Battle Heron

Old habits die hard, and I thought I would go out and look for someone to shoot at. This is easier said than done in Solitude, and after some running around in a Stratios, I switched to something I'm seeing a lot of out here, a Heron.

With so many alpha players around this area, and explo being a popular newbro activity, I blend right in. The Heron is the best ship for a new player to explore in, as it has as the most mids of any explo frig, and the scan rigs really help a new player track down sites in good time.

I have tried a few different iterations of the battle heron over the years. They do well in the factional warzone as you will often be confused with a plexing farmers. There are two fits I'll link here if you want to give one a try. I have varying success, but at least I get fights and content.

[Heron, Battle Heron]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II

Warp Scrambler II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster
Medium Ancillary Shield Booster

150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
Rocket Launcher II

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Operational Solidifier I

Throw some hobs in that beast and you have a supertanked evil bastard of a thing that eats other frigs alive, as long as you can put down enough damage. The tank reps your full shield with each turn, but's very easy to overrep. Autocannon kite and with a little luck your opponent won't even be able to track you.

[Heron, Scanner Probe I]
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer

1MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II
Tracking Disruptor II
Tracking Disruptor II

Small Ghoul Compact Energy Nosferatu
75mm Gatling Rail II
75mm Gatling Rail II

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I


Acolyte II x3
Hobgoblin II x4

Spike S x1000
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S x1000
Caldari Navy Thorium Charge S x1400
Nanite Repair Paste x22
Optimal Range Disruption Script x2
Tracking Speed Disruption Script x1

I started rolling in this thing after watching Mira Chieve's excellent video. The thing you want to keep an eye out for are ships that rely on range control to track and hit you. Fighting droneboats is not advised, on the other hand, anything with fixed guns will have a lot of trouble tracking you. This is a great counter for Minmatar ships like thrashers, sabres, and svipuls. You will mitigate almost all damage by keeping the target close to the range of your guns, about 7500km, and letting the optimal range scripts do their jobs. The nos on this fit doesn't get a lot of use, as you are at range, so lose it if you have fitting problems. An antipharmikon Iokira and/or a Quafe will serve you well, maintaining range is important.

This is a cheap fit! Even better than that, it is a smart fit. It takes advantage of your enemies assumptions, one of the deadliest strategies in Eve. You can easily play a cyno, a plexer, or a salvager, and jump on your prey without seeming like a threat. The use of range scripts is not something everyone knows about and is almost always unexpected. Turning the tides on someone like this is one of my favorite ways to go about the game.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Writing for Eve News24

Image
 Wheeling and dealing in New Eden can be a huge risk. The game encourages people to be shady in their dealings, and you can't always take someone at their word. Ambiguity is king, it allows us to become whatever we want and shed our real personality, but also unlocks the door for people to roleplay a person with shady morals. You have to watch your back out there. I occasionally do some artwork for ISK, things like logo design, photoshops, or even physical paintings. In real life I work from home as an artist and it is nice to be able to make in game monies that way as well. Dealing with this ambiguity in a business setting can be difficult and I have been burned before. I was recently hired by a corp to redesign their corp logo. It was a big job, and they had an idea of what they wanted that changed a few times during the process, making the job take a few days. At the end I turned over my work, and then a few hours later, my contact dropped corp and became incommunicado. A
Read more

Emergent Gameplay Gone Right; Exploding a Vendetta

Image
Well, it went right for me anyway. I can't say as much for the other guy. The Alliance is spread out right now across two regions. We fight alongside Brave, Tikle, and others for control of Catch against Pandemic Legion, Northern Coalition, and Goons. We are still maintaining Esoteria as our home for ratting, mining, and production. Most groups in Test have home constellations there, and work there to bring the system indexes up and provide tools for the front in the form of ships, modules, fuel, and thousands of other things needed to bring the pain. Being so spread out can be tough on the individual pilot. Keeping a second set of ships at the ready for home defense is expensive and keeping track of which ships to keep where is sometimes confusing. Having a Dread and a Carrier on standby in both arenas requires a particularly baller Pilot. I keep my main in the active warzone, and my main alt in our home system. The alt usually sleeps and that is fine. While she can fly
Read more

Eve2; Would You Even Want It?

Image
 A while ago I wrote in response to the blog banter question concerning the great reset. If CCP's servers were to suddenly reset, and everyone in Eve started anew, would you come back to the game? In what circumstance would that even work? At the time I was of the opinion that this was not something that would ever work, the loss of SP and time would push the majority of the player ecosystem away, what would be left would not be enough to sustain the game. My original post dissolved as so many of my post do, into doom and gloom and what CCP need to do better to even have a game in five years, but this has been something that has been on my mind after a conversation with my good friend Jebi. Patch day has recently come and gone, and this one seemed particularly disheartening to a lot of players, myself included. There are many things to be upset about only a few discussed here. Finally being forced into the 'new and improved' probe scanner and dscan system was parti
Read more