Alpha Clone Fits Part I: Minmatar

Hello friends, Gorski Car here to prepare you for the upcoming Alpha clones. In this article, we will focus on the Minmatar and potential fits and limitations with their Alpha clone skillset. If you are interested in learning more about Minmatar Alphas and what type of skills they will be able to train, you can read more about it here.

The TL;DR is that Minmatar Alphas will be able to fly Minmatar frigates, destroyers, cruisers and the Gnosis battlecruiser. They will be more focused on shields instead of armor, even though Minmatar is a very flexible race in the game. They will lack the armor rigging skill, however, you are able to fit rigs without the necessary rigging skill, but will not get any penalty reduction.

Minmatar have the benefit of not being as dependant on T2 ammo given the fact that faction ammo for projectile weapons has good damage and offers a selectable damage type. This is fine because Minmatar ships are terrible in general.

So let’s begin!

Frigates

First up is the Slasher. An Alpha clone actually has the ability to fit a couple of decent Slashers. Here is an Alpha version of the standard artillery Slasher that has been rising in popularity. Beware that this is a fit with an extreme skill cap that will require manual piloting if you are going up against anything that is microwarpdrive fitted.

If you enjoy being a more close-range tackle brawler I suggest you go try out the next fit instead. I would probably not fly this ship solo because of how squishy it is, and you will most likely die very soon after tackling your target. But hopefully you have managed to either screen an incoming foe or tackle that 2b Machariel long enough for your friends to pile up and make quick work of it.

You can swap out the damage rig for more tank if you want, or swap the guns into 200mm autocannons if you don’t want to fit a Nosferatu.

Next up is the Breacher. This is a very popular fit, and it’s one of those ships that scales really well with force multipliers. There are also some broken fits out there for people who like to whip out their credit card. But this is a guide for alphas, so we want to keep stuff cheap and accessible.

The dual-tanked Breacher that uses an ancillary shield booster alongside an ancillary armor repairer is very popular. Due to Alphas only being able to fit meta launchers, this fit is actually pretty easy to fit compared to the super tight T2 fit that Omegas can run.

I can see this being a popular choice for Minmatar Alphas who want to get their feet wet in FW space. Missiles, like the autocannons on the Slasher, are also not very dependant on T2 ammo because of how solid faction ammo is, which is good news for Alphas.

It is also possible to do some kiting with light missile fits, but I leave making those fits up to you!

Then we have the Rifter, one of the most iconic ships in EVE. Sadly, it has fallen out of favour during the past couple of years because of buffs to other T1 frigates that have pushed them beyond its power level. It’s very flexible and can both armor and shield tank. I would probably prefer the Breacher for solo PvP or the Slasher for tackle work, but that doesn’t mean that the Rifter is totally useless. It’s a bit in the middle ground, offering strong DPS, decent tank and decent speed.

Here is a popular shield fit that is good to bring with nano gangs to provide screening. It’s a thankless role that will end up with you dying most of the time, but losing a cheap T1/T2- fitted frigate to tackle that Vagabond burning at your friends expensive Orthrus, or rushing in to tackle and hold that Barghest trying to get away from your gang, is totally worth it.

Armor fits are also possible, but your speed will suffer greatly due to the lack of armor rigging skills and I would probably look into other ships for that.

Lastly, we have the two faction frigates for Minmatar. These are a bit more advanced and come at a somewhat higher cost. Both are highly usable and can easily hold up against Alpha pilots in T2 fitted frigates. I would probably go with the popular artillery fit for the Firetail, using an afterburner and dual webs to perfectly control the engagement against most brawling frigates. I would be very careful going up against another Firetail using this fit, even if I knew 100% that the guy piloting it was flying with an Alpha account.  

Last for the frigates is the Vigil Fleet Issue. The Vigil Fleet is a very low DPS ship but has almost perfect range control with the bonused webifier range. It’s the perfect ‘keep at range’ PvP ship. There are a lot of fights where you can just activate all your modules and leave the computer.

I know I have left out the Vigil and Burst. The Burst can certainly be useful providing logistics support but I would probably look at the Scythe instead. As for the Vigil, I am sad to tell you that target painters are pretty ‘meh’ at the moment and you will die instantly. The other races have way superior EWAR for Alpha clones in my opinion.

The Venture is also available for you providing a stabbed ship for some cancerous defensive plexing in Factional Warfare space.

Destroyers

Next up are the destroyers. My EFT is not updated with the upcoming SoCT destroyer that CCP is releasing soon, but I am not sure it will perform better than a Thrasher or Talwar for most roles. I would certainly not rule it out totally. If I have an updated EFT/PyFA with this ship for the other articles in this series I will include it.

The Thrasher is a high damage autocannon platform and is personally for me one of the top T1 destroyers. It is flexible and has multiple fits that work well, both armor and shield tanked, and with both close and long range weapons. First up is the shield tanked autocannon brawler version that is very capable of removing Tech 1 frigates.

Or if you want the extra utility of having a web, armor tanked fits like this are very good:

Let’s end with a bit more special fit that is fun to fly, and can catch a lot of people off guard. A 10MN fitted artillery Thrasher. The oversized afterburner, while taking a bit more skill and some getting used to, will allow you to fully disengage against most targets. Be aware that it takes a while to get up to speed and you turn like a stranded Matigu seabeast.

(If you want you can swap one Ancillary Current Router into a T2 version and swap another one out with a Polycarbon for some added agility.)

Lastly, we have the Talwar. This missile-based Minmatar destroyer is very popular as a cheap, somewhat throwaway doctrine that is able to deal decent alpha while being fast and hard to track. I have to admit I am not the best at making fits for bigger sized fleets but I can definitely see versions of this fit working in them:

The mid slot EWAR is freely exchangeable for any other EWAR, like dampeners for instance. I would probably not go up against Cormorants with this, but don’t underestimate this ship in greater numbers as the alpha strike from light missiles is very competitive.

Cruisers

Alpha clones will sadly have some problems using Minmatar cruisers. First off is the fact that their medium weapon system is not exactly in the best spot at the moment, secondly, neither the Stabber or the Bellicose are exactly good hulls. You will still have the Scythe (one of the stronger logistics ships) and the Rupture, Scythe Fleet and Stabber Fleet that are reasonably decent, but perhaps not comparable to other races.

Let’s not save the worst for last and start with the Stabber. This ship performs closer to a frigate and is lacking in the DPS department. Minmatar Alphas will not be able to utilize the full drone bay since they will only be able to launch three drones at a time. With its low DPS and lack of armor rigging skills, I would stay far away from armor tanked versions of this ship. You will never be able to get close to something competitive in EHP.

So that’s why we shield tank this ship. The only two things I can see it performing decently at is being somewhat of a ghetto Vagabond, kiting with autocannons supported by two rapid light launchers, or fitted as an anti-frigate platform (ab)using the dual utility slots for energy neutralizers.

Or this:

The Rupture is actually a really strong ship that is more often armor tanked than shield tanked due to only having four mid slots. That doesn’t totally rule out shield tanks though, and something like this is very fun to fly using an XL Ancillary Shield Booster for tank.

Once again, the DPS is quite lacking because of the power level of autocannons. It’s not as bad as the Stabber because this it’s a brawling range fit, so most DPS won’t be reduced by falloff.

I am not going to totally rule out armor tanked Ruptures though. While not being able to be supported by logistics in a pure Minmatar race fleet, I totally support cultural diversity and paired up with either Amarr logistics or Gallente logistics could make this ship a decent brawler.

To be honest, I would most likely look into the Thorax, Vexor or Moa before an armor Rupture but you have to make use with what you got right?

Last we have the two faction cruisers for Minmatar. The Stabber Fleet and Scythe Fleet.

Let’s start with the Scythe Fleet Issue. It is so flexible I could probably spend an entire article just talking about it. You are able to fit both autocannons and missiles and both brawl and kite with both shield and armor tanks. However, I will limit this part a bit.

This ship is popularly used as a rapid light missile kiting ship. While it doesn’t offer as much DPS as an Osprey Navy or even a Caracal, it has the speed to back it up, being able to even outpace frigates sometimes. I would fit it up similarly to this:

Other fitting concepts that I leave up to you to explore is stuff like armor tanked AC brawler, dual rep AC brawler with dual prop, or a super fast heavy tackle fit.

Last we have the Stabber Fleet Issue. This ship is almost exclusively flown as an armor tanked ship using dual propulsion modules to control range. Be aware that it is very slow but the tank is exceptional. Both buffer and dual rep fits are good, but I feel like due to the skillpoint limit that the Alpha clones have, a buffer armor fit will work better.

For support, the Minmatar have a really standout logistics ship in the Scythe. This is a very fast T1 cruiser that is able to rep decently. Alpha clones will have some problems with capacitor and will have to manage it very carefully. They will not be able to perma-run everything like most logistics people are used to.

I am not exactly an expert on logistics fitting, and I know a capacitor booster is not ideal, but I feel like a fit like this has potential:

The Gnosis

This is going to be an interesting ship. The Gnosis is a Society of Conscious Thought battlecruiser that is unique in that it will be the only battlecruiser that Alpha clones will be able to fly. Like all other SoCT ships, it is very flexible, able to use every weapon system in the game effectively, and can tank with both armor and shield.

Minmatar Alpha clones are locked to autocannons and missiles though, and due to the state of autocannons I would look more towards missiles. The Gnosis is bonused for both heavy assault missiles and heavy missiles. Sadly, HML’s are not really a viable option at the moment because they are in an even sadder state of balance than autocannons. So that leaves us with heavy assault missiles. A brawling missile ship that will be able to apply very good DPS due to all the mid slots the Gnosis can use for tackle.

The mid slot with a sensor booster is very flexible for any EWAR or even a cap booster.

For people flying in fleets you could look into doing things like max tanking and camping gates – both are things that the Gnosis is very good at.

Another fit that could be used is a shield tanked brawling version using autocannons. While the Gallente will probably perform better here (being able to use blasters for higher DPS) I will not ignore this fit:

Final thoughts

I feel that Minmatar don’t have the support ship options that the other races have for Alpha clones. Their cruiser line also leaves you wanting more. The frigates and destroyers are however decent and ships like the Slasher, Firetail and both destroyers will be capable of competing in smaller frigate fights even against Omega clones.

Next up will be my favourite race, Caldari!

All fits in this article are saved here: http://pastebin.com/B4R3uM9R

If you want to add a Minmatar Alpha clone character to EFT you paste this in a .chr file in the characters folder in your EFT folder: http://pastebin.com/aF5WfZa3