PVE combat slow killing

[Jin]

What am I dong wrong, why is every 1v1 between me and NPC takes 10-15 mins to finish? Whats worse is sometimes they just ran away in middle of the fight...

I started this game about 2 weeks ago, spending most of my time doing mission/exploring to make credits. Last night, I spent 20m+ to outfit a A rated Vulture base on some online guides. The ship was pretty good. The turn rate was awesome I could stay on target 90% of time, tho sometimes I felt its a bit slow to catch Eagle/Cobra.

But the problem is, despite having enemy target on my screen, the damage I do was soooo pitful. I use 3L brust laser/multi-cannon gimballed and each shot does less than 1% of enemy hull damage. Basically me and the NPC were just circling around and around, slowly chipping each other's shield/hull for 10 minutes. It was really tedious.

I know I could improve my damage by getting engineer, or prehap learn FA off to have even better control on my flying. But the opponent I fought was only "competent" rank. If was already taking this long to fight 1 battle, whats going to happen when I have to face an "elite" later?

Any suggestion to help me kill faster or flight better?

[Agony_Aunt]

Who were your targets? Where were you fighting?

Were they high ranked? Were they mission targets?

Cut your teeth on simpler targets first, in RES or nav beacons. Once you get the hang of getting kills like that, then take a look at mission targets. If you are taking high rank missions, enemies can be quite strong.

Also, once you get shields down, consider targetting their PP and keep hitting it even after it hits 0%, eventually it will go boom.

[Toastie Buns]

Damage falloff, my dude. Get closer.

[Reggit]

These guys nailed it really.

Go to a RES.
Pick smaller targets.
Engineer your weapons.
Get up close.

Take it from there, and scale up o7

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Toastie Buns:

Damage falloff, my dude. Get closer.

This^. Close as in "500-600m away" close. After that range normal lasers begin to lose the damage output. Multicannons lose it farther out, but they are not as effective against shields as they are against hull.

[Toastie Buns]

Fun fact: Cannons don't have this problem

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Toastie Buns:

Fun fact: Cannons don't have this problem

Also shred modules nicely. Downside, suck against shields.

[Sir Laffsalot]

Meh, I'm glad that fighting takes a bit of time. I hate games where combat is over in like seconds. I think one hit kills are quite gratifying and awesome, but tend to leave me wanting.

But then again, that may be too long if fighting just one or two ships....

[Jin]

WOW, I took you guys advice to stay as close as possible, what a difference!!!

I engage right behind enemy after KWS scan, I literally took 40-50% enemy hull before the fight even start. Then there's 30 sec of watching NPC struggling to escape, and the ultimately painful death.

I was doing all wrong engaging from far away, no wonder I thought Vulture was too slow to catch some ships. Thx guys!


Are there any utilities outside of combat worth bring for BH? For example, cargo to pick up loot etc?

[Toastie Buns]

You'll want a larger ship (readas: medium or higher) for collecting materials in a combat zone, unless you're a fan of scooping things up. Limpet collectors turn it into a fun game of 'protect the limpet' if you're in a CZ, I actually enjoyed the minigame! In a REZ it's not hard though, you typically choose your engagements anyway.

The cargo is never worth collecting. Mats are though.

[Mr Robert House]

Originally posted by Invoky:

WOW, I took you guys advice to stay as close as possible, what a difference!!!

I engage right behind enemy after KWS scan, I literally took 40-50% enemy hull before the fight even start. Then there's 30 sec of watching NPC struggling to escape, and the ultimately painful death.

I was doing all wrong engaging from far away, no wonder I thought Vulture was too slow to catch some ships. Thx guys!


Are there any utilities outside of combat worth bring for BH? For example, cargo to pick up loot etc?

I'm my medium and large combat ships I have 32-64 cargo space and a class 5 collector limpet for collecting engineering resources, and if you have the limpets and internal space a repair limpet doesn't hurt. In small ships you don't really have space for that so I just go maximum hull and module strength.

And stealing the cargo enemies drop isn't worth it, it will just get you fined.

[Stelar Seven]

The only thing missing from the above is to confirm that engineering is very worth the results you get.

Also if you want to spend a little money voice attack is absurdly handy. Especially if you add a voice pack. I have key phrases so when I want an internal component targeted I don't have to push any buttons or watch the window.

Finally, night vision makes all your enemies easy to see.

[Bexx]

Even if you don't have space for limpet controller but the patience to collect the materials (not the cargo canisters) by normal scooping you should do it. Materials don't need cargo space. You can collect like up to 200 of every existing material. It will come in handy when you start with engineers to have some materials already.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Bexx:

You can collect like up to 200 of every existing material.

From 100 to 300, depending on the grade of the material.