The Fer-de-Lance: Kinetic Dynamo

I don't really get on with this ship, but she's very capable. More of a medium range fighter, I've found she's better with a full Kinetic loadout, for several reasons:
Longer falloff range, meaning you can shoot and do full damage from further away.
Lower distributor draw, meaning you can fire for longer and keep pips in either SYS or ENG.
The option to boost your damage by 30% through the use of Premium ammo
A lot of people will tell you to avoid Kinetic weapons on shields, but I am going to tell you they're wrong, in my opinion. As long as the weapons are engineered for damage increase (either Overcharged or Short Range Blaster) then even with a stock shield's Kinetic resistance of 40%, you're still going to be doing more damage at medium range than laser weaponry due to the longer falloff range. Especially if you use Premium ammo. This build has the two medium Multicannons engineered with Incendiary Rounds to add some Thermal damage, making them more effective vs shields than any laser other than a Short Range Beam at very close range. Combined with Corrosive Shell on the slow firing, ammo efficient Class 4 Multicannon, you have a combination that's effective against both shields and hull.
The Cannons do a lot of damage for a Class 2 weapon, even against Shields. Hit your target in the right place and they can kiss bye bye to their Power Plant in short order. You could go with Gimballed (they are more accurate when it comes to module sniping), but I tend to use Fixed for the increased damage and ammo capacity, as well as the larger clip size and shorter reload time.
Lastly, the reason I use two Class 2 Cannons rather than a big Class 4 at the bottom is purely down to shot speed and hardpoint placement. I've found it's better to have your slowest moving weapons on the top of the ship, with the faster moving/laser weapons on the bottom. Because then you don't have to shimmy the ship round to line up on the targeting reticles. They all line up more naturally with less distance to track. With a Class 4 on the FDL, you have to pitch the nose up quite a bit in order to line up on your target, making it very hard to see where you're actually firing.
The rest is a pretty standard defensive setup. Going with Lightweight bulkheads to keep the weight down.
Ship build: s.orbis.zone/cht1

[@BigJeec]

ummm bullets! I love a good kinetic build and you made the cannons quite effective on this. LOve the sound of them. Good job cmndr!

[@BannorPhil]

After just over 3000 hours in the game, I think it's time for me to get a little more serious about combat. I've been practicing with my FDL - and I'm beginning to understand how to fly it, and starting to appreciate how good a ship it is for combat.

[@Kaethena]

She is a very capable ship. There's a reason so many people swear by her. Personally she doesn't suit my flying style because I prefer dogfighting and getting basically inside your target's thruster mountings. The FDL, I've always found, is best used as a medium, or even long range strike fighter. At very short range she just doesn't have the agility of, say, the Chieftain. But if you make a build that suits the way you fly, then you can do a lot worse than this ship. :)

[@BannorPhil]

@@Kaethena That's strange - because I tend to use mine to get really 'up close & personal'; it's where I feel most comfortable when I'm fighting another ship. But it's the only combat ship I've really given any serious time to. I'll test out the Chieftan one day.

[@Kaethena]

@@BannorPhil See that's cool. Different people fly different ships differently and that's really why there are no bad ships in the game.

[@gislasson]

hi cmdr i salute you from venezuela a long time whitout speak with you i am travelling a lot and doing labors of rank and credit grinding so now i am start to exploring first with guardian tech on the recent fight on cornsar when to the synuefe sector and this guardian secret there in your opinnion how god can perform an fdl against thargoids thanks in advance

[@Kaethena]

Some people can make it work. But you have to be an extremely adept pilot to take an FDL up against Thargoids, in my opinion. Reason being that the ship is primarily a shield tank. And Thargoid weaponry is adept at bypassing shields to damage your hull directly. Not to mention the ship isn't the most heat efficient ship in the shipyard, unless you go out of your way to build it to be. She is very fast, though. And fairly agile. If you can get used to the whole "cold running" strategem that some pilots have, then maybe you could build a ship which would work. For me personally, however, I could never get that to work for me. So in my opinion, I think the ship "can" be made to take out Thargoids, I just have never been able to do it. And I would feel a bit too vulnerable in it. But that's just me. You can make most ships do most things in this game.

[@gislasson]

@@Kaethena acknowlegde cmdr i run from thargoids i meet only 1 time those and damage very heavily mi asp whitout engienering of course i was on a trade mission and jump to a system in wich a salvage ship was been attacked by those they got me pretty god of course i try to run the hell out of there because normal kinetic or laser weapons do even a litlle tingle on the thargs i am also not the best fitted fighting pilot ever but it would take time to get there! even with the corvette in my opinnion its very very hard to get those guys out you got the firepower but have to ingenierize the power plant to avoid overheating issues and thrusters to perform at his peak but the ship is too big and his shape makes a big target i watch some videos of commanders with a vulture and the new type 2 gauss cannon that are the prize to help salvation mission at cornsar last week and its very impressive the way the weapon work use to its an honor cmdr talk to you

[@superdahoho]

does it even matter to target power plant at this point? it seems like they don't do anything even if u destroy them

[@Kaethena]

In my opinion yeah it does. If you put enough damage into a ship's power plant, it will go boom. Some ships are more vulnerable to it than others, though. The Vulture, Clipper, Cutter, Corvette and Anaconda spring to mind immediately. Other ships have their power plants in a much harder to hit place, like the FDS, FAS and FGS. But if you CAN hit them, especially with weapons that have a high hull breach chance, like Cannons, then you can take ships out in only a few hits once the shields go down.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

When the target’s PP hits 0% any additional shot at it has a chance to instantly blow the enemy ship up regardless of remaining hull/shield. So yes, always worth it. Always.

[@InsolentMind3981]

nice build! o7

[@Kaethena]

Thank you!

[@gislasson]

hi from venezuela i dont have this ship looks cool but i am awful in combat anyway even an ace pilot like you could kick my ass easily with a sidewinder the only thing i dont like about the fer de lance is the vision from the cockpit from the point of desing this ship its logic for a fighter kind a type of machine but the technical department of frontier make a mistake with the cockpit placement on this one

[@Kaethena]

Yeah I agree with you, I'm not a fan of the cockpit on the ship either. That pillar gets in the way far too often.

[@gislasson]

@@Kaethena thank you commander its an honor i got several questions to make to you 1 for example is what kind a weapon is the cytoscrambler on your eagle carnage video by the way i only have the game for 1 month and i love it meaning that i am to green or rookie pilot i play on ps4 from the colors that you use on the videos of your ships you play on pc because the color scheme on ps4 in the orange one by the way a lot of experience fliying to keep behind the tail of a vulture i am in the process to gain imperial rank obviously a several killing missions on the making but i am flying an asp explorer commander snakier5114 at your service commander kaethena

[@Kaethena]

@@gislasson The Cytoscrambler is a special kind of Burst Laser you can get through Powerplay. By going into Galactic Powers in your right panel and aligning with Archon Delaine. After 4 weeks, if you have rating 3, you'll have access to them for as long as you stay aligned with that rating. So just buy a lot of them and store them in your module storage. It's designed to do a ton of damage to shields, but almost no damage to hulls. There is a way around that, but for the Eagle, I engineered it to do as much damage to shields as possible, at very close range. Since it's only a Small Class 1 weapon, it needed to hit hard. We were all rookies at one point. I remember fondly being where you are now. You have a long and awesome journey ahead of you. You'll get there. Fly safe, Commander. Or if you can't fly safe, have lots of firepower. :D

[@gislasson]

@@Kaethena indded commander i am a long way to go into the future with your videos and explanations i will have some wisdom thank you

[@molecule8611]

@@gislasson hey, I have a ps4. Maybe we could wing up and hang out. Im experienced with somethings like combat, exploration mining, and others. I can give you a credit boost.

[@3rdcain356]

I see a FDL, and kinda of want to buy a Chieftain. Then again i like to use Shields for defence - and i have no Guardian stuff unlocked yet. Why im like that? Btw nothing wrong with the FDL, for some reason my Sqadron leaders decided to make me a flightinstructor and i get asked about the FDL a lot. My answer usualy is : its the one of the best, if not THE best Fightingship of its size - if you know the f@q you are doing

[@Kaethena]

Yeah it's okay. Definitely capable. Doesn't quite have enough firepower for my tastes. Compared to the medium Alliance ships, anyway. But the FDL isn't bad by any means. :)

[@BeanGTR]

I'll have to watch out for you - you are fighting on the wrong side ;)

[@Kaethena]

Lol I'm fighting on both sides. True merc.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

Typical. Just as you spend resources to rearm one last time the CZ is won. 😂

[@Kaethena]

I am really bad for doing that, lol.