Warfare & Tactics

The FW meta is very heavily frigate focused at the moment, so unless you are in a fleet, fighting in a Cruiser is going to result in lots of outnumbered fights or single targets warping out before you land on grid.

I have also recently switched from my regular AF to Cruisers and finding fights is much more difficult.

Probably the best thing is to extend beyond FW systems and look for different types of targets (eg. mission runners).

However, if you prefer to remain in FW systems, then I would recommend a kiting ship that either has good tracking, or another option for close orbiting frigates (eg. light drones).

My current Thorax fit:

Psedoelectron Containment Field I
Magnetic Field Stabiliser II
Magnetic Field Stabiliser II
Fourier Transform Tracking Program
Fourier Transform Tracking Program

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Warp Disruptor II

5 x 200mm Railgun II (Fed Navy Lead, Fed Navy Antimatter, Javelin M)

5 x Hammerhead II (or 5 x Warrior II and 5 x EC-300)

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Good range with the guns and good speed.

The dual prop blaster Thorax is also useful if you prefer to brawl (I normally brawl in AFs, but am enjoying kiting in the rail thorax).

Obviously basic tactic is stay outside tackling range and burn your opponents down.

Against brawling frigates, the option of warriors and/or EC-300 is useful to help disengage or try to minimise transversal so your guns can hit them hard.

Against kiting frigates, burn them as quickly as possible with your guns as they will probably still be faster than you and will be able to disengage by getting outside point range if they are smart.

However, just be aware that you will commonly be fighting outnumbered. I'm actually finding that the best part as it's making me focus much more on analysing the fleet composition and then selecting the right primary and then secondary, etc. If you have plans to eventually become a good FC, fighting outnumbered when solo I think helps when thinking about target calling.

Yesterday for example I had a 9v1 fight that I initially did everything right in. Killed their logistics before going down. Thinking about it afterwards, I should have definitely taken down at least 1 more ship before being killed, but the experience was invaluable.

Hope that helps.

In any case I think if you want to increase your survivability as a solo cruiser pilot in lowsec, the best thing is to roam outside the FW systems. That will give you more lone cruiser and above sized targets to engage and fewer frigates.

EDIT: Dual prop blaster Thorax

Damage Control II
Medium Ancillary Armor Repairer (nanite paste)
Medium Armor Repairer II
2 x Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
10MN Afterburner II
J5B Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Medium Electrochemical Cap Booster I (Navy Cap Booster 800)

5 x Heavy Electron Blaster II (Fed Navy Antimatter M)

5 x Valkyrie II (or 5 x Hammerhead II or 5 x Warrior II and 5 x EC-300)

2 x Medium Ancillary Nano Pump I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

It's fun, especially against other Cruisers and larger.

One of the few areas where PvE and PvP coincide: Drones are your best defense against frigates when you're flying anything bigger than a destroyer.

The main problem with cruisers in FW is that not many people are flying them for the reasons that you don't fit into most plexes with them. Therefore if a hostile cruiser appears somewhere nobody (with some experience) will engage it solo with his/her frigate, since he(she will expect to die. This naturally results in the call for the BLOB... once this blob is formed it will go for you which gives you a good chance to kill a few frigates (if you know what you are doing) before you finally die to the remaining blob. Real experts in kiting tactics which are properly boosted, snaked and pill pimped are able to run away before the remaining blob gets a tackle on them. But this needs a lot of practice and usually also a high investment into ship and stuff.

Come join a PVP FW corp and pvp like crazy and ask your corp mates for advice.