Know Your Wormhole Enemy: Hurricane Fleet Issue and Brutix Navy Issue

This post will cover two of the four of the (relatively) new Navy Battlecruisers. As they are variations of the Battlecruiser hulls that they are based on, I will be providing a relatively short summary for each with an example PvP fit alongside a comparison to it's non-Navy alternative.

Overview

The Navy Battlecruisers were introduced in the Odyssey expansion and are created using loyalty points with the various empire factions to obtain blueprints. The hulls that emerge on the open market end up costing between 70 and 150 million isk more than the base hulls; approximately 2.5 to 4 times the original. The advantages that they provide over the base hulls are not massive - in line with the general EVE balancing trend of exponential cost increase providing a linear power increase - but they have opened up a new avenue for lower skilled pilots with flush wallets to get an increase in effectiveness over the base hulls without any additional skill requirements.

Hurricane Fleet Issue

Immediately after a significant nerf to the base Hurricane hull, the Hurricane Fleet Issue was released with the following tongue-in-cheek description;

In YC 115, after much heated discussion, CONCORD issued a decree stating the Hurricane-Class Battlecruiser was far too effective to stay under its current technological label, and demanded the Minmatar Republic to either cease production or sort it as a more technologically advanced craft. The Tribal Council grudgingly complied by releasing a simplified version of the Hurricane, then quickly exploited a loophole in the legislation and began using the original overpowered hull as part of its active fleet force. And that is how, after a new paint coat and renaming fees that the Hurricane Fleet Issue came to be.

Hmmm. Yes. The end result is that most historical Hurricane fits will work pretty well on the new Hurricane Fleet Issue. The HFI has exactly the same hull bonuses, speed, lock range, and capacitor as the base hull. The advantages are slightly more sensor strength, higher values for raw hull, armour and structure hitpoints, and an additional high-slot - though no extra turret slots. This means that the extra high slot is almost inevitably used for a Medium Energy Neutralizer - like it typically was on the base hull before it was rebalanced.

Using the Armour PvP fit in the KYWE: Hurricane post as a base gives us;

[Hurricane Fleet Issue, WH PvP]
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

10MN Microwarpdrive II
ECCM - Ladar II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Of course, what is important is what this additional cost gives us over the base hull, and the answer in real terms is 'not an awful lot'. The two most significant changes are the 68k effective hit points tank of the original gets upped to a more formidable 94k, and two Medium Energy Neutralizers are now available for putting capacitor pressure on more cap-dependent ships. As there is no extra capacitor recharge on the Fleet Issue hull, sustained use of the two Medium Neuts will need a capacitor booster in the mids. The extra power grid that it provides allows upgrading either both of the 180mm autocannon on the original fit to 220mm, or just upgrading one of them and switching the 1600mm plate to a Tech II variant, which buys you more hitpoints. Given the tiny damage advantage that the 220mm autocannon provide, I'd almost always go for upgrading the plate.

The Hurricane Fleet Issue occupies exactly the same niche as it's older brother with a few small tweaks - tweaks that I have problems recommending given the massive price differential. Just buy and fit two vanilla Hurricanes for the price of the HFI hull.

Brutix Navy Issue

It's a goddamn monster. The base hull is pretty ferocious, but the Navy Issue swaps the often-unused local armour repairer bonus for a tracking bonus on Medium Hybrid Turrets, allowing the 10% damage bonus that it carriers over to apply much more effectively. As with the Hurricane, there are more raw shield, armour and hull hitpoints, and increased sensor strength. The extra slot however is a low slot instead of a high, allowing either more tank or even more damage output.

Using the armour PvP fit from KYWE: Brutix as a base and giggling as we add yet more damage gives us:

[Brutix Navy Issue, PvP WH]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

ECCM - Magnetometric II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II

Drone Link Augmentor I
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Ion Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Hammerhead II x5

The price of Brutix Navy Issues have been varying quite wildly, but even at the upper end of the price bracket, I'm quite the fan. Sacrificing the plugging of the explosive damage hole and replacing it with a Magnetic Field Stabilizer, then using the extra low for another Magnetic Field Stabilizer, plus taking advantage of the increased fitting to upgrade the guns to an Ion/Neutron mix means that it's kicking out 878dps with Caldari Navy Antimatter. It's 'civilian' cousin can only manage 668dps, and that's with significantly worse tracking. If you want to look at shiney numbers, slap Void M into the blasters, overheat them, and watch the total hit 1082dps - though in practice you're unlikely to see this outside of hitting Battleships. The total EHP goes up by 12k, from 82k to 94k, equalling the Hurricane Fleet Issue fit described above. The ECCM stacked on top of the increased base sensor strength means it ends up with a formidable 51.7 points before overheating.

The Brutix Navy Issue occupies the same niche as the hull it is based on - but unlike the Hurricane Fleet Issue, the upgrade over it's older relative is significant and allows the weapons system the ship is designed around to absolutely shine.

Know Your Wormhole Enemy: Myrmidon

In the Know Your Wormhole Enemy series (name shamelessly stolen from the Eve Altruist series of posts and then mutilated) I'm going to look at a variety of different ships, how they are often fit and flown in wormhole space, and what they mean to you. This may include, but will not necessarily be limited to; example fits, engagement scenarios, how you should react to their presence on directional scan, at a POS or on grid, what good counters to them are, and how you can potentially use them.

This post will cover the Myrmidon.

 

Overview

The Myrmidon is a Gallente Battlecruiser that has bonuses to Drone damage and hit points, and a bonus to the effectiveness of local armour repairers. The lack of a bonus to weapons of a given type means that Myrmidons can be seen with a wide variety of weapons fit to their high slots and they have a good spread of available mid and low slots. This flexibility in fitting means that the Myrmidons is one of the more dangerous Battlecruisers to engage, as you will rarely know exactly what you are getting into when you engage one.

Despite the Myrmidon's bonus to active armour tanking it can frequently been seen in either active or passive configurations of armour or shield tanks.

The Eve Altruist post covering the Myrmidon and the other Battlecruisers can be found here.

What is it used for in wormhole space?

Due to its flexibility the Myrmidon can be used for almost any role in wormhole space with varying degrees of effectiveness. Although sleepers NPCs have a nasty habit of targetting drones when there are lower numbers of ships in a site, the Myrmidon can still be used to run sites in Class 1 or 2 wormhole sites when correctly fit, and in a group is actually very effective in Class 3 wormhole space sites. With a large bonus to armour repairers, bait Myrmidons are relatively common in K-space, but creating a fit that can satisfy the requirements of both running W-space sites and baiting simultaneously is nigh-impossible. Myrmidons are seen relatively frequently running gas sites, where their armour repair bonus and drones allow them to mount gas harvesters and handle the sleeper NPCs that spawn at the sites while they are being run simultaneously.

PvP fit Myrmidons are highly effective using a passive shield tank or an armour tank - either active or passive. Shield Myrmidons are typically fit to push out a monstrous amount of damage and have relatively little tank, whereas armour fit Myrmidons can be almost anywhere along the scale of damage and resilience. A drugged, linked, active tanked Myrmidon can tank in excess of 1000dps which can allow it to handle a small sized gang solo... until its cap charges run out.

How is it typically fit?

Although Myrmidons can run sites in lower-class wormhole systems, they are far from a typical sight. As a result, similar to the Cyclone, there is no real standardized fit for running them. The fit below is a variant on one I have successfully used to run combat sites in a class 2 wormhole, though there may be some room for improvement.

[Myrmidon, PvE Myrm]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Damage Control II

Stasis Webifier II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, EMP M
Coreli A-Type Small Remote Armor Repairer

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Vespa EC-600 x5
Berserker II x4
Valkyrie II x5

The small remote armour repairer may look slightly out of place - the Myrmidon is sacrificing a potential turret to fit it - but Sleepers consistently target drones and some form of remote repair is essentially unless you're planning to only run a single site at a time. The fit is cap stable with either the afterburner or the remote armour repairer running, but not with both. It kicks out 577dps with max skills using the Berserkers, or an identical 577dps when using a Berserker / Valkyrie mix. While Ogres and Hammerheads may give the best theoretical damage, I find faster drones more useful. If your skills are a little lighter you may need to swap out one of the Drone Damage Amplifiers for another tanking module, which will drop your dps to a hair over five hundred.

I have experimented swapping the autocannons for railguns, which gave better range but with appalling tracking plus additional capacitor pressure, and for artillery, which was more cost effective with ammunition but had similar issues with tracking. Both alternatives give slightly reduced overall damage figures (ignoring their tracking issues), but in the end the drone damage is what the Myrmidon is about. It should be noted that the flight of EC-600s give you significantly more GTFO ability than many other site-running battlecruiser fits.

In a break from tradition to demonstrate the flexibility of the Myrmidon I'm going to look at two example PvP fits, one active armour, and one full shield gank. The active armour fit is first:

[Myrmidon, Active Myrm]
Medium Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II

Stasis Webifier II
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 800
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 800
Warp Disruptor II
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Nanobot Accelerator I

Vespa EC-600 x5
Berserker II x4
Valkyrie II x5

With max skills this is kicking out 483dps; nothing to write home about, but the tank is more significant. Without overheating or links it is repairing 941dps while there is nanite paste left in the Ancillary Armour Repairer, which drops to 654dps when it runs out. But if you apply heat, you're looking at 1171dps. Standard Exile boosters push it up to 1403dps on heat, and if you have a Damnation or other command ship running tech II Rapid Repair and Passive Defense links you will be repairing 2009dps while your capacitor, nanite paste and heat management hold out.

It should be noted that juggling an overheated triple-rep dual-injected setup while targetting ships and maneuvering to apply damage and keep drones alive requires a huge amount of micromanagement. Without practice you will lose drones, run out of capacitor, burn out your modules, drop point on targets and end up stranded and butchered. With practice you'll feel like the king of the world. Have a shot - it's great fun.

And now, some more fun at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum.

[Myrmidon, Max Gank]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Co-Processor II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I

Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Hail M

Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I

Ogre II x3
Hammerhead II x2
Ogre II x1
Warrior II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Hobgoblin II x6

This is the type of fit that a Myrmidon will almost inevitably have if you don't primary it. It requires a 3% CPU implant to fit properly, but there are a few areas where some compromises could be made to give some back. It does just over 900dps, or about 950 with autocannons overheated, and can tank about 600dps using the ancillary booster - which isn't too shabby, although the total EHP is very much on the low side - 25k not including the effect of the ASB. If you use a passive fit and 425mm Autocannons you can reach 970dps before overheating and 1020dps with heat applied - although you are sacrificing some tracking and the resulting 34k EHP doesn't really make up for the loss of the Ancillary Shield Booster. If you use blasters instead of the autocannons you can actually get slightly more dps - seven, actually, if you're using Caldari Navy Antimatter - but you lose a little damage projection and you end up being vulnerable to capacitor pressure from energy neutralizers, which I don't feel is worth the tradeoff.

How much of a threat is it?

Running a site: A Myrmidon is one of the few battlecruisers that can run a reasonable armour tank in a site running configuration. It can also run a configuration that provides a reasonable bait tank while site-running - and tackle to boot - so a reasonable degree of caution should be exercised when approaching.

As backup in a POS:

Myrmidons that are intended to be second responders are more likely to be set up at the gank end of the gank/tank spectrum. What makes them a hard target to call as a priority is that there is a reasonable chance that they haven't been set up as second responders and are some horrible triple-rep fit that will take your fleet an age of mankind to burn down. That said, if you're fighting a shield fleet and a Myrmidons lands, it's probably a good call to primary if you're targetting the dps boats.

On the field in a fight:
As alluded to above, the Myrmidon can be a hard target to prioritize correctly. It could be a shield gank fit and be doing some of the highest dps on the field, or it could be an active armour set up whose pilot is praying for you to target it so he can show off his ridiculous tank to his gang mates. It may be a quantum Myrmidon that collapses into an armour or shield fit dependent on whether you call it as primary or not. Yes, I hate the target calling conundrum when one of these appears on field.

How do I counter it?

The Myrmidon is one of worst targets for electronic warfare that you are likely to run into in wormhole combat. Its damage is primarily applied through it's drones that are not affected by the host ship being jammed or dampened, and as little of its damage comes from turrets, it makes a poor choice for tracking disruption. An active tanked Myrmidon will have capacitor boosters mounted, and so energy neutralization will have little if any effect on it even if the fit is passive the weapons systems have a reasonable chance of being non-cap-dependent autocannons. My advice would be to attempt to burn it down with pure damage, and if it starts repairing itself, switch targets to something else unless you have overwhelming firepower.

Final note: If you encounter any inaccuracies on this page, please contact me ingame with an EVEMail to "Fellblade" or on twitter @OV_Fellblade and I'll try and get them sorted.

Know Your Wormhole Enemy: Cyclone

In the Know Your Wormhole Enemy series (name shamelessly stolen from the Eve Altruist series of posts and then mutilated) I'm going to look at a variety of different ships, how they are often fit and flown in wormhole space, and what they mean to you. This may include, but will not necessarily be limited to; example fits, engagement scenarios, how you should react to their presence on directional scan, at a POS or on grid, what good counters to them are, and how you can potentially use them.

This post will cover the Cyclone.

Overview

The Cyclone is a Minmatar Battlecruiser that has a bonus to Rate of Fire for Heavy Missile Launchers and Heavy Assault Missile Launchers - it should be noted that the bonus does not cover Rapid Light Missile Launchers - and a significant bonus to the effectiveness of shield boosters. It can field a single flight of medium drones or a flight of lights with another flight in reserve.

Cyclones are always seen fielding a shield tank both in k-space and wormhole space - although they have sufficient low slots to mount a semblance of an armour tank, doing so ignores their shield boost bonus and sacrifices one of their other advantages - their speed. The Cyclone is the fastest Battlecruiser in the game and they will generally be fit to take advantage of that - they are faster vanilla than a Hurricane is with two Nanofibers!

The Eve Altruist post covering the Cyclone and the other Battlecruisers can be found here.

What is it used for in wormhole space?

Cyclones are rarely seen in wormhole space; for a PvP ship something with a better tank or better damage output is preferable, and for PvE usage the mighty Drake still remains the favourite as it's resistance bonus works very well with a passive recharge tank. As with the other Battlecruisers, the main time they are used in wormhole space is by pilots without the wallet or skill points required to fly Tech 3 ships for PvP, and will only be seen in shield or 'kitchen sink' fleets - but this is far from abnormal in lower class wormhole systems.

How is it typically fit?

For a Cyclone PvE it in wormhole space pilots need to decide between trying to use the active tanking bonus that the Cyclone provides and the tank stability under neut pressure that a passive recharge fit gives you. As there are no other Battlecruisers that are likely to be active shield tanked running sleeper sites, I'm going to use an active tanked example, although you are more likely to see a passive tanked one running sites in practice.

[Cyclone, WH PvE]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Large Shield Booster II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Salvager II
Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard I
Medium Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard I

There is almost certainly some room for improvement available in this fit, but it gets you 317dps at a range of around 47km using Scourge Fury Heavy Missiles and an active tank of 277dps... while the capacitor holds out. That capacitor will last for three minutes of constant boosting as long as you're not running the Microwarpdrive at the same time - but the reality of running sleeper sites is that you only need the maximum boost amount for a relatively short time during the site - the rest of the time the incoming DPS is reduced through sleepers being destroyed and passive recharge helps with shield levels to a degree.

A passive fit with the rigs switched to Core Defense Field Extenders will give a 208dps omni tank with 61k EHP - not as strong as the Drake, and the damage isn't as high, but you can at least close range with the further off sleepers that spawn in some Class 1 and 2 sleeper sites.

There is the possibility of fitting twin 425mm Autocannon IIs instead of the probe launcher and salvager, but with short range tech 1 ammunition they will only provide a rather paltry 64 dps on top of the launchers, increasing it to 381. I'd go for the utility instead.

On with a sample PvP fit that is also active tanked:

[Cyclone, WH PvP]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Ballistic Control System II
Co-Processor II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Faint Warp Disruptor I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Nova Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Nova Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Nova Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Nova Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Nova Rage Heavy Assault Missile
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

With a more limited engagement range and the use of Heavy Assault Missile Launchers the Cyclone can kick out 438dps to 17km with Rage missiles. Perhaps more significantly the lack of sleepers obsessively targetting drones means that a full flight of mediums can be fielded, jumping the damage to 567dps with Valkyrie IIs, or 596dps with Hammerhead IIs. If Rage missiles are substituted for Javelin missiles it can push out to 30km range but at the cost of the damage dropping to 292dps not inclusive of drones. With a pair of Adaptive Invulnerability Fields it ends up with 45k effective hit points with an extra 42k added by the Ancillary Shield Booster - assuming it manages to get all of it's charges off overheated. For smaller groups it's probably a good idea to switch an invulnerability field for a stasis webifier to help with damage application using the Heavy Assault Missiles, but for larger ones the extra tank is probably of more value.

How much of a threat is it?

Running a site: A Cyclone on a site is very unlikely to be bait - all of the mid slots are required to fit enough tank to survive sleeper sites in a class 2 system and don't leave any room free for a point... nor does it have enough spare tanking capacity to survive any form of attack on top of the sleeper NPCs for any length of time. The amount of damage it can kick out is also on the lower end of the scale, so virtually any Tech 3 ship - even those with the least tank and gank - should be able to take one on solo.

As backup in a POS:

If a Cyclone is sat idling, expect it to be an active shield Heavy Assault Missile fit as that is the most dangerous. Realistically, relatively few are seen in wormhole space although use as a second responder where it can loiter out of point range and pour in firepower is one of the more likely applications.

On the field in a fight:
Any Cyclone in a fight is going to be able to apply its damage from outside of point range, and is likely to be relatively fast. Without long range web or fast tackle, running after a Cyclone is a good way to split up your fleet and other targets that you will be able to hold point on and apply damage against more effectively are likely to be better targets. Even if it looks like it is dying relatively fast, remember that it is likely to have an Ancillary Shield Booster fitted and at least half of it's tank is likely to come from boosting once it is near the end of its shield buffer - possible significantly more if it has links online, or the pilots has drugs or crystal implants available.

Remember that against the low signature radius of armour ships that make up the majority of wormhole brawling fleets the on-paper damage output of the Cyclone may well be significantly reduced, pushing it further down the target priority list. On the other side of the coin, most PVP Cyclone fits will be using at least one medium and one small energy neutralize, and the high speed and good damage projection means that it can be a considerable risk to logistics ships if left unchecked.

How do I counter it?

The Cyclone will not be vulnerable to tracking disruption due to its weapon system of choice and has no real reliance on its capacitor... so it's probably not the best idea to be fielding Curses or Pilgrims against them. Like the other Battlecruisers, the Cyclone is a reasonable target for jams if there is nothing higher priority such as e-war or logistics ships on the field, but unlike the others it is actually a reasonable target for sensor dampener as they can force it to close in to point range. The best counter, similar to the Drake, is pure damage, particularly in a larger battle where it may be possible to overwhelm the tank provided by the Ancillary Shield Booster.

Final note: If you encounter any inaccuracies on this page, please contact me ingame with an EVEMail to "Fellblade" or on twitter @OV_Fellblade and I'll try and get them sorted.