To kill bombers you have to do one of two things - hold them on grid or alpha them. The bombers will operate by decloaking, launching the bomb, and then hitting warp. It takes a second or so for the bomb to clear the tube so they never instantly warp and can be caught.
So two things are needed:
- high scan res
- either high alpha damage, instantly applied or a point.
Missiles don't cut it because they don't apply their damage instantly. Rails and Beam lasers are high dps but not great alpha. Short range weapon systems on small ships don't really have the range. So that leaves Artillery as the best weapon system.
The Thrasher is a great ship for this role. All 3 of its ship bonuses (damage, optimal range and tracking) are useful.
Here's the high skill version:
[Thrasher, Antibomber T2]
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines, Scan Resolution Script
F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines, Scan Resolution Script
F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines, Scan Resolution Script
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium S
[Empty High slot]
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
With all 5s scan res is 2424mm (locks a frigate in 0.9 secs), volley damage is 1121, range is 21.6km + 10.9km. Alternatively you can do 700 volley damage at 34.5km +10.9km. It takes 5 bonused Scorch bombs to kill which gives you a chance to warp off if you're aligned and you go the moment you start taking bomb damage.
I also have a fit made using a character with newbro skills except CPU Management 4, Power Grid Management 4 and Weapon Upgrades 4:
[Thrasher, Newbro antibomber]
Emergency Damage Control I
Pneumatic Stabilization Actuator I
Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script
Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script
Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script
250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
250mm Light Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
280mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Republic Fleet Carbonized Lead S
[Empty High slot]
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Ionic Field Projector I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
With most skills set to zero this has 1826mm scan res (locks a frigate in 1.2 secs), volleys for 325 damage with 22.2km + 8.75km range on the light guns, 27.6km + 8.75km range on the bigger ones. Not fantastic but may help finish a bomber if we have a mixed bunch of veterans and newbros wanting to do this. It takes 4 bombs to kill which gives you a chance to warp off if you're in the middle of the bombs exploding.
Another great option is a Keres, whose job is to hold points so the thrashers and indeed the regular fleet can shoot bombers that are pinned on grid:
[Keres, antibomber]
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Warp Disruptor II
Warp Disruptor II
Warp Disruptor II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
This has 3 points with 50.4km overheated range before links. With 4 remote sensor links it has 3177mm scan res (locks a frigate in 0.7 seconds). It will take cat like reflexes to lock and separately point 3 of them before they can warp off but that's pretty useful. Without the remote sensor links it has 1674mm scan res (locks a frigate in 1.3 secs).
It takes 9 bonused Scorch bombs to kill which is handy as bombs usually come in waves of 8.
And here's the booster, I've made it Tech 2 but Tech 1 meta modules are only a tiny bit worse:
[Maulus, antibomber]
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Remote Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Salvager II
Salvager II
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
This thing just orbits the Keres and runs its Remote Boosts on it. It takes 9 bonused bombs to kill this which is a nice number because bombs usually come 8 at a time at most.
Antibomber ships orbit the main fleet anchor at about 15-20km. When bombers decloak at 40km and glide forward about 5km before warping off some of the antibombers may be on that side and able to get shots off, some will be too far away. The Keres should nearly always be able to reach the bombers. Once you see where the bombers are coming in from you can position the antibombers on that side.
Antibombers sit there with their bomber overview on, guns or points hot, poised to control click on targets on the overview. Any bomber killed before its bomb explodes nullifies that explosion. It's important that antibombers don't get warped off if the FC decides to warp to save his fleet - flag exempt or use a separate wing.
A typical bomber is an untanked Hound so it has 2.36k ehp and is slightly weaker to kinetic and explosive. So 2 T2 Thrashers and a newbro Thrasher will alpha one. So for decent coverage you probably want about 20 ships in your antibomber wing.
If people can't fly Thrashers Cormorants are not a bad option as long as there's at least one Keres. While the Corms won't alpha bombers they will finish off pointed bombers fast.
No comments:
Post a Comment