Crusader: a review

After having flown the Crusader in a variety of situations and in a handful of fights, I'm ready to move on. For any other new pirates, however, here are my thoughts on the Crusader.

In many ways, the Crusader is an unremarkable ship, with middle of the road dps and tank for it's class. What is exceptional, though, is it's high base speed and four low slots.

This pretty much tells you all there is to know about the Crusader, because everything else flows from that point. It has standard interceptor bonuses to mwd and the tracking to actually hit things while moving at speed. And because it packs energy turrets, Scorch allows it to engage targets beyond web and scram range (although range enhancing mods or rigs certainly help). The Crusader was, literally, designed to fill a mwd/kiting role, and by all accounts it fills that role admirably.

Of course, I was flying it all wrong. While I enjoyed the speed, trying to fight at close range meant that I was throwing that advantage away; with only two midslots the Crusader cannot counterweb, and so loses it's relative speed advantage. It's just not a brawler - it should avoid damage, not absorb try to endure it.

When I first finished with the Crusader I was certain that I did not want to end up flying that kind of ship. Further exposure to that way of flying (via the Malediction) has softened my views, though. It's simply not what I am used to, and I suspect I have developed a bit of a comfort zone.

That aside, and while I am reserving judgement until I have some other T2 ships to compare it to, I'm not actually a huge fan of the Crusader. If I want to fly a laser vessel in that fashion, why would I not just fly a Slicer? Sure, the Crusader is faster, but for most thing the Slicer is fast enough, and has much higher dps and range.

Still, the Crusader is an excellent ship, provided you are willing to fly it the way it was designed to be flown.

Crusader v Rifter et alia

The hunt:

It had been a slow day in Molden Heath, and I had wandered beyond my usual stomping grounds in search of a fight.

A few jumps out of Molden Heath I spotted a Rifter sitting in a belt. Outside of my patch, I did not recognize the pilot or his corp, but I did want to try my Crusader against another Rifter.

Now, although the Crusader is a T2 frigate, a well fit and well flown Rifter is more than capable of taking it on and winning. Obviously an experienced pilot, I also had no idea how quickly he might be able to call for assistance. I would have to hit hard and fast.

Warping to the belt, I landed within point range of the Rifter, and immediately settled into a tight orbit. Although I would suffer higher damage, the Rifter would have a relative speed advantage if he was packing a web, and I did not want it to be easy for him to disengage.

Activating my mids and overheating my guns, I tore into the Rifter, but my opponent immediately returned the favour.  No hesitation or delay; he was as fast on the draw as his sec status suggested. I started up my repper, and it was clear that this was going to be a close race.

He seemed to be active armor tanked, and my heart sank as I saw how little progress I was making against his armor. I was not able to dwell on the matter for long, however, as two more Rifters landed in the belt.

The first newcomer landed right on top of me and immediately started to attack. The other pilot was about 40km off; he was out of the fight for the moment.

At this point I overheated my afterburner and tried to burn away, but with two webs on me, it just was not going to happen.

2011.05.17 18:31:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Crusader
System: Aralgrund
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 2516

Involved parties:

Name: WayCharles
Security: -9.9
Corp: Mountain Militia
Alliance: Mountain Sprouts
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rifter
Damage Done: 2144

Name: xxxAlloxxx (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.8
Corp: Mountain Militia
Alliance: Mountain Sprouts
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 372

Destroyed items:

Small Energy Burst Aerator I
Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 2
Small Energy Collision Accelerator I
Small Energy Transfer Array I (Cargo)
1MN Afterburner I (Cargo)
Scorch S (Cargo)
Medium Shield Booster I (Cargo)
Small Armor Repairer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Proton S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Small Shield Transporter I (Cargo)
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 2
Damage Control II
ECM Burst I (Cargo)
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Heavy Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Heat Sink II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2
1MN Afterburner II

Warping my pod out, I left a "gf" in local. They had sprung their trap well, and flown their ships perfectly.


Afterthoughts:

My reaction to the two additional Rifters dropping in was all wrong. I was never, ever going to get away with two webs on me, and trying to do so distracted me from doing what I should have been focusing on: taking someone with me.

What I did not notice (until too late) was that I had broken the cap of the first Rifter. Thanks to my Amarrian cap skills, my repper was going strong, but he was deep into armor. I had a real opportunity to kill him, but my attempted flight had taken me out of Multifrequency range, and I did not notice this for several seconds.

I switched to Scorch, but I exploded just before he reached hull. If I had stayed focused, I probably would have killed him, especially as maintaining my transversal would have meant taking slightly less damage from my target.

So, with the same skills, ship and situation, a veteran pilot would probably have come away from this encounter with a killmail. I reacted poorly, and came away with nothing as a result.

Part of the problem is that I have focused so much on what is happening to me that I have not ever really considered what is happening to my opponent. I saw that my opponents tank was holding and assumed that there was nothing I could do. I did not consider his cap situation - largely because my own cap tends not to be an issue.

Some real food for thought here, and if I can properly absorb the lessons of this fight I will be a far better pilot.

Crusader v Rifter

The hunt:

I was working my way around the Istodard cul de sac when I spotted a Rifter ratting in a belt. It was a 2009 character, though, so despite his T1 hull I expected that he would be a tough pilot to beat, and if he had a web I would simply have to hope I could burn through his tank before he burned through mine.

Of course, if he had no web then I might be able to avoid most of his damage by flying in his falloff. As he was ratting, the odds of him having no web were fairly decent.

I warped into the belt, landing about 30km away from him. Seeing this, I assumed that he would just warp out, but I burned towards him anyway, hoping that my cunning ship name - Asteroid (Veldspar) - would allow me to avoid notice for a short time. It all depended on how he set up his overview.

Increadibly, I managed to reach him and land my point! I set my orbit to 7km, and opened fire, burning through his shields. As his armor began to melt, it became clear that he could not tank my damage for long, and he had not even switched his fire from the rats to me yet.

Unfortunately, while I had know that my own speed would throw my 7km orbit out wide, I had neglected to consider just how fast a Rifter can move when it wants to. Whether by accident or design, the pilot accellerated away in the opposite direction of my own movement, and our relative speed moved him out of point range. I moved to correct, but it was too late; the Rifter warped out.


Post battle review:

The pilot convo'd me after the fight and we started talking. It seems that although the character was 2009, he had been inactive for most of that time; the pilot was essentially new to Eve. We chatted, and I gave him some pointers about surviving in low sec, starting with ratting in more lucrative belts and properly setting up his overview - it turns out he had not seen me until I opened fire.

Friendly chat aside, the loss was entirely down to my piloting. I'm not used to a) trying to kite, or b) flying at those relative speeds. My natural inclinations, backed up by my time in the Punisher, is to get as close as I can and latch on like some kind of demented bulldog, trading blows at blank point range, and basically refusing to die.

None of that means that I should not try to improve my kiting/high speed skills, but it's clearly not something that comes naturally to me.


Lessons for the future:

It upsets me more to let the enemy get away than it does getting blown up. This suggests that I should commit more heavily to my fights.

Crusader v Iteron Mark III

The hunt:

While running the Molden Heath loop, I noticed an unfamiliar industrial on D-scan. When you consistently move through the same territory, you start to recognize the non-combat ships that are parked permanently behind force fields; this was not one of them.

Quickly using the D-scan to find the industrial, it appeared, unbelievably, to be sitting in a belt. I would have thought it was bait, except there was no obvious backup in the system. Still, there was always the possibility that help was on the other side of the next gate.

The opportunity was too good to pass up, however, and I immediately jumped to the belt at zero. As I landed I spotted the Iteron about 25km off the warp-in point, so I overheated my point and afterburner and hit approach. The Crusader responded beautifully, it's engines roaring into life, and the distance quickly narrowed.

As I approached I was able to examine the target more closely. He actually appeared to be mining in the belt, and did not seem to be pre-aligned. As the distance between us plunged, I established point and opened fire.

With backup possibly on the way, and the ever present risk of warp stabs I immediately overheated my guns and settled into an orbit that kept me within optimal for Multifrequency and well within my tracking bracket. I then kept a careful eye on local, which remained quiet.

For all my concern, the ship did not seem to be bait or to have warp stabs equipped. It also had no tank to speak of, and soon popped.

2011.05.12 17:03:00

Victim: Kajisora Thiesant
Corp: Center for Advanced Studies
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Iteron Mark III
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 2064

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -2.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2064

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold I, Qty: 2
Radiant Hemorphite, Qty: 59 (Cargo)
Mexallon, Qty: 136 (Cargo)
Golden Omber, Qty: 1332 (Cargo)
Zydrine, Qty: 64 (Cargo)
Tritanium, Qty: 1477 (Cargo)
Pyerite, Qty: 591 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Miner II
Expanded Cargohold I
Isogen, Qty: 481 (Cargo)

Up until now I have avoided targeting pods, even when they have sat before me, afk and mine for the taking. Largely, this is because I had not wanted to deal with the drop in sec status, but a few things had changed.

First, I now had a basic hauler alt trained up. This made dealing with the sec hit much less intimidating. But I was also running low on cash, and ransoming pods could potentially be a source of income. I was also conscious that I had a target of 25 campaign kills to meet.

Of course, this pilot was not afk, and I knew going into the fight that I would have to be fast to catch the pod. The Crusader's impressive lock time would help, but I had gotten my pod out of enough fights to know how hard it could be to catch someone who was serious about escaping.

Fortunately, FNG has written a fantastic guide to catching pods here. So right before the Iteron exploded, I killed my speed and had my finger hovering over my scrambler hotkey. As soon as the pod appeared on my overview I activated my scram and locked him down.

I contacted the pilot and asked if he was interested in saving his pod. His response was negative, and very rude, which left me no choice but to send him back to his clone vat - my first pod kill.


Post battle review:

For whatever reason, I don't seem to be finding "fights" right now, and I have fallen into the role of a ganker. This is not an intentional shift, and I hope that changes soon.

Still, the Crusader's ability to cover distance swiftly probably earned me a kill that the Punisher would have missed. Equally, the excellent lock time probably helped me catch the pod. I'm certainly enjoying this additional performance.


Lessons for the future:

I managed to pull off a pod kill on my first attempt - largely due to FNG's guidance. I need more practice at this, but it seems an auspicious start.

Crusader v Ibis & Station Guns

The hunt:

This was another one of those "fights" that arose because of the challenge presented by the circumstances rather than the challenge presented by the actual target.

In this case, I had spotted an Ibis that was afk outside a station. If I were to engage, the station guns would destroy me, but the smug complacency of the pilot irritated me, and I found myself wishing that I had a larger ship nearby just to teach him a lesson about low sec.

As I did not have a larger ship nearby, however, I needed to improvise. In other words, I rammed him. Over and over again.

By using the approach command alternately on the Ibis and the station I was able to ping-pong between them. Every time I hit the Ibis his speed would spike to about 450km/s, and he would drift a good kilometer or so.

For reasons known only to the programmers, sometimes I would miss my target, despite the fact that I was not doing anything different; there are only so many ways to hit the "approach" button.

Eventually, however, I managed to push the Ibis outside the range of the station guns. Feeling rather pleased with myself, I blew him up.

2011.05.11 20:55:00

Victim: BON Argos
Corp: EvilMoon Nations
Alliance: Shadow of xXDEATHXx
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Ibis
System: Skarkon
Security: 0.0
Damage Taken: 385

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 385

Destroyed items:

Civilian Miner
Civilian Gatling Railgun

Dropped items:

Tritanium (Cargo)


Post battle review:

Again, not much of a battle, but a cute little technique for those AFK station huggers you just have to kill. A bit time consuming, and I certainly wouldn't bother doing it again for a rookie ship.

Nice to know it works, though.


Lessons for the future:

Another tool for the tool box.

Crusader v Jaguar

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.

Crusader v Hoarder

The hunt:

Sunday morning is a special time for Eve players.

All across New Eden, PI players send their little hauler alts to customs offices deep in low sec to collect their loot, confident that the vast majority of pvpers are still snug in their beds, hung over from the carnage of Saturday night.

And largely, they're right. But occassionally, when my schedule permits, I like to get up early and log on to play with the haulers. This was just such a Sunday.

The big pve pocket in Molden Heath is the Istodard cul de sac. With only one way in, and that being only a single jump from high sec, the pve corps have a pretty easy time keeping tabs on the pirate gangs, and from time to time I have even seen them fleet up to break a gate camp. As carebears go, their low-sec game is pretty decent.

But I don't fly in a gang.

And so it was that I was able sneak into one of these systems and wait patiently. This was before I was flashy, you see, and so my name in local was not the warning light it is today.

All at once, three haulers entered the system, and I gave them a few moments to start warping to their destinations. Scanning one of them down to a particular cluster, I immediately jumped to the customs office at zero.

2011.05.08 07:37:00

Victim: Reginald Nachtewolfe
Corp: Pator Tech School
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Hoarder
System: Half
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 1918

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 1918

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold II, Qty: 3

As he exploded, I quickly jumped away from the customs office so that a destination scan by one of the other haulers would not give them any warning. Unfortunately, this backfired on me - another hauler landed just as I hit warp.

He saw the Crusader. He saw the wrecked hauler. I saw a system empty so fast you'd think they were all flying interceptors. With the locals on the alert, the morning's fun was over.


Post battle review:

Another fight that did not really stretch the Crusader, although I do have to say that I am loving the increased warp speed and excellent lock time. Being able to virtually insta-lock targets that have no intention of sticking around is very, very nice. And warping to your target before they have time to finish their business is also very useful.


Lessons for the future:

Not much to take away with me here, except perhaps that you can sometimes cover more ground by staying where you are. It irks me that the second hauler got away.

Crusader v Ibis (breaking a safe)

The hunt:

I was out roaming the Molden Heath loop when I saw an Ibis on scan at an obvious safe spot. In the ordinary course of things I would not have bothered scanning down an Ibis, but in this case the safe spot was between two celestials.

I had never tried to break a safe spot without a scanning ship, and I was interested in giving it a try. After narrowing down the range to the Ibis I began jumping from one celestial to another, dropping bookmarks.

Here, the Crusader's speed was strangely detrimental. With a warp speed 9 AU/sec, it is pretty difficult to drop a bookmark with any precision. Instead, I would drop as many as I could and then warp to the bookmark closest to my target range. From there I would warp to a bookmark on the other side of the target, dropping more bookmarks. Rinse and repeat.

After about 20 minutes of this I was within about 2000km, but slight differences between our starting points meant that he was no longer between me an a celestial. Warping would get me no closer, and the remaining distance had to crossed the old fashioned way.

At this point I became greatful for the extra speed the Crusader brought with it. The last 500km, where I was on grid with the Ibis, were the most tense - all he had to do was look at his overview and warp off to make the last half hour a waste of time.

Instead, he remained oblivious right up until I opened fire on him. And at that point, it was already over.

2011.05.07 19:34:00

Victim: RANDY2007X
Corp: State War Academy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Ibis
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 335

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 335

Destroyed items:

Civilian Miner
Tritanium (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Civilian Gatling Railgun


Post battle review:

While there was not much of a battle per se, I was pleased that I was able to break the safe without a scanning ship. With a bit of practice I could probably do it much faster, and I would want a mwd ship for the last leg of the journey.


Lessons for the future:

Until I appeared on grid with him, casual use of the D-scan would not have told the pilot that I was looking for him. In that sense, it can be dangerous to rely too heavily on the D-scan for protection if you are in a safe spot that can be broken by a pilot with a little bit of time on his hands.

Crusader v Rupture

The fit:

Gatling Pulse Laser II x4 (with Navy Multifrequency & Scorch)

Afterburner II
J5b Warp Scrambler

Small Armor Repair System II
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Heat Sink II

Small Energy Burst Aerator
Small Energy Collision Accelerator

In line with my preferred approach to combat, I have eschewed the usual (and very effective) mwd + long point Crusader in favour of something with a bit more brawl. I have a second hull ready to go that is fit with tracking rigs - I really want to try that out on some drones at some point.


The hunt:

Opportunity presented me with the chance of a rematch; I saw the Rupture that had destroyed Punisher 20 sitting in a belt, so I decided to jump in and say hello.

Now, I had been looking at all the advice that people give about fighting drones, and something that I wanted to try was widening my orbit (which would increase my speed). Apparently, this causes the drones to trail behind you a bit more, which makes tracking easier.

Unfortunately, when I jumped in I set my initial orbit a little too wide, and the Rupture's main guns were able to land a couple of glancing hits.

In a Punisher I would probably just have shrugged the damage off, but the Crusader, for all it's other strengths, is no Punisher. The hits took me deep into armor before I had even engaged the drones. With a web killing my speed, I decided it was time to try and bail out.

Impressively, the Crusader did that quite handily, even under a web. I took another hit on the way out, but the repper kept me together long enough that I was able to warp out with my structure intact.


Post battle review:

Clearly, I made a mistake when setting my initial orbit. In part, this is because the additional speed of the Crusader forces my orbit to be much wider that the orbit I select. This is an issue with all ships, and pilots simply compensate for that when selecting an orbit. However, the effect is far more pronounced with faster ships, and I was still unused to the Crusader's additional speed.

It's also obvious that I am going to need to make decisions far more quickly. The Crusader's speed let me disengage from a fight the Punisher could never have escaped, but only because I decided to abort within the first few seconds of the fight. That's about all the time the Crusader will give me.


Lessons for the future:

Against medium and large turrets I think I am better off starting with the tightest orbit I can manage and then slowly working out from there. Getting the orbit right is too critical to guesstimate on the initial approach.

Despite the added tank, the Crusader is still fairly frail compared to the Punisher. I'm going to have to take that into account when choosing and approaching targets.