'Cane vs Drake

First, happy Christmas everyone. I'm still without broadband and using my IPhone's personal hotspot facility in a non-3G area.

Just 4 days left before Kirith finishes his Rifter plan, I'm excited at this thought!

I've had this post lined up for a long time, just never gotten around to posting it.

For ages I've been of the assumption that the match up of Hurricane vs Drake is a matchup that would end in stalemate, and as such I've avoided it.

A quick look at the loadouts and vital stats of typical 'cane & Drake fits that I use:

The Drake

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor 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
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Warrior II x5



470 DPS before heat, 1136m/s and 82,959 EHP. 


The Hurricane

Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Warp Disruptor II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Energy Neutralizer II

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

Warrior II x5
 
674 DPS before heat, 1311m/s and 49,515 EHP. 

Although the DPS output of the two ships is quite different with the Hurricane massively outclassing the Drake, the sheer EHP of the Drake combined with the speed differential being fairly small means that the 'cane is going to have to run it's MWD to keep effective range. By having to MWD so much the sig. radius bloom is going to favour the Drake's missiles. Based mainly on these assumptions I had avoided the matchup, until recently when I found a flashy Drake and I happened to be in my shield gank cane (above).

The Drake was on the undock of the station , I landed around 25km off him, him quickly locking me up and starting to hit me with his missiles. This was just the situation I feared, I needed to close range to 3-5km so I had to burn my MWD to get there, overheating my MWD i pulsed it towards him to reach him with the least amount of MWD use possible. Missile damage spiked as I did so, but I quickly closed on him and applied staggered neutralisers to try and remove any shield hardeners and opened fire, a second MWD activation was needed to get to the desired range, very suprised at the progress I was making through his shields which further increased as I hit my optimal and overheated my 425's the Drake quickly crumbled, indeed my shields were only at around 50% by the time it exploded.

This exercise proved to me that it does pay to challenge your assumptions from time to time.