The Art of the Hurricane 3: Hurricane Basics

Other posts in this series:
Art of the Hurricane 1: Kiting Cane Setup
Art of the Hurricane 2: Kiting Cane Maneuvers

A corp mate of mine recently made a post on our forum asking about the basics of hurricane fitting:

"I'm working on getting a skill plan together that will get me into a Hurricane. I was looking at the 'Cane thread on this board but realized I have no idea which type works best and when, as I really have no idea how a 'cane is best flown, either solo or in small gang.

Can someone give some guidance on what I should use as a starting point for this? Also, what's considered minimal capabilities when it comes to flying a BC? I could fly the ship in just a few days, but I tend to prefer waiting until I can at least pack T2 guns. What else sets a 'basic' BC fit apart from an excellent fit?"

This prompted me to do something I've wanted to do for a while: Write an article about getting started on the Hurricane, and assessing the ship as a whole, not just one setup.


As such, here is my reply:


Minimal for a BC and minimum for a Hurricane are two different things. Hurricane has several advantages over other BCs, and several disadvantages.

Advantages:

Agility and Speed: Along with the Cyclone (which has the exact same mass/agility/speed) the Hurricane is the fastest and most nimble BC.

DPS: The Hurricane (especially with BC V, as it has a massive ship bonus) does an insane amount of DPS. With a 3 damage mod fit, you can get more DPS than any other battlecruiser save the brutix (which only gets about 50 dps more, and sacrifices tank AND mids to do so).

Range/Damage Versatility: Hurricanes use Autocannons (Arty cane’s make me cry, except for 0.0 but obviously that’s not my thing). ACs have a few large advantages over other races guns, the main one being versatility (especially since the Dominion ammo and tier changes). ACs can have extreme range advantages via Barrage ammo, outranging high-damage blasters and non-scorch fit lasers, OR they can have in-your-face, brutal melting firepower with Republic Fleet Fusion, EMP and PP (all of which do the same damage now). As an added advantage, the close range ammo’s each deal a different, single primary damage type: Fusion deals Explosive, EMP does EM, and Phased Plasma does Thermal.

This means a Hurricane pilot with a good knowledge of ships and fittings can hot-switch ammo types to be dealing the best damage for almost any situation, all while dealing the highest possible damage for the gun type, or they can switch to long range ammo and STILL deal good damage (Barrage does the DPS of T1 PP/EMP/Fusion) while kiting foes.

Its allotment of 4 light drones + 1 Medium drone means it is almost immune to frigates as well (t1, at least) and gives a bit of extra mobile DPS to scrap off frail tacklers.

Fitting Versatility/Unpredictability: Hurricanes can (and often are) fit to shield or armor tank, active or buffer tank, arty or AC, missiles or neuts, tackle or speed/buffer, speed or face melt… and on the list goes. Most opponents will guess you are fit to either A: Sit up close and face melt with an armor tank or B: Kite like a Vagabond with a shield tank, but they can never possible nail down your exact fit until you give them a killboard link or a killmail. Opponents can be expected to fit the wrong ammo types, incorrectly guess your tackle or tank power and/or type, and misunderstand your ideal tactical environment.

Capacitor: The Hurricane is very robust and cap stable, and most fits can afford to add a capacitor booster as well. Coupled with the fact that the Hurricane’s guns use no cap, many fitting possibilities become apparent (neuts, active tank, etc).

Disadvantages:

Flimsy Tank: Even with a full tank fit, the Hurricane cannot really be called a champion tanker (not for PvP anyways: there’s a very solid passive shield tank that hogs all the mids and most lows that works for ratting and missioning) It has less EHP than comparable Caldari and Amarr BCs and lacks both the resist bonuses of either and the boost bonuses of its little cousin the Cyclone or the Gallente Rep bonuses. It has a generous helping of low slots, but without a tank bonus (and without a non-low slot dependant weapon system like the Myrmidon) it cannot really utilize a full-power armor tank without giving up all of its other advantages. Its 4 mid slots means it is pretty much limited to buffer tanks if you shield tank it, and if you do so you give up valuable tackle and/or utility modules.

High Priority: Every knows the Hurricane is a powerful gunboat, and usually packs a light tank. As such, good FCs will often call you as primary in fights, and people without much PvP ability (or flimsy ships) know to give you a wide berth.

Ultra-Focused: Although an opponent has no way of knowing the style of your fit before a fight, the AC PvP hurricane only does two broad roles well: Close range Gank or Mid-Range kiting. Each of these two types of cane fits has a HUGE vulnerability to the converse style of fighting: Kiters are vulnerable if they’re caught by close-range ships, and Gankers are either slow or lacking in tackle (armor/shield buffered) and can be easily kited to death.


Attempts to cover EVERY base and fly a swiss-army knife ship often end in disaster.

This is also somewhat true of the ammo types: You can fit to kill armor tanks, fit to kill shield tanks or fit to be mediocre against either, but you can’t fit to be GOOD vs everything, and if you have EMP fit to kill an Eagle and a myrm drops out of warp on you; god help you. It’s either a 10 second switch in which you’re not hurting anything or a huge DPS loss from the poor damage type. Same goes for Barrage: If you’re kiting and suddenly the Ferox you’ve been fighting overheats its faction web and sinks its teeth into you, it simply isn’t an option to try and switch to EMP before he gets into blaster range; you’ve just got to run with what you’ve got.

Skill Point Minimums:

The Hurricane only does its brutally dominant DPS if you have good gunnery skills and T2 guns, and Battlecruisers trained reasonably high (this ship benefits more from BC 5 than any other battlecruiser, IMO, due to the ungodly huge damage bonus). BC 4 is minimum, as is Rapid Fire 4 (5 ASAP), T2 Drones, Drone Interfacing 4, Surgical Strike 4 and all gunnery support skills to 4 (save maybe Sharpshooter, though it does help the close range fit somewhat). T2 AC’s are also bare minimum for competency, as Barrage ammo + the increased DPS are integral to this ship no matter what your fit. Engineering 5, Electronics 5, and Advanced Weapon Upgrades 3 (4 for preference) are also a minimum.

In terms of Mobility, all Navigation skills at 4 is bare minimum, with Navigation 5 being a highly advised support skill.

In terms of tank skills, though, this is the one battlecruiser for whom T2 tank is not a priority. While T2 Armor Reps are required if you’re going to run a dual rep fit, Hull Upgrades 4 does fine for armor tanks. Armor comp skills are only moderately helpful as well, as a good hurricane fit will have (at most) a single EANM. If you plan on using a shield buffer (more on that later) definitely invest time in Large Shield Extender IIs and shield rigging skills, but otherwise don’t stress over the tank skills. Note that I am not at all saying tank skills aren’t helpful on the cane, but that for bare competency your time and SP is best spent elsewhere.

Rigs are also essential: Invest in Projectile, Armor, Shield, and Astronautics rigging, in that order. If you have the time, get Projectile Rigging to 4, the bonus in terms of fitting is incredibly helpful (for Kiting canes).

In terms of “Best,” the jury is really out on that one. I fly three different Hurricane fits, and each of them works best in a different situation. It really depends on you fighting style, what you want to do with the ship, and where/who you are fighting. Instead of trying to preach a single best, I’ll provide you with all of the options and give you detailed info about them (plus my opinions of each).

As I’ve said earlier in this post, Hurricane fits fall into two major catagories:

Close Range/Gankers and Mid-Range/Kiters

Which can further be broken down into three tank catagories:

Active Armor, Passive Armor, and Passive Shield.

This gives us six general Hurricane fitting catagories (of which one is a complete dead-end: passive armor kiters fail). This can be further diversified when you consider cap booster vs heavy tackle fit, neuts vs missiles vs warfare links, etc, but for now we’ll keep it at five varieties.

1: Gankers: Close Range Fits

Gankers are what I call close-range Hurricane setups designed to fight from inside of web range, taking maximum advantage of the ship’s heavy DPS. (I will ignore “Tank fits” as they suck on this ship, as already discussed). I will list all three of these setups with their respective stats, then discuss the three in comparison to each other (and the general advantages/disadvantages of Gank cane fits) at the end. (Stats will be calculated with all lvl 5 skills and no implants)

SETUP 1: [ MAR ]

[Hurricane, Skira's Dual MAR Gank]
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

10MN MicroWarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Havoc Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Havoc Fury Heavy Missile

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Nanobot Accelerator I


Hobgoblin II x4
Hammerhead II x1

Stats:
DPS: 724 (806 overheated)
Speed: 1,157ms (1,645ms overheated)
Tank: 253 DR (active rep) and 33k EHP (314 rep overheated, can be further increased by exile booster)
Tackle: Scram + Single Web
Kiting Vulnerability: Medium-Low (Barrage + 425mm falloff + heavies and drones means this can chase off most kiters, but likely not catch them)


Description: The classic cookie-cutter cane setup modified slightly by yours truly. Focus is on gank and maintaining dual active tank. Without Advanced Weapon Upgrades 5, you need to downgrade one of the 425mms to a 220mm (or drop heavies to Assault launchers)

Setup 2: [ PLATE ]

[Hurricane, Skira’s Passive Armor Gank]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Havoc Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Havoc Fury Heavy Missile

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4

Stats:
DPS: 792 (885 overheated)
Speed: 1,025ms (1,445ms overheated)
Tank: No active, 58k EHP
Tackle: Scram + Dual Web
Kiting Vulnerability: Medium (while this has the same capability to chase off Kiters as the Dual MAR, it lacks mobility due to the plate, and if the enemy can avoid your fire, the lack of rep means you can be slowly bled to death)

Description: Classic passive armor tank with a strong focus on DPS and tackle. It is slow and the mobility is poor, but if it DOES latch onto you, there is no escaping. Like the above setup, it requires AWU 5, and you can modify it for AWU 4 by either dropping a 425 to a 220 or by dropping the Heavies to Assault launchers. (This setup also does pretty okay with just an Adaptive Plating II in lieu of the EANM)

Setup 3 : [ SHIELD ]

[Hurricane, Skira’s Passive Shield Gank]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II

10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Torrent Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Torrent Assault Missile

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I


Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4

Stats:
DPS: 800 (892 overheated)
Speed: 1,475ms (2,095ms overheated)
Tank: No active, 50k EHP
Tackle: Scram
Kiting Vulnerability: Non-existent (Hell, drop the shield extenders to best named so you can fit a warp disruptor II, use barrage and javelin and it IS a kiting setup)

Description: The Vaga-Cane modified for close range. I’ve seen several people using this setup lately, and it got a bit of a boost in dominion. I’m not a fan of HAMs, but they work well here. This setup does not require AWU 5, but works best with good shield skills.


Stat Comparison Chart:

DPS: MAR: 724 PLATE: 792 SHIELD: 800
Speed: MAR: 1,157 PLATE: 1,025 SHIELD: 1,475
Tank: MAR: 253 DR + 33k EHP PLATE: 58k EHP SHIELD: 50k EHP
Tackle: MAR: Medium PLATE: High SHIELD: Low or Very Low (Scram or Disruptor)
Kiting Vulnerability: MAR: Medium-Low PLATE: Medium SHIELD: N/A


In-depth discussion of the three:

MAR Tank:

Advantages:

This is probably the most versatile of the three setups, and it has the strongest tank of the three by a good measure. It has all the advantages inherent to active tanks (the ability to “bounce back”, overheating your tank, sustainability over a long roam, etc) and it also strikes a happy medium between extreme tackle with low mobility and extreme mobility with low tackle. Its cap booster makes it somewhat resistant to cap warfare (though with a dual MAR tank neuts will still hurt).

Disadvantages:

Of the three, this one has the lowest DPS. While it is still a lethal ganker, it isn’t quite as brutal as the other two. The dual MAR tank leaves little room for error, and if you’re heavily neuted or out of cap booster you’ll run into some serious problems tanking. Carrying cap booster for a roam can also be a pain logistically, and the “sustainability” factor of an active tank can be severely diminished by the consumption of cap booster. In addition, minmatar (especially gank fit) have to tote around a good four or five types of ammo to be truly effective, and on a ganker like this you’d want to bring along various missiles as well. This tends to cramp the cargo hold, leaving you a booster or three short compared to other active tanked BCs.

It is also the most skill intensive by far of the three setups, requiring excellent fitting skills, tank skills (though it works okay with an Adaptive Plate II/T1 EANM, the good tank skills do make a difference) AND good missile skills (as a very large part of its DPS is the T2 missiles) to work correctly. Being the most cap reliant of the three by a good measure, it also takes good cap support skills to work.

Plate Buffer:

Advantages:

Extreme DPS and extremely strong tackle in one package. While it is slow for a Hurricane, it is still faster than the vast majority of other BCs, and with it’s very strong tackle it grab on to ships and pin them in place. The dual webs also help the DPS on clever missile boats and drone boats that try to orbit you up close, and allow you to easily slaughter T1 and T2 frigates foolish enough to come into your range. With a complete lack of cap reliance, you don’t have to think about your tank or cap at all: Simply get in range and turn on the guns, and the lack of micromanagement can be extremely attractive. Although it takes good fitting skills to max out, you can fly this ship with lower fitting skills to almost the same effect by dropping the heavies to Assault launchers (not HAMs, Assault Launchers), and the T2 EANM is more of a formality; it only makes a 2k EHP differences from a T1.

Overall, it is the easiest to get into both SP and piloting wise of these three setups.

Disadvantages:

Speed, agility, and lack of active tank spring to mind. I remember flying a similar fit to this one into a fight with a lot of frigates: I destroyed two interceptors and a recon, but still had to flee the field from a single stealth bomber as my buffer was simply exhausted. You can fight hard, and for a long time, but when your tank is gone, it’s gone. There’s no way to bounce it back without going to a station or an RR friend. Lack of mobility make it somewhat vulnerable to the longer ranged and faster kiters such as Recon ships and vagabonds. And although it is not cap reliant, beware Curses: without cap, you lose ALL mobility and simply must sit and wait for death.

Shield Buffer:

Advantages:

Extreme mobility to go with your firepower, mostly. Not to mention the Tracking Enhancer makes you much more effective at chasing off or killing kiters, and, as I mentioned, this is basically a tank + close range version of the kiting “vagacane” setup. If you fit it with the Warp Disruptor, you have a ship that both kites AND close in ganks, albeit without quite the true mobility of a dedicated kiter or the power of close-range tackle for ganking. This setup is especially strong in gangs, where your lack of tackle isn’t a problem and you can capitalize on your raw power and mobility. It also has a bit of a hidden advantage: when 1v1ing, especially vs other minmatar, your enemy will often assume you’re armor tanking and fit the wrong ammo type (and/or drone type) giving you a huge tank advantage. Also, although its not active tanked, your shield will regenerate between fights, giving you a bit of the “active” sustainability.

Weaknesses:

With its extremely soft tackle you will have a hard time with fast tacklers, AFs, Ceptors etc, and you will lose some ABing prey to warp outs. Despite your speed, your range control ability is low, and if you aren’t fitting the right ammo types when you begin a fight with a kiter you can expect to lose or at least take a pounding before pulling ahead. This setup is also extremely vulnerable to EMP fitting minmatar and to Amarr ships in general, which makes its list of viable targets a bit shorter than the other two setups. And like the Plate cane, it might not need cap for much, but if its cap is completely drained it can’t move or tackle and it has no way of regaining it.


Summary:

Each of these setups has its strengths and weaknesses, and overall I think they come out just about even. My personal favorite is the passive armor fit, but I have an AB fit Shield Gank Cane in my hanger for mission busting (I like the added speed for getting in range to tackle a missioner, and the lack of hard tackle is less of a problem in a MWD free environment (and one in which other PvPers are less likely to intrude). The MAR tank is a very strong version of this setup, but its extremely high demands in terms of SP means its only good if you have every single one of the various elements maxed out (Drones, tank, cap, mobility, missiles, and fitting) to make it an equal (or better, depending on your tastes) choice than the other two. I’m also biased on the armor cane, because I fit a Skirmish Warfare Link: Interdiction Maneuvers on it, and I have a full snake set, offsetting its mobility by making me 200ms faster and giving me vastly more tackle range, so I rarely feel its disadvantages.


2: Kiters: Medium-Ranged Fits


When it comes to Kiting canes, there are just about two choices: Vagacane (slightly refit version of the shield fit above) that would look something like:


[Hurricane, Vagacane]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Overdrive Injector System II
Damage Control II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

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
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Havoc Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Havoc Fury Heavy Missile

Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I


Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4

Basically, this is an “orbit at 14-19km and bombard them and GTFO if they blob” setup. You can maximize the GTFO by fitting speed rigs instead of the shield ones, but that does make you more vulnerable to drones and missiles. I think this setup does pretty well, and the DPS is very solid, but I personally think the lack of cap stability and active tank is too much of a hindrance for a kiter. For my take on the kiting cane with a dual MAR (and a summary of kiting in general) go read my first Art of the Hurricane post here:

http://kokuryupirate.blogspot.com/2009/11/art-of-hurricane-1-kiting-cane-setup.html

Obviously a passive plate Hurricane is too slow and unwieldy to use as a kiter.


Kiting vs Gank:

Kiting with the hurricane tends to take higher SP, good implants, and better skills than straight up gank, and kiting setups tend to be a bit weaker in direct combat, meaning your list of possible targets is reduced somewhat. However, unlike close range setups, if shit hits the fan and 30 people drop on you, you are well outside of tackle range and can make a run for it without having to first kill or disentangle yourself from your current target. This means kiters, ideally, make better solo ships than close-range gankers. However, a skilled and dedicated kiter can bring some extremely solid DPS to a gang, can serve an interceptor-like fast tackle role, and makes excellent anti-support (as they can zoom off and harass a falcon or guardian without disentangling from tacklers).

Basically, it all comes down to what you want to fly and the situations you think you’ll be encountering. Gank setups are stronger in 1v1s, and better for killing hard targets, but kiters are safer and more capable of escaping from camps and blobs. As with almost all things in EVE, what you fit and train for in terms of Hurricane setups is up to taste and situation. Experiment a little, find what you like doing with the ship, and then focus on that.

Or, be like me, and have one of every setup you like in your hanger and try and fly them all. Whatever floats your boat… or, er, your Battlecruiser.

-Skria Ranos

PS: For the curious, the actual Gank setup I personally fly looks like this:

[Hurricane, gank-o-cane]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Dread Guristas Warp Scrambler
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

'Arbalest' Rocket Launcher I, Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion M
Skirmish Warfare Link - Interdiction Maneuvers

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x4

And I was planning on making a post talking about it more in depth later this week.