The Kestrel is my favourite frigate, it represents one of the most cost effective hulls in the game that is capable of fighting way above it’s weight and can claim kills on Interdictors, Assault Frigates, Pirate Frigates and in some cases, more. It is one of the most underestimated hulls and in my opinion, is the best nullsec roaming option available for the Tech I Frigate slot, it has so much flexibility in what it can engage due to the fact that it engages at the very edge of Scram range. It has very high damage output for the range it can fire out to, rivaling Blaster DPS at 12km. The downside of the Kestrel is that it is the slowest Tech I Frigate in the game, going slightly slower than 2.8km/s with max skills, but this is still acceptable for roaming. You’ll struggle to catch some kiting Frigates like Interceptors, Garmurs and Imperial Navy Slicers, but these fights can be manipulated in your favour by fighting on gates, and warping to celestials, plus, a lot of people who fly those ships often make mistakes and will die to you in scram range.
Relevant Skills List
| Category | Skill | Discription | Notes | Basic | Recommended | Polish | Max |
| Armor | Hull Upgrades (2) | 5% to Armor HP | This skill gives you a small amount of HP per level. You do not need to train it past level 2 for fittings, but it is efficient to get it to at least level 3. My fits do not use T2 Damage Controls but this is a very useful module for a variety of ships and this skill is required at 4 to use those, so getting it to 4 is useful in general. +29 EHP per level | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Armor | Mechanics (1) | 5% to Hull HP | This skill improves your HP per level, this skill is 2x easier to train than hull upgrades and gives a better EHP increase due to the damage control we are fitting and the kestrel having more structure than Armor HP. You only need it at level 1 for the fit but Recommend to train to 4, at level 4 you also unlock the nanite repair skills which are great utility skills for roaming.+46 EHP per level | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Electronic Systems | Propulsion Jamming (3) | 5% Cap reduction for Warp Scramblers, Disruptors, Webs | Level 1 is fine for a basic fit, the cap reduction doesn’t matter too much on the Kestrel since you fight outside neut range and the fit is completely passive and cap stable even with MWD on with reasonable skills. It’s high rank too. Level 2 is required for a Tech II Warp Scrambler which is on my fit. Only level this up when you have nothing better to train, it helps slightly when fighting against Sentinel. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Engineering | Advanced Weapon Upgrades (6) | 2% PG Reduction for Weapons | This is a great skill in general for a variety of other ships. You can do without it on the Kestrel for the Recommended fit however. You’ll only need it to level 1 for the polished fit. | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Engineering | Capacitor Management (3) | 5% max cap per level | You start with this skill at level 3 which is perfectly acceptable. Cap is not a priority on the Kestrel at all. It is useful to rank up though for other ships, can help a bit with neut defence. | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Engineering | Capacitor Systems Operation (1) | 5% Cap Recharge per level | You start with this skill at level 3 which is perfectly acceptable. Cap is not a priority on the Kestrel at all. It is useful to rank up though for other ships, can help a bit with neut defence. This skill is 3x easier to train than cap management so priortize this one first | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Engineering | CPU Management (1) | 5% more CPU Per level | I recommend getting this to level 5 as its useful on every single ship you fly, almost essential. Required for the recommended fit | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Engineering | Nanite Interfacing (3) | 20% Faster Repair time per level for paste. | This is by no means essential, worth picking up though as it will improve your repair speed significantly, you can see a huge difference between level 0 and level 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Engineering | Nanite Operation (2) | 5% less Paste used per level | This is also not essential, more of a roaming utility skill. Worth grabbing the odd point in occasionally when you don’t have anything better to train | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Engineering | Power Grid Management (1) | 5% more PG per level | I recommend getting this to level 5 as its useful on every single ship you fly, almost essential. Required for the recommended fit | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Engineering | Thermodynamics (3) | 5% less heat damage per level | This skill is very important, I recommend getting it to at least level 3 and to level 4 when polishing skills. You will see a huge difference between level 1 and level 3 with web/scram heat residue damage, being able to heat scram for as long as possible to abuse max range is useful in hard match ups and to keep targets like vs Sabres | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Engineering | Weapon Upgrades (2) | 5% Less CPU Cost for Launchers per level | This skill makes fitting a lot easier on a variety of ships, you’ll also need it to level 4 to unlock Advanced Weapon Upgrades and to use T2 damage upgrade modules like the t2 BCU. I Recommend it at 4, get 5 when polishing. | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Guided Missile Prevision (5) | 5% lower missile explosion Radius per level | This is by far the most important missile application skill, unfortunately, it’s a rank 5 skill so takes a lot of time to train. I recommend getting this to 4, and because of the long train, I would only recommend going 5 once you’re going for max Kestrel. 4 is perfectly acceptable | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Missile Bombardment (2) | 10% to Missile Flight Time | This is the most important missile skill in the game, YOU NEED THIS AT 5. If you have it below level 5 you will take a substantial DPS loss from your missiles expiring to RNG due to how the mechanics work. See Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9DMsZUxHFc | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Missile Launcher Operation (1) | 2% to Missile Rate of Fire | This is a very efficient DPS skill at 2% ROF per rank. It’s not essential though, I recommend it at level 4, get to 5 when polishing. | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Missile Projection (4) | 10% to Missile Velocity per level | This further extends the range on your missiles. I recommend getting this to level 4. It is a fairly expensive skill so while level 5 is nice, it only extends your range beyond your scram range which is only really useful in harder match ups where you force them to burn into missiles and play defensively outside scram range. This is a low priority polish skill | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Rapid Launch (2) | 4% to Missile Rate of Fire | This is a very efficient DPS skill. It has the same 2% ROF per rank as Missile Launcher Operation. Note due to how Rate of Fire Bonuses work this is actually more powerful than MLO, so I actually recommend you take this to 5 before MLO. (This is because a 20% bonus to ROF is actually a 25% DPS increase because 1 / 0.8 = 1.25.You can do without this at 5 but this is a high priority polish skill | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Rocket Specialization (3) | 2% to T2 Rocket Launcher Rate of Fire | This is moderately decent DPS skill, I recommend getting it to level 4, get to level 5 as a low priority polish. It gives more benefits than GMP 5 and Warhead Upgrades 5 because those are 5x rank skills, and WU is weaker per level | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Rockets (1) | 5% to Rocket damage | This is obviously super important to get to level 5, even for the basic fit. I would not consider flying the Kestrel without T2 Rockets and this skill at 5. At 5 you unlock rocket spec 5, t2 rockets and get 25% more damage | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Target Navigation Prediction (2) | 10% to Missile Explosion Velocity | This skill is important for application, although its not as effective as GMP per level, its more than twice as easy to train. level 4 is recommended, you will probably be unable to use rage without it at 4. | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Missiles | Warhead Upgrades (5) | 2% to missile damage per level | This skill gives you the least DPS increase of all the missile skills here, and also is very inefficient. It also unlocks nothing. Rocket Spec is easier to train and improves DPS more because it’s a Rate of Fire skill, only rank this up when you have nothing better DPS wise | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Navigation | Acceleration Control (4) | 5% to MWD/AB speed boost per level | This skill improves your MWD speed, which makes it important. I’d recommend getting it to level 4, and to level 5 as a low priority polish. It doesn’t improve your speed when your scrammed or not using MWD and is way less efficient than Navigation and Evasive Maneuvering so get those before this. | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Navigation | Evasive Maneuvering (2) | 5% to Agility per level | This skill improves turning speed, so you can align out and warp quicker, also enables you to orbit tighter and helps with slingshotting due to improved responsiveness. I recommend it at level 4. Get this to level 5 as a mid priority polish. It unlocks Interceptors and is useful in general so a nice skill. | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Navigation | High Speed Maneuvering (5) | 5% to MWD Cap cost per level | This skill is not too useful, when you’re committed in scram range your MWD will be off anyway, or you can manually turn it off. I’d recommend getting it to level 2 so you’re cap stable running just MWD, but its honestly not required past that. Maybe put a rank in it when polishing skills to help with mwding at a sentinel or something | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Navigation | Navigation (1) | 5% to base speed per level | This skill is pretty important because it improves your range control and your speed when MWDing. I recommend getting this to level 5 after fitting skills/DPS skills, this helps a lot with reapproaching gates, scram kiting, slingshotting etc. and it’s cheap at rank 1. | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Navigation | Warp Drive Operation (1) | 10% reduced cap cost to warp per level | Useful Utility Skill, It’s not technically required but it’s very nice for longer warps which will cap you out with lowered skills. I recommend getting it to level 3 since it’s a cheap and easy train. It’s very low priority to train past that | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Rigging | Jury Rigging (2) | Doesn’t do anything lol | You need to train this to level 3 to train the Missile Rigging skill, this skill does absolutely nothing itself so don’t train it past level 3 it’s pointless | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Rigging | Launcher Rigging (3) | 1% less CPU penalty on Missile Rigs per level | This skill description is confusing. Basically missile rigs have a 10% CPU penalty, every skill level reduces that by 1%. So at level 3 your missile rigs would have a 7% CPU penalty. This is needed to level 3 for the Recommended fit, For the Polish fit you need this at level 4. It’s not useful beyond that. | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Shields | Shield Management (3) | 5% to Shield HP per level | Increases your Shield HP by 5% per level, since you have a shield Extender this is the most important of the HP increasing skills. Note: when comparing EHP vs SP Mechanics is actually a slightly better skill to train, so you might want to consider putting that to 5 first before this one when polishing+107 EHP per level | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Shields | Shield Operation (1) | 5% to Shield Regen Per level | This is more of a utility skill than something that is actually useful, as it allows you to get back into fighting shape after warping out from an encounter faster, so it’s something I recommend at 4, I’d say this is a very low priority polish at 5 just because it’s really SP efficient.+0.9EHP/s peak regen per level | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Shields | Shield Upgrades (2) | 5% Reduction in Shield Extender PG cost | Important fitting skill for the Kestrel, you’ll need this to level 3 for the basic and recommended fit, level 4 for the polish fit, and level 5 is required for the Mizhir/Max fit which uses a CPU implant | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Spaceship Command | Caldari Frigate (2) | 10% To missile velocity and 5% to missile damage on the Kestrel | This is the most efficient skill for SP on DPS/Range Improvements. I recommend getting this to level 5, Caldari Frigate 5 unlocks a lot of future ship options, and improves a large variety of other useful ships you may use, like Heron for exploration, A griffin, and other options. | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Spaceship Command | Spaceship Command (1) | 2% to Agility per level | This skill is less SP efficient than Evasive Maneuvering in Navigation so always get that first. I’d low priority recommend getting it to level 4 though, and a very low priority polish to 5. | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Targeting | Gravimetric Sensor Compensation (2) | 4% to Caldari Sensor Strength per level | This skill can help a little when dealing with EC drones but its never going to save you from any dedicated ECM ship. I’d recommend putting this to level 2, and a low priority polish up a few ranks just for the slightly better utility. | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Targeting | Long Range Targeting (2) | 5% to lock range per level | This skill isn’t that useful, the Kestrel has a very nice base lock range of 50km which is more than enough even when dealing with bonused damps you won’t be knocked below your scram range. It can be a nice utility tho to help when slingshotting damp ships like Condors/Maulus slightly because it allows you to lock them sooner before getting them to 13km heated web range, Low Priority though as it only helps slightly in those niche scenarios. It is a nice general skill however. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Targeting | Signature Analysis (1) | 5% to lock speed | Not really that crucial to be honest, very rarely this is going to make the difference in you catching something or not. It’s more important for catching people who do not want to fight, I’d recommend taking this to level 3 since it’s an efficient skill, its a low priority upgrade past that. | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Targeting | Target Management (1) | 1 extra target locked per level | You start with this level 2 which is more than enough. The Kestrel can only lock 5 targets max without other modules which you’d never use on a Kestrel so it’s pointless to train this skill past level 3. Getting it to 3 is mostly just nice utility when shooting drones, so only get it when polishing skills. it’s a quick and easy train. | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
If you started out as a Caldari brand new character, these are the skills that you will need to purchase from the market and acquire.
| Market Category | Skill Name | School Station Isk Cost |
| Engineering | Advanced Weapon Upgrades | 500,000 |
| Engineering | Nanite Interfacing | 5,000,000 |
| Engineering | Nanite Operation | 1,000,000 |
| Missiles | Guided Missile Prevision | 500,000 |
| Missiles | Missile Bombardment | 80,000 |
| Missiles | Missile Projection | 100,000 |
| Missiles | Rapid Launch | 40,000 |
| Missiles | Rocket Specialization | 1,000,000 |
| Missiles | Rockets | 10,000 |
| Missiles | Target Navigation Prediction | 60,000 |
| Missiles | Warhead Upgrades | 1,000,000 |
| Rigging | Jury Rigging | 60,000 |
| Rigging | Launcher Rigging | 100,000 |
| Targeting | Gravimetric Sensor Compensation | 200,000 |
| Total: | 9,650,000 | |
| Note: 66% of this cost is in the Nanite Skills which are not essential. You can also get some skills cheaper than listed from players. Notably, Rocket Spec, Jury Rigging and Launcher Rigging are usually cheaper to buy from players than from the school. Some of these books you may get pro-bono from the military and advanced military career agents. |
How long does it take for me to fly the Kestrel?
Training times are listed with a remap to 25 Perception, 23 Intelligence throughout the entire training process. This is a very good and healthy remap for a new player and it’s not a super specialised Kestrel remap of any sort, Intelligence/Perception are the most useful attributes unless you’re following a specialised plan like to become a Trader, leadership character, miner and refiner etc. You can bring this time down if you use a program like evemon and remap to pure Perception/Willpower, then to pure Intelligence/Memory using the characters bonused remaps if you so choose. I would not recommend this though unless you want a pure Kestrel smurf character.
The Basic Kestrel
15D 2H 20m 40s
SP Needed from starting skills 730,938
Total SP: 1,130,669
The Recommended Kestrel
57D 4h 21m 30s (72D 6H 42m 10s)
SP Needed (over basic) 2,738,772
Total SP: 3,869,441
The Polished Kestrel
137D 5h 32m 26s (209D 12H 14m 36s)
SP Needed (over recommended) 6,575,111
Total SP: 10,444,553
Fittings
The “Basic” Fit
I’d recommend not using this as you will probably have a somewhat painful time, you’ll struggle against anything that isn’t a tackler, you can maybe kill other PvP ships which will have difficulty hitting you at range.
[Kestrel, The Basic Kestrel]
Crosslink Compact Ballistic Control System
IFFA Compact Damage Control
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Medium Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Initiated Compact Warp Scrambler
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Mjolnir Rage Rocket x1000
Scourge Rage Rocket x1000
Nova Rage Rocket x1000
Inferno Rage Rocket x1000
Nanite Repair Paste x25
Fitting Skill List;
Advanced Weapon Upgrades: 0 (Not Learned)
Power Grid Management: 4 (Starting Level)
CPU Management: 4 (Starting Level)
Weapon Upgrades: 3 (+1 level from starting)
Shield Upgrades: 3 (+1 level from starting)
Launcher Rigging: 0 (Not Learned)
This kestrel can be sit in very quickly from the starting base Caldari Character. With the Flight time rig and the Basic Skill list, you’ll hit out to 10km with Rage rockets, the Flight time rig takes your flight time almost exactly on 3 seconds with missile bombardment level 3. So you won’t have to worry about your missiles not hitting. This assumes missile projection level 3 and caldari frigate 4. DPS, speed and non targeting stats shown are with the basic skills.
The “Recommended” Fit
This is where things get much better, you’ll be able to bring down pretty much every t1 Frigate, Interceptor and some t2 Frigates, Sabre fights are a little harder until you’re more polished but it is still possible in this fit.
[Kestrel, The Recommended Kestrel]
Ballistic Control System II
IFFA Compact Damage Control
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Medium F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Faint Epsilon Scoped Warp Scrambler
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
[Empty Rig slot]
Mjolnir Rage Rocket x1000
Scourge Rage Rocket x1000
Nova Rage Rocket x1000
Inferno Rage Rocket x1000
Nanite Repair Paste x25
Fitting Skill List (+ in brackets indicates skill changes over the basic fit)
Advanced Weapon Upgrades: Unlearned
Power Grid Management: 5 (+1)
CPU Management: 5 (+1)
Weapon Upgrades: 4 (+1)
Shield Upgrades: 3
Launcher Rigging: 3 (+3)
With better fitting skills we no longer need the compact ballistic control unit for more DPS with t2, ditch the PG rig for another DPS rig. This gives us a significant DPS boost and with this fitting improvement, and the skills improvement, this kestrel does more DPS before heat than the Basic Fit does with heat, with better range. Note: Training either Weapon Upgrades 5, or launcher Rigging 4, will enable you to upgrade the fit by upgrading the named Scram to a T2 Scram.
The “Polished” Kestrel
This is just rounding off loose ends and enables us to get a few improvements, notably, the T2 Scram and the swap to Azetropic Medium Shield Extender which saves some cost from the fit, and also improves damage mitigation slightly.
[Kestrel, The Polished Kestrel]
Ballistic Control System II
IFFA Compact Damage Control
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Medium Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Warp Scrambler II
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
[Empty Rig slot]
Mjolnir Rage Rocket x1000
Scourge Rage Rocket x1000
Nova Rage Rocket x1000
Inferno Rage Rocket x1000
Nanite Repair Paste x25
Fitting Skill List (+ in brackets indicates skill changes over the Recommended Fit)
Advanced Weapon Upgrades: 1 (+1)
Power Grid Management: 5
CPU Management: 5
Weapon Upgrades: 5 (+1)
Shield Upgrades: 4 (+1
Launcher Rigging: 4 (+1)
With the extra skills from the polish section, the T2 scram and slight cost saving modules, we are now in the 160 DPS cold club, which is insane, the T2 scram allows more control at further range, and with your increased speed and missile range you can bait out Sabres and ships better. Any further improvements take a long time and don’t give too many benefits.
The “Maxed Fit” AKA the Mizhir Fit
Mizhir gave me this fit, it’s slightly better than the polished fit but requires much higher skills and a 1% CPU Implant to fit. Alternatively, you can use a T2 CPU rig instead of the 1% CPU Implant if you don’t like fits which require implants but the CPU rig is more expensive than the 1% Implant.
[Kestrel, The Maxed Kestrel (Mizhir 1% CPU)]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Medium Shield Extender II
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Warp Scrambler II
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Zainou ‘Gypsy’ CPU Management EE-601
Mjolnir Rage Rocket x1000
Scourge Rage Rocket x1000
Nova Rage Rocket x1000
Inferno Rage Rocket x1000
Nanite Repair Paste x25
Fitting Skill List (+ in brackets indicates skill changes over the Polished Fit)
Advanced Weapon Upgrades: 1
Power Grid Management: 5
CPU Management: 5
Weapon Upgrades: 5
Shield Upgrades: 5 (+1)
Launcher Rigging: 4
Alternatively, if you use the T2 Electronic Rig fit, you can train AWU to level 4 instead of Shield Upgrades 5 which is about ½ the training time and more useful on a larger amount of fits, and use a 1% PG implant with the Polished Skill set. SU5 is pretty useful though.
The Mizhir Fit offers a very small DPS and an EHP improvement, at the expense of being much fatter with the higher signature radius.
Basic Strategy
Your basic Strategy against everything is to kite at extended scram range, this is usually referred to “scram kiting”. Your aim is to keep at 8-9km against most ships (going further out against ships like the Sabre with heated scram). At this range you out DPS most frigates and even some destroyers, interdictors and T3Ds, while also mitigating a significant portion of their DPS. Rockets will do full damage regardless of if you’re at 0 km or 12km so you should aim always to be the furthest you can be comfortable retaining tackle on that ship. Other close range weapon systems will have to load lower damage ammo types like Null or Scorch to hit you, and you always out-damage those types. The only time this strategy ever changes is if you’re fighting against long range turrets (Railguns, Beam Lasers, Artillery) or against kiting ships or ships significantly weaker than you that you just want to hold onto, such as Condors, Stiletto, Crow etc.
Here is a damage comparison between some other weapon types with drones for the ship and decent fits.
As you can see, the Cyan line is the Kestrel, It reigns supreme with the highest DPS past 6km, and any further you can kite out will result in significant damage mitigation. The only ship that comes close to your damage output at range is the Tormentor and (not listed) the Punisher with Scorch Crystals. Both of these ships are not popular in nullsec because of the weaknesses that they have (Speed, Cap) which you do not have, so you won’t be running into them very often. Even a Double Gyro Thrasher which can put out a monstrous 370 DPS up close will struggle to trade with you at 10km!
You have a pretty big signature radius so mitigating DPS from long range turrets can still be difficult if they have appropriate modules. One tactic you can employ is offlining your medium shield extender when you start to take armor damage for some damage mitigation.
The TL;DR of it is that you should almost always stay at the edge of scram range unless faced with an opponent that is much weaker than you, or a kiter (because them getting away is the most important aspect you want to prevent, its ok to go close anyway because they’ll be doing full DPS to you regardless, even if they are allowed to swap into higher damage ammo types your main goal is to get on top of them for the advantage).
The Kestrel is a great ship since it requires very little module micro-management, you have no charges to manage, you mostly don’t care about your capacitor, and have few active modules.
Damage Types
Choosing the right damage type is important. There are 4 types of missiles of the same type, Mjolnir, Inferno, Nova and Scourge, these have identical ranges, damage and application, the only difference is the damage type they deal. Mjolnir deals EM Damage which is usually best VS Shields, and T2 Caldari, Inferno deals Thermal damage which deals best with Shields and Amarr T2 Ships. Scourge does Kinetic which is usually better VS armor and T2 Minmatar, and Nova deals Explosive which is best against Armor and T2 Gallente. Note that there is a small difference between T1 Racial Resistances and a bigger Difference between T2.
In General, Thermal is probably the best damage type universally if you’re not sure what to use then Inferno is usually a safe bet, it’s only really bad against T2 Caldari/Gallente.
| Tech I Shield Resists | EM Resist | Thermal Resist | Kinetic Resist | Explosive Resist |
| All Races | 0% | 20% | 40% | 50% |
| Race Tech I Armor Resists | EM Resist | Thermal Resist | Kinetic Resist | Explosive Resist |
| Neutral | 50% | 35% | 25% | 10% |
| Amarr | 50% | 35% | 25% | 20% (+10%) |
| Caldari | 50% | 45% (+10%) | 25% | 10% |
| Gallente | 50% | 35% | 35% (+10%) | 10% |
| Minmatar | 60% (+10%) | 35% | 25% | 10% |
| Note that the 10% Bonus Racial Armor Resistances are Additive rather than Multiplicative like the T2 ResistsI.e. Minmatar go from 50% EM to 60% EM even though this is actually a 20% reduction in EM Damage Taken on Armor damage |
| Race | Primary Resistance | Secondary Resistance |
| Amarr | Explosive | Kinetic |
| Caldari | Thermal | Kinetic |
| Gallente | Kinetic | Thermal |
| Minmatar | EM | Thermal |
| Tech II Bonus Resistances | Primary | Secondary |
| Interceptor | 10% | 0% |
| Logistics Frigate | 50% | 25% |
| Electronic Attack Frigate | 50% | 25% |
| Stealth Bomber | 25% | 12.50% |
| Covert Ops | 10% | 0% |
| Assault Frigate | 75% | 50% |
| — | ||
| Interdictor | 50% | 25% |
| Command Destroyer | 50% | 25% |
| Tactical Destroyer | 50% | 25% |
| — | ||
| Heavy Assault | 75% | 50% |
| Heavy Interdictor | 75% | 50% |
| Logistics Cruiser | 75% | 50% |
| Recon Ship | 62.50% | 37.50% |
| Strategic Cruiser | 75% | 50% |
| — | ||
| Command Ship | 75% | 50% |
| — | ||
| Black Ops | 10% | 5% |
| Marauders | 25% | 12.50% |
Match-Ups
I would recommend avoiding all ships that aren’t easy when you’re flying the Basic Kestrel, maybe try the Moderate listed ones but be prepared to lose some of the matchups. When flying the recommended, I would say you can take all the easy-moderate match-ups, and maybe try the hard matchups at difficulty. Once you have the Polished Kestrel, everything that isn’t listed as avoid is possible, but again, they will be difficult fights at hard+
Tech I Frigates
| Ship | Difficulty | Missile Type | Basic Strategy | Notes: VS common ship configs | |
| Tech I Frigates | Executioner | Easy | Nova | Kite at 5km+ | The Executioner is an attack Frigate and it doesn’t really have the muscle to win against you even at close range. You should still respect it however. Fight at 5km or further, ideally around 8km to prevent it from using higher damage Crystals like Conflagration against you. You’ll more often see this is a disposable T1 tackler flown by new players |
| Tormentor | Hard | Nova | Kite at 5km+ | The Tormentor can almost rival your damage at range with Scorch and Drones, It also shoots into your EM hole. A max skilled well piloted Tormentor will be an incredibly close and difficult fight. My recommendation would be to stall out the fight if possible at 15-16km, if you can force him to burn into a few rocket salvos you’ll win the fight. The Tormentor has Capacitor issues in extended engagements so forcing him to MWD for you for 3-4 cycles can also move the fight into your favour, you can also try kiting at range and seeing if he’ll deploy drones and kill the drones before going in. | |
| Punisher | Moderate | Nova | Kite at 5km+ | The Punisher can usually just force you to run away. It has incredible stats thanks to the 5 lows, 4 guns and Scorch S being so good, very often you’ll not be able to kill it even at 10km. The Punisher only has 2 mid slots however so it will never be able to control you so just fight at 9km, if it starts winning, just align out and warp off. | |
| Condor | Easy* | Mjolnir | Approach | The Condor is much weaker than you, even in a Rocket configuration. It has 4.5 effective launchers with Kinetic, you have 5 with everything, on top of more HP and better fittings, you also have a velocity bonus which it doesn’t get but you’ll probably be better off just approaching it rather than kiting at 9km to deny t2 missiles, since the Condor is often a Kiting ship or generic T1 Tackler. If you can catch it you can usually annihilate it with ease. | |
| Merlin | Easy | Mjolnir | Kite at 8km | The Merlin has a lot of Spank and Tank, at 2km. Outside that and it really has problems doing anything but tanking. Even with null loaded it will be scratching paint at 8km while your missiles tear it up. Its also slower than you when scrammed so you should always be able to control it perfectly. Might take awhile to die but it’s no threat to you in typical blaster + MSE combinations. | |
| Kestrel | Mirror | Mjolnir | Kite at 8km | Kestrel 1vs1 often come down to whoever approaches the other guy first. My Recommendation would be to wait at 15km, firing missiles and hope the other guy MWDs into your missiles, since its a mirror whoever gets the damage first usually wins, especially if that comes at extended range where the other guys first few volleys expire before hitting. Against LML Kestrel approach and kill it. | |
| Atron | Easy | Nova | Kite at 8km | Atron is almost always going to be a disposable tackler used by nullsec gangs flown by less skilled players or as a free ship given out. Even in an Assassin PvP Style fit, you can usually out-muscle it since it’s an attack frigate, just don’t face tank void at 2km and you should have no problems disposing of it. It does have a falloff bonus so it might hurt with null at 8km but you can win the EHP/DPS race still. | |
| Incursus | Easy | Nova | Kite at 8km | Incursus will usually be fit in 2 ways, either with scram only and an injector with dual rep, or with scram+web and single rep, either configration you have the advantage against and kill. Dual Rep might be able to tank you while it has ancillary charges for 30s, (If its 2x T2 small reps you can break it slowly). this dual rep incursus will not have a web so it will never have control over you, feel free to leave if his friends show up. | |
| Tristan | Moderate | Inferno | Various, usually safe to approach | The Tristan can be in numerous different fits, the most common is probably going to be a Shield Kiting ship which is still somewhat tanky and will not be an easy fight even at 0km you’ll probably win in Armor, so you need to slingshot it early or force it to engage in a bad position. Tristans can be in scram kiting fits, neut fits or blaster close range DPS fits as well, which is why I recommend Inferno instead of Mjolnir since that does fairly well against Armor and Shield Tristans if you’re unsure what type it is, using look at on a Tristan and checking for guns is a good interaction, if it has no guns approach it, neuts dont really hurt you that much aside from allowing it to warp off. | |
| Slasher | Easy | Mjolnir | Kite at 8km | The Slasher is usually going to be a disposable tackler whenever you see it, just beware of Afterburners in trap fits since it can get insane mitigation thanks to having the lowest sig/highest speed of the frigates. It does less DPS than you at 0km, let alone at 8km and usually struggles to fit any kind of tank outside of 1 buffer module so you shouldn’t have any issues killing it. | |
| Breacher | Moderate | Inferno | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | Breacher is usually dual tanked rather than a single tank, so I recommend Inferno instead of Mjolnir despite its main tank being primary shield. Minmatar ships have 60% Armor base resists so you don’t want to shoot EM into a dual tanked breacher. A breacher can out-brawl you provided that he’s allowed to load and shoot Rage missiles at you, fortunately, the Breacher only has a range of 8.4km with max skills on rage so as long as you are fighting at 9km or further you should be able to win the exchange, also make sure you’re not moving into or towards the breacher as that will increase the range of his missiles by approaching their spawn point. If you can force him to approach you it will decrease his missile range by around 0.6km, against good breacher pilots you might wanna fight at 12km+ even outside scram range to get some missile DPS in first before committing. You can also try and bait an engagement before committing to kill his drones, forcing him to MWD a few cycles can help reduce the efficiency of his Ancillary Armor Repairer with non-charge cycles too.People love using these as Afterburner only trap fits for some reason, so check for AB before engaging | |
| Rifter | Easy | Scourge | Kite at 8km | The Rifter is an old dog, waiting for you to put it down, you are what he was 4 years ago. It doesn’t out damage you at any range and the utility high it has is irrelevant against you. Kite at 8km to prevent him draining your cap with a nos to help himself and he’ll just slowly die to your superior DPS and EHP. | |
| Maulus | Easy* | Inferno | Approach | The Maulus is usually an Ewar Frigate but you can sometimes see it as some weird damp kiter with the drones that it has. If you get on top of it, it’s fresh meat. If you can’t, then kill the drones they are un-bonused and die quickly, fighting around gates can be a great way to extract, note that the maulus has cap difficulties running damps and a long point so it can’t kite you for long, if you kill the drones it’s best hope is usually holding you for a blob, you can generally get this eventually or it’ll warp off when you kill drones. It’s probably going to be armor tanked but I’d load Inferno incase of shields. | |
| Crucifier | Moderate | Nova | Various, be wary | If you see this it’s usually a hard counter-fit with a missile tracking disruptor so be wary. It’s very very rare to see them outside of 1v1 trap fits, unless it’s just a new player with a generic nullsec kitchen sink gang, in which case it’s an easy kill. If you get missile range disrupted and he doesn’t have a web then approach the Crucifier, if its mwd/scram/web/missile disruptor then it can control you, but you can kill drones usually, move away from it to force it to move into your missiles which can help with them hitting, if he kites too far you can often warp off, due to flight time mechanics some of your missiles may hit and your range is not often as bad as it looks. For example, disrupting your velocity and flight time by 20% might make you think you have 40% less range, but in actuallity, he is giving you a 2.4 second flight time so 40% of the time you’re only disrupted by 20%, and the other 60% its 60% less range, so 40% of the time you’re wrecking him if hes in a pure control fit, if he has to run a rep he will cap himself out. If he application disrupts you then approach him.As always, since these fits tend to be trap fits, check for AB before engaging |
Navy Frigates
| Navy Frigates | Navy Crucifier | Hard* Avoid | Nova | Kite at 8km | This ship like it’s Tech I Variation are almost always going to be specifically fit for you, if it has a missile disruptor, you can’t win. Try hanging around 15km to bait it to use it and show you, I would avoid this ship unless you know the pilot does not have the missile disruptor or you know it’s a bad fit. It has similar stats to a Tormentor so its a hard fight for you even if it doesn’t have the Missile Disruptor. |
| Navy Slicer | Hard | Nova | Approach | Usually a kiting ship, this ship is much faster than you and is difficult to slingshot, and the fight is usually unwinnable unless it starts in scram range for you. I’d recommend trying to warp to planets to see if it follows you and then warp to the next planet the same distance that he warped in at, as you can usually catch him this way, fighting on gates and abusing gate cloak is a good way to kill him too, act scared and jump through a gate, slicers will often wait on the gate at 0km for you since they think you’re weak and trying to run from them, which should be about 12km from where you spawn and you can heat everything decloak+immediatly scram+web this way and get a kill. If they orbit the gate you can be patient and watch his orbit while cloaked until the orbit is going to bring him into you then decloak and fight, if the slicer plays too defensively just ignore it. | |
| Navy Griffin | Easy* Hard* | Mjolnir | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | The Navy Griffin does a ton of DPS up close and has ECM, luckily the ECM range is at a huge penalty. With Multispecs the Navy Griffin is a easy kill since it’ll only have 3km range and falloff so the ECM will be useless on you at 9km where you’ll control it and destroy it with ease, if it has a racial it can jam you and if you’re jammed it can approach you with MWD and obliterate you unable to respond. Most people who use ECM are usually not the best pilots so you can get kills on them by baiting out the Cooldown, I’ve killed many Navy Griffins that are even specifically fit for my Kestrel with Gravimetric ECM by chilling at 15km, if you see the Failed Jam Icon on your ship, they just wasted their 20 second cooldown, and you can go in and kill them usually before they get the 2nd cycle if you’re responsive. | |
| Navy Hookbill | Very Hard* Avoid | Mjolnir | Various | The Navy Hookbill does more DPS than you, and tanks more than you, with the same range. You will not be able to kill one unless you know it’s a terrible fit or if its a light missile kite fit that you manage to catch in scram range. You’ll want to avoid this in general | |
| Navy Maulus | Moderate | Inferno | Kite at 8km, but be prepared to approach, you will lose if it kites you at 15km | This is kind of like a slightly stronger, but slower tristan with less control at scram range, but a bigger scram bonus, but no disruptor. Usually they are scram kiters or brawlers but you can usually win against them if you’re in scram range yourself. The Maulus Navy Issue has horrible base speed so once you have it scrammed it’s easy to control. | |
| Navy Comet | Moderate* Avoid Dual Prop | Nova | Kite at 8km | Against a MWD only web/scram navy comet with blasters, it’s a fairly difficult fight but it is winnable by kiting at 9km, you can generally take him down before his 3 drones kill you. I would check the pilot on Zkillboard first though because Comet is very commonly dual propped and a Dual Prop Comet will absolutely wreck you and is unwinnable. If its rails with scram you can lose too, but this is often an AB only fit which you should never engage | |
| Navy Vigil | Very Hard | Inferno | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | The Navy Vigil is like a stronger hookbill with more DPS but no velocity bonus, the bonus is weaker when shooting EM at you and he might make the mistake of shooting explosion into you for the ship bonus. This is a very difficult fight he will win with navy CN explosive and 3x drones on you. You can only ever win by him loading Rage and the missiles expiring before they hit you, you will not be able to kite this out because he has a bonused web range and is way faster than you in base speed stats. I would recommend avoiding this unless you know it’s a bad fit. | |
| Fleet Firetail | Moderate (AC) Very hard (Artillery), AVOID (Dual Prop) | Inferno (Nova vs Artillery) | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | The Firetail is possible to kill if its an AC buffer fit (With medium shield extender, or some weird dual tank setup, or tackler). AVOID Dual Prop setups at all cost because they will wreck you with ease. Artillery is a very hard fight, he has slightly less DPS than you but more tank. Firetails are very versatile so those 3 setups are somewhat equally spread, check zkillboard before engaging. |
Pirate Frigates
| Pirate Frigates | Cruor | Moderate Very Hard* | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | The Cruor is going to be a moderate fight or very hard to next to unwinnable depending on how much pimp he has invested into his Nosferatu. Against a generic T2 fit nos, by kiting at 9km you avoid the majority of the drain effect and he will gain no cap from you and you’ll be able to perma run the scram+web and keep him there the whole time while you whittle away and kill him. With more pimped out nos, such as A-type, he will fully drain you at that range, which will turn off your web + scram allowing him to mwd and get on top of you for conflag DPS and lowering your DPS with the web off. He will also be able to perma run dual reps while draining you. This is a fight you can usually win. but be careful, a pimped out deadspace nos cruor will wreck you |
| Succubus | AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE | Mjolnir | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | This ship has an AB bonus, which means your rocket DPS is going to be doing about 1/5th of what it says on the tooltip, avoid this at all costs. even CN missiles will lose over half their DPS, also, it will be able to control you perfectly and sit on you with conflagration with pirate frigate stats. Unwinnable unless it’s a complete trash fit ship, I would not waste your time looking at the pilot on zkillboard unless you have a feeling that it’s very very bad | |
| Daredevil | Very Hard, Avoid Rail DD | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | The Daredevil with generic T2 fit got nerfed pretty hard in the tiericide patch, you can no longer get 60% web from fleeting web, you now have to invest in the t2 web, which costs 10 more CPU, which breaks the fit since the Daredevil is tight on CPU. This is still an extremely difficult fight and you will want to fight as defensively as possible, luckily Daredevil pilots are usually very eager to engage you, burn away and hope you get some missile volleys into him and make sure you’re always moving in front of him so when you both web and scram eachother the iertia starts the fight at the very edge of scram range. You CAN win this if he has void or CN antimatter loaded if you start the fight perfectly, you’ll die if he has null loaded but DDs very rarely load null and don’t respect you enough to do so. If he has mwd/scram/82.5% web (Fleeting), he will gain on you at about 180m/s per second, which means he’ll close the gap from 10km to 5km (where you’ll get fucked) in about 30 seconds. Luckily that time + any time you bought yourself with volleys before getting scrammed+webbed can be enough to bring it down, DDs often aren’t tanked well. If he has pimped web (Fed Navy) or Null loaded you will lose. Rail Daredevil is more rare but it’s an unwinnable fight even at 0km | |
| Worm | AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE | Mjolnir | Various | The worm is the Svipul of the Frigates, insane EHP/DPS ratio. you can’t kill a kiting worm even at 0km unless it’s the absolute worst fit in existence. Avoid | |
| Garmur | Hard* | Mjolnir | Approach | The Garmur is one of the strongest kiting frigates in the game, if it makes the mistake of being in your scrambler range, it will die and usually drop some nice modules for you however! Employ the same tactics as against a slicer, try and bait using gate mechanics and planet warping, avoid getting caught at a celestial though because if it catches you and establishes orbit at 30km you will die and not ever be able to escape or catch it. Its very hard if not impossible to slingshot a Garmur because of the defensive scram and increased point range. If you do try, fight around gates so you can re approach and jump out if you don’t catch it. | |
| Dramiel | Hard* Avoid Dual Prop | Inferno | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | If the Dramiel is not dual prop, you have a DPS advantage and can usually win the exchange if it’s a MSE, mwd, scram, web or similar fit. It’s like a harder blaster comet fight, since it has a falloff bonus on ACs and the same drones, it IS winnable tho but very tight. if it’s dual Prop or an armor control fit of some kind, you will get absolutely obliterated. | |
| Astero | Moderate* Avoid PvP Pure fits | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | The Astero is normally flown by Explorers who like to bully out other Explorers. An Astero that has an Analyzer fitted or both exploration modules is not going to have either a web or injector, or both. One thing to consider with the Astero is that it’s slower than you it has terrible base speed. So always kite at 9km, this also denies the opportunity of a utility highslot module like a nosferatu. If it is an Injector with dual rep + Web fit, you can run by heating scram+web since your base speed is higher, so always keep this in mind. You can usually kill the guys who have no injector and are doing exploration and decide that want to try and bully you because you’re there. At worst you can leave, since they almost always won’t have a web, even if they do, you can still run. This is hard to win but most the time you can run if the fight is not going your way. |
Interceptors
| Interceptors | Crusader | Very Hard | Inferno | Kite at 5km+ | The Crusader has insane DPS if fit properly with small focused pulse, it will out DPS you with Scorch. This fight is incredibly hard against an actual PvP focused Crusader. If its a shit fit tackler or has 3 speed mods or something though, go for it. The Crusader has cap issues so forcing it to MWD for you can help a lot with this match up. Respect the Crusader. |
| Malediction | Moderate-Very Hard | Inferno | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | The Malediction can be a very strong rocket brawler, it has similar stats to you, just without the missile range bonus, but its an interceptor so has a huge speed advantage. You should kite it at 9km+ to deny it the ability to use t2 missiles on you, it will gain on you eventually however, if its just a generic tackler you can usually kill it easily. | |
| Raptor | Moderate | Mjolnir | Kite at 8km+ | The Raptor is exact same as the Merlin match-up, just it now has HG snakes and an optimal range bonus, it has respectable reach with null so make sure you respect it enough to start the fight at 8km or further. | |
| Crow | Easy* | Mjolnir | Approach | The Crow is weaker than you even with a Rocket fit, it has terrible fittings and less damage. The most common Crows will be LML kiting fit usually acting as fast tackle for a nullsec kitchen sink defence, an easy kill if you can catch it, like with all kiting ships, try and fight them on gates or bait them to follow you to celestials | |
| Taranis | Moderate* Avoid Dual Prop | Nova | Kite at 8km+ | The Taranis if it has mwd/scram/web will be a moderate kill for you, shouldn’t give you too much trouble, its a bit easier to kill than the navy comet match up. If it has Dual-Prop you will get absolutely destroyed, and the Taranis is probably the most common dual prop frigate in the game, so pay attention and check zkillboard before engaging. | |
| Ares | Easy* | Inferno | Approach | Ares is usually just generic tackle ceptor for a nullsec gang. You’ll have no problems killing it, just don’t sit 2km from it because if it does have blasters you hurt a lot. I recommend Inferno instead of Nova because they are often shield tanked with mwd/disruptor/MSE, but mwd/scram/disruptor fits are common too with light armor tank. Interceptors do not get any secondary resistance bonuses so despite being t2 gallente it has the same armor resists as a t1 gallente ship, so thermal is a fine choice all around. it’s basically just an Atron that goes fast. Nobody solos in an Ares obviously, so make sure you fight around gates so you don’t get caught out by it so his gang can come and kill you. | |
| Claw | Moderate | Scourge | Kite at 8km | Claw has 2 mids so you have range control, a PvP Claw is still going to be a moderate match up even if you mitigate most of his DPS however. Do not disrespect it and get closer than 6km because you will get wrecked if you do, it has a very high base speed so even when you have it webbed, you’ll only be going 100m/’s faster than it so if you start the fight at a bad position you’re going to die well before you get to safer ranges. Otherwise, this is a winnable fight. Claws are often badly fit so you shouldn’t have too many problems with them, just control them at 8km | |
| Stiletto | Easy* | Inferno | Approach | Stiletto is the purest of the Tacklers, it has the most speed, the worst DPS to defend itself, even with ACs at 1km it cannot hope to kill you before it dies, so don’t worry too much about mitigating DPS focus more on catching him. Like all the tackle ceptors, it’s an easy kill if you’re on top of it. Like all Tackle Ceptors, fight them around gates or bait warps to celestials so you don’t get caught out by them for their friends to come. |
Assault Frigates
| Assault Frigates | Retribution | Very Hard | Inferno | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | This ship will outdamage you with Scorch, and has an incredible amount of tank. It only has 2 mids though, so you can always run from it, it’ll often be CPU starved so won’t roll a T2 Scram. You can try it and run if you start getting owned, but don’t expect to be able to kill it, only if it has a bad fit. |
| Vengeance | Very Hard | Inferno | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | This ship has rockets, and an insane tank. You will want to kite this ship at heated scram range, vengeance has some CPU issues so it often cannot run a T2 scram, your only victory condition is if he has rage loaded usually, always move away from him, treat this as a breacher on crack. You have higher base speed and probably better scram range so you can run from this if things go sour, which they will pretty quickly usually. Do not fight this unless you can start the fight at 9km or further. | |
| Harpy | Hard | Mjolnir | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram), orbit 500 vs rails | This is a Merlin, with more tank and DPS, and double optimal range bonus. You’ll usually see these as rail fleet doctrines or blaster merlin style solo ships. You can win by kiting at 9km but don’t expect it to be easy because double optimal null hurts a lot even at this range. You can always run if you start losing, be careful of rail fits, you can get under the guns of a 150mm rail harpy but the common nullsec doctrine fit has an afterburner so be aware of that. If its just a generic sniper you can kill with tight orbit. | |
| Hawk | AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE | Mjolnir | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | This ship has more damage than you, more tank than you, infact, an insane active tank, and it has the same range. Do not even try to fight this unless you suspect it’s a terrible fit. Its slower than you so you can extract, but don’t expect this fight to ever go well. | |
| Enyo | Moderate | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | Enyo has an optimal bonus and a lot of gank, with some tank. You can win against this by kiting at 9km, if it loads null you’re in for a tough fight. Like All Assault Frigates, its slower than you so you can always run if you start losing. Check guns if it has ions or lower its an easy kill. | |
| Ishkur | Hard | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | You can win against an Ishkur but you’ll be taking 90 DPS from drones the fight, just remember to play at scram edge always so you can run. It has both an optimal and tracking bonus, but often won’t fit highest tier guns or rails so you’re usually safe from gun DPS. It has a backup flight of drones and they’re hard to kill so you probably can’t win if you try to defang it, you can win by winning the DPS exchange at 9km, but again, hard fight, be prepared to run, you can win if he has warriors instead of acolytes. | |
| Wolf | Hard | Scourge | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | Check for Artillery first, most artillery pilots obviously fly the Svipul instead which is better in absolutely every way, but there might be some old school fits. Against AC brawl fit, you can win by kiting at 9km, this is like fighting a Sabre with more tank but less DPS, and less control. Slightly easier fight than Sabre, remember you can easily run from this fight if he’s wrecking you. | |
| Jaguar | Moderate | Scourge | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | Jaguars often have a decent buffer tank, and moderate DPS, but very low projection with Autocannons, the optimal bonus doesn’t translate well. You can win. This will take awhile to kill so make sure you’re in a position to leave if his friends turn up (9km). Its slower than you when you both scram+web eachother like most AFs, so running is always a possibility if the fight isn’t going your way. |
Electronic Attack Frigates
| Electronic Attack Frigates | Crucifier | Hard | Inferno | Approach | This fight is very difficult, a Sentinel will alpha your capacitor and then you won’t be able to turn on your scram web or MWD, You have one option against this ship, it lands at 0km from you, and you all in. I’ve killed several Sentinels in this manner. Sentinels will try and kite you at 20km while you cannot do anything, but usually they are very over confident and will follow you to a planet or celestial, bait them and try and get them to land on you at 0km, this is your only chance of winning. They have very low tank and they can’t neut off your Rockets so catching them this way will often get them killed, spam your scram hotkey. |
| Kitsune | AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE | Mjolnir | Approach | If it’s 1v1 it’ll be some trap fit, if its with a gang you’re gonna be permajammed while you die. Avoid this like most dedicated ECM ships | |
| Keres | easy* | Nova | Approach | Usually a kiting support ship with damps/long point, sometimes some weird gatecamping support ship. It will die to you if you can catch him alone in scram range. less drones than a maulus so not a hard fight. Try and bait him to follow to planet and kill him before his gang lands | |
| Hyena | easy* | Scourge | Approach | Usually a support ship with dual webs and a light armor tank. You can kill this guy no problem in a 1v1 even at 0km against a “PVP” fit. Its usually going to be with friends rather than be solo though. Easy kill if you get him scrammed without friends |
Tech I Destroyers
| Destroyers | Coercer | Avoid | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | I’d recommend you do not fight this, very high DPS that will hit you out at range because of the optimal range bonus. It only has 2 mids so you can run, but you only have 10s before you die to this. |
| Dragoon | Avoid | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | Dragoon has double range neuts that have no problem nuking your capacitor even at 12km. He’ll turn off your scram+web+mwd and you won’t be able to stop him from approaching you with his MWD. Dragoon only has 2 mids so it cannot control you, but, it will nuke your scram off then approach with mwd and scram you. Even if you can keep at at range the whole time bonused drones on a ship that has a decent tank for a Destroyer is a bad match-up, recommending you avoid this one. | |
| Cormorant | Very Hard | Mjolnir | Various | You can win an All-In against a Rail Cormorant with 150mm IIs if you have a tight orbit, this only happens if it lands on you at 0km. Do not fight it in any other circumstance or burn towards it, you will get wrecked since it has a huge 50% tracking bonus. Against Blasters, it does have a double optimal bonus, but you can win by kiting at 10km, just be prepared to leave. It struggles to fit neutrons with any tank so may use Ions which will allow you to kill it far easier, winnable but be expected to run. | |
| Corax | Very Hard | Mjolnir | Approach | Avoid Rocket Coraxes at all costs, against LML, you can win against an All-In at 0km since you deal similar DPS but he often cannot fit much tank but its a very tight fight. | |
| Catalyst | Moderate | Nova | Kite at 8km | This has both a Falloff and Optimal Bonus so prepare to get wrecked by Null, if he has anything else loaded though you can win by kiting at 9km. It has only 2 mids so remember, its easy to run if you’re losing since he doesn’t have a web. Avoid Rail Catalyst unless it lands at 0km same story as the Cormorant | |
| Algos | Avoid | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | Bonused drone ship with a decent amount of tank, and it has 5 guns, which can be rails. You won’t win even if it’s blasters and you kite it at 10km since the drones do too much DPS and you can’t kill them fast enough. Recommend avoiding unless you know it’s a bad fit. | |
| Thrasher | Moderate | Inferno | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | This is a T1 Sabre, easier to kill, but don’t disrespect it. It will face melt you if you go anywhere closer than 7km to it, you can win by kiting in extended scram range however. It is usually mwd/scram/mse fit with double gyro or gyro+damage control. I recommend Inferno over Mjolnir since Thrashers have a healthy amount of Armor HP and those 60% EM resists really suck shooting into. | |
| Talwar | Hard | Scourge | Approach | Same Story as the Corax, if its Rockets, don’t try it. If its lml sniper fit, you can win an all-in at 0km but its a hard fight. try and bait it by warping out to planets so he follows you and kill him there if you can get him to land at 0km on you |
Interdictors
| Interdictors | Heretic | Very Hard* Avoid Rockets, no bubble | Inferno | Approach | Avoid Rocket Heretic at all costs. Avoid LML heretic without a bubble at all costs. You can only win against a LML Heretic with a bubble, which may show up (more of a fleet nullsec doctrine support fit). Always check for guns before engaging, do not fight if you don’t see a bubble go up. If the heretic has LML with bubble then the CPU is too gimped for a decent tank so you can win the all-in exchange, but this is the only circumstance in which you should fight. |
| Flycatcher | Very Hard* Avoid Rockets, no bubble | Mjolnir | Approach | Exact same thing as the Heretic, do not fight rockets, do not fight LML no bubble, your only chance is lml with bubble and gimped fleet support fit. | |
| Eris | Moderate* Avoid no bubble | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | If it has a Bubble, this is an easy kill, as Eris’ has gimped CPU, it has worse CPU than an Atron while having to fit 7 guns if it has the bubble fitted. Making it an easy kill by kiting at 8km+. Against the DPS all-in fit with no bubble, you want to avoid it, rail fits will give you problems too. This ship has an optimal bonus so avoid neutrons with null. It only has 2 mids so you can always run from it since it won’t have both a Scram and a Web. | |
| Sabre | Very Hard | Scourge | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | Sabres will come in 2 Varieties usually. Dual MSE with just a Scram, and lower Tier guns, and 200mm Sabres with scram+web and single MSE. Both of these are tough fights, when you jump into a sabre, burn away and wait for him to MWD to you, manually lower your speed or ctrl space occasionally while double clicking so he gains on you but try and keep speed equal at 14-16km while he slowly gains on you so he eats 5-6 rocket volleys before the fight starts, once you mutually scram each other, heat Scram and Web the entire fight if possible and kite at 10km. This is a fight where the T2 Scram is very useful, You can win but this is a hard fight and it’s dependent on the Sabre pilot loading shitty ammo choice or you flying absolutely perfectly and baiting him into a few free missile salvos. Remember if he bubbles himself he can’t warp so don’t be afraid to leave heated Scram Range for Heated Web range to mitigate some more DPS. |
Tactical Destroyers
| T3Ds | Confessor | Avoid | Inferno | Various | You can’t beat this, Scorch S will destroy you, beam fits can track you perfectly in speed mode double click away. |
| Jackdaw | Avoid | Mjolnir | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | You can’t win all in even against LML sniper fits, and rocket fits will obviously destroy you, if you think you’ve found the worst pilot alive, you have one strategic option against terrible jackdaw pilots, and that is to kite at 10km and hope he uses Rage Missiles while not going into Sharpshooter Mode so the missiles expire before reaching you. Most T3D pilots tend to be bad and only ever use defensive mode so It is possible, against someone who knows what they’re doing however, no chance, it has a 2.5 second reload too so not like it cannot swap ammo easily. It is very slow so remember you can run from it. | |
| Hecate | Very Hard | Nova | Kite at 9km+ (Heat Scram) | You can beat a non injected Hecate fit by kiting at 9km, and slowly wearing it down. Do not fight Railguns, you can only hope to beat a bad all-in / blaster Hecate that doesn’t know how to press the Sharpshooter mode button and load null. It gets 66% optimal in sharpshooter mode which can make Null Wreck you with Neutrons, if it has lower tier guns you can win it just takes time. Many T3D pilots are bad and will stay in defensive mode the entire time instead of correctly going to sharpshooter mode so it is possible, very hard fight against someone who knows what they’re doing they’ll probably force you to run | |
| Svipul | AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE | Scourge | Various | Dual MSE Dual Neut you can run from, but don’t ever hope to kill it before it kills you even with Hwail S because it has 26k EHP and 91 DPS passive regen, Artillery will usually wreck you if it has a web. You can only kill a svipul with no web, 250 or 280mm Artillery that aggresses you at 0km and doesn’t know how to double click in space in speed mode, again, many svipul pilots are gate campers who aren’t used to actual fights so it is certainly possible to kill them. If you ever jump into a svipul you need to heat MWD and burn away from them, you can usually survive one volley and warp out without taking armor damage. |
