Tuesday 29 November 2011

Post Rifter Plan

As followers of my blog will be aware I’ve been working on the Rifter Plan for practically my entire EVE career with the objective of flying a max skilled Rifter of my preferred loadout. My preferred Rifter loadout is what I have affectionately named Grumblecub and looks like this:

H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket

M: 1MN Afterburner II
M: Warp Scrambler II
M: X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

L: 200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates
L: Small Armor Repairer II
L: Gyrostabiliser II

R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

She belts out 162 (187) dps and goes 1097 (1424) m/s. In short she’s a monster and I love flying her.

Once I complete this goal in about one month time I will be at a point which I haven’t been in EVE before, ever! That point is wondering what to train next. I have a number of skill plans input into EVEMon and I’d be grateful for any constructive feedback or suggestions which I haven’t considered from my readers.

The main thing to bear in mind is that I usually fly solo, rarely being available for most organised fleets.

Here are the options:

  • Max out the skills for all the ships I can currently fly. I do have the willpower to do this :P

  • Autocannon/Artillery Tempest. Feels like more of an option that I would use in fleets but maybe could attempt solo in an AC Tempest.

  • Torpedo & Neut Typhoon. I have heard that people solo in these, but aren’t torps supposed to be dreadful?

  • T2 Large Projectiles to fly the Tornado & later BS’s. Certainly going to be flavour of the month.

  • Stiletto, I really should have learned to fly Interceptors by now shouldn’t I? But again, it seems more of a gang oriented ship and whilst the Claw is a combat Inty it’s allegedly terribad.

  • Max out sub-cap Drone skills (excluding Sentries). Other than being tedious I don’t see a negative aspect here.

  • Tengu. Expensive but I imagine they’re very versatile. Also, are they that much better than a Drake?

  • Blackbird/Falcon. Again, gang work screams out loud here, how about a solo cloaky Falcon though…..?

  • T2 Heavy Assault Missiles. Application for the HAM Drake and maybe on the Cyclone too for up close brawling.

  • Vengeance. My maxed missile skills would love this ship, but lots of folk are flying them.

  • Stealth Bomber. Black Ops gang based, flimsy as hell. Definitely a nice to have but would I use it often?
So what do you think? Please let me know your opinions.

16 comments:

  1. Can't go wrong with a Hurricane. Very versatile. Can be shield or armor tanked and is a decent solo boat.

    For something frigate sized, have you considered assault frigates? Jaguar is a very nice ship.

    Or if you want to train Minnie and Gal Cruiser V: Cynabal is a nice expensive toy.

    Personally, I get the most use out of Canes, Drakes, Jaguars, Rifters and Slicers.

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  2. Hi Naoru,

    Thanks for the reply. I'm well skilled in the Cane, rarely take on out mind even though BC is at V. I seem to take out a Drake over a Cane on most occasions.

    AF's I seem to have dreadful luck in so I must overestimate their ability, but perhaps getting AF 4->5 is an option.

    Never tried the Slicer, have an unfit one in my hangar as I cannot fly it, not been a fan of kiting mainly due to being terrible at it, I guess this also applies to the Cynabal, I have Minnie Cruiser at V currently.

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  3. You prolly seen it already but here is my favorite rifter fit. While the extra DPS could be nice, I generally find that almost double tank helps more than 21 dps. One dip into hull and your dead pretty much. Guess it depends on how you fly it. I like to get in there and lay down some hurt with the 200mms. If your chilling at 9km then ya, a gyro would prolly be better. IMO


    [Rifter, 200mm Death Trap]
    Small Armor Repairer II
    200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
    Damage Control II

    1MN Afterburner II
    X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
    J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

    200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
    200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
    200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
    Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket

    Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
    Small Projectile Metastasis Adjuster I
    Small Projectile Burst Aerator I


    But ya man the Slicer is real nice. Its extremely fun to fly. What about destroyers? they getting a nice buff.

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  4. Thanks for the reply,

    Dessies could again be an option, along a similar vein to AF's. The first time I took one out I totally melted face with it, subsequently though I've had little luck. I suspect they may be entering FoTM territory in around 8 minutes though.

    I like your Rifter fit, and completely agree that if I hit hull I go bangveryfast, I'm addicted to the fit at the moment though :)

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  5. - Destroyers (hilarious over buff incoming and all).

    - Cross train all racial frigs. Since you already have max gunnery/missile skills this would be fairly quick and give you a massive range of ships to try out. (Definitely train inties if you're doing that tho).

    - Pest would certainly be the best bet for fleet work and the guns allow you to try out the tornado (while there will be a lot of them about, I don't actually see them being great for solo work. Expect many, many dead to frigs/dessies this week). And yes, solo AC pest is a viable option.

    - Tengu you'd probably love given the drake flying. The 100MN ab is an amazing solo ship and lets you take on gangs solo without the 'oh god scram' risk of the drake. Expensive toy when you lose them tho (altho if flown right, that's pretty hard to do).

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  6. Cheers Tawa,

    Hadn't though much of cross training frigates, as I wouldn't want Kishin to think I was copying him :P. I already have Gallente Frigate V for the Dramiel and Caldari Frigate at IV for the Drake so wouldn't take much at all to train them.

    I also am expecting a swathe of Tier 3 BC's dead to dessies, and probably frigates! Thanks for the heads up on Tempests being viable for solo.

    Tengu is expensive to lose I agree tho I imagine if it's only T2 fit it's not too bad at like 600m?

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  7. Yeh, it's like the Mach in that you can either go for the 'cheap' T2 buffer fit for 600-700mil or you get the pimped out deadspace/faction fit active tank for 2bil. Just don't run into range of many, many webs;

    http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11717166

    And I love the idea that 600mil isn't too bad. That's more than my entire liquid ISK atm :(


    As for the solo pest, think oversized AC shield cane and you've got the rough idea...

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  8. 2 bil certainly wouldn't fall into the "not too bad" category, 600m is ok though given how high I would hope the resilience would be/how often I'd anticipate losing one.

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  9. I find AF 5 does turn assault frigates into a different beast - maybe not quite the jump that you notice when going from bc4 to 5 but you still notice the kick.

    I haven't flown the Interceptor much even though I have inty 5. When I do fly it I find a lot of people attack the Claw though, and there are a few good fits out there for it too. I've come across a few Stiletto's recently that caused me problems, Tracking Disruptor and 200mm plate fit, quite nasty.

    Have you considered the Loki? You can have fun soloing in a Loki but again the isk to lose risk is quite high.

    MB.

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  10. I agree on the cross training of frigates as well, along with interceptors and AF. EW ships can be fun if your into that.

    That is the path I took. I maxed all the support skills (mostly, still need some navigation ones and drone dura V) then trained all frigs and all cruisers + BC V, AF V etc. it was well worth it to me. As I tend to get bored of flying the same thing all the time.

    BTW im glad you guys have luck in the drake. That ship hates me. I don't think i have ever gotten a kill in one.

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  11. Thanks Miura,

    Maybe maxing out my unfinished skills is the way forward, that'll net me AF 5 & Dessie 5, I almost feel like I should be able to fly Interceptors.

    I did consider the Loki, do you reckon it's better than the Tengu? I did laugh at the post you made about the one you sat trying to take out in a belt.

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  12. @ Anxiir, I have great fortune in the Drake. Although when I undock in a PODLA fit one it tends to die horribly in a fire very quickly.

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  13. I've trained every race's frigates to 5, and all the t2 frigates (I can now use every frig in the game, and the all lvl5 race skills make faction frigates absolutely monstrous), and I've never regretted it. My favorite ship is the vengeance or the hookbill. Both are versatile, and extremely fun to fly. Aside from these, I actually really enjoyed flying a flycatcher. I just fit it like a hookbill wiht more rockets :)

    I would recommend you train the racial frigate skills myself, they're just extremely good fun.

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  14. Thanks Kalaratiri, seems like there's a fairly strong consensus for cross-training.

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  15. Since you've already maxed out your Rifter skills, you may want to go for the Assault Frigates based on that hull to maximize your current training time: Jaguar and Wolf. Same guns, same modules, and similar flying styles.

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  16. Thanks SandallE

    I am tempted by AF V, though mainly for the Vengeance tbh.

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