Warfare & Tactics

Currently im having fun in an XLASB/LSE vaga fit with 220s. Its a tight fit, but is fast enough to kite most frigs (garm is tricky), dps is ok at 500+, or about 300-350 at max point range. Its been successful at killing frigs and sniper nados. If its scrammed though, game over.

Beagle brawler here brah.

Brawling is the least skill intensive form of pvp. Approach, Activate tackle and Weapons, if your ship is better at tracking orbit very close. otherwise keep at range 2 km...

When things get ugly, get your logistic warp in and save you..

Sooo much skill...

When was the last time you left high sec? I cant find the end of it on your killboard. Though, I like those wardecced marauder catches. Boy oh boy did those take much skill that no other people in game have. How many logi do you guys keep on the gate with you two or three? No losses in awhile so I am guessing that you guys have super pro scouts that let you know when a gang that actually wants to fight you is coming.
Infact, why are you even in a solo-hac thread? You guys dont use an actual HAC setup. You are literally all instalock and pure DPS. You probably have never flown even flown an actual HAC as they are even meant to be. I am interested in your Zealot, ONI and Cyna fits you used last month.

TD has gotten a lot of hate he doesn't deserve, especially when there's really no need to be upset.

First, let's set the coffee table up a little for the conversation. From a 'skill' standpoint, there's no difference in the oversimplification of 'keep at range 2k' vs. 'keep at range 20k'. The reality of the situation is that kiting produces the most lopsided of fights (where the victorious belligerent emerges nearly unscathed) while the vast majority of close shaves have come through brawling. One could tend to wonder why this is. I submit that kiting relies almost exclusively on the preponderance of position while brawling brings the lion's share of the pilot's skill points, planning, and situation awareness to bear.

Before we dig deep into the mechanics of a good, old-fashioned (and possibly intoxicated) brawl, let's take a quick look at what has to happen for a kiter to score another kill. The nimble Imperial Navy Slicer lends itself well as an example, with its optimal range bonus yielding great stopping power near the edge of 'point range' (roughly 24 km). While the venerable Slicer doesn't boast the highest base velocity among its frigate peers (a mere 350 m/s, in fact the lowest of the 'Navy' faction frigates and 15 m/s slower than the timeless Rifter), the Slicer's low-slot configuration allows the installation of a favorite component of kite ships, Nanofiber Internal Membrane II (from which the term 'nano' comes), in addition to a Damage Control and one or more Heatsinks. The addition of a Microwarpdrive (MWD) and Warp Disruptor in the ship's mid-power slots and the pilot's flavor of rigs complete the fit. The accumulation of these parts alongside skills and bonuses gives the Slicer great mobility and firepower at range. Once the Slicer pilot has settled into a comfortable orbit around a brawler, there's little that can be done to change the outcome of the fight.

I'd like to pitch the idea that the minimum amount of skill points needed to fly the Slicer well, then, is not necessarily all that high. Sure, you'll need some good navigation skills, but how much do you really need to keep those brawlers at bay? After all, you're using a Microwarpdrive(which gives a fixed 500% bonus to max velocity) and they're using Afterburners. Even the faster frigates with good skills and decent implants struggle to get much faster than 1500 m/s, while the hypothetical slowest speed of a Slicer with MWD fitted must go faster than that (350*5>1500) and observed Slicer velocities far exceed that amount. In addition, the entire array of skills related to tanking are unnecessary, as the Slicer is in a position to never be hit (preferably like meth: not even once). The only skills related to damage output are those needed for Tech II Pulse Lasers, since Scorch really isn't optional for application at range, in addition to a handful of gunnery support skills to make the other guy explode a little bit faster. Even this can be skirted around if you're not in a hurry.

In comparison, let's tackle the idea of what brawling actually entails. The primary element of the brawl is what's known as 'the DPS race", where you have to kill the other guy before he kills you. Every shot matters. Every maxed support skill is just giving you the chance to keep up -- you'll probably rely on module overloading in conjunction with a handful of implants to give you the edge you desperately need. Even if you've planned appropriately, your positioning in the fight is critical. At the heart of each damage profile is the range at which that damage is applied. The pilot who can steal a better tradeoff from a different relative position and has the ability and presence of mind to move there has a much more reliable chance of winning the fight. This means that maximum velocities and inertia modifiers come into play, even at speeds well below 1 km/s. At this point, the faster pilot can elect to establish a tighter orbit around his opponent, reducing the effectiveness of his opponent's turrets and giving himself another option to stay alive. All the while, the support skills for tanking in shield, armor, and hull all make themselves painfully obvious as each volley lands.

From this, it should be apparent that the key to success while kiting has more to do with target selection rather than accrued skill points. Even when the kiter makes a mistake, he can usually bail out of the fight before things get unmanageable. It takes a little more effort to sucker a kiter into an engagement he expects to win, then change the nature of the fight. Indeed, brawling may force even greater care in target selection, as he's committed to fighting whatever he gets in range of. The only possible recourse for the brawler to disengage is to trundle to the edge of overheated scram range before being overwhelmed. Even then, this option is only available to the faster of the two combatants.

Kiting is easier and less skill intensive than brawling and TD's said as much -- though perhaps in fewer words. It's more common for the most talented pilots to kite, this much my experience in QCATS has shown, if only because it's easier to bail when the other guy's backup arrives. If you ask, you might find that good pilots realize the obvious advantage that the decisive victory of kiting offers is a much more attractive alternative to having this tactic used on them to the same end.

The fear of 'getting kited' is reasonably prevalent even among newer pilots. This is not because it takes skill to kite, rather because it's not a fun experience.

liked what you said, just wanted to let you know that its actually 350*6, not 5.

for example, an increase of 100% is effectively doubling the amount, so the amount to multiply by is actually 2.

so, keeping that in mind, in this case, the amount to multiply by is actually 6

(:

qft