EVE New Citizens Q&A

yes harpy cancer fleets are fun

you will be suprised how well a jaguar with a tracking disruptor can give a confessor a seriously hard time

I almost beat a Confressor with a tanky Vengence once. I simply did not have the range control to keep him from escaping.



Back to the OP's question though!

Assault Frigates are AWESOME when paired up with other frigates (especially fast ones). They are routinely underestimated, relatively nimble, do not hurt your wallet too much when you die, and come in many flavors.

However, they do have serious limitations.
- Some of them are slower than cruisers.
- Others are "one trick ponies" and lack any sort of flexibility.
- Tech 3 Destroyers are generally best avoided unless you know damn well what you are doing.
------ In fact, there is currently an issue where Tech 3 Destroyers eclipse most Assault Frigates in all respects.


With regards to the choice between a MWD or AB...

I would prefer to go with both! Both have their uses and "dual-proping" an Assault Frigate makes them fairly powerful.
However, it will consume a lot of your ship's PG-CPU... so be careful. If you want to stick with one prop mod for general use, go with the MWD.

I would say yes, Assault Frigates are worth it. If you've got multiple racial Frigate skills at V you can unlock all the T2 versions at once with just the Assault Frigate skill. Assault Frigates to IV probably only takes 3 days or so.

If you're in a small gang and your target don't know that, they are probably much more likely to come after you as bait for your small gang if you're in 'just a Jaguar.'

I've used Assault Frigates to run DED sites and the Angel Epic Arc so there's alternate uses for them right there.

Choice between AB/MWD mostly depends on where you fly. MWD rules everywhere except for sit-on-the-beacon-at-zero FW fights. There it's AB supremacy.

If you're going to afterburn your frig, might as well stick to T1- you're wasting your best bonus.

I would say it depends what your gang needs the most at first.
Maybe they would be more happy to see you train for interceptors ? Ask them ;)

The MWD "signature bloom" is reduced by 50% on Assault Frigates. This can helps immensely if you are in the role of "heavy tackle."

But like you and everyone else said... it is situational. This is why I often recommend to "dual prop" (see: fit a MWD and AB) whenever possible in an Assault Frigate gang. It gives the best of both worlds... for the "small" price of less utility and CPU-Powergrid to spend on other modules.

The dramiel and firetail actually fly like frigates do, though, and fast frigates at that. AFs dont right now, with few outliers. The ishkur praised earlier in this thread is a pig. I used to enjoy piloting it, but it is slow and handles like a brick.
Speed and agility is the main survival mechanism a frigate has, neglecting either means that it only has a local tank as stong as frigate sized tanking modules.
AFs arent in that great of a place right now; a few of them are great due to reasonable mobility compared to other AFs, or better damage projection compared to other AFs. The proliferation of pirate frigates hurts AFs as a whole as well, since they actually handle like frigates. Dual propulsion is great if you have the fitting, base speed or agility to use it effectively.

AFs are tough, and frigate gangs are really fun, but you might enjoy a combat interceptor more. I feel like a nano cruiser roams as quickly as an AF.