Relearning my craft

Well. How a couple months changes things.

Recently, Assault Frigate producers have upped their capabilities somewhat, which means that my beloved Wolf needed some changes. The new wolf has a 5th low slot, +10 CPU, a MWD sig bonus of -50%, and a 7.5% tracking speed bonus per level. Outstanding... right?

Well, yes and no. All AFs have enhanced capabilities now, and the one which seems to be rising to the top is the Enyo; it now mounts a stasis web, meaning that kiting it, once my standard tactic vs them, using my falloff range to my advantage, is now impossible. I now must stand and fight, and the things are everywhere. Literally, everyone is flying these things.

I tried my old standard of now 5 lowslot resist/active tank, with ambit and collision rigs (no longer need that metastasis rig, the wolf's tracking is now outstanding).

I lost to every Enyo I fought.

Back to the drawing board. Hmm.

I tried a plate/repper/DCU/kin plating/gyro fit, with collision + exp resist rigs. Still no go. Lost to every Enyo.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board.

Im sparing everyone the details here, as these fights all went the same way; me trying to land early damage, doing some, but simply melting once the enyo was in range. Generally, the Enyo was in low armor or high structure when I went down. There were some pretty frustrating evenings for me, but, I love this ship, and I have gone through this before. There is a good fit to be found; just need to tease it out.

A word on the fit that some are flying, with good success; 280mm artillery, with MWD and 24k point. This fit requires 2 fitting mods, a coprocessor AND a MAPC. It does amazing volley damage, is a good kiter, and works very well for alphaing tacklers and bouncing. I will try this fit, but do not see it becoming my standard fit, as it does have a narrow engagement range (ie, things it can engage and hope to win). Also, im a terrible kiter pilot. There, I said it!

I played with an MWD fit, anticipating problems with the above type of wolf, but 1)  theyre not that common, 2) i can probably drive it away with barrage anyway, and 3) MWD gets me dead faster vs everything else. So, AB fit it will be. I will not give up my 200s, as I require their range and punch, and an active tank is a must for me, due to the number of prolonged, running fights I wind up in.

I also want more DPS and a solid resist tank, and prefer to avoid a plate.

Not asking much, am I? Well... a friend, and rival, Sovai, has been helping me stay motivated by repeatedly blowing me up. This led to me debating if the best defense might simply be an outstanding offense? A wolf with more bite than I am used to?

[Wolf, Ava Wolf]
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
Small Nosferatu II
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II

Centii C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I

Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Anti-Kinetic Pump I


The numbers?

Speed: 923 m/sec, which is slow, but armor rigs do not harm my align time. B type fits, and gets me 1008 msec. Not great, but tolerable.

Gank: 273 dps with fusion/pp/emp, 314 heated. An even 9k falloff range, 13.5k with barrage; should be able to drive most kiters off or kill them. Outstanding DPS, solid range.

Tank: 7.5k EHP, with 93/77/62/54 resists. Reps 60 dps, 78 with std exile, 86 with exile + heat. Solid, slightly less exp resist than my old fit, better kin resist, more armor. Good.

Cap Stability: 1m30s running all; not great, but tolerable. AF fights almost NEVER last this long. Nos is a must, and upgrading to a C-type will be something which I likely do once I am sure I will use this fit for a while.

I met and fought Sovai's wolf a few times; she runs a 150mm/400 plate fit, with solid resists. When using fusion, I won handily (we fought to structure, as killing one another was becoming expensive), with hail... well, my next post will be an examination of hail, barrage, and fusion in different scenarios. Lets just say I still prefer fusion. I dueled her Enyo and spanked it handily, and then, a man in local asks me for a 1v1.

With an Enyo.

Sovai wishes me luck and off I go, loading fusion, preheating my repper, AB, and guns. My goal is to land damage from 15k, allow him to approach (if i never do, he will just run!) and hopefully have him too deep in armor once he begins dealing heavy damage to me that he cant recover. Kiting, in a sense... but kiting with intent to be caught.

I never dropped below 80% armor before a series of heavy hits reduced the Enyo to scrap iron!

Good fight, good fight. Still new in the testing phase, and subject to change, but my Wolf certainly isnt done harassing my fellow pilots yet, not by a long shot!

Next to come, as I have said, I will examine the merits and drawbacks of fusion, hail, and barrage, and hopefully decide, once and for all, when to fire which at what!

Fly frosty!