Other posts in this series:
Art of the Hurricane 1: Kiting Cane Setup
Art of the Hurricane 3: Hurricane Basics
In this article I will be discussing piloting tricks with regards to my Kiting Hurricane setup (see Art of the Hurricane 1)
The fit is as follows:
[Hurricane, Skira Ranos Kiting]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Shadow Serpentis Stasis Webifier
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension II
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
Some numbers: (with my skills/implants and with a single syth exile and sooth sayer used)
Speed: 1,480 Overheated: 2,090
Mobility (180 degree align): 7.8 seconds MWD on: 11 seconds
Tank: 120 DR 28k EHP Overheated: 155 DR 28k EHP
DPS: 600 dps Overheated: 676
Optimal: 2,760m (2.7km) Falloff: 24,500m (24.5km)
Warp Disruptor: 31km Overheated: 37.6km
Web: 17.1km Overheated: 21.6km
Before we get into more specific tactics, we should go over the baseline. First, and most importantly, is the issue of engagement range. This is a kiter, so the entire idea is to be well within 28km disruptor range but outside of the 13km range of an overheated web. When I initially used this setup, I flew at about 16-17km (which is ideal range for gun damage; with 2.7 optimal 24.5 falloff, you get 85-90% gun damage at 16.5km. Any farther and you start taking a large gun damage hit) This was also a cautious range, giving me a nice 3km buffer in case of someone surging forward to get into web range.
Unfortunately, I found that with the enhanced web range people were often dipping in and out of my web, somewhat nullifying its usefulness. Now, I set my orbit a bit lower: 15km. This seems to keep me between 15 and 16 km of a target, guaranteeing my web will always be on them and providing a speed buffer. This also ensures that, despite being in falloff, I'm at the top edge of the falloff curve and am dealing about 90-95% of my gun damage, maximizing the gank and GTFO role.
Orbiting
A oft-repeated adage among kiters and ceptor pilots is that "orbit function is for noobs." Another comment I hear from those that KILL kiters is "he/she was a tard that only knew how to use orbit". While I understand where both of these sentiments come from, I somewhat disagree. Orbit is THE SINGLE MOST useful tool in a kiters maneuvering arsenal, but you have to understand how it works and not rely on it too much.
Orbiting works as follows. When you click the orbit button on a target, the game looks to see if you are closer or farther away from the target than the orbit amount.
From INSIDE orbit range: If closer, your ship will flip until it is facing DIRECTLY away from your foe outwards, then go to full speed burn until it acheives the desired range, at which point your ship will turn and try and curve into the orbit circle.
This has some unintended side effects: first, most ships do not turn on a dime (especially a big fat battlecruiser.) If you pull range AWAY using the orbit function, expect to get "flung" extremely wide by the mommentum of your MWD boost, and your ship will spend quite a bit of time floundering around outside of 20km to get back into orbit range.
Example: You warp into a fight and land 0km from your intended target. You hit the "orbit" function on him (pre-set to 15km) and turn on your MWD.
Your ship turns away from your target, spinning 180 degrees (taking a full 11 seconds to due so due to your MWD-lowered agility) then accelerates to full speed in a straight line away from your target. You reach 15km from your foe, but you MWD is at full speed and your ships agility is at a low 11s, so your ship attempts to turn into orbit against the full force of your mommentum. You begin to decelerate, but too slowly: your ship continues to fly outwards, reaching 22km before it slows down and manages to re-orient itself. This problem can be even more intense if your foe is moving away from you.
If you are OUTSIDE your intended orbit range when you hit the button, something much more manageable happens. Your ship picks a side (probably based on ship facing) and begins to move towards a point 15km away from your foe off to one side or the other, smoothly sliding into the orbit circle as soon as it hits that point in a gentle curve. This is extremely easy to manage, and a highly advised way to "aproach" targets who are outside your orbit range.
It does, however, have one disadvantage: since your ship begins to head to a point some 15km away from your foe to one side, the speed of your aproach is a bit lower than if you used the "aproach" function (as the shortest distance between two points is a straight line). As such, I've developed a sort of a rule of thumb:
If I warp in 28km or farther from a target, I will hit approach, then hit orbit once I am inside of 22km. If I warp in closer than 28km, I'll hit orbit first. And if I warp in right on top of them, I don't hit orbit OR approach, but manually accelerate straight forward, then hit orbit when I reach 10km (and turn off my MWD at that point).
This is helped immensly by this setup's long-range tackle. Since you can guarantee a point within 32km (as long as you're quick on the draw with overheating and ALWAY remember to have your link onlined). Thus, you can focus on staying in gun range and not worry so much about tackle. Generally, your DPS takes the biggest hit at around 22km. If you're outside of 21km, you're losing a vast amount of your DPS (45%+) to falloff. Under 20km, you're dealing most/almost all of your dps. So the ideal fighting range is between 20 and 15, with 15 being the ideal low orbit. Since your mommentum tends to fling a bit wide in orbit, 15km is a good range.
Advanced Maneuvering: Counter-Kiters
Once your enemy realizes you're kiting them, an inteligent PvPer can be expected to try a few things:
1: Run-and-Reverse.
The classic way of getting a kiter into tackle range takes advantage of the problems inherent in the orbit and approach functions. The player attempting to get you will do the following: They will align in one direction with their engines on full burn but their speed mod off. Then, when your orbit puts you at the farthest point behind their vector, they will gun an overheated MWD cycle. This will cause your ship to turn after them to maintain orbit range, lowering your angular to 0 and causing your ship to acclerate directly towards the opponent. As soon as they reach a bit of range on you (20-22km away) they will cut the MWD, then hit the approach button on you and turn the MWD back on overheated. This means your ship is aligned DIRECTLY toward them, nose to nose, and your ship is trying to get into range of them. All the while, they're gunning towards you at max speed.
In an ideal situation for the counter-kiter, your ship will realize its "mistake" at around 15km (your orbit) and try to turn around to gain range (remember how ships try and gain orbit range?) spinning 180 degrees with your MWD at full burn. Now, as we know, a slow kiter like the hurricane takes a full 11 seconds to flip 180 degrees around. Thats 11 seconds where you are under 15km and not gaining range on your foe. Thats plenty of time for your enemy to close to under 13km and get you webbed, and even to get under 10km and have you warp scrambled (a death sentence.)
I've personally used this trick on Vagabonds, Interceptors, Zealots... you name it. If the kiter is caught unaware and does not know how to deal with the situation, things can get very bad very quick for them.
First off, this hurricane is somewhat less vulnerable to it than your average kiter. Since you can keep your foe webbed out to 21km, its very difficult for an opponent to gain a bit of a speed advantage on you for any length of time. But supposing they do pull it off, there are several ways to deal with it.
First off, the wide orbit trick. If you see a foe pulling this trick, and you find yourself outside of 20km, immediately set orbit to 20km on them. Your ship will make a hard turn and try and acheive the wider orbit instead of maintaining the nigh direct angle towards the opponent. This will cause you to curve into range instead of going in a straight line, maxmizing your speed advantage instead of losing your mobility. Once they pull their attempt and try and get your in range, web them again and hit 15km orbit. Your ship will gently curve to the lower orbit, never once forming the vulnerable straight line towards your foe.
Second, the low-arc trick (or the Matador trick). When you see them trying this, turn off your MWD. Be very careful you have not misjudged your opponent before trying this one though, if he's simply trying to run away you may be giving him exactly what he wanted. Wait till your opponent gets to about 25km, then hit approach on him. As you close range, turn on your MWD and hit your obit button. Your ship will make a sharp turn and attempt to establish an orbit, turning off to the side of his "return" bull rush attempt and diverting around, like a matador side-stepping and waving the red cape. Web him as soon as you can and continue the fight as usual. This later trick is my personal standard one, and although it is somewhat riskier and requires a lighter touch, its more effective at keeping up the DPS pressure on the enemy.
1: Persistent Burn
Another common and oft-effective counter kiter trick is the persistent burn. In this one, the opponent strives to use attrition to wear down your cap and eventually cause you to slip up. Your foe will click approach on you, turn on their MWD, and just leave it there. This will cause your ship to make a hard turn away from them, keeping up a 0 angular burn away. Eventually, your opponent hopes you will slip up and let you MWD drop, giving them a mommentary speed advantage. This is exceptionally effective when used by myrmidons, other hurricanes, and harbingers, as the raw attrition they put out in terms of DPS is enough to force you to micromanage your cap the whole fight. As an added advantage for you enemy, this means you will be slipping just under orbit the whole fight, giving them a bit of DPS on you with guns.
How to deal with this? Cheifly, out micro them. With all your mods save neuts on full burn, you can keep going indefinitely. Since you can usually tank your foe fine, just sit there with all mods online and wait for them to crack. You also will have a web on them the whole time, reducing the effectiveness of their attrition. I find that foes usually give up this trick quickly when it doesn't produce results and just sit still and wait for death.
Another way to deal with it that works especially well vs drone boats is to set a wider orbit. Orbit them at 17 or 20km, well outside enemy guns, and keep your MWD burning. This tactic is designed to wear the enemy down the way they are attempting with you: keep up the presure by shooting them and/or their drones while you orbit, breaking their DPS and their spirit while they watch you dance around outside of their range like an irritating, machine-gun toting sprite. The main disadvantage is that it leaves you somewhat open to the other anti-kiter tricks, as you can't keep your web on them to maintain your speed superiority cleanly. Remember to watch their speed like a hawk, and if the have a sudden burst of high speed remember to overheat.
That's it for now. Check back next time for combat tactics vs specific ships and gangs.
PS: Please comment with any suggestions or requests on what you would like to hear about pertaining to this ship. I have a lot to say on the subject, and I don't always know what bits people want to hear. Thank for reading!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Videos!
So first off, I'd like to take a minute to express my love for a PvP video I was recently directed to:
Mind Games
It rocked my socks off. Largely consisting of solo and duo battlecruiser PvP, and some of the most obscene odds you've ever seen. This is how you do it. Splitting people up, misdirecting foes onto the wrong primary (paper tank HAM drake + tripple rep myrm for example) you name it. Some of the best piracy/skirmish warfare I've seen in a long time.
Not, however, the most epic EVE vid of all time (sorry Endless). That honor goes to
The Dominion Trailer
So, much, sexiness. HOLY FUCK!
Best trailer for EVE ever. I think this does an incredible job of representing the tactical environment of EVE, and the epicness of eve combat.
And the Russian commander has a sexy voice. And yes, I'm male and straight, but god damn I wish I had that voice. Fucking amazing.
>end rant.
Mind Games
It rocked my socks off. Largely consisting of solo and duo battlecruiser PvP, and some of the most obscene odds you've ever seen. This is how you do it. Splitting people up, misdirecting foes onto the wrong primary (paper tank HAM drake + tripple rep myrm for example) you name it. Some of the best piracy/skirmish warfare I've seen in a long time.
Not, however, the most epic EVE vid of all time (sorry Endless). That honor goes to
The Dominion Trailer
So, much, sexiness. HOLY FUCK!
Best trailer for EVE ever. I think this does an incredible job of representing the tactical environment of EVE, and the epicness of eve combat.
And the Russian commander has a sexy voice. And yes, I'm male and straight, but god damn I wish I had that voice. Fucking amazing.
>end rant.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Logic of Honor
I often have a hard time convincing people to 1v1 me or to trust my word during a ransom attempt. Despite being the executor of a pirate cartel that is exceptionally well known for our honor, and despite how illogical it would be for me as a career pirate to violate such agreement, still the average EVE pilot will not trust me. Even other PvPers will rarely concede ransom money or agree to a 1v1, and I usually have to spent fifteen minutes or so chatting with someone, weedling and persuading them to do it.
Why, you might ask, is this a problem? And why did it get to be this way?
Before getting into the causes of this epidemic of mistrust, I will talk a minute about why it is in my personal and professional best interests to be “honorable” –which is to say, trustworthy– in behavior.
I am a career pirate. Though I have other means of making isk, I rarely take advantage of them. I make isk and cover my loses almost exclusively through my actions as a pirate. I do this because it’s fun, and it is a challenge. I only play games that challenge me, and I’ve gotten to the point in EVE where simply getting kills is easy. If I was only playing for kills, I’d join a blobbing pirate corp like Beyond Divinity and never leave my battleship, hot-dropping people with motherships and carriers whenever outnumbered. Once again I stress that there is nothing wrong with this way of playing, merely that I don’t personally enjoy it. I simply do not find this style challenging.
Making isk as a cutthroat, however, is a challenge. In a game of eat or be eaten, flying without the assurance of big blob backup, earning (and more importantly, keeping) isk is very difficult. Every time you lose a ship, you have an isk deficit you need to make up before you can start earning isk again. Every time you engage in a fight, you have to weigh the potential gain vs the potential loss, and figure out if you can afford it. Even worse, I have (as you may know if you’ve read my post on my kiting cane fit) very expensive taste in ships and fittings. When you fly a ship that costs 90m to lose (after insurance) into a fight, and a 150m Recon(that’s about the cost of one of my rapiers, fully fit) at the same time on your other screen, you need to be exceptionally cautious.
If you can avoid losing too much money, the issue of earning more comes into play. A fully T2 fit HAC or BC usually drops between 5m and 20m in items when it explodes (including T2 drones and faction ammo). That estimate comes before the slightly reduced buy order prices I often end up settling for, and then you have to split the earnings with any gang members. Earning money merely from loot is thus only a small part of being a career pirate. Loot just about pays for my ammo and repairs, but unless I luck out and someone drops a fancy faction mod, they don’t pay for new ships or replacements (though looted mods that I can use, such as DCU IIs, T2 Drones and T2 ACs do reduce the cost of new ships).
For positive isk flow, you need to ransom or camp. While the occasional gatecamp can be fun, I find that it largely falls into the “blob the hell out of them” category of play, and I only do it when I’m really bored and have a fully fit out battleship laying around. So that leaves ransoms. Old-School pirate ransoming has somewhat gone out of style in EVE. Many pirates reason “if you’re willing to pay for your ship, you must have something worth losing!” Still others will ransom then blow the opponent up anyway, figuring they just got paid twice for the kill.
This post is largely about the self-defeating logic of the second type, but I will briefly talk about the first while I’m at it. First off, whenever you blow up a ship, financially you’re throwing the dice. What if the opponent was all T1 fit? What if all the expensive modules pop and you’re left with a named small blaster and some ammo (or worse, he has a single faction mod and it gets popped). Conversely, what if the victim is faction fit, and your ransom earns you less isk than you could have gained?
First off, when you pop a foe, only about 10-30% of the modules survive. This is an automatic cut in possible profit: if you yourself are flying an expensively fit battlecruiser, you would have to kill about five fully T2 fit battlecruisers just to make up the cost of your modules, much less the ship. Another factor to consider is the psychology of the kind of person who faction fits: arrogance.
The arrogant often will refuse to pay a ransom, even if it is paltry compared to the price of their fit. In my experience, the LEAST likely person to pay a ransom is the person who really, really should. I have only once found out after the fact that a ransom victim was more expensively fit than I charged, but many many times (four, in recent memory) a ransom victim has told me to go fuck myself (or simply blocked me) and turned out to be fully faction fit.
A few more things to consider for the “if they are willing to pay for their ship, they must have something worth losing!” crowd: the price of T2 ships, the cost of modules vs how many drop when they pop, and the gap between price of ship, insurance cost and insurance payout. Not to mention the mere convenience of not having to buy and fit another ship, and the possible risk of getting your pod caught and killed. All in all, paying a ransom is a pretty good investment for your victim, and a good profit on your part compared to merely killing them.
A good investment, that is, if they can be reasonably sure that you will hold up on your end of the bargain. And this is where the logic of Honor comes into play.
EVE players rarely will pay a ransom after being asked once. You have to sit there and provide evidence, logic and sometimes even character references before they will be willing to pay. The reason is that most so-called pirates have absolutely no sense of business. Being honorable is NOT about morality: it is good business.
Now, suppose a business in real life provided a specific service, such as house cleaning. The business asks people to pre-pay on a credit card some kind of reasonable sum, low enough that people are willing to pay for the service. So you go to this business, you pay them the sum, and they never show up. Now imagine you went to competing company with the same policy of pre-charging and roughly the same service. You chose to trust them and pre-pay for the service, and they too never show up and will not answer your phone calls.
So how likely are you to pre-pay for house cleaning in the future?
The problem is that pirates are now seen as untrustworthy. So many outlaw pvpers of EVE have mission running alts, massive gank tactics, or other means of income/preserving ships that the career pirate has become a rare breed. But everyone, career pirate or no, likes money, so many of these non-career pirates still ransom. These pilots, not truly needing the isk and/or not seeing the long-term ramifications of violating the agreement, usually blow up their opponents whether they pay or not. This has become such a prevalent trend that the concept of “don’t pay ransoms, it’s a useless gesture” has become imbedded deeply in the psychology of EVE players, especially carebears.
For those of us who live off of ransoms and loot alone, this is an especially worrying trend. Unfortunately, I can do little or nothing to dissuade the kind of player who violates ransom. When I argue for honor, my cries fall on deaf ears. Dishonoring a ransom gets you paid twice, right? Well yes, but it’s a one time investment. For example, someone offers you five dollars to help them carry their groceries in from the car every day. Supposing you take the five dollars, then chose not to carry in the groceries. (First off, let us COMPLETELY dismiss the moral implications, since the metaphore is pertaining entirely to a video game. Let us pretend this is a perfectly moral thing to do and focus on the financial aspects) If you’re following the logic of the Dishonorable pirate, you just won twice: you got five dollars, and you didn’t have to work for it. But consider that this person would have paid you again and again, each time you helped them carry in the groceries, and now he will not.
Furthermore, this man will be less likely to trust others to help him for money in the future. The aspect that most pirates do not seem to grasp is that while repeat business from a single ransom victim is unlikely, the overall effect on the ransom environment is repercussive. You are but a single part of a larger problem, as the pirates of EVE have by and large consensually agreed to not honor ransoms. Even if 50% of EVE pirates frequently honored ransoms, the 50% who don’t (ignoring the constant influx of possible fresh victims) would eventually cause all EVE players to stop paying. If you continually encounter those who honor the ransom agreement, you are inclined to pay the ransom whenever it seems logical to. If you encounter even a single dishonorer and pay them, you are inclined to never pay again.
The exact same logic applies to 1v1 or duels. Whenever I challenge someone to a 1v1, there are always two factors at play on my decision for the challenge. First, I NEVER challenge someone who I am not confident I can beat. Though I am occasionally wrong in my assessment and end up losing, more often than not I correctly judge my foe and I end up winning, causing a gain for me (their loot, or even sometimes a ransom if I am exceptionally clearly the winner). The other major factor I always account for is the possibility of the other person violating the compact. As such, I ALWAYS have a gang on standby unless the fight is taking place at a safe, and if they want to gang with me to oversee me (to prevent me from ganking them) I make sure I create the gang so they can’t sneakily invite gang mates on me. This gang DOES NOT interfere with the fight (pursuant of the above logic pertaining to ransoms) but they remain available to keep me from losing if the other person is less honorable. (All in all, ironically, this means it is not in your best interests to take me up on a 1v1 offer: if I'm offering, it's because I know I can beat you.)
Dueling for me is thus clean profit. As long as I don’t misjudge my foe, I’m guaranteed profit: if they violate the duel, my standby gang (which usually contains at least one falcon) will nullify the enemy gang unless it is truly overwhelming, and if I win the 1v1 without them interfering I’ve gained their loot with no loss on my part. Since dueling is not only fun, but also profitable, I not only challenge many people to 1v1s, but I make absolutely sure to never violate a 1v1 agreement, and that my alliance does the same.
It isn’t morality, its business, and a logical businessman does much better than an impulsive one.
Now, not everyone needs or wants to earn isk pirating, and some pirates outright enjoy griefing and causing others discomfort and misfortune. Although such behavior disgusts me, there’s nothing about the game (both meta and setting) that does or should prevent such behavior. Greifers are as much a part of EVE as spaceships are, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But, if you are a pirate, especially a career pirate, and you are NOT a griefer, I strongly encourage, nay, beg you to be an honorable one.
In the long run, we all benefit.
-Skira Ranos, Old-Fashioned Pirate
The Blood Money Cartel Code can be found here: Blood Code
Why, you might ask, is this a problem? And why did it get to be this way?
Before getting into the causes of this epidemic of mistrust, I will talk a minute about why it is in my personal and professional best interests to be “honorable” –which is to say, trustworthy– in behavior.
I am a career pirate. Though I have other means of making isk, I rarely take advantage of them. I make isk and cover my loses almost exclusively through my actions as a pirate. I do this because it’s fun, and it is a challenge. I only play games that challenge me, and I’ve gotten to the point in EVE where simply getting kills is easy. If I was only playing for kills, I’d join a blobbing pirate corp like Beyond Divinity and never leave my battleship, hot-dropping people with motherships and carriers whenever outnumbered. Once again I stress that there is nothing wrong with this way of playing, merely that I don’t personally enjoy it. I simply do not find this style challenging.
Making isk as a cutthroat, however, is a challenge. In a game of eat or be eaten, flying without the assurance of big blob backup, earning (and more importantly, keeping) isk is very difficult. Every time you lose a ship, you have an isk deficit you need to make up before you can start earning isk again. Every time you engage in a fight, you have to weigh the potential gain vs the potential loss, and figure out if you can afford it. Even worse, I have (as you may know if you’ve read my post on my kiting cane fit) very expensive taste in ships and fittings. When you fly a ship that costs 90m to lose (after insurance) into a fight, and a 150m Recon(that’s about the cost of one of my rapiers, fully fit) at the same time on your other screen, you need to be exceptionally cautious.
If you can avoid losing too much money, the issue of earning more comes into play. A fully T2 fit HAC or BC usually drops between 5m and 20m in items when it explodes (including T2 drones and faction ammo). That estimate comes before the slightly reduced buy order prices I often end up settling for, and then you have to split the earnings with any gang members. Earning money merely from loot is thus only a small part of being a career pirate. Loot just about pays for my ammo and repairs, but unless I luck out and someone drops a fancy faction mod, they don’t pay for new ships or replacements (though looted mods that I can use, such as DCU IIs, T2 Drones and T2 ACs do reduce the cost of new ships).
For positive isk flow, you need to ransom or camp. While the occasional gatecamp can be fun, I find that it largely falls into the “blob the hell out of them” category of play, and I only do it when I’m really bored and have a fully fit out battleship laying around. So that leaves ransoms. Old-School pirate ransoming has somewhat gone out of style in EVE. Many pirates reason “if you’re willing to pay for your ship, you must have something worth losing!” Still others will ransom then blow the opponent up anyway, figuring they just got paid twice for the kill.
This post is largely about the self-defeating logic of the second type, but I will briefly talk about the first while I’m at it. First off, whenever you blow up a ship, financially you’re throwing the dice. What if the opponent was all T1 fit? What if all the expensive modules pop and you’re left with a named small blaster and some ammo (or worse, he has a single faction mod and it gets popped). Conversely, what if the victim is faction fit, and your ransom earns you less isk than you could have gained?
First off, when you pop a foe, only about 10-30% of the modules survive. This is an automatic cut in possible profit: if you yourself are flying an expensively fit battlecruiser, you would have to kill about five fully T2 fit battlecruisers just to make up the cost of your modules, much less the ship. Another factor to consider is the psychology of the kind of person who faction fits: arrogance.
The arrogant often will refuse to pay a ransom, even if it is paltry compared to the price of their fit. In my experience, the LEAST likely person to pay a ransom is the person who really, really should. I have only once found out after the fact that a ransom victim was more expensively fit than I charged, but many many times (four, in recent memory) a ransom victim has told me to go fuck myself (or simply blocked me) and turned out to be fully faction fit.
A few more things to consider for the “if they are willing to pay for their ship, they must have something worth losing!” crowd: the price of T2 ships, the cost of modules vs how many drop when they pop, and the gap between price of ship, insurance cost and insurance payout. Not to mention the mere convenience of not having to buy and fit another ship, and the possible risk of getting your pod caught and killed. All in all, paying a ransom is a pretty good investment for your victim, and a good profit on your part compared to merely killing them.
A good investment, that is, if they can be reasonably sure that you will hold up on your end of the bargain. And this is where the logic of Honor comes into play.
EVE players rarely will pay a ransom after being asked once. You have to sit there and provide evidence, logic and sometimes even character references before they will be willing to pay. The reason is that most so-called pirates have absolutely no sense of business. Being honorable is NOT about morality: it is good business.
Now, suppose a business in real life provided a specific service, such as house cleaning. The business asks people to pre-pay on a credit card some kind of reasonable sum, low enough that people are willing to pay for the service. So you go to this business, you pay them the sum, and they never show up. Now imagine you went to competing company with the same policy of pre-charging and roughly the same service. You chose to trust them and pre-pay for the service, and they too never show up and will not answer your phone calls.
So how likely are you to pre-pay for house cleaning in the future?
The problem is that pirates are now seen as untrustworthy. So many outlaw pvpers of EVE have mission running alts, massive gank tactics, or other means of income/preserving ships that the career pirate has become a rare breed. But everyone, career pirate or no, likes money, so many of these non-career pirates still ransom. These pilots, not truly needing the isk and/or not seeing the long-term ramifications of violating the agreement, usually blow up their opponents whether they pay or not. This has become such a prevalent trend that the concept of “don’t pay ransoms, it’s a useless gesture” has become imbedded deeply in the psychology of EVE players, especially carebears.
For those of us who live off of ransoms and loot alone, this is an especially worrying trend. Unfortunately, I can do little or nothing to dissuade the kind of player who violates ransom. When I argue for honor, my cries fall on deaf ears. Dishonoring a ransom gets you paid twice, right? Well yes, but it’s a one time investment. For example, someone offers you five dollars to help them carry their groceries in from the car every day. Supposing you take the five dollars, then chose not to carry in the groceries. (First off, let us COMPLETELY dismiss the moral implications, since the metaphore is pertaining entirely to a video game. Let us pretend this is a perfectly moral thing to do and focus on the financial aspects) If you’re following the logic of the Dishonorable pirate, you just won twice: you got five dollars, and you didn’t have to work for it. But consider that this person would have paid you again and again, each time you helped them carry in the groceries, and now he will not.
Furthermore, this man will be less likely to trust others to help him for money in the future. The aspect that most pirates do not seem to grasp is that while repeat business from a single ransom victim is unlikely, the overall effect on the ransom environment is repercussive. You are but a single part of a larger problem, as the pirates of EVE have by and large consensually agreed to not honor ransoms. Even if 50% of EVE pirates frequently honored ransoms, the 50% who don’t (ignoring the constant influx of possible fresh victims) would eventually cause all EVE players to stop paying. If you continually encounter those who honor the ransom agreement, you are inclined to pay the ransom whenever it seems logical to. If you encounter even a single dishonorer and pay them, you are inclined to never pay again.
The exact same logic applies to 1v1 or duels. Whenever I challenge someone to a 1v1, there are always two factors at play on my decision for the challenge. First, I NEVER challenge someone who I am not confident I can beat. Though I am occasionally wrong in my assessment and end up losing, more often than not I correctly judge my foe and I end up winning, causing a gain for me (their loot, or even sometimes a ransom if I am exceptionally clearly the winner). The other major factor I always account for is the possibility of the other person violating the compact. As such, I ALWAYS have a gang on standby unless the fight is taking place at a safe, and if they want to gang with me to oversee me (to prevent me from ganking them) I make sure I create the gang so they can’t sneakily invite gang mates on me. This gang DOES NOT interfere with the fight (pursuant of the above logic pertaining to ransoms) but they remain available to keep me from losing if the other person is less honorable. (All in all, ironically, this means it is not in your best interests to take me up on a 1v1 offer: if I'm offering, it's because I know I can beat you.)
Dueling for me is thus clean profit. As long as I don’t misjudge my foe, I’m guaranteed profit: if they violate the duel, my standby gang (which usually contains at least one falcon) will nullify the enemy gang unless it is truly overwhelming, and if I win the 1v1 without them interfering I’ve gained their loot with no loss on my part. Since dueling is not only fun, but also profitable, I not only challenge many people to 1v1s, but I make absolutely sure to never violate a 1v1 agreement, and that my alliance does the same.
It isn’t morality, its business, and a logical businessman does much better than an impulsive one.
Now, not everyone needs or wants to earn isk pirating, and some pirates outright enjoy griefing and causing others discomfort and misfortune. Although such behavior disgusts me, there’s nothing about the game (both meta and setting) that does or should prevent such behavior. Greifers are as much a part of EVE as spaceships are, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But, if you are a pirate, especially a career pirate, and you are NOT a griefer, I strongly encourage, nay, beg you to be an honorable one.
In the long run, we all benefit.
-Skira Ranos, Old-Fashioned Pirate
The Blood Money Cartel Code can be found here: Blood Code
Friday, November 20, 2009
Psychology of Tactics 1: Mental Blocks
First off, go read this article:
Playing to Win
When you're done, come back here.
This is why I do not mind people who blob in EVE. This is why I don't whine about Falcons (and my alt can fly one). This is why I use setups with neuts on them. Etc.
The main difference between EVE and other games is that EVE, by virtue of being a sandbox game, lets you set your own victory conditions. For me, winning is about getting kills and ransoms against non-PvPers, beating other PvPers at their own game by getting more kills than losses when I fight them, and, my absolute favorite, winning a fight against the odds. Ultimately, winning is about having fun, getting in a good fight, and getting out alive (or die after getting tons of kills) I don't mind when people use "cheap" or "lame" tactics like EWAR, blobbing,logistics/RR BS and the like. I might not personally find some of the above tactics interesting or fun to employ, but that does not mean I think there is no counter to them, and it ALSO does not mean I won’t employ said tactics myself if need be.
In fact, one of my favorite things to do is splitting up and picking off members of gangs of PvPers who outnumber and outgun me and my mates. Blobbing might not be an interesting way to win, but I certainly see nothing wrong with it. It may amuse me when people resort to it against me; generally I take it as a compliment. If someone thinks they need ten ships to kill me and my gang of two, I have done my job. I am sufficiently scary that they need to massively outgun me to "even the odds". On the rare occation that things go perfectly according to plan, and I manage to do the "impossible" and beat them at these odds, it turns out that they were right.
The point is, "If you are playing to win, you should play the game everyone else is playing, not the home-made game that no one plays." Before you can truly begin to learn how to master the game, you must relinquish your mental blocks and personal hang ups.
Next time you feel the urge to whine about a Falcon, remember this article.
Playing to Win
When you're done, come back here.
This is why I do not mind people who blob in EVE. This is why I don't whine about Falcons (and my alt can fly one). This is why I use setups with neuts on them. Etc.
The main difference between EVE and other games is that EVE, by virtue of being a sandbox game, lets you set your own victory conditions. For me, winning is about getting kills and ransoms against non-PvPers, beating other PvPers at their own game by getting more kills than losses when I fight them, and, my absolute favorite, winning a fight against the odds. Ultimately, winning is about having fun, getting in a good fight, and getting out alive (or die after getting tons of kills) I don't mind when people use "cheap" or "lame" tactics like EWAR, blobbing,logistics/RR BS and the like. I might not personally find some of the above tactics interesting or fun to employ, but that does not mean I think there is no counter to them, and it ALSO does not mean I won’t employ said tactics myself if need be.
In fact, one of my favorite things to do is splitting up and picking off members of gangs of PvPers who outnumber and outgun me and my mates. Blobbing might not be an interesting way to win, but I certainly see nothing wrong with it. It may amuse me when people resort to it against me; generally I take it as a compliment. If someone thinks they need ten ships to kill me and my gang of two, I have done my job. I am sufficiently scary that they need to massively outgun me to "even the odds". On the rare occation that things go perfectly according to plan, and I manage to do the "impossible" and beat them at these odds, it turns out that they were right.
The point is, "If you are playing to win, you should play the game everyone else is playing, not the home-made game that no one plays." Before you can truly begin to learn how to master the game, you must relinquish your mental blocks and personal hang ups.
Next time you feel the urge to whine about a Falcon, remember this article.
Uncle Skira wants YOU! For the Cartel
(and yes, I'm male in real life...)
The Blood Money Cartel is open for recruitment from the 17th to the 24th of every month, and we have just opened our doors for November. For the first time since the beginning of the Cartel, both Blood Money Bootcamp and the main corp, Blood Money inc are recruiting at the same time.
Blood Money Bootcamp is our ongoing training program. We take rookies and turn them into effective PvPers through hands-on training. If you’re looking to learn how to Yar, we’re the place for you.
Blood Money Inc. is a hard-core pirate corp, and we’re looking to build our numbers. If you’re an awesome pirate looking to fly with people who treat you like something other than a number, we are looking for you. When you’re in the Cartel, you’re more than a pilot, you are family.
Prospective Applicants can take a look at the requirements and drop off an app for either corp here: Recruitment
The Blood Money Cartel is open for recruitment from the 17th to the 24th of every month, and we have just opened our doors for November. For the first time since the beginning of the Cartel, both Blood Money Bootcamp and the main corp, Blood Money inc are recruiting at the same time.
Blood Money Bootcamp is our ongoing training program. We take rookies and turn them into effective PvPers through hands-on training. If you’re looking to learn how to Yar, we’re the place for you.
Blood Money Inc. is a hard-core pirate corp, and we’re looking to build our numbers. If you’re an awesome pirate looking to fly with people who treat you like something other than a number, we are looking for you. When you’re in the Cartel, you’re more than a pilot, you are family.
Prospective Applicants can take a look at the requirements and drop off an app for either corp here: Recruitment
The Art of the Hurricane 1: Kiting Cane Setup
Other posts in this series:
Art of the Hurricane 2: Kiting Cane Maneuvers
Art of the Hurricane 3: Hurricane Basics
This is the first of a series of posts about the Hurricane Battlecruiser and my two personal favorite fits. This one will be talking about the current iteration of my kiting fit. Before I get into the nitty gritty of it, first I have a few disclaimers:
1: I have (and always use) a full LG snake set, a 3% falloff implant, a 3% ROF implant, a 5% medium AC damage implant, and a Skirmish Warfare Mindlink. All my numbers and theory crafting are based on my skills and these implants. My Skills on EVE Sheet
Of my skills, one of the most important to note with regards to Hurricanes is that I have Battlecruiser V. Any pilot intending to master the Hurricane would do well to have this, as the bonus is massive.
I also make use of the rarely touched Synth boosters, and will talk on them in this article.
2: I do not limit myself in terms of isk. Both of my setups cost more than is generally reasonable for a battlecruiser, and may not be completely viable. At the end of this post, I will discuss the budget alternatives of these setups without skirmish warfare links or faction mods.
3: I am basing the kiting setup on the new falloff numbers and ammo clip sizes from the test server (Dominion numbers, in other words). In Dominion, the physical volume of projectile ammo has been standardized and decreased, allowing for more in cargo. In addition, 425mm ACs now have 10% more falloff, and dual 180s have 10% less (the same goes for the tiers of small and large ACs).
4: This article (and other fitting theorycraft articles to follow) ARE NOT INTENDED as proscriptive. In other words, I do not expect or want anyone to copy my fits. The ones I fly are (aside from being extremely expensive for canes) very specific to my tastes, abilities, skill focus and strengths/weaknesses as a pilot, and I fully expect many people to disagree with my fitting choices. One does not teach painting by having students copy the teacher’s artwork stroke by stroke. I am merely attempting to illustrate my thought process with these ships and perhaps to get others to start thinking of their own setups in a new light.
Before we get into the details of the Kiting Cane, we should talk about kiting in general.
What is Kiting?
Kiting (sometimes incorrectly called “speed tanking”, which is actually a term for a slightly different school of tactics) is a tactic in which a player stays out of range of foes while still being within the range of their own weapons. A classic example of kiting is the caldari Crow interceptor (which is also a speed tanker, but more on that latter) which orbits at around 17-20km of a foe, peppering the target with missiles while being out of the range of most counterattacks.
Dedicated “Kiting” ships generally fight somewhere between 14 and 20km from their targets, using speed and other advantages to keep range while witling an opponent down.
Kiting comes from early MMO slang for a caster technique in which the caster attacks an opponent or mob with ranged spells while running backwards, staying out of the enemies attack range. The idea is that it looks like the caster is dragging the enemy along like a kite being flown by a child on a windy day.
Why does it work?
Greater than 14km and less than 21km is the range in which one can reasonably guarantee tackle on a foe, but outside of the range of (even overheated) hard tackle such as stasis webbifiers and warp scramblers, which can hamper mobility and prevent the “kiter” from holding range.
This is also outside of the range of the vast majority of common PvP weapons; medium tier lasers without scorch, medium ACs without barrage, and all but large blasters (and even then, only with null) cannot hit this far. Even with scorch, most lasers track poorly at this range, and barrage fit ACs without falloff ship bonuses or rigs lose a huge chunk of their damage.
A kiting fit ship will be set up to hit solidly at this range, however, providing a DPS advantage over an opponent. Kiting also has a massive added advantage known as “GTFO” ability; the speed freedom of movement to be able to simply arc off into space and escape from a fight if things turn against the kiter.
Is sniping kiting? What about EWAR?
Broadly speaking, both ranged EWAR ships and sniper fit support ships utilize kiting. However, since EWAR ships (other than the Min/Gal recons, which DO count as kiters in my book) are often outside of tackle range and thus generally cannot solo, they fall into a different role known as support. Likewise, dedicated snipers fall into one of two roles: fleet DPS (in which they are fighting other sniper fleets, and are thus exposed to damage from the opponent, IE not kiting) or support (taking out foes such as tacklers at range) which, while technically falling into the kiting category, is more closely tied to the support category.
So technically yes, but actually no.
How is kiting relevant to piracy?
Kiting in particular and skirmish warfare in general are both extremely relevant to piracy in EVE. The way I see it, there are two broad categories piracy in EVE: Gank fighting, which consists of blobbing and camping, and “old school” solo/small gang roaming piracy. While there is (and I stress this) absolutely nothing wrong with the former, I do not personally find it very fun.
One thing that both categories share is a strong aversion to loss of ships. Nobody likes to die, and especially in the for-profit and/or for-fun world of piracy, loss avoidance is an important consideration when choosing tactics. Gank/Blob tactics are good at avoiding losses in most situations: when you overpower an enemy so dramatically, it is easy to come out of a fight without losses. Where they fall short is when they encounter bigger fish, in which case losses can be catastrophic.
The personal variation of “Old School” piracy I practice largely revolves around what I call “Skirmish Tactics”, or hit-and-run. The idea is to maximize both mobility and damage potential, allowing a well put together skirmish gang to easily and quickly kill (or incapacitate for ransom), while remaining able to easily avoid or escape from opponents big enough to crush the gang (or solo pirate).
When it comes to this kind of tactics, Kiters are ideal. They tend to have moderate to good damage potential, and they maintain an unrivaled level of mobility by not only staying out of tackle range, but also have the high speed and maneuverability required to stay at said range.
It should be noted that Kiters are not the only effective skirmish setups. Quite the contrary, a wide variety of setup styles and combat tactics can be employed by a skirmish gang, and the gank cane setup I will be discussing in the follow up to this article is another example of an effective skirmish ship. I merely mean to say that kiters are ideal for the skirmish role, and fall into it naturally by their very nature.
Alright, so with that out of the way, let us return to the Hurricane. While the Hurricane is not “pre-defined” as a kiter like many ships (note the Vagabond’s speed and falloff bonuses for one clear example,) it nevertheless fits the role quite well: It has high mobility and speed for its class, it deals a considerable amount of DPS, and it uses weapon systems that can easily be modified to hit outside of 14km. Kiting canes are nothing new, either. The day after Revelations came out (introducing not only tier 2 Battlecruisers but also rigs), I remember encountering a number of so-called “vagacanes”.
The same “vagacane” or “nanocane” setup is still used by a number of people, and a modified close range version of it has become almost cookie-cutter in 0.0 warfare. The original setup goes something like this:
[Hurricane, Vagacane]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II
10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Disruptor II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
This setup has a number of advantages over its close relative, the cookie-cutter Vagabond. While it lacks the Vagabond shield resistances (and indeed some Vagacanes fit an invuln field to cover this a bit), it makes up for it somewhat in increased base shield HP. And while it is less quick and agile than the Vaga, it does a considerable bit more dps (648 at all lvl 5 skills, as opposed to the cookie cutter vaga’s 450). It also achieves the same falloff with autocannons as the vagabond, and indeed this setup will be slightly boosted post dominion with the addition 10% bonus to falloff on 425s. It is also somewhat more cap stable than a cookie cutter vagabond, pulling off 5 minutes and 36s of capacitor at full burn as opposed to the vaga’s 1m 46s.
However, the trade off from vaga to cane is not completely to the Hurricane’s advantage. While this setup excels at gank, it shares with the vagabond a certain fragility (especially against EM damage.) And despite having more stable cap than the Vaga, the lack of capacitor booster tends to make it mincemeat to Curses and BS neuts. It also lacks range control when compared to the vagabond, with no web and considerably less speed (1,552ms with all lvl 5 skills). Still, not a bad setup overall. It even works pretty well at close range due to its overwhelming DPS.
When I set out to fly a kiting cane, I decided I wanted something that would leverage those disadvantages. Initially, I took what was at the time the standard dual rep fit and slapped falloff rigs on it, dropping the HAMs on the cookie cutter fit for heavies.
[Hurricane, Kiting Cane First Attempt]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
This worked surprisingly well, especially with snakes. Pre-Quantum rise, this setup went over 2kms with snakes plugged in, which was more than enough for my purposes. Even without snakes, it went 1,550ms, and I discovered a truism then: to kite effectively, you don’t need to go “nano-fast” as was the trend during those days. You just had to be faster than your enemy. The web on this setup was initially left on simply because I didn’t know what to do with that mid slot, but I came to strangely rely on it.
This was, admittedly, before warp scramblers could turn off microwarp drives, but the principle still works today: it doesn’t matter if you get caught in a single web, because you can web the foe back. If they are pushed 60% down in speed (90% back then) the same as you, you STILL have a speed advantage over them, since both people are slowed by the same factor. I latter applied this same logic to the vagabond with similarly good results, though the setup is no longer as viable for the vaga since the advent of “hard tackle” scramblers. When overheating became an option, I found this to be even more usefull, even required on most kiters (especially somewhat slow ones like the hurricane).
This was demonstrated especially dramatically when I was playing around with a kiting sleipnir fit on the test server. I was arrogantly boasting that the Sleipnir, if kiting fit, could beat up any non-caldari command ship. A BoB Astarte pilot took me up on my boast and fought me 1v1. He overheated his web and MWD, got me in web range, and tore my Sleipnir a new asshole. He then recommended I fit a web on my Sleipnir fit to prevent that kind of thing from happening in the future. This cemented the web’s position on my cane fit.
My fit remained unchanged for many years, until I encountered a certain Veto pilot who is well known for solo Hurricane PvP. I got into a small fight with Kaileen Starsong, with me in my Vagabond and a few of my corps rookies along with me. Near the end of the fight, I was shocked when Kai’s hurricane webbed me at 15km. When I asked him if he had a faction web after the fight was over, Kai replied that no, the cane was fit with a Skirmish Warfare Link: Interdiction Maneuvers module that boosted the range of the web to 13km un-overheated (with mindlink plugged in).
Months of training later, I revised my cane fit as such:
[Hurricane, Kiter Take 2]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
'Arbalest' Assault Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
While the added web range was nice, I felt it was lacking something. Post QR, the frigate or AF with warp scrambler problem got especially bad, and I had to figure out a way to cram a neut on the setup. For a while I flew:
[Hurricane, Take 3]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
50W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
But the damage was just too low (404, lower than a vagabond) and while it worked okay, it felt like there was something missing. Recently, I came up with a new iteration of the above setup, and recently I re-tooled it for the Dominion AC changes. It is:
[Hurricane, Skira Ranos Kiting]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Shadow Serpentis Stasis Webifier
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension II
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
This is the best kiter I have yet flown, and I love it to death. Let’s dissect the fit:
Gyrostabilizer II - 1
Gyrostabilizer II - 1
Gyrostabilizer II - 1
Damage Control II - 2
Medium Armor Repairer II - 2
Medium Armor Repairer II - 2
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive - 3
Warp Disruptor II - 4
Shadow Serpentis Stasis Webifier - 5
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800 - 6
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers -7
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
Small Energy Neutralizer II - 9
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I - 10
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension II - 10
Medium Ancillary Current Router I - 10
Hammerhead II x1 - 11
Hobgoblin II x4 - 11
Cargo (Post-Dominion): - 12
13x Cap Booster 800 - 12
50x Nanite Repair Paste - 12
2,100x Barrage M - 12
2,100x Republic Fleet EMP M - 12
2x Synth Sooth Sayer - 12
2x Synth Exile - 12
1: Gyrostabs
I recently pulled the EANM off of my setup and substituted in another gyrostab. I found a surprisingly massive jump in the DPS over the older setup, and with the dominion falloff changes I was able to switch out for 425mm ACs, further increasing the DPS advantage. As opposed to the prior setups 490 and 404, this setup deals a staggering 605 dps with my skills, which is almost as high as the “vagacane”. This helps maximize the Hurricanes gank and GTFO role: with higher damage potential, fights are shorter are small ships can be picked off more easily before they get in range. This setup is now more capable of killing opponents before backup arrives, and subduing ransom targets quickly and decisively before they can start to break the tank with drones or missiles. In addition, with the DPS advantage, this setup can shift to faction EMP and close range to 5km to break hard missioner shield tanks if need be.
2: Tank
Dual MAR tank with a single DCU may not be exceptional tough, but unlike a passive tank it does not slow the ship down, and unlike a shield buffer it leaves mid slots free for utility. Even without the EANM, the setup nullifies 120 incoming DPS (155 overheated) and has 28,900 EHP (about the same as a 1600mm plate rax). An active tank also means something else for a skirmish ship: sustainability. In an ideal situation, incoming damage will be reduced to merely drones and the ocational lucky hit at extreme falloff. With an active tank, such damage can be mostly or entirely ignored, as the reps will completely nullify it: as long as incoming DPS that actually lands is less than 155, the net gain in armor hit points over the course of a rep cycle will be 0, resulting in a completely un-touched tank at the end of the fight.
As a Pirate, this is especially important. It means that, ammo and cap booster permitting, a pirate can rep heat damage in a safe spot and plunge back into a fight before GCC is even up, or return to a fight with full health after having to warp out to reposition. This sustainability factor can be increased by anchored secure cans full of ammo and booster, or by stockpiles of ammo and booster (+ drones) in stations with insta-undock bookmarks.
Loss of an EANM: This setup notably loses an EANM over my previous setups. This means a net loss of 30 DPS sustainable (150 un-overheated) or 50 (overheated) sustainable, and 3k EHP (32,020 vs 28,900). Compare that to the 57 (un-overheated) 65 (overheated) DPS gained from the extra gyro. This is a fairly even trade in my opinion. While the extra DPS only helps against a single foe at a time and the tank helps against all foes, as already mentioned this setup is designed to maximize firepower while using range to mitigate damage. Some people may prefer an EANM on this setup, but I have found the added DPS to be immensely helpful. The tank on this ship is never very hard with a kiting setup, so I find that focusing on an all-or-nothing gank and kite fit to be extremely effective at this chosen role.
1 and 2: On the Lack of Nano
I chose to avoid speed upgrades (nanofiber and overdrive) on this setup from the start because of the little truism I mentioned earlier: You don’t need to be epicly fast, just faster than your opponent. I find that in the speed nerfed world of post quantum rise EVE, this hurricane is fast enough to outrun anything that can outfight it under web range and strong enough to outfight anything faster than it without snakes. However, the advantage is massively multiplied by a Low-Grade (or, ideally, a High Grade) snake implant set. A full LG set runs around 400 million (and don’t buy a set without an Omega, its next to worthless without every single implant). With a LG set, this setup gains 200ms, putting it at around 1,552 (or the same as the vagacane without snakes).
3: MWD
First off, despite the inherent disadvantages of a MWD (scramblers, mission busting, plexes, fitting, cap draw) a MWD is completely and totally essential on a kiting fit like this. If I have to go into a mission, I use a gank fit with an AB.
Secondly, on the Y-T. There is a reason that the Y-T MWD is currently more expensive than the T2: while the T2 MWD gives a smaller cap penalty, and is definitely better than T1, it draws a simply massive amount of power while active. The Y-T has a slightly bigger cap penalty, (and thus, for ships that only use MWD to get in range then turn it off, is worse than T2) it draws massively less cap when active. For Kiters that use their MWDs often or nearly constantly in a fight like the hurricane, the Y-T is the clear winner. If you simply cannot justify the 10m+ expense, a T2 or even T1 is acceptable (but inferior.)
4: Warp Disruptor
Obviously, a warp disruptor is required for a setup that fights outside of 10km. With the Skirmish Link, this goes out to 28km without even overheating, and hits over 32km overheated, allowing you to snag people a considerable bit farther than they're expecting. Don’t forget that overheating helps you keep fleeing foes in range just as much as it helps catch them in the first place. Prepare to receive accusations of “domination/sansha’s fitting” or even “cheating” when tackling people with this, but don’t forget about the inherent limitations of the Skirmish bonus when using it (more on that under the Skirmish Link entry).
5: SS or DG Web
The Shadow Serpentis or Dread Guristas web is an essential part of this fit if you want to push it to its fullest extent. While a non-faction web is simply “pre-overheated”-getting 13km without having to overheat first and 17 with overheating- using it overheated for extended periods of time is a recipe for disaster, so it only really works as a tackle deterrent to get people at around 15km or to catch pesky vagabonds farther than they expect. With an SS or DG web, however, you not only have the anti-tackler and kiter catcher bases covered, but you can actually web your opponent while in orbit range. I find that 15km is a good range to orbit at to keep them within web range (their movement and your MWD will fling you a little far, and you need to be within 17 to keep them webbed). This is amusingly effective. It’s like having your own personal Hyena with you on every fight.
6: Cap Booster
While the Cap Booster is another core element to this fit, there is really little to say about it. It will barely keep you sustained with every module active, so if you’re in a tough fight and burning all mods make absolutely sure to hit it exactly as it loads a new booster. When fighting neut boats, as long as their DPS is not overwhelming (Curses in particular) use your cap booster in tandem with MWD and tackle cycles to keep in gun range and keep your enemy from running away and forget about using your reps unless you’re truly fucked.
7: Skirmish Warfare Link
I played with the idea of using a speed link here instead, and indeed if you cannot afford (or do not want to buy) a faction web that is the link you should be using instead for a kiter. However, if you can justify the faction web, this link gets incredibly useful, as already detailed on the tackle sections. The important thing to remember about the link is its inherent limitations. It does not work unless you are assigned a booster position in your fleet (Squad Commander with Leadership only, Wing Commander if you have the skill Wing Commander and another person with at least Leadership 1 can be found to serve as squad command, or Fleet Commander if you can find a qualified squads AND wing commander and have the stupidly hard to train for Fleet Commander skill) and there is at least one person in every rank below you, including squad member. That means in a two person gang, you need to be Squad Commander and there has to be a Squad Member present. It will bonus all members below your rank in the fleet as long as they are in the same system, but none above your rank or the same rank.
A member of your fleet must be in space in the same system as you for the link to function. A good way to determine if the link is working is to have the skill Siege Warfare to at least level 3; when your bonus becomes functional, a small bit of damage will appear to hit your shield as its total HP pool increases. I dual boot with a Cheetah alt on my other screen at all times to ensure I can use my warfare link even when solo.
Another (unexpected, extremely pointless, and annoying) limitation of the Skirmish Link is that it can only be turned on when you are on a grid. This means you cannot activate it when in warp, and any time you enter warp its affects will cease to function on you and all your gang members (even before the module cycle finishes and turns off). I think CCP’s logic behind this limitation is that it prevents a command ship or other warfare linked ship from simply warping around untouchable while giving out bonuses. In reality, this limitation does little or nothing to discourage such behavior anyway. Leadership bonuses and Super Capital bonuses function fine while you are in warp, and the prevalence of POS sitting Command Ships proves that the untouchable warfare link ship is far from unviable. What it ACTUALLY does is piss of pirates, who have to activate one more module when hitting grid before they turn on their tackle. Basically, put your Skirmish Link in a slot where it is easy to remember to turn it on, and make absolutely sure you turn it on when the fight starts (preferably while you are locking).
Also remember that the warfare link requires cap, and while the draw isn’t much, it is still much more than a DCU and if you’re pressed for cap you may need to turn it back on (or leave it off to conserve, depending on the situation).
A small advantage of having a Skirmish Warfare Mindlink implant is that it gives you and all your gang members an additionaly 15% agility increase when you are in a fleet. This bonus replaces and does not stack with the base 10% Skirmish Warfare skill bonus.
8: 425s
As repeatedly stated, in Dominion these will have 10% more falloff than current. 220s will be unchanged, and 180s will lose 10% falloff. The ramifications of this with regards to this setup are mostly with regards to rigs, but one advantage is that (with my skills) the setup gains 12 DPS and 500m falloff over my last version, and can fit a small neut.
9: Small Neut
This energy neutralizer is here mostly as a panic button. If you can justify an additional 10m-ish, you can switch out the damage control for a best named and switch this neut out for an assault launcher, but the small “justifiable expenses” on this ship were simply getting out of hand for my budget and I decided to call it quits around here. This small neut will help you fuck up any frigates that manage to get the drop on you and get inside tackle range. Coupled with your T2 light drones, even ceptors and AFs should be scraped off with relative ease as long as there aren’t more than two of them.
10: Rigs
With the 10% increased falloff, I was able to drop one falloff rig for an anciliary router and upgrade to 425mm ACs. This gave me the exact same falloff as before, but slightly better DPS (and made me feel more manly with my nice meaty high tier ACs). With a T2 Ambit rig (now down as low as 25-30m thanks to Medium Rigs, thank you CCP!) this gains around 500 to 1k setup (with synth sooth sayer) falloff more than my old setup. However, this puts the total cost over 100m. Oh well, I like expensive toys I suppose.
11: Drones
The main reason to use thermal is that this ship deals almost exclusively explosive and kinetic damage with its signature ammo type, meaning that it is highly ineffective against heavily shield tanked or explosive bonused ships. Having some therm on board evens the damage type output a bit, even when the ship can’t afford to switch to EMP and close range in some situations.
This is particularly important to me, living in Caldari-Gallente low sec. I end up fighting about 20 to 50% shield tankers, and with such a heavy slant on explosive damage I’m less effective at breaking these. In addition, another common sight is Amarr T2 ships like the Zealot, which have an inate explosive resistance and a very low thermal. Likewise, Myrmidons are a common sight, and they often fit an explosive hardener.
In addition, the difference in DPS between explosive and thermal drones is shockingly massive. The gap from explosive to thermal is almost 50% (!). For those bad at math or percentages, that means that explosive drones deal only about 2/3rds as much damage (yeah I know it seems confusing, but trust me it differs in percentage depending on which way you’re going.) With a DPS gap that huge, explosive drones are only better against omni or untanked armor tanks (and not very much more effective at that, about 12% better, which is 6 dps more for this fit)
Though there are times that fitting explosive drones make more sense, but as a roaming pirate fitting thermal is a more logical choice.
12: Cargo
13 cap boosters is as many as you can cram in while still fitting ammo. Likewise, a balance of 2,100 of each ammo type (with slightly more barrage, as it’s the default I have loaded into the guns) is as much as you can cram in while still having a tiny bit of room for synth booster and nanite paste. 50 nanites is usually more than I need, but any less and I risk running out on long roams.
For the synth boosters: these only require biology 1, and while their effects are slight, its like having another implant plugged in. I highly recommend them, as they cost less than a mil a pop.
That’s it for today. Check back next time for more details on solo and gang kiting cane tactics and tips.
Art of the Hurricane 2: Kiting Cane Maneuvers
Art of the Hurricane 3: Hurricane Basics
This is the first of a series of posts about the Hurricane Battlecruiser and my two personal favorite fits. This one will be talking about the current iteration of my kiting fit. Before I get into the nitty gritty of it, first I have a few disclaimers:
1: I have (and always use) a full LG snake set, a 3% falloff implant, a 3% ROF implant, a 5% medium AC damage implant, and a Skirmish Warfare Mindlink. All my numbers and theory crafting are based on my skills and these implants. My Skills on EVE Sheet
Of my skills, one of the most important to note with regards to Hurricanes is that I have Battlecruiser V. Any pilot intending to master the Hurricane would do well to have this, as the bonus is massive.
I also make use of the rarely touched Synth boosters, and will talk on them in this article.
2: I do not limit myself in terms of isk. Both of my setups cost more than is generally reasonable for a battlecruiser, and may not be completely viable. At the end of this post, I will discuss the budget alternatives of these setups without skirmish warfare links or faction mods.
3: I am basing the kiting setup on the new falloff numbers and ammo clip sizes from the test server (Dominion numbers, in other words). In Dominion, the physical volume of projectile ammo has been standardized and decreased, allowing for more in cargo. In addition, 425mm ACs now have 10% more falloff, and dual 180s have 10% less (the same goes for the tiers of small and large ACs).
4: This article (and other fitting theorycraft articles to follow) ARE NOT INTENDED as proscriptive. In other words, I do not expect or want anyone to copy my fits. The ones I fly are (aside from being extremely expensive for canes) very specific to my tastes, abilities, skill focus and strengths/weaknesses as a pilot, and I fully expect many people to disagree with my fitting choices. One does not teach painting by having students copy the teacher’s artwork stroke by stroke. I am merely attempting to illustrate my thought process with these ships and perhaps to get others to start thinking of their own setups in a new light.
Before we get into the details of the Kiting Cane, we should talk about kiting in general.
What is Kiting?
Kiting (sometimes incorrectly called “speed tanking”, which is actually a term for a slightly different school of tactics) is a tactic in which a player stays out of range of foes while still being within the range of their own weapons. A classic example of kiting is the caldari Crow interceptor (which is also a speed tanker, but more on that latter) which orbits at around 17-20km of a foe, peppering the target with missiles while being out of the range of most counterattacks.
Dedicated “Kiting” ships generally fight somewhere between 14 and 20km from their targets, using speed and other advantages to keep range while witling an opponent down.
Kiting comes from early MMO slang for a caster technique in which the caster attacks an opponent or mob with ranged spells while running backwards, staying out of the enemies attack range. The idea is that it looks like the caster is dragging the enemy along like a kite being flown by a child on a windy day.
Why does it work?
Greater than 14km and less than 21km is the range in which one can reasonably guarantee tackle on a foe, but outside of the range of (even overheated) hard tackle such as stasis webbifiers and warp scramblers, which can hamper mobility and prevent the “kiter” from holding range.
This is also outside of the range of the vast majority of common PvP weapons; medium tier lasers without scorch, medium ACs without barrage, and all but large blasters (and even then, only with null) cannot hit this far. Even with scorch, most lasers track poorly at this range, and barrage fit ACs without falloff ship bonuses or rigs lose a huge chunk of their damage.
A kiting fit ship will be set up to hit solidly at this range, however, providing a DPS advantage over an opponent. Kiting also has a massive added advantage known as “GTFO” ability; the speed freedom of movement to be able to simply arc off into space and escape from a fight if things turn against the kiter.
Is sniping kiting? What about EWAR?
Broadly speaking, both ranged EWAR ships and sniper fit support ships utilize kiting. However, since EWAR ships (other than the Min/Gal recons, which DO count as kiters in my book) are often outside of tackle range and thus generally cannot solo, they fall into a different role known as support. Likewise, dedicated snipers fall into one of two roles: fleet DPS (in which they are fighting other sniper fleets, and are thus exposed to damage from the opponent, IE not kiting) or support (taking out foes such as tacklers at range) which, while technically falling into the kiting category, is more closely tied to the support category.
So technically yes, but actually no.
How is kiting relevant to piracy?
Kiting in particular and skirmish warfare in general are both extremely relevant to piracy in EVE. The way I see it, there are two broad categories piracy in EVE: Gank fighting, which consists of blobbing and camping, and “old school” solo/small gang roaming piracy. While there is (and I stress this) absolutely nothing wrong with the former, I do not personally find it very fun.
One thing that both categories share is a strong aversion to loss of ships. Nobody likes to die, and especially in the for-profit and/or for-fun world of piracy, loss avoidance is an important consideration when choosing tactics. Gank/Blob tactics are good at avoiding losses in most situations: when you overpower an enemy so dramatically, it is easy to come out of a fight without losses. Where they fall short is when they encounter bigger fish, in which case losses can be catastrophic.
The personal variation of “Old School” piracy I practice largely revolves around what I call “Skirmish Tactics”, or hit-and-run. The idea is to maximize both mobility and damage potential, allowing a well put together skirmish gang to easily and quickly kill (or incapacitate for ransom), while remaining able to easily avoid or escape from opponents big enough to crush the gang (or solo pirate).
When it comes to this kind of tactics, Kiters are ideal. They tend to have moderate to good damage potential, and they maintain an unrivaled level of mobility by not only staying out of tackle range, but also have the high speed and maneuverability required to stay at said range.
It should be noted that Kiters are not the only effective skirmish setups. Quite the contrary, a wide variety of setup styles and combat tactics can be employed by a skirmish gang, and the gank cane setup I will be discussing in the follow up to this article is another example of an effective skirmish ship. I merely mean to say that kiters are ideal for the skirmish role, and fall into it naturally by their very nature.
Alright, so with that out of the way, let us return to the Hurricane. While the Hurricane is not “pre-defined” as a kiter like many ships (note the Vagabond’s speed and falloff bonuses for one clear example,) it nevertheless fits the role quite well: It has high mobility and speed for its class, it deals a considerable amount of DPS, and it uses weapon systems that can easily be modified to hit outside of 14km. Kiting canes are nothing new, either. The day after Revelations came out (introducing not only tier 2 Battlecruisers but also rigs), I remember encountering a number of so-called “vagacanes”.
The same “vagacane” or “nanocane” setup is still used by a number of people, and a modified close range version of it has become almost cookie-cutter in 0.0 warfare. The original setup goes something like this:
[Hurricane, Vagacane]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Damage Control II
10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Disruptor II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
This setup has a number of advantages over its close relative, the cookie-cutter Vagabond. While it lacks the Vagabond shield resistances (and indeed some Vagacanes fit an invuln field to cover this a bit), it makes up for it somewhat in increased base shield HP. And while it is less quick and agile than the Vaga, it does a considerable bit more dps (648 at all lvl 5 skills, as opposed to the cookie cutter vaga’s 450). It also achieves the same falloff with autocannons as the vagabond, and indeed this setup will be slightly boosted post dominion with the addition 10% bonus to falloff on 425s. It is also somewhat more cap stable than a cookie cutter vagabond, pulling off 5 minutes and 36s of capacitor at full burn as opposed to the vaga’s 1m 46s.
However, the trade off from vaga to cane is not completely to the Hurricane’s advantage. While this setup excels at gank, it shares with the vagabond a certain fragility (especially against EM damage.) And despite having more stable cap than the Vaga, the lack of capacitor booster tends to make it mincemeat to Curses and BS neuts. It also lacks range control when compared to the vagabond, with no web and considerably less speed (1,552ms with all lvl 5 skills). Still, not a bad setup overall. It even works pretty well at close range due to its overwhelming DPS.
When I set out to fly a kiting cane, I decided I wanted something that would leverage those disadvantages. Initially, I took what was at the time the standard dual rep fit and slapped falloff rigs on it, dropping the HAMs on the cookie cutter fit for heavies.
[Hurricane, Kiting Cane First Attempt]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I, Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
This worked surprisingly well, especially with snakes. Pre-Quantum rise, this setup went over 2kms with snakes plugged in, which was more than enough for my purposes. Even without snakes, it went 1,550ms, and I discovered a truism then: to kite effectively, you don’t need to go “nano-fast” as was the trend during those days. You just had to be faster than your enemy. The web on this setup was initially left on simply because I didn’t know what to do with that mid slot, but I came to strangely rely on it.
This was, admittedly, before warp scramblers could turn off microwarp drives, but the principle still works today: it doesn’t matter if you get caught in a single web, because you can web the foe back. If they are pushed 60% down in speed (90% back then) the same as you, you STILL have a speed advantage over them, since both people are slowed by the same factor. I latter applied this same logic to the vagabond with similarly good results, though the setup is no longer as viable for the vaga since the advent of “hard tackle” scramblers. When overheating became an option, I found this to be even more usefull, even required on most kiters (especially somewhat slow ones like the hurricane).
This was demonstrated especially dramatically when I was playing around with a kiting sleipnir fit on the test server. I was arrogantly boasting that the Sleipnir, if kiting fit, could beat up any non-caldari command ship. A BoB Astarte pilot took me up on my boast and fought me 1v1. He overheated his web and MWD, got me in web range, and tore my Sleipnir a new asshole. He then recommended I fit a web on my Sleipnir fit to prevent that kind of thing from happening in the future. This cemented the web’s position on my cane fit.
My fit remained unchanged for many years, until I encountered a certain Veto pilot who is well known for solo Hurricane PvP. I got into a small fight with Kaileen Starsong, with me in my Vagabond and a few of my corps rookies along with me. Near the end of the fight, I was shocked when Kai’s hurricane webbed me at 15km. When I asked him if he had a faction web after the fight was over, Kai replied that no, the cane was fit with a Skirmish Warfare Link: Interdiction Maneuvers module that boosted the range of the web to 13km un-overheated (with mindlink plugged in).
Months of training later, I revised my cane fit as such:
[Hurricane, Kiter Take 2]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
'Arbalest' Assault Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
While the added web range was nice, I felt it was lacking something. Post QR, the frigate or AF with warp scrambler problem got especially bad, and I had to figure out a way to cram a neut on the setup. For a while I flew:
[Hurricane, Take 3]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
50W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
But the damage was just too low (404, lower than a vagabond) and while it worked okay, it felt like there was something missing. Recently, I came up with a new iteration of the above setup, and recently I re-tooled it for the Dominion AC changes. It is:
[Hurricane, Skira Ranos Kiting]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Shadow Serpentis Stasis Webifier
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension II
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4
This is the best kiter I have yet flown, and I love it to death. Let’s dissect the fit:
Gyrostabilizer II - 1
Gyrostabilizer II - 1
Gyrostabilizer II - 1
Damage Control II - 2
Medium Armor Repairer II - 2
Medium Armor Repairer II - 2
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive - 3
Warp Disruptor II - 4
Shadow Serpentis Stasis Webifier - 5
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800 - 6
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers -7
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
425mm AutoCannon II, Barrage M - 8
Small Energy Neutralizer II - 9
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I - 10
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension II - 10
Medium Ancillary Current Router I - 10
Hammerhead II x1 - 11
Hobgoblin II x4 - 11
Cargo (Post-Dominion): - 12
13x Cap Booster 800 - 12
50x Nanite Repair Paste - 12
2,100x Barrage M - 12
2,100x Republic Fleet EMP M - 12
2x Synth Sooth Sayer - 12
2x Synth Exile - 12
1: Gyrostabs
I recently pulled the EANM off of my setup and substituted in another gyrostab. I found a surprisingly massive jump in the DPS over the older setup, and with the dominion falloff changes I was able to switch out for 425mm ACs, further increasing the DPS advantage. As opposed to the prior setups 490 and 404, this setup deals a staggering 605 dps with my skills, which is almost as high as the “vagacane”. This helps maximize the Hurricanes gank and GTFO role: with higher damage potential, fights are shorter are small ships can be picked off more easily before they get in range. This setup is now more capable of killing opponents before backup arrives, and subduing ransom targets quickly and decisively before they can start to break the tank with drones or missiles. In addition, with the DPS advantage, this setup can shift to faction EMP and close range to 5km to break hard missioner shield tanks if need be.
2: Tank
Dual MAR tank with a single DCU may not be exceptional tough, but unlike a passive tank it does not slow the ship down, and unlike a shield buffer it leaves mid slots free for utility. Even without the EANM, the setup nullifies 120 incoming DPS (155 overheated) and has 28,900 EHP (about the same as a 1600mm plate rax). An active tank also means something else for a skirmish ship: sustainability. In an ideal situation, incoming damage will be reduced to merely drones and the ocational lucky hit at extreme falloff. With an active tank, such damage can be mostly or entirely ignored, as the reps will completely nullify it: as long as incoming DPS that actually lands is less than 155, the net gain in armor hit points over the course of a rep cycle will be 0, resulting in a completely un-touched tank at the end of the fight.
As a Pirate, this is especially important. It means that, ammo and cap booster permitting, a pirate can rep heat damage in a safe spot and plunge back into a fight before GCC is even up, or return to a fight with full health after having to warp out to reposition. This sustainability factor can be increased by anchored secure cans full of ammo and booster, or by stockpiles of ammo and booster (+ drones) in stations with insta-undock bookmarks.
Loss of an EANM: This setup notably loses an EANM over my previous setups. This means a net loss of 30 DPS sustainable (150 un-overheated) or 50 (overheated) sustainable, and 3k EHP (32,020 vs 28,900). Compare that to the 57 (un-overheated) 65 (overheated) DPS gained from the extra gyro. This is a fairly even trade in my opinion. While the extra DPS only helps against a single foe at a time and the tank helps against all foes, as already mentioned this setup is designed to maximize firepower while using range to mitigate damage. Some people may prefer an EANM on this setup, but I have found the added DPS to be immensely helpful. The tank on this ship is never very hard with a kiting setup, so I find that focusing on an all-or-nothing gank and kite fit to be extremely effective at this chosen role.
1 and 2: On the Lack of Nano
I chose to avoid speed upgrades (nanofiber and overdrive) on this setup from the start because of the little truism I mentioned earlier: You don’t need to be epicly fast, just faster than your opponent. I find that in the speed nerfed world of post quantum rise EVE, this hurricane is fast enough to outrun anything that can outfight it under web range and strong enough to outfight anything faster than it without snakes. However, the advantage is massively multiplied by a Low-Grade (or, ideally, a High Grade) snake implant set. A full LG set runs around 400 million (and don’t buy a set without an Omega, its next to worthless without every single implant). With a LG set, this setup gains 200ms, putting it at around 1,552 (or the same as the vagacane without snakes).
3: MWD
First off, despite the inherent disadvantages of a MWD (scramblers, mission busting, plexes, fitting, cap draw) a MWD is completely and totally essential on a kiting fit like this. If I have to go into a mission, I use a gank fit with an AB.
Secondly, on the Y-T. There is a reason that the Y-T MWD is currently more expensive than the T2: while the T2 MWD gives a smaller cap penalty, and is definitely better than T1, it draws a simply massive amount of power while active. The Y-T has a slightly bigger cap penalty, (and thus, for ships that only use MWD to get in range then turn it off, is worse than T2) it draws massively less cap when active. For Kiters that use their MWDs often or nearly constantly in a fight like the hurricane, the Y-T is the clear winner. If you simply cannot justify the 10m+ expense, a T2 or even T1 is acceptable (but inferior.)
4: Warp Disruptor
Obviously, a warp disruptor is required for a setup that fights outside of 10km. With the Skirmish Link, this goes out to 28km without even overheating, and hits over 32km overheated, allowing you to snag people a considerable bit farther than they're expecting. Don’t forget that overheating helps you keep fleeing foes in range just as much as it helps catch them in the first place. Prepare to receive accusations of “domination/sansha’s fitting” or even “cheating” when tackling people with this, but don’t forget about the inherent limitations of the Skirmish bonus when using it (more on that under the Skirmish Link entry).
5: SS or DG Web
The Shadow Serpentis or Dread Guristas web is an essential part of this fit if you want to push it to its fullest extent. While a non-faction web is simply “pre-overheated”-getting 13km without having to overheat first and 17 with overheating- using it overheated for extended periods of time is a recipe for disaster, so it only really works as a tackle deterrent to get people at around 15km or to catch pesky vagabonds farther than they expect. With an SS or DG web, however, you not only have the anti-tackler and kiter catcher bases covered, but you can actually web your opponent while in orbit range. I find that 15km is a good range to orbit at to keep them within web range (their movement and your MWD will fling you a little far, and you need to be within 17 to keep them webbed). This is amusingly effective. It’s like having your own personal Hyena with you on every fight.
6: Cap Booster
While the Cap Booster is another core element to this fit, there is really little to say about it. It will barely keep you sustained with every module active, so if you’re in a tough fight and burning all mods make absolutely sure to hit it exactly as it loads a new booster. When fighting neut boats, as long as their DPS is not overwhelming (Curses in particular) use your cap booster in tandem with MWD and tackle cycles to keep in gun range and keep your enemy from running away and forget about using your reps unless you’re truly fucked.
7: Skirmish Warfare Link
I played with the idea of using a speed link here instead, and indeed if you cannot afford (or do not want to buy) a faction web that is the link you should be using instead for a kiter. However, if you can justify the faction web, this link gets incredibly useful, as already detailed on the tackle sections. The important thing to remember about the link is its inherent limitations. It does not work unless you are assigned a booster position in your fleet (Squad Commander with Leadership only, Wing Commander if you have the skill Wing Commander and another person with at least Leadership 1 can be found to serve as squad command, or Fleet Commander if you can find a qualified squads AND wing commander and have the stupidly hard to train for Fleet Commander skill) and there is at least one person in every rank below you, including squad member. That means in a two person gang, you need to be Squad Commander and there has to be a Squad Member present. It will bonus all members below your rank in the fleet as long as they are in the same system, but none above your rank or the same rank.
A member of your fleet must be in space in the same system as you for the link to function. A good way to determine if the link is working is to have the skill Siege Warfare to at least level 3; when your bonus becomes functional, a small bit of damage will appear to hit your shield as its total HP pool increases. I dual boot with a Cheetah alt on my other screen at all times to ensure I can use my warfare link even when solo.
Another (unexpected, extremely pointless, and annoying) limitation of the Skirmish Link is that it can only be turned on when you are on a grid. This means you cannot activate it when in warp, and any time you enter warp its affects will cease to function on you and all your gang members (even before the module cycle finishes and turns off). I think CCP’s logic behind this limitation is that it prevents a command ship or other warfare linked ship from simply warping around untouchable while giving out bonuses. In reality, this limitation does little or nothing to discourage such behavior anyway. Leadership bonuses and Super Capital bonuses function fine while you are in warp, and the prevalence of POS sitting Command Ships proves that the untouchable warfare link ship is far from unviable. What it ACTUALLY does is piss of pirates, who have to activate one more module when hitting grid before they turn on their tackle. Basically, put your Skirmish Link in a slot where it is easy to remember to turn it on, and make absolutely sure you turn it on when the fight starts (preferably while you are locking).
Also remember that the warfare link requires cap, and while the draw isn’t much, it is still much more than a DCU and if you’re pressed for cap you may need to turn it back on (or leave it off to conserve, depending on the situation).
A small advantage of having a Skirmish Warfare Mindlink implant is that it gives you and all your gang members an additionaly 15% agility increase when you are in a fleet. This bonus replaces and does not stack with the base 10% Skirmish Warfare skill bonus.
8: 425s
As repeatedly stated, in Dominion these will have 10% more falloff than current. 220s will be unchanged, and 180s will lose 10% falloff. The ramifications of this with regards to this setup are mostly with regards to rigs, but one advantage is that (with my skills) the setup gains 12 DPS and 500m falloff over my last version, and can fit a small neut.
9: Small Neut
This energy neutralizer is here mostly as a panic button. If you can justify an additional 10m-ish, you can switch out the damage control for a best named and switch this neut out for an assault launcher, but the small “justifiable expenses” on this ship were simply getting out of hand for my budget and I decided to call it quits around here. This small neut will help you fuck up any frigates that manage to get the drop on you and get inside tackle range. Coupled with your T2 light drones, even ceptors and AFs should be scraped off with relative ease as long as there aren’t more than two of them.
10: Rigs
With the 10% increased falloff, I was able to drop one falloff rig for an anciliary router and upgrade to 425mm ACs. This gave me the exact same falloff as before, but slightly better DPS (and made me feel more manly with my nice meaty high tier ACs). With a T2 Ambit rig (now down as low as 25-30m thanks to Medium Rigs, thank you CCP!) this gains around 500 to 1k setup (with synth sooth sayer) falloff more than my old setup. However, this puts the total cost over 100m. Oh well, I like expensive toys I suppose.
11: Drones
The main reason to use thermal is that this ship deals almost exclusively explosive and kinetic damage with its signature ammo type, meaning that it is highly ineffective against heavily shield tanked or explosive bonused ships. Having some therm on board evens the damage type output a bit, even when the ship can’t afford to switch to EMP and close range in some situations.
This is particularly important to me, living in Caldari-Gallente low sec. I end up fighting about 20 to 50% shield tankers, and with such a heavy slant on explosive damage I’m less effective at breaking these. In addition, another common sight is Amarr T2 ships like the Zealot, which have an inate explosive resistance and a very low thermal. Likewise, Myrmidons are a common sight, and they often fit an explosive hardener.
In addition, the difference in DPS between explosive and thermal drones is shockingly massive. The gap from explosive to thermal is almost 50% (!). For those bad at math or percentages, that means that explosive drones deal only about 2/3rds as much damage (yeah I know it seems confusing, but trust me it differs in percentage depending on which way you’re going.) With a DPS gap that huge, explosive drones are only better against omni or untanked armor tanks (and not very much more effective at that, about 12% better, which is 6 dps more for this fit)
Though there are times that fitting explosive drones make more sense, but as a roaming pirate fitting thermal is a more logical choice.
12: Cargo
13 cap boosters is as many as you can cram in while still fitting ammo. Likewise, a balance of 2,100 of each ammo type (with slightly more barrage, as it’s the default I have loaded into the guns) is as much as you can cram in while still having a tiny bit of room for synth booster and nanite paste. 50 nanites is usually more than I need, but any less and I risk running out on long roams.
For the synth boosters: these only require biology 1, and while their effects are slight, its like having another implant plugged in. I highly recommend them, as they cost less than a mil a pop.
That’s it for today. Check back next time for more details on solo and gang kiting cane tactics and tips.
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