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[q-rau]

How do people load these out? There are some obvious focused builds with all harpoons plus hurricane, or 3 reapers + large hammer launcher for torpedo cruiser action. Right now I'm kind of halfway with harpoon pods and hurricane for mid/large but apropos in the small slots. Anyone do any others? Is ECCM worth it? Any ballistic weapons or just pd?

[Wyvern]

After much experimentation, my preferred use for a gryphon is... not to use a gryphon.  >.<

If I really don't have anything better, I'd go for the hammer launcher + sabot pods, with a flak cannon and a mix of light assault guns (anti-fighter) and vulcans (pd coverage where the flak cannon is out of arc).  Forward small missiles vary based on what you're doing with it; torpedos if it's a specialized anti-starbase build, harpoons or annihilator rockets for general purpose.

The hammer launcher, in particular, is noteworthy among large missile weapons for having a high DPS - its ammunition reserves are poor, but it can put out damage much faster than the alternatives.

[q-rau]

I'm new, first time I've seen one that wasn't (D) and didn't require commission so I picked it up.

Didn't realize the missile forge onlybworked once though, thought it was infinite ammo if you could spare the flux.

[Arcagnello]

It only works once but that usually is enough. I run mine with triple annihalator rocket launcher (small missile hardpoints)and a hammer barrage rocket launcher (single large mount)at the front with a dual flak and smaller AA as the only other weapons. The rockets last a long time in a battle and I've had 300 FP fights where the thing was still shooting at the ending stages of them. Quite impressive.

Mine has hardened shield and the ammo modspecs allowing it to get close to the enemy and usually 2-shot anything that's not a capital, which requires a bit more volleys. The AI isn't too bad at controlling it either, it in fact aims a lot better than I do 


I find it very, very useful against forts or otherwise very tanky combatants that don't move a whole lot. A Pair of these incidentally became very useful in my first bounty hunt against a fleet with two Paragons, forcing them to use the Fortress shields basically half the time, crippling their firepower, having them overload and ultimately blasting them to dust with help from other, dakka focused ships.

Just be careful to properly deploy units capable of dealing with smaller ships, which will reduce the Gryphon's kill potential if it engages targets that it can't hit with its barrages.

[Megas]

I'm new, first time I've seen one that wasn't (D) and didn't require commission so I picked it up.

Didn't realize the missile forge onlybworked once though, thought it was infinite ammo if you could spare the flux.

In the first release it appeared, it had no charges, but using system costs -15% CR.  It was easy to misuse and kill yourself, but it could blow up stuff very fast.  On the other hand, that was during a time when Aurora had large missile mount instead of medium synergy hardpoint, and Onslaught or Paragon could solo everything.

[Serenitis]

Not fast or tough enough to be on the front line.
Not good enough at being artillery to be worth the effort of using as artillery.

[Igncom1]

The AI isn't aggressive enough to use torpedoes, so basically just give them any of the long range missile weapons, and probably as many harpoons you can fit on it. Let it massively overkill the enemy's frigates rather then the important targets, reload, and do so again.

Then tell it to go home and let the real men (sunders) finish the actual fighting. 

[Plantissue]

Pretty much the same conclusion as Wyvern. You don't want to use it. Also I looked over an old save with a Gryphon and it had gotten a similar layout as his. Hammer Barrage, side launcher sabot pods, flak turret, 2 rear vulcans. Forward small were Atropos for some reason, not sure why. You would probably want to direct control it, spam missiles and then retreat, but there are far better ships to directly control. It does extremely well in sim but in actual battles it is nowehere as effective. If you play with low Battle Size, you will probably regret not being able to use that 20 DP in the meantime that it is slowly retreating. You will have way too many sabots relatively to the Hammer Barrage and they don't have the same spammability. I've tried letting it just be a fleet ship with Safety Overides and it might occassionally have good results but speed 80 just means that it is vulnerable to destroyers and frigates in a way most cruisers are not. Also it's irritating having to check up on missile SO ships to retreat them. I assume no relevant skills. Skills might change things a bit.

It's a shame though, the Gryphon looks great and it has an interesting weapon layout. I love the look of the Gryphon. Perhaps it can be reworked with lots of composite or synergy mounts to be like an Aurora. Or perhaps a MK II version which is changes most weapons to non-missile weapons and a larger flux dissipation.

[TaLaR]

Gryphon needs way too smart AI to be viable. It's only way to defend itself is to burst the enemy with missiles, otherwise even DEs and better frigates walk over it. It needs to have accurate predicted outcomes vs enemies around and avoid even allowing ships it can't burst into combat range (because slow as it is, it can't retreat after the fact). But once Gryphon starts to attack, it needs to commit hard, otherwise it's just waste of missiles.

[Megas]

Gryphon is a warship that is at least as flimsy as a carrier or civilian, yet, the AI treats it like a warship on par with Falcon or Eagle.  That is a disaster waiting to happen.  If I want to play with a missile-boat, I rather use a different ship.

After much experimentation, my preferred use for a gryphon is... not to use a gryphon.  >.<

If I really don't have anything better, I'd go for the hammer launcher + sabot pods, with a flak cannon and a mix of light assault guns (anti-fighter) and vulcans (pd coverage where the flak cannon is out of arc).  Forward small missiles vary based on what you're doing with it; torpedos if it's a specialized anti-starbase build, harpoons or annihilator rockets for general purpose.

The hammer launcher, in particular, is noteworthy among large missile weapons for having a high DPS - its ammunition reserves are poor, but it can put out damage much faster than the alternatives.

I have used Gryphon once or twice when it was my first recovered upgrade over the trio of Enforcer, Mule, and Shrike (P).  Likewise, I gave it Hammer Barrage (because I can buy it at Open Market) and otherwise treated it as an extra large Enforcer (D).  Spam rockets, tank, and die.

Hammer Barrage is also noteworthy of being the only Open Market large missile.  (Not a big deal now that Locusts are common in Black Market or some pirate loot.)  This is why I make a big deal for good ships that can use Hammer Barrage.  So far, the only ship that qualifies is Legion (XIV), which cannot be bought or produced.  Old pre-0.7.2 Aurora with large missile mount would have been a great ship for dumb-fire large missiles.

It's a shame though, the Gryphon looks great and it has an interesting weapon layout. I love the look of the Gryphon. Perhaps it can be reworked with lots of composite or synergy mounts to be like an Aurora. Or perhaps a MK II version which is changes most weapons to non-missile weapons and a larger flux dissipation.

I like to see Gryphon evolve into something similar to pre-0.7.2 Aurora.  Back in those days, Aurora was a superior Gryphon with High Energy Focus instead of Missile Autoforge, and Aurora could fight back with two Heavy Blasters (and possible IPDAI IR Pulse Lasers) while Cyclone Reapers were on cooldown.

[Dread Lord Murubarda]

the AI can't properly fly it, you have to look after it a lot in battle, it is a funny ship though. I remember first finding one and arming it with a cyclone reaper launcher,  the AI was great, stayed at a safe distance and went in on low shielded ships to fire the reapers and then back off, it did a lot of damage. that battle the gryphon took out 80% of the destroyers/cruisers/atlas mk2.

the AI seems  to have issues using the special skill also.

in the next 10 battles it randomly charged in, even though I had locus and other long range missiles, so I had to constantly look after it and it was quite annoying.

I would really like to see the gryphon get some changes, but I think it can easily become overpowered. it already seems OP sometimes, when the AI uses it properly.

[Goumindong]

How do people load these out? There are some obvious focused builds with all harpoons plus hurricane, or 3 reapers + large hammer launcher for torpedo cruiser action. Right now I'm kind of halfway with harpoon pods and hurricane for mid/large but apropos in the small slots. Anyone do any others? Is ECCM worth it? Any ballistic weapons or just pd?

Missile officer(missile skills and as much dmg as possible). Ideally cautious or steady.

ECCM
EMR (this might be build in now?)
Hurricane MIRV
2 Harpoon Pods (ideally on different weapon control slots, if impossible then alternating)
4 x whatever (salamander, swarmer are best)

Guns
= 1 flack OR 1 HVD for range finding
Whatever in the smalls

Slam CAPS with the rest

The idea is to let the AI finish enemies and to use salamanders/swarmers as support. Use an officer because the AI is good at finding enemies to finish off

Edit: give it a waypoint behind your line or have it escort a better ship to keep it away from enemies

[Daynen]

If you're using it as a flagship, the gryphon can punch so far above it's weight it's not even a LITTLE funny.  The right missile combos to overload a target, then turn to the side and unload a couple reapers on their nose and BOOM.  Takes real skill but you can wipe out some serious deployment with a well-piloted gryphon.

As an AI ship, it's best to just load it with pilums and salamanders, order it to stay WAY back from the fighting and let it spam.  The active won't mean much but the AI isn't exactly optimal with actives to begin with.  You could also just use it as a missile blitzer--load it with powerful anti-shield weapons, wait for it to score then finish the job yourself.  Just be sure to order it out of the fight once its empty.

Alternately you could load it up with a locust, some swarmers and tons of point defense and turn it loose against carriers to just delete fighter swarms.  Never underestimate the power of a dedicated swarm killer.  Again, check its ammo; once it's fully dry, kick it out of the fight so it's not just a free kill.

It's definitely an oddball of a ship that doesn't seem to be sure exactly where it belongs but...I think that's part of the charm.  It makes you want to try stuff because it's not so obvious what the best build is.  It's a THINKIN' man's ship!

[Plantissue]

It's not going to punch above it's 20 DP weight - the same DP as a Harbinger. What exactly is the right missile combos for you to (are we in kindergarten?) "BOOM"? 

[TaLaR]

Yeah, going above ship's DP weight is normal when player piloted, in skill-less duel. Question is how far, with which limitations (SO or missile use) and how long it takes.
Ultimate score is to be able to kill the any build of Paragon (or at least few different enough that you are sure you didn't miss any important factor) without using SO or limited missiles, and in short time frame on top of that. Even better if ship can do the same in AI vs AI.

By this metric I don't find Gryphon all that good. I'm not sure it even can solo an Onslaught in skill-less fight (at least my few half-hearted attempts failed). There are fewer ships that can't solo the Onslaught than ones that can (because either speed OR power works)...