best M combat ship ???

[martinld2000]

best M combat ship ??? and comparison.

my favorite is cobra, 3 frontal guns, super boost, and 4 turrets, low shield, good armor.

[dannyxx30]

Yeah Cobra, especially with the extra Marine capacity.

Great at taking down large ships with 4 rapid fire plasma turrets (in game mods needed) and 3 thermal disintegrators for melting surface elements and small ships. Then I have drones for missile defence - not sure if that's any good yet

[Général Grievous]

I like the peregrin for gunship purpose. It is good on AA (4 flak turrets) support, got a lot of shields. Fine fine for me, but not as a bomber purpose.

[grapedog]

I'd say the Nemesis for everything, except I'd pick the Cobra for boarding ops, personally.

[mr.WHO]

Yeah Cobra, especially with the extra Marine capacity.

Great at taking down large ships with 4 rapid fire plasma turrets (in game mods needed) and 3 thermal disintegrators for melting surface elements and small ships. Then I have drones for missile defence - not sure if that's any good yet

Thanks for info -I love Cobra design, but was struggling to find a use for it. With big crew and speed this is ideal medium boarding craft.

[KiwiNZ]

I use the Dragon for taking down ships to boarding level and then also Cobra due to high Marine capacity.

[martinld2000]

BTW, ALL THOSE STATS ABOUT ENERGY, DO THEY HAVE SOME EFFECT ON TURRETS?

[lordmuck]

Cobra imo, however, I find my self more in S ships lately

[Virtualaughing]

My vote for the Nemesis. Nice carpet. Visibility is good. You can be tactical with the turrets near to friendly forces. The five front guns are well positioned. 1 laser for the middle for precision. The rest can be hellfire style.

[grapedog]

My vote for the Nemesis. Nice carpet. Visibility is good. You can be tactical with the turrets near to friendly forces. The five front guns are well positioned. 1 laser for the middle for precision. The rest can be hellfire style.

Yep, i always use the Nemesis central weapon hardpoint for the MK2 Ion Blaster... great against shields, but you can also open lockboxes with the ion blaster.

[Imperial Good]

Dragon Raider or Cobra. Dragon Raider is best for dog fighting as 6 guns with unparalleled speed and mobility. Cobra for 3 guns and more general purpose usage as it is a frigate so a lot tougher and more flexible with second best M fight ship speed. Both with SPL Combat Engines Mk4.

For non-DLC it is the Nemesis Vanguard or Gorgon Vanguard. Nemesis has more guns. Gorgon has 2 guns is a frigate, tougher and faster. Both with PAR Combat Engines Mk3. Vanguard variant is used for better speed.

Although with DLC one can put SPL Combat Engines Mk4 on both Nemesis Vanguard and Gorgon Vanguard they are still significantly slower than split alternatives. Speed matters a lot, especially for a personal ship, so they lose out to those despite having significantly more shielding.

[grapedog]

Dragon Raider or Cobra. Dragon Raider is best for dog fighting as 6 guns with unparalleled speed and mobility. Cobra for 3 guns and more general purpose usage as it is a frigate so a lot tougher and more flexible with second best M fight ship speed. Both with SPL Combat Engines Mk4.

For non-DLC it is the Nemesis Vanguard or Gorgon Vanguard. Nemesis has more guns. Gorgon has 2 guns is a frigate, tougher and faster. Both with PAR Combat Engines Mk3. Vanguard variant is used for better speed.

Although with DLC one can put SPL Combat Engines Mk4 on both Nemesis Vanguard and Gorgon Vanguard they are still significantly slower than split alternatives. Speed matters a lot, especially for a personal ship, so they lose out to those despite having significantly more shielding.

ewww, the dragon raider dies so easily.... i enjoy the dragon raider when I'm running away, which it has to do a lot, because it's so brittle. it's made out of tin...

[Imperial Good]

ewww, the dragon raider dies so easily.... i enjoy the dragon raider when I'm running away, which it has to do a lot, because it's so brittle. it's made out of tin...

Generally the situations it struggles are the same as when every ship struggles. No M ship without range modified pulse lasers can take on a swarm of 40 Xenon S/M ships in close formation. Outside of when it is horribly out numbered it pretty much always wins. Sure a Gorgon is a ton tougher but it cannot hit you even if it tried as with a gentle tap of boost you are now behind the gorgon where your superior speed means you will remain.

If one really starts to take damage then having 2 or even 3 M shields is not more meaningful than 1. The hull is also pretty insignificant at that stage and will melt away fast.

[grapedog]

ewww, the dragon raider dies so easily.... i enjoy the dragon raider when I'm running away, which it has to do a lot, because it's so brittle. it's made out of tin...

Generally the situations it struggles are the same as when every ship struggles. No M ship without range modified pulse lasers can take on a swarm of 40 Xenon S/M ships in close formation. Outside of when it is horribly out numbered it pretty much always wins. Sure a Gorgon is a ton tougher but it cannot hit you even if it tried as with a gentle tap of boost you are now behind the gorgon where your superior speed means you will remain.

If one really starts to take damage then having 2 or even 3 M shields is not more meaningful than 1. The hull is also pretty insignificant at that stage and will melt away fast.

The dragon raider can't dogfight at all, it has to do strafing runs. Dogfighting in that ship is insta-death even from a tiny tiny group of Xenon M's, N's, or P's. The nemesis can easily dogfight, and still outrun any ship it's fighting if needed, though it's rarely needed compared to the glass cannon of the dragon raider. The nemesis vanguard, has only ~250kms less speed, but almost 10k more between shields and hull. I'll take a 250kms speed loss and one less hardpoint, for an extra 2k hull and 6k shields that regen... and the nemesis handles better, it's got better maneuverability.

Then you add in mods, 23k shields for the Nemesis with the +70% mod, where the Dragon Raider would only get up to 11k shields.... and would probably be better off doing a regen mod because the shield is so tiny, might as well try to get that little bit back quicker.

same equipment on both birds... SPL CmbtMK4 Engines, Tel MK2 Shields, CmbtMK3 Thrusters

https://i.imgur.com/Nxzfjd9.jpg

[GCU Grey Area]

Agree with martinld2000 (& others) about Cobra. It is a truly marvelous ship: very fast, moderately tanky & that 3rd weapon slot makes a huge difference. Both Dragon & particularly Dragon Raider are just far too fragile for my tastes.

Prior to Split DLC tended to favour the gunboats - Peregrine & Minotaur. Since they're physically a lot smaller than their frigate counterparts found it much easier to evade incoming fire in those inevitable moments when shields had failed & just needed to dodge around for a bit until they recharged. MUCH harder to do that with either Cerberus or Osprey.

Found the choice between Paranid M ships trickier - both options have their merits. However tend to lean more towards Gorgon - slightly faster than Nemesis & found the docking facilities on Gorgon more advantageous than the extra guns on Nemesis. There are times when having a smaller, more agile vessel readily available is definitely useful, particularly one with a distinctly different loadout to the main ship (generally carry an S miner if I'm flying a frigate).

[EGO_Aut]

@grapedog, you are thinking wrong. 250 m/s speed advantage means that the faster ship will be far away after a few seconds-out of weaponrange of a chasing enemy group. The slower ship gets shot the faster one will fly away, no matter how much more shield the slower one has. Dragon Raider is a Speedtank +1200m/s with Mods regular cruising speed!

[grapedog]

@grapedog, you are thinking wrong. 250 m/s speed advantage means that the faster ship will be far away after a few seconds-out of weaponrange of a chasing enemy group. The slower ship gets shot the faster one will fly away, no matter how much more shield the slower one has. Dragon Raider is a Speedtank +1200m/s with Mods regular cruising speed!

Sure, it's got speed, so the flaming wreckage it turns into when it gets hit by anything with more destructive power than a snowball, can remind us all of falling stars, and to make wishes... like the dragon raider not wilting under the slightest pressure.

[GCU Grey Area]

Sure, it's got speed, so the flaming wreckage it turns into when it gets hit by anything with more destructive power than a snowball, can remind us all of falling stars, and to make wishes... like the dragon raider not wilting under the slightest pressure.

Don't think I ever used my repair laser more than when I was flying a Dragon Raider, but at the time it was the only Split M warship I could buy. Sometimes felt like I was spending more time outside it making repairs than inside flying the damn thing. Must be all that soggy cardboard they used for armour. Best thing I ever did with it was use it to steal a proper Dragon (& best thing I did with that was to steal a Cobra), so does have it's uses. Wouldn't be flying the ship I do now without it.

[Karmaticdamage]

The best ship in any class is the one with the most guns. So pulsar, dragon, rattlesnake, and raptor. Each have the most guns in their class. Each out dps anything else in their class. They also fly a bit faster if you put a red skin on them.

[zakaluka]

When it comes to M ships I always go for highest total HP and hull repair+shield regen capability.

I tried buying fleets of nemesis sentinels to throw around and they just are NOT very sturdy. Very expensive when the losses start racking up. But a fleet of cobras or cerb sentinels (the extra drones make a huge difference on repair)? Very tanky.

I'm not saying so much that "m ships just die" it's more that when things eventually get bad they're definitely the first to die. Hurts quite a lot watching 5 nemesis die through a retreat. I'd rather bring 5 cobras and sacrifice a little firepower to watch them all escape instead.

I'm also totally not sold on rattlesnake being the most cost effective destroyer. They're fastest, they have the most firepower, but their low main battery range will have them taking way more damage than others.