Ships & Modules

I recall reading long ago about wc stabs, and I remember reading something that someone said about how using only one is useless. So, my question would be: If I were fitting, say, a hauler to travel through low-sec...should I slap a couple of WCS's on it? How do they work exactly? Or if it's easier to explain how scramblers work...then that.

I understand how anti-jamming stuff works, but warp stabilizers are a little more vague to me.

Low sec camps generally lack scrams because it's not logical to put a scram on a slow. big ship due the distance you jump in from the gate itself, generally that would be done by fast tacklers (there are exceptions) but small tacklers have serious survival issues at low sec at gates. What you have to realise is that relying on WCS is a last resort kind of thing, it's NOT a valid strategy for normal operations as it can be countered by a Heavy Interdictor or the camp being big enough to overcome your WCS. Avoiding trouble is better than somehow trying to deal with it as you get caught, as such you're best off to make use of the cloak/MWD trick. This requires you to use the right size MWD (10mn for haulers) and fit a T2 Improved cloak (not the prototype).

What you'll do is align to where you want to warp to and immediately cloaking up followed by hitting MWD, then you wait till your MWD cycle ends, hit the uncloak button and spam warp. If you do it right (and they didn't have stuff close enough to you to uncloak your ship) you're very, VERY safe.

Depending on how much you are hauling you might be better off with a T2 Transport Ship, they can warp cloaked and if fit for it can have a pretty good align time. If they can some how target you in the 1 or 2 secs that you are visible on the overview they are doing very well, and if they notice you and try to burn towards you after you cloak, you are already gone by the time they get in de-cloak range.

eg 3.8sec align time and 6096m3 cargo hold with 18.7K EHP

[Viator, Not Here]
Inertia Stabilizers II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II

Large Shield Extender II
Medium Shield Extender II
EM Ward Amplifier II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

A question: Have you ever, at any time been saved by a buffer on a Viator? Like "phew, that was close, good thing I had those shield-extenders on!"

Whole point with cloaky haulers is not to be locked up, bloating sig goes against that. You either get away or you don't, no amount of buffer is going to save ya if you get locked/pointed.

T1 haulers get one-shot even by ships with modest alpha, no need to point them and thus no need to warp stab them.

A warp disruptor (sometimes called a "long point) or warp scrambler (often referred to as just "scram"), or the act of using one, "pointing" someone.

When you activate such a module on a target, you call "point on xxx" in fleet comms.

Have in a Prorator. This was in highsec though and an attempted suicide gank. Didn't quite get me into structure.

Have you actually ever tried that though? I used to think ECM burst until I played around with it. The average time it generally seemed to work breaking locks was very very slow. If it was a gang you would long have been popped. If it was a single ship I found getting a lockback and using a regular ECM was more effective.

Never in a Blockade Runner but 2 times in a Deep Space Transport.

One time (before the change to built in warp core strength and to session timers) I undocked in lowsec from a kickout station with about 2b in cargo only to be scramed by a Deimos. I passived tanked him long enough for him to be forced to warp away because of the sentry fire.

A more recent one I jumped a gate in lowsec (empty cargo this time) only to be caught on the other side by a Onyx. Slowboated back to the gate while passive tanking him.

A Blockade Runner can not fit the same amount of tank as a Deep Space Hauler but can on the other move much faster which means it won't have to tank for as long.

The think to remember here is that not every camp you will jump into will have enough webs and firepower to stop you from gatecrashing even if they manage to uncloak you.

I felt I should add my own little story of how I learnt the mwd trick the hard way:

I had previously been able to "somewho manage" the mwd trick with a frigate (hardly needed), cruisers and once or twice a battle ship. However, I never really ran into a competent gate camp when doing so. So I mistakenly thought I was good at it. Then I tried it on a hauler...and got into trouble.

First and biggest problem: Not carring enough to think and just fiting the mwd that the powergrid of the ship could handle (that is a 1mn mwd). Secondly: I ran into a few slightly bit more competent gatecamps than before and thridly: starting to use warp stabs to figure out what was happening when the mwd trick did not function as it should.

So to sum up the experience in a few sentences: I initially got away from a few bad campers using even a 1mn mwd, then i got caught... I added (I think two) warp stabs which saved me once or twice which gave me a good feeling about myself, then I got shot to pieces by an alpha ship once or twice BEFORE finally thinking about it and realizing I should have used a 10mn mwd... Most of my losses where on one evening so I guess I can claim I was tired and did not think straight...

Since figuring it out I have not been caught on a low sec gate even once.

Lesson learnt: Fit the correct mwd! Only really important to know on a hauler as they lack the powergrid to begin with, but we are talking about those here. Secondly, practice the mwd cloak trick! It helps a lot to lower the adrenaline the first few times you need to use the trick. Thridly, dont use warp stabs. A hauler needs better alignment time or more cargo spaces far more. At the very most fit one (to counter the long points, but the guys good enough to actually catch you anyway has got money to go for a faction point with more strength), but never more.