Saturday, May 24, 2014

Introduction to t1 frigates - Gallente, Minmatar

This is a continuation of the previous post.  Today we will look at the remaining t1 combat frigates.  As yesterday, make sure you fill your drone bays and bring ammo.

Gallente:

Atron - The atron is the gallente "attack" frigate.  It is fairly fast, and has a falloff bonus giving it decent range even with blasters.  It can come in almost any configuration - armor with blasters, asb with blasters, longpoint td with rails, even scram kiting with blasters.  The fit below needs a 3% cpu implant to fit.  The default ammo choice for it is not antimatter, since you want more range.  Rails (and beams) have the ability to effectively trade dps for range via ammo swapping.

[Atron, mwd kite]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Co-Processor II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script
Warp Disruptor II

150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Uranium Charge S
150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Uranium Charge S
150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Uranium Charge S
[empty high slot]

Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Ancillary Current Router I





Incursus - This is the "combat" frigate.  It has a large armor repair bonus, but no range bonus and poor base speed.  Many people fit it with dual reps and a cap booster.  In that configuration it ends up as a ship with no range, no ability to dictate range and no ability to force an enemy to come close.  It tanks a ton for sure, but the only situation in which you can kill someone are 1) You have caught a mwd kiter, generally on the warpin of a FW plex, 2) You are snaked and linked and can power through a web with ab, 3) The enemy doesnt realize what he is fighting and that he can just use his superior range control to disengage at any time.

[Incursus, New Setup 1]
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Plutonium Charge S

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I

Rest of the frigates after the break




Tristan - Remember how I said the atron can come in almost any configuration?  That goes doubly so for the tristan.  In FW, the most popular fits are longpoint kiting and triple neut.  The most common triple neut fit has an SAAR - however, if you fit a plate and have energy emissions 4 or 5, then you can easily go without a cap booster.  Just make sure to not cap yourself out. When fighting in a tristan, or any drone ship, make sure that you micromanage your drones.  Pull back whichever one is being shot, and scoop it and redeploy it.



[Tristan, triple neut]
Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Experimental 1MN Afterburner I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

Hobgoblin II x5



Minmatar:

 Rifter - How the mighty have fallen.  The rifter was once king of all frigates.  Nowadays though, it is very mediocre.  Somewhat recently, it was given a falloff bonus in exchange for the tracking bonus it used to carry.  It has nice stats and speed, and the falloff bonus is very good, but its base dps is very low.  Even with barrage or 250mm artillery, a merlin does more dps until about 7km.  It can be fit either for scram kiting, or longpoint arty kiting fit.  Arty scram kiting is also somewhat viable.  The arty rifter fit below requires fitting implants, or a t2 ACR rig.  The web is to be used defensively.

[Rifter, AC std]
Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I

[Rifter, arty]
Gyrostabilizer II
Internal Force Field Array I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Warp Disruptor II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I

280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP S
[empty high slot]

Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Ancillary Current Router I






Slasher - The slasher is one of the fastest t1 frigates.  It has +1 mid and -1 low from the rifter, which opens a number of options.  The most common is taking the standard rifter fit up above, dropping the plate, and adding a tracking disruptor.  The TD gives you the option of either scram kiting (even without a range bonus) or mitigating dps by orbiting close with tracking speed disruption.  Other common variations include ASB with scram and web, and dual tank fits with both ASB and SAAR.  In the fit below I have taken the unusual step of downsizing the guns.  200s fit, but the most common place you will be fighting is as close as you can, with tracking speed script loaded in your TD.  In this case, the extra tracking helps.  You dont have enough cap to run the SAAR and neut continuously, but in many situations you do not need to run both.

[Slasher, TD orbit]
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script

150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I


Breacher - Like the dual rep incursus, the dual ASB breacher has a fearsome tank and terrible range control.  However, since rockets have much longer range than blasters, you can at least project out to the edge of scram range, even if you cannot keep people there.  A relatively common (and very fun) fit is ASB + SAAR.  Other variations include only armor tank, kiting with LMLs, and some people even run 10mn ab breachers with LMLs.  When flying the breacher, remember to use your drones!  The breacher fits 2 light drones which is about a third of your dps.  Also, remember that rage rockets apply very poorly to faster ab frigates, even with your web. 

[Breacher, Dual tank]
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Ballistic Control System II

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 50
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Hobgoblin II x2








7 comments:

  1. Can you give us an idea of how to fly the gallente frigs? Ie, so it's the dual rep cap booster incursus has no range control, but with your suggested fit, the ideal way to fly is by ____? Dictating range?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fit he has linked, with the 125mm rails, is going to want to stay at around 7km~8km and scram kite. It would primarily want to engage MWD+close range weapon ships that are setup to catch MWD kiters. It may also have some luck against close-range cruisers like AC Thrashers but it's going to be a close one as you aren't quite far enough away to avoid Barrage ammo.

      If it can successfully catch a MWD-kiter fit and hold it down it'd win, but it'd be a close call of whether or not they can coast out of range before they slow down too much.

      It wants to avoid any ship that's faster than it and likely AB fit, along with many ships that can sport dual webs. Mainly these are... well pretty much anything. It's hard to find a favorable fight in an Incursus, at least in FW space.

      This is all from a FW solo-player's standpoint, but I don't feel like the Incursus offers enough to truly solo with it successfully, especially against the Navy Faction ships that can do everything the Incursus can do, but better.

      The armor repair bonus gives it a niche as a bait ship, though. A long-point and a MWD would keep most ships, unless MWD themselves, tackled and an impressive dual-rep tank setup would make it a pretty heavy tackler for the gang to come beat up on the guy you nabbed.

      Delete
    2. *close range destroyers... going against a cruiser in an Incursus may very well be suicide.

      Delete
    3. Almost all frigate fights are won by dictating the engagement. For instance, a slicer wins by making the fight take place in an area where he can damage you, but you cannot damage him back.

      For the rail incursus, in general, you will want to be around 7k. In certain matchups, you may want to be a little further away and use plutonium. For example, a typical ac thrasher does half the dps at 9k that he does at 7k, while you do 5% less dps at that range compared to antimatter at 7k.

      Delete
    4. Personally on the Railcursus I go 150mm rails, -1 mag stab +1 Overdrive injector II. Gives you the edge in speed you need to dictate range.

      Delete
  2. (Note: I went to correct a typo as an additional reply, and my original comment disappeared. Here is the original comment with fixed typo, maybe the correction will disappear as well, if not, sorry I posted three times)

    The fit he has linked, with the 125mm rails, is going to want to stay at around 7km~8km and scram kite. It would primarily want to engage MWD+close range weapon ships that are setup to catch MWD kiters. It may also have some luck against close-range destroyers like AC Thrashers but it's going to be a close one as you aren't quite far enough away to avoid Barrage ammo.

    If it can successfully catch a MWD-kiter fit and hold it down it'd win, but it'd be a close call of whether or not they can coast out of range before they slow down too much.

    It wants to avoid any ship that's faster than it and likely AB fit, along with many ships that can sport dual webs. Mainly these are... well pretty much anything. It's hard to find a favorable fight in an Incursus, at least in FW space.

    This is all from a FW solo-player's standpoint, but I don't feel like the Incursus offers enough to truly solo with it successfully, especially against the Navy Faction ships that can do everything the Incursus can do, but better.

    The armor repair bonus gives it a niche as a bait ship, though. A long-point and a MWD would keep most ships, unless MWD themselves, tackled and an impressive dual-rep tank setup would make it a pretty heavy tackler for the gang to come beat up on the guy you nabbed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. These are really useful. Hope you plan to do more posts in this vein. Faction frigs next?

    ReplyDelete