Federal Assault Ship: Double Elite

It's hard to know what to say about this ship. With the Chieftain being slightly cheaper, and significantly more versatile, it's hard to find a place for the FAS. But taking her as her own entity... she can definitely hold her own. Although she's very... twitchy to fly.
Ship build: s.orbis.zone/a9pU
Now I need to say at the offset that the Heavy Duty Shield Booster isn't fully engineered. That's deliberate, to get the final shield figure of 1337. When fully engineered to grade 5, with the Force Block experimental, you'll get 1339. But my OCD wouldn't let me do that so... yeah, lol. If you're not as obsessive as I am, that's the engineering you want to aim for.
The weapons... yeah... I've tried several loadouts on the ship and struggle to find something I'm happy with. She has the same hardpoints as the Clipper and, I don't know, it just doesn't feel like enough. Again, compared to the Chieftain it really isn't enough. Short Range Thermal Vent Beams in the Class 2s and a Rapid Fire Scramble Spectrum Pulse (to cause hull strikes to make bits of your target decide to give up) in the lower hardpoints to take down shields, and a Short Range Corrosive Multicannon in the upper hardpoint to debuff and help take out hulls and internal modules.
It could probably benefit from a full Multicannon/Frag loadout with premium ammo synthesis, but the upper and lower hardpoints are sufficiently far apart that you find yourself having to "wobble" the ship to keep all of them firing. Especially at close range. Personally I also find the ship far too twitchy to use something fixed like Rail Guns, but that may just be down to how I fly and you may have more success with them.
In conclusion: She isn't bad, she just isn't the Chieftain. Oh, and Navy Captains can officially bite me!

[@happyshrapnel1234]

Love the FAS, can spin on a dime. Used to use it for Assassination missions, tough little blighter!

[@Kaethena]

I think I'd like it more if the Chieftain wasn't a thing. That's really my biggest issue with the ship. It was the Chief before the Chief was the Chief. It's capable in combat, for sure, but there really is no choice between the two.

[@richardswede]

oh you Beauty!! This is something to play with. FAS my long lost fav ship, having her dusted down now and sprayed with WD40 ready for me to take out today. Gonna play with the shields a bit and try squeeze in Prismatic's, and YES i know you don't often if at all have Pris shields in your builds, but i am a fan. If i lose shields, it's a quick reboot, retire for a min or two or 10 or 20 mins lol, then back in. Weps...Hmmm Jurys out on them, but like the way your lasers took out the first Vette shields, and concentrated fire on the PP soon had him meeting his maker. Thanks Kaethena, something to certainly chew on. Stay Safe.

[@Kaethena]

Thank you

[@lopelle1]

@@Kaethena why do you like the cannons?

[@Kaethena]

@@lopelle1 Because of the module damage they do. Against tougher NPC ships like those found in conflict zones, module sniping is a far more effective way to take them out than trying to wear down their hulls. :)

[@Powerhauz]

Love my FAS but I believe you're right. It has become outclassed by the alliance C-ships. I would run Shieldless, engineered the armor out like crazy, with 3 fixed frags DS/SS on the bottom and an APA LR/TLB on top. I was able to do CZ's and light PVP all in one ship. Would use ram and pin to take out the biggest ships. Everything else doesn't stand a chance. Currently moving modules into a Chieftan. Will be tough to say goodbye.

[@Kaethena]

Don't say goodbye. Think of other things do to. I hate the thought of any ship being consigned to oblivion by someone in FDev's design department. I think every ship has its place, you just have to think outside the box.

[@biskitz86913]

I love the build and I have a similar python. 4 efficient thermal vent beams and a large corrosive multicannon. If I only fire the multi when the shields are down I can last and entire high intensity no problem ammo wise. Also it doesn't need a heat sink for SCBing as its pretty much always at 1% heat and the weapons capacitor doesn't drain either meaning you can fire the lasers almost infinitely

[@Kaethena]

If I'm using a Python that's pretty much the same build I go with, too. It just makes sense :)

[@The-Man-On-The-Mountain]

Try it with all efficient plasmas. I recently built one and works pretty well.

[@vanderaj]

I would suggest two efficient thermal vent beams and two rapid fire or screening shell frag cannons. You really like being close up, which suits the rapid fire frag cannons. The reality is that frag cannons run out of ammo pretty quickly, so you may want to make the beams the smaller weapons, and the frag cannons the slightly larger weapons. Plus, you'll need to conserve ammo; wait until you've got the shields down before deploying the frags, otherwise you don't get through an entire CZ without synthing ammo

[@Kaethena]

Yeah, I've used rapid fire screening shell frags on a Vulture in a CZ. They eat ammo like it's happy hour at Burger King. My concern with Frag Cannons is that they're primarily hull destroying weapons. And CZ ships have extremely buffed hulls. Fixed Frags on the FAS would have a very large spread due to the distance between the Class 3 hardpoints. You'd struggle to hit with both of them except on very large ships which were side on to you. Gimballed might work. But relying on two efficient class 2 beams to take down shields is a big ask. Especially against Pythons and Corvettes. You'd be there a while. I don't have an issue with synthing ammo, though. I think it's silly to just let materials sit there when you can use them for something. Might be worth a shot, though, only rather than screening shell + rapid fire, maybe drag munitions and corrosive shell. Both high capacity. Interesting thought. Thank you for the suggestion. The ship definitely needs to be a bit more hard hitting.

[@rickmidkiff9990]

@@Kaethena I guess Andrew doesn’t know you very well. @andrew. Let Kaethena school you on how it’s done.

[@Kaethena]

@@rickmidkiff9990 Hahaha. To be honest, Rick, I could use more ideas for loadouts for the FAS. I've tried several and none of them really feel right for the ship. I even tried an Advanced Accelerator in the upper hardpoint and I may as well have fitted a trebuchet for how useful it was. Which surprised me greatly. I may have to revert to Cannons or Dumbfire Missiles. But I don't want all my ships to basically end up the same, lol.

[@CMDRRustyDog]

Ach! Can't believe that Elite Corvette waked out ! Grrr.

[@Kaethena]

I know, right? I swear, the only thing Navy Captains do is sit there spamming chaff and shield cells to make you waste ammo, then leg it just to add that extra layer of disappointment.

[@thomashutchinson7508]

I throw everything at those Captains and they just jump out everytime as soon as their shields are down.

[@Kaethena]

@@thomashutchinson7508 I still haven't worked out if they're on a timer, like an old school DPS check, or if they're coded to try and escape once their shields are down. I've had some of them stick around to the bitter end, but others jump out before their shields are even half depleted. I suspect they may be a timed encounter and you just need a LOT of firepower to be able to take them out. It may be down to the type of ship you're fighting, too. Type-10 captains don't tend to run, in my experience. Because they're badasses. :D Whereas Cutter and Corvette captains turn yellow as soon as you look at them, lol.

[@HailRider]

Serious question from a kinda new pilot: Do you fly with FA on or off ? If off how do you maintain control? When I have FA off its just a death wobble. I would love to be able to get forward speed and then pivot around still going the same direction before the spin. With FA you can't do that. Do you use mouse and keyboard? Paddle? flight sim stick and throttle?

[@Kaethena]

I use FA on 99% of the time. I only turn it off to help with tight turns, and then turn it back on again after. I've never had the need to fly with it off. I know plenty of people do, but it takes a while to learn how to do it. If you turn it off and then engage full forward or reverse thrust, though, you turn faster in a slow ship than you would by leaving it on. As for controls, I have a HOTAS. The Logitech X-56. Although for a long time I used an X-Box controller, lol.

[@TheNickFake]

do you pls have an anastasia build without the guardian stuff?

[@Kaethena]

For the FAS? I haven't dared. The base shields are atrocious. Without the Shield Reinforcement Packages you have literally no choice but to make it into a hull tank. Which a lot of people swear by in PvP, but for PvE it's just a giant drain on your credits through repairs. And the risk that NPCs target your most vulnerable modules. This ship doesn't work in PvE without the guardian stuff, in my opinion. I know people don't do the guardian stuff. I hate that grind, too. But if you only force yourself to get one module, get the shield reinforcement. It will transform your ships in PvE combat.

[@TheNickFake]

@@Kaethena thx that help a lot

[@thomashutchinson7508]

Stop blowing holes in my ship (Corvette pilot)

[@Kaethena]

LOL! I actually find Corvettes and Cutters some of the easiest targets to take out. Once you get their shields down, their Power Plants are very vulnerable, and their hull armour means very little. The harder ships to take out, for me, are stuff like Vipers and Cobra Mk 3s, because they're far tougher than they should be and their plants are harder to get to. Oh and Pythons, because it seems almost impossible to plant them. So it's just attrition combat.

[@mauriziopaganelli2806]

The link doesn't work...

[@Kaethena]

Looks like Coriolis is having issues with its link shortener. This happens sometimes. I'm sure it'll be back up soon but here's an alternate link in the meantime. Thanks for letting me know. :) bit.ly/2Y0k5L0

[@mauriziopaganelli2806]

@@Kaethena ty so much😆

[@DLaide627]

gimbals? cringe!!!!!

[@Kaethena]

Mhm. I personally find the ship too twitchy for fixed weapons. And I spend more time trying to aim than trying to fly.

[@Se7en20082008]

@@Kaethena If your using KB/M try dropping sensitivity a bit and pushing the deadzone up a little. I fly the fas with 2 imp short range hammers and 2 eff plasmas and only struggle to hit pesky vipers and eagles. There is NOTHING wrong with using gimbals against NPC's @atilla >_> The idea is to kill them as fast as possible, especially in a combat zone. I currently working on getting @Kaethena's type 10 variant, pure high tech slaughter :D

[@Kaethena]

@@Se7en20082008 No I use a HOTAS. I can't use KB/M. I've tried. It just feels super weird to me. It's too on/off in terms of the keys. It doesn't have the subtlety of a flight stick. I'm not super good at aiming, in some ships. They just feel very twitchy to me. Like the slightest movement makes them veer all over the place. The FAS is one such ship. I don't have that issue with other ships, like the Chieftain, for example. Not exactly sure why, maybe it's the mass characteristics. Lol, yeah the Cathedral of Destruction. :D Go for it! Type-10 Battlebeast is epic! :D

[@117HALOREACH]

@Atilla Fixed? Cringe!!!!!

[@DLaide627]

@@117HALOREACH chad 30% damage boost vs beta "plays the game for you" weapon