Tuesday 25 December 2012

Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful holiday both in the virtual world of your choice and in the real one!

Monday 24 December 2012

Eve: The Assault Stabber

Sometimes in Eve you just need speed. This fit is a throwaway tackler, designed to be used in situations where you perhaps outnumber your opponent but they have the edge in quality. Particularly useful against kiting ships like vagabonds cynabals and tengus which are confident of being able to out-pace you.



[Stabber, Assault stabbers]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Gyrostabilizer II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Large Shield Extender II

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Hail M
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

Medium Auxiliary Thrusters I
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Top speed is 3211 m/s. Overheating the MWD usually adds at least 30% so over 4km/s with that in place. (Skirmish links can also be used to give a pack of these significant additional speed and propulsion jamming range). It's virtually untanked, a measly 16,192 effective hit points. It's not designed to solo, it's designed for blobbing opponents who feel they are flying ships which counter blobs. The fastest Stabber only has to survive long enough for the second fastest Stabber to catch up and establish secondary tackle.

Any ship tackled by one of these is in trouble. He'll be webbed (-60% speed), scrammed (can't warp off, use MJD or MWD) and will get shot neuted and nosed. The fit does a respectable 260 dps, enough to add up if tackled by several of these. Each neut destroys 180 cap per 12 seconds and the nos sucks up 9.6 cap per 3 seconds if your cap is lower than his. That's not really enough to put most pilots in trouble if tackled by one of these ships but will ruin someone's day who gets tackled by several.

Alternatively these ships can kite using Barrage ammunition. That has a range of 25km to optimal + falloff  (50% damage). The ship does 93 dps at 25.7 km using Barrage ammo.

It's fast tackle but much more sturdy that tackle frigates usually are and packing a medium neut too.

This can be taken out as a gang of just these ships. They're quite survivable as they can burn out of range of most things that can tackle them they still move 478 m/s even when scrammed and anything scramming you is likely to be webbed and scrammed several times over. This makes it a very good training ship for new players as the ship lasts long enough that they can try out different escape methods (eg burning back to the gate, burning out of point range etc).

They fit very well with any fleet doctrine for large fleet fights as long as they hang back until just before the enemy decides to warp out. All big fleets love fast tackle and it's very common that the fast tackle all dies early in an engagement.

If you want to take out a mixed cruiser gang they pair very well with scythes and ewar cruisers as the long range of those cruisers allows them to participate where other cruisers wouldn't keep up.

Low skill notes: tech 1 modules are absolutely fine. It's ok to be a little slower than the maxxed out people. If short of grid drop the nos and the neut.

These can be made and fitted extremely cheaply as part of a newbie free ship programme.

Friday 14 December 2012

Sinkfleet

It's inevitable sometimes that a FC will have to take out a kitchen sink fleet, everyone having a different special snowflake ship and fit. Sinkfleet is an attempt to impose some uniformity so at least the ships all do the same thing.


What thing is that, you ask? Brawl.

The reason for brawling is there's no point having snipey battlecruisers off doing 200 dps when each enemy ship is in our face doing 700 dps. Every ship counts and the simplest job to give a generic mixed collection is close range damage.

So here's the doctrine:

High slots close range weapons, (optionally neuts). Close range faction or T2 ammo.

Mid slots: web, scram, microwarpdrive,

Low slots: at least one weapon upgrade (eg a heat sink),

In addition try to fit a tank consisting of Damage Control II, and either Shield Extender plus invuln or EANM plus plate. Shield extenders and plates should be oversized if possible (eg a LSE on a cruiser, a 1600 mm plate on a cruiser).

Include drones, damage drones ideally Gallente Tech 2 drones.

Use any left over slots to increase 1) speed and 2) damage in that priority order.

The role of this fleet is just to nuke the crap out of anything it can catch. It's not recommended that anyone bring anything subtle like logistics or ewar, just all come in gank ships and kill them before they kill us.

It's also possible to make sub-doctrines, eg Destroyer sinkfleet, T1 Cruiser sinkfleet.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Eve: Oswaffle Doctrine

This is a doctrine with a story. In our Alliance we're fortunate enough to have a player called Carneros who is one of the most pleasant and gentle people you could ever hope to meet. Especially in Eve. He's the nearest thing our Alliance has to Mother Teresa.

Naturally he flies logistics ships and when he reported for duty a few nights ago he duly asked for an Osprey to fly in a Tech 1 cruiser fleet. Naturally he assumed that the drones inside would be repping drones.

I mean, who would put damage drones in a logistics ship?

This guy would:

http://www.li3.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=15460249

Here you can see that our FC for the night, in addition to being shot by -A-'s Ruptures was also ferociously assaulted by his own healers. In fact Carneros was third highest damage, just behind Makalu (yes, he's that Makalu, if only it had been him killed by the Osprey!).

Carneros was quite cross about the sneaky insertion of damage drones into his healing drone bay but had to finally cease berating the person who fit the ships that way because none of us could stop laughing.

So here's a doctrine inspired by this incident. It's a fleet entirely of Ospreys that slave their drones to the FC, web or scram a nearby enemy then focus on healing everybody. Effective hp is 26,675.

[Osprey, Oswaffle]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I or Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor (fleet should be 50/50)
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Medium 'Regard' Power Projector
Medium 'Regard' Power Projector
Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I


Hobgoblin II x4

Low skill notes: tech 1 modules or lower meta modules are fine.

Eve: HED job fit

This is a frigate with very high locking speed, tremendous speed and not much else. It's very good for the specialised role of getting onto killmails in major gate camps or decloaking stealth bombers who are a fraction too slow to cloak up after jumping a stargate. It has a scan resolution of 4167.8 mm, enough to lock a frigate in 0.5 seconds. Top speed is 4204 m/s.

I've used variations of this fit to catch several cov ops and stealth bombers in the space where we live in Querious.


[Slasher, hed job]
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Overdrive Injector System II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script (keep Targeting scripts in case you need more range)
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script

280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor S
Salvager II

Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I



Eve: Popfleet doctrine

Popfleet is long range Caracals. The Caracal has a 50% missile velocity bonus which means its missiles fire out further. While there are no modules that boost effective range of missiles, it's possible to rig for both missile velocity and flight duration. At that point the missiles reach out to 141 km if they are faction or Tech 1. (Tech 2 missiles have 75% of that range for Fury and 50% of that range for Precision).


[Caracal, Popfleet]
Signal Amplifier II
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Heavy Missile (have Mjolnir Precision Heavy Missiles available)
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Nova Heavy Missile

Medium Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Medium Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Medium Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I

Low skill notes: try to keep 2200 m/s and the long missile and targeting range. No need for T2 launchers and the tank's not all that important. Don't change the rigs and do add another Sensor Booster if your targeting range is under 141km.


Missile damage can be boosted by target painting and the Bellicose is specialised in doing just that. It will probably be painting in falloff range which means some paints will fail but that's ok. Every paint that lands boosts the whole fleet's damage. This fit also includes light (ie frigate-sized) missiles which give the ship a useful secondary role if tackler frigates get close.


[Bellicose, Popfleet]
Signal Amplifier II
Signal Amplifier II
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II

Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script (have sensor script available)
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I

Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Precision Light Missile (have faction available, also some other damage types perhaps)
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Precision Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Precision Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Precision Light Missile

Medium Particle Dispersion Projector I
Medium Particle Dispersion Projector I
Medium Particle Dispersion Projector I

Eve: Brawlfleet doctrine

Brawl fleet doctrine has a simple approach to pvp: you chase them down and shoot them in the face. The fleet is composed of just Vexors, although a skirmish link command ship and or perch burner helps a lot.

Its disadvantages are that it is relatively slow, very close range and lacks any form of healing.

Its advantages are that it hits like a truck, webs and scrams anything it catches and the ships are fairly tough. It's also cheap and fun. Plus it's scaleable all the way down to 1 ship.


[Vexor, Heavy Tackle]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Drone Navigation Computer II

Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M (note: no point having a long range alternate ammo in cargo, this ship never kites)
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Void M

Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Ogre II x2
Hammerhead II x2
Hobgoblin II x1

1534 m/s 736 dps 23700 effective hp.

Low skill notes. Tech 1 versions are fine, meta 4 if possible otherwise the highest meta available/reasonably priced. Can drop low slot tank modules to fit +grid or + cpu modules if necessary, try not to drop damage boosting modules.

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Eve: Stabberfleet Doctrine

The notion of Stabberfleet is simply to be faster than most things we fight so that we can outmanoeuvre the opposition. Stabberfleet has two ship requirements: 2700 m/s speed (before boosts and heat) and over 1 minute 20 seconds until cap depletion. Any ship that can manage that is eligible for Stabberfleet although logistics and long range dps are also important.

The healer: Scythe


[Scythe, Stabberfleet]
Overdrive Injector System II
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Medium S95a Partial Shield Transporter

Medium Auxiliary Thrusters I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

1 light shield rep drone
4 medium shield rep drones
about 50 Nanite repair paste


Low skill notes: fly an alternative ship within the doctrine.

The main workhorse: Stabber


[Stabber, Stabber]
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor M (also carry Quake M)
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Tremor M
Salvager II
Small Proton Smartbomb II

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I


about 50 nanite repair paste.



The smartbomb is for drones. Salvager is for when we hold the field and want to loot. Point is for when the enemy starts to warp off or run we can catch stragglers.

Low skill notes: Smartbomb is not needed. Nor is Salvager. Meta 3 or 4 guns are fine, even lower end guns are ok. Bring faction Carbonized Lead and EMP for T1 guns. If your ship goes slower than 2700 m/s replace low slot damage mods with overdrives. If your cap is low replace low slot damage mods with cap power relays.

The tactical edge: Punisher



[Punisher, Perch burner]
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Small Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 50

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I

The job of this frigate is to give the FC tactical options by burning around the field. Ideally the perch burner is always 100km behind the enemy as the fleet looks at them. This means the FC can fleet warp to zero and be 100 km off or pick a distance by warping the the Punisher at range. It can be done with an alt but it works better with an attentive and skilful pilot controlling it with no other distractions.

Newbro perch burner



[Slasher, Perch burner - low skill]
Overdrive Injector System I
Overdrive Injector System I

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
[empty med slot]
[empty med slot]
[empty med slot]

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Small Auxiliary Thrusters I
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I


The boss drives one of these: Drake


[Drake, Command]
Reactor Control Unit II
Reactor Control Unit II
Reactor Control Unit II
Reactor Control Unit II

Prototype 100MN Microwarpdrive I
Command Processor I
Command Processor I
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Medium Capacitor Battery II

Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment II
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers II
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing II
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

This ship gives speed, resists and point range to the entire fleet. Also, while it is a key ship to kill, it may appear more sturdy than it really is since Drakes have a reputation for durability.

Alternatively you can use an expensive command ship such as this Loki which also doubles as a prober.:



[Loki, Command]
Co-Processor II
Caldari Navy Co-Processor
Caldari Navy Co-Processor

Command Processor I
Command Processor I
Command Processor I
[empty med slot]
[empty med slot]

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher, Sisters Combat Scanner Probe I
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing II
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers II
Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment II
Skirmish Warfare Link - Evasive Maneuvers II
[empty high slot]

Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

Loki Defensive - Warfare Processor
Loki Offensive - Covert Reconfiguration
Loki Propulsion - Interdiction Nullifier
Loki Engineering - Power Core Multiplier
Loki Electronics - Emergent Locus Analyzer

Eve: We made the news!

I was involved in a fight against Brick Squad. I even took over FCing for a bit. The battle report and a video that includes me calling targets is now on Eve News 24:

http://evenews24.com/2012/12/10/battle-report-friday-night-fights-li3-federation-vs-brick-squad/

Thursday 6 December 2012

Eve: Sniper Corax

Let's have a look at the new Corax:



Missiles, missiles, missiles, missiles, that's what this hull is all about. It spams missiles a quite a long range, and boasts improved explosion velocity to catch those pesky annoying little orbiting frigates.

Ship bonuses:
+5% to rocket and light missile kinetic damage per level
+10% to rocket and light missile explosion velocity per level
Role bonus:
+50% to rocket and light missile velocity



The first bonus tells us to use Scourge type missiles unless we know there's some weakness to another damage type. And it has to be a significant vulnerability as we'd lose 25% damage were we to use non-kinetic missiles.

Explosion velocity is increased damage to fast-moving things. Scourge light missiles have the following explosion velocities with the Corax ship bonuses:
Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile 255 m/s
Scourge Fury Light Missile 224.5 m/s
Scourge Precision Light Missile 306 m/s
In addition Target Navigation Prediction V means that you can discount 50% of their speed. Frigates generally move 400-600 m/s with prop mod off so we will not see our paper dps reduced by frigate velocity by very much unless they are using a prop mod (afterburner or microwarpdrive). Frigates that are stationery won't reduce damage and frigates that are orbiting will reduce it less than if they were going max speed.

Our last bonus is missile velocity. This does two useful things - it gives us more range and our missiles get to the target quicker.

I'm seeing two strong builds coming from these ship bonuses. The first is to build on the strength of the explosion velocity bonus and make a ship that is very good at doing high damage to frigates. So you would rig for more explosion velocity. Light Precisions now have such a small explosion radius that on that build you would have no need for target painting or explosion radius rigs - the natural explosion radius of Light Precisions is 25m which is smaller than any ship in the game. So this ship would make a really nasty high damage frigate destroyer with precision light missiles and explosion velocity rigs, say 2 flare catalysts and a calefaction catalyst.

The other build I really like is based on the Missile Velocity role bonus. Using the extra range that gives and then rigging for range gives a deadly sniper boat. This ship does 183 dps out to 94 km, well outside tackle range before overheat.

Corax, Sniper

7 Prototype 'Arbalest' Light Missile Launchers, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
2 F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines, both Targeting and Scan resolution scripts in cargo
Utility midslot
(I put a Phased Weapon Navigation Array before I realised that with Guided Missile Precision V my CN Lights have 30m explosion radius, still less than any ship in the game. It still helps other people so not completely redundant).
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
2 Ballistic Control System II

Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
2 Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I

Sunday 2 December 2012

Eve: The Retribution Blackbird

A number of my ship fits have been inspired by radical ways in which next week's expansion will be overhauling the various ships. With the Blackbird it's not actually getting changed very much. So you may be wondering why I have picked it to write about as one of my Retribution choices.

Simple answer: it's simply the best. Better than all the rest.


Retribution will see a surge of interest in Tech 1 cruisers and although this one won't be changing much it's an amazing boat - not just powerful but also very interesting to fly.

Blackbirds basically work like this: you target and ecm jam selected targets that are NOT the primary target of the fleet to cause them to lose all locks and be ineffective for 20 seconds each time you land a jam. You can jam powerful ship up to capitals (but not supercaps) and so because they are so good and rather fragile enemy Fleet Commanders usually primary Blackbirds first.

Blackbirds are also very quick to skill into. This means that new players are often encouraged to fly them as they are much more powerful than any other ship a player could use with less than one month's training.

Because they're primaried and because they're often flown by newbies they have a somewhat undeserved reputation of not being great fun to fly. Strong, yes, but who wants to always die in the first few seconds of a fight? However if a player is careful and cunning and fits for extreme range then a Blackbird that doesn't mind running off then coming back then running off a lot is both extremely powerful and very survivable.

Here's the fit:

[Blackbird, Salv]
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II

10MN Afterburner II
BZ-5 Neutralizing Spatial Destabilizer ECM (note: Meta 4 modules are much better than Tech II modules)
Enfeebling Phase Inversion ECM I
Enfeebling Phase Inversion ECM I
'Umbra' White Noise ECM
'Hypnos' Ion Field ECM I

Salvager II
Salvager II
Small Tractor Beam II
Small Tractor Beam II

Medium Ionic Field Projector I
Medium Particle Dispersion Augmentor I
Medium Particle Dispersion Projector I


2 Warrior IIs (or Salvaging Drones if you prefer)

Swap outs of ECM modules in the cargo hold so you can adapt when given intel about the enemy composition if there's a chance to re-fit.


The key to playing this ship in gang or fleet combat is to be independent. The position you want is about 80-100 km behind your fleet and at least 80 km away from the nearest enemies. If your FC warps his fleet into a rival gang, cancel fleet warp and warp to him at 100 after he lands. Prepare terrain by making perches where you're likely to fight, eg stargates, stations. Elude interception by bouncing off celestials that are at different angles. Imagine a solar system like the one we live in. And you have a spaceship fight at the earth. So warp to Saturn then warp back at 100, then if enemy fast tackle is closing in on that position warp to Mercury then warp to your FC at 100, putting you 150 away from the tacklers who now find themselves on the wrong side of your fleet to come and tackle you. Next time you might warp off to Jupiter so they see you go that direction but rather than warp back to your FC from that side you warp to Mars so that you come in at an unanticipated angle. You survive by always immediately warping whenever you take damage or risk being tackled as you can operate at great distances from the enemy. This is particularly true if most ships on the field are Tech 1 cruisers.


With perfect skills the fit jams out to 117 km. (That's in falloff but losing a few percent isn't a big deal). If you don't have the skills to jam out to 100 km take some tank off and replace with Signal Distortion Amps.


Now you might be wondering about the salvage modules in the high slots. They're there because there really isn't anything else useful to fit - if you never are within 80 km of an enemy you are out of range to shoot him. Putting guns on would just get you killed, this fit is all about running off when the enemies try to kill you then warping back at a useful distance and immediately aligning to prepare your next instant escape. And of course hoovering up the field after a nullsec pvp battle is exceptionally lucrative.


There may be times when you feel that all you're doing is landing on grid then warping off again. Even that is very disruptive to your opponents as they have to break off from what they were killing (perhaps giving your logistics a chance to repair it back up again) to futilely shoot at you only to see you escape. It's quite likely they'll get fed up or distracted and let you land and get some jams on after a while.


So the Blackbird - a great ship to fly in the Tech 1 cruiser battles we'll be seeing soon in Eve.