4Game

tldr:

If you are starting out with at least somewhat engineered Guardian AX combat pick Chieftain. Rest of the post is surely more subjective but I highly recommend Chief instead of Krait for learning.

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I started with AX combat this fall with a Krait. I can solo Cyclops and Basilisk and I've almost soloed Medusa but sadly almost doesn't count. A while ago I built a Chieftain and have been giving it a go. Builds have been from here https://wiki.antixenoinitiative.com/en/builds without any funny stuff. For controls I use (cheap) joystick and keyboard. AXI recommends mouse + keyboard but I won't use mouse because I'm stubborn and stupid.

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Weapons:

Krait has more main DPS with gauss. I don't think it matters too much initially but maybe starting from Medusa I'd really like that DPS because enemy has so much hull and enemy hull regen compared to my DPS is starting to be pretty high.

Chief can fit both thermal vent beam and flak which is huge for learning. Once you get hang of it you can mow down Cyclops swarm pretty easily and then with thermal vent beam you can practice orbiting safely. You will be in control and no distractions. If you really want to go with Krait from the start I'd even consider tossing one gauss away to get both of these weps. Pretty much whole point of Krait is of course lost with that extra gauss DPS but first you need to learn the basics.

After beginner phase situation changes a bit since I have problems justifying use of flak. Cyclops swarm, and I guess Basilisk swarm too, is easy to kill but not really necessary or time efficient. Killing Medusa swarms on other hand would really really help but those ring configurations are a nightmare so I can't kill them with acceptable efficiency 😐 If better pilots than me have opinion on this or pointers I'd be happy to hear them.

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Movement:

Krait has weaker thrusters and it has problems maintaining orbit for longer duration. To compensate Krait has boost that lasts only 2,5 seconds so you can use it to maneuver without overshooting badly. So Krait is bit more chaotic experience since you will be boosting a lot more. Then again if you mess up with the orbit with Chief and are forced to boost you will be thrown way of target (I've started to use cargo scoop for capping boost max speed with Chief, which is somewhat effective but oh boy is it stupid).

So, Chief is certainly more useful for learning the actual orbiting. After that it's more of a preference.

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Aiming:

Chief has basically pin point convergence for AX use. Krait requires you to adjust your aim between shots to score full hits to hearts (you need to shoot 2×2 anyway to avoid spiking heat over 20% so other weapon group fires left and other right and then you adjust). Chief has faster turning speed which helps with aiming. Chief has more stable orbit which helps with aiming and unsurprisingly boosting with Krait really does not help with aiming.

If you are better shot than me, if you have better stick than I have or if you are using mouse to aim this might not matter so much for you. But for me this has been huge and I've pretty much decided to switch to Chief because landing those heart shots consistently is both important and very satisfying. Shooting scouts is way more relaxing too.

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In conclusion beginners please make it easier for yourselves and use Chief at start unlike I did. Personally I'm switching over at this point because of easier aiming even though I would maybe prefer Krait weps. Non-beginners use what you want.