Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Fit of the Week: Tag-ratting Vexor

Before too much longer, the new type of low-sec "tag rats" should be appearing on the Singularity test server.  And we don't know how tough they're going to be yet.  But I thought it might be fun to put together a ship that would theoretically be good at hunting them.  The goals for this ship are:

• very inexpensive and cheap to lose;
• very agile and able to evade typical low-sec gangs;
• good DPS; and,
• tanky enough to do the job without endangering itself.

With these goals in mind, lots of ships lined themselves up for inspection.  HACs (Ishtars, say, or Vagabonds) have good DPS and are agile and tanky, but expensive.  Attack BCs (like the Talos) have great DPS and are tanky enough to rat in, but typical low-sec frigate and destroyer gangs will make mince-meat of them.  Destroyers (the Algos, for instance) are cheap, have good DPS, and are very quick and evasive but I doubt their ability to tank a tough rat or rats.  Bombers are the typical choice for this kind of thing, but how tough are these new rats going to be?  We don't know yet.  Bombers are pretty specialized ships for low-sec flying and just might have a hard time tanking the new rats.

So I thought a good first candidate ship to go after these tag rats would be a tough, agile cruiser.  That put me in the mind of the Vexor:

[Vexor, Tag Ratter]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I

Garde II x3
Warrior II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5


A Vexor has a lot to recommend it for this kind of work: it's very cheap to fly and to replace if needed.  It's an easy fit and lots of people can fly them.  It does great DPS: 500 or more.  And it's agile and survivable, particularly as a dual-prop nano-shield fit.  In this configuration, it will be damn tough to catch even on low-sec gate camps.  Let's start with that last bit.  Dual nanos allows the ship to align in about four seconds and on overheated MWD its speed approaches 3000m/s.  If someone gets a lucky scram on you, you can easily fit dual prop and overheat AB back to gate at about 1000m/s.  And the tank is sufficient that with an overheated Invul, you can easily hold off a decent size typical low-sec frig or destroyer gang for a while.

Main ratting DPS comes from a set of three Sentry drones and rail guns that as I mentioned are good for a combined 500-550 DPS.  Not too bad for an easy fit cruiser!  Carry faction ammo for a little more punch.  The hardest part about the fit are the T2 Sentries and you can use T1 Sentries in a pinch until your skills come up to scratch.  A set of light drones can clear rat frigate tackle if needed, and a set of EC drones will clear player tackle off a gate.  That said, if you get tackled in a belt by a single frig and want to fight it out, with your dual prop and mobility, you've got a pretty good shot at popping him and then warping off.

The Vexor's large cargo hold is ideal for picking up a lot of rat loot and if you're particularly confident in your flying you can even drop the light drones for a set of salvage drones.

Once we know how tough the new tag rats are, we'll have a better fit for what kind of ship might do well against them, but the Vexor's ability to kite away from damage should serve it in good stead to mitigate most or all damage.  Sweep out away from your sentries after you drop them, then sweep back in to scoop and redeploy them if they start taking too much damage.  The shield Vexor's fast align time will quickly take it from belt to belt to belt in low-sec looking for its prey.  While you're looking for tag rats, this ship should have no problem knocking down the occasional low-sec battleship rat.

Anyway, nothing fancy here and if you lose it, the whole ship and everything on it costs about 25 million or so.  From the way things are looking, that might end up getting paid for with a single tag...

Happy tag ratting!


All Fits of the Week are intended as general guidelines only.  You  may not have the skills needed for this exact fit.  If you do not, feel  free to adjust the fit to suit to meet your skills, including using meta  3 guns and "best named" defenses and e-war.  Ships can also be adjusted  to use faction or dead-space modules depending on the budget of the  pilot flying it.  Each FOTW is intended as a general guide to introduce  you to concepts that will help you fit and to fly that particular type  of ship more aggressively and well.
Source: Fit of the Week: Tag-ratting Vexor