Shoop Da Whoop by CMDR Quickpull

After spending time languishing in a sluggish Type 10, I was craving some speed. After experimenting with a few small ships, I finally landed in a Mamba cockpit, and was pleasantly surprised. The hardpoint layout was perfectly suited to my PvE playstyle, employing a mix of fixed and gimbaled weapons. Of particular note is the size 4 hardpoint centered directly above the cockpit, making it the perfect platform for a massive fixed gun. In this case, a beam laser. You can also use a gimbaled beam laser here if you’re having issues staying on target. It does less damaged, but missing does no damage.

Primary Weapon Group:

4A Fixed Beam Laser (Long Range/Thermal Vent)

The main event, a massive freakin’ laser beam. Not only will it quickly burn through shields, the huge size 4 sports a high penetration value that makes it effective against armor as well. Exactly the kind of versatile weapon you want on hand while your other, gimbaled weapons are doing the chaff dance. With full pips in weapons, it would take over 3 minutes to drain your capacitor, and the thermal vent keeps you cool while doing it. The long range engineering makes it effective out to 6km away, but more importantly eliminates all damage falloff.

Secondary Weapon Group:

3C Gimbaled Cannon (Long Range/Oversized)
3C Gimbaled Cannon (Long Range/Dispersal Field or Oversized)
1G Gimbaled Multi-Cannon (Overcharge/Oversized)
1G Gimbaled Multi-Cannon (Overcharge/Corrosive Shell)

The kinetic complement to your Laser, Gimbaled Cannons and Multi-Cannons. Once your target’s shields are down, swoop in for the kill with these. Feel free to keep firing your laser when you have a shot, but keep an eye on your capacitor. Long Range is pretty critical for the cannons because of the boost to projectile speed. At grade 5, the cannons and the multi-cannons will have the same projectile speed, making it much easier to reliable hit with all your guns. Like the laser, the cannons sport a high penetration value, pairing this with corrosive shell on one of your multi-cannons allow you to avoid almost all damage reduction from armor hardness.

The build includes a shield cell bank, but the ship’s high speed and decent shield recharge speed mean you should rarely need to use it. Take advantage of your speed to jump in and out of combat as needed, and control the range of engagement (don’t get pulled into a knife fight with an FDL or Python Mk2, for example). You can drop one or two of the shield boosters to add any utilities you want, and the hull and module reinforcement can be swapped out if you feel comfortable keeping your shield up. On that note, you can also swap the military grade armor for lightweight for a whopping 3m/s increase to your top speed.

o7