Great guide! The Mandalay is an absolute beast when kitted out for combat, and your build really makes it shine. Loved how you balanced firepower and defense-those hardpoint placements are chef’s kiss! Definitely taking some notes for my next bounty hunting spree. o7, Commander!
@ericjones7983 Some ships benefit from smaller shields and bigger banks because it gives more MJs over time. While it's the reverse for others. Kraits and FDLs have different shield and shield cell bank usage for example.
Very interesting. As you mentioned the mobility of a Chieftain, can you compare these (and maybe also Phyton mk2 as well) a bite more, please. I'm owning a Chieftain, but miss some imporant engineerings, such as the drag drives, so it feels a bit drifty, especially with flight assist off. Is it the ship, or just the missing engineering? So how do these 3 compare with mobility, speed, combat build (shield/hull/power draw) ... :)
@GDLRenoBlade I can go more in depth about all of them in a bit but for your question about driftiness that could just be your settings for your mouse or hotas. I recommend doing some research on that but also practicing with g5 thrusters is very important as well.
Okay lets go over the Python MK II, Chieftain, and Mandlay. The Python MK II is the least agile out of these ships but probably packs the biggest punch, Its flies more like an FDL and Mamba. Its agile but defiantly relies more on straight forward accelerations. The ship will stall without the boost going and can be caught out because of that and you will not be able to keep on target or get out of the way. Chieftain is a very sensitive ship on the stick. It glides across the screen and has great lats while also having pretty good acceleration but rarely stalls. The Chally is kinda the same but just less top end. The booth require very good pip management. Mandlay is like the Chieftain but cranked up to twenty, not is it as agile but it spins around and stays on target and can get back on target no matter where it is even behind you. The ship does a five slot distro but acts like a six slot because it doesn't pull that much from it with the weapons, and engines. Its really a weird enigma. All have pros and cons but I would they say all serve a purpose! I hope that answered your question, if you have anymore feel free to ask!
So the target lock will only work with PVP not NPC's. Thermal conduit you will never get the 150% heat required for it to be a useful mod. Better to just put four Efficient G5 PA's on and oversize them. Hardly anyone is using shield banks and the small rails are not much good at cancelling big ship banks. better to just put two multi-cannons on and make one of them corrosive. If you use the right power priorities you don't need to monster it, Oc5 /thermal spread is fine. I'm running a size 5 prismo with 4 boosters.
@andysherris7949 most of the time you'll be fighting medium ships in this. Also the TC can be replaced but the banks do help get hot if you do decide to use it. The build can be flexible so use what you think is necessary. :)
![Cobra MkV Combat Build [4K VR]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/M_wlUQSxY_8/mqdefault.jpg)
Great guide! The Mandalay is an absolute beast when kitted out for combat, and your build really makes it shine. Loved how you balanced firepower and defense-those hardpoint placements are chef’s kiss! Definitely taking some notes for my next bounty hunting spree. o7, Commander!
@DeepSpaceMystery I'm glad you enjoyed it o7! The ship is a marvel!
No shade, just curious what's the logic behind smaller shield generator in exchange for larger cell banks? Is that the typical meta for combat builds?
@ericjones7983 Some ships benefit from smaller shields and bigger banks because it gives more MJs over time. While it's the reverse for others. Kraits and FDLs have different shield and shield cell bank usage for example.
Very interesting.
As you mentioned the mobility of a Chieftain, can you compare these (and maybe also Phyton mk2 as well) a bite more, please.
I'm owning a Chieftain, but miss some imporant engineerings, such as the drag drives, so it feels a bit drifty, especially with flight assist off.
Is it the ship, or just the missing engineering?
So how do these 3 compare with mobility, speed, combat build (shield/hull/power draw) ... :)
@GDLRenoBlade I can go more in depth about all of them in a bit but for your question about driftiness that could just be your settings for your mouse or hotas. I recommend doing some research on that but also practicing with g5 thrusters is very important as well.
Okay lets go over the Python MK II, Chieftain, and Mandlay.
The Python MK II is the least agile out of these ships but probably packs the biggest punch, Its flies more like an FDL and Mamba. Its agile but defiantly relies more on straight forward accelerations. The ship will stall without the boost going and can be caught out because of that and you will not be able to keep on target or get out of the way.
Chieftain is a very sensitive ship on the stick. It glides across the screen and has great lats while also having pretty good acceleration but rarely stalls. The Chally is kinda the same but just less top end. The booth require very good pip management.
Mandlay is like the Chieftain but cranked up to twenty, not is it as agile but it spins around and stays on target and can get back on target no matter where it is even behind you. The ship does a five slot distro but acts like a six slot because it doesn't pull that much from it with the weapons, and engines. Its really a weird enigma.
All have pros and cons but I would they say all serve a purpose! I hope that answered your question, if you have anymore feel free to ask!
So the target lock will only work with PVP not NPC's. Thermal conduit you will never get the 150% heat required for it to be a useful mod. Better to just put four Efficient G5 PA's on and oversize them. Hardly anyone is using shield banks and the small rails are not much good at cancelling big ship banks. better to just put two multi-cannons on and make one of them corrosive. If you use the right power priorities you don't need to monster it, Oc5 /thermal spread is fine. I'm running a size 5 prismo with 4 boosters.
@andysherris7949 most of the time you'll be fighting medium ships in this. Also the TC can be replaced but the banks do help get hot if you do decide to use it. The build can be flexible so use what you think is necessary. :)