PvE Advice for Cerberus

PvE Gameplay Center PvE Ships & Modules
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I’m skilling towards Caldari missile ships, and I’m strongly considering the Cerberus as my next ship. My primary focus is PvE in high/low sec (maybe some wormhole eventually). I’m hoping to get some feedback from anyone familiar with the Cerberus abilities (and limitations). I understand that the Tengu is fairly popular for PvE as well, so I’m curious as to how it would compare- and if there’s anything the Cerberus does better. (For reference: my current ship is a Raven)

In the spirit of the holiday season, I’ll be sending some small (inexpensive) gifts to the some of the most helpful commenters.

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I haven’t used the Cerb for PvE, though I believe it’s able to do the Abyss sites (up to tier 5 with the ‘proper’ fit). But have used the Tengu a lot for PvE and it’s great (apart from now not being able to enter 4/10 DED complexes). The ability to refit subsystems for cloaky and/or nullified travel means getting around is a breeze and it doesn’t matter where your mission/escalation ends up you should be able to get in, run it, and get out without issues.

Last I looked a Tengu could do all the way up to 10/10s and I don’t believe this has changed.

I used a Cerb most recently in PvP (nano stuff) for which it’s a great anti-tackle ship (even if a little slower than some of the pirate offerings).

I’m not aware of anything the Cerb does better than a Tengu (cept for maybe Abyss and 4/10s as the Tengu can’t get into those), and again the ability to refit subsystems (and rigs) on the T3s is a massive bonus imho. My suggestion/advice would be go the Tengu route, as all the skills you train for this (HML, HAM + missile supports, oh and light missiles for RLML) will all transfer directly to the Cerb if/when you decided to train HACs. Subsystems to IV as a start is a good place to be, but get all to V as soon as is reasonable for you.

As for fits, the ones I have are a little dated so not sure they’re still viable, but this should work for most L4s

L4 Tengu

[Tengu, L4s maybe]

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery
Thermal Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Target Painter II
Stasis Webifier II
10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Booster II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Auto Targeting System II

Medium Ancillary Current Router II
Medium Ancillary Current Router II
[Empty Rig slot]

Tengu Core - Electronic Efficiency Gate
Tengu Defensive - Amplification Node
Tengu Offensive - Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Propulsion - Chassis Optimization

Final rig slot is for whatever you’d like or another ACR if your fitting skills aren’t @ V yet :slight_smile:

Oh and don’t turn on the auto targeting system, it just gives you extra lockable targets.

One more thing to note, both chew threw ammo like it’s some sort of competition, so make sure you bring along lots :slight_smile:

Edit: As an aside, if you decide to go the HAC route first, pls consider training up blasters/railguns, as the Eagle is great for L3s (currently grinding standings for a particular corp using one, good times) and a Blaster Tengu works quite well for PvP.

Regards,
Cypr3ss.

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Let’s say after the last big ship re-balance, both do it different. The Cerberus gets a huge missile range bonus and the tengu gets a damage bonus.

The difference is that you need 5 skills to train to properly be able to fly a tengu, whereas you only need Caldari cruiser 5 and heavy assault cruisers level 1 to fly the Cerberus and in time you may even train heavy assault cruisers to level 5.

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So, do you have experience flying the Cerberus? Does this difference make the two ships comparable in PvE?

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Yes, I do. I did run a level 5 mission back when they were in highsec. the Rogue Drone one. I trained heavy assault cruisers in 2008 and I have flown the Cerberus a few times now, long before the rapid jesus launchers became the rapid jesus launchers you know today.
I used to have a tengu but I am not a fan of those weird tech 3 sleeper (component) ships, so I sold it because it felt like a terrible ship.

Now after the second re-balance on the heavy assault cruisers 5 years ago, the Cerberus got a little more base speed and is now a better kiter then she used to be.

The tengu differs in the way many people try to fit them. I say try because I see them fitting capital shield boosters on them and those do not belong on that ship.

You will hear from different people come different opinions and I can only give you mine.
Many people like the tengu and claim it does thousands of dps and they really make sure that is doesn’t but that’s about missile application mechanics and not the topic here.

Now with the assault damage control module, the Cerberus can have a nice tank and she does have insane missile range if you are using the right ones.

Plot twist, EVE Online has more than one missile launcher you can fit on a Cerberus.

It comes down to this, I suggest you try both and choose what feels right for you, not what other people say you should.
In my experience, your right feel is what counts and if you like what you are piloting, you will be a better helmsman because of it.

The EVE launcher gives you the ability to choose the test server Singularity to log on and try new things CCP is working on or let us make and try out new module and ship combinations to your (and only your) liking.
So log on Singularity, buy a Cerberus and a tengu for 100 isk each and fly them to feel them out, then decide what you like better.

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C’mon now, this is an exaggeration (at best), right? Cause a capital shield booster needs like 70k power grid, and a tengu has like 1k power grid, max… so not really helpful…

Which is good advice but it didn’t sound to me like the OP had the skills for both ships trained, and I’m not aware of anyway to get extra SP on SISI apart from taking part in the mass tests (if they still do that?)… do they seed the skill extractors, perhaps you could extract ‘not needed’ skills (market/trade/social?) and then inject into the new (HAC/Subsystem) skills?

Regards,
Cypr3ss.

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it depends on what you want to do. Missions, ded, anoms, are all very different.

tengu has a very good tank, especially vs serp/guristas. can’t do deds in HS though.

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Stick with the raven, or move up to a rattlesnake for much better isk per hour, a rattle can handle 6/10 ded sites with enough time, which pay out very very high rewards. I wouldn’t downgrade to a cerberus if you’re already using a raven imo, but the Tengu is a very good pve runner in it’s own regard, comparable to the rattlesnake in terms of isk/hour due its greater manoeuvrability and flexibility allowing it to do stuff like FW missions afaik. I’d personally recommend upgrading to a rattlesnake, since they are far easier to skill into if you’re already in a raven.

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At the moment the Cerberus is my favorite ship, hands down. Extremely fun to fly and can be kitted out in several fashions with a “oh sh*t” ADC button to boot.

That said, unless you are doing abyssals there is probably a better choice for PvE. The Tengu, properly blinged, can blow the doors off the Cerberus’s capabilities and for things like Missions your bigger ships will get the job done faster and safer.

On the plus side, IMO abyssals are by far the most fun PvE content there is and that’s where the Cerberus shines.

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Yes it was. I was referring to x-large shield boosters, the ones that belong on heavy interdictor cruisers or battleships, not tengus.

No, they do not.
There is a whole Singularity community which only lives on the test server. Some of them are raging teenager, whom would use that opportunity to inject themselves with 983757983576935697 alts in supers and titans to input-broadcast them for “pvp”.

No testing would be done then. And it would result in supercaptial online.

You are free to buy plex for 100 isk each and get lobotomy stix from the NES store and make some cheat stix for that purpose, yes.

For the Cerberus you need Caldari cruiser level 5, which is a longer train for newer players but you need 6 skillbooks at level 1 for the tengu.
Since they are only rank 1 skills, except for the Caldari strategic cruiser book, it would only take like 5 or 6 days to train the subsystems to level 4, which should be enough for a small pve test.
With the /booststandings command, which you enter in any chat channel, all agents will be unlocked and you can do all the level 4 missions you want but stay away from Burner missions and decline them for now.

Neither the Cerberus, nor the tengu are suited for burner missions and the tengu couldn’t enter burner mission pockets anyways.

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Have you considered the Drake as an alternative to the Cerberus?

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My research into the Drake was minimal, but I’m aware that it may be a solid alternative.

The comments overall have been insightful- but I guess I’m a little confused, what is the purpose of the HAC? It seems like there are so many better/cheaper alternatives for PvE.

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HACs have access to Assault Damage Controls. In a “oh crap” moment or when you get primaried they are priceless. HACs can also access abyss space while BC/BS/T3 can not.

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HAC are versions of the cruisers that are more able to sustain damage.
In terms of PVE, this basically means you need less tank modules to tank as much as a T1 cruiser.

Also you can compare the two hull to see that that navy/cerberus have one more launcher, while keeping the same bonus to cycle time. Plus the cerb has a 25% bonus to kinetic missiles, so caracal has 5/0.75 = 6.66 Effective Launchers(EL), the navy has 6/0.75 = 8 EL, the cerberus has 6/0.75 * 1.5 = 10 EL for scourge.

for comparison, a drake has 6 launchers with a +50% bonus in kinetic DPS, so 9 EL. So in terms of DPS the cerberus is better, in terms of tank it’s better, in terms of application … it’s worse (because one less mid)

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PvP primarily, as with all the HACs, though the introduction of the Abyss pockets/filaments/thingies also opened up a PvE avenue for them, but if that doesn’t interest you then you’re probably better off with a different ship for missioning/DEDs (>4)/escalations.

Regards,
Cypr3ss.

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Are missile ships viable for PvP? I am not trolling.

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Oh most definitely, the cerb with RLML is a great anti-tackle platform, and last I checked our group was using ridiculously long range Ravens (RLRRs?) for structure bashing (at least prior to the command dessie changes). Loki or Tengu will do well with missiles (or guns)…

I guess my point is there are a lot of missile based ships that are very good for PvP (oh and the Sacrilege! I believe it’s a sacrilege to forget the Sacrilege when mentioning PvP Missile ships :slight_smile: ).

So ahh, short answer; Yes.

Regards,
Cypr3ss.

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I’ve heard that (generally speaking) PvP tends to use short range/high dps missiles. Long range missiles do better in PvE.

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I actually have a few Cerberus gathering dust near jita. Let me know and I’ll give you your first one for free.

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One of the guys in CODE. tried using a rocket talwar for some of our suicide ganks. It was terrible.