Jarvis JamesonDavinci XJarvis Jameson
I'm going to second this sentiment.
I am flying a Cobra Mk IV, and anyone who has seen my gallery posts will know, I only fly a Cobra Mk IV.
The thing is known as "bad" in combat. And for PvP, it is.
PvE? Yeah I have to flat-out disagree there. She's a beauty in combat, granted after being modified to a fair degree.
Anyway I digress. Cobra Mk IV is a ship that has a bit of a bad rep, mostly because it's not nearly as fast as the Mk III (And the small matter of its exclusivity which, in my opinion, was a bad move by Frontier but here we are), and slower than most ships. This doesn't stop me winning space conflict zones with mine.
Really the only ships I'd not even dream of taking into a conflict zone are the Lakon T-Ships, excluding the Type-10 of course, as well as a Hauler. And I would consider a Keelback, on that note. That thing actually has the means to pack decent weapons, plus the fighter. I flew one a bit on an old save: Quite fun.
But here's the thing. If I'm taking a Cobra Mk IV into CZ and winning, and I am talking High Intensity CZ here, then there's zero reason Davinci's Vulture would struggle. Actually, it would excel, with a bit of smart piloting. Any hard-focused comabt vessel can perform here. Just some require more skill of course. That is something one learns over time.
Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to have access to the Mk IV, but on a similar note, before I procured my Vulture, I did a good bit of PvE bounty hunting in the Mk III with no problems. Fun as hell; so, I'd imagine a Mk IV would be a blast.
And as far as CZ's, I don't disagree. I participated in the latest CG and Drake's Fury did fine in the CZ's, even the medium and high intensity ones. And I had a blast while doing so without to many issues; however, it did take "forever" to kill NPCs, especially if they were in a medium class ship like a Federal Assualt or Gunship or in a large class ship like an Anaconda or Federal Corvette.
EDIT: Some of that may be my skill as a pilot as I'm fairly "new" to combat in Elite as I mainly participated in exploring when I first started, and the other part seemed to be that the Federation NPCs seemed to outplay the Empire NPCs during the CGs in most battles.
Little tip for ya': On the big ships, keep shooting the powerplant. Take out the drives too if you can do so with them floating fairly slowly as a result.
It is a common myth that taking a powerplant to 0% means an instant kill.
However... Any hit to the powerplant following it being reduced to 0% has a small chance to destroy the ship, regardless of any other health the ship has. This is exactly how I have destroyed a large number of Anancondas, Cutters & Corvettes with the Ethereal Wanderer.
Learning to target individual modules is a veritable game changer for combat, and essential for small ship pilots like ourselves.
Thanks for the tip.