Warfare & Tactics

Ok.... first of all, it's a difficult ship to solo in because it's got the tank of a mosquito and it isn't overly fast. It is, however, cloaky, which is nice.

First thing you have to realize is that you'll probably lose more fights than you'll win even if you get good a playing solo in a SB and you'll lose almost all fights if you don't choose your targets wisely.

Secondly, a SB is only good for solo ganking certain types of targets so you need to know what you're looking for, where to look for them and what to do when you find them.

Third, fitting means a lot. I'm sure other people will have differing opinions about this but I prefer the Nemesis or the Manticore for solo work because of the extra mid-slot. You're going to put something in that mid slot that's going to keep you alive.

So... what are you looking for?

Contrary to what you might think you're looking for battleships, mining ships and haulers. A SB uses torpedos which are slow and have trouble hitting small targets.

If you attack another frigate with it, you are going to die.
If you attack a cruiser with it, you are going to die.
if you attack a battlecruiser with it you are going to die.
If you attack anything with smartbombs, you are going to die.
If you attack most missile boats, you are going to die.

at least most of the time.

That leaves a short list of:
Haulers, which is obvious
Miners, which may or may not be totally defensless depending on their drones
Ratting battlships
Ratting attack battlecruisers like the Tornado or the Naga

Did I miss something? That's pretty much it. You might get REALLY lucky to find another type of ship that has it's tail wagging in the wind but it's uncommon. I recently saw a killmail of someone who solo killed a carrier in a hound (the carrier was probably logged off and got probed out) but these are once in a lifetime kills. I would focus on the ones I listed.

Why? Because they use large turrets which will have trouble hitting you. The technique to use is called getting "under the guns", which means you tackle and orbit them with your AB turned on at 500m. Your torpedos can heap a lot of damage on them from that range and as long as you stay orbiting under their guns you're perfectly safe from anything except their drones.

Which brings me to why I like the manticore and the nemesis better than the other two. Your mid slots need to consist of a point, an AB, some kind of shield extender and a turret disruptor. That last module is going to give you a little bit more of a saftey buffer from turrets. Some people prefer a target painter, but the ships you're looking for aren't hard to hit a point blank so I would tend to hedge my bets with a turret disruptor to minimize incoming damage instead of a target painter to maximize outgoing damage. I would also tend to use drugs and implants that minimize the sig-radius of your ship. Anything you can do to minimize incoming damage. YYMV

In terms of the rest, if it were me I would put a probe launcher on it instead of a bomb launcher for this purpose. In the lows you have options like an overdrive, nanofiber or inertia stabs that allow you to go faster or orbit closer or ballisic controls that increase your damage. I would split my lows over these two goals. Again, YYMV.

Finally, use the shortest range, highest damage ammo you can and ADJUST the type of ammo to shoot to be DIFFERENT damage then the local rats. You really need to be aware of this because ratters will be well tanked against what the rats are shooting and often poorly tanked against other damage types.

So... how to go about it?

Finding a target is something you can try to do with dotlan (look for NPC kills) or on the map (pilots in space) or a combination of both. I would hunt in low-sec to start because you can dock if you need to. In low-sec you can't fight on gates though and there are extra mechanics to learn. On the up side, low-sec is bubble free and you'll be able to move around easier without getting ganked.

For a large part I tend to use the ship scanner to try finding a target. Sometimes staying cloaked up in a system for a long time can work but the locals have to be pretty stupid to go ratting with a neutral in there. What sometimes helps is to dock up in a station and sit there for a long time. People will sometimes assume that you'll stay docked and especially if there is only one station then you can see if people undock and stay in the system, meaning they're doing something.

Another way to find a target is to use probes to find cosmic sites and go inside, cloak up and just wait until someone comes. People think they're safe inside gated complexes but that's only if you not already inside. >:)

Any way you look at it, becoming good with probes and the D-scanner is indispensible and finding a target is going to take a lot of poking around and lot of patience. But youll eventually find one.

Once you do find one, either warp at zero to it if yuo're using probes or warp into the anomoly and approach cloaked until you're as close as you can get. When you tackle, your first objective is to get your AB turned on and get to orbit at 500m with the point and tracking disruptor on. My thinking is that there's no sense in coming in guns blazing if you get blapped because you botched the tackle. What I do to avoid doing things in the wrong order is drag my modules to F1-F4 in the order I need to click them. AB, point, target disruptor, guns. Aagin, this is a matter of personal style.

Once you're in, then you're in balls deep. Enjoy the fight, even if you lose, which you often will, and don't forget to type "gf" (good fight) in local once it's over to compliment the other pilot whether you win or lose.

Hope that helps. Good luck.