Member of the EVE Tweet Fleet

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Humm, Coz had some points

After the usual "lets organize things" talk with an FC and missing out on another FC's majorly successful op, it was do some RL stuff before coming back to do a bit of PewPew at the end of the evening.

When I did decide to get back into the fray, I x'ed up and headed to low sec. While I was waiting for any repsonse to my x up, I found an interceptor playing havok with some frigates and what not at the gate just inside low sec. From previous experience, rifter vs inty = dead rifter 99.999% of the time. So after observing the shenanigans for a bit I jumped back to high sec and even though it wasn't optimized for anti-inty work, I got my thrasher. This one is utility fit as opposed to specific task fit. It's useful to run missions and plexes and that's about it (Tech 2 guns and a tractor beam and salvager should tell you what it's used for). So jumped in, motered to the gate and then went all modules hot and waited for the inty to get into targeting range. I slapped on the sensor booster and managed to get a lock at one point. Got about half way thru the shields when I had to warp off with 0 sheilds but full armor.

I definitly have to make a proper anti inty fit one day, tracking computers and tracking enhancers FTW, Even without them and with tremor for the range boost I was getting hits, just not enought to realy scare off the interceptor and protect the idiots who don't know how to deal with them. Look it's simple unless you're trying to present a juicy target and keep them arround while something that can kill them is on the way, warp off. Don't play their game, you'll just loose the ship.

A response to my x up finaly came thru and I switched back to one of my Rifters. I ended up in a small gang. There were 2 Prophecies and various mixed Minmatar small fry. For some reason we kept running into interceptors and nano fit cruisers. During this I learned some valuable lessons: 1) you can tackle vagas in a tackle fit rifter. 2) you instantly become primary when you manage to web him and go poof. Later same sort of idea with a nano fit rupy. 2 Rifters down for no kills. I did web and point a Vagabond for about 10 seconds though. From this I managed to deduce the following:
  • I'm not horrible as a tackler.
  • In a small gang tacklers are primaried by nano fit ships as WE are their most dangerous opponents.
  • In a small gang you need serious ranged support or more tacklers
  • I see why Coz was saying he prefers the Stabber in small gangs.

If I can get a Stabber moving decent speeds it might be worth fitting a few out for smaller gang work where the rifter just evaporates.

Just try to imagine the icons for 2 rifters Zappy and Zappo in the upper corner of this post.

4 comments:

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

Just did a check of the Stabber on EFT:

Cozmik's Nav skills: Navigation V, Afterburner V, Evasive Maneuvering V, Acceleration Control IV, High Speed Maneuvering IV

Stabber T1 (2 Overdrives, 1 Nanofiber): 3702 m/s
Stabber T2 (same low slots): 4419 m/s

The downside is you don't lock targets as fast and are less maneuverable, but you can take a lot more hits than you can in a Rifter. That's the ship I use in small gangs that won't go very far and where every damage point counts. Also important in every gang, big or small, is ECM. Falcons are expensive and need to be skilled right, but Blackbirds, Hyenas and Kitsunes will help tons.

In my book the smallest gang will consist of 1 tackler, 1 ECM, and 1 DPS, and as the gang gets bigger you start multiplying the roles to deepen the fleet. A 10-man gang with 9 DPS and 1 tackler WILL get slaughtered by a well balanced 6-man gang.

Carole Pivarnik said...

Very informative post comment by Coz.

Coz, how would you configure a 6 person roaming fleet? 1 ECM, 2 tacklers, and 4 DPS? If no one has the skills to fly an ECM-bonus ship, how would you suggest ECM drones be configured amongst fleet members? By everyone who can or what?

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

Thanx man ;)

Basically, you got it. To answer your question I think I'd have 1 Blackbird, 1 Rifter, 1 Stabber, and 4 Ruptures/Thoraxes, with Thoraxes being my preference as they can carry more drones. But yeah, if one of the DPS guys has ECM drones then by all means use 'em. Just make sure you mix ECM and damage.

The goal of a small fleet like that is to go in fast, jam fast, lay tackle, and rain Hell. The downside is obviously that it can easily get blobbed.

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

wait, that's 7 guys, but oh well !!! :D