Hookbill has got to be my favorite frigate

It gets nasty in 1v1's with frigs when you get 2 TD's

And somehow the horse dies :D

Slicer works very good with MWD + Pulse Lasers + Long Point. Simply orbit at 17 km and kill with Scorch crystals, very nice damage for the range. Gives you good possibilities to run away if things go wrong. However, you have no buffer so you are vulnerable to snipers.

Caldari Navy Hookbill is a very though ship since you never know what you will meet. Some people go short range with rockets others go snipy with missiles. Option to use Webs + Tracking Disruptors at once is awesome. (Also other E-War is possible due to the many slots.) However, the hookbill is rather slow and tends to have cap issues.

Comet is the DPS king of these class, drones + blasters are great from this perspective. Others go for kiting with rails. Problem is if you go buffer plates then you get slow and sluggish, if you go active armor you will run into cap issues.

Firetail is known to be the worst of all. It is slightly faster then the others but thats all. Slot layout is nice, but damage output is still bad. Slicer will melt you if he manages to stay out of range and you don't have Tracking Disruptor. Hookbill will keep you at range with webs and melts you then and comet simply insta-popps you with its dps. So if someone know an awesome Firetail fitting please post it, I am happy to learn something new.

Why wouldn't the firetail work like a rifter?

I think this page will work nicely.
Also, I recommend that blog in general, articles there are quite good.

A Firetail with an agility fit and fast tracking speed can orbit really close and web/jam while doing okay dps for a frigate.
Maybe use one for Tackle on ships that have longer range guns?
Also It IS really fast.

Note that with the frigate buffs nearing completion the state of the faction ships is... questionable. For instance an Executioner can do almost the same as Slicer at a fraction of the cost, same for the Incursus vs Comet. Only the Hookbil and Firetail stand out, mostly because the Kestrel isn't out yet and because the Rifter didn't get any real buffs.

I totally disagree to this. For example an Executioner even after buff is still significantly worser than a Slicer. It can maybe match Slicers speed but with regards to damage and range it is significantly sub-par. The Slicer can use Pulse Laser + Scorch to kite from 17 km (because of its range bonus). Executioner can't do this, it has to use Beams to do so which do significantly less damage and have worser tracking.

100+ dps @16km optimal with 4 falloff, it even fits a TD to lower incoming damage. Ofcourse it's not "the same" but it's capable of doing the same thing with just slightly lower performance, at a fraction of the cost.

It's definatelly a good fit at least on paper, however dps is still lower than the Slicer has and optimal is lower (too low), which is an issue if you want to do reliable damage while orbiting a moving target. Having a TD is naturally a benefit, however I am really wondering how long it takes to cap out when running MWD + Disruptor + TD + Laser. Cap is really relevant here if you are engaging not paper thin targets.

At the end it sounds well balanced for me. Executioner is cheaper and different, but Slicer is still more powerful with regards to a pure DPS boat. Current slicer prices are artificially high and will go down once faction warefare is fixed with the next patch. It makes sense that the gap between T1 and Faction Frigs is not that large as it was in the past.

4+ minutes running it all, warp disruptor cap bonus on the executioner is godly :) dps difference is about 10%, ie not that amazing. And the TD really makes it a ton of a difference.

PS I edited the fit, had the wrong one. have a look again.

You got me getting worried about Faction Frigs... especially since CCP will also remove one major benefit of Faction Frigates with the next patch. As far as I know they will not fit into a small plex any more. We will see how it works out. Maybe it will result for a few years that Faction Frigates will be just shiny toys, but not of much use like they have been some years ago... time will show it

Won't get into minors????? where is this blasphemy! My firetails are ****** now :(

Firetail is my fave little go to frigate. In shield, kiting arty or in armour flavours.

Yes.. I said Kiting arty :P

If I can fly that in minors where the bollocks will it have use in FW?

Also, Medi, i love you mate but you can't have my fits. They are super secret! (Or on evekill :P)

I tried the new kestrel on the test server....

yeah, even the hookbill isnt as good. The kestrel is an AWESOME light missile sniper!

CCP's going to be making a series of plex levels:
t1 frigs only
t2 frigs/dessies/faction frigs/t1 frigs (of course)
cruisers and down
everything

Or at least I think that's how they intend to set things up. I'd have to go back and read the thread in (F&I?) the other subforum.

CCP's going to be making a series of plex levels:
t1 frigs only
t2 frigs/dessies/faction frigs/t1 frigs (of course)
cruisers and down
everything

Or at least I think that's how they intend to set things up. I'd have to go back and read the thread in (F&I?) the other subforum.