[Jester's Trek] Fit of the Week: Nano Vindicator
Fit of the Week: Nano Vindicator
It occurred to me the other day that I can hardly describe the Vindicator as the best pirate faction battleship in the game without providing a little proof. So here's one fun and devastating thing you can do with it, pretty much right out of my own hangar...
[Vindicator, Nano Vindi]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Domination Nanofiber Structure
Domination Nanofiber Structure
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gist B-Type 100MN Microwarpdrive
Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
Pithum C-Type Adaptive Invulnerability Field
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 800
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Large Core Defense Field Extender II
Large Core Defense Field Extender II
Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II
Hammerhead II x5
Warrior II x5
Vespa EC-600 x5
Second most fun bit first: 1000 DPS to point range. Ouch! And that's before overheating or any faction Mag Field Stabs. If you can get up close and personal with something big, you can switch to faction antimatter ammo and your DPS increases to a minimum of 1200... 1400 if you overheat. Double ouch! And given that you're carrying a "90% web", in other words one that will reduce the speed of your target by 90%, chances are pretty good that you're going to be able to get as up close and personal as you like.
Which brings me to the first most fun thing about this fit: 1300 meters per second... from a battleship! And that's before overheating and before Low-grade Snake implants. And word to the wise: if you don't fly this thing with Low-grade Snakes, you're being foolish. This thing was made for LG Snakes. They push this ship well over 1500m/s before overheating. Which means that pretty much anything up to and including cruisers is going to be within your prime engagement envelope. A Vindicator fit this way is made to end ships, and is thoroughly capable of pulling them in to end them. Before you realize what's happened, this thing is on top of you and there's no getting away under that 90% web.
Needless to say, Vindis fit like this are pretty popular tournament ships but they're quite valid on TQ as well so long as you have separate tackle because the Vindis will generally not carry points or scrams. Do spend the ISK on the faction web: the extra range and overheating capabilities are both worth it.
The tank on this one is the expensive bit but is aimed toward having 100k EHP and a good resist profile. Vindicators are obvious primaries because of their expense and because they'll naturally be quite close to an enemy fleet. As a result, double Invul is advised and it's a smart idea to go ahead and spend the 400 million ISK for at least one of those invuls to be deadspace. This not only increases base resists (to 70% plus before fleet boosts) but also allows for greater overheating. As is my usual custom, I've placed mods in an order that looks nice but for overheating the correct order is MWD-cap booster-deadspace invul-T2 invul-web. This will allow your best possible performance overheating both the deadspace invul and (as needed) the web.
A damage control and T2 rigs complete the tank. The rigs are again expensive but once you've spent 1.1 billion ISK on a ship hull it's important to spend the appropriate amount of ISK defending it and making it survivable. So trust me, the T2 rigs are appropriate.
Similarly, a deadspace MWD helps both overheating (allowing you to heat it more, making you more survivable) and your capacitor position (since Vindicators are somewhat short of cap for what they usually have to do). That extends to a pair of faction Nanofiber Internal Structure mods. While these unfortunately do not increase speed, what they do do is reduce the large structure penalty of fitting a nano, much less two of them. Believe it or not, a pretty good percentage of a Vindicator's tank is in its structure so it's quite worth it not to nerf it too hard.
Once you get all that done, the drones you carry are really a little bit superfluous a lot of the time. That said, particularly aggressive Vindi pilots will carry five heavy drones. There's nothing at all wrong with that idea and if you remember to release them after you have your target tackled, they'll add a quite significant amount of DPS! But in more general cases, a good mix of mediums, lights, and ECM drones are also an acceptable mix.
There's not much I don't love about this ship, enamored with green-and-covered-with-blasters as I am. It does everything a good Gallente mix ship should: it lands on a target's face with both feet and does bad things to it there. You've gotta love a battleship that aligns in six seconds and moves as fast as most cruisers. Needless to say, when the time comes to rebalance this ship I for one hope that not very much is done to it. It's perfect just as it is.
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: Nano Vindicator