Warfare & Tactics

Hey there.

I'd like to go for this type of ship.
Though I read some wikis, forums, ... but it seems it was re-worked recently and now SB are really different.

So, here are my questions :

- What's the best SB in your opinion, and why ? How would you fit it?
- Can someone still un-cloak you when going near you (2km)?
- Can you warp / MWD while cloaked?
- Skills of a good SB?
- Tips and tricks? other things to know? Maybe a link to a recent guide?

Thanks by advance.

What didn't you understand in "Though I read some wikis, forums, ... but it seems it was re-worked recently and now SB are really different." ?

You know, if you don't know anything about the subject you can as well just su.

Thanks.

This is bad info completely.

A) First torps are your friend and your primary friend.
B) Bombs cannot be used in high sec or low sec only null sec
C) Dont fit a probe launcher thats dumb, your cloaked use your Dscan the idea is to surprise them not "hey heres a probe that will pop up on your dscanner compliments of the dumb bomber pilot"
D) This guy must be trolling...warp core stabs in your lows lmao......


Here is a run down of the bombers,

Purifier and Hound are your best solo bombers due to slot layout and cpu/grid. Purifier IMO is the best due to the bonus you get on EM damage. This allows you to do more damage against ratting drakes and ravens.

The Manticore is the best FLEET bomber due to its mid slots. It allows fleets to fit ewar effectively. My fleets use a combination of target painters / warp disrupters / trakcing disrupter / damps

IMO bombs are lousy by themself because you wont have a lot of time to stick around and fight if you are bombing. Bombing is very difficult for new pilots due to the timing and direction of the enemy ships movement and the bomb.

What the bomb is good for is that one time "boom" in dmg. However you will never insta pop anything with a bomb (unless its a mwd frig but even then I wouldnt risk it)

Your primary targets are going to be industrials. Best thing to do is find the PI areas and camp there. Get used to how you need to be aligned, your range control, etc before you take on any fighting ships. This will teach you how to fly your bomber.

The best systems to camp our 0.0 systems deep deep deep in alliance territory. you will want to scout and do your recon finding PI planets, jump bridges and sanctum systems. I would not mess with any JB until you are comfortable as timing is everything with those.

http://abomberslifeonthehighropes.blogspot.com/

Thats the blog I wrote when i was learning to fly bombers.

You sir are the troll. First I said SOLO bomber. Second warp core stabs are very beneficial as they offer a bomber only pilot no penalty as bombs don't use targeting (they are dumb fire). So you get the benefit of being able to warp off while some punk in an interceptor tries to scram you. (i fly a nemesis so 2 core stabs for me).

And anyone that as EVER flown a bomber as a BOMBER ..knows that torps are **** solo.

You can try all the things I listed and see for yourself. You will swear by them. Trust me.

Let it be said that torps on a bomber (while in a mixed fleet) are essential AND deadly. They just add to your bomber cost when going solo. I shall endeavor to drop in to your bomber chat sometime..maybe I can show you fine folks some of the wonders of the warp stab fit bomber. ;D

In my experience there are 3 types of bombers.

The bomblauncher bombers, a bomber that drops bombs. No torpedoes are needed. Basically what you need is a cloak a bomblauncher an mwd, nanos and I prefer 1 warpcore stab in the lows. You fly these in gangs of like 20-30 in large scale fleet engagements where you can do tremendous amounts of damage.
It helps a lot if a few people in your gang have a probelauncher installed. Actually, while not needed for the bombing, you want also people with torps to kill people that have disconnected and are floating 1 million km from the battle with 15 min aggression timer.


Then you have the torpedo bombers.
Those really don't need a bomblauncher. Forget about it because not fitting one gives you powergrid and cpu to enhance your torpedo damage and even with good skills use T2 torpedoes. Those will always have at least one and preferable 2 ballistic control systems in the lows.

Those come in 2 flavors,
-the mwd flavor which is great at fighting at range you can easily get 55-60km if not more with the right skills and rigs.
-the afterburner flavor which is extremely good at fighting at hostile jumpbridges. Because of the low sig it takes the pos ages to lock you.

I like to fly both mwd and afterburner with sensor damps in the mids but that's personal preference. But with a few range damps, lowering someones targeting range to less then 15km is actually quite easily doable.


What you don't do is try to make an allround bomber because they're bad at whatever you're doing now. Just buy a few more, they're cheap.
An alround bomber will die when bombing because it tries to get "some" torpedo damage in their fit and sacrifices gtfo-ability for that. And it will be bad at shooting torpedoes because it hasn't got fitting to enhance your torpedo damage enough nor room for effective ewar.

If you have only ONE damp and no friends with you that also are carrying damps, that damp will do far too little so its better off as a target painter.

For a bombing run, you need many friends to make sure you kill stuff, 6400 dmg isn't enough to break much more than a stationary frigate with it's MWD active.

This is a good bomb launcher fit, and there are many variations due to personal preference, for example I fit my manti out with MSE, EM Resistance amp, Afterburner, 2 warp core stabs, cloak, and a bomb launcher. This allows me to run camps, bomb and take a standard hit from a HAC without popping.



The torp bomber is amazing, just saying.

There is also one more fit type that I know of and that is the Bomber Commander fit, its advanced and requires maxed out fitting skills with rigs. Good fit, not 100% sure on the exact layout, I'm sure again it's with personal preference to some extent.

I have had many 'discussions' on the best way to layout bombers, recons, and black ops. They are dominated by personal preferences because of the nature of anything covert ops. It depends on your style of flying, get something that you like and run with it. Read the guides referenced here and practice with a good corp. Everything will fall into place soon.

As for the changes to bombers, the major overhaul to bombers happened in the Apocrypha expansion in 2009, while a more recent small change happened with the Crucible expansion where cloaked ships within 2000 meters of each other don't decloak each other. Before that bombers were more like Black Ops, a niche ship but no one really flew them.

Gerrick

If you still need a bit of input, here are my thoughts :

1 - The 2 best bombers are Hound and Purifier.

They have a slot configuration that allows you to optimize the ship where as the nemesis and the Manticore lack a low slot making them useless in some ways.

2 - Torps are essential, anyone saying not to fit them is clueless.

A standard fit would be :

High:

Cloak
3 Torp Launchers (Arbalest are not expensive and will fit right in if you don't have T2)
Bomb Launcher.

Mid :

MWD
Target Painter
Warp Disruptor or Remote Sensor Dampener or 2nd Target Painter

Low :

Ballistic Control Unit
Nanofiber Internal II
CPU Upgrade II (you will most likely need this but if you don't, another Nanofiber or another BCU).

That's pretty much your standard fit for a solo SB.

With a fit like this, you can solo battleships in a 1v1, but for that you would need that Disruptor. Don't make the mistake or leaving your MWD on when you engage a BS though, the massive boost in SIg Radius will make you go pop in 1 or 2 volleys from it.

Depends on what you are doing. I very much prefer the Manticore for cloaky fleet work, as it can deal decent damage and provide good EWar support as well. Solo fits are a totally different beast. Dedicated bombing boats will have an entirely different fit too. It really depends on how they're going to be used. Since most of my experience is flying a bomber with a fleet, that's what I provide to you:

[Manticore, Fleet Support]
Ballistic Control System II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Medium Shield Extender II
Limited 1MN MicroWarpdrive I
Low Frequency Sensor Suppressor I, Targeting Range Dampening
Low Frequency Sensor Suppressor I, Targeting Range Dampening

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Trauma Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Trauma Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Trauma Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I

Some people don't like to fit any tank at all on stealth bombers, but I recommend at least a damage control or an MSE. Stuff happens, you're going to get shot at, might as well be able to take a volley so you can warp out instead of die. You're not doing anyone any good if you're dead.

You can swap the probe launcher for an offline bomb launcher, and then online/offline as appropriate. When roaming null with a gang I tend to have either the probe launcher (to find wormholes in case we get camped into some dead end system) or a remote armor repairer (especially useful for shield fleets after a fight).

When flying a bomber in a fleet, you should always be fighting aligned to a celestial. That way, when there's any danger coming in your direction, you can instantly warp out.

If you have several bombers in your group, mix up the EWar. Have some people fit damps. Some people should fit target painters. Some people should fit tracking disruptors.

Always use faction torpedoes. Your rate of fire is very slow so you're not going to go through thousands of them in any one engagement. The damage boost is significant and well worth the cost.

If you have the money to spend on combat boosters then buy some Crash. This will lower the explosion radius of your torpedoes and help you do damage to smaller targets. There's another drug, I forget the name at the moment, that will reduce your signature radius.