Wednesday, June 12, 2013

A Tale of Two Hawks

I've flown a variety of ships this week. Mostly I've been in Kestrels, Thrashers and Caracals. Of the Thrashers I've been swapping a few fits but the 10mn AB has been the most used as it is the best solo roaming ship for me. It works well and if you get into trouble taking on too much you have a chance of getting out.


As I said on Monday, the 10mn AB Thrasher works great against Harpys. Their blasters versus my 11km optimal artilleries in an unscramable 1600m/sec ship is usually a win for those who trust in the rust*.

However, Hawks are usually bad, very bad. Their optimal is the same as yours and their tank is usually much better. Well it has to be as the 10mn AB Thrasher really doesn't have a tank to speak of! So far this week I've taken a gamble when I've got a Hawk on short scan, and it has paid off both times. This has been pure luck**.

This was my first victim.


There is no need to put a small shield booster on a Hawk. They are made for mediums especially with that ship bonus to boost amount. When I'm hitting you with seven 250mm artillery cannons, a small shield booster is not going to make enough of a difference.

Apparently in the conversation that followed, he's been out of the game for a couple of years so that explains the fit. I bought a new Hawk and my recommended fittings and contracted them to him in Jita. I just hope my destruction of his ship in the first PvP he's had after a two year break hasn't put him off. He appreciated the gift apparently :)

My second one was a tad more expensive.


A few things wrong here. For a start even with the posh Nos, his cap won't last long. Before ASB's, a cap booster was a requirement for the medium shield booster on the Hawk. Whilst the CPU and PG are not a major issue with a T2 frigate hull, the ship does not have cruiser sized capacitor. A medium shield booster will eat your cap even with the posh MWD. I recreated the fit in EFT and the cap is out in 32 SECONDS.

Another thing, that cargo hold! That is a lot of ammo and nanite paste. When soloing are you going to use all that up before someone pops you? What is a good K/D rate for soloing for a good player? 5/1? 7/1? 10/1? This guy does well. He's about 10/1. Still do you need all that in your hold pumping up the cost of your loss mail?


Also I was firing EMP at him. he has got two T2 anti-EM rigs on that. With T1 guns I should have DIAF to a Hawk.

So what is a good Hawk fit? I'm no expert on fitting, I just steal other peoples! How do I fit my Hawks?

Well I've always been a fan of the Smohawk. The fit given to me by Smodab from S0TF. It has gone through a few iterations and changes but basically:-

4 x T2 Rocket Launchers
1 x Small Autocannon or Neut.

2 x Medium Ancillary Shield Boosters
1 x Scam
1 x Web
1 x AB

1 x Meta DC
1 x Nanofibre Internal Structure

2 x Anti-EM Shield Rig

You can play around with the fittings here depending on your fitting skills but that is the basic premise. Ammo you should carry is a mix of high DPS types (Rage) and some long range versions (Javelin) too. With the AB you'll not be able to catch kitey MWD equipped ships that have range on you so you need some range projection to encourage them out of long point range so you can get away.

Ideally you want to run one ASB until it is out of charges. Then run the second one. This will give you plenty of repping with a downtime between the second booster running dry and the first one being reloaded and ready to use. With no other tank other than rigs, you really need to be looting your opponents wreck at the point your second booster needs to reload. Stats with Dracks skills are:-

Damage - 141 dps to 11.8km with Rage rockets, 102 dps to 21.3km with Javelin rockets.
Speed - 924m/sec
Tank - 1169/484/506hp with resists of 53/81/72/54. 5,654 EHP. 133dps repped with both ABS running.

Nice ship and fun to fly! Add some Crystal implants and some blue pills and then its a VERY fun ship to fly ;)


And just as I'm about to hit publish (I sometimes gate-camp whilst blogging) we get another Hawk with a small shield booster :/)


*Yes, of course a Snarpy is a PITA against it.

**My luck ran out last night when I DC'd in a fight and lost a pod :/

3 comments:

  1. I love the hawk. It's the ship I usually run around in when flying solo. My fit is nearly identical to yours. The only difference is the lows. Where yours adds a bit more tank, mine has a bit more gank. I run a BCS2 and a co-processor in my lows

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    1. If you look back at my Hawk loses you'll find a couple with BCU/CPU in the two lows. So many ways you can fit the lows and the spare high. Mid slots tho, thats the best fot I've seen.

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  2. Imo if you're having fun why worry too much about your isk efficiency

    Also Hawks rule

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