what i very clearly mean by this, is that, modifiers are NOT taken into account when calculating lock time, unlike how they ARE taken into account when calculating hit chance.
i know mwd increases sig, i wasn’t born yesterday.
and to follow up, i said that it doesn’t matter once you warp into plex because you are not getting out of the scram range of the other guy without lighting up your prop mod anyway, making it basically a non-issue. to top it off, frigates lock each other in 2-3 ticks anyway- a single tick difference might matter, but there isn’t anything particularly dramatic about it. it’s a risk you willingly take upon gate activation.
can’t cite an exact source, but i did experiment with drones which have built-in mwd for chase speed, and lock times didn’t differ between chase and orbit states. i also have not been in a practical situation where i could observe the sig bloom making a life and death difference- most of the time frigates are involved which lock very fast regardless of any possible effect by modifiers. regardless, even though i’m not 100% certain, i have more reason to doubt that mwd improves lock time in the same way it improves turret hit chance.
Conversely, in PvP, you want to minimise your signature radius, so that your opponent takes a long time to lock on to you (giving you time to get a few shots off, or to escape). There are almost no direct ways of reducing your ship’s signature radius (other than flying a different ship and some implants), so be mindful of the modules which increase it (for instance, turning on your microwarpdrive (MWD) increases your signature radius by 500%).
Yeah, goes against what I was taught about the MWD + Cloak trick for gate camps where you activate cloak first to avoid the sig bloom from MWD which would shorten lock time.
Maybe it’s wrong, I never tested myself but I’d be surprised.
Yeah I had to actually go to Jita and test with a volunteer, turns out MWD does influence lock time, but the number on the tooltip remains the same, which was why I was mistaken in my test with drones before. I stand corrected.
@Val_en_Thielles
Nicely done. And highly commendable. I suspect you were misled by a combination of the very low initial signature of drones and the difficulty of known when they actually have their MWD active. All credit to taking the time to re-run it with a capsuleer target and publishing a correction.
Back to the original question.
The warp tunnel created by the gate to a warzone 'plex ends on the beacon in the 'plex. You leave the tunnel at full speed with the ship set to stop. Thus you will coast away from the beacon in a line extending from the gate. How far you coast depends on your ship.
So, @Ranar_Linyne’s advice above is good. You don’t care about anything but maintaining and increasing speed and getting as far from “the button” as you can. I fly E-war support in small gangs - a Crucifier fitted to operate 80-100km from the fight (fast and unarmoured) so sliding into the middle of a 'plex isn’t nice. The MWD hard straight out to break for range immediately on warp exit works. no guarantee, but by following a fleet in fashionably late (a two or three seconds after) I’ve never been tackled. Minimal exposure and a preoccupied target.
From the perspective of a defender if you are the tackler then sitting on the line as it extends from the gate beyond the beacon is the ideal set-up. Then the rest of your fleet orbits you at their engagement ranges.
Warping into a gated 'plex is always dangerous. The advantage is to the defender as the can set up their positions around a predictable arrival point. But with practice and knowledge you can reduce, but not negate that advantage.
Every acceleration gate I ever used worked the same way, it triggers you to warp to a specific point in space including both acceleration and deceleration so you slow down to zero on arrival as usual with every warp and have to manually increase / set your speed to start moving. So unless FW gates work differently (which I doubt) they should work the same.
I stand corrected. In which case the direction you run isn’t relevant. I’m so used to just hitting “run” that I don’t ever tend to look at the speeds. And the direction is “away” not any particular choice.
so flying kiting ships in plexes can be easy or hard depending on what you do. First and foremost ALWAYS USE THE DAMN D-SCAN! Warp to 10 of a gate and not 0. i cant stress this enough. Loosing a ship on a gate is just pathetic. Scan down your prey to their site then warp to 10 of the gate. then angle down the gate without activating it and double check. 30 degrees is a good angle to scan at. I recommend being fleeted up with one or more other kiting ships.
I would highly recommend something that is self-rep. Reason being: its nice to be able to prolong and the fight itself. Whether it ends in your success or running away like a total puss.
As someone who would advocate active tank over passive tank i would fly something like:
[Kikimora]
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer,Nanite Repair Paste
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Entropic Radiation Sink II
Warp Disruptor II
Small Capacitor Booster II,Navy Cap Booster 400
5MN Microwarpdrive II
Light Entropic Disintegrator II,Mystic S
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump II
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump II
Small Nanobot Accelerator I
This vessel is not only fast but can repair itself relatively quickly. If i have corporation members online i will group up with them to improve chances of survival. especially against something larger. The idea is that your fleet mate is in something similar or something else. either you or them goes in first and pulls range immediately. then you or they warp in behind you. The idea would be first and foremost, since you are squishy, tackle using a long point, and apply DPS. I feel like flying a Kiting ship defiantly requires more skill than a simple brawling ship. I’m not just referring to SP i’m also referring to player skill. Know how to manual pilot. Sure there are speculative events that could happen where you get totally F***ed which is why i recommend flying with a fleet member. Thanks for reading this long ass thing.
