Ships & Modules

Hi,

So first, don't tell me take a cruiser, battlecruiser, battleship, this is not the point of this post.

I like fast ships, I like the look of the amarr T1 frigate Executioner, and its T2 counterpart, the Interceptors crusaders or malediction. I don't like the look of the amarr assault ships though...

So my question is... with good skills, good training, is this possible to do security missions in an interceptor, and what level of missions? Or are those ships pvp only? Can we speed tank in them against the battlecruiser and battleships we find in those missions, and will we have enough firepower to take them down?

In fact I don't like slow ships ;)

Thanks

Indeed the main issue I see is the dps, because someone said we need 200 dps to break a bs tank, and I can't see how to have 200 dps in an interceptor...

And what about L3 missions? ;) But they have some BS too...

Interceptors are mostly tacklers usually? To warp scramble enemy ships, or, for the crusader, web them? This is what the propulsion jamming bonus is, right? To use webifiers?

What kind of Amarr ship I can use to do L4 efficiently? I say Amarr because I like their look, even if I'm gallantean ;) Harbinger?

I am not going to say that you can't do lvl4 with ceptors, i will only say that theese are fragile ships (low EHP) against, let's say, 20 rats. 10 frigs, 5 cruisers and 5 BS. You'll have a hard day with any small ship. A Blaster Taranis (combat ceptor) even for a T2 ship it has no resis, even if you put a small armor rep it will have a crappy tank too. Yes, it has speed, but when orbiting a rat, you may speedtank that rat, but another one will eventually put a good shoot at you, from behind (they'll get nice tracking from you sometimes due to your orbit).

I guess the best bet may be a ranged approach and kitting. (Less dps and more time spent)

Shield tank it instead of armor tanking it, leave the lows for damage mods and a damage control. Gallente ships get more hull than armor, and in the case of the taranis it's hull HP is roughly 91% of the combined shield and armor HP, so it'd make sense to fit a DC, and with it pumping out solid DPS already a pair of damage mods makes for a good chaser. That leaves you stuck shield tanking.

[Taranis, New Setup 1]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
F85 Peripheral Damage System I

1MN Afterburner II
Small Shield Booster II
EM Ward Field II

Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
[empty high slot]

Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Processor Overclocking Unit I


Hobgoblin II x2




Honestly, the abaddon doesn't necessarily require "very good cap skills" unless you're referring to the player's ability to manage their capacitor. When starting out doing L4s new players will generally want to over-tank their ships, and of all the Amarr ships the abaddon is probably best suited for that. Furthermore it has the highest power grid and, more importantly, CPU output of all the Amarr battleships making it much easier to fit. The damage bonus lends itself well to a "shoot them when you have the cap. to" style of fighting which tends to be paired with new(er) players wanting perma-run tanks.

The biggest problem with the abaddon isn't the capacitor, it's the cost. Over the last year the armageddon and apocalypse have jumped roughly 50% in price while the abaddon's price has nearly doubled. When you combine that with the fact that it needs best or nearly best named lasers to help off-set the lack of a capacitor bonus and it can be a hard ship for new players to afford to fly. That, however, does not change my opinion that it's the best ship for them to fly.

I won't touch the legion for L4s though. I use mine to blitz L2s and L3s for rep grinding. I could see it doing L4s, but it would be neither fast nor efficient. Frankly the proteus and the tengu seem like better ships for L4 missions.

Personally, I disagree. From my experience I've found the apocalypse far easier to fit a large, cap stable tank with guns than the abaddon. The abaddon can fit a heavier tank, and deal heavier damage, but the apoc has a much easier time doing both while staying cap stable, and projects its damage better as well. These things go together to make it a very friendly ship to fit when you have low skills. I would start with the apoc and then move to the abaddon or geddon later if it suits your preference.

As for interceptors in level 4s, I'll mention that you shouldn't ignore the effect of neuts. While you can't properly "cap out" a rat, a neut (or nos if I'm not mistaken) will significantly reduce its chances of running its repper, which means it has less tank. Interceptors will be miserably slow either way, and when you're slow enough that the rat's tank is applicable a neut can be a huge help. You'll have to try it out for yourself, I don't know the specifics and I don't know if anyone does, because it's generally easier to just grab a bigger ship with more dps and brute force your way through.

Neuts can also be useful to keep in mind when you pull one of the missions that send you up against a heavily tanked super rat at the end. The main reason they're hard to break is that their repper cycles very frequently for a huge amount, and if you have a utility slot sitting around a neut can knock that down and break their tank.

To my great misfortune, I know this to be true.

Keep in mind that a lot of lvl 4 missions have multiple frigates or even long range towers that will try to web you. When depending on speed to stay alive that is really bad news.
I do understand where you're coming from, I like to try out now and then to see how far I can get with an interceptor/assault ship/destroyer in missions. Silly missions like Sansha Spies you can do easily in a coercer, it just takes time...

You're quite right about the apocalypse having an easier time and doing simultaneous tank and gank and remaining cap-stable throughout it all, but that's where the problem is. Wanting ships to be 100% cap-stable is a bad habit that a lot of new players get into. Just so long as their tank is 100% cap-stable and they have enough recharge to let them fire their guns long enough to kill at least 2-3 (preferrably battle)ships before needing to stop it's good enough. It also gets them working with the idea that cap stability isn't a requirement for mission running that much sooner and doing so in a format that's "safe" for them.

Of course another advantage of the abaddon is that while the damage bonus is nice it isn't critical, and it's the only bonus you'd lose by not using lasers. The abaddon can quite easily fit a full rack of 800mm ACs, get some decent range out of them, and have a higher raw DPS value than with beam lasers which, at least early on, are more practical than pulse lasers for new players. It can also fit a heavier maximum tank even if it isn't necessarily a cap-stable tank. With the apocalypse you lose both ship bonuses by switching to ACs to minimize capacitor issues.

Bear in mind I'm not suggesting that new players should further overload their already (probably) frazzled brains and training queues by trying to fit in projectile weapons on top of all the other stuff Amarr pilots need, I'm just pointing out that the abaddon has a side/niche role open to newer players and that it can do well which the apocalypse is significantly less suited for.

Totally! In fact, the best way to choose a ship for a particular job is not by carefully judging the merits of that ship's functional ability to complete said job efficiently, but instead how prettyful you think it looks.

/troll

No. Take out ships meant for the job to do the job.

Not L3 cargo delivery as it requires up to 4500 m3 of cargo hold ;)


Indeed, this is like in real life ;) To go in holidays with my children perhaps I should buy a truck, this would be the most practicable thing to carry all the luggages... but no, I prefer having a smaller car than that ^^