Retribution T1 Cruisers - Part 1 - The Rupture

Series Introduction:

With the completely revamped cruisers in Retribution, EFT and other tools to help with fitting theory-crafting tools have been put to good use coming up with new takes on our old favourite cruisers. Before Retribution, T1 Cruisers as a class had been largely overshadowed by Battlecruisers, Heavy Assault Cruisers (HAC) and Recons. Many of the ships were among the least flown in the game. Many had unusual and mostly useless bonuses, fitting issues, or were otherwise effectively useless. However Retribution has changed all this. After playing around in a few of the ships, and much fussing around with EFT, I have developed a series of standard shield and armour tank fits for each combat and attack cruiser.

For me a shield tank means ideally having two large shield extenders, a damage control, and three shield extending rigs. An armour tank means a 1600mm plate, a Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane (EANM), and three armour trimark rigs. In general shield tanks ships mean speed and DPS. While armour tanked ships have more tank plus more e-war.

All of these fits will have use both within a gang or solo. Ideally the tank (armour or shield) should match the logistics being used if any. With the new T1 logistics cruisers logistics will become even more common than before. However I have fit the ship assuming no logistics. I would suggest that with logistics being present, modifying these fits to use resistance rigs and possible extra resistance modules like EANMs or Invul fields.

So I give you, the standard T1 Combat Cruisers of New Eden:

Part 1 - Rupture
The Rupture has long been one of the few T1 Cruisers that were viable pre-dominion. It was the second fastest T1 Cruiser (second only to the Stabber) and had a reasonable tank plus great damage projection. Naturally this means that, like the Rifter, this ship was modified the least. Asside from tweaking powergrid, speed and tank, the major change is to loose one of the hi-slots for a mid-slot. This means that the rupture now can field a proper shield tank or extra e-war ability on it's armour tank. Let's see how the changes affect the fittings...

Here is a Shield Rupture:
[Rupture, Shield Rupture]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Warp Disruptor II

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I


Hobgoblin II x4
Hammerhead II x1

The Shield Rupture is a surprisingly effective boat. Thanks to the extra midslot this ship can now support a full shield tank. Although on paper it suffers to the Vexor in the gank department, the extra range and capacitor independence of the autocannons means that the Rupture is a lot more difficult a ship to shake then the Vexor. TBH, after experiencing the effect that rebalancing and tieracide had on the Rifter, I was not expecting much. However the Rupture is in fact a viable and effective ship using a shield tank.

Let us see how the popular armour Rupture fares under the new changes...

Here is the Armour Rupture:
[Rupture, Armour Rupture]
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Small Energy Neutralizer II

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


Hobgoblin II x4
Hammerhead II x1

Much tankier than the shield variety, and with the ability to old even a frigate stationary thanks to dual webs (although in fleet other e-war may be selected) the Armour rupture is not something you want to find sitting on top of you when in a light ship. Even an afterburner fit Rifter receives over 200 DPS damage when caught within web range. On the downside this ship is outclassed by the shear damage potential of the blaster wielding cruisers. This makes range control all the more critical in that case and boosted webs would help keep at the outside edge of blaster range (between 7.5 and 10km or more in case of null being used.)

tl;dr: Unlike the Rifter, the Rupture although no longer king, is still a great T1 cruiser. Don't be afraid to bring it to battle, especially in it's shield incarnation. However if you want to see what the king of the hill is, have a look tomorow when we analyze the Vexor.

Edit: Here is a nice video on how to fly a solo Rupture thanks to Garmon.