On Flying Frigates In Wormholes
There is very little I want to say about the backgrounds of any particular race flying around in New Eden. They all have issues and a primary reason for being out here in a wormhole is putting all of that background in the background. We have all agreed to check our baggage at the last station we undocked from and acknowledge that out here, we can’t afford to be bickering about belief, conflicting over capitalism, seethe over servitude or advertise autonomy. Out in the wormhole, every pilot from every race is closer to their clone and a long way from any government or authority.
I preface the post with all of that to say that no single race’s ships are inherently better, just different. Out here in the wormhole it comes down to answering the question, “Does it get the job done?” With regard to frigate-sized ships, I am going to take a quick run through some of them and point out some of their strengths as they pertain to living out in a wormhole.
Amarr:
Magnate: As the basic astrometrics frig, this is a great backup for scanning, or running around helping to clean up after a radar or magnetometric sight. With the addition of sized rigs, it can easily be rigged with gravity capacitors to boost scan strength allowing even fairly low level pilots the ability to scan down wormholes and most signatures.
Crucifier: Makes a good disposable tackler for PVP. Emphasis on disposable as they will melt quickly.
Executioner: Well, it’s faster than a shuttle, slightly sturdier. Very good for running away.
Inquisitor: Just don’t fly this in a wormhole. Please.
Tormentor: Cheap. Leave it at home. Better, refine it an build something else.
Punisher: Good PVP frigate to throw on the bulwark of invading gankers. Not good for much else.
Anathema: Great Tech 2 scanning ship.
Caldari
Heron: Good backup scanning machine. Rigged, it can make short work of finding sites if and when you can’t be in a Buzzard.
Condor: At least it can fly away from trouble quickly.
Bantam: Good intro miner, lousy wormhole ship. Reprocess or blow up and salvage it.
Merlin: Can be an evil, nasty tackler for PVP.
Griffin: Why are you undocking in this?
Kestrel: Makes a good hacking/analysing/salvage frigate.
Buzzard: Caldari covops scanning for the win. [Ninja Edit]
Gallente
Atron: See Condor above. Run away.
Imicus: Like the Caldari Heron and the Amarr Magnate and the Minmatar Probe, this is your backup for scanning when things go south. Or when you don’t have covops skills on an alt you left parked in the system before you all got run out by Evil Overkill Corp.
Tristan: Not bad for some PVP damage, but likely need bigger ships.
Incursus: Itty-bitty blaster boat beats boys! Thanks for the heads up Owen.
Maulus: Insure, blow-up, salvage.
Navitas: See Above.
Helios: When you absolutely must scan. Scan in this. It is a sweet covops ride.
Minmatar
Probe: Scan. Scan. Scan. Scan. Somewhere is some action.
Breacher: Seriously?
Burst: At least the killmails will be funny.
Rifter: PVP the living daylights out of things with this. Rinse and repeat. Rather like scanning only you use more ammo.
Slasher: Fly. And Fly. And Fly. Right on back to the station for something else to fly.
Vigil: At least you can fly quickly to get something else to fly.
Cheetah: Our serious scanning swag swears by this animal. His scanning prowess definitely doesn’t hurt either. Seriously, Minnie Pilots Rejoice – This ship scans very well.
Summary
Frigates are fairly limited in their usage. They will pretty much insta-pop to everything that they run into in a wormhole with the exception of other players in PVP encounters. Assault frigates can last longer, but I ran out of space to cover all of those. Perhaps we’ll get back to that another day.
Basically in wormhole space frigates are utility or PvP ships. That’s it. So the astrometrics frigates and the combat frigates are about all that are called for. Sleeper ships are a bit too “accurate” for T1 frigates to be able to survive against. However the T1 astrometrics frigates are something no POS should ever be without. EVER. Build one of each faction and backups of the popular ones. Fit them with T1 cloaks and scan probes. Shove alts in them. 30 days to a usable scanning alt and 84 days until a buff scanning alt (non T2). There’s no such thing as having too many scanning alts if you fly in wormholes. Make sure they can cloak and have electronics 5 for the fit on top of scanning skills (usable at 4/4/4/4 but you want 5/4/4/4).
I actually make shake and bake kits for those (bpcs and non-mineral materials in a can for 5 of a specific hull+fit).
I’m curious, do you see any benefit to one covops frigate over the others? I’ve flow the Buzzard and Cheetah quite a bit, but you almost certainly have far more expertise in this area.
The Caldari Buzzard looks the best. Obviously.
That is all.
Griffin: Why are you undocking in this?
If you have a gang of only frigates attempting to drive off gankers and the opfor ship types can be identified … a properly fit and flown griffin can permajam 2 opfor frigates with the racials set right or under very good conditions 2 cruiser targets. It is cheap and disposable and a very good force multiplier for a small gang as is its larger brother the blackbird.
@Letrange: Absolutely. Alts have saved the day several times on unhappy occasions. They are one of those necessities for wormhole living. We try to keep spare T1 astrofrigs in the hangar as well as several grav-caps now that they are so cheap in the small size.
@Casiella: Probably not. I [like my associate Penny] am partial to the Buzzard as my hybrid 50% James Bond Aston-Martin and 50% Daisy Duke Jeep Wrangler. However, my alt can and does fly all four covops. For some reason he tends to choose the Anathema but tells me that he’s waiting for a Tech 3 Strategic Frigate.
@Penny: Just don’t tell them about the fact that the Buzzard is the only one that can … oh, nevermind.
@DSJ: In almost every way I think the Blackbird is going to serve you better. The only gankers we’ve ever seen have been in Cruiser or [much] heavier ships with the exception of a couple of groups of Russians in Assault Frigates. The properly fit and flown Griffin pilot can be in a properly fit Blackbird in under 2 days and a week to cruiser 4 [assuming no implants/learning skills, basic attribute spread less Charisma].
Stay tuned for cruisers.
You left out the incursus, gallente blaster frig, nice dps for a t1 hull.
Thanks. I did forget the Incursus. Noted. Redacted.