Best loadout

[sovereign]

Depends on your fighting style, I'd say.

If you rely on getting making every SNAC do the maximum it can do- and are good at it- you'll want full shieldbusters (whichever is more efficient, most likely the Tizona- although that choice depends on who you fly with as much as anything and I don't know the numbers well enough to help you there) to take off snubship shields and SNAC-snipe the agile buggers to death. For larger ships you can pound their shields off with your SNAC, and if they come up before you clear another shot then blast them with your shieldbusters (Tizonas are going to help more with GBs, Coladas with cruisers... if I remember right). After the shield is back down, pump an SN into them. Lather, rinse, repeat.

If, however, you can't snipe fighters or bombers with your SNAC (few can often enough to use just shieldbusters) and have issues hitting BH GSs and Tridente's reliably with them once you have the shields down, then you're going to want hullbusters. SNAC down the shields, if you have a lot of excess power then try to line up a SNAC to the hull, and if not (or if they dodge like a freak and/or lag) just shoot their hull with your guns. It's slower, but I've whittled a Cap VII LABC down solo in my Bergelmir with only Firekisses to the hull for about 30 minutes- and GBs only have about 5-8 times as much health as bombers.

Here's what I suggest you do. Get a set of Tizonas and do some fights against various GBs and cruisers by yourself- see if you can use them well enough to get SNACs reliably onto enemy hulls. Do the same thing against bombers (Crete is heaven for arranging practice duels if I've heard right) and see if you can reliably reach hull with your SNAC. If possible try this on Outcast and BHG ships, since you'll likely fight those most.

If you're really good at that, then you're good. Shieldbuster loadouts are even better in group vs cap than solo vs cap, and in a pinch can be used en masse to dampen power supplies quite sharply. If, however, you can't take on other bombers comfortably like that (I don't blame you, I can hardly land Nomad Torpedoes on anything with a surface smaller than the Eagle) or have trouble keeping cap shields down, then try hullbusters.

For hullbusters, try Salamancas first. They're cheap (comparatively) to see if you can work hullbusters- I picked it up pretty quickly, but everyone is different. It may make things slower, but I've found it's a lot more reliable and makes you less prone to dramatic interjections about how someone's shields totally had another second left on their cooldowns. If you like that, the Praetorian can handle a pretty serious power draw- I don't recommend Archangels because they're hideously inefficient, but Excaliburs get you the damage with a far less absurd energy draw. I also just so happen to have 5 Excaliburs and 2 Archangels I need to sell. Shoot me a PM if you're interested, I take it from your post you are aware that they go for upwards of 15 mil each.

As for torps? SNAC + Train CD is pretty stable for fighting caps and will work against other bombers who are likely to be similarly armed. The Mosquito or Hornet CDs eat missile spammers alive, but are unlikely to help you fight midrange capital ships (and trust me, a CD is a great help against GBs and cruisers). If you were aimed more at fighters and didn't need to pursue people I would suggest SNAC + Mini Razor + shieldbusters, but it's not the easiest to learn once you've played with a different loadout a few times, and you really need to be a good shot with your torps there. A properly trained GB will also probably eat you alive.

As for mines? Nuclear. Screamers are good if you know where the shield hardpoints on ships are, and can be used as a very effective shield buster if you know what you're doing, but they are excruciatingly hard to line up properly. And will likely get you shot to pieces against some ships. You don't need tracking so much against capital ships or bombers (bombers like to joust) and the extra damage never hurts.

Hope that helps.

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