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.

Eagle's Niche

Ripard was going to do an Eagle FOTW post but opted for a Cerberus fit instead (one very similar to mine from last week) because compared to the Eagle "there are sooo many other ship classes in that attack profile at that range that I was kind of hoping for something that would blow me away a little". Agreed.

Let's take a quick look at the Eagle, shall we?

Essentially, if you are going to fit rails you are pretty much limiting yourself to fighting at extreme sniper ranges. Here's a fit I came up with:

Rail Eagle

I went with the 200mm rails as I found I could not get two shield extenders without needing a power grid upgrade with the 250mm railguns. This gives me a 30km optimal and 459 DPS with faction antimatter but low tracking even with the tracking computer fitted with tracking speed script. And that's the best case scenario; if a ship gets closer your low tracking speed will kill you and things farther away will require you downgrade your ammo and sacrifice your DPS.

Yes, you could go for uber range sniping with sensor boosters and 250mm rails with spike ammo but that is such a niche application with limited PvP opportunities that its almost not worth considering.

Let's look at a blaster fit Eagle. Perhaps the optimal range bonuses makes the blasters on this ship more flexible and dangerous?

Blaster Eagle

With faction antimatter and three Mag Stabs, the DPS "jumps" to around 526 and 5 km optimal with 6 km falloff. Colour me unimpressed. Yes, the 58K EHP tank is nice, but the speed is horrible at under 1500 m/s with MWD and a 6 sec align time with MWD off.

Compare this with a shield (!) Deimos:

Deimos

With its considerable drones put to damage use, it can achieve over 800 DPS with 2.25 km optimal and 9 km falloff, can be fit in low slots for a speed approaching over 2300 m/s and align time of 6 seconds with MWD on. The tank is far less impressive of course, but that is beside the point. If you fit the Eagle for blasters you are outclassed in damage and mobility by several other Tech II and Tech I ships. Its as if someone looked at the Blaster Moa configuration and asked themselves, "how can we make it worse?".

So to sum up, the Eagle's advantage of big tank in short range combat is negated by its slowness and anemic damage, and negated in long range combat by its extremely long range capabilities. The only niche it fits in , the Eagle's Nest if you will, is ignoring its tank and going full out snipe fit and hoping things will move slow enough or get tackled enough so you can hit them.

If you really want blasters on a Caldari cruiser, save yourself the ISK and buy a few Moas instead:

Blaster Moa