The hunt:
I had been feeling a little unsatisfied with my recent fights. None of them had really let me get to know what the Crusader was made of. I needed to throw it against a wall and see what the pieces looked like.
So when I saw a Jaguar at a belt I was happy to warp in on him and pick a fight - a fight I fully expected to lose.
I started by making my orbit as tight as possible; the Jaguar has range bonuses so there was no point trying to kite him, but my tracking was much better than his.
I started chewing into his shields. It was a predictably slow process thanks to his natural resists, and he soon returned fire, stripping away my own shields and starting into my armor. I overheated my guns, and turned on my nos/repper.
At first, he had trouble landing solid hits. I'm not sure he expected me to get so close, and his own move towards me made my life a bit easier. It did not take him long to realize his mistake, though, and his web allowed him to pull range again, and get the tracking under control.
After that it was just a matter of time.
2011.05.09 20:25:00
Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Crusader
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 2567
Involved parties:
Name: AcidMar (laid the final blow)
Security: 4.9
Corp: Desperate Venture Company
Alliance: RED Citizens
Faction: NONE
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2345
Name: Angel Defeater / Archangels
Damage Done: 222
Destroyed items:
Gatling Pulse Laser II
Small Energy Metastasis Adjuster I, Qty: 2
Small Armor Repairer II
Heat Sink II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Scorch S (Cargo)
Dropped items:
Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 3
Damage Control II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 4
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II
Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Post battle review:
Feeling much better, I had a long think about the fight. I was actually fairly impressed by the Crusader, as it had managed to reduce a shield tanked assault frigate with an innate 75% EM resist to about 20% shields before popping. I had not expected to do that well.
That said, it was clear that the Crusader was going to have trouble against anything with a web - at least as long as I fit it to fight within web range. As the Crusader relies on speed, anything that slows it down is going to hurt it pretty badly.
Lessons for the future:
As a general rule, webs are bad news for speed tanked ships. It sounds obvious, but I've not really flown a speed tanked ship before.
Remember the jag has an optimal range bonus rather than falloff, which is pretty much useless with autocannons (and they almost always fit autocannons).
ReplyDeleteOf course going close is still probably the better choice given the option, since they also lack a tracking bonus.
I don't think Scorch will have a long enough distance to hit a Jaguar outside overheated web range. I was about to ask if you could do this, but if I remember correctly, overheated web range is 12 or 13km. This being the case, I'm feeling like you would have needed Beam lasers to avoid the web. Still your battle went a quite bit better than I would have thought possible, Jags have nasty shield resists, the lowest being explosive at 50%.
ReplyDeleteTrying to think back to EFT, a Dual Light Crusader with max skills and basic rigs can hit out to over 15km. My Gatling Pulse Lasers don't can't even get close to that.
ReplyDeleteSo kiting is possible, but you need a dedicated platform to do it. Higher powered guns & long point mean dropping what little tank I have. And since (with no tank) you are dead if you get into web range, you might as well fit a mwd.
Arguably a better fit, though.
I did have a reply written up about the perils of trying to engage things in a frigate outside web range, but since a lot of the conclusions I draw are things that are outside my own experiences, I'll leave the subject alone. :P Nicely done against the Jaguar, though - I'm far less confident about facing off with you again!
ReplyDeleteThe problem you had was one of commitment. As long as the Jag had you both scrammed and webbed, while you only had him scrammed, he had control of the engagement. He could dictate range to ensure that he was hitting you and if he was loosing, he could simply retreat. You however were fully committed.
ReplyDeleteThe second problem you had was that you were shooting emp/thermal damage against a T2 Minmattar. Not only do his shields have good resistances, but when you got to his armour you might as well have been shooting spitballs. Whereas he, using autocannons, can tailor his damage type you your expected armour tank.
In short to win this engagement he would have to be fitting a MWD (so you can prevent him from escaping) plus you needed an ace up your sleeve like some explosive armour hardner or something.