The good news is that there is a great alternative, the firetail. Thanks to a price crash due to Faction Warfare these ships now hover around 10 million isk for the hull, about 20 million isk fitted. This is about twice the price fitted as a Rifter.
Why is this ship so much more viable than a Rifter? There are a couple of key differences. While they both have the same number of slots the Firetail has one less highslot and one extra midslot. The loss of the highslot is completely mitigated by the 20% per level damage bonus giving the Firetail slightly more overall DPS than a similarly fit Rifter. But it is the extra midslot that makes all the diference. Once the holy trinity of AB/SCRAM/WEB is fit, the firetail can add an extra e-war module. Usually this is a tracking disruptor. Another advantage is speed. While still not as fast as an attack frigate (like a slasher), it is significantly faster than a Rifter. This makes it very hard for an attack frigate to simply disengage.
This is how I fit my firetail normally:
[Republic Fleet Firetail, New Rifter]
Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Small Armor Repairer II
1MN Afterburner II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Projectile Metastasis Adjuster I
[empty rig slot]
With the fit above the firetail is able to engage a rather large envelop of ships successfully. Pretty much any ship that is dependent upon turrets for damage. Even a thrasher, with it's tracking bonused autocannons, can be engaged with a fair chance of success. It's main limitation is the pitiful DPS. This really is restricts it to 1v1 fights since it will take too long to drop the first target before moving onto the second in a 1v2 or 1vMany fight.
The Firetail is such a cool looking ship. Never had much luck with it myself.
ReplyDeleteBest fits I've tried are a MWD kiting arty setup (zero tank so don't warp to gate with sentry aggro) and a dual prop, scram, TD, nos repper setup (tagged a bad sentinel in null before dying to his snaked linked cynabal friend).
Hmmm I'm off to grab a few of these from Jita.
Firetails have always been relatively cheap. That's always been one of the draws to flying them. You get a bit more overall performance than your run-of-the-mill T1 frigate for not a lot higher cost. They work well with the standard minmatar approach of 'my ship is too fast for your ship to handle.' Although with the mini-interceptor T1 frigates out now, it does change the dynamic. Unbonused TDs got nerfed a bit, but can still be viable.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I like flying MSE firetails so much more than using that mid for ewar. Just more straightforward, more neut resistant, and a little better tank. You've got better range control as well. Something like this:
[Republic Fleet Firetail, MSE]
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Tracking Enhancer II
1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
[Empty High slot]
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Oh, and no more sentry aggro when you warp to gate or station from a fight, Naoru.