Warfare & Tactics

Hi fellow capsuleers,

I am about to finish my training in Interceptors IV in a day or two. I will buy myself an interceptor with a task to travel nullsec. I've heard interceptors are great ships to escape gatecamps, and I just probably will go "front door".

What should experienced pilot do when he jumps into gatecamp flying interceptor? Should I MWD away and warp? Or should I just warp away?

Also about fittings. Do I need to fit interceptor with couple of Warp Core Stabilizers to pass camps, or they are so fast that stabs are not needed? I guess I don't need cloak too? But ship refitting is not a problem , I will take small mobile depot with me.

So what should I fit specially for passing gatecamps if any. And what action to take when in gatecamp. I've read a lot of material but mostly it's about regular ships, or cloaked ships but I haven't found any specific advice to interceptor. If you have it, please share.

Thank you

Malediction is easy to fit with Inertial Stabilizers to 1.9, but I was looking at Crusader and with all Stabilizers it's 2.7 s

Also, don't panic is a great tip.

Turn your prop mod off. I was going to say something condescending but honestly, I couldn't be bothered.

if all you want is a bubble immune taxi, then go for the <2s align 'ceptor.

if you want a combat capable 'ceptor, you probably won't be able to manage a <2s align.

i guess you would need to look at what is in the gatecamp to decide how u need to act.

i havent played in months son things may have changed

in most cases i would say just warp to wherever your going becuase your ceptor is imune to bubles and align faster than a frig (iirc)

just warp off

now if you see ships giving scan res boosts u may be in trouble cos they may lock u instantly. If u land in a camp such as this keep calm.

you have 30 seconds to think and plan.

do u try to crash the gate?

do u burn towards a celestial (that is away from the enemies) (zoom out and take a look around)

as i sed in most cases u can juyst warp past people they will be too slow to catch you.

but look out for wierd energy being transfered between ships and stuff (could be mistaken for spider reps on gate i guess)

sry i cant give an exhaustive list of ships that give remote scan res boosting.

Almost anyway you normal way you fit it, you should be able to align and warp off before someone else can lock you.

If you run into insta-lockers, overheat your prop-mod and depending on the situation try either:

a) align off in a direction away from them and get into warp once you break their point
b) re-approach the gate and jump back into the system you came from before they kill you

I use ‘ceptors an awful lot when intel scouting or bookmark-collection building in hostile space. In doing this I have traversed numerous hostile gate camps, and the worst grief I faced so far is the occasional yellow boxing fast locker as I attain warp (and the frequent local-chat abuse). Never yet a red box. I have died, once, to a smart bombing gang but not to any ship that requires a target lock.
On the other side of things I have also been part of numerous gate camps trying to catch, amongst others, fast warping interceptors.

Hostile gate-camp survival in a non-covops ship is all about being able to align and warp before the campers can lock and scram / point you, or being able to GTFO burn back to the gate and escape. Specialised fast locking camp setups will catch ceptors that are not fit to align-warp quickly (<2s as others here have advised), so a combat-fit ceptor will sometimes have to either try fight or burn back and jump out. A taxi-fit ceptor should never need to do anything beyond align-warp-jump-repeat.

Since I am also often burning bookmark perches I also depend on prop-mod speed and GTFO-ability … but that is secondary to being able to get into and out of the hostile space I am scouting.

Fitting-wise my approach has been a bit haphazard and variable, but generally:
- Never fit tank;
- Always fit an Improved Cloaking Device II… spending so much time in hostile systems it is easier to safe-up and cloak than to logout when I have to go AFK. Also allows me to cloak-and-drift when a hostile tries to catch me while I am perch burning;
- Always have at least one Nanofiber Internal Structure II;
- Sometimes fit an Inertia Stabilizer II;
- Often fit a Microwarpdrive … essential when I am burning perches but not a lot of use otherwise;
- Sometimes fit an Overdrive Injector … task specific when I am burning perch bookmarks at gates, stations, and outposts (but not POSes);
- Sometimes fit a hyperspatial lowslot thingie … no real benefit, I just like to see the increased warp speed;
- Sometime fit EWAR, although I have never used it;
- Only rarely fit a warp core stabilizer … task specific, usually when I am ceptor-hauling something valuable;
- Usually fit a Polycarbon Engine Housing rig or two … most of my utility ceptors have these rigs fitted, as do my blockade runners;
- Sometimes fit Dynamic Fuel Valve or Low Friction Nozzle Joint or Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer rigs … depending on the task at hand and what is lying around in my hangar; and
- Usually carry a few spare modules, some paste, an exotic dancer, some spirits, and a mobile depot (only 50m^3) in my cargohold.

I mainly use the stiletto, largely because they look great and I have built heaps of them, but have used most other ceptor types for my nullsec scouting work.

As for procedures it is pretty straight forward. Jump thru gate, have a quick look around, select destination (usually via overview or bookmark), warp to destination. It gets more complicated when using a covops ship, or another shiptype that is not immune to bubbles, but ceptors are pretty much no-brainers for blockade running. Advice-wise I guess there’s two main things: Bookmark perches; and Don’t panic.

No matter how OP ceptors are for blockade running I still often warp to a perch and take a look around before jumping through into particularly nasty systems. When you jump through, and discover a huge camp, take your time and make a plan. While the basic plan is to select something and warp to it, what are you going to do if somebody does point or scram you? Will you know if you’re scrammed and your MWD is also not going to work? Is your medclone up-to-date? (does that even matter anymore?)


Good luck out there. Give 'em Hek!

See how much better it was to be decent and just tell the guy what he was doing wrong?

Then you will need an inty like the Op. There is an in game browser.....don't condescend me, all that boring piloting to his/her destination should be plenty of time to figure out if there will be a camp.

This wouldn't even be a discussion if the Op would actually give playing a video game a try.