Wormholes

How common is it to fly battleships for small WH-based PvP roams? I usually see far more BC-and under-sized ships for what I assume are reasons of mass, but I may just not have enough data to judge the popularity of BS hulls in WH pew. In, say, smaller gangs of 6 and under, would it battleships be a good asset? I'm considering a Machariel since it packs a punch and is quite fast all things considering, or possibly a Tempest Fleet Issue since, like many WH entities, we generally run armor fleets and the TFI has a nice tank for less ISK than a Mach, seems a little more cost-efficient. I have bad lazor skills at the time so Amarr battleships aren't for me right now, but an Abaddon might also be a nice cheap option.

The reason I'm thinking of a battleship is that it seems like in a small gang of 6 and under the high DPS and good tank will be really good assets, and the mass and mobility drawbacks won't matter as much. Am I wrong? Also, in case I'm not totally crazy and stupid about it, is a Tempest Fleet Issue a good BS for small armor gangs, or am I missing some obvious reason I shouldn't choose it as my go-to WH small armor gang BS?

EDIT: As pointed out below, scanres is an issue but I should have mentioned that we almost always fly with a dedicated sneaky tackler for those surprise ganks Battleships would be for finishing the deed.

They are great for cycling WHs though.

Except that they can't warp cloak so getting on grid with the drake undetected would be tricky.

Its more than just mass. The real king of w-space is the t3 strategic cruiser. They can have much better tank than the battleships (with a much lower sig radius as well), and with ships like a proteus, the DPS is not far off from a battleship. Add in the fact that they use medium class weapons, and many times the EFFECTIVE dps will actually be a wash since you're shooting targets easier with the higher tracking from a T3 compared to a battleship.

Granted there are always roles for battleships in wh pvp, but generally they belong to the faction ships (Bhaalgorns for epic neuting, the occasional vindi for pure DPS). But if someone wanted to join fleet and was asking to bring say a megathron or tempest, I would tell them bring a proteus or a loki any day of the week instead, even if mass wasnt an issue.

As mentioned mass, the pace of WH PVP (often it will come down to who can react the quickest so a lumbering BS hull doesn't help there) and sig radius all make them less attractive for general PVP boats in wormholes, battleships will often still be used for POS bashes typically dominix or the amarr BS.

With the exception of the Abaddon, most BS have much weaker RR tanks than T2 and Tech 3 ships. Their large sig size makes them take full damage of most weaponry and lower resist profile and slow movement makes them more likely to die.

Bhaalgorns are used because they are effective anti-capital ships but they are fairly vulnerable to being primary, despite fitting them for massive tank.


Vindicators have very high dps, but the mass could be better used for 10 proteus.

Megathrons are great against people who obsessively hug wormholes. Enemies demand to be in blaster range? Give 'em blasters!

Seen Megathrons of various class dominate in WH pvp

..well WH PVP on actual wormholes, never ambush..as many have said.. they are slow as balls to lock the common target.