Warfare & Tactics

AB and blasters REALLY don't work. Did your corpmate say why he thinks they don't match up?

Neutrons, Null ammo, and one tracking enhancer will adequately cover most of scram range. Optimal or falloff bonuses on particular ships (Atron, Harpy, Catalyst) are great. Be aware of ships that can push their full DPS out towards the edge of scram range. Rockets and lasers come to mind. Many blaster pilots get into trouble by chasing paper DPS numbers and loading antimatter.

dude... MWD is absolutely mandatory on ANY ship with blasters.
anyone telling you otherwise doesnt fly blaster boats.

(solo, 1v1 frigs being an acceptable exception.)

IIRC many of the fleets that just took down ex-TEST Fountain were MWD fit blaster armed ships.

I guess that makes it all a bad idea.

AB tends to be better in FW plexes.


Anywhere else you gotta go with mwd.

Sort of. Small blaster damage at ~8km is awful, but it exists.

For frigates you expect to be 1v1ing other frigates in, AB is often a good idea. Otherwise, MWD is a better option.

If you're going to use AB with blasters, try to get a dual-prop fit. On some ships such as a Megathron MWD + Blasters works fine.

What about a strategic cruiser? is MWD mandatory?

I don't want to make assumptions, but your friend (if he decent at all) was talking about 1v1 frigates in faction warfare. Now I don't even like frig fights or fw (too low end, no hate mail please, I am not saying they don't require skill all I am saying that losing 2m merlins doesn't exactly increase my adrenaline rush), but I got this good mail from a corpie I used to run with, Astonhodge, which I think explains the situation perfectly. As I said this only applies to 1v1 frigates, anything else usually requires a mwd because blasters ships need to close the gap asap so they can apply their full damage. I also think your so called friend could have explained the situation better than just " MWD on blaster frigates are for nubz lol". I warn you it is a bit long, so here goes:

"OK so know I will describe EXACTLY how I will find a solo fight in a Faction warfare system.
Firstly I will check Local count as well as what the status of local is at. I'm looking for big groups of similar alliance or faction. If they are all the same then i will move on! they will be together and it will not be a solo fight you find. The status of local as in are they pirates or suspect or not is another thing you are looking at. If you find 3,4,5 all flashy red then I would say there is a gate camp and you should turn around or check your out gate very carefully for a smart bombing BS or something.

Once I'm happy with local ill start looking at D-scan. Ill have the sites (listed above) on my overview and systematically go through each one checking if anything is in the sites. changing the D-scan to roughly 15 degreese and using active direction cam on. usually I will warp to the sun when in system at 100km and find my solo target.

Good targets for kiting are weapon based ships like other Atrons, Merlins, Blaster comets, Slashers etc.
Most brawling ships in low sec will use the Web, Scram with an After Burner. If you fly a BRAWLER ship with MWD you will NEVER get the option to escape as you prop mod will be turned off and you will be webbed but they will still have there AB active and will be able to run away easily. Just keep this in mind.

So I have just found a Merlin solo in a Novice site that i wish to kill in my kiting rail Atron what do I do next?
Some times people will sit on the acceleration gate with there friends next door in higher class ships. to stop them getting an easy gank ALWAYS, ill say this again ALWAYS warp to a site at at least 10 KM. even at 10 you will still be in activation range of the gate but more importantly you will be out of scram/web range when you land.

OK i have landed and he is in the site. Right now I need to pre-heat my MWD before going in so i get the best chance o get out of his range. also i need to have my 'keep at range' range set right. I have discovered a very magic number when using keep at range to stay in warp disrupt range and out of web/scram range. this number is 19500 meters. when using this the closest they will get to you is 15km range, and the furthest they will get is 22km away (if the Merlin was AB fit, which it usually would be)

Now i have activated the gate and i am about to land what now?
You MUST SPAM THE SH*T OUT OF THE MWD BUTTON and keep clicking infront of you to move away from him as fast as possible. Once you have slingshot yourself away from him with you heated mwd he will have has a few seconds of web and scram on you while you fly out of the range. then again you must SPAM THE SH*T OUT OF THE WMD BUTTON to fly away from him. once you have no scram or web on you and you are over 15km away from the Merlin you know need to click the Keep at range you have set at 19500 meters. now all you need to do is put the WD and Point on him and kill him :)

Congratulations you have just beaten they system and killed hm while he was sat waiting for you! Trust me aslong as you ship can go around 4km before heat with an mwd, you will always slingshot out of a web and scram combo as long as you keep spamming it.


Hope this helps you out, I really do hope you go and have fun :)

All the best"

Full credit goes to AstonHodge, modified it a little bit to have paragraphs :P

Just sayin, as a FW blaster harpy pilot, ill NEVER engage a kiter outside of the plex unless he lands right on top of me. There is no point, because youll never catch them. If im there 1v1 and something like a slicer lands, ill hit gate. If he is stupid enough to follow thru, ill have him on the button and its all over.