Recommended Ship Setups for BASIC

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Introduction

The below setups are good examples of frigate fits that can be used in PVP-BASIC Class. If you have been pvping solo or in small gangs, they may not be ideal but they work well in big numbers. Keep in mind, however, that EWAR and agility are the Hydra Fleet's main tank.

Fitting a damage control on your ship is highly recommended. In case class fleet gets bombed, and this happens practically every roam, a DCU will ensure that your frigate can survive at least 2 bombing attempts.

Select ammo so that your optimal range is between 6-10 km. This way you will be able to do damage outside of smartbomb range as well as do any damage at all, as classes are big and targets often melt before you can get within 2-3 km range of them. For these reasons, setups with rockets, autocannons and blasters are NOT recommended.

Remember, these fits are NOT mandatory and Agony encourages students to experiment with their own fits. However, these may serve as a useful guide when doing so.

Suggested Hydra Setups for PVP-BASIC

Attack Frigates

Attack frigates receive bonuses that reduce tackling module capacitor use, have fast base speed, and good cap regen. Because their base EHP is on the low side, range control is essential to survival. These ships make excellent fast tackling ships, fly them almost like they are baby interceptors! Note: All Attack Frigate fits have been updated post-Retribution, as of 17th December, 2012.

All Attack Frigates receive an 80% reduction in Propulsion Jamming systems activation cost, plus the following hull-specific bonuses:

  • Hydra Slasher 5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret damage and 7.5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret tracking speed per skill level.
  • Hydra Atron 10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret falloff and 5% Small Hybrid Turret damage per skill level.
  • Hydra Condor 10% bonus to light missile and rocket kinetic damage per skill level
  • Hydra Executioner 10% bonus to Small Energy Turret capacitor use and 5% Small Energy Turret damage per skill level.

Combat Frigates

Combat frigates are somewhat slower than the Attack frigates, but have better base EHP. They are excellent for brawling and close-range tackling ("chaser tackle"). All Combat Frigate fits have been updated for Retribution.

  • Hydra Merlin 5% bonus to shield resistances and 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage per skill level.
  • Hydra Kestrel 5% Bonus to Missile damage per level and 10% Bonus to Missile velocity per level.
  • Hydra Incursus 10% bonus to Armor Repairer effectiveness and 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage per skill level.
  • Hydra Tristan 7.5% Bonus to Hybrid Turret tracking speed per level and 10% Bonus to Drone tracking speed and hitpoints per level. Can carry 5 light drones.
  • Hydra Rifter 5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret damage and 7.5% bonus to tracking per level.
  • Hydra Tormentor 10% bonus to Small Energy Turret capacitor use and 5% Small Energy Turret damage per skill level
  • Hydra Punisher 5% Bonus to Small Energy Turret damage and 5% bonus to armor resistances per skill level.
  • Hydra Breacher 5% Bonus to Missile damage per level and 7.5% Bonus to Shield boost amount per level

Disruption Frigates (A.K.A. Ewar Frigates)

All Disruption Frigate fits have been updated for Retribution.

  • Hydra Crucifier 7.5% bonus to Tracking Disruptor effectiveness and 10% bonus to Tracking Disruptor optimal range.
  • Hydra Griffin 15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength and 10% bonus to ECM Target Jammers' capacitor need per level
  • Hydra Maulus 7.5% bonus to Remote Sensor Dampener effectiveness and 10% reduction to Remote Sensor Dampeners' capacitor need.
  • The Vigil has a target painter bonus (as of Retribution: 7.5% bonus to Target Painter effectiveness and 10% bonus to Target Painter optimal range); as we do not use target painters in the PVP-BASIC Hydra fleet we don't recommend using this ship for the class roam.

Support Frigates (aka Logistics)

In December 2012's Retribution expansion, the four mining frigates (Inquisitor, Bantam, Navitas, Burst) are being repurposed into frigates with remote repair bonuses. While we are very excited by the possibilities represented by this new class of frigates, at this time we have not yet determined the best way to integrate them into the Basic class and roam.

  • Inquisitor: 10% bonus to Remote Armor Repair System repair amount and 10% reduction in Remote Armor Repair System capacitor use; 500% bonus to range of remote armor repair systems
  • Bantam: 10% bonus to Shield Transporter boost amount, 10% reduction in Shield Transporter capacitor use, and 500% bonus to range of Shield Transporters
  • Navitas: 10% bonus to Remote Armor Repair System repair amount, 10% reduction in Remote Armor Repair System capacitor use, and 500% bonus to range of remote armor repair systems
  • Burst: 10% bonus to Shield Transporter boost amount, 10% reduction in Shield Transporter capacitor use, and 500% bonus to range of Shield Transporters

Exploration Frigates

The Magnate, Heron, Imicus, and Probe frigates all provide bonuses to scanning, codebreaking, analyzing, and salvaging modules. At this time, these frigates do not serve a useful purpose within the PVP-BASIC Hydra fleet (although they do make great cyno ships!).

Constructing Setups Independently

Fitting Priorities

If you want to bring a frigate that is not listed above or make a different fit to PVP-BASIC class, please note the following:

  • Lowslot Priorities
  1. Damage Control
  2. CPU Upgrade / RCU / MAPC as needed
  3. Damage Mods for DPS Frigates; or EWAR Support for EWAR Frigates
  4. Speed Mods
  5. Agility Mods
  • Midslot Priorities
  1. Afterburner required (MWD allowed for Alumni)
  2. EWAR in all remaining Midslots
  • Hislot Priorities
  1. DPS (see WARNING below)
  2. Remote Repair (Offline as needed)
  • Drones: An armor maintenance bot is highly recommended if your ship has a drone bay. It will typically be used between pvp runs to repair your gang members. If the situation changes suddenly be prepared to lose your drone so carry a couple extra drones in cargo for refit if the FC gives the fleet a break at a station.

WARNING: Setups utilizing blasters, autocannons, and rocket launchers with low missile range skills are vulnerable to smartbombing battleships. We will cover how to see & avoid this in class. If you choose to fly one of these high DPS short range setups, then pay extra attention to Voice to hear "No Bombs" recon before approaching a Battleship closer than 6km. Capital ships such as carriers can fit faction smartbombs that will reach out to 7.5km in range.

Hints and Tips for Constructing Ship Setups

Module Variations

Each module in game exists in several variations. Open up the market and search for Warp Disruptor I. Click on the information icon for this item and then go to "Variations" tab. There you will see several varieties of this module listed. These varieties are arbitrarily ranked in game by a value called the meta value. This value starts at 0 for the lowest ranked modules and ranges over can be over 10 for some high ranking officer and faction varieties. The meta 0 modules are generally referred to as "non-named" (aka "vanilla") modules. Modules of meta value ranging from 1 to 4 are commonly referred to as "meta" or "named" modules. For example, "Warp Disruptor I" is the meta 0 non-named variety while "Initiated Warp Disruptor I", "J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I", "Fleeting Warp Disruptor I" are all meta "named" varieties of this module. Tech II modules are usually meta 5, and modules of meta value higher than 5 are called faction, DED space, cosmos, storyline, and officer modules.

Tech I non-named (meta 0) modules and tech II (usually meta 5) modules can be produced by players in game from blueprint originals and copies. Named, faction, officer, DED space, storyline, and cosmos items (or sometimes blueprint copies of some of these) get dropped as loot by NPCs or in various missions and complexes. Thus the only source of these modules on the market are NPC and complex loot drops. CCP fine-tunes their drop frequency, making some of these modules extremely rare and expensive.

The key differences between all the varieties are in performance, fitting requirements, price, and skill prerequisites. Key things to remember when fitting your ship:

  • For the majority of modules, meta 1-4 "named" varieties have lower fitting requirements (require less CPU and PG) than meta 0 "non-named" or meta 5 "tech II" modules. If you are out of CPU or grid on your ship, they can make an excellent substitute to make your fit work. There are a few modules in game for which meta 1-4 varieties give no advantages in fitting requirements; these are weapon upgrade modules such as heat sinks, gyrostabilizers, magnetic field stabilizers, and ballistic controls. For these modules meta 0 and meta 5 varieties are actually easier to fit than meta 1-4 modules.
  • Meta 1-3 modules usually give better performance for a very modest price increase. Sometimes you can even purchase meta 1-3 modules for cheaper than you can purchase meta 0 modules.
  • Tech II modules usually have higher skill requirements and usually higher CPU and/or power grid requirements, making them occasionally challenging to fit for lower-skilled pilots.
  • Do not always rush to buy a tech II module for your fit. Some meta 4 "best named" modules give same performance as meta 5 "tech II" modules but require less powergrid and CPU to fit, have lower skill prerequisites and come at lower price. A few meta 4 modules are priced significantly higher than their meta 5 "tech II" versions. This is because the saving in cpu and pg they give is so great that they beame very popular in fits and demand on them quickly raises prices. In this case purchasing tech II module can actually be a much cheaper substitute than using meta 4 best-named module.
  • A great majority of skills grant a bonus that is expressed as a percentage. This means that seemingly minute differences in performance of different modules become further amplified when your character's skills get applied to them.
  • It is best to keep your pvp fits cost-effective. While that 70 million True Sansha Warp Scrambler does look good on your new Stiletto, if you plan on losing 5 of these ships in combat the following week you will also be 350 million isk poorer. If you don't see that a particular best named or tech II module will give your ship a significant edge in combat, it may be best to downgrade it to a cheaper variety and save yourself some time having to grind ISK. For example, if you are using a fit that does not rely much on capacitor, then you don't really need a T2 microwarpdrive on it and can substitute it for a much cheaper T1 meta microwarpdrive.

Comparison Window

If you click to show information on a module and go to "Variations" tab, there you will see a button called "Compare" button at the bottom of the information window. Clicking this button will bring up a new window that will let you compare all variations of a module in their performance and fitting requirements. You can enable and disable any parameters by which you'd like to compare these variations. Simpest way to start is by enabling the meta column and sorting all modules by their meta value.

Another good place to compare modules and ships is this website: EVE Object Database

Shopping for Parts

Cheapest fittings and ammunition can usually be purchased in large trade hubs such as Jita, Amarr, Dodixie, and Rens. These systems have achieved trading hub status because there you can find a great variety of items all selling in one station. Most pilots appreciate the convenience of being able to purchase everything they need in a single station, and thus when they need to put some ships together they travel to a major trade hub to do their shopping. Because sell volumes are high in such places, competitors trading on market can typically afford to lower prices of their stocks. For trade hub shoppers this means paying less for items they buy.

To get your frigates to class start location, purchase a hauler with at least 8,000 m3 in cargo space, load it with 3 frigates and modules and pilot it to class location.