Best non-IBL weapons for M7s

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Falcrack
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Best non-IBL weapons for M7s

Post by Falcrack » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 22:53

I'm trying to decide upon what new M7 to get, and how to outfit it afterwards. I've been quite happy with my Thresher armed with PPCs and Ion cannons, but wanted to try something else, but am not sure what the best weapons loadout would be. I am not on friendly terms at all with the pirates, and thus don't think my chances of obtaining sufficient quatities of IBLs are very high. So what heavy, non-IBL weapons are the best in your opinion?

Also, is there a good way to get a hold of a large number of IBLs even with a very poor pirate rating? I don't want to try to get a good pirate rating by sabotaging my rating with one of the other races.

kurush
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Post by kurush » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 22:57

Without IBL all M7 except Trasher are not that great. They can be used as FLAK platforms. Good source of IBLs is ship capture, yaki or even some race ships sometimes yield them. Corvette-class weapons such as CIGs, IPC (or was it IPG?) and the one from Split are OK but they would make your M7 underpowered against any capital ship.
Please note that you don't need Pirate rating for IBL. All you need is Yaki rating and you can get it by not attacking them and just doing a couple of missions for them (i.e. station builds, taxi, ware delivery).
If you already screwed up your Yaki reputation by participating in a patrol against them or killing some of the ships, you might be able to fix it by taking fight missions only from them and that would require killing some race ships. Fortunately, the missions you get from Yaki fighters in the race sectors only require you to shot a couple of TS and you can actually just ram them to death with a minimal loss of race reputation.
EDIT: I definitely forgot about Shrike. It can be useful without IBL.
Last edited by kurush on Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:09, edited 1 time in total.

deca.death
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Post by deca.death » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:07

.

I'm afraid alternative to IBL just doesn't exist. Let me quote myself:


IBL has really no alternative on Shirke or ony any M7. It's superior range and extremely high damage per invested energy ratio makes it unavoidable part of anti capital Shirke loadout. Basically you should take as much of these weapons as your energy could bare. IPGs and ISRs are corvette grade weapons. IBL is nerfed PPC. There is two tiers difference between those two weapon types. Check for their stats. They suck up energy almost equally 475/476/478 per sec. but their shield / hull damage is 10-13 k /0.5-3.7k while IBL hits for 46 k / 8k (!!) and has 5.14 km (vs 3.3-3.8) range. Numbers speak for themselves really but field testing just confirms them.


Shirke is my recommendation for your M7. It's a powerful, but more importantly, very versatile ship + mini carrier. You may want to read about shirke but general M6-M7 grade weapons here: Shirke weapon loadout test, you only need 4 IBLs for him.


How to get those, with boarding CW/Yaki ships, large quantities with little luck, hacking loomankstarat pirate station and keeping it supplied, you could put EqD ond set price of IBL very high - it works too.

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Post by kurush » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:11

you could put EqD ond set price of IBL very high - it works too.
Now, where would they bring them from? Yaki space is locked for all AI traders, so that leaves the Pirate station and I think it usually gets destroyed. Although, on the recent patch I noticed that pirate stations survive much longer than before. At least the ones available at the game start, the ones I build still get destroyed. Befriending Yaki is really the easiest way to get them.

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Post by greypanther » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:12

What about Gaus cannons on th Shrike Deca.death?

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Post by Painman » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:21

IBL forge in Loomanckstrat's doesn't appear to get blown to bits like it used to... it still exists in my game. I've not had need for lots and lots of IBLs, but the 10 or so I've bought all came from there after a bit of care and feeding (and initial hacking).
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Post by deca.death » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:24

greypanther wrote:What about Gaus cannons on th Shrike Deca.death?


Read the link about Shrike loadout I provided.

In short: Shrike with GC is good, with GC+IBLs is better. Twice ; )

Shrike is one of rare M7 (other would be tresher) which could be effectively used without IBLs. Their lack doesn't hurt as much, but if you are able acquiring them - even better.

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Post by deca.death » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:28

kurush wrote: Now, where would they bring them from?
From the same sources as player. I have several EqDs in Elysium and I put IBLs on list, just for fun. And it worked. BTW my pirate forges are live and well.
kurush wrote: Yaki space is locked for all AI traders
I built several stations in yaki space (pirate ones, "I" prefix) and my own complex +traders feeding my friends the yaki and believe it or not I often see NPC traders there. If they live to talk about it I can't guarantee.

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Post by Falcrack » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:50

Yeah, I got mad at the pirates one day for killing one too many of my UTs, and took revenge by going to Loomankstrats and leveling the entire sector, including their IBL forge :x

So, not gonna get any IBLs that way...

Maybe I'll just get another Thresher. They just don't work nearly as well when I'm not piloting them though :(

Yes, the numbers don't lie. IBL is almost on par with PPCs, and except for maybe Ion cannons when it comes to shields, no other (energy based) weapon comes close.

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Post by MarvinTheMartian » Tue, 7. Jun 11, 23:55

kurush wrote:
you could put EqD ond set price of IBL very high - it works too.
Now, where would they bring them from?...
CAGs work wonders, I'm using them to stockpile weapons at the Hub, even my UTs will deliver the occasional goodies.

I was planning to build in Weavers Tempest to feed the IBL fabs there but then I capped 3 M7s and scored 24 IBLs! No way they'd get produced in those numbers in a reasonable time.

My recommendation, buy an M7M then any other M7 is yours for the taking :twisted:
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kurush
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Post by kurush » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 00:06

CAGs work wonders, I'm using them to stockpile weapons at the Hub, even my UTs will deliver the occasional goodies.
They probably won't be able to purchase something you don't have enough reputation to purchase though. Otherwise, they work great.

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Post by Triaxx2 » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 01:19

Actually, if the IBL forge in Loo's has been rebuilt, and has IBL's there, you can A) hack it so you can dock and buy them. B) drop in and hammer it to scrap and it might drop some for you to pick up.

Alternately drop a few sats in Ocracoke's Storm, and roam the verse stomping Pirate Stations until one spawns in Ocracoke's. Yaki hate pirates, so you can sit there and kill pirate fighters for days until the Yaki like you. :D Then you can buy IBL's from them.
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Post by kurush » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 01:27

I built several stations in yaki space (pirate ones, "I" prefix) and my own complex +traders feeding my friends the yaki and believe it or not I often see NPC traders there. If they live to talk about it I can't guarantee.
I think it is because these stations belong to pirates. Yaki stations just deny docking rights to anybody with a possible exception of the player (depends on rep).

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Re: Best non-IBL weapons for M7s

Post by twilight_echoes » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 02:54

Falcrack wrote:I'm trying to decide upon what new M7 to get, and how to outfit it afterwards. I've been quite happy with my Thresher armed with PPCs and Ion cannons, but wanted to try something else, but am not sure what the best weapons loadout would be. I am not on friendly terms at all with the pirates, and thus don't think my chances of obtaining sufficient quatities of IBLs are very high. So what heavy, non-IBL weapons are the best in your opinion?

Also, is there a good way to get a hold of a large number of IBLs even with a very poor pirate rating? I don't want to try to get a good pirate rating by sabotaging my rating with one of the other races.
Finding IBLs really isn't a worry, as every commonwealth M2 can, and usually does, carry a large number of them. They seem to survive boarding operations remarkably well. Not at all unusual to grab 32 IBLs from a single operation. If you're so inclined, save on deck 5 and reload until you get a good pop.

I agree with deca that there really isn't a good susbtitute for IBLs on M7s; however, if your fight rank is low enough that the worst you come across are a few M6s - this needn't worry you yet.

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Flozem
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Post by Flozem » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 06:48

Deimos: phased shockwave generator
Other M7: Flak arrays / Cluster Flak Arrays
Select few: Gauss Cannons / Ion Cannons / PALC

M6 grade weapons like CIG / IBG to get at least some continous decent damage output.

As stated, it's rather easy to get IBL's though...

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Post by Progress-M » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 06:49

deca.death wrote:Let me quote myself:
Oh man, I love this guy :D

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Post by Jawms » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 07:15

The Phased Shockwave Generator is alot like the PBG.. In the way that it does insane amounts of damage IS, but it almost useless OOS.. The PSG can do comparable damage to IBL's, but lacks the massive reach.

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Post by brattbags01 » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 09:16

deca.death wrote:.

I'm afraid alternative to IBL just doesn't exist. Let me quote myself:


IBL has really no alternative on Shirke or ony any M7. It's superior range and extremely high damage per invested energy ratio makes it unavoidable part of anti capital Shirke loadout. Basically you should take as much of these weapons as your energy could bare. IPGs and ISRs are corvette grade weapons. IBL is nerfed PPC. There is two tiers difference between those two weapon types. Check for their stats. They suck up energy almost equally 475/476/478 per sec. but their shield / hull damage is 10-13 k /0.5-3.7k while IBL hits for 46 k / 8k (!!) and has 5.14 km (vs 3.3-3.8) range. Numbers speak for themselves really but field testing just confirms them.


Shirke is my recommendation for your M7. It's a powerful, but more importantly, very versatile ship + mini carrier. You may want to read about shirke but general M6-M7 grade weapons here: Shirke weapon loadout test, you only need 4 IBLs for him.


How to get those, with boarding CW/Yaki ships, large quantities with little luck, hacking loomankstarat pirate station and keeping it supplied, you could put EqD ond set price of IBL very high - it works too.
Pah ! nonsense, the Shrike is slow and ugly and the cockpit view really sucks. The Tiger is a far superior M7, faster, can fire its IBL's for longer without running out of energy and just to cap it all off it looks waaaay cooler than a shrike AND the cockpit view is much better, if you really must have fighters on board then get a Panther, as the Tiger above with two less IBL in the mains but extra turrets all round AND can carry 32 Fighters !
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Post by garv222 » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 09:50

PSG may actually do more damage then IBL if the ship can only mount a few. I remember the first time I used 2 PSG on my own stations. A short burst of PSG fire did the equivalent of a one or two charged IBL shots from a 4 gun turret.
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Post by Hubert99 » Wed, 8. Jun 11, 10:55

MarvinTheMartian wrote: I was planning to build in Weavers Tempest to feed the IBL fabs there but then I capped 3 M7s and scored 24 IBLs! No way they'd get produced in those numbers in a reasonable time.
2x8IBL everyday. That is not too bad.
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