Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Gank Sniper Kestrel

Yes you read that right, a Gank Sniper Kestrel!


In faction war this is a very useful ship. Full rack of T2 missile launchers in the highs, 2 sensor boosters unscripted and a target painter plus MWD in the mids, two T2 BCU in the lows and in the rigs one fuel cache partition and two hydraulic bay thrusters.

"Hang on a fecking second Drackarn! That's not a PvP fit! It doesn't even have a warp disruptor! And where the hell is your tank?"

Nope, no point, no tank, but its not designed for operating in point range. It can fire out to over 90km with max skills and targets at over 100km. It is for three things really:-

Get off my lawn!
If a larger force of Caldari Militia come into our home system and camp in a plex we can use these. Trying to fight outnumbered inside a plex can be difficult as you might not be able to ship up depending on the plex. So you need some other form of advantage to make up for their numerical superiority. Enter the plex as a small group and overheat MWD to burn away. If they get a scram on someone they may have enough speed to coast out of scram range and re-engage the MWD. Burn out to range and spam missiles at the squid scum. You have no tank so you don't want to be where people are going to shoot at you! However the combined firepower of the Kessies is usually enough to disburse the group and stop them capturing the plex.


TD Tank
A popular ship for Caldari militia is the Condor. They tend to equip them with tracking disruptors and kite-fit them. Their 'tank' is simply speed and TD, they have no room for shield modules usually. A speed/TD tank is about as much use against the Gank Sniper Kestrel as tits on a kipper. Two volleys, may be three depending on the pilots skills, will turn that kiting Condor into space-junk.

The Caldari Militia Tank
You are probably wondering what a "Caldari Militia Tank" is right? Here are a few examples of CMT:-


Yes you use WCS to 'tank'. When I say 'tank' I actually mean run away. However many of these farmers are not paying attention. They don't need to. They can be frapping away on the other screen and as soon as they hear the incoming lock sound or see the sudden appearance of a flashy orange they simply hit warp. After all they will be 30-40km away from the warp-in so plenty of time to GTFO. However, that few seconds is sometimes all you need against these low-skill pilots in trash-fit frigates. Two volleys, dead frigate, saved plex!

"But if you don't point them, they'll just warp out!"


You'd think so wouldn't you? So why do I get kills with this fit?

In the first example, yes they commonly do warp off. However, you'd be surprised how many die to these when there are three or four of you. The alpha from a small group of these can be large enough to take down the primary very quickly. If you are solo the first volley makes them think I might need to warp off. The second volley makes them hit warp. If they are not in warp when the third volley hits then many will die. Plus we're not looking to wipe them out with the these Kestrels, we're trying to stop them taking the plex in our home system. We divide their fleet, split them up and get them into low armour. They then decide it is not worth running that plex and bugger off!

In the second and third examples above, the kiting Condor and the CMT, you have two things going for you. Firstly is the strength of the volley verses the tank of the ship. Usually they are expecting a bit of a fight before they need to think about fleeing. When the first hit demolishes their shields and puts them into armour, then they panic. The Condor's MWD is burning so align time to warp out is high. They are also probably orbiting you (Condor) or sat still (CMT), not aligned to a celestial. The delay getting into warp is usually enough for you to kill them. Panic is a killer!


Lastly there is the mother of all ****-ups. Assumption. They are in a fight, therefore they must be pointed right? Everyone who PvP's solo fits a point right? Oh wait I'm not pointed! So I can....

***CAPSULE EJECTED***

Never assume anything in Eve Online!

6 comments:

  1. My understanding is that you get a bigger benefit from 1 SeBo scripted each way than two unscripted (due to lack of stacking penalties).

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    Replies
    1. Tested in EFT -

      Unscripted - 103km with res of 1270

      Scripted (one range, one res) - 100km with res of 1240

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    2. Ah, that's where I went wrong. The SeBos stack multiplicatively. So 1 scripted is x2, whereas two unscripted are x1.5 x(1 + .5 x 0.8ish) ~= x2.1. Thanks

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  2. I used a similar fit in RvB a year ago. 154 kills, 2 losses during Jan 2013 with this fit:

    http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=15758909

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  3. I often don't bother with a point or scram. especially when flying 2 mid slot frigs as I'd rather have the ability to somewhat control the range of the engagement with a web when brawling. A LOT of people don't even realise they are pointed tbh and if they do and you are fast enough a quick nudge out of alignment pisses then right off :)

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  4. lol... i have been using this to hunt plex farmers and so far i've just killed legit combat ships with it. It's amazing how many people don't warp out!

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