Talk:Fer-de-Lance/@comment-195.243.28.250-20160229120428/@comment-110.173.174.140-20161009185457
Been experimenting with different FDL builds, and heres the short answer: No.
The FDL's heat issues make 4 beams unviable. You get like 4 seconds of sustained fire before your WEP capacitors are drained, but the bigger issue is heat generation. Have fun keeping reasonable damage uptime with the massive heat generation constantly having you sit at 100-120% heat. Pulses are better, yet to try burst but its on the list.
Thus far, I find that the class 4 hardpoints positioning makes it fairly difficult to use, especially against smaller more nimble ships, you have to have the ship barely in view from the bottom of the screen, , anything above this and you'll struggle to get the hardpoint to actually fire, which is annoying but managable with class 4 lasers, but kinetics with travel time basically neccesitate tilting the ship so you can't actually SEE the enemy ship, so that the hardpoint has a decent margin of fire below the centreline of the ship. Thus far, the most effective class 4 I've found is actually the class 4 PA, as the need to manually aim it actually mitigates this placement issue for the most part. Going to try fixed class 4 cannon at some point to see if this principle transfers over. For the class 2 HP's. I've found 4 class 2 pulse lasers to be the most practical and versatile, as for smaller ships the class 2's alone will suffice and for the larger ships they allow for more damage uptime on the shields and the huge PA is sufficient for PP sniping or hull damage as you can outmaneuver them better to use it. Additonallly, the class 2 pulses have quite low distributer draw from the class 6A distributor allowing for very good sustained fire, while still leaving ample power for the odd PA shot when the oppertunity arises. But the best thing about the class 2 pulses is undoubtedly the low heat generation, allowing you to essentially ignore the FDL's main issue of heat generation, making repeated PA shots the only time when heat ever really becomes an issue.
Plans to test some other build are in the works like the aforementioned fixed cannon and gimballed huge mulitcannon but this is by far the most versatile build I've found so far. All my core internals are max class A rank and I have the biggest A rank shield I can fit on with 2 A rank Shield Boosters, and with the 4 pulses low power draw I can happily fit a 4A SCB as well, allowing for some amazing versatility and incredible durability, maneuverability AND speed while still maintaining ease of use, versatility in the range of targets you can engage reliably (quad pulses melt small ships while huge PA punishes medium and large ships for their lethargic movement) and mitigation of its main weakness of poor heat dispersal. All my spare internal slots are filled with D rank Hull Re-enforcements adding to the durability of the ship without noticably affecting speed or manueverability by virtue of the massively overpowered thrusters (even with military grade hull and all the hull re-enforcements I'm just barely over optimal hull mass for my thrusters). All in all, this build is the best I've found so far for making the most of this incredibly powerful ships strengths while simultaniously mitigating its main weaknesses.
Its an expensive ship to kit out but damn if its not worth it in the end :3
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