I’m not saying that this ship can not be countered. I just don’t think it should be able to fit all the modules without any cost (other than making it slow(ish)
Other than having only 2 mid slots so pretty much no range control, and hilariously low dps.
Look at most Ammar ships they all have MASSIVE PG because they are energy based ships.
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Gila FOR THE WIN! 
Using energy weapons allows you to shoot scorch meaning you don’t need to control range that much. Unless you want to scram kite.
Minnie ships tend to be similar so that they can use artillery.
However, perhaps the punisher has all of this extra grid because it has 11 slots as opposed to the standard 10 all the other T1 frigates get including faction frigates.
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I feel for this guy,
I really hate miners.
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Remember the Punisher is a laser armour tank.
Slow, needs PG and CPU, to mount lasers.
If a player is willing to forgo the laser bonuses, and mount ballistic good on them to utilize the Punisher. The same can be done with the Omen, Apoc or other Amarr laser ships. So a player playing to their skill advantages and using ship for none specific bonus turrets
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Like most ships, the Punisher has its strengths and weaknesses.
As a Frigate the Punisher is undeniably tanky (strength) and not locked to any particular turret (the bonus is to laser capacitor usage is nice though) and has an additional turret mount/slot to compensate for not having a damage bonus.
On the downside she’s comparatively slow - more so is plated and armour rigged, and only has two mid-slots. It’s that shortage of mids compared to other T1 attack frigates that causes real pain for a Punisher pilot. You aren’t fast enough to kite and can’t tackle well. Range control is very hard. You win fights by impact; hit hard, take the blows before your enemy realises his in trouble and breaks off.
It’s a very Amarrian ship: an unsubtle puncher which can be out manoeuvred. In the right hands (with God behind you) it’s very effective, but not without its significant challenges. It’s also very new player friendly: that extra turret compensates for a lack of trained gunnery and frigate skills, and the tank gives you some room for mistakes in missions and combat.
It’s reasonably balanced as it is, but she’s an interesting bird and very different if you are used to something lighter on its feet.
Now; no-one flies the Tormentor. Which is a shame; in the right hands the prawn is a nasty little thing.
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You should undock more
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This doesn’t justify an extra fitting slot over all other frigates. Also, an extra gun slot is a massive deal and does not in any way balance out by the ship having no damage bonus.
a 3 turret frigate with a 5% damage bonus gets a maximum of 3.75 effective turrets.
Having 4 turrets is the equivalent of a 6.6% damage per level bonus.
I could accept this if the Punisher lost a fitting slot and went down to the standard 10 slots total. Obviously this would need to be a low slot.
You dont use lasers much, do you?
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The Punisher has very limited range control. That missing mid-slot compared to virtually every other frigate is hell. There’s a reason that not everyone flies Punishers - if they were over-powered in combat then all the advice here would be “fly a Punisher” and all you’d see is Punishers.
That extra slot and turret is balance for a major weakness in not being able to control a fight.
The Punisher is a slugger not boxer.
And before you say “but an AC Punisher has a 20k tank!” That’s a very slow Punisher that does a dribble of damage against anything with a web/scram who can hold range at 8km and just grind you down.
And every other frigate can fit an Afterburner, Web and Scram to do that to you.
It’s a good mission ship, as I said, but it’s hard work against a competent opponent because you can’t control the fight.
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It’s really great at being a drone bunny for the 10 cloaked Asteros in that novice with it.
With lasers you don’t need that much range control to apply decent damage anyway, you just have to be able to switch to correct ammo, track well, keep a good transversal, and that’s about it.
Your opponement will have at least 10 reasons to die before you due to your OP tank, and thats not counting the several times made available for other asshats to jump in the fight and bumfuck you, or both of you…
“FUN”
…
FW “pvp” stinks pretty bad atm… I’d steer well clear from it and not waste any of your isk until CCP addresses it properly.
Switch Ammunition - fair enough, it’s quick, but unless you are using beam lasers, you’ve got a range problem against kiters.
Track well - fair enough, but you are using beam lasers because you need the range! And they track poorly, especially against a fast moving kiter, and
keep a good traversal - which is great unless you are flying a slow lump of armour, when you can’t keep that up against a fast ship.
The balance of a Punisher is about right - its strong when flown well allowing for it’s strengths and managing it’s weaknesses, which applies to most ships, but it does have some very severe weaknesses - she’s slower than most, then you add armour and take a mid-slot away. She is a very good example of what CCP get very right - she flies like an Amarrian ship: they handle very differently to Minmatar ships, slower, punchier.
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Punisher lasers don’t track well at all and the DPS is middlin. The trick to beating a punisher is in not letting it drag you.
If you kick out a jettison can and orbit it at 500 the punisher pilot will probably just disengage. He can’t come close and still hit you, and he won’t want to orbit because that doesn’t work worth a crap either with lasers.
If you drive along behind it you’ll take all that dps because the punishers only great engagement profile is shooting off the back of the boat while it runs away.
And it’s got 2 midslots if I recall, so it’s prop and scram or disruptor… no cap boost, no web, etc…
Anything with a neut that is faster than a punisher (which is any frigate at all) will kill it if it can tank 100 dps for 30 seconds.
You just cap it out and then do whatever you want… cause he won’t be able to turn on nuthin.
If you have a web and orbit close, he won’t be able to hit you either.
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I want a ship they call The Lebowski.
But that’s like, my opinion, man.
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It would really tie the game together.
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You’re absolutely wrong and your lack of frigate pvp experience is apparent. I will beat your dual plated 125 ac punisher in a t1 combat frigate of your choice.
Lasers cannot track anything at 500 - 1000 without a web. And scorch cannot track anything at scram range without a web. 125s really can’t hit scram range. You cannot pin anything down to kill it as they can engage or disengage at will. Lasers die to one small neut.
It’s great for fleets, and it’s great if fit properly for waiting for friends to show. MWD disruptor for example. It’s a guaranteed 1v1 loss but with friends you can’t escape it with an AB.
So don’t fight punishers man they’re 9/10 bait, just like mallers.
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I went back a ways and couldn’t see anyone talking about auto cannon fitting a punisher?
Maybe I missed it, but I thought they were talking about dual plate laser punishers.
I’ve done quite a bit of PvP in an AB fit dual
plate laser punisher, and if you keep it in a retreat profile they’re fine in many 1v1 or near-station and near-gate scenarios.
The massive tank and AB makes it hard to tackle and kill on gates and stations, and as long as your opponent doesn’t know better than to chase you you’ll do well.
I think I’ve killed a few AFs in that fit, I can check for kms. (Found a harpy kill I can post).
The biggest issue is they’re slow, but their range makes them defendable against kites (though unlikely to close the kill).
I always carry a neut on it… gives you options against brawlers whne considered with all that tank.