Derek Sigres
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Posted - 2008.09.04 19:31:00 -
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The singular problem facing T1 frigates revolves around the simple fact that the frigates are designed to really fight other frigates effectively. At some point in the dark and dismal days of Eve this may not have been the case but I'll demonstrat why this is true today.
Most T1 frigates simply do not have the ability to fight outside of webrange with any degree of success. The Kestral and the Merlin represent the single best attempts at this concept, and while most ships can at least deliver rounds outside of 13km they do so using long range, lower damage weapons. Disruptors are also fairly difficult to run for any length of time on your average T1 frigate and as such if you want to tackle for very long at all you absolutely MUST use a scrambler.
T1 frigates are also fairly flimsy. While they aren't the weakest ships in the game (stealth bombers and interceptors take that prize), they cant exactly absorb much fire. Instead they rely on evading damage with small size and speed. And this leads us nicely to:
T1 frigates by and large are not terribly fast. While there is amazing potential for theoritical max speed, you'll generally find people are unwilling to invest much cash into a T1 frigate hull. Afterall, why install polycarbs for exmaple when each rig costs 100 times more than the ship it's mounted on?
If you can ensure a battle only consists of other frigates and perhaps cruisers a well flown frigate can be truly effective. For the most part however the T1 frigate has but a singular purpose in their short operational life spans - disposable tackling.
When built to tackle a ship in a disposabe fashion, most considerations go out the window. The cap use of a disruptor can be safely ignored as you cap will probably last longer than your ship anyway, and if you get neuted to 0 cap you'll die in short order anyway. Weapons take a backseat and become more of a "if you're alive long enough to shoot something feel free" rather than a "I am here to do damage" philosophy. Tanking philosophy revolves around simply making it take longer to blast your ship into wreckage, and as such you'll generally see plates/extender based setups, further reserving that precious cap for your disruptor.
As an interesting side note on the subject, this is the primary reason you rarely encounter caldari T1 frigates in PVP. Their small number of low slots mean that they can't really field much in the way of a tank, and of the frigates only the condor sports sufficient speed to really be able to hope for damage mitigation through speed.
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