Let me say what I think I’ve learned from the game and correct me where I’m wrong.
VERY simply put:
Frigates are fastest lowest HP and only a couple of weapon slots. Fast enough to not get hit by cruisers that often.
Destroyer (me uses a Thrasher) a little slower but still fast, but will take hits from destroyers and larger but can still hit frigates a lot. A bunch or weapons slots and medium HP
Cruisers. Slow, cant hit frigates well but can hit destroyers, enough HP to make up for slow speed, fewer weapons but does more damage per.
I’ve used a Thrasher since the day I got my first one. See no need to use a frigate. Have only done PVE. I wanted to move up to a cruiser but wasn’t sure if it was necessarily better. Is it? Does the extra HP make up for the slow speed? Does the extra DPS make up for the lack of weapon slots (compared to a destroyer)? Or is it just a wash?
With my Thrasher I can handle combat zones up to a NPC Den, anything harder requires a lot of warping to repair sometimes blowing up. Will a Rupture do better than a Thrasher?
As always: Depends… There’s harder sites with many frigs, so you need better tracking in a Rupture. But of course, the tank is much better. If you are really good in handling a ship, you will be disappointed by other ships. But of course you should try - and also try to use a ship which matches the enemy ships, so you should have trained handling a cruiser anyway.
Btw, did you try a Daredevil or a Dramiel? And skilling Assault frigs is worth the time, too.
Frigate (and destroyers to a lesser degree) mostly rely on high speed and low sig to mitigate incoming damage. This is something you can start doing from day one.
Cruisers can easily speedtank battleships, but will need to tank frigates and destroyers. While they have higher dps, the skills for cruiser weapons are higher (medium instead of small guns) and they have more trouble hitting small targets. So I would advise to make sure to put some skill points into your tank (and learn how to actually fit a proper tank) and weapon skills (especially range and tracking) before you start flying cruisers.
That said, while frigates are great, there are many (the majority in fact) of sites that a frigate simply cannot clear, either because they lack the dps, or because there are rats in the site with webs which invalidate your speed tank.
So basically, in general a rupture will not do better than a thrasher in sites a thrasher runs well. However, a rupture will allow you to clear sites your thrasher can’t.
If you’ve built up your skills for the Thrasher, you should take a look at the Svipul. You’ll need a bit more time to train the skills and a bit more ISK to buy the hull but you’ll end up with a ship that is more fun to fly than your Thrasher and can significantly outperform the Rupture.
To make up for tracking, is it best to keep a further distance from frigates? I think distance effects tracking.
Also, when fitting, do people “typically” try to overcome the shortfalls (tracking and lack of speed in he case of a Rupture), or do they just let that go and build on the ship’s strengths such as DPS or shields?
For me, it took years to accept the answer is “yes”. It is easier to hit a frig 10 km away than 1 km away (with according weapons). That does not match at all my (poor) rl shooting experiences
And fitting: If they go ratting or have a doctrine, they emphasize the strengths. If they don’t know which foes to handle, they try to balance resistance holes, but never tank type or weapons.
A rule of thumb in EVE: There is no satisfying all-in-one-solution, in almost all cases it’s better to concentrate on advantages to make your ship as deadly/tanky/quick/agile as possible. This is why you must not mix guns or tank.
Tracking is largely a function of angular velocity. In missions/anomalies , the rats use very primitive AI and will be burning directly toward you making them relatively easy to hit until they get close and start to orbit. At that point the combination of high speed, small signature radius and high angular velocity for frigates can make them very difficult to hit with medium weapons - even at point blank range. You can fit a web to slow them down and improve application at close range.
