Solo Roaming in Cruisers ... On a Budget

An absolutely fantastic post on Failheap-Challenge by Prometheus, [HOW2PLAY] Solo Roaming in Cruisers, gives detailed fitting and tactic recommendations for Brawling T2 and faction cruisers. If you read only one thing about EVE PvP strategies this week, that is the post you want to read. In it he covers a variety of ships that he feels are ideal for roaming around in.

For Prometheus, he has a laundry list of attributes needed for a roaming cruiser...

- tank more than 35k ehp
- not be reliant on cap boosters
- align faster than 7 seconds
- be faster than 1200m/s before heat
- be capable of dealing over 550dps

Any ship that can meet these requirements can be counted on to stand up in a close range fight against similar and even many above class ships.

The problem with his post is that the ships are expensive. At about 200 million isk per ship they are hard to justify for many players. So the question remains, how close to that level of performance is possible using T1 ships? After a bit of playing with PYFA I came up with the following fit for a rupture:

Tank is just short of the 35k target, but close enough IMHO. It is not reliant on cap boosters, however cap is limited if those small neuts are in fact used. It is a bit slow to align however it is faster then the 1200 m/s. DPS is just over 80% of the target.

Obviously this ship can not keep up with it's T2 and faction counterparts. However it is pretty close. A Vexor or a thorax also can be fit quite nicely to be very close to meeting Prometheus' criteria.

I would suggest to anyone, if you are going to be trying out one of those expensive fits, fly and loose at least 5 of these cheaper T1 cruisers first. Otherwise you are just throwing money away.

Edit: Since someone asked me, here is a possible Vexor fit (Keep in mind that I am not overly familiar with fitting Gallente)

A little less tank then the Rupture, but, counting the drones, more gank. A very nice ship and one that should be feared.

Some Solo Rupture Fun in Curse and Catch

For my earlier post about the Rupture I had tried experimenting using a 800mm plate and fitting a bit more gank. The result was pretty unspectacular and I went back to using the 1600mm plate Rupture as described in the article. The problem with the 800mm is that the tank kept on running out just a little bit too soon, resulting in my own death instead of my enemies. So I thought to avenge my failures with a few solo roams.

For various reasons Providence right now is mostly set temporarily blue to Agony so I had to wander further and check out curse and catch. First blood was a satisfying Taranis kill in 9KOE-A. The Taranis has just dispatched a Pandemic Legion Dramiel (Very nice kill btw) when I showed up. He warped off when I appeared. I quickly bookmarked the wreck (it was quite a bit off gate) and warped off myself, so I could warp back to the wreck. I am not sure exactly what the Taranis pilot was thinking but I imagine when he saw me disappear off d-scan he felt safe enough to return to the wreck. I landed pretty much on him. Normally a Taranis is a pretty tough cookie, however once I locked him I saw that he was deep deep into structure (must have been a nice fight with the Dramiel) and was pretty much instapopped.

I got a nice deadspace afterburner from the Dramiel wreck. Nice! I returned home to drop off the loot.

The next night I returned to the same hunting grounds. Things were very quiet at first. Then I came upon a Manticore Stealth Bomber sitting uncloaked by a gate. Assuming it must be a tarp I checked the other side and found nothing. Quickly returning the Bomber was still there. 10 seconds later it was now a wreck. The pilot must have woken up as his ship exploded and his pod warped off. A quick check of the wreck provided for some more high priced goodies He was hauling some nice large T1 and small T2 rigs. I didn't want to haul the stuff back to friendly space so I docked in station and offered to sell him his loot back for 50m isk which he accepted.

A few jumps later I came across a couple of Goonswarm Ishkurs. This is where the Rupture really shines. In a Jaguar I would be very hesitant about engaging two assault frigates. However in the Rupture I went for it knowing that unless they had an unusual fit, I would be victorious. Sure enough I grabbed one, applied scram/web/neut and put the ecm drones on the other. The first went pretty quick and I switched to the other which also went down. I barely broke shields :).

The next night I was back in the area. After seeing almost nothing I spotted a Wolf and a Crow sitting on a gate. I engaged the wolf first, unfortunately I choose poorly for ammo types with Phased Plasma. It seemed to take forever to bust through his 400mm RT plate. Meanwhile a Stealth bomber uncloaks and starts pounding me with Torpedoes. Eventually I break through the Wolf's tank and then dispatch the Crow. As this is happening an Eris appears and bubbles us all in. With my Armour dropping below a third I start powering for an exit. I put my DPS on the Eris hoping to drive it away from me out of point range and succeed. I manage to warp to the sun just before hitting structure. As I land at the sun I find myself at 0 with the Eris again. LOL we both tried to escape to the same celestial. I start pounding on the Eris as I observe a Falcon uncloaking. I get jammed, but not before Eris explodes. Again I beat an hasty retreat and live to fight another day.

At this point I am feeling pretty cocky. For three nights in a row I have had some GF and made some good isk. In EVE cockiness is what gets you killed. The next night I set out again feeling quite invincible. Then in K-B2D3 with 4 in local I warp directly from gate to gate, only to land in a bubble camp. The Wolf and Rupture on the bubble would have made for a nice fight. With some lucky Jams from the ECM drones I might have been able to shut down the Rupture while killing the Wolf. Unfortunately a Blackbird 50km off made sure that this ship would never make it home.

All in all it was some great fights. It was a shame to finally loose the ship but it certainly delivered. I made about 100 mill in loot in exchange for a 10 million isk ship. It is nice to know that Solo PvP is alive and well in New Eden.

Ships I Fly - The Rupture

For various reasons I have waited quite a while to discuss the Rupture. I have quite a love/hate relationship with this wonderful Minmattar cruiser.

Things I love:
- Although slow for a Matari Cruiser, the Rupture is still faster than cruisers from other races
- DOUBLE DAMAGE BONUS
- Lots of PG / CPU
- Nice Drone Bay
- Two Utility Slots

Things I don't love:
- Too slow to evade a gate-camp
- Less tank then other races Tier-3 Cruisers
- Anything a Rupture can do.... A hurricane can do better.

In other words, a Rupture is basically a glass cannon, or, as described by an enemy, "Primary".

Lets look at some fits. Like a Hurricane, a Rupture can be either Armour or Shield Tanked. Both of the below fits are T2 and cost between 10-15m isk. Cheapfits with T1 gear are also quite viable.

Here is an Armour Tanked Rupture:
[Rupture, New Setup 3]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Projectile Burst Aerator I
Medium Projectile Collision Accelerator I


Vespa EC-600 x1
Hornet EC-300 x4

DPS: 317
EHP: 24,931
Speed: 1400

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

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

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
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

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

DPS: 397
EHP: 21,010
Speed: 1591


Vespa EC-600 x1
Hornet EC-300 x4


For both ships you can swap out a Tracking Enhancer for a nanofibre/Gyro as needed. You can also swap out the ECM drones for damage drones for an additional 100 dps or so. Personally I like to fit ECM drones since I feel it gives me a chance to escape when tackled, plus it can significantly reduce incoming DPS when the enemy is jammed. I like to bring along at least 2 types of close range republic fleet ammo plus barrage. RF ammo is good for DPS, barrage is good for range.

So what can you do with a Rupture?

In a small fleet a Rupture is both a significant DPS boat and heavy tackler. In general you want to get up close and personal, land a point/scram on a target and unleash hell while calling for reps from logistics. Obviously this role makes the Rupture an early primary, especially considering it's low EHP to DPS ratio.

For solo work the Rupture is very competitive when taking on Cruisers from another race. It's high damage/light tank makes for short intense fights. Since you are so fast, you should be able to outrun anything except a stabber / vagabond (don't engage Vagas if you can avoid it please) to escape an enemy if the fight goes south. Frigates sized ships are another issue however. Scram + web (if armour tanked) + neuts should make it possible to slow them down to be hit by the guns. The armour tank fit with smaller, faster tracking guns and a web obviously has an advantage here. If you are worried about frigates then fitting 6 warrior II drones instead of ECM may make sense.

I try to engage anything cruiser or smaller at near-close range if I can. 2000-6000m is ideal. There are some exceptions however. With a weak signal strength LADAR system and turreted weapon systems, a Rupture is vulnerable to both tracking disruptors and ECM. As a result an arbitrator or a blackbird (plus T2 variants) spells trouble. I have never successfully taken a Rupture against a Battle-cruiser or a Battleship but it should be possible under the right circumstances as many others have demonstrated.

Once you get familiar with a Rupture... try a Hurricane. It is sort of a Rupture on steroids, really really good steroids.

Failed Gank and then a little 1V1

As I have been doing these 'Ships I fly' articles I noticed I haven't really been flying any cruisers. So I threw together a Rupture and went on a little roam through providence. Unfortunately things were a little quiet. There was a report of a small group of shock and awe (AWE) ratters up towards YQB-22. A sort of hodgepodge fleet assembled to take them on and I joined up. The trick with ratters is to land on them before they notice that you are there. I stayed a couple of jumps out keeping an eye on F-YH5B where there was a large Circle-of-two (CO2) presence. As things started to come together for the gank... an AWE rifter came our way and the gig was up. The ratters pos'ed up and we gave up. Around this time CO2 started to make a move in our direction so there was some tension as one of our slow moving BS almost came upon them. Fortunately our BS got out of system just as CO2 entered so they were none the wiser.

Frustrated with the lack of action I switched to a Rifter and challenged another Rifter from Ushra'Khan to a 1v1. I brought my usual shield tank rifter but I fit it with an AB instead of a MWD. Interestingly my opponent also went shield tank and he tried to kite me using barrage. A little bit of overloading the AB and I was back to PB range where he melted once his shields were through. He never made it past the 1/2 way on mine. Barrage just doesn't have the same DPS as RF fusion. My main surprise was his shield tank. I assumed (as UK mostly armour fits their rifters) that he would be armour tanked so I was using RF Fusion. If he had noticed that I am almost always in a shield tank (I had fought him before) and used EMP then I would have likely come out on the short end of the stick.

Anyways, that was my evening. I am going to try and get the Rupture in a few more fights before I write the 'Ships I Fly' article for it.