Ships & Modules

Lets see;

- low on tank
- low on range
- bad damage application vs cruisers
- has to apply a single painter against EVERY TARGET CRUISER OR SMALLER

Verdict: get a CNR

Because PVE = hisec lvl 4's only, right?

I'll admit to being a HAC fanatic, and I've taken a liking to the Cerberus. I like missile ships, even though this character has very little in terms of missile skills (one of my alts is a heavy missile specialist, and I mean in general not the missile type). For all the problems the Cerberus has, it's a horribly underrated ship. Most times, people will underestimate it like there is no tomorrow. Much like the Ferox before the buffs, people will engage because they consider it an easy kill. Play on that.

Just because the Cerberus is a HAC doesn't mean you can't fit it like a normal RLML Caracal. In fact, I welcome it if you do! It throws frigates for a loop, and it gives you a huge boost because of the DPS increase from the Kinetic damage bonus. Most will tackle thinking you're an easy catch, and then RLMLs are hitting and they don't know what's going on. Easy kills!

Yep, thats the norm but those loadouts were made with T1 rigs in mind (and for T1 rigs, a third rigor is better than two rigors and a flare).

Regarding the Cerb, EHP and speed are fine, and consistent with the faction imo. I sincerely think there are two problems with the hull.

1. The kinetic missile damage and missile flying time bonuses.
The first one limits a lot the versatility of the hull, while the second does nothing really for PvP (since the ship already has a missile velocity bonus that covers all important ranges, and the way that missiles work makes a flying time bonus inefficient).

Changing the flying time bonus to an explo radius (like the navy Caracal of the CNR) and removing the kinetic for universal in the damage bonus would make a lot of sense imo.

2. The slot layout.
I really would love to see a 6/6/3 for the hull, with a higher damage bonus, five launchers like the past and a utility high..both Caldari HACs lack a utility high, and it shows.

Finally, an added problem is the fact that...it uses missiles. Medium missile weapons are borked right now, with RLMs and HMLs heavily nerfed while HAMs being ok(ish). Before the RLM nerf (and after the HAC re-balance), the RLM Cerberus was a terrific ship to fly.

Yeah i must say having done Lvl 3s in my cerb nearly all level 5 s in shield and missle skills.Doing Lvl 4s with the cerb would be tight to say the least i think it could be done but not comfortably much better and cheaper to get a CNR. But props to you if you have done it. (worlds collide with HAMs range would be harsh).

Not that I personally would use a cerb for pve but I can see the applications. If you elect to pimp one out woth faction bcs it can hit over 800 dps cold.

Fwiw I threw together a cerb with cn em hardener and cn web. The savings on cpu allowe to fit a mwd again. With only one set of the enemies abound missions to pay for the tags I consider this a bit of a steal.

in other news on sisi I solo'd two vagabond and a loki with the dual l-asb fit I posted earlier. Nearly killed a cynabal too but no scram meant he got away. Then in a separate fight I killed vigilant pilgrim and daredevil while being neuted by a bhaalgorn and under fire from a nemesis. The dual asb fit is clearly a successful idea in my mind provided you aren't fighting anything with large alpha and have either a improved blue pill/hg crystals or better yet both.

The best part about ghe lasb is you can take 50/60 spare charges with room left over for missiles of all flavours. Still haven't worked out how to kill a deimos yet so the testing continues.

Also to that person saying our fits are unrealistic well again ypu can only buy t2 stuff from c-z and yes full hg because in low you only get podded if unlucky or stupid.

True solo, believe it or not. Granted it was FFA but I did have everyone dpsing on me.

Only HG crystals (pro-tip I have HGs on TQ as well and use them frequently). If you fly mostly low-sec you have a very very low chance of being podded ergo the risk of losing good implants is severely diminished.

I was saying it was cheaper because in a CNR you can use a tech 2 fit on your cerb LvL 4 fit you had 3 c-type deadspace modules which are very expensive.

Also can you speed tank that effectivly against 15+ NPCs? (i never tried it as i cant affords to lose the cerb) .
The fear i would have is the EHP of the cerb which would very low compared to battle ships but as i said in the other post props to you for doing it.

So the long and the short of this whole thread is that the Cerberus is a niche missile ship that is outperformed in most departments by HACs of just about every other race.

It's not fast enough to kite at range.

Not enough tank to be a true brawler.

Suffers from kinetic-only missile damage bonus endemic to Caldari missile platforms.

Lesson to take away from this: Train guns and Gallente.

It's not just the ship, it's missiles and the strange way they work. HAM's are terrible for shooting at anything smaller than a BC, and small stuff can simply speedtank Rage HAM explosion velocity. RLML's are a guaranteed insurance payout if you don't kill what you were shooting at with that first magazine.

The biggest problem with the Cerb, or any Caldari missile boat that has it, is that annoying kinetic-only damage bonus.

Other races don't lose a whole bonus on their hulls if they switch ammo. No really, it's absurd that you lose 50% of the utility of a hull by switching ammo. Gallente drone boats don't lose their drone bonuses for using Bouncer II's. Minmatar ships don't lose their damage bonuses for using Tungsten Sabot over say, Fusion..

Missiles are supposed to provide damage selection to shoot into someone's resist hole. However with the way people fit ships, taking the time to figure out exactly what that hole is, and then reloading all your turrets for that costs you valuable time in a firefight.

Switching to shoot into this resist hole may end up with you doing the same amount of damage if you simply stuck with kinetic and didn't fart around switching missiles, wasting time, and being a bad pilot because you didn't figure out that the primary reason why the Cerberus, and Pheonix, exist is to weed out people in your corp who are prone to making bad decisions.

Training for missiles means you're going to fly Caldari or a Doomphoon. And if you're flying Caldari, you're shooting kinetic. Which means the guys you just saw on Dscan have already fit their tank to resist kinetic, knowing that 90% of Caldari pilots aren't smart enough to load Explosive or Thermal. Leaving your ship with only one bonus being effectively used to take advantage of the mostly marginal utility of selectable damage types.

On top of this, HML's were nerfed a number of months ago to "put them in line with other long range weapon systems". And then they went and buffed medium long range turrets...

Anyway, if you're a newer pilot looking at flying Caldari HAC's, you're doing it wrong.

Initially training for missiles severely limits the kinds of hulls you can fly as the majority of ships used either in solo, small gang, or large fleet combat, use turrets.

So the only thing either the Cerb or Eagle brings to the table is range. Range means nothing as either one of these ships sig radius is too big to become unprobe-able with ECCM. So the only real solution to the current "problem" with the Cerberus is to realize that it can run L4's in hisec and to a worse job of it than a HAM Tengu, Golem, or hell even a Manticore.

Personally all the kinetic damage bonuses on Caldari hulls should be switched for flight speed increases or explosion velocity bonuses.