Dual ASB Ferox ... My thoughts

In the theme of flying ASB battle-cruisers I have been giving the Ferox a go. TBH it has been quite frustrating. The Ferox is no Drake, no Brutix and certainly no Cyclone. It could be a great ship, however for a variety of reasons it doesn't cut it. Let's look at the final fitting I have settled on...

[Ferox, Toterra's Ferox]
F85 Peripheral Damage System I
Co-Processor II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 150
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400

Medium Diminishing Power System Drain I
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Null M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Null M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Null M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Null M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Null M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Null M

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I


Hobgoblin II x5

On paper the above fit is quite a beast. Overheated the X-Large Ancillary Shield booster can handle 1100 DPS. When that is reloading the Large on can take over and handle 460 DPS. Quite good. Even better with a Blue Pill. Targeting range is a sensor damping resistant 75km and the sensor strength of 19 gives it good resistance to ECM drones, if not good sufficient against jamming ships. Dual damage mods means the DPS is also reasonable with 538 using void and the drones, pumping up to 603 overheated. The Shield Boost Amplifier can be swapped out for a web to trade tank for tackle. This should be a good ship.

Under this right circumstances it works wonders. In one solo engagement I took on a shield tanked myrm and three frigates, emerging victorious. In small shield BC response fleets the ship also performed well.

Unfortunately the envelope of engagements that this ship will do well in is rather small. It suffers from three major deficiencies, none of which can be remedied by switching out different modules.

1. Short Range Weapons:  With Null M this ship has an optimal of 6.3km + a falloff of 5.3km. That means that it can do sweet f@ck all damage to an enemy ship outside of scram range. Several times out roaming I was engaged by a target I should have been able to fight, but I was pointed and nothing I could do would get me in range to do real damage. Missiles and medium autocannons can usually accomplish something when a target is within warp disruptor range. These blasters can't. Switching to larger blasters squeezes the fitting too much.

2. Small Cargo: This was really frustrating. The Cyclone has over a third more cargo space then a Ferox. This meant that while a Cyclone can hold ammo and two full reloads of cap boosters with room to spare, a Ferox can only hold a single reload with a couple of extra charges. This hurts in two ways. Firstly the Ferox can't keep its tank going for very long. Secondarily, once an engagement is finished, the Ferox urgently needs to find a safe harbour to resupply.

3. Speed: The bane of Caldari ships, but considering that this one has to somehow get into close range... speed is just to essential. This ship does not have it.

To summarize, the Ferox, nice in EFT, just doesn't cut it for Toterra.

Of course having said this I am sure some video is about to come out with Kil2 or Garmon owning half of nullsec with a ferox ...