Ships & Modules

It's not that you can't it's that theory dictates you probably shouldn't. The speed of a merlin is not sufficient to fight with rails in most 1v1 scenarios.

Try to read what I wrote again, only this time more carefully.

Range dictation is the key to using rails in solo PVP, you can't dictate range if you are slow.

Gotta agree with Loyd here, but there are ways to control range with a merlin, dual webs being the most obvious, eschewing the merlin's shield resist bonus for an armour tank:

[Merlin, Dual Web Rails]

Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

1MN Afterburner II
Warp Scrambler II
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier

150mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
150mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
150mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
[Empty Rig slot]

Keep the enemy at 8 - 8.5 km and you'll be doing decent damage and negating most of the damage you'll be taking from blaster/autocannon fits. You will get kills with this but it can start to feel a little cheesy as if you can grab someone with poor projection the fight is pretty much over.

I don't think a true kiting fit with the merlin is viable due to it's low base speed and tbh if you really want to use a railgun fit for solo frig stuff I'd go with the atron or incursus.

Come off it, the entire game is based around cheesing the other guy.

You catch a brawler with a kiter that can keep range? He's dead. You catch a kiter with a brawler that can keep them from getting range? They're dead.

The entire pvp revolves around hard countering to such a large degree that its hard to say anything isn't cheese. The reason all fits are largely the same is because the evolution of fitting has produced the best results, and those best results aren't degrees of superiority over other fits, but absolute shutouts.

Before the rise of SAARs, like a nasty virus that just won't disappear, people used to put nanofibers in those lows. These days you need a certain minimum DPS to kill someone, or some luck in hitting a non-stacked resist. I've killed at least one person with T1 missile launchers, because he happened to not have explo resist at all. That was luck because I didn't know he wasn't tanking for it.

A better way of reducing luck is just taking high DPS fits, and trading only speed for armor. Never give up DPS. Double webs are fine, and they'll actually help you apply damage as you can use keep at range. They'll help you achieve the same principle scorching pulse lasers use.




Thorough testing tells me that tracking computers are the worst, even with scripts. They just don't hold a candle to target painters, even solo, where their best asset, providing good hitting for ALL ships against the target, can't come into play. Given that TCs only affect the ship carrying it, they and TEs should provide far more bonuses than they currently do to be anywhere worthwhile, because a target painter beats it solo pvp and hugely outclasses it fleet pvp. In addition to that, flying a ship by manual clicks gives you TC-like bonuses without needing the damn mod.