Ships & Modules

First, I know about the hml nerf. Im cross training into hams, but thats not what this ships purpose

Purpose:
Stand off dps. Too often, my self, my alliance, and those who like to threaten us end up having a mexican standoff, starring at each other, waiting for some one else to make a mistake. I hate it, it drives me nutz, waiting in a stand off. I want to bring the fight to them.

I just discovered the cerberus, and the range potential is exciting. The fact that its a cruiser hull with 440 dps is exciting. But im ignorant on how to use it.

My first question about fitting.
MWD? it kills its cruiser hull sig radius, which might be important for its survivability. So, should i fit a ab, and keep range as long as possible, or put a mwd on it, and be more in charge of keeping range? How does the mwd affect a hacs overall survivability.

Rigs? tanking rigs, or targeting range and hml range rigs. Right now im looking at approx 200km of range. Is that useless range, or can i play some fun gate games.

What other advice can other cerb users give me
thanks
irish

Currently, the Cerberus face the same issue all expensive undertanked snipers do - the issue of putting a 250m ship with 25k ehp within the distance of an 80-150km sniper trend.

Prior to that (2009-2012) the most common use of the Cerb was probably setting it up for frigswatting with AML, since the double range bonus allowed it to hit that 80-100km distance with light weapons. Considering how well the turret ships hit smaller ships though, that was really a novelty role and not really an effective way of playing. Some groups used it as a fire-support ship in a sniper-sniper engagement or setting, where they would use HML Cerbs to extend beyond hostile 100km distance to pressure support-ships (like Logi who stay behind friendly front-lines). That too was novelty, rare and not very effective. In that era the Cerb was obscured by other races as a HAC and other classes as a Caldari ship (mainly, Caldari had the Rook after it's buff, which was far more useful as an 80-150km sniper with ECM ontop).

Prior to that (2006-2009) the Cerb was used as an extreme range support-sniper, that outranged it's opponent and worked well from 200km down toward 100km where it could apply range-dampening effects to maintain superior reach.

In 2013 we may see some renewed appeal for the Cerb with the overall axing of HML. Though, it's unlikely that it'll be appealing enough to warrant it's 250km cost compared to the single range-bonused Tengu with superior tank. It's also unlikely it'll see more than novelty profiling with the reach of BS turrets in mind, as long as that playstyle continue to trend (Tier 3 BC, Sniper BS etc), and i see little reason for that trend to disappear at the moment. It will however go from having a "pre 2009" bonus mesh to actually hitting some breakpoints again. It could reasonably end up in the upper region of the 100-150km range (ie., skirting 150km range).

Then of course, it's possible we'll see it's bonuses and role changed before any changes in trend manage to manifest themselves properly so any analysis of how you could use the dual range-bonus in the environment of post-nerf HML becomes largely speculative at this point.

Maybe, and that's a vague maybe, it could see some use as a "baby Tengu" running the 100-150km range with HML and AB to fire back at undertanked turret ships with BS-weapons (similar to Beam AHAC Zealots). It remains to be seen if that is a trend that will continue to profile though and wether that niche will warrant 250m investments to shoot at 70m ships while possibly tanking them.

Ship + fitting cost, assume ~ 100mil for fittings