EVE General Discussion

Over time I've come to a sad realization. Expensive ships are not as good as small fast ships. Expensive battleships with over a billion isk in modules still loses easily to 2 cheap assault frigates with tackling. To me it seems like a major design issue. Battleships really have no purpose against higher ships. They can't hit the small ships but they CAN be hit by large ships. Worst of both worlds.

I'm worried I'll have the same issues with a Carrier and want to learn about it before I fully commit the time and isk. Firstly, can fighters hit fast assault frigates? Is there something I can do to make SURE they can? Because if I get tackled and killed by 3 standard-fitted cheap ships while in a Carrier, I'm not sure I'd want to keep going like that.

I get it if lots of ships are creative and organized and they kill me. I just want them to have to work harder than that haha.

use scout drones

Heavy neuts. Offset your cycles. Then set your drones on him. That's the only way a single carrier can deal with smaller ships. You'd better hope he doesn't have a warp disruptor with more range than your neuts though, otherwise he'll keep you pinned while his buddies arrive.

A Heavy Neut can reach out ot about 24km easily on a carrier thats the limit usually on a AF Also a flight of 9-10 warrior II's will handle them nicely.

Some battleships can hit smaller targets but yeah battleships arent for solo pvp. The largest thing you should be flying for solo pvp are the tier 3 battle cruisers like talos and such.

Duuude, you really shouldn't go anywhere near a carrier for now.

Learn about basic mechanics first, then learn what a carrier actually is and what they are used for and if you then still feel the need for a carrier THEN you should train for one.

EDIT: Your killboard is funny. xD

Nope. It was done on purpose.

Otherwise you would have a meta where there is no reason to use anything smaller or less expensive (like in most other MMOs).


3 or 4 battleships that know what they are doing can take down a carrier or dreadnought... much the same way 3 or 4 cruisers can do against a battleship... or 3 or 4 frigates against a cruiser.

Then again... larger ships do have the advantage of having more and better fitting options to counter smaller vessels... though, that usually comes at the cost of being effective against ships of the same size.


- No. Fighters can't even hit a frigate standing still once they start orbiting it.
In fact... you should not be using Fighters much, if at all. You want to stick with regular drones (Lights, Heavies, and Sentries in particular).

- Target painters and Omni-Directional Tracking Links (with tracking script loaded) can increase the ability for fighters to hit stuff... but they'll still be quite terrible against ships smaller than a cruiser.

- Unless you completely fail at properly fitting a carrier, it should be impossible for 3 frigates to even break through your shields (even if you are armor tanked). However, 3 frigates CAN keep you pinned down indefinitely unless you have specifically fit to counter them (which will come at the cost of your ability to do other things).




Also... keep in mind that in EVE larger ships tend to require more support than smaller ships. Capital ships lie on the extreme edge of this line of thought... being almost completely dependent on smaller support ships to ensure their effectiveness and survival.
What capitals give in return are massive force multipliers either in the form of anti-structure and large-ship-murderboats (Supercarrier, Dreadnoughts, Titan) or "staying power" bonuses and repair systems (Carriers, Titans).

I'd link my AB Harpy loss to two supers with fighters (the only hostiles on field except for a Moros which did 0 damage), BEFORE the Kronos drone changes.
I'd also link my MWD Sabre loss to two supers with fighters on a completely different occasion, long before that.

Target painters and webs will go a long way in increasing the effectiveness of fighters against small ships, and with the Kronos changes they're even better now than they were back then.

So not really buying the argument that fighters are awful against subcaps. The only real downside is that they're slow.

someone im guessing lost a shiny ship to a frigate

OP. With these questions and track record....


Please get into a carrier, ASAP but let me know when you do and where.

sounds like you need another friend/s to take care of the little enemies