Introduction to Cruisers: Amarr, Caldari

T1 cruisers narrowly won a strawpoll for the next topic, so thats what this, and the next post will be.  Also, I have gone back and added tags to fitting posts, so if you want to find all merlin fits, you can just search the merlin tag, or atron tag for atron fits, etc.  As usual, example fits are shown with minimal drones and ammo.  Always fill your dronebay and bring proper ammo.

Compared to frigates, cruisers have longer range, a little more damage and more tank.  They however take more damage, and have terrible capacitors.  Cruisers that expect to be running mwd often (like kiters) usually need a cap booster.  Mwd cruisers are very vulnerable to large guns.  Afterburning cruisers, particularly armor ab cruisers have small enough signatures and high enough speeds that they can mitigate a lot of damage from large guns.  T2 armor ab cruisers form a doctrine called ahacs (armor Heavy assault cruisers).
 

Amarr:

Omen: 

The omen is the amarr "attack" cruiser.  It is fairly fast.  Lasers are the best weapon for turning range control into tracking, so the omen is a good kiting cruiser.  As a brawler, its tank is lacking, and it is extremely vulnerable to neuts, but you will often find it fit with a 1600 plate and scram.  The fit below is a 26km optimal scorch-kiter.  This ship cannot be flown without t2 lasers.  Don't forget about your drones.  With no web and no neut, shaking a frigate that has you hard tackled becomes very difficult, and light drones are the only thing you have to save you. 

[Omen, kite1]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Medium Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 800
Warp Disruptor II

Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M

Medium Energy Locus Coordinator I
Medium Energy Locus Coordinator I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

Rest of the fits after the break

Maller:

The maller is the amarr combat cruiser.  It has enhanced tank compared to the omen, but without the omen's laser cap use bonus, the maller's capacitor is even worse.  With poor skills, you will cap out just by firing your guns, and running nothing else.  As the tankiest t1 cruiser, it is often found in medium sized gangs, paired up with augorors to repair and supply capacitor to it.  The fit below has a web instead of a cap booster.  In gangs that already have enough webs, a cap booster would be better.  The choice between afterburner and mwd depends on the type of fleet, and is up to the FC. With an afterburner you become much more tanky through both mitigation and higher resists but you lose almost all mobility and are stuck puttering around at under 600m/s.

As a solo ship, people occasionally fly dual armor rep mallers, but the lack of a web and the poor tracking of lasers can make things quite difficult when fighting frigates or certain cruisers.

[Maller, 1]
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Caldari:

Moa:

The moa is the caldari equivalent of the maller.  In large fleets, it is usually fit with railguns.  For solo and small gang, it is usually fit with blasters, since it is not fast enough to control range.  The fit below is dual web, with an oversized ancillary shield booster.  This gives it a lot of tank, and good ability to hit small targets.  The x-l ASB can be hard to control; it boosts 1/3rd of your shields each cycle.  It is critical to not waste any of the ASB ammo by boosting when at full or close to full shields.  When fighting other cruisers, you will usually want to brawl in with void loaded.  Remember to always heat the asb (unless it will burn something out).  As a cruiser that uses cap based guns, fighting a ship with a medium or multiple small neuts can result in your guns being shut off.  Dropping a web for a cap booster is possible, but requires a fitting implant even with maxed fitting skills.

If you do end up in a brawl against a neuting ship, and you do not think you will be able to either disengage or kill it before you are capped out, you can right click your microwarpdrive and offline it.  This removes the capacitor penalty, which increases your capacitor recharge and can give you a few more shots.  You cannot turn it back online without either docking or being at 95%+ capacitor, so offlining the mwd means you are going all-in.  A standard blue pill booster makes your tank even better, but you must be even more careful of over-boosting.

[Moa, Dual web]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Co-Processor II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400

Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Void M

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Caracal:

The caracal is the caldari missile cruiser.  It is close to the speed of the omen, and with its missile range bonus, can kite well even with heavy assault missiles.  Unfortunately, as a medium missile platform, its options are limited.  Rapid light missiles are very niche and have huge reload time and low sustained damage, and heavy missiles are complete garbage for anything but large fleets due to their low damage and even worse damage application.  With heavy assault missiles, you still outrange even the omen.  With the dual rigor rigs, you apply damage fairly well, doing around 150-200 dps against a webbed mwd frigate.  The web should be mainly used for defense, to help keep tacklers off you.

Default ammo is faction - rage lacks application on most ships, and javelin shoots far beyond your point range.  Note that the caracal no longer is locked to kinetic damage - choose your missile type based on your target!

The fit below requires either a powergrid implant, or downgrading the shield extender to a meta shield extender (use fs-9).  In this ship, you should carry a standard crash booster to help kill tacklers.  Because of how missiles work, fighting linked frigates or interceptors, or getting tackled by an afterburning frigate is going to end poorly for you.  In a gang, some people should drop the web in favor of a target painter. 

[Caracal, New Setup 1]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Large Shield Extender II
Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Warp Disruptor II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile

Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I