Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Fit of the Week: Pre-Retribution Sacrilege

With Heavy Assault Missiles about to become a lot more interesting, it's only natural to want to take a another look at the much-maligned Sacrilege.  You'd think with the alliance between Amarr and Caldari, there'd be more Amarr missile ships.  Nope.  The Sac is really the only one worth talking about right now though perhaps that will change in due course.(1)  Here is an extremely solid -- though slightly expensive -- PvP Sac fit:

[Sacrilege, Dual-prop Brawler]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
10MN Afterburner II
Warp Disruptor II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Assault Missile
[empty high slot]
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Heavy Assault Missile

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Hobgoblin II x3


The nice thing about the Sac is that you can tank the hell out of it -- a nearly-T3 quality tank is possible.  Or you can dial it down slightly and benefit greatly from Damnation or Legion armor links.  Lowering the resistances slightly means you won't have as much of a stacking penalty inflicted on you from the links.  For this fit, I've gone with this idea.  Even before links, this fit out-tanks a similar Zealot by about 6k EHP.  But after links, this is a 100k EHP ship, 25% more tanky than the comparable Zealot.  That's very solid and more than justifies the expense of the faction EANM.  That leaves two slots for Ballistic Control Units which will do very nice things for the HAM launchers.

Unfortunately, in a fit of extremely poor ship design, the long-range Zealot is 100m/s faster than the short-range Sac... but there's one thing you can potentially do about that which I'll get to in a few minutes.

DPS is provided by five HAM launchers and unlike the Zealot you can tune your DPS to any type of damage you like.  So carry a variety of both faction HAMs and a couple of reloads of Rage HAMs as well.  Once Retribution drops, you should also consider a reload of Javelin Inferno HAMs.  I'm not yet convinced that Javelin HAMs are powerful enough, but interestingly they allow the Sac to pelt a target from outside point range.

Will a slower-than-average armor-tanked ship be kiting anything?  Probably not.  But with the Javelin penalties being removed, the possibility is not worth dismissing entirely, at least not yet.  You might even go nuts and carry one reload of all four types.

Faction missiles put tunable DPS at around a 475 DPS base, and the open utility slot gives you a pretty good safety margin for over-heating to 550 DPS.  However, I think the best option is to put launchers #1, #3, and #5 in a group and overheat that group.  That puts DPS at around 515-520 for nearly two minutes with good skills.  That's equal to or better than a Zealot, and again the DPS is tunable.  With Guided Missile Precision soon to affect the HAMs, I believe this is going to put Sac DPS firmly greater than Zealot DPS for the foreseeable future, and Rage HAMs are going to be significantly better than Conflag once Retribution drops.  Sacs will be capable of just eating battleships.

Where the Sac really shines besides tank is in the mid slots.  I like dual-propping this beast, but this is a really tight fit grid-wise, so you might prefer a Target Painter or some other e-war or ECCM.  I include close-range drones, but you can swap them for Warriors or Hornet ECs if you like.

So overall, I think the Sac definitely deserves another look if you've dismissed it in the past.  Play with the fit a little bit and you can even wedge a little bit of utility in that open high slot if you like.

One more thing: post-Retribution, HAM launchers will cost 10% less grid.  That's going to free up about 56 grid total.  One option is to use that grid to make this fit work without Advanced Weapon Upgrades, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that option.  Still, if you do have AWU5, there's an alternative option: a Federation Navy 1600mm Reinforced Steel Plate.  These mods used to be one of the best-kept secrets in New Eden.  Their effect is equal to a 1600mm RRT Plate, but at only 75% of the mass penalty.  While this isn't a major factor on battleships, on cruiser-size ships it makes a significant difference.  This Sac picks up about 50m/s under MWD, for instance.  The Fed Navy plate used to be very inexpensive but in the last year or so the price has escalated to 100-120 million as players have figured out the benefit of this mod.  So you'll have to decide if the extra 50m/s is worth it... and you're still going to have to either sacrifice the AB or use a 1% grid implant to make it all fit.  It's up to you.

All in all, I'd say the Sac's headed for a renaissance...


(1) Yes, I know about the Curse.  If you're fitting missile launchers to your Curse, in my opinion, you're doing it wrong.  And yes, dual-rep Vengeances are also quite interesting though slightly under-powered compared to the many alternatives.