Warfare & Tactics

When I was in Amarr FW a lot of the guys were using MWD/scram comets to chase down and murder the kitey HB's

Basically get up close and melt it as if it's a kitey it isn't to tough but the speed and utility of the HB can make it seem OP'd so go faster and burn it down.

Try Null Ammo/Blaster. 125mm and 150mm Rails won't track well enough.

It should sort out Duel Web Rocket Hookbills giving you trouble.
Wrong ammo choice is the most common mistake people make when using blasters.
They all see the bigger DPS figure of Void in their fitting screens and think OMG A BIGGER NUMBER I AM GONNA USE IT FOREVER.


I rely on people making that mistake when I fight Blaster ships. Usually pays off too.

Most Hooks you can easily melt with a good tanked 150mm rail scramweb + ab comet. There is only one hookbill fit that could in theory stand vs that but even then it is extremly tight. Comet is already the best navy faction frig.

Edit: Double damp kiter hook could do it mayyyyyybe too. But also very very tight.

As a Brawling web/scram/td hookbill pilot. The only chance you have is to land at zero, even then he can burn out to a range where your blasters mean nothing so you would have to be hard pressed overheating your burner to stay in blaster optimal range. Otherwise hookbills eat comets for lunch.

For bawling I would say 125mm rails with web/scram/afterburner and javelin ammo or antimatter. A webed scramed target takes lots of damage from short range rail ammo. and it is much easier to keep your target in optimal range if you have rails and you are also webbed (a good bet if your fighting a decent hook).

Any TD or double web hookbill can hold its own with any variant of the comet in my opinion regardless of the prop mod fitted.

Then there is always the wide open factor of pilot error.

Use a rail comet that works in scram range, AB fit ofcourse. Be it 150mm or 125mm fit, it doesn't matter. The rail Comet is superior to the rocket Hookbill and is much less prone to pilot error than any blaster fit.

Fitting a ship to specifically counter one other ship is silly and in most cases not realistic. Rail Comet are great solo ships that can deal with Hookbills, but can also take on various other ships.

Strategy:

Regardless of what people seem to claim in this thread Hookbills do not have high damage. You kill by simply outdamaging them and managing their EWar if they have it.

I prefer not to use Javelin and instead stick to Navy Antimatter because it gives you more wiggle room with the optimal range. Face it, if you're going to use Javelin you might as well use blasters.

Going it to the fight you preheat your guns and your SARII or SAAR.

Your strategy should be to basically stay at your optimal range, while keeping your speed maximized and your transversal minimized. If they tracking disrupt you, scroll your mouse over your guns and look at the effect. If they have the optimal range disruption script loaded they will try to kite you. You should hit approach and overheat your afterburner if needed, this will have you chase them with minimal transversal. If your optimal stays the same they will likely try to orbit you. In this case you set your ship to keep at range at your optimal and drag them behind you, again with minimal transversal.

There are also the super tanked fits. These should not be a problem either, but if they are you can always disengage by overheating you AB and burning out of scram range.

Also if you get caught by a fast TD kitey then swap to spike ammo and still hit them at range. If they are that fast and kitey they'll be paper thin. You probably won't kill them but driving them off is very likely.

In a comet i usually go for the wtf factor against dual web brawling hb's. I will fit 2 webs and no point and hope he dies before he starts spamming warp to get his pod out :p

It is pretty OP against most frigates and goes toe to toe with almost any AF.

Dual web and then the pilot just overheats and stays at 12K. Any blaster ship will die to this and most rocket ships as well.

A kinetic tanked kestrel might win, but i doubt it.

I dont see any Fed Comet fit beating a dual web Hookbill with a pilot who knows what hes doing. Rails will hit the HB, but will not melt the HB fast enough. The comet will melt and pop before the HB does.

IMO, this is the only hope a comet has against a properly fit and flown brawling HB. If the HB doesn't warp away, this will probably work too.