Ships I fly - The Rifter

The ship I most often solo in is the Rifter. It is clearly an awesome T1 frigate and the standard to which all others are held to. I have a slightly unusual fit for it. I typically shield tank it and equipe it with a MWD. This is a lot less common then the Armour tanked AB rifters that you see all over the place.

I do this for a couple of reasons. The main one being that a shield tank has good resists against the kinds of damage that armour tanks are vulnerable to. Since the opponents assume that you are armour tanked, this can make a significant difference to the amount of damage you recienve. In addition a shield tanked rifter has more EHP then a fully armour tanked rifter. Since a shield tank does not increase mass, a shield tanked rifter has much more agility than an arour tanked one. This makes for fast align times and the ability to choose engagements more.

Using a MWD is a difficult choice and a lot of people think that it is a mistake. The reality is that a MWD makes the ship a lot more versatile. The ability to quickly approach targets or to get out of harms way is valuable. With a MWD I can out run most non-interceptors easily (and with overheating can outrun many interceptors as well) and so I can choose to fight or not. In theory, during a fight with another frigate, an AB should give my ship more ability to dictate range. In practice however it ends up being a moot point. Thanks to the large falloff of autocannons, I can succesfully engage the enemy at any range < 5 km and still do good damage. Rarely does an enemy try and run away and even if they do overloading my scram and MWD allows me to keep them from escaping.

As well having a MWD makes this ship still usefull when non-solo. If I join up with a fleet I can be an excellent tackler or a scout. With just an AB this would not be the case.

I find that this frigate can take on pretty much any other frigate solo. Yes, it can even take on Assault frigate and Taranisis with some good chance of success.


[Rifter, MultiRole Rifter]
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

1MN MicroWarpdrive I
Medium Shield Extender II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
[empty high slot]
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I