Using a cloak and a MWD allows a ship to get to the required align speed and warp to the next gate once cloak is broken.
Trying to do this with afterburner… won’t. Moving at 215% of your normal speed under the speed penalty of a cloak puts you well below 75% of normal speed.
For an afterburner equipped ship with a “natural” (as in the only bonuses are from the character, not any modules) align time of 15s, is it better to just not use a cloak when going from gate to gate? I suppose the best solution is just do dock and properly equip the ship, but let’s say that’s just not possible.
I think part of the reason is the cycle time of the ab vs mwd. Longer cycle time more time for you to benefit while under cloak before the module shuts down
MWD affects acceleration, as well as top speed, which is why the trick works.
With an AB you simply won’t reach the desired speeds to do the Cloak+warp trick safely. You’d probably be better off trying to use it to burn back to gate if you suddenly find yourself in danger with that kind of fit.
Fit MWD, bring mobile depot and AB in cargo. Once at location drop depot and switch to AB, do your thing, when you need to travel again switch back.
I use this for a Marauder I use for certain HS stuff that requires a bunch of travel. Once you’re used to it it takes almost no effort. Also allows you to remove the cloak to free up a slot or lose the targeting penalty.
In general you are correct, if you want to do Cloak-prop trick it has to be MWD. Not many cases where an AB would work for that. A cloak is always valuable but you wont be able to AB-cloak outside rare circumstances
And not just any cloak works. It has to be the Improved Cloaking Device II.
Say 100 is the normal speed, 75 is the warp off speed. mwd is 500% (5x) speed boost so the theoretical speed is 500. The tech 2, non-covert cloak drops the speed by 75%: 500 -(500*.75) which should be 125. So while the cloak is on AND the mwd is magically running the ship should be approaching enough speed to warp off once uncloaked. But blah, blah…
The prop trick doesn’t work with AB because the Tech II cloak reduces your speed by 75% and the afterburner under cloak will not reach 75% of the original (no prop or cloak) speed. Doing it with the afterburner only shortens how long you align once the cloak ends. So no instant “declaok, warp off” beccause you’d still be aligning and the total align time isn’t decreased either.
