On Being A Cruiser Pilot And Surviving In Wormholes
The best thing going for cruiser sized boats, is their natural low cost and ability to be easily replaced. Cruisers begin to really develop as utility ships in wormholes. While generally not robust enough for Sleeper combat, they can shine in several other venues. This is also where people begin to have very strong opinions about what is good and not good, which seems odd because the number of possible ships decreases from frigates to cruisers. Finally, I’ve excluded the Tech 2 cruisers from this list for a couple of reasons: 1) I’m just tired; B) They cover such specific roles already; III) I haven’t flown or closely associated with people who fly enough of them regularly.
Amarr
Omen: When you want to bring some damage, an Omen isn’t a bad choice.
Maller: The tankiest of the cruisers, it makes the best cruiser platform for mining gases. It’s not bad for bait either.
Arbitrator: A great anti-frigate/anti-interceptor ship. A very poor wormhole survival rate.
Augoror: A great portable battery but another dismal failure in wormhole operations.
Caldari
Moa: At least you could mine gas with it.
Caracal: To flimsy to really be much use for anything beyond a Class 1 fleet. Uniform resists on Sleepers negate it’s largest advantage of multiple damage types.
Osprey: If you have young miners that want to get involved in the effort of clearing out a large gravimetric site, they could use an Osprey, but you are likely better off having them haul ore.
Blackbird: Generally it isn’t strong enough to survive in a wormhole. It’s not bad for PVP-ewar on the cheap.
Gallente
Thorax: Another good gas miner. Also good for throwing some gank DPS at an intruder.
Vexor: The penchant for Sleepers to take a dislike to drones reduces a lot of the functionality of this ship.
Exequror: Another good gas miner for pilots who don’t have Gas Mining V.
Celestis: Not that useful
Mimatar
Bellicose: You generally don’t see this ship in wormholes.
Rupture: Good gas miner and great to have as an inexpensive damage dealer.
Scythe: Not used as much as other ships. Could be due to a lack of Minnie Miners.
Stabber: Kill People. Kill Them Now!
Summary
Cruisers allow for a slightly higher level of participation in wormhole activities, up-to and including PVP. The basic resource collection done in a wormhole can be accomplished in a cruiser and still be able to get away if need be. They have been deployed en masse as cheap fleet attack forces as well.
The Moa is being undersold here. Five turrets, best base shield resists in the game, and decent DPS with blasters or range with rails, and a small drone bay. Capable of fitting the best tank of any T1 cruiser.
The buffer tanked Maller is a slightly tougher nut, but the biggest issue with the Moa is the type of engagements that are needed inside a wormhole. The Sleepers have no respect for range with even their battleships MWD’ing around at obscene speeds, locking and firing from 250 km and neuting and painting from that far as well. The sig radius on a Moa means that it is going to take more damage than most other cruisers and the total powergrid is going to limit its fitting options somewhat.
That being said, for pvp, we haven’t seen any engagements at a range greater than about 30km. If the Moa is going to be using blasters and flying in the face, it will need a MWD to keep it’s range or at least a web, if not both. By this point, the whole tank has been shot to pieces and the enemy is warping away because there just wasn’t room for a point. Paired with a HIC, the Moa can shine a bit more, but it is still named after a flightless bird for a reason.
N.B. I love the Moa. I wish that it was half the ship it could be. It desperately needs a 5th mid-slot, a boost to PG or something. The 25% boost to resists is great and like the Maller can make for a very strong tank.