Warfare & Tactics

Well im tired of missioning in high sec, i want to venture into low sec for some pvp. I want to be a stealth bomber, but seeing how im new dont really know anything about it. IM minmatar so i know il need a hound, but other than that what do i need to know? Such as loadouts, tactics, and general life of a solo bomber? I've heard most bombers are for fleets, but so far i haven't gotten into fleet stuff yet, i wanna be able to roam low sec undiscovered and eb able to prey on who i choose.

SB's aren't strong for solo work. They are also better suited to working in Null Sec than Low Sec, as they get to use items only usable in Null- such as bombs.

Most SB's (Hound included) lack much in the way of mid-slots for tackling gear, and the SB cannot take even a couple volleys of return fire before popping. thus they either need another ship to tackle for them or better- go to null and set up a bubble camp. I believe the bubble camp to be the SB's bread and butter.

The SB normally makes attacks while aligned to a celestial, rather than closing in and orbiting- you will likely recloak or warp out before your final torpedo volley connects. It's just a bit different than how most ships fight in Eve. 99% of the SB's fight takes place BEFORE you decloak. Once decloaked, your fight will last seconds- for good or bad- at most.

A couple SB's however, make for a great force multiplier, and make for a less boring bubble camp- so if you can, bring a friend or two along in SBs and little in Eve will stand up to more than a volley or two.

what about torpedo's, im kidna confused on how to use these things? do you have to target an enemy to shoot them or like bombs can you just line up and shoot them off.

Torpedos are slow heavy damage missiles. They do best damage against battleships but will put a hell of a dent into battlecruisers.

Echoing what everyone else said, stealth bombers are best in groups. You can solo if you really want to but eve is an MMO... a social game. Why you would want to run off by yourself if beyond me.

Alaric Faelen said it first. Don't solo with bombs; you'll never kill more than the odd frigate that happen to have it's MWD on. Bombs need at least 5 to be effective but you'll want close to 10 for results you can count on. That's how it is.

You want to fly stealth bombers in a solo fashion? Have an afterburner installed and pick you target carefully. Bombers can't tank worth a damn. I mean it. AB is to maximize transversal.

Get out there and try it out for yourself. You'll probably die and that's all there is to it. Re-ship and get back out. Experience up and start yo win.

This is one of the best ways to start out as a solo bomber. Its easy (couple of volleys kills an industrial) and profitable. Also quite safe.

If you want to advance to targets that can shoot back, I would look into sensor dampeners with scan resolution scripts. One or two scripted sensor dampeners can prevent your target from shooting back for over a minute, which is quite useful for a bomber. A more advanced bomber pilot can use tracking disruptors+afterburner to tank certain ships for much longer.

As others have pointed out, you need mid slots to solo effectively, and as such the hound is not the best choice. I would recommend the manticore because it has more mid slots (for dampners, point, propulsion, etc.) and more CPU than any other bomber (for the above ewar mods, probe launcher, etc.).

You could also wait at high sec gate and wait for solo pirate battlecruiser to get GCC, then decloak, put point, orbit 20 km with MWD on and rapre him together with sentry guns . Please not that you should not try to engage multiple ships.

To the OP, take in all these guys comments. Coming from someone who is learning the ropes with a Hound myself its very useful information.

I've lost a few Hounds with no kills to my name yet. One to an excellent gate camp, lots of objects to prevent recloak. And once to me not knowing how to use my Hound, getting all excited, breaking cloak too soon and getting stomped.

My only recommendation is make sure you have all your support skills up to the required amount. Dont just get the bare minimum to fly one and venture out.

Ahhh so many sheep. I'll share my experience with you a bit below (I have hundreds of kills / solokills with the nemesis)

Many good points and much repetition of a bad one.
Here are some quick points below.

- Bombers can be perfectly good ships to use solo, it all depends on the targets you use it on, like most ships in this game.
- You do NOT need 5 bombs to be useful. You should learn to torp, then bomb your target however.
- You can only bomb in 0.0 (null-sec and WH space)
- Make use of mobile small warp distruption bubbles.
- Lots of people feel safe outside of their POS shields, learn how to make them rethink this. (bombers are perfect for it)
- Several frigates, including some T2, will die to a torp then bomb volley.
- Learn to locate POSes and bookmark them. This will give you the opportunity to stalk targets warping to gates / customs offices that you may have previously bubbled. Warping directly behind them (when you get better) usually decloaks ships with covops cloaks.
- Learn to drag bubble through gates in null-sec and through wormholes in WH space.
- Avoid most drones and drone boats, unless you are MWD cap booster fit, then avoid warrior IIs mostly.
- Avoid gangs for the most part
- Use faction torps (caldari navy)

As mentioned above though, more bombers increase what you can shoot at and your survivability hugely.

Targets possible to solo (not exhaustive):

Most T1 frigs, some T2 frigs (covops, other bombers, any MWD fit frig - uncloak far away and let them MWD into their death)
Most T1 cruisers
Some battlecruisers, 2 bombers+ can be very good at this however.
Most battleships (again avoid droneboats and ships you're unlikely to break tank on)
Mining barges / frigates / exhumers / gas cloud harvesters (any hull type)
Haulers, T1 and T2

Try things out and have fun. For solo work, I believe the purifier actually works best. But all the bombers are roughly the same.

I like the idea of sneaking up on a ship and bombing teh SH*T out of it. :] I just dont like how weak they are, personally i think Stealh Bombers sound be advanced considered destroyers and have more shield, armor and hull.