Flying the Wolf; what Ive learned after many wins... and losses.

Well. Here is a breakdown of the fit I have sort of settled on, due to a mix of cost efficiencey and use.

[Wolf, Ava Starfire's Wolf]
Corpii C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Centii C-Type Reactive Plating

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S

Small Projectile Metastasis Adjuster I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

12 dps less than a T2 burst rig, and 100msec slower than a B-type AB, but still good resists and active tank, and takes advantage of the wolf's strengths; speed and gun range, and a large capacitor. The C-type plating costs a princely 600k or so isk, the C-type repairer, a mere 5m, and they add too much not to use. I will likely use B-type ABs more, simply because of what happened last night.

I engaged a firetail that had an MWD/TD/Artillery combo, and had the toughest fight of my life. I fought long enough to use every round of barrage I had, and half a clip of Fusion, before I managed to land a scram and kill him quickly. He could do very little damage due to my small sig, my speed, and my manual piloting.

This fight left me shaking, and my Wolf was at a mere 7% structure. Had i had the B-type AB and/or a 9k scram, I might have had an easier time. This dogfight lasted almost 10 minutes.

I have engaged against numbers, against single targets, against mission runners, against BCs and cruisers, against everything I can find. I rather love the Wolf, and have yet to lose one in a 1v1 engagement against anything else in its class, and have survived many engagements (albeit with no  kill, due to one of us managing to flee) against drakes, pilgrims, harbingers, cerberus...

Here are a few tips for any frigate pilots, but especially for those who fly the Wolf.

Orbit. People will try to take advantage of your poor(er) tracking speed, and orbit at high speed in Claws, Firetails, Maledictions, Crusaders, and win by tracking. When they do this, even with a TD, calmly heat your afterburner, and use the "Keep at Range" command, set to 7k distance. Your ship will burn away at whatever angle minimizes transversal, and you will speed up. Way up. When they are "behind you" on the orbit, you WILL Land solid hits. They can run when they realize whats happening, but you wont die.

Starting the engagement: ALWAYS start at distance! ALWAYS get in early damage! The Wolf outranges just about every other frigate in New Eden, and if you can land early hits before they can reengage, you will have an advantage. I always keep as far off as I can, as long as I can.

Barrage: Some things kite. You can hit them. You can drive them off, and with a few lucky hits, you can destroy them before they can align. Works very well against things like Slicers.

Heat: Repairers are meant to be abused. Overheat the devil out of it. They can heat for a LONG time. I always just heat the thing and leave it heated the whole fight, unless it is in a very long engagement, like vs the Firetail earlier.

Tracking Disruptors: Theyre like mushrooms after a heavy rain anymore. EVERYONE runs them. The Keep at range trick works, as it usually means they sacrifice something more important... like a web. Vs. Kitey stuff, you can just use manual piloting to close range, and land hits when you can. Kiters never do much damage, especially those with lasers.

Managing your cap: I start my rep early, and rep until I am down to 30% or so cap, shut it off a few seconds, then pulse it, to make best use of  my max cap recharge area.

Rockets and Active tanked opponents: MSB hawks, Dual SAR vengeances, boosted jaguars. None will have neuts, most will be slower than you. Vs rockets, orbit at 7500 or 8k range (( Sometimes this works, sometimes not. Since this was written, I normally move in to 3k or so, orbit, and try to keep speed up and still land heavy hits. Hawks are dicey!)) heat your scram, and stay there as long as you can. You can land solid hits while his rockets peter out. Always keep your speed up, the faster you move, the less force his rockets have. If a hawk or vengeance has a web, it means no booster. Press the attack with heated guns.

The Wolf isnt a ship like a Rifter that can be flown by simple commands. Manual flying,  good module management, and knowing your opponents is particularly important, but after flying and losing many, I have grown very, very fond of the active tanked, resist, fast fit with 200s or 150s.

But 200s track slow!!!

Not slow enough for this Dramiel.

Good hunting!