Electronic Warfare

[edlavallee]

I am furiously cramming for EW and wondered if anyone had any tips / tricks as I prepare myself to be, as one person called it, the EW-bitch.

What are the different types of equipment and how are they used? Toggle, passive?

What are the key lessons people learned? Multi-target or focus on one? Named equipment worth the price?

Focus on one EW type (target jamming) or more than one (target jamming and warp scrambling)?

Good fitting suggestions for Calderi frigate/cruiser or Minmatar frigate?

Ship comparison

Calderi Cruiser -- Blackbird
Structure/Armor/Shield - 906/844/1125
High/Med/Low - 4/6/2
Max Targets/Target Range - 8/75
CPU/capacitor - 525/400
Velocity - 190
Special - 5% ECM capacitor, 20% ECM range

Calderi Frigate -- Griffin
Structure/Armor/Shield - 200/200/313
High/Med/Low - 3/4/1
Max Targets/Target Range - 5/60
CPU/capacitor - 225/200
Velocity - 250
Special - 5% Kinetic missle damage, 10% ECM capacitor

Minmatar Frigate -- Vigil
Structure/Armor/Shield - 206/219/219
High/Med/Low - 3/3/3
Max Targets/Target Range - 6/45
CPU/capacitor - 210/200
Velocity - 350
Special - 5% small projectile damage, 5% target painter effectiveness


** Best looks like the Blackbird for sure, only it is god-awfully slow. Any hanging around the Corp HQ? Any benefits for the much faster Vigil?

Anything else I am not thinking of?

[WayAbvPar]

Until you are rolling in ISK, it might not be a good idea to use a cruiser for EW detail. They will end up as the first target in any decent sized PvP encounter (if the opponents have any sort of clue); frigates are A LOT cheaper to replace. I would suggest outfitting a cruiser for mission running and ratting (income), then keep a few frigates ready to go for EW duty should the need arise.

[edlavallee]

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise


A complete non-sequitur, but I had to...

[WayAbvPar]

If you fly a Blackbird into a PvP encounter it will probably end up more like Maxwell's Silver Hammer 

[Raging Turtle]

Remember to train something for missions or mining;  EW doesn't work on NPC's (I think?) and without a war there's no reason to make EW your only training priority.

[Nija]

I use EW on my comedy belt-pirating Blackbird (3x multispecs) and it shuts down rats too. I used it for kicks a week ago.

[dwindlehop]

The corp can make Blackbirds and Griffins. I don't think we have a Vigil blueprint at the moment.

[edlavallee]

I will fly whatever gets parked in my garage, I am not all that fussy. I don't intend on using EW for my general run around and whack a few pirates, but I do like to be helpful and useful. So, if the corp needs an EW-bitch, sign me up. I have a tendency to play the type that tends to be the first to die.

[Sparky]

Blackbirds are my favourite cruiser but they're paper thin.  So you'll want 1600mm plate which will eat almost all your grid leaving just enough for small guns (to take out support frigs, pods and whatnot) and  your EW mods.  As an EW bitch forget about offense, you're there to support the "heavy hitters" and that means staying alive long enough to jam at least a few cycles.  With that plate you'll almost be in BS armour territory.

[5150]

I am furiously cramming for EW and wondered if anyone had any tips / tricks as I prepare myself to be, as one person called it, the EW-bitch.

What are the different types of equipment and how are they used? Toggle, passive?

Heres a start

http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=190417

http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=229998

Unfortunately most E-War guides seem to only deal with target jammers, I've yet to use many of the other modules but here how I think they work

ECM Target Jammer - Active module. Chance of jamming the target ships sensors (resulting in all current locks being lost and no new locks for 20 secs. Divide jammers strength by targets sensor strength and multiply by 100 to get % chance of jam.

Backup sensors - Passive module. Increases sensor strength making you harder to be jammed.

ECCM - Active module. Increases your sensor strength making you harder to be jammed, so the same as above but with a larger increase in srength (it might be able to 'burn through' a current jam?)

Projected ECCM - Active module. As above but a remote version you use on another [friendly] ship. The description implies it can 'burn through' a jam which suggests the non-projected one can also....

ECM burst - Active module. Attempts to break the lock of any/all ships in its range (so a ECM smartbomb basically) no idea if this ignores gang members though!.... I believe the target(s) are able to immediately start re-locking so probably only really useful when used with sensor dampners (see below) or to make a quick get away if youre warp scrambled. These effect all sensor types and have the same strength as the racial target jammers

Sensor dampners - Active module. Reduces the targets max targeting distance (any locks outside the newly reduced distance are lost) and increases the locking time of the target (useful when used in conjunction with a jammer or burst)

Tracking disruptors - Active module. Messes with the tracking speed and range of the targeted ships turrets making it less likely to land a hit

Target painter - Active module. Increases the signature of the target ship making any and all incoming fire more likely to hit and do more damage

Warp scrambler and Stasis webifier - I dont need to tell you about these right? 

[edlavallee]

Blackbirds are my favourite cruiser but they're paper thin.  So you'll want 1600mm plate which will eat almost all your grid leaving just enough for small guns (to take out support frigs, pods and whatnot) and  your EW mods.  As an EW bitch forget about offense, you're there to support the "heavy hitters" and that means staying alive long enough to jam at least a few cycles.  With that plate you'll almost be in BS armour territory.

Hey Sparky, why boost armor and not shields? Especially in a Blackbird? Also... Why guns and not missles or rockets?


Zipper "Da Bitch" Zee

[Endie]

Blackbirds are my favourite cruiser but they're paper thin.  So you'll want 1600mm plate which will eat almost all your grid leaving just enough for small guns (to take out support frigs, pods and whatnot) and  your EW mods.  As an EW bitch forget about offense, you're there to support the "heavy hitters" and that means staying alive long enough to jam at least a few cycles.  With that plate you'll almost be in BS armour territory.

Hey Sparky, why boost armor and not shields? Especially in a Blackbird? Also... Why guns and not missles or rockets?

I may be being ignorant here, but is it not because armour uses low slots, whereas boosting shields takes medium slots, which you want for the EW toys?

Again, nothing I'ev experienced in my six days so far, but I do read a lot.  I'm not saying I understand it all, though...

Endie

[Sparky]

Blackbirds are my favourite cruiser but they're paper thin.  So you'll want 1600mm plate which will eat almost all your grid leaving just enough for small guns (to take out support frigs, pods and whatnot) and  your EW mods.  As an EW bitch forget about offense, you're there to support the "heavy hitters" and that means staying alive long enough to jam at least a few cycles.  With that plate you'll almost be in BS armour territory.

Hey Sparky, why boost armor and not shields? Especially in a Blackbird? Also... Why guns and not missles or rockets?


Zipper "Da Bitch" Zee

1600mm steel plate gives 2400 extra armour, where a large shield extender is 1500 shield.  You'd need 2 extenders to get similar protection wasting valuable mid-slots that could hold a web and scrambler, more ECM or cap mods.  Boosting shield or armour doesn't make a great deal of difference from the "racial" angle if you're not tanking - and you'll definately need all your cap for ECM.  Also shield extenders really increase your sig radius which is very bad as you're faster to lock and easier to hit for much more damage with big weapons - death for a support cruiser.  Plate only makes you slow which isn't such a big deal as you won't be zipping about in combat anyway.

As to weapons - fit what you like really, I was using "guns" to as a synonym for "weapons" rather than missiles or guns.  But personally I prefer hybrid guns on my main as I've got a lot more skillpoints in guns than missiles, also instant damage is nice.

[edlavallee]

Endie -- great point... I had not thought of that angle.

Sparky -- thanks for the clarification.

The education continues....

[TripleDES]

Also to be noted, where as shield extenders increase your signature, armor plates increase your ship mass. 1600mm plates on a cruiser will be really noticable, so don't even hope to get out once you've been called as target. Therefore also use cheap plates, unless you're ratting in 0.0 and loot named plates like candy (1600mm Rolled Tungsten gives like 3360hp, as do 1600mm T2 plates).

[edlavallee]

If i am flying a Blackbird, a noticeable difference in mass would only be a change from "awefully slow" to "really slow". Slow is slow.

In other news, I have completed Electronics 4 and am training Electronic Warfare to L3 (ETA noonish). Here are my skills at the moment:

Electronic Warfare / Rank 2 / SP: 2829 of 16000

• Currently training to: level 3
  Time left: 3 hours, 22 minutes, 38 seconds
  SP done: 10057 of 13171

Electronics / Rank 1 / Level 4 / SP: 45255 of 256000
Long Range Targeting / Rank 2 / Level 1 / SP: 500 of 2829
Propulsion Jamming / Rank 3 / Level 1 / SP: 750 of 4243
Target Painting / Rank 3 / Level 1 / SP: 750 of 4243
Targeting / Rank 1 / Level 3 / SP: 8000 of 45255
·6 Electronics skills trained, for a total of 58,084 skillPoints.

I will build the others up to min 3 but in the few moments over the past few days I have been mainly focused on getting the really short ones out of the way so I can do the longer ones while I am at work.


EDIT -- if anyone has an 1600mm plates hanging around.... I know I have not seen any.

[Sparky]

If i am flying a Blackbird, a noticeable difference in mass would only be a change from "awefully slow" to "really slow". Slow is slow.

Align for any stellar body at top speed and you'll warp out to that instantly anyway.  If you're getting too far from the fleet turn around and align for some other body in the opposite direction as your escape warp.  That's assuming you're not "go down with the fleet" throwaway material of course.

Another little tip this time to avoid podding:  always keep an autopilot set that'll take you away from your current gate (or anywhere if you're not at a gate).  Then, as you go into structure and all is definitely lost activate autopilot.  It'll warp you out the moment you pop even through horrible visual lag or whatever that would normally render you impotent.  If you're caught with your pants down and no suitable autopilot route you can select any stellar object and repeatedly mash "warp to" on the overview, but that's not quite so reliable in my experience.

That autopilot trick has kept me in the same pod and full set of +3's for years - even through countless ship losses and many table-on-head fleet lagathons where you literally don't see yourself warping out 10-30 seconds after death it's so laggy.

[TripleDES]

The mass doesn't make you slower top speed wise, but in regards of inertia. Turns and de/-acceleration will suck more.

[Endie]

Another little tip this time to avoid podding:  always keep an autopilot set that'll take you away from your current gate (or anywhere if you're not at a gate).  Then, as you go into structure and all is definitely lost activate autopilot.  It'll warp you out the moment you pop...

That is total genius.  Where are your feedback cards?

[Nija]

Another way to avoid podding is to make an overview setting that only lists planets. Or, while you are dying, right click anywhere, right click planets, add to overview.

Target one, and click 'warp to' as fast as you can.