03. February 2019.
It's time for more Abyssal shenanigans! This time we’ll be diving into a Tier 2 filament with a tough little Amarrian assault frigate that shows no fear of going in alone…
This post serves as a follow-up on the previous guide for the Calm Abyssal solo Worm fit that I’ve got quite a lot of feedback for, and I’m glad it pushed more people into the new content even if they don’t have corp members around them all the time to do it in fleet.
Now, that Worm will do nicely even in agitated filaments as long as there’s at least one more fleet member with you. Technically, it could finish T2 runs alone but only if it was a really lucky spawn since the overall resists on that fit are not that high.
For that purpose, we’re going to grab a Retribution – It’s the Amarrian assault frigate that’s perfect for armor tanking in the Abyss and can even fit the assault damage control module for those “oh sh*t” moments where you need to squeeze some extra repairs in a short time.
What makes this ship much different from the Worm is the way it flies. If you’ve gotten accustomed to calmly flying around the pocket, tossing drones and shooting missiles – you will need some time to get used to the ship. This applies especially if you’re not used to armor tanking.
First of all – we’re going to use a microwarp drive instead of the afterburner. This will (obviously) make you much faster in comparison to the Worm fit. You will need to be extra mindful of your position so you don’t burn out of the pocket (remember – turning around with a MWD at full speed takes a looooong time).
On the other hand, being fast means two more things – you will be able to kite most of the stuff if needed and you will need to get used to manual piloting. Honestly, you should be manual piloting all the time no matter what, but the Worm provides a nice comfy zone where you can simply let the ship buzz around the pocket with no effort since the drones deal most of the damage anyway.
Apart from a noticeably different flight behaviour, your target priorities also change slightly. As always – get the neuts down first, move onto warp scrams and webbers (since they counter your speed) and finally deal with whatever’s left. As I mentioned, it’s a MWD fit so you will be able to kite most of the ships anyway but there might be a weirdly placed spawn and/or various Abyssal clouds you will have to fly around which require a bit more attention.
The fit utilizes multiple laser crystals to enable you a large firing range depending on the situation. Auroras deal low damage but enable you sniping targets from over 40km which is great if you get neuts/warp scram targets you can simply kite, Gammas for the medium range and much higher damage, and finally – Gleam for that final close-range oomph and max damage.
This will require you to constantly adapt your position (if needed) and your ammo to maximize your damage efficiency since the difference between using Auroras and Gleam can easily mean a 100+ DPS loss.
And finally, you will want to manually adjust your speed depending on who you’re fighting. Since you’ll be flying 2500+ m/s with your MWD on, you will break close orbit on large targets which may cause your lasers to miss. This is easily solved by cutting down your speed at close range. For example, flying around 40-50% MWD speed while fighting battleships with Gleam crystals and orbiting at 500 will push your ship in approximately 5km orbit due to your speed which keeps you inside the close-range crystal falloff.
You can find two fits listed below. The affordable one can do T1 and T2 Abyssal sites alone, but you will need at least one more equally skilled pilot to finish T3 with the same fit. The second fit is a bit more blingy and is used for the highest Abyssal tiers. It provides even more resists and if you combine it with a clone that has armor rep bonus implants – you can make sure it will make that golden hull shine even more!
[Retribution, Afordable T2-3 Abyssal runner]Coreli A-Type Small Armor RepairerImperial Navy Adaptive Nano PlatingHeat Sink IIHeat Sink IIShadow Serpentis Assault Damage Control5MN Y-T8 Compact MicrowarpdriveEutectic Compact Cap RechargerSmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Capacitor Control Circuit IISmall Capacitor Control Circuit IIImperial Navy Gamma S x4Gleam S x4
[Retribution, High tier Abyssal Retribution]Coreli A-Type Small Armor RepairerCorpii A-Type Adaptive Nano PlatingDark Blood Heat SinkDark Blood Heat SinkShadow Serpentis Assault Damage ControlCoreli A-Type 5MN MicrowarpdriveDark Blood Cap RechargerSmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Focused Beam Laser IISmall Capacitor Control Circuit IISmall Capacitor Control Circuit IIGleam S x4
