Warfare & Tactics

Lost a fight today which is nothing new for me. If you look at my KB I've got a string of Punisher losses a mile long. I was convinced I could do something with this ship but I think I give up on it. But onto the fight in question. http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=19248001.

Found him in a plex in Arzad. I entered and we engaged eachother. His tank immediately took a beating but then repped up to full and pretty much stayed at full the whole fight. I ran my AAR overheated until it was out of paste and then turned it off because my cap was getting low. My armor was pretty much gone at that point and the fight was all but over.

DPS on my fit with my skills is 167 overheated. I was running two tracking rigs because I knew I would not be able to dictate range with this ship. I realize lasers suck against armor tanks and the Incursus has a armor rep bonus but does it sound possible for him to completely tank all of my DPS?

I suppose it could have been a cap boosted dual rep fit but after looking at his KB one thing struck me. Almost all of his solo fights this month have been in that same system. So, links? Dual rep? Punisher sucks?

Yeah I probably picked the wrong fight. I guess the only way to beat an incursus with another frig is to kite it. Live and learn.

You chose your target poorly. The Incursus can active tank like a beast without any links.

You also lack any sort of capacitor regeneration ability on your Punisher there. And you are mixing active and buffer tanking (not necessarily a bad thing, but not good in this scenario). I suggest tossing the 200mm plate in favor of more resistances and squeezing on a Nosteratu to at least keep your guns and point running (with the occasional pulse of your armor repper there).

I actually thought hybrid armor tanks were quite common on punisher fits. I'm not sure how a pure active tank would work on one. Dual rep really isn't an option so I would have to go with an AAR. By dropping the plate for a EANM I could tank more of his DPS but if he was running a dual rep fit I would die as soon as my repper ran out of paste.

I agree target selection was poor but I'm not convinced changing my fit would have changed the outcome.

As others have said, he may well have been linked but he didn't need to be to kill your fit. Can I suggest dropping down a gun size or two. Spl's give sexy dps figures but should really only be use if you require the range they give. For a brawling setup duals or gatlings almost always are a better choice, even with tracking rigs. Gatlings with two metastasis rigs and your tracking as well as blasters with much better coverage. Plus, everybody expects lasers to be crap up close so they try to get a tight orbit. Give them a nasty surprise :)

Gun choice wouldn't have made a difference in that fight. It was your active tank, mwd and wasted rig slots that got you killed. And his likely gank links.

Neut, passive tank and AB would probably be your best bet. As to gun choice, in some ways your fit has sacrificed two rig slots to make the guns good up close. Dropping down would free them up for other mods, tank in particular. Like I said, the best reason to fit spl's is for their range, not dps, usually. Fleet fits are a bit different. If you don't specifically need the range, fit smaller.

Put it this way. When I'm out hunting, come across a punisher, check guns and see spl's I will know that the pilot has a sub optimal fit, is a bit eft warrior and may well have conflag loaded. Either that or he is one of the rare pilots who flys the kite punisher. In which case he has maxed out core, nav and gun skills and really knows what he is doing. But usually it's the former.

As to a fit, I would personally go for the no dcu punisher. Only the punisher and the merlin can really pull this off. On tablet so no eft but here.

Highs. neut, Gatling pulses

Mids. AB, scram

Lows. 2 heatsinks, 400mm plate, ANP

Rigs. 3 trimarks

That wil give you about 8k ehp an 160 dps with mf.


Tactics. He will be faster than you, incursus are fast, you're plated. Don't start the fight at zero. As he approaches, overheat prop and burn away from him to prolong his approach and soften him up. Make him work to catch you. Whatever you do, don't just burn towards him and give him his optimal. When closer get the neut on and swap crystals. The trick with the punisher is to fly in straight vectors, never orbit, use keep at range if in doubt. This works really well if he is trying to orbit you. Keep changing direction sharply to drop your trans and make him swing about. A neut makes his cap load the equivalent of a triple rep incursus and he'll have a hard time keeping up cap. Gatlings will give you a lot mor cap than spl's.

If the fight is going your way, watch carefully for him turning to run away. Then hit approach and overheat like the wind. He will now be in the best position for your guns. The lack of DCU will make you seem tankier than you actually are and can encourage him to turn away sooner.

Shooting lasers well requires much more manual piloting. Orbit is your enemy.


It's still a hard kill. Gang linked dual rep incursus are. Neuts can really mess them up, so long as you can tank the damage long enough for them to work.

Hehe, yeah, it feels very wrong, especially as it saves your ass so many times. With the resist bonus of the punisher and merlin, without one, if properly tanked they still come out tanky. That then frees up CPU for another damage mod. I'm loving the no DCU, two mag stab merlin right now. Antimatter dps with null range. It really catches people out.

The standard punisher setups have always been a choice between tank or dps. No DCU gives a decent balance.

Punisher sucks.

It can't outbrawl an incursus.

I think the general rule is:

If you lost he was definatly a link abusing little whore and most probably exploited. Also you had probably lag, were drunk and playing with one hand at the time (lets say.. uhhm.. eating dinner).

If you won you bested him proper legit against all ods.

Hope that helped.