Frigates of the Minmatar

As I head down to low sec for a day or two moving ships around and as I examine the requirements for eventually inventing and manufacturing T2 ships I thought I'd go over all T1 and T2 Minmatar frigates. Their uses and their relations to reach other.

There are 6 Tech 1 Minmatar Frigates:

Slasher
Burst
Probe
Vigil
Breacher
Rifter

And there are 7 Tech 2 Minmatar Frigates:

Claw
Stiletto
Cheetah
Hound
Hyena
Wolf
Jaguar

Let's cover the "Interceptor Class"

Slasher
This is the cheapest T1 non-noobship frigate. It's intended fleet role is that of cheap, disposable tackle with plenty of offensive power for something that cheap. It used to suffer in it's intended role by only having 2 mid slots, but with the speed changes a warp scrambler is now useful again so its utility has actually increased. Generally speaking once a pilot has moved on to a bigger budget and better skills this ship falls by the wayside a bit, as other ships can do the job better (a Vigil is faster and a Rifter more resilient. But it remains one of the cheapest ships to fly. Even the rawest newbie can afford an unlimited supply of these prety much. They still make prety good scouts as if you loose one you shrug and go get another.

Stiletto
This is invented from the Slasher and is one of the two tech 2 versions of that ship. And oh bippy did they improve this ship at it's job. This is intended as the fleet interceptor. It's job is to pin down an enemy so the rest of the fleet can come and kill it. It's 4 mid slots give it plenty of of kit to do just that. It's speed is it's armor. Fit in consequence. It, along with the Cov-ops, is one of the two fastest classes of ships in warp.

Claw
This is also invented from the Slasher and is the other of the T2 versions of that ship. This one is geared for combat and damage as opposed to interception. Think of it as an "anti-interceptor". Obviously it will also excel at killing any and all T1 frigates. Like it's brother the Stiletto, speed is life.

The mining frigate

Burst
There is no tech 2 version of this ship. It is the mining frigate. It is rather quickly outclassed by other ships in this role. The mining cruisers and barges. It will rarely be used outside of newbies.

The stealth frigates

Probe
This is the astrometrics/courrier frigate. It serves 2 purposes. First it is used along with the probing skill and modules to discover hidden ships and sites. In this role it is superseded rather quickly by the Cov-ops ship itself as that has a better bonus. However this ship remains rather cheap and if you can afford the longer scan times, a disposable option for operations in hostile territory. It's second role is as a cargo vessel. Once you've skilled up to Minmatar Frigate 5 it can hold 400 m3 of cargo - the same as the Thrasher and close to most T1 cruisers. This makes it the courier vessel of the frigate world. It's also the Minmatar drone carrier frigate, so it can pump out quite a bit of firepower or utility. This really does make it the jack of all trades frigate of the Minmatar frigate fleet.

Breacher
This is the missile chucking frigate of the Minmatar fleet. This is not to say that just about all Minmatar frigates can't be equiped with missiles, but it is the only one where they are intended to be the primary armament. It's only real problem is that it is a titch less maneuverable and has thinner armor than the other main combat frigate making it MUCH less popular. Also the typical Minmatar pilot concentrates on projectile skills before missile skills therefor it tends to lag in effectiveness the other frigates. The changes in missile mechanics mean that it probably would do well with a Target Painter of flying in conjunction with a TP equipped Vigil.

Cheetah
This is the T2 version of the Probe. Fast. Invisible. It's role is defined by it's capabilities. It can fit a cov-ops cloak and it has a big bonus to scan times. It is your advanced scout/flank security and hound dog. A side note about cloaks, all cloaks cause targeting delays when you un-cloak. Only certain ships do not suffer from this (Stealth Bombers and Black-Ops). In this ship however it is not considered a disadvantage as if you see a Cheetah, the pilot has made a mistake. It is one of the 3 ship classes that can equip a cov-ops cloak and warp cloaked. This is a powerfull ability. Use it well.

Hound
This is the T2 version of the Breacher. It's a stealth bomber. This means it can equip and fire cruise missiles (BS sized missiles), has no targeting delay on dropping cloak and can even equip a bomb launcher. It is a rather specialized ambush predator. It works best in packs with others of it's kind and as part of a black ops squadron. Tricky ship to fly.

EWAR

Vigil
Target painting specialist. This module is probably one of the most miss-understood ewar modules in existence. Being a totally offensive only EWAR module and most effective at helping larger ships deal with smaller ships. Therefore this ship rarely sees use in it's intended e-war purpose. However it's speed lends itself very well to being used as a tackle ship. It also caries a single drone.

Hyena
This is the dedicated electronic attack version of the Vigil. Again Target painting and tackle. With the changes in missile mechanics this role may become more popular but it's doubtful. It's MicroWaprdrive, webifier and sig radius bonuses however mean that it is an excellent tackle meant to survive while long distance tackling the enemy. It can almost be considered as the third interceptor of the Minmatar frigate fleet. The target painter equipped version will prove popular supporting Caldari fleets I should think though.

Combat frigates

Rifter
Ah the Rifter. What can be said that has not already been said about this excellent class of frigate. It is considered to be the best of the T1 combat frigates. It has that golden mix of speed, defense and combat power that seems perfectly balanced. This ship has stood the test of time never feeling out of place no matter what fleet you're in. A good solid frigate.

Jaguar
T2 assault frigate derived from the Rifter. Probably intended as the "tackle" version of the assault frigate. It's a bit of a mixed bag. Originally had all the problems of it's entire class except it could be setup to fit a massive (for a frigate) passive shield tank. As with all assault frigates, the speed changes seriously upped it's viability in roaming gangs.

Wolf
T2 assault frigate derived from the Rifter. Probably intended as the "DPS" version of the assault frigate. It can pump out a ferocious amount of damage if setup for it. It's T2 resists allow it to survive a little longer than it otherwise could. Again the speed and warp scrambler changes seem to have given this ship new wings.