Short prelude:
Ran carriers back in 2013 before they changed, back when they were the Triage ship.
Trying to find a good place for information on how to effectively fly a Carrier now that the fighters have changed, Chimera is no longer a Logi, etc… Currently needing to train two skills that were not required before but are now required prior to flying one again but having a hard time trying to find any info on them anymore other than ratting.
Are they even used effectively in fleet engagements anymore and to what role? How does the new FAX play into this as I can apparently also fly that with the same skills? Are they still considered fleet ships / fleet support ships and royally screwed flying solo (with the exception of ratting)?
These may be stupid questions but there’s not a lot of information forthcoming via google magic.
Oï mate !
First things first : welcome back to EVE Online !
I have never flew any capital ships, so my answers might be wrong, but I’ll try to help you.
To answer your question concerning FAX : you can indeed fly them, as they have the same skills requirements as a regular carrier or supercarrier. However, since those ships are used as a capital logistic ship, you will need to train skills into their respective Emission Systems (Shield and Armor), plus the capital version of the skills to use them.
Also, I don’t know if you noticed, but carriers and supercapital variant now possess a new special module to replace the most Triage one : the Networked Sensor Array. Basically, you get a massive boost to locking range and speed, allowing you to lock a battleship in 3 seconds if I remember well.
Plus, the fighters of carriers can now apply pretty good damage to sub capitals… In fleet fights, they could be quite interesting to protect Dreadnoughts and Titans that doesn’t have High Angle Weapons fitted (commonely reffered as HAW, weapons with lower damage but better tracking).
I noticed the Network Sensor Array, and not having tried it the initial thought is awesome. However as it stated it used the fighters sensors to amplify your own does it mean you have to have fighters in space?
I already trained for Triage on the Carrier, and was an Incursion Basi pilot for awhile, so the shield emission systems I’m good with.
High Angle Weapons are new to me as well…
So theoretically in fleets they are the sub-cap killers, FAX is the capital Basi.
So not only sub-cap control but attacking other fighters if I read that right.
Good to note. Still trying to wrap my head around all the changes and the fighter control, thinking about hitting up sisi to see if I can figure out how to fly the damn thing and control the fighters as that’s the closest I can get to a practice area.
Those only require battleship gun skills. When you train into a dread and have the same race’s battleship guns trained, you can go right ahead and fit the haw guns or rapid jesus launchers.
The bit about faxes was covered already, so I’ll speak to carriers a bit more.
First, you’ve got more training. IIRC you’ll need to train up your light and support fighter skills; if you want to fly a supercarrier you’ll want heavy fighters as well.
As for carriers, they scale exceptionally well (right up to the point where they make the node curl up in the fetal position). It depends on your alliance’s doctrines, but generally carriers will provide LGF (light fighters) against subs and SSF (space superiority) against other carriers.
If you’re in a major conflict (node-crashing conflict) you’ll basically want your fighter bay full of your favourite SSF. Your job will be to kill other fighters; heavy fighters utterly murder capitals. But they’re pretty easy to kill with SSF.
Against subs, SSF are mostly useless; depending on who you ask, they are sometimes a good choice against frigates (their application still sucks, but it’s occasionally better than LGFs). Our testing has generally shown that a siren and 2 dps fighters ends up working better most of the time. To each their own.
As a carrier pilot, you need to protect your fighters. Seriously. They’re extremely easy to kill. And once they’re all dead, you’re basically just going to be waiting to die. Not to mention T2 fighters get pricey quickly.