Ships & Modules

Post your Maelstrom fits, please! I need some ideas. (Looking to solo level 4 missions)

Post some fits plzkthx

Regardless of the rest of fit, no excuses:
3 Gyrostabilizer
3 Tracking enhancer / Tracking computer

Preferably:
+ 1 Gyrostabilizer
+ 1 Large Projectile Burst Aerator II

Then either autocannons with rest in tank and propulsion, or artilleries with MJD and sebo, or artilleries with tracking script and tank. The MJD removes transversal off the equation for a good deal and reduces ammo cost a ton allowing careless faction/t2 ammo use, so I would recommend that.

Nowadays the MJD allows safe gankfits, which is why I recommend that type of fit as your initial learning style. I would suggest doing MJD style first, and only moving to risky close range gankfits when you have the SP and experience for it. MJD also gains the immense benefit of no transversal on approaching rats.

The microjump breaks rat tackle which is why it makes any BS completely safe.

The concept of over-gank is false, more gank always helps towards better income (as does more mobility). Tank though is useful only up to a point that depends heavily on your gank ability.

My opinion:

Don't go below Tech II on your hardeners. I'm not sure the T2 1400's are worth it; they're powergrid hogs, and for long-range work, I don't think they have enough benefit over meta artillery to be worth the two ACR rigs that fit demands. On the other hand, 1200mm artillery is a viable alternative - you give up a bit of range, and your ammo consumption doubles, but they're a lot easier to fit, especially if you want to use an MJD and maybe a cap booster.

One oddity: if you can fit a Tech II medium cap booster and can afford Navy 400 charges, you can fit three Navy 400's into the booster, increasing the boosting ability by 50% over the single 800 charge the medium booster can otherwise fit. Might not be worth it at a hundred thousand ISK per pop, but if you've got a source of Navy charges, might be worth thinking about.

I just completed a mission without a problem against Blood Raiders (they couldn't even hit me). I was having trouble against Guristas who could hit me at long range with missiles that did quite a lot of damage for my tank.

I don't want to swap down to 1200s because I'd rather just wait for training to fit 1400s. With 8x 1200s I would gain ~12 dps and lose range... Your suggestion is viable, I simply choose not to do that...

I will have to save up for the Pith C-Type LSB. I find that when I do have to tank, my cap runs out very quickly. I don't really see a solution for this unless I give up some rigs. With the Pith C-Type, I will cap out even more quickly than with a Meta 4 LSB... thoughts?

Yeah, I kinda wondered if it was Guristas you're having trouble with. Against them I'd just drop the MJD for another hardener or shield boost amp (and possibly use shorter-range ammo, depending on what you're using otherwise). You can't really outrange them.


Fair enough, but don't forget you also get a tracking bonus with 1200s to help with damage application as well as less potential overkill due to the lower alpha.


Well, the idea is that you should hopefully only need to burst tank for short periods at a time at the critical points of missions. Using your DPS to whittle down the incoming damage and proper management of triggers means you shouldn't have to have your booster running all the time. So don't worry so much about how quickly a booster can drain your cap. Divide the shield boost amount of the booster by the cap use per cycle, and you'll get a measure of how efficiently it turns cap into shields. The meta 4 booster gives you 1.55 shields per cap, while the Pith C will give you 1.81. If you want to spend a little more dough and get a Gist C, that'll give you 2.63. (These are all unmodified base numbers.)

All in all, though, I'd recommend not running a sniper fit in Guristas space. You're basically playing into their strength... reducing your own DPS potential to get the range without significantly hurting their ability to fight back.

I use this at the moment:
[Maelstrom, PvE]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

X-Large Shield Booster II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
100MN Afterburner II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Fusion L

Large Projectile Ambit Extension I
Large Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hobgoblin II x5

718 gun DPS with 40km range (4km optimal + 37km faloff) with perfect skills.

With a +3% falloff implant (can't remember the name) it works wonders in angel missions, I don't even need to cap boost in most of them (but it is there in case things go really bad for some reason). I don't really like arty maelstrom because of ridiculously long cycle time on guns, but that does use less ammo and can do its MJD thing, which should work just as well.

Feel free to remove T2 gyros and a nano for 3x faction gyros, which will increase your DPS even more at the expense of some agility.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, swap out invulns for mission specifics. And do be more careful with Sansha, as EM resists are pretty weak on a Maelstrom even with hardeners running.

Back when I had the triple-CCC setup on my Maelstrom, I routinely took Guristas missions. Of course, that was using a full rack of meta-4 1400's, dedicating the mid-slots to tank (either double-kinetic/double-thermal, or kinetic, thermal, invul, and Ladar ECCM), and taking advantage of the long falloff you get from artillery. I got a sort of visceral glee out of one-shotting Gurista battlecruisers.