A bunch of people seem to have made posts like this before, so why not me as well. Perhaps someone learns something new, and at very least there is the possibility of getting some extra challenge due to ship builds specifically designed to murder mine.
Crews
Instead of having implant setups separately for interceptors, fighters and frigates like most people appear to do, I have setups for different weapons (plus one for engineers), and all of them are tank builds. I probably don’t need to separately point out which crew is assigned to each of the ship builds.
Beam weapon setup
Projectile weapon setup
Critical hit setup
Engineer setup
Tier 3 ships
Kris AE
Katana S
Crusader A
Crusader S
Tier 4 ships
Haven’t really been playing T4, but these are ships I’m often mixing with T5.
Nodachi EW
Scimitar
Grizzly M
Tier 5 ships
Sword AE
Sword S
Inquisitor AE
Patriarch
I haven’t been able to settle to any one build for Patriarch, but all of these use critical hit implant setup.
Beam Cannon
Coil Mortar
Heavy Blaster
Since manufactured Xenon Lamp and Focusing Lens use the same icon, I probably should clarify that its Focusing Lens in case of Beam Cannon or Heavy Blaster, and Xenon Lamp for everything else.
Initially I did, but over time I just noticed that in combat situations they actually ended up having low uptime. Then add all the engine inhibition, disables, and carrying a bomb slowing one down, and they turned really unreliable.
Speed is there to be at the right place at the right time. Aiming well is what kills the enemy, not circling around at max speed.
The Alpha crew, for extra sensor and weapon range. Using Charlie crew for more critical hits sure would be more powerful, but I don’t see it as a good exchange. If one wants to go that way, it will require quite different approach to the whole build and playstyle.
So, patches have happened, new weapons have been added, and old stuff has been adjusted. I guess it’s time to update the most frequently used ship builds.
My first secret ship project, Jaguar, has been in my T5 lineup ever since I built it. I quite like its ability to persistently pester opponents on more complex maps. Since I built it around the idea of evasion through frequent short cloaking and high manouverability, I’m using on/off type tackler active modules with no set active time or long cooldowns. Jaquar also has a nice buff for Target Painter effect strength, which coupled with related implant bonus adds up to quite a significant amount. That on top of Ion Emitter’s resistance reducing effect can make Jaquar surprisingly powerful, although I usually prefer Gravi Beamer for its better performance against interceptors.
Jaguar
Previous nerf to Beam Cannon range and Horizon Modules’ -5% damage already caused some trouble for my Inquisitor AE, and now with yet another hit to weapon range via Horizon Module stacking inefficiency I’ve been looking into adjusting my build for closer ranges, which then pretty much enforces me to use Reverse Thruster.
Not that this would bother me per se, but I’d rather not have the game head into a direction where every LRF must have it in order to be competitive, and the class ending up being balanced around the use of that module. If I were the one deciding these things I’d heavy handedly nerf Reverse Thruster (and EM Scattering Field) and give LRFs +20% range as a class bonus.
Inquisitor AE
Mass Driver became my preferred weapon for Crus S pretty much instantly. Previously none of the weapons had really felt optimal for it, but with Mass Driver the whole module layout just makes sense.
Crusader S
I’ve been using Shrapnel Cannon a lot more than Pulse Laser for my ECMs lately, mostly to not have to go through 100+ thermal resists everywhere, but Kris AE’s bonuses are nice too. Introduction of module stacking inefficiency did make Nodachi EW a bit less manouverable, but these changes are negligible and affect everyone else too, so I see no need to make any adjustments.
