Warfare & Tactics

Am I the only one or is anybody else thinking that interceptors are the complete loosers of the recent frigate buf. Execpt maybe from the Taranis most of them suffer either from too less damage output or from too less medium slots. What do you think?

Interceptors are fine they still intercept things better than t1 frigs do to microwarpdrive sig radious reduction/Speed. Ships in EVE are not designed around 1v1s. Interceptors fulfill their role nicely in fleets and small gangs.

Agree completely. T2 Inties still have a very clear role that they excel in over their T1 counterparts. Just because you now have T1 options doesn't make the T2 options a complete waste.

The huge sig bloom means that anything other ships that are further away from the target you're tackling will completely destroy you as well as getting munched on hard by drones. Their survivability doesn't even compare to Interceptors.

Also, I hate TD/light missile kiting Condors. That is all.

I am definitely done flying interceptors solo. I'll still keep an instalock stilly and a pretty much unarmed claw for pointing stuff when I am in a gang but thats it. Not going to waste my cash on em.

Tbfh, they are kinda useless.

For null, for the same cost you can get a dictor, which allthough has smaller tackle radius, benefits from AOE tackle.

For low, it only works if your target is a legitimate one or not in sight of sentries and even then there are many things to consider. Sure it can do huge speed and keep up with what's tackled, but if the rest of the fleet can't keep up to apply dps, then it's still p useless.

Not only that, but every day I see people on the forums or in various ig chats telling noobs "sure your frig can be useful, a fleet always needs tackle". Fact of the matter is... your fleet kinda doesn't need that kind of tackle unless it wants to get a gank. In a fleet fight a ceptor tackilng somethign makes fuckall difference, one would hope that fleet members point random ships in enemy fleet and hold them there. In a shield rangey fleet obviously the lachesis will be the beast of choice, so again ceptor doesn't have much use and it will die to enemy's neuts, smartbombs and warriers in about 5 seconds anyways.


TL;DR : In fact ceptors are useless, only good for pointing single targets for ganks, and even then with severe limitations (speed of the ceptor's fleet, valid target, etc.)

Interceptors are still good at what they are supposed to do.

Tackle.

They should not be leaps and bound more powerful than t1 combat frigs.

One of the unique uses Interceptors have are getting out in front of a burning fleet to provide warp ins for beefier tackle. They are also less intimidating than seeing Lachesis or Proteus in the enemy fleet and help your gang's "engage-ability". Otherwise, there are better choices for fleet tackle.

Actually, not so much. We were running scrams on our interceptors. The lachesis or Proteus would not have been able to get close enough to apply short scrams to their snipers before getting scrammed or webbed by THEIR recons, and probably would've just melted to getting primaried by 12+ sniper battlecruisers for flying directly at them. Interceptors still provide a much safer and quicker way to apply tackle and provide warp-ins to fleet members. Sure they don't have the range or the tank, but I think anyone with any experience in 1v1, small gang, or anything up to medium gang PvP understands the importance of speed.

Fun fact: Their Lachesis died that fight. My Jag lived.

Edit: And for the record, I'm not saying the Lachesis is useless, or that interceptors and fast tackle frigates are somehow uber-god tackle machines, but seriously, different ships for different roles. I personally don't feel comfortable without at least 1 competetent interceptor pilot in my fleet. I enjoy flying a Jag for that role because it's a happy medium between heavy and fast, but without a good interceptor you're going to have problems vs certain fleet doctrines.

A lone combat inty doesn't provide much more solo performance than it's T1 counterpart. However, you should see how well a squad of them drops support ships (eg. ecm boats) on a busy grid, with other members of the opposing fleet trying to pick them off before they do.

Interceptors aren't supposed to have DPS. They're tackle ships, after all. Their speed is more than adaquate tank for them, so EHP isn't an issue either.

The only problem with interceptors that I can see (judging by the hundreds I've lost...) is that they are far too easy to kill for large ships. Oracles, for example, can insta almost any inty from 40km with scorch. For those keeping score, that's battleship-sized guns tracking a ship doing 5km/s. Something is horribly wrong there. But it's not an easy fix: Interceptors already have a small sig radius, so the problem is that big guns hit small targets too easily. The only viable fix I can see would be to do what was done with titan guns, make them suffer a significant damage penalty when firing upon small vessels.

I'd love to see a situation where an interceptor and other small-sig, fast ships only had to worry about drones, destroyers, and other frigtes (and bombs, because I'm a terrible pilot and fly straight into them). Being one shot by HAC's and battleships makes them, as has been said in this thread, useless in large fights.