What is(are) the best T1 Frigs and why?
$$
PVP
Flexibility
Fun
Toughness (offense and defense)
“It depend.”
Uh, duh.
Obviously you can say whatever you want to, but how about remembering they are little spheres. Their screen image is really irrelevant.
xD
Tristan. Can be fit for kite or brawl, blasters or neuts. You never know exactly what you’re facing until you engage.
Merlin: it’s a brick. Absolute little tank.
Punisher: like the Merlin, it’s a brick.
Breacher: amazing active tanked ship with solid damage.
Heron: dual masb fit can come as a very nasty surprise.
Punisher and Maulus.
From the 2nd window perspective (throw and forgot).
Punisher can be fitted with dual plates and 3trimarks. still having 3x125mm projectile guns WITH nosferatu. Good luck killing this little tackler on Cruiser and up! Will spend tons of a times!
Maulus tripla damps and cloak (optional). It’s like griffin but better. Completely shuts long DPS.
All these fits costs 2-3mil with meta mods, ultra-affordable, definitely go-to for 2nd window!
For a rocket chucker I like navy hookbill. Navy is t1 after all.
For looks and flexibility…rifter. Looks goes along way with me. As I was not happy to see its slot changes when I came back lol.
Affordabilty you…work around. make own rigs if a carebear char kills enough rats to salvage. Or buy orders. They may fill up in time. Just don’t low ball hardcore. Fair market price, give em some time and they can fill up between surges in markets maybe.
t1 doesn’t get used as much since they are slower and weaker than their navy counterparts. The good t1 frigs are the ones with good control over their opponent such as the dual web kestrel and kiting condor or with good tank like the dual rep breacher. The tristan can kite with drones but can be defanged pretty easily. The punisher is tanky but with 2 mids it’s really easy to just dab on even if you are in a slow cruiser.
Rifter, because it looks cool. I don’t care how much they nerf it. They can turn it into a mining frigate and I will still think it is the best.
I’m going to punt for an oddity.
The Tormentor.
You rarely see people flying them, but it can surprise. Fit for very close fast (for Amarr) orbit brawling: Gatling Pulse lasers, good tackle, a couple of drones for additional non-Amarr damage.
You’ve got to get in close from the start, but if you do then she’s and aggressive little prawn.
Generally, different ships suit different styles, experiences and skills. There are no automatic win ships, nor is it just rock, paper scissors.
my man
Pacifier is good T1 tackle.
Republic Fleet Firetail because it’s essentially a T1.5 rifter. An old school rifter that still had it’s utility high. Peak minmatar design. It makes up for a lack of damage and tank by sheer unpredictability and speed.
You can brawl, scram kite, web kite, or anti-kite with it. The only thing it can’t do is pure kite at disruptor range. It has too little damage at distance. You can shield or armor tank it, passive or active. You can run neuts, nos, or rockets depending on your goal. You can run some light ewar using its 4 mids without losing out on the regular goodies. It’s insane speed means it can get under guns OR scram kite with the same build fairly easily. Hell with a single tracking disruptor you can speed tank anything except for drone boats or blaster ships with tracking bonuses.
I won’t lie though. It is on paper not the best at any one thing, and if you have a specific goal in mind I don’t recommend the firetail. But if you like tinkering with builds and want something that feels like an old school rifter but has a fairly wide engagement profile, the firetail is for you. It also gets engaged very often because of it’s reputation as the weakest faction frigate. It is probably a little underpowered. But as long as you embrace its strengths you can punch above those limitations in pure Minmatar style.
Edit: I award second place to the Tristan as mentioned by that other guy. It’s almost as flexible as the firetail, but I have to dock points because it’s slow and offensive to my minmatar sentiments. Great ship otherwise.
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