it at all) will decide the outcome of many fights more than anything else. Blow your orion + plasma arc + plasma web simultaneously on a gunship that will just combat reboot out of most of it and then flip around on overdrive while his friend the ECM puts you in stasis and all your fancy adaptive shield maneuvering skills won’t get you anywhere. But bait that gunship into overdrive + ideally combat reboot and his friend into a metastable field and you have a good chance to kill them both even if you have no idea what an adaptive shield even is. :wink: