How to effectively destroy a K?

[Hazduhr]

I read already that you can go toe-to-toe with them with a medium-sized warship. But which one? Flying a Split Dragon at the moment, but that takes a lot of reloading as it is that fragile that it sometimes never reaches the safe spot. Do I need to improve my flying or do I need another ship?

(Please refrain from arguing about how strong or weak the Xenon have become, you have that other thread for that. I just want a ship with which I can take it down and keep the Xenon from overrunning Hatikvah's Choice I)

[Scutum]

Generally it's always best to improve both) Try to pick out L turrets from afar ( so that you can easily strafe out of fire ), than go for engines. If M turrets are damaging, try better shields. modifications can also make your life much easier. I usually use modded nemesis in midgame. Less mass, more maneuverability and shields.
Or go faster than L turrets can follow and circle around them up close. Again shields against M turrets, maneuverability.

[Вуф]

Just pick nemesis Sentinel with plasma turrets and plasmas Mk2. Bite its escord and draw it from K near to your or allied fleet. Then approach it from the top-back direction at cruise speed and exit cruise above its enormus uncovered back(its totally safe to lay directly on top of it). Then kill its engines(this will take some time). Then descend right to its back and destroy 2x small pulse turets, then swich to the left(or right) side of the ship. Destroy first small turret with 2 or 3 plasma blobs(you can always recover shields at the back of it). Then proceed to big graviton turrets on its belly. don`t use aim assist but aim by dots and try to be out of aim range. When these turrets are destroyed destroy all the shields underneath the ship. Now the most dificult part of the destruction - gravitons on the sides. lower gravitons are easily destroyed from bottom, and upper gravitons will be easier to destroy their shielding at the top of the ship(right above them on flat node), If you magaged to do this - proceed to front turrets, they are pretty easy to destroy. Now the K should be helpless and eventually, sector security will get rid of it. If executred properly, your hull sill be undamaged. Other option is to have dragon with 4 torps and 2 plasmas. First step is pretty same then use heavy torps to kill shields and then you can finish it by biting its back. The afk option is to have aircraft carrier with teladi shields and a few rattlesnakes.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Hazduhr:

I just want a ship with which I can take it down and keep the Xenon from overrunning Hatikvah's Choice I)

Previous answers have described how to do this by yourself using your own piloting skills and weapon etc selection for your ship of choice.

The other approach to consider for blocking off the Hatikvah gate (and indeed any other Xenon gate) is to set up a defence station there. This is a permanent and extremely effective solution. My defence platforms have five defence disks armed with L plasma and M flack turrets and I usually put a fleet about 20 fighters and a few Ms to support it and provide continuous pilot combat training.

I am very lazy and a useless pilot so this is by far my personal solution of choice.

[Jel]

Nemesis - approach a K from above and take the spot as a safe spot. Start taking parts out from its back, only two light turrets there. From there work forward.
When you can afford later, buy Behemoth with Plasma turrets and take out a K with the Behemoth main guns from 10KM distance or 9km (plasma turrets) as the K´s larger turrets only have 6,5km range. Plenty of safe space.

Works perfectly until you encounter your first I - Class. I´m still biting on them with vanilla ships.

[Johnsonn]

If you go with a corvette, I don´t recommend Plasma as main weaponry (turrets are great though), those just scale badly in numbers. Better go with Shards, Taus, Muon chargers or Thermal Desintergrators. Those will have higher dps in the long run.

Soloing K´s and I´s definitely needs some practice as you can´t just kill them in their blind spots.
If you don´t want to solo them you can rely on strike craft. 20 Plasma bombers (I´m using Balaurs) will solo a K without losses IS. Obviously having a carrier greatly helps with micromanagement and sustainability.

[Hazduhr]

Okay, thank you very much everyone.

[Вуф]

Originally posted by Johnsonn:

If you go with a corvette, I don´t recommend Plasma as main weaponry (turrets are great though), those just scale badly in numbers.

Dude, just dont assign them all in one group. Spread them 5 2 2 1 or 6 2 2 2. They are cheap and have good DPS.

[Oddible]

A Dragon with Taus is so fun. Not ideal for taking out a K though. I usually prefer something with a bit longer range. So yeah if I'm hitting a K I use plasma, unless you want it to take a week.

When you get your first destroyer Ks are a breeze. An Odysseus can peck away at they're modules from a distance. Hit the engines first to make it easy. A rattlesnake can literally just fly directly at a K face rolling the space key then wipe your drool from the keyboard and fly away from its burning hulk.

[Hatchero]

I kill them the same way as i did in rebirth, get under them close and take out the under turrs then knock out shield gens, engines ect till they are helpless, of course having plasma turrs helps and you can kill them from blind spot on back/top. Interesting to see gamers using different tactics to solve the same problem.

[SirProsik]

I take out K's in a dragon/dragon raider, nemesis also works too, with All 6 front guns as thermal disintegrator's. I personally have ARG Flak turrets for fighters, but mainly personal preference I think. While this might seem low damage there is a damage over time with each hit that adds up. I can solo a K with this setup although it takes a little time, have not timed it though.

"Crawl" = stay low on the ship and inside of its momentum field so as to not need to use the throttle. I use WASD to move around mostly on the ships exterior.

Fly onto its back "crawl" and kill each engine. Then both turrets on the sides with the shields: "crawl" on its back/sides to the rear and blow away the rear guns and shield. From there I go to the graviton guns between the engines in the underside if you will and get both guns and shields. From there both gravitons on each side middle and front carefully 'crawling' along the surface in the ship. Then I destroy the front guns and shield. Sometimes I will then destroy the smaller shields on each side or go for the XL shield generators. Destroying those is pretty easy with the disintegrators not so much with any other weapons since the regeneration is very fast.
After that spending time just attacking the hull with disintegrators does the job.
Note I do not use sata. While the guns are down if my ships hull is damaged I 'crawl' the ship between the engines and get in my space suit and repair it relatively safely.

I destroy the front and rear guns mainly just in case the locals decide to help they can without getting shot at.

NOTE: This only works is there is no fighter escort. Have to take care of those pests first if any. Most of the time I find waiting til the K is attacking a station is a great time since the station defenses will help with fighters too.