Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Interdicting

Its been a while since I've looked at a ship class with no experience or strong expectations on how to fit it. I pretty much ignored interdictors since I could never find myself prioritizing Destroyers V over another skill until very recently, especially with the Heavy Interdictor in my arsenal.

So now that I can actually fly the Flycatcher, I found myself at a loss for fits beyond the unique-to-class Interdiction Sphere Launcher. For the uninitiated, while Tech I destroyers are designed for dealing with frigate classed hulls with lots of small weapons with bonuses to tracking, the Interdictor class is designed primarily for the ability to launcher warp disruption bubbles with any combat ability secondary. (That may not have been the devs' intent, but it is certainly the result.)

So I checked some corp mate ship fittings and played around and came up with two setups for slightly different purposes.

The first setup has a single goal: bubble while surviving. To this end we have the double-bubble setup with two interdiction sphere launchers so that you can drop a bubble and jump through a gate to bubble the other side (or alternatively try to cover a large region gate). The cloak gives some tactical flexibility and since this ship is weaponless the cloak's negative impact on targeting speed is ignorable. The disruptor is for those occasions where the bubble is overkill and perhaps detrimental to your own fleet.

The second setup is more combat oriented for small gang roaming, with some anti-frigate DPS and higher top speed and agility, along with a web for pesky fast moving targets.
Note: supposed to be CN Thorn rockets.

Opinions / comments are welcome as I'm not very experienced with this class and would love to hear what people do with them.

Footnote: I can also fly the Gallente Eris interdictor but taking a look at its split weapon system, split weapon bonuses,  and anemically low CPU made me realize that only the desperate would fly that ship. Even with a Co-Processor II I was unable to fit a MWD, cloak, and two interdiction sphere launchers. Going with a combat fit looked a bit better but its still lacklustre and might as well go with the flycatcher. If anyone has a good Eris fit, please share.

7 comments:

  1. I'd fit a short point on both fits instead of a long, since the initial tackle should already be covered by the bubble. Having a short helps a lot preventing gate crashing, and it can grab that pesky vaga trying to burn off. see if the then newly freed up cpu can help your tank.

    ReplyDelete
  2. With the new rocket changes the flycatcher is certainly an interesting ship.
    I've been toying around with a few fits I'll show you when you're next online.

    Mush.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Concerning your first screenshot:

    It's a bit offtopic, however important to your ship if you want to maximize it's effectiveness. Fitting Low Friction + Aux Thrusters is less effective than fitting 2x Polycarbon Engine Housing. Happy EFT-ing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OOps, that Low Friction Nozzle Joints was a mistake. Darn writing blog posts late at night :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous8:25 am

    Kirith one thing I always keep in mind is that they are basically made of paper mache. The cloak can be effective BUT in close proximity to targets it will simply not work, very effective if getting ready to spring a trap BUT not so good as an escape. hence the comment about paper mache.

    My 2 cents.

    ~M

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Eris is a bit difficult to fly/fit so I would highly recommend sticking with the Flycatcher. This is coming from an Eris pilot BTW. I only fly the Eris since I don't have any of the other racial frigates trained up. With that said, here's a fit I've been using with moderate success

    [Eris, dangman4ever's Dictor]
    Overdrive Injector System II
    Overdrive Injector System II
    Nanofiber Internal Structure II
    Damage Control II

    1MN MicroWarpdrive II
    Medium Shield Extender II

    Prototype Cloaking Device I
    Interdiction Sphere Launcher I, Warp Disrupt Probe
    75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
    75mm Gatling Rail II, Spike S
    75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
    75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
    75mm Gatling Rail II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
    [empty high slot]

    Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
    Small Core Defence Field Extender I

    Not nearly as useful as a double bubble fit but still rather useful when there's no other dics available.

    As for what to do with a dic, I'm not exactly an expert on them (only 12 kills in about 6 ops with the Eris), but here's what I've done, seen or heard about:

    - Say your fleet is being chased by a superior fleet. Assuming that you're just ahead of that enemy fleet, you warp to your out gate at 30K or 50K and pop a bubble right there while burning to the out gate. Instant stop bubble right there.

    - During gate camps where you know the enemy has eyes on you, keep the dictor cloaked up until the enemy pops in and the FC calls for a bubble. Surprises quite a few fleets that way

    - If you're in a system with a station, you can warp to the station at range from a stargate, known jump bridge, known POS, belt area, or wherever the enemy might come from and pop a bubble. Another instant stop bubble.

    - Normal gate camp where you pop a bubble when a target jumps in.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hmm dictor talk without mentioning of the sabre?? as for the flycatcher the first fit is standard for all interdictors with only slight alterations between the races. as for the second I havent flown the flycatcher since the rocket buff but looking at the eft numbers it lacks the dps and fittings that makes the sabre the best interdictor out there.

    as for the eris about the only fit that makes sense is that of fleet double bubble:

    [Eris, fleet tackler]
    Co-Processor II
    Co-Processor II
    Co-Processor II
    Damage Control II

    1MN MicroWarpdrive I
    Medium Shield Extender II

    Interdiction Sphere Launcher I, Warp Disrupt Probe
    Interdiction Sphere Launcher I, Warp Disrupt Probe
    Prototype Cloaking Device I
    125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, EMP S
    [empty high slot]
    [empty high slot]
    [empty high slot]
    [empty high slot]

    Small Auxiliary Thrusters I
    Small Auxiliary Thrusters I


    Hobgoblin II x1

    oh and for anyone looking to fly these as manasi said their paper thin so keep spares.

    ReplyDelete