So I was reading a post on my Corps forums today about HICs ( Heavy Interdictor Cruisers) and saw our CEO likes to FC in them. This made me think about what ships I prefer to fly when I FC(I admit my skills do not give me a giant range of options yet).
Now there isn't a set rule for this, nor should there be. For new FCs though the question remains on what to fly. I am going to go over many of the ships types and the pros and cons of each one. As an FC survivability is #1 priority.
T1 Frigates
Ahh the "lowly" frigate. I think Frigates actually make excellent FCing ships. In T2 frig gangs or even cruiser and bc gangs, the T1 frigate will rarely if ever be primaried and will probably be the last one to go(unless you get to close to something). This gives you free range of movement on grid to be able to call targets and keep a close eye on what is happening around you. Here comes the surprise. The Tristan, Rifter and Merlin, although excellent ships, do real good dps(for a frig) and can be tanked well, thus making them targets. Not to say that they will get targeted over say an ishkur, jag, or taranis, but the risk is there.
Assault Ships
AFs are amazing all around combat ships. They can fit a respectable tank, put out excellent dps, and can all be fit a myriad of ways. This makes them a real good choice as a command platform. You will start to notice a pattern here: The ships with the highest dps will probably be primaried in a T2 Frig gang (you may luck out in ther gang types) so the Wolf, Ishkur, Enyo, Hawk, and Harpy wouldn't make the best...even though they certainly are doable!. I, however, recommend the Vengeance and Jaguar. The vengeance can fit a ridiculous tank as can the jag, thus making you more likely to survive if primaried.
Covert Ops
You cannot go wrong with FCing in a ship that cannot be seen, but don't expect too many killmails!(well maybe...more on that in a bit). Covops give you the freedom to move around the battlefield or sit at a distance, thus giving you more focus then a more conventional combat ship. For the newer FC these are excellent for focusing more on the fight then dealing dmg or dying. For the KMwhore type, you can either use a stealth bomber or battle fit your covops. A battle fit covops, so long as there is a covops cloak, wont hinder you at all since you are not scouting.. Definitely one of my fav picks.
Interceptors
Inties are a gray area. They are fast and agile, but lack tank. Also due to their unique roles are often popped first. I will leave this one up to Pilot discretion as it will be heavily reliant on pilot skill
Cruisers
I am going to go ahead and throw all cruisers into this category. Cruisers make excellent ships to FC from with three exceptions: The High DPS output ships, Logistics, and the EWAR Platforms(some not all).
However, there are several Cruisers that can stay at range or fit a ridiculous tank. Both the Maller and the Vexor can fit ridiculous armor buffer tanks, the Maller more so. This gives you the staying power you need to stay on the field.
The Caracal, Moa, Cerberus, Eagle, Ishtar, Muninn, and Zealot can all hang out at super long ranges if sniper fit. They can also chill at medium range to keep a better eye on the field. Just be cautious...some of them have high dps outputs or shiny prices so can easily be called primary.
HICs-All of the Heavy Interdictors can fit substantial tanks. That combined with their mobile nature gives you free reign of the battlefield. That and you don't have to worry about calling bubble up, as you are the bubble! This makes them excellent, and popular, FC vessels.
Recons- This one is iffy. They do not fit substantial tanks, that and their utility that you have to juggle can make it complicated. Once again I would say this one be left up to pilot skill in FCing and multitasking.
Strategic Cruisers- My only beef is that they are bling...and therefore highly sought after KMs. However, all of the T3 cruisers can fit MASSIVE tanks. This coupled with decent dps output and modest utility make them excellent , albeit, highly expensive Command ships.
Battlecruisers
Ahhh here we are, the battlecruiser. This is one of my personal favorites for FCing. They all can fit good tanks, they have excellent dps output, and can fit Warfare Links to provided added utility. Almost all of the T1 BCs make good choices. The handful of exceptions would be the new Tier 3 BCs and the Brutix. The former have paper tanks and extreme dps output. The are best used as snipers or alpha ships, and thus will find themselves warping off of the field alot if chased. The Brutix's reputation as an extreme dps ship usually gets it primaried first( I know as it is one of my favorite ships :P).
Command Ships- The T2 BCs are the creme de la creme of FC boats. Massive tanks and boosts on the Fleet variants, and good tanks and high dps on the Field variants. Other than their price, you cannot really go wrong here.
Battleships
The Battleship is an iffy subject. They are only optimal in a fleet of BS or higher(capitals and what not). I do not recommend them for any smaller gang comp, as you will probably be the first to go down.
So.......
In closing it really comes down to flying what you are comfortable in, sizing the ship appropriately to the fleet type (don't bring a BS or BC to an all frig gang for example), and survivability(yeah other people can pick up when you go down, but it helps to try and have as much staying power as possible). So go out and have some fun. Do not be afraid to experiment to find out what works best for you. Above all else, I reiterate, fly what you are most comfortable in, and only what you can afford to lose!
Until next time have fun, fly dangerously, and see you out in New Eden!
Showing posts with label Agony Unleashed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agony Unleashed. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thursday, November 3, 2011
So You Want To FC, Eh? Part 2 - Fight on YOUR terms!
One of the most difficult things for a budding FC to learn, at least in my mind as it is something I struggle with, is understanding different ways that you can force a fight onto you terms. Oddly enough, this isn't as difficult as one would think. The hardest part, in my opinion, is being able to do it quickly and under pressure. I am going to provide just a few of the myriad of ways you go about doing this. Keep in mind though that tactics are being used against someone who may not play the way you want them too!
There a about as many ways to bait and goad your opponent as you can imagine but we are only going to go over a handful of them here. Some of the more popular tactics include Psyops, pincher, turn and burn, bubbles, and using dictors.
PSYOPS
Psyops is the art of using psychological warfare against your opponent. Methods of doing this are: Making the enemy believe you have less numbers then you do, making them believe you are scared (by running away to a predetermined trap point), making them think you have different shiptypes, and just all around making them believe they have the upper hand.
There are several ways to instigate most of this methods.
1. Numbers.
Lets say you are taking your fleet back home from a prolonged roam. Your scout, who is +2, J's into a gate camp. Your fleet comp is 8 shield BC's, a falcon, 2 Skirmish inties, 1 jag(chaser tackle), a sabre, 2 scimis and 2 vagas. The recon report comes in: Gizz in XX-XXX on XX gate. 13 in local and I have 13 on grid. 6 Canes, a sabre, 2 vagas, 2 scimis, a dram, and a Stiletto. The idea is to bait them into thinking they outmatch you and to therefore get them to come to you and engage.
The Execute: you can tell you skirmish to either get safe in local or burn back to gate. You would then have only half of your force go into the next system, thus allowing their scout(assuming they are smart and have one, most do) to see your numbers. Hopefully you can get them in position on the next gate and they will take the bait, J into your system and engage not knowing that the other half of your force is incoming. When they do it will be too late(hopefully...shit happens :) )
2. Running scared.
Same situation as above..but lets they have the numbers this time. You can still get a good fight this way, it just takes a little patience. The idea is to have them think you don't want to fight because you think or "know" you will lose. How do we do this? Running!
The Execute: Your scout gives his report and you send the fleet into system -1 from scout. Warp everyone to gate at about 20km and as soon as you exit warp realign the ingate you entered in. Give it about 30 secs so they think you are discussing it and then burn back to other gate. If it works a couple of them(or hell the whole force) should come in and give chase. Now there are a few things you can do here. I am only going to cover two, as some of the others will be covered in their own section. What you do here is up to you..as I am not going to reveal the actual methods you can use(so you can use them against me lol)
PINCER
The purpose of this is having two forces to trap your opponent with, one being the one engaged the other the back up.
This section is going to be pretty short, as I am not going to be putting in actual tactics used, just giving the idea. The idea is to either split your force, know you have back up somewhere, or know backup can respond if needed. Then you just engage on a gate, and when back up arrives it cuts off their escape.
TURN AND BURN
I already went into this in some detail.
The tactic: To make look like your running or to split up faster ships from slower ships
The execute: It is what it is. Just turn and align to a gate or celestial and burn for a bit til they give chase. You then warp off and pick off the ones who come after you.
Bubbles, Interdictors, and Gate camping
I am also not going to go into too many details on these subjects even though they are viable tactics to giving you the higher ground.
Bubbles: Bubbles are anchorable objects that, like dictor spheres, disrupt warp off all ships it is aligned to(meaning celestials it is aligned to but ships taking the aligned path) and drops them in your lap.
Interdictors: Two classes, standard and Heavy. Standard, or light, Interdictors are destroyer class vessels that equip an Interdiction Sphere Launcher to drop Interdiction probes in space. Heavy interdictors are even more unique as they equip a Warp Disruption Field Generator. This allows HICs to quite literally be the center of their bubble and move around with it.
Gate Camping: We all know this one. Sitting at a gate for hours on end in a busy pipe and waiting for unsuspecting travelers and gangs to come through.
In closing I hope you all received a little more insight into ways to turn the hand. Veterans know most of this stuff, however, I hope that maybe they were refreshed or have a new perspective on the subject. Sorry to all my readers for this one being two weeks late. I have had some shit dropped on me in life lately and it has been hard to get a handle on my writing.
Until next fly dangerously! o7
There a about as many ways to bait and goad your opponent as you can imagine but we are only going to go over a handful of them here. Some of the more popular tactics include Psyops, pincher, turn and burn, bubbles, and using dictors.
PSYOPS
Psyops is the art of using psychological warfare against your opponent. Methods of doing this are: Making the enemy believe you have less numbers then you do, making them believe you are scared (by running away to a predetermined trap point), making them think you have different shiptypes, and just all around making them believe they have the upper hand.
There are several ways to instigate most of this methods.
1. Numbers.
Lets say you are taking your fleet back home from a prolonged roam. Your scout, who is +2, J's into a gate camp. Your fleet comp is 8 shield BC's, a falcon, 2 Skirmish inties, 1 jag(chaser tackle), a sabre, 2 scimis and 2 vagas. The recon report comes in: Gizz in XX-XXX on XX gate. 13 in local and I have 13 on grid. 6 Canes, a sabre, 2 vagas, 2 scimis, a dram, and a Stiletto. The idea is to bait them into thinking they outmatch you and to therefore get them to come to you and engage.
The Execute: you can tell you skirmish to either get safe in local or burn back to gate. You would then have only half of your force go into the next system, thus allowing their scout(assuming they are smart and have one, most do) to see your numbers. Hopefully you can get them in position on the next gate and they will take the bait, J into your system and engage not knowing that the other half of your force is incoming. When they do it will be too late(hopefully...shit happens :) )
2. Running scared.
Same situation as above..but lets they have the numbers this time. You can still get a good fight this way, it just takes a little patience. The idea is to have them think you don't want to fight because you think or "know" you will lose. How do we do this? Running!
The Execute: Your scout gives his report and you send the fleet into system -1 from scout. Warp everyone to gate at about 20km and as soon as you exit warp realign the ingate you entered in. Give it about 30 secs so they think you are discussing it and then burn back to other gate. If it works a couple of them(or hell the whole force) should come in and give chase. Now there are a few things you can do here. I am only going to cover two, as some of the others will be covered in their own section. What you do here is up to you..as I am not going to reveal the actual methods you can use(so you can use them against me lol)
PINCER
The purpose of this is having two forces to trap your opponent with, one being the one engaged the other the back up.
This section is going to be pretty short, as I am not going to be putting in actual tactics used, just giving the idea. The idea is to either split your force, know you have back up somewhere, or know backup can respond if needed. Then you just engage on a gate, and when back up arrives it cuts off their escape.
TURN AND BURN
I already went into this in some detail.
The tactic: To make look like your running or to split up faster ships from slower ships
The execute: It is what it is. Just turn and align to a gate or celestial and burn for a bit til they give chase. You then warp off and pick off the ones who come after you.
Bubbles, Interdictors, and Gate camping
I am also not going to go into too many details on these subjects even though they are viable tactics to giving you the higher ground.
Bubbles: Bubbles are anchorable objects that, like dictor spheres, disrupt warp off all ships it is aligned to(meaning celestials it is aligned to but ships taking the aligned path) and drops them in your lap.
Interdictors: Two classes, standard and Heavy. Standard, or light, Interdictors are destroyer class vessels that equip an Interdiction Sphere Launcher to drop Interdiction probes in space. Heavy interdictors are even more unique as they equip a Warp Disruption Field Generator. This allows HICs to quite literally be the center of their bubble and move around with it.
Gate Camping: We all know this one. Sitting at a gate for hours on end in a busy pipe and waiting for unsuspecting travelers and gangs to come through.
In closing I hope you all received a little more insight into ways to turn the hand. Veterans know most of this stuff, however, I hope that maybe they were refreshed or have a new perspective on the subject. Sorry to all my readers for this one being two weeks late. I have had some shit dropped on me in life lately and it has been hard to get a handle on my writing.
Until next fly dangerously! o7
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The T1 Frigate Project
Well I have been trying to finish a T1 frig project now for the last couple months and seem to always find a distraction. Time to get serious!
The Project
50 frigates! That's right 50. Five zero. 10 Rifters, 10 Tristans, 10 Merlins, 10 Punishers, and 10 Kestrals.
The Purpose
To lose all of these ships and learn a lot along the way.
The Method
Going to take 1 ship out a day and go solo roaming. Hopefully will be able to have some fun 1v1s! Going to do this until all ships are gone
The Education
I am going to post an AAR for every ship I lose so that the knowledge can be passed on to all of you! This will be an excellent opportunity for everyone to learn a little something something and maybe share insights along the way!
So be on the lookout as the project kicks off tomorrow with the Rifters! Also be on the lookout for the next chapter of "So You Want To FC, Eh?"!
The Project
50 frigates! That's right 50. Five zero. 10 Rifters, 10 Tristans, 10 Merlins, 10 Punishers, and 10 Kestrals.
The Purpose
To lose all of these ships and learn a lot along the way.
The Method
Going to take 1 ship out a day and go solo roaming. Hopefully will be able to have some fun 1v1s! Going to do this until all ships are gone
The Education
I am going to post an AAR for every ship I lose so that the knowledge can be passed on to all of you! This will be an excellent opportunity for everyone to learn a little something something and maybe share insights along the way!
So be on the lookout as the project kicks off tomorrow with the Rifters! Also be on the lookout for the next chapter of "So You Want To FC, Eh?"!
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Sunday, October 2, 2011
And now for a taste of things to come...
So here..we...go! Okay, so that is a semi cheesy intro to start a blog. Oh well going to run with it haha!
The plan I had when starting this is fairly simple. To be able to relate my own experiences in Eve and to also perhaps make my own mark in the world with my own guides and tips. Bear with my grammer as I have not written anything remotely serious in almost 2 decades. I will get better with time, just expect a sloppy start lol.
Here is a little history on myself. I have been playing Eve on and off since 2008, with a more hardcore surge earlier this year after my retirement from WoW. My original plan was to be an industrialist and miner, with an eventual branch into PvP. Little did I realize that branch wold come far sooner then I expected lol. Like a lot of new players I started out in E-UNI(Eve University for those rare souls who do not know). Played there for a few months, made some new friends, and ultimately started looking fr a 0.0 pvp corp after a few Ops here. In March of this year made the move to Syndax a newer corp formed of veteran players in the long standing X-Legio alliance. Had some fun in the Great Wildlands Coalition, but like in the past with other games I came just as it was all crumbling into fodder. After wa brief search of pvp corperations to try out i ultimately decided to apply to Agony Unleashed.
I have learned a ridiculous amount of stuff since starting my trial almost 3 months ago and will share some of my insights and ideas along with some of my personal(alothough not fight changing lol) tactics and ship ideas in testing phases. Hopefully I make Core here in next couple weeks and will be able to continue to provide some good reads. I plan on doing so anyway, however if I have to move on it will be awhile bfore another post.
Be n the lookout for new posts and updates. The idea is to make this weekly(biweekly at the most). Already working on my first major post..an indepth look at Droneboats! So stay turned and prepare to learn the very fine art of dying!
Rylia
The plan I had when starting this is fairly simple. To be able to relate my own experiences in Eve and to also perhaps make my own mark in the world with my own guides and tips. Bear with my grammer as I have not written anything remotely serious in almost 2 decades. I will get better with time, just expect a sloppy start lol.
Here is a little history on myself. I have been playing Eve on and off since 2008, with a more hardcore surge earlier this year after my retirement from WoW. My original plan was to be an industrialist and miner, with an eventual branch into PvP. Little did I realize that branch wold come far sooner then I expected lol. Like a lot of new players I started out in E-UNI(Eve University for those rare souls who do not know). Played there for a few months, made some new friends, and ultimately started looking fr a 0.0 pvp corp after a few Ops here. In March of this year made the move to Syndax a newer corp formed of veteran players in the long standing X-Legio alliance. Had some fun in the Great Wildlands Coalition, but like in the past with other games I came just as it was all crumbling into fodder. After wa brief search of pvp corperations to try out i ultimately decided to apply to Agony Unleashed.
I have learned a ridiculous amount of stuff since starting my trial almost 3 months ago and will share some of my insights and ideas along with some of my personal(alothough not fight changing lol) tactics and ship ideas in testing phases. Hopefully I make Core here in next couple weeks and will be able to continue to provide some good reads. I plan on doing so anyway, however if I have to move on it will be awhile bfore another post.
Be n the lookout for new posts and updates. The idea is to make this weekly(biweekly at the most). Already working on my first major post..an indepth look at Droneboats! So stay turned and prepare to learn the very fine art of dying!
Rylia
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