Ascalon - Lanceor's Fer de Lance

[Lanceor]

Sounds like you've got better aim than I do! I seldom have much luck with modules nowadays.

It also seems like our playing styes are different - you seem to make the most of your railgun shots, while I tend to hose with the beam and treat the rails as an added bonus.

Anyway, I'm glad you like the build.

[evovi]

I certainly do like it! Rail use causes me to spike in temp to 150 sometimes - Pops and crackles everywhere... Costing me approx 20k when I dock up for repairs and ammo.. Pushing the limits, knowing what I can and can't do aside from the occasional belly flop into an asteroid - which I shouldn't do lol

[Roger Wilco Jr]

I'm experimenting with a Colonia build. Even with mostly C or B rated components, the fixed huge beam and dual rails make quick work of smaller ships. Much better than 4 fixed bursts and a huge gimballed MC. Trigger and pip management has kept heat from being a problem so far. Now I'll have to have a go at some medium and large ships. I'm sure a little rngineering would probably do wonders.

Now that my throttle is finally working properly and I'm getting full speed, I really notice the FDL sliding around in the asteroid belt. No worries though as I can generally keep more pips in engines.

Overall, I'm enjoying the FDL for missions and BH (I still need to confirm BH against larger ships). I have enough cargo space to get things done. I also like the cockpit view, medium pad access, and the engine sounds ain't bad either. I'd like to be able to walk around the ship and experience the luxury accommodations to justify the cost - maybe some day.

[Lanceor]

Yes, that beam and dual rails is a winning combo and it's still the core of my build.

Ascalon has been through some changes since the first post. I've replaced the multicannons with a couple of efficient gimballed beams - while it misses out on the corrosive shell special effect, dogfighting small ships is no longer a struggle. I'm thinking of engineering them into healing beams as they've proven very effective in wings.

The other change is that the rails now use sturdy mount for the heat reduction instead of increased ammo capacity. One of the rails is a super-penetrator to damage modules, but the other has feedback cascade to deal with those Cutters/Anacondas sporting neverending shield cell banks.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

...Anacondas sporting neverending shield cell banks.

Yes, this was my experience - I couldn't get their shields down before eventually loosing mine. I'm sure even an non-engineered Vulture must be having problems these days.

[Zmeya]

This thread has helped a lot. I've recently been bored with combat in my corvette being a rated and all modules/weapons G5 rolled a ridiculous number of times for god rolls. I always thought of FDLs as a novelty or quick half mill bounty in haz res. I was wrong.
I'v taken the g5 overcharged and charge enhanced pp/pd from my Clipper and my g5 dd from my asp explorer. A g5 efficient c4 beam with thermal vent and 2 g5 sturdy rails with plasma slug (until my aim gets better) along with a corrosive MC and scramble spectrum burst. I haven't had this much fun with this game in a long time. Putting 4 g5 sturdy iHammers on it tomorrow when I unlock them.