Ships & Modules

Base fit is as follows:
- 4 guns
- 2 TC
- 3 Fed magstabs
- 1 repper (DED is nice but not required, T2 works fine most of times)
- 1 hardener (since I'm lazy quite often it's the Reactive)
- Burst II rig

to that I add:
- 1 Cap Recharger
- 1 Prop/utility
- 1 TE
- 1 DDA/utility
- Cap rig

Highs and implants up to your personal preference.

If PYFA's damage graphs are to be trusted, at 40km Nulls deal about 600900dps (with bastion and range scripts). Incidentally this is the cutoff point between Null and Fed Antimater Rails.

[dps corrected after proper bonuses applied]

No bastion?

i have no firsthand experience with the post rubicon kronos but based on my experience with other highend mission ships, i would propose a fit with a full rack of tracking computers (one of which is replaced by an MWD if and only if you need it), a three or even two slot tank and at least one falloff rig.

You're welcome. I have updated my post with proper number. I think one cap mod can be dropped, I used to replace cap recharger if I needed something else there (e.g. for Epic Arc as some missions require data or relic analyzer) and didn't hit major problems.

Tank, it depends. Of course the better repper the merrier but the nice thing is that actually two low slots (DDA and TE) can be used for utilities so if you know or suspect that things are going to be tough you can always increase your defense. Which brings me to another thing I forgot: the most important module to have is Mobile Depot, you should never undock without it. But I remember you fly Vargur so you probably figured it out already by yourself.

Thanks all for the responses. I've had some time to play around in EFT and I'd like to trouble you guys once more more if that's cool. This is the general offensive defensive setup i have in mind atm. I just kinda want to make sure there aren't any major flaws in the tank or otherwise that will get me killed xD.

[Kronos, fit]
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer x3
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Capacitor Power Relay II <--- might change... dont know yet
Reactive Armor Hardener
Corelum A-Type Medium Armor Repairer <-- NUBIARN influenced. looks like it will work. I dont have alot of exp with armor though

[prop]
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script x3 <--Daniel Plain suggested. Works very, very well on this boat. upgrading all of them to faction offers a negligible dps increase at average mission ranges compared to t2 (~1.2% - ~1.9%). Helps lower the opportunity cost a TE and / or projection rig would have. cheap, versatile, and very effective. I'm sold xD

Neutron Blaster Cannon II x4, Null L
Bastion Module I
Small Tractor Beam II x3

Large Hybrid Burst Aerator II
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I <- I think I had the wrong idea about an ambit I here after playing with hmskrecik's fit in eft. Given various suggestions on projection loadouts, vargur benefits more from an ambit than the kronos within planned engagement ranges with varying projection loadouts. didnt know it was as meh as it was on the kronos xD.


Hardwirings:
EO-605
TA-705
EM-805
SS-905
LH-1005

Some stats and stuff
with everything but tractors and prop running, cap stable @ 35% using null / antimatter

Null ammo
~1177 base dps
~1000 dps @ 40km
~1055 dps @ 40km w/ bastion active (~5.5% dps increase)

Could someone confirm the viability of the tank?

I never tried this combination but my gut feeling is you should be okay. Serpentis, your typical opponent in Gallente space, will shift Reactive to 30/30 therm/kin, so approximating it with 2 meta 0 membranes gives 800 tank with bastion active and almost 300 with inactive. Should be enough.

That said, I'm not quite warmed to the idea of medium repper on a battleship. It's not that it's bad, but it only saves you money spent on the module. Last time I checked, the same class reppers of all sizes consumed the same amount of cap per armor repaired. Medium one uses less powergrid, but Kronos already has a shedload of it. And with medium you need one extra module for repping, so you end up having 4 slot tank. In all honesty, the ship has plenty of slots which can be regarded as utilities(*) so it doesn't hurt at all but still when I have choice, I prefer to put there some fancier stuff.

On the other hand I'm intrigued by this idea of 3xTC. I think I'm gonna give it a try.

(*) In the sense that they can have roles other than offense, defense or mobility, without compromising ship's performance.

one more thing i struggle with on my paladin: what to do with the spare low slot? more tank is usually not necessary, but a DC makes you more gankproof, allowing for some more bling. a signal amplifier increases targeting range and speed. a drone damage amp, well, amps drone damage. i even thought about a nanofiber for faster alignment.

the fit looks good to me, with the bastion module there really is no need to make any maurader into a loot piñata, t2 med repper + bastion + reactive = fine.

remember now you can take a space yut with you so is you are worried about tanking with such low module count, take a med can and put in it 2 large t2 reppers one of each hardner and a med rack of cap rechargers, so if the triggers or tank or whatever starts to go wrong just refit whilst in bastion for max tank, but really its not needed, but it does offer a comfort factor, especially if your skills are a tad lower.

as for the ops implant lis yes this is defineatley the way to go in my opinion with a bastion maurader use a t2 fit and then spend the isk you would have spent on high end modules to finance a decently implanted missioning clone. again why be a loot piñata?

remember if you have drone on aggressive and someone attacks your mtu then your drone might shoot them then your into consentual pvp!!!

I`m currenly running paladin with no problems even on blockade when triggers gone wrong [ kronos same idea really ]

4 t2 tachs - gleam
1 bastion
3 t2 salvagers [mtu gets chucked out soon as I bastion and i only salvage whilst I`m in bastion so no lost time]

2 t2 tracking enahncers
2 t2 target painters

4 t2 heat sinks
1 reactive hardner
1 t2 med repper
1 t2 drone damge mod

2 t2 ccc for rigs [ I like the extra cap if I want max tank - plus other rigs give diminsioned returns with the other modules]

I flown mine like this before the changes:

[Kronos, L4 Rails]
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Core C-Type Large Armor Repairer

Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed Script
Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed Script
Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
Gist A-Type 100MN Microwarpdrive

425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Drone Link Augmentor II
Centum A-Type Medium Remote Armor Repair System
Small Tractor Beam II

Large Hybrid Burst Aerator II
Large Anti-Explosive Pump I


Hobgoblin II x5
Salvage Drone I x5
Garde II x3

DPS at 40km was 1060, including 3 garde II. 1149 at 30km, both numbers with my SS-906(I haven't used the slot 10 for hybrid dps since 2010).

Imps:

NN-605(5% more base speed)
MR-705(5% more tracking)
Zor's Hyper Link(5% more mwd speed)
SS-906(6% more turret damage)
I currently use a FN mindlink for slot 10(the agility and armor bonus is however nice for dual boxing while moving BS around, while you don't need the extra armor while dualboxing it is nice to have vs suizide gankers)

I found it ok before the patch, it had a few flaws(drone dps, could have been a bit faster) but overall it was ok(even compared to my mach, the punch at med range was a noticeable better and the 90% web was nice). As I did get some Gallente LP for the mindlinks a few months back, I it did actually rather well. I flown it 2 times since the patch, but I found it awful in both cases since the lack of the 90% web is a pain in the ass if you warp into lots of close stuff(like the serpentis extravaganza 3. pocket or vengeance vs angels) and really shows the terrible tracking of rails, the lower speed is quite noticeable when I have it next to my navy apoc(both where at the same speed before, this was with 2 speed implants for the Kronos already) and the reduced sentry dps at medium range is bad(it was already problematic before).

As for blaster fittings, it couldn't even compete against a proper rail fitting before the patch in applied dps over a bigger sample of missions, while I was comparing it on sissi. Having a mach sitting next to it in the hangar, it is rather underwhelming compared to it because of being over 600m/s slower, relaying on a mod that reduces your speed to 0 and the applied dps isn't even better(even with slightly higher base numbers) compared to my armor mach(simply because of the lack of range with anything else than null, what produces rail dps numbers at worse range, the reload times when people switch to void, what is plain terrible effective tracking at void optimal thx to the lack of a 90% web).

Overall it was ok before the changes(however, slightly worse than other marauders) and it rots in my hangar since rubicon.



I flown the Paladin with a med rep and 2 EANMs years before bastion(it is super easy compared to doing the same on a Abaddon), for the simple reason that it wasn't fit able with T2 Tachs, T2 damage rig and ab/mwd before the changes to beams. Comparing my old pre rail buff Kronos to my old Paladin is like comparing my Pest to my Macharial(one of both just ganks a lot harder and needs to tank a lot less, especially if you directly compared it to a Paladin in Amarr space) and even now the Paladin is still like one tech level above the Kronos, thx to instant ammo switching, no real resistance holes, better base dps and the miles more powerful range bonus(because optimal on laser hulls scales linear and is super good, while falloff on hybrid hulls is rather pointless for rails and doesn't give blaster setups useful ranges).



You only need a few cycles while using a EANM and a large rep per mission, however I would vote for a large rep, since it can rep more while moving the hull(outside bastion) and not being that restricted to get forced into bastion by the incoming dps, if you 2 slot tank.

That's funny because mine didn't. It is noticeable slower with rails(speed to reposition, sentry dps) and it lost tons applied dps at close and the anti frig option(snipe frigs at 18km with a overheated web, never wast time with light drones). Many npc hulls orbit at 37-50km, what the rail Kronos could deal with far better, most Cruisers and BCs die in 2 volleys, no matter if you use blasters or rails(rof is not that different after adding input lag) and even in Angel space I found the 90% web + 425mm more relay able compared Neutrons with Null for damage application across the board(because it is a a lot slower than my mach).

That leaves me following possibility's:

- I'm super bad flying a mobile hull watching range, ammo choice, transversal and optimizing my movement(what I doubt since I fly my navy Apoc and Mach in the same fashion with quite good times for L4)
- I'm super good with rail/sentry fittings while other people are bad it(unlikely, however whenever I see people suggesting blasters outside very very specific pve scenarios I could scream)
- People get better results by the massive range buff of blasters and the much higher tracking compared to rails, what is a lot less punishing for sub optimal positioning, ammo choices and piloting, while being not more effective overall if you get this right with rails(honestly I think it is this)