Category:Fighters

Fighters are ships that have been optimized for combat roles.

As with many space-combat or air-combat games, speed and evasion come with a trade-off in reduced damage-taking capacity and firepower - some items like hull reinforcements, engine engineering, weapon and shield engineering, can compensate, but in a fighter, you will still have a lower-firepower ceiling, a lower maximum, and similarly, engine engineered 'tanks' will still be relatively-slow (even when grade5 dirty-drives with drag drives experimental).

The scale of the advantages of faster TRUE fighters, is not to be underestimated when trying to escape from one in any slow ship. Similarly in terms of planning-for hunting others in PvP (instead of only considering it in terms of defending yourself), if wanting to hunt slower ships, the opposite applies - yes, only the fastest will have a chance at evasion away from you, but you could end up OVER-engineering for speed just to be able to try to make sure no one will be able to, but then fail to have reliable weapons by having chosen only light types.

Elite dangerous does punish not-noticing when technical details will combine against you if you plan poorly - exact numbers aren't always necessary to plan with, but principles & reasons, are - weapons weight and other modifications that reduce weight, mean-little for 'tanks', but it does in competitively designed light fighters. In other words, if you want to be the Ace of Aces by-speed, you better be an expert at whatever light weapons you include in your build - by comparison, more of a balance usually works, most of the time. There is little point in trying to be the best at any one thing in that sense - Elite Dangerous is not the Olympics.

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The type of ship combat (in terms of opponents) where you will find the highest degree of flexibility, is of course A.I. pilots - system authority ships, pirates/muggers, raiders, and things like mission-assassins, and the like - if you want to learn the game more slowly than being 'chucked in the deep end' with a team of maniacs who don't explain anything? :D then this is where to START. Simpler tactics work versus simpler skill/difficulty A.I.

Simple muggers/pirates at places like mining RES sites, are quite weakly armored, but carry heavy bounties on their heads - perfect for cutting your teeth on their aluminum cans! speed, good weapons, strong shields ; all are valid tactics at this level - any fighter will do.

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Against Interceptors and especially Glaves/Hunters however, even-after becoming skilled with the shutdown field generators, pilots facing them in light fighters, suffer from lightning strikes frying all their circuitry and crippling them, so combine speed with a good guardian module protector if you've got the space in optional modules - if not, learn how to anticipate lightning attacks and see what else you can do - there is no 'Jack-of-all-trades' in very light ships, in intense Thargoid combat - the best you might be able to do with that, is a counter-swarm fighter or dedicated shield-regenerator or decontamination support craft, although specifically counter-swarm designs need to be tough, so again, there are complicated COMBINATIONS and failures-from-those-combinations, to have to learn.

Do not waste your time trying to build something 'perfect' or impossibly suitable for everything - no build can do everything. Slowly make your choices after exposure,.. and-THEN invest in it, after you're more sure of your choice. Especially when it comes to engineering and Guardian/special equipment/weapons access-tasks/quests.

Many find the overall balance of the Chieftan class most suited for Interceptors / Glaves/Hunters combat, although they are significantly slower than the fastest types, if survival is your game/priority.

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After browsing through the ships, also consider that maneuverability is hindered in atmospheres - and conversely in space, that when manually turning flight-assist off during combat to turn / rise/dip quickly, that doing-so without gravity's constant influence causes it to turn faster as well as potentially spin out of control more easily. It is an additional comfort or false-sense of security that you can get used to when over-estimating your ability to fly the same way in an atmosphere as you are used-to in space! Or a delayed-disappointment, that if you get used-to an atmosphere, that you then won't be as able to make the most of the freedom of flying in space - you will be free of gravity/air, but not USED-to it like players who learned to fly in-space FIRST.

In VR learning at planets can reduce dizziness / nausea though, so no-one should criticize you for learning at planets for that reason! If you plan to play ED for a long time, then you'll have to get used to not flying around surfaces of planets all the time eventually. It might not be best to put 'all your eggs in one basket' if that's the case - do not OVER-invest in terrestrially-designed fighters. (some missions require fast landing and take off, with good shields, but such missions do not need to be done in fighters)

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Overall, there is no single 'perfect choice' for all needs or risks in that sense, so consider what kind of combat you are likely and un-likely, to regularly engage in ;

PvP or avoiding PvP?

Full-strength Combat Zones solo? or light/supporting roles in a group?

etc

Combat terrestrially, is usually against A.I. pilots generated for missions, system-authority ships, or installations' turrets. Unlike in terrestrial port combat with-Thargoids, there are no human-versus-human combat zones at terrestrial ports, so whatever you do, don't plan for that!