Eagle Has Landed

After the failure of the Navy Vexor I opened up the ship simulator and put together an Eagle Heavy Assault Cruiser fit and sent it off to my Acquisition Manager to retrieve it for me.

[Eagle, Pharlap]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Assault Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II

Large Ancillary Shield Booster
50MN Microwarpdrive II
Large Shield Extender II
Stasis Webifier II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Optical Compact Tracking Computer

200mm Railgun II
200mm Railgun II
200mm Railgun II
200mm Railgun II
200mm Railgun II

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



Hobgoblin II x5

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M x1430
Navy Cap Booster 200 x42
Tracking Speed Script x1


I went with 200mm as the 250mm are more power hungry and I don't think needed for this use case, and I threw a Medium Ancillary Shield Booster more of as a crisis responder than a constant tank. I tried a couple Tier 2 "agitated" abyss pockets and it completed them successully, but not easily. The main problem is not the tank, which held up just fine, but the enemy ships that got under my guns (i.e. closer than 10km) and even with the web I could not track them which meant either sending my drones out to engage and watching for them to switch targets to them, or turning on my MWD to speed away from them and lower the transversal as they gave chase.

But by god, watch out for that terrifying red grid of the edge of the pocket.

A solvable problem, but frustrating.

I feel like missiles would be a more flexible solution so I'm considering trying this fit for a Cerberus:

[Cerberus, **Abyss Cerb]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Assault Damage Control II

50MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Amplifier II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II

Medium Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer II
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II



Warrior II x3

Scourge Fury Heavy Missile x2000
Scourge Precision Heavy Missile x2000
Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Missile x5000
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile x5240
Nanite Repair Paste x100

Less drone firepower, but the missiles should still apply damage on the close frigs. I think.

I'll try the Eagle a few more times before switching though.

HACing Around

So, Odyssey 1.1 deployed today and overall I'm not overly excited for it.

What I mean to say is I liked a lot of the changes included in the patch and I'm curious about the applications of the new HACs, Command Ships, nosferatu and repper changes; but overall its not going to change much for me.

One of the major downsides of Faction Warfare for me is that there is not much call for flying bigger tech 2 ships. You see Assault Frigs and Interceptors, but beyond that the violent and sudden nature of low sec combined with the decent cost effectiveness of Tech 1 cruisers after the rebalance dictates that most fleets call for Vexors over Ishtars and Caracals over Cerberuses.

Now, the HACs have been updated for the Tiericide initiative and they may see more use in the Faction Warfare meta, especially since they can enter the same plexes as their Tech I predecessors can. But as long as the cost of the hull for these ships is more than ten times as much I suspect they will continue to be fringe players overall.

That being said, here are the ships I'm most excited about.

Cerberus

HAM Cerberus

The thought of having Heavy Assault Missiles that fly out out over 40km makes me a little giddy. This ship is a straight up skirmisher meant to run away while heaving missiles to the aft as she goes. Probably some better fits with Heavy Launchers but I like the "ouch" factor that the shorter ranged missiles present.

Ishtar

Ishtar

 The Ishtar is the main reason I started training Gallente all those years ago in the first place. The flexibility of a massive drone bay like the Dominix in a smalled and harder form? Yes please! The changes in this patch have only increased the drone applications of this ship and I'm so glad I already have one in the hanger.

No, its not fast, but when it catches something in the double webs it doesn't have to be. God help you if you have to try and run away though.

Tomorrow I'll take a look at the command ships and see what appeals there.