F8C Lightning vs. Ares Ion - Which Is A Better Sniper Ship? | Star Citizen Science & Fun 4k

[@snowmind]

This is almost like playing an RPG game, with a ranged class. Back strafe at safe distance, fire... back strafe, fire... rinse and repeat! Next up, check them loot boxes... erm... cargo containers ;-)

[@bretheweb]

Absolutely reminded me of when I played Hunter main in WOW. I got so good at running backwards it wasn't even funny.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

lol

[@MadManxJDF]

I had this argument with a buddy. I stand by the fact an f8c can be equiped to do any job an ion can better. More sniper build like this. More damage go full scatter guns and you do way more damage against big ships. The ion is awful atm. I own both the ion and f8c btw so have played both.

[@MadManxJDF]

Also forgot to add the alpha is ok on thr ion but the rof is so low that the overall damage is way lower than this build. Can go full energy and still do more than the ion over the 3 seconds between ion shots.

[@IrisCorven]

The Ion in 3.22 was an absolute beast against large ships - like it should be. All they needed to do was slow the projectile speed to make it less effective against smaller ships/harder to acquire target. But nah, lets go ahead and nerf it into near uselessness.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

totally agree with you

[@Wortho27]

If only we could put a strife on a pulse... that would be the ultimate sniper ship 😂

[@brockoala2994]

Except it doesn't have the ammo to do any meaningful damage on bigger ships.

[@HIGHL4NDER]

he means 4,200 alpha, not 42,000 :-)

[@CallMeTeach2]

Yeah when they were making the hornets, they forgot one model. The f7c thunder. Younger cousin of the lightning.

[@juliomontega2868]

And even that is technically lower, due to armor and shield dmg reduction, right?

[@BigJohnno66]

The Ion should really have a much longer range. The whole idea of the ship was to snipe large ships while remaining outside the range of turrets, forcing the large ship to send fighters to intercept. However it got nerfed into the ground, and now the addition of a charging mechanism without compensation in range or alpha damage is yet another large nerf for the Ion. Every time I give the ship a go, I am disappointed and regret taking it out. It is very disappointing to see how another ship with a simple weapon change can be more effective at the role the Ion was specifically made for.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

yeah, it is a double nerf indeed.

[@Jarvis_aka_UgunnH8This]

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve side eyed my ion while holding my melt hammer! I fell in love with the Ares twins and what they are supposed to be and that Hopium has kept me from melting it thus far. I still fly the inferno often though in ERT missions

[@vaulk8949]

The ion is the ONLY ship I've ever bought that I regretted buying. Still waiting for the day when I can trade it for the Inferno...but I secretly hope that the size 7 laser cannon will become good one day.

[@zerentheunskilled]

If you put 4x Sledge II and 4x Sledge III, you can get an alpha damage of 6600 from the F8C, which is 600 more than the Ion and will punch through shields. The only drawback is their short range of 1500 meters and their somewhat low ammo count of 70 rounds per weapon.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

yep correct, so this build is for a sniper style sacrifice some alpha

[@zerentheunskilled]

@@cpt_foxyloxy I know, I was just lamenting how bad my poor Ion is compared to what the F8C is capable of.

[@Blackhole_T618]

Deadbolts are the best choice currently as they have the same alpha damage as strife/sledge but way higher dps and ammo

[@Fromega001]

Nice, but wht ship to use for sniper shot with INGAME money? because the price of pledge ship are just more than 10X to big.

[@jsomiller44]

I think this says more about the state of the damage model than it does about either of these ships.

[@casoblantly]

Dude do this, but throw Singe 3 cannons on the s3 mounts

[@norske_ow3440]

I want to try this with my ghost now 😂

[@Praetoreon]

Let us know how that goes.

[@norske_ow3440]

@@Praetoreon 5 minutes after I made the comment, I found out the radar cross section in the ghost is actually much larger than the other versions because of a bug. So maybe next patch

[@Chili-Lochnagar]

Waiting for the inevitable nerf stick for those strifes. That said it is still very clunky firing these things reliably and accuratly at full charge.

[@greygamer6220]

o7 More quality content!

[@karl___marx]

Is it just me or do I feel his pip is way larger than the one I have in-game.

[@404-Err0r]

Ion is not a capital ship killer.... it's capital ship scratcher. It can't hit small ships and it can't kill big ships.... it's $250 USD to pledge... hey you wanna buy one?

[@suboptimal4539]

Shhhh!!!

[@vaulk8949]

You used more than 60% of your total ammo pool to take down a prospector...how is this a good build? At this rate you'll be going back to re-arm before every fight with more than one ship.

[@BenitKolburn]

o7

[@Praetoreon]

The ion is trash. Even my old favorite, the inferno, feels like it got a stealth nerf with master modes.

[@brockoala2994]

Lol the struggle... Poor F8 is so useless. Classic CIG, after they are done robbing our money, they just nerf whatever they sold to absolute trash.

[@NozomuYume]

The F8C's use is to make newer players feel powerful with massive burst damage, and it's pretty effective for a deep pocketed new player to dunk on NPCs and other new players. For more experienced players it's still somewhat useful for weird builds that have better TTK against NPCs like with the new scatterguns if you need to do farming.

[@DigiBentoBox]

Lol would you want the alternative? Everyone flying an F8C because it’s the meta and so broken? Nerfs are necessary otherwise we’d see the same three ships everywhere (ie; the F7A II). The F8 is a damage beast, and will fly a lot better once ship tunings come into play. It sadly may become the new meta and it’ll be all we see in the verse.

[@brockoala2994]

@@DigiBentoBox I want CIG to keep their damn promises. They said the Super Hornet would be the best fighter when they wanted to sell it, now look at how it got shat on and rarely used if at all. They threw even bigger promises on the F8, now it has become a "newbie ship", because it's only flew by newbies and low skilled players.