Warfare & Tactics

I've spent my first year of eve mining in asteroid belts, and I genuinely enjoyed it for a while. I don't know what was fun about it, but I couldn't wait to get into that next ship that would double my yield, or be able to use that tech II mining upgrade module. Sure enough though, I grew tire of it so I decided to try some PvP. I created this toon, waited about 2 months, training him into what I thought was essential skills to blow things up and got into an Incursus. The adrenaline rush was so exciting... That's when I really discovered how fun and complicated this game was.

Since then I had my successes and failures, mostly the later I admit. And that's why I need some help. I'm in the Gallente militia and I spend most of my time online roaming solo in either an Incursus or a Federation Navy Comet and there is a ship I keep bumping into and that poses me a lot of problems, it's the Caldari Navy Hookbill. So this month I decided I'll try experimenting with my fits and decided that I wouldn't stop until I could put that ship on my killboard. So far this is what hapenned :

Fight 1 : http://gallente.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13283100

I realized that of the 2 differents Hookbill fits I encountered, the dual web fit was the one which posed me the most of trouble. They just orbited me at 8 km out of my blaster range, focusing on my drones and when finally, my 6 hobgoblins were gone, turned their missile on me.
The plan was thus to come hard on them at full speed my AB on overload so I could start the fight within 5km, put the nos on and hope that the dual web plus the nos would drain his cap by the time he could put some distance between us. Unfortunately, The nos did not even cycle once before he was 8km away and sure enough I lost without even hitting him once.

Fight 2 : http://gallente.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13291783

My ability to close the distance being crucial for my strategy, I decided to fit for speed but that wasn't enough, I was doing better and with some manual maneuvering I managed to get it under 6km twice but not long enough for my nos to have any impact. I popped less than 30 second after the fight began.

Fight 3 : http://gallente.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13293081

That one I thought I could win. I decided to drop the nos thing and take advantage of the Comet's speed. The plan here was to orbit at 12km, just out of scram range, counter the usual tracking disruptor, with a tracking computer and enhance my tracking even more with the enhancer and the rigs. That went pretty well at first, I managed to dictate range and had him right in my optimal. By tweaking my speed I was even able to keep the angular speed under 0.2 rad.s-1 which was my limit but with the microwarp drive on, plus the railguns I ran into cap issue very fast and my disruptor disengaged when he was 3/4 into his shield.
I waited for him outside a minor plex, and once his shield had healed, he came back for round two. It went pretty much the same way except that I turned off my microwarp drive before loosing all my cap, and managed to keep the point. He took advantage of it to close the distance and scrambled me. But I had a comfortable start and even at 8km he was right in my optimal. And then **** happened, my overloaded guns burned out.

So what do you guys think. I am going at it the wrong way ? Do you have any advice or suggestions ?

PS : Wow, I wasn't going for such a long post, hope your eyes don't hurt too much.

[EDIT 5/8/12] : Spelling

I like the 'long' post and it shows your logical progression in ship fitting, while I can't see the third fit your description suggests you had mwd and warp disruptor (rather than warp scrambler) and were trying to keep (rail?) range. The problem is you let him mwd or ab around you with no chance to slow his speed to let your own guns track.

I would suggest an ab fit and simply heat the ab and scram and guns and approach with faction antimatter fitted. His rockets can hit you from 14km or under with no regard to your speed so your best bet is to just get up in his face. Overheat your repairer too and turn it on BEFORE you hit armour as well since the repper will fix your damage at the end of the cycle rather than at the start (you get a feel for this at the time).

Let me post my much loved high damage (but ballsy) comet fit. To be honest, the hookbill is a tough opponent, especially if it is fitting a tracking disruptor, hence your best bet is approach rather than orbit since orbiting hits you far worse than it does him.


[Federation Navy Comet, wot i fly naow]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Small Nosferatu II
Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Null S

Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Small Hybrid Ambit Extension I


Hobgoblin II x3
Warrior II x3

THIS^^

The hookbil is a rocket boat and rockets are not affected by transversal while your guns are affected.


Try to keep your speed up and your transversal low. -> The perfect scenario is vwhere you go straight at him and he tries to get away from you! (edit : or vice versa of course...)

The Hookbill is a nasty little frig so I wouldn't feel bad about losing to it. With it's 5 mids it has lots of different fittings and most all of them offer a decent tank. It's probably one of the best Caldari ships that actually has a decent balance of tank and spank on the missile side of the house.

Its going to be very hard to win against a well fit and well equiped rocket dual web hookbill with anything that can fit in a minor plex. ECM drones may be your best bet but its a crap shoot. They might drop his webs and scram allowing you to get on top of him.

I would say that instead of using a tracking computer you would probably be better off using the longer range rail ammo if he turns on his td with an optimal range script. I used to try a kiting comet but had allot of trouble tracking with the rails. Plus if you are set up for kiting the hookbill can switch to javelin rockets that can hit to 18ish. They don't do much damage withtout his webs but usually frigates that are trying to kite outside web scram range won't have much tank and gank either. Especially if they are being tracking disrupted.

The hookbill is slow, take advantage of that and you will win. Also, do not get into range of the rockets..

A comet with rail guns would fair better just for that reason.

Looks like you are going to be getting your kill eventually so hang in there B)

oops