Friday, December 21, 2012

Retribution T1 Cruisers - Part 4 - The Maller

Part 4 -Maller
Relegated to a position of obvious bait, a Maller was a rare sighting in the past. The most common fits were maxing out on the tank, leaving only a little room for frigate sized weapons. Retribution changes everything. Aside from slot and base stats changes, the capacitor use bonus is traded in for damage.

Here is an Armour Maller
[Maller, Armour Maller]
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Tracking Enhancer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 800

Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II, Scorch M

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I


Hobgoblin II x3





In the past when I have gone out in small armour BC gangs, it was always surprising which BC had the top damage on the killmails. It wasn't the punishing Brutux, or the ever-popular Hurricane or Drake, it was usually the Harbinger that was at the top. The ability to use scorch to do full damage at medium range meant that the Harbinger was doing full DPS while the other BCs were zipping around trying to get close to their targets. This Maller continues that tradition. Combine that with a tough, high resist tank and this is a winning combination. Mobility is on the low side, but not terrible. Combine this ship with a couple of armour logistics ships (like an Augoror) and you have a gang that is going to be hard to beat.

In the stats above I am using scorch since that is ammo type that is most useful in this ship. Switching to high damage ammo brings DPS up to around 425. As you can see though from the damage profile, scorch gives this ship tremendous damage projection extending out to the edge of warp disruptor range. One nice thing about lasers is that it can instantly switch ammo types. If you find yourself suddenly at close range, you can quickly switch to imperial navy Multi or conflagration.

IMHO there are no viable shield fits, the bonus to armour would be wasted.

tl;dr: A bit more of a niche player then some of the other Combat Cruisers, the Maller nevertheless has become a viable weapon platform.

That covers the Combat Cruisers, next we will discuss the Attack Cruisers.

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