Warfare & Tactics

interesting question. If you're looking for an all in one T3-killer, then you need a ship that can deeps hard, goes fast and can probe by itself. That's a lot to ask for in a single ship.

Another thing to keep in mind is that T3's solo running sites in a WH are fit for that purpose - because a plain old fit won't do. Tengu's tend to be the easiest prey of them all because HML's suck at putting damage onto smaller ships, even with a TP fitted. They also have no drones (except with that one subsystem that nobody uses). Loki/Proteus is likely to be using a web as part of the standard fit, so your small ship is going to take more damage than you expect from medium turrets. With the Proteus, you also have the drones to contend with. The Legion is a strange one, the beam fit can be an easy kill for a small, agile ship because there is no web, but a pulse laser fit is going to pose problems unless you're in an armour tanked ship.

As for ship options, you'll want to stick with T2 frigates or T3 Destroyers - neither of which are difficult to skill into. The latter is the better choice. T3 Destroyers also get massive reduction in scanner probe launcher CPU requirements, so less of an issue with fitting.

Confessor: Dual Light Beam Laser fit with 10MN AB. You'll get to a respectable 650-700 speed and will do enough deeps to break T3 tanks. This fit may require more skills than you're willing to get to, but is likely your best, current choice for the desired goal.

An arty Svipul is also an option, but I think the Confessor is a better choice.

Your biggest issue will be, T3 pilots doing PVE. They know they aren't fit for PvP, so they are super cautious.
You could spend a hell of a lot of time chasing ghosts.

I recommend the pilgrim, they can tank nicely, warp cloaked, Heavy neutralizers make T3's go cold turkey pretty quick, and with a dual rep fit boast a respectable tank. Plus drones are a very solid weapons platform with high adaptability and application.

In leau of the pilgrim the curse is another fantastic option, it boasts less tank but can't be seen on D-Scan and offers the ability to really kite with your neuts.

Other good options would be the myrmidon, brutix, deimos, or the rook.

Of course its always better with friends

[Stratios, WH hunter]

High slots :

- 50w Infectious Power System Malfunction
- 50w Infectious Power System Malfunction
- 50w Infectious Power System Malfunction
- Covert ops cloaking device II
- Sisters Core Probe Launcher

Med Slots :

- Federation Navy 10mn Afterburner
- Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
- Warp Disruptor II
- Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 400
- [Spare mid slot] <- that doest not mean this is empty, read below.

Low Slots :

- 1600 Reinforced Steel Plates II
- Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
- Damage Control II (you can drop this for another drone damage amplifier if you want more deeps)
- Drone Damage Amplifier II
- Drone Damage Amplifier II

Rigs :

- Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
- Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
- Medium Trimark Armor Pump II


More details about the spare mid slot : i usually fit a tracking disruptor in this slot, as the td + the ab will allow me to negate a lot of damage while ganking a Loki / Legion / Proteus. But I also carry a mobile depot and a Target Painter, an extra web, an extra scram (in case you want to gank something that might have stabs), a drone navigation thingy, a whole bunch of med slots really, so I can drop a mobile depot and refit accordingly.

Sadly I haven't got any T3 killmails with this.... yet.
I had however been involved in a fight vs 2 pve Tengus a few days ago when my wormhole had a nullsec connexion. Jumped into nullsec, 15 ppl in local, warped around a bit in the system trying to find stuff, and warped back to the wormhole entrance and there was 2 Tengus waiting, they were PVE fit since I wasn't pointed nor webbed during the fight.

First Tengu started to drop really low on shields as soon as the second cycles from the neuts came off. Like, really, this Stratios will MURDER any active tanked t3. He jumped in the wormhole. His friend did the same. I jumped back, tried to catch them on the other side, but they jumped onto the nullsec system again, and as I did not wanted to be polarized in a null sec system with 15 people in local, I did not follow them, so no killmails. Had they stayed I would have 1v2 them easily.

You get 545 dps with 2 geckos and perfect skills (with my ****** skills I had 450 at this time and I still ripped through their shields in no time once the neuts made their effect). Nicest thing is the neuts. 3 med neuts means you'll cap out any active tanked T3 (unless they're using cap boosters, but they usually don't) in 2 cycles. Since T3s doesn't have a lot of buffer it means they're doomed the moment you get a point + web on them. You also have 58k EHP, around 75k with slaves.

A bit expensive (geckos are pain, gotta be carefull not to loose one), but really worth the price.

Worst thing about this fit is the regular scanner, not the expanded, which means you won't be able to combat probe them and have to catch them in an anom or a site you can scan with regular probes.
Unless, of course, you have a probing alt that will do the dirty job for you.

Sorry for the long post, hope this helps !

Happy hunting,
Corail.

@Corail Amber

Nice fit and good write up. I like the general idea of what you're proposing. I don't think the absence of an Expanded launcher is that big a loss. T3's in WH's are going to be in sites. There's no other reason for them to be there, the inability to warp in on them (instead, warping into the site) isn't going to be a big issue. Besides, T3's are fast enough that even if you were to be able to pinpoint them, they would have moved at least 15-20km by the time you arrived - unless they're stupid enough to be anywhere near the drop out point. If you're quick enough, you are almost certain to catch them before they cloak or warp out unless they're better than 40km from you. Even then, the sleeper rats may already have them scrammed. One of the things to be careful of is getting aggro from the sleepers after you kill your target. Caught unaware, you could be in deep doo doo.

The Stratios also won't scream "HEY! I HAVE NEUTS FITTED!" like the pilgrim will in null sec. That alone should provide me with more opportunities shouldn't it? Do they tend to engage this hull?

I see. But it would be "less obvious." I mean there is an idiot born everyday, right? Is there an easy way to know when these things may possibly have a cyno fitted other than looking at kill boards? Can I look at their ship and count their turrets?

There is no such thing as "less obvious". What your looking for is a "less experienced" pilot.
Because an experienced T3 ratter will consider every ship in system to be hostile.

Just giving a tip here in case someone forgot to actually spell it out .


You're gonna need another char with a cloacky frig or somethin that moves decently fast cloacked , cause all t3's will move about at atleast 600 m/s while running a site , therefor its a slim chance of cathing them even if you somehow manage to get in close by the time u remove cloack and try to lock it it will surely get away . but if you have someone with a cloacked frig you can get a better warp in and decloack few seconds before you land with prop mod and point overheated .



As for ships , all of the above are good choices , you could also try experimenting with the gallente recons , also with neuts in the highs ( those are less obvious for having neuts , atleast then a stratios )

Actually in my experience its easy to simply warp in at range on a site say 100, bookmark it and warp back at 170 then use the tactical overlay thing we have to judge a warp in right infront of them. It takes some practice but once you get it down you can be ontop of just about anything in a matter of seconds.