Originally by: MadGaz

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Why oh Why do you rat in an interceptor?

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Originally by: MadGaz

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Why oh Why do you rat in an interceptor?

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Originally by: MadGaz

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Why oh Why do you rat in an interceptor?

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Originally by: MadGaz

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Why oh Why do you rat in an interceptor?

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Originally by: Cruz

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I kill 110k rats in a kestrel

its not that hard either.

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Originally by: Cruz

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I kill 110k rats in a kestrel

its not that hard either.

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Originally by: Kinnison

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Edited by: Kinnison on 08/08/2004 18:32:48
Well, that's the subject. How high-level are the rats I can manage and how do I do it?

At present, my max has been a spawn of 7 frigates ranging from 5k to 17.5k. That was tough, but I won.

Current tactic; orbit at 15km, maybe 20km for the bigger rats, spam them with light missiles and fire my 125 rail at them at the same time. A 17.5k usually takes about 10 missiles and 30 rounds. Rinse and repeat for the next rat.

My loadout is: High: 2x standard launchers, 125 rail.
Mid: small shield booster, MWD.
Low: small armour repairer, overdrive 1, power diag 1, can't remember the 4th. The ship is an Ares, by the way. I usually manage to tank the armour damage reasonably well.

What am I doing wrong, and can I kill any rats bigger than the ones I already do? One more bit of info; my targets are usually bloods.

By the way, sorry if this is the wrong forum; I couldn't find a better one.

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Originally by: Kinnison

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Edited by: Kinnison on 08/08/2004 18:32:48
Well, that's the subject. How high-level are the rats I can manage and how do I do it?

At present, my max has been a spawn of 7 frigates ranging from 5k to 17.5k. That was tough, but I won.

Current tactic; orbit at 15km, maybe 20km for the bigger rats, spam them with light missiles and fire my 125 rail at them at the same time. A 17.5k usually takes about 10 missiles and 30 rounds. Rinse and repeat for the next rat.

My loadout is: High: 2x standard launchers, 125 rail.
Mid: small shield booster, MWD.
Low: small armour repairer, overdrive 1, power diag 1, can't remember the 4th. The ship is an Ares, by the way. I usually manage to tank the armour damage reasonably well.

What am I doing wrong, and can I kill any rats bigger than the ones I already do? One more bit of info; my targets are usually bloods.

By the way, sorry if this is the wrong forum; I couldn't find a better one.

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Originally by: Merkan Ironfist

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Kinnison:
I've managed to surprise myself at the power interceptors have. The strongest group I've killed in a belt are 2x100 Blood Arch Sages with 2x55K Blood Revenant escorts(so far). Not easy but possible to do with the orbiting tactic. I've also killed rat spawns using the same methods(7x40K Blood Arch Reavers).
I hate light missle firing spawn and try to take out escort frigates first before working on the larger ships.
In fact the name of the game is tracking accuracy, this is also why pirate frigates are more dangerous then the cruisers they can target and track much better then larger spawn. The higher your angular speed(orbital rate) the better, with non-missle using spawn I usually orbit at 7.5km and close to 5km at 570 m/s base speed.

My loadout:
Amaar Crusader with,
High slots:
3x Medium Modulated lasers with multi-freq. crystals.
1x Medium Anode Particle stream also with multi-freq crystal.
Med Slots: Nothing.
Low slots:
2x Micro Aux. Power Cores(to beef up the power core to use 4 lasers but still not enough to power anything in the mid slots).
1x Small Armor Repairer
1x Extruded Heat Sink.

My skills have been optimized to use lasers and the advantage is I don't have to carry any ammo.
Power drain is reasonable and cap levels off at 80% once lasers in use, of course it's lower if I have to use the Armor Repairer.

The weak spot: Try and jump in on top of the ratpack and close to target as soon as possible(I usually scout on the first jump and reposition myself on a 2nd jump in). Straight runs are deadly as they can lock/fire and damage you much more quickly then you can recover.
I don't use a Shield Booster as the Crusader's shield level is crap anyway and it takes too much cap to maintain and I never use an MWD as the 500% penalty in sig radius negates any advantage you have with buying an interceptor.

Safety Tip: As old WWII pilots say "speed is life", so don't get caught in a place where you can be slowed down(eg. tightly packed roid belts) and orbit ASAP. The worst I've ever suffered was when I broke this rule and was down to 5% armor when I managed to extricate myself.(read run away)

Hope some of this helps, the next challenge is to find myself some 500k rats to play with.

Of course using frigates is a less costly route then interceptors and you may want to consider this route first to hone your skills and experience.

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Originally by: Merkan Ironfist

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Kinnison:
I've managed to surprise myself at the power interceptors have. The strongest group I've killed in a belt are 2x100 Blood Arch Sages with 2x55K Blood Revenant escorts(so far). Not easy but possible to do with the orbiting tactic. I've also killed rat spawns using the same methods(7x40K Blood Arch Reavers).
I hate light missle firing spawn and try to take out escort frigates first before working on the larger ships.
In fact the name of the game is tracking accuracy, this is also why pirate frigates are more dangerous then the cruisers they can target and track much better then larger spawn. The higher your angular speed(orbital rate) the better, with non-missle using spawn I usually orbit at 7.5km and close to 5km at 570 m/s base speed.

My loadout:
Amaar Crusader with,
High slots:
3x Medium Modulated lasers with multi-freq. crystals.
1x Medium Anode Particle stream also with multi-freq crystal.
Med Slots: Nothing.
Low slots:
2x Micro Aux. Power Cores(to beef up the power core to use 4 lasers but still not enough to power anything in the mid slots).
1x Small Armor Repairer
1x Extruded Heat Sink.

My skills have been optimized to use lasers and the advantage is I don't have to carry any ammo.
Power drain is reasonable and cap levels off at 80% once lasers in use, of course it's lower if I have to use the Armor Repairer.

The weak spot: Try and jump in on top of the ratpack and close to target as soon as possible(I usually scout on the first jump and reposition myself on a 2nd jump in). Straight runs are deadly as they can lock/fire and damage you much more quickly then you can recover.
I don't use a Shield Booster as the Crusader's shield level is crap anyway and it takes too much cap to maintain and I never use an MWD as the 500% penalty in sig radius negates any advantage you have with buying an interceptor.

Safety Tip: As old WWII pilots say "speed is life", so don't get caught in a place where you can be slowed down(eg. tightly packed roid belts) and orbit ASAP. The worst I've ever suffered was when I broke this rule and was down to 5% armor when I managed to extricate myself.(read run away)

Hope some of this helps, the next challenge is to find myself some 500k rats to play with.

Of course using frigates is a less costly route then interceptors and you may want to consider this route first to hone your skills and experience.

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Originally by: MadGaz

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Originally by: Merkan Ironfist

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Kinnison:

Best not to waste those med slots, you could fit a webber or tracking comp to help abit.

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Thanks for the pointer MadGaz, the reason the mids are empty is that I don't have enough power and CPU for anything I would put in there, I could unload the Extruded Heat sink and add an extra Aux Micro Power core or downgrade my weapons to regular lasers to get back the power and CPU.
Of course this load out is strictly for NPC rat hunting and I would never use it for PvP.
I'm still experimenting and may find that using 3 lasers are sufficent in which case a webber or cap booster would be a good idea.

Originally by: MadGaz

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Originally by: Merkan Ironfist

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Kinnison:

Best not to waste those med slots, you could fit a webber or tracking comp to help abit.

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Thanks for the pointer MadGaz, the reason the mids are empty is that I don't have enough power and CPU for anything I would put in there, I could unload the Extruded Heat sink and add an extra Aux Micro Power core or downgrade my weapons to regular lasers to get back the power and CPU.
Of course this load out is strictly for NPC rat hunting and I would never use it for PvP.
I'm still experimenting and may find that using 3 lasers are sufficent in which case a webber or cap booster would be a good idea.

Originally by: Aegis Osiris

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Merkan, you might try fitting 3 mircoaux powercores, a 10MN AB, and then whatever lasers you can manage. Find a balance between harder hitting (the medium lasers) and faster ROF (pulse and dual light). If you use the 10MN, no sig hit.

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Originally by: Aegis Osiris

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Merkan, you might try fitting 3 mircoaux powercores, a 10MN AB, and then whatever lasers you can manage. Find a balance between harder hitting (the medium lasers) and faster ROF (pulse and dual light). If you use the 10MN, no sig hit.

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Originally by: Kinnison

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I get the impression it might be best to fight the rats in a high-end, but cheap, combat frigate and use only cheap modules in case I get blown up.

I don't have access to eve right now, but the Merlin looks as if it's the closest in setup to my ares; any comments? I'm not all that worried about ammo costs, as long as I don't actually lose money.

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Originally by: Kinnison

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I get the impression it might be best to fight the rats in a high-end, but cheap, combat frigate and use only cheap modules in case I get blown up.

I don't have access to eve right now, but the Merlin looks as if it's the closest in setup to my ares; any comments? I'm not all that worried about ammo costs, as long as I don't actually lose money.

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