Thanks everyone. I did not put the Vexor because I am not that close skill wise to being able to fly it.

you are closer than you are to the Ishtar and you listed that, thus my confusion.

Yeah, upgrade to Vexor, then look at the Ishtar, realize "**** it", and stick with the Vexor.

(Not even kidding, for anything that would require an Ishtar just pull your dominix out.)

OP you did not specify what you will be using it for, this post assumes you are talking about PVE.

Actually I'm wanting to use it for FW.

Vexor and Algos depending on the fleet, then. Don't throw T2/T3 levels of isk investment at FW for anything but frigates.

Is Ishkur too much of a isk investment?

If you're using FW for solo/duo-scale PvP it's probably worth it, it is one of the best, if not the best, dogfighting ships around. If you're in a formal fleet mostly I'd stick with your Tristan, most of what you gain with the Ishkur is flexibility that's unnecessary in fleet work.

Ishkur.

It exemplifies David of the biblical tales,
find something bigger than you and just lay into it , the bigger the better.

We have numerous morauder kills on our board with that plucky little ship (yet to actually snag one myself).
our newbies are given an ishkur and pointed towards battleships and expected to kill them solo (and they do)

I have had more fun in that little thing than anything else.

Is it safe to assume that the ishkur is a Tristan on steroids?

- it is a wee bit expensive compared to a Tristan... making it both more of a target to veterans and, from the perspective of nubbins, something to avoid.

which is why we put our nubs in them and fire them at stupidly hard to kill things

It's also skill intensive to get top performance out of so when you get in one your Going to be immediately aware of what state your support skills are in.

I think this right here is something important for all new players to note. As you progress through ships your fitting and support skills become more of an issue. Tech 2 ships and battleships even suffer more from lower support skills than do T1 small and medium ships. This is part of the reason why I recommend newer players to stay in small and medium ships until their support skills are up enough to fit well.

This is also the main reason that I tell newer players not to do a focused remap and ideally not remap at all for at least the first 3 months. Well if it's an alt with a focused purpose maybe but if it is your only toon then no.

Yeah I wouldn't get into an Ishkur until I have finished all my drone support skills and have all my fitting skills at V. I'm throwing around the idea of not flying one until I have my skills to mastery III at least.

I just like how the Tristan flies; balls to the walls in your face with drones. And the Tristan works okay for that, but the Ishkur I think would be better given it appears to have a better tank.

All great ideas so far but there is a potential confusion with the bonuses of both hulls so here they are Tristan vs Ishkur.
When comparing the drones bonuses only the Tristan actually has a small edge since it gets the same drone hit point boost but adds the tracking bonus as well.

Tristan
Per level
7.5% small hybrid turret tracking
10% to drone hit points and tracking


Ishkur
Per level
5% to small hybrid turret damage
10% drone hit points

Assault frig per level
10% to small hybrid turret optimal range
5 m3 to drones bay space

Role bonus
50% reduction to MWD sig radius penalty

True but with more mid slots, the Ishkur has a better tank right?

I guess you meant more low slots and yes that can help tank, if it's armor and depending on the fit (you also get 1 less rig slot though).

But the main reasons AFs are much beefier are 1) much higher native resists as all T2 ships (though they almost always have a big hole vs. 1 dmg type) and 2) higher native shield/armor/structure hit points.

Is Ishkur too much of a isk investment?

One other question: I have exclusively used blasters in PVP but I have noticed that most Ishkur's are fit with rails. Is it a bad idea to use blasters on a Ishkur?

One other question: I have exclusively used blasters in PVP but I have noticed that most Ishkur's are fit with rails. Is it a bad idea to use blasters on a Ishkur?

Small rails are usually used to scram kite.

Scram kiting means trying to stay at the edge of scram range (9 km). Usually you try to stay about 7-8 km from your opponent, while holding him down with a scram. Effective against short-range weapons (blasters or autocannons) since at that range they can't hit you.

However, due to poor rail tracking, to apply more damage it's best not to orbit, but try to keep range instead, minimizing angular velocity.

To successfully scram kite you usually need an afterburner, a web and a scram, and preferably a fast ship. That way you can be faster than your opponent, allowing you to maintain the 7-8 km range and minimize angular velocity. Otherwise, he will be able to either close range and hit you or pull range and escape from your scram.

Rails can also be used to kite at point range (around 24 km), but at the moment lasers (both pulse and beam) do better damage than rails at that range.

Another advantage of rails is that you can usually hit someone who is kiting you (at 24 km).

Finally, rails benefit from ships with tracking bonuses (such as the comet) - the ishkur doesn't have them.


Blasters are effective at short range, obviously. Tracking is great, damage is higher than rails, only issue is you have to be within a few km (though the Ishkur's optimal range bonus can help in hitting farther off, especialy if you use null ammo).


I have limited experience PVP-ing in ishkurs, but personally I'd fit them with blasters and try to avoid ships that can easily kite me (though my drones would still hit). Blasters also require less CPU, which is kinda tight on the ishkur (as on most AFs).


TL;DR blasters are fine imho, actually I'd personally have some doubts on fitting rails on an Ishkur

Honestly the tristan does rail fits better than the ishkur does. I used to fly a rail ishkur quite a bit until I realized that its too slow for the fit. This isn't to say it can't be done, but it won't be able to kite against most frigates. Instead fit it with ions and try to use your mid slots to control range instead of the ship's base speed.

Thank you for the advice. I thought blasters would work, but almost every single fit I've seen online had rails which made me think I was missing something.