Tuesday 18 October 2016

A look at the Tormentor


[Tormentor, Solo in lowsec FW space]
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S

1MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Initiated Compact Warp Scrambler

Heat Sink II
IFFA Compact Damage Control
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

Small Energy Collision Accelerator I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Hobgoblin II x2
Warrior II x2

I take no credit for this fit; I lifted it from Eve Uni. The notes on this fit are informative: "Fly it by keeping at range at 7000 (or slightly less if you're afraid of losing your 7500 scram), always overheat guns and SAAR for as long as possible, overheat prop against brawlers trying to catch you. Be careful, because of the latest warp scrambler tiericide, your scram's range is only 7500 so you might lose it if you're not paying attention: you'll probably need to overheat it if you realize the other guy is trying to run away."

After losing my last Executioner, I felt in the mood for something different, and I picked up a handful of these Tormentors. They are more expensive than many T1 frigates, both because of the drones, and also the SAAR.

Flying this fit is every bit as easy as the note suggests, and it's a very flexible fit. It brawls, but hits out to long point range with Radio or Aurora. This combined with some fast drones, makes the fit very difficult to kite. You are unlikely to kill the kiter, but you can probably drive him away.

That said, no fit is perfect, and this one is no exception. Despite making this my 'go to' fit for the last little while, I don't actually have any kills. This is because the fit suffers from a split personality. On one hand, the fit survives by scram kiting - out ranging your opponent to minimise his damage while applying your own in full - but on the other it only has a 7.5 km scram range, forcing it in close. Even the normal variations in 'keep at range' at 7 km will cause the point to drop off fairly easily, so getting away from the Tormentor (one of the slower frigates in the game, moving at a stately 1,090 m/s) is a doddle.

Yes, you can overheat out to 9 km, but if you do that too early then you will burn out your point because you are also overheating your afterburner early to make up for your low speed. That's a lot of heat in the mid slots. And 9 km is cold scram range for a T2 scram, so it's still not terribly impressive.

I'm very much tempted to switch the T2 afterburner for a meta version so that I can upgrade scram to a Faint Epsilon meta version. This brings my base speed down to 1,040 m/s (a decrease of less than 5%) in exchange for an 8.3 km (9.9 km with heat) scram range. I think the trade is probably worthwhile.

Two other weaknesses spring to mind. This frigate can't hit anything of equal size with any amount of transversal, so a sufficiently fast brawler can spiral in on you. And anything with missiles can allow you to 'keep at range', dropping your speed to nil, and applying the missile damage in full. And at that stage it is simply a dps race. If they have Rage loaded, it is a race you will probably lose.

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