Warfare & Tactics

SB is the right choice for FW missioning until you're comfortable in a t3 cruiser.

For fleet action, talk to your corp FCs about what they want out of what you can fit, while some sort of fast tackle isn't bad it's not really as useful as it was two years ago thanks to t3s. Speaking of which, join an actual FW corp not the NPC one, you'll find a more hospitable and helpful atmosphere with better fleets, pretty much guaranteed.

For solo, keep in mind there are a lot of pimp-fit faction frigs flying around FW areas, purpose fit for lowsec with AB/web/scram, which you'll have to be careful with. Hawk isn't a half bad choice to start with, you'll lose a lot of kills to your inability to control range but you should be able to win most 1v1 fights where people stick around, and you'll get a feel for the characteristics of the ships you're fighting without dying too much to auto-lose fights (like almost anything vs dramiel). Here's an example fit, too slow to make kills stick against a dramiel/hookbill but tanks hard enough to force them to disengage, and will kill a whole lot else at the frig level (probably not a daredevil or ishkur, though).

[Hawk, active rep]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II

1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II
Small Shield Booster II
Small Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 400

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket
Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Scorch S

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Sounds like you're a caldari pilot, so hard to go wrong with DRAKES. Lots and lots of DRAKES.

For Hawk I prefer the Medium Shield Booster fit for active tank. MSE fits are viable too. They're very much doable for solo (lots of people will underestimate you and engage you), but they're (relatively) slow as hell, so you'll have to get the enemy to engage you and not vice versa. Dual web Hookbills are nice too, as are neutron Harpys.

Are we talking about random blobbing or actual FW with plex fights?

For plexing assault frigs are pretty much useless gun fodder.

Use pirate faction frigs or thrasher for minor / medium / major plexes

pirate faction cruisers for mediums and major plexes

Drakes for major plexes

So as you see it is for new players really, you will need pirate factions ships for serious fights against other players in plexes.

No confirmed changes, just speculation and dev interest as seen in Hans' thread