Heavy Interdiction Cruisers
Heavy Interdiction Cruisers (HICs or hictors) are Tech 2 cruisers designed to provide heavy tackle. To this end, they are able to fit the Warp Disruption Field Generator, a module which can either project an Interdiction Field around the ship or be focused into an "infinity point", a single-target warp disruptor or scrambler that no number of Warp Core Stabilizers can resist. All HICs have a 5% range bonus per HIC level to this module. Further, they all have a 20% resist bonus corresponding to their faction's preferred tank. Besides this they have bonuses to their faction's preferred weapon system.
The HICs of the four empires are:
Besides those four empire HICs, there are the Sansha's Nation HIC, the 
Fiend, and the Mordu's Legion HIC, the 
Laelaps. As limited edition AT ships, they are rare and don't have a big role in everyday gameplay.
Contents
Capabilities
Bubbles
In null security space, heavy interdiction cruisers can create a warp disruption field similar to the bubble created by light interdictors. The field has a radius of 12–20 km, depending on the pilot's level in the Heavy Interdictor ship command skill.
However, while the light interdictor creates bubbles centered on the probes it launches, and so can can launch its bubble, leave it, and even get off grid, the heavy interdiction cruiser's bubble is generated by and centered on the HIC itself.
This ship-centered bubble capability comes from the Warp Disruption Field Generator, a high-slot module with a cycle time of 30 seconds. While the bubble is active, the HIC can still move at its normal speed, but it cannot receive any type of remote support, and has an increased signature radius.
Activating a HIC bubble thus makes the HIC itself a more easily-damaged target, and commits its pilot to purely local tanking for at least the next 30 seconds. In return, the HIC has a mobile bubble, which opens up more tactical possibilities, such as moving the bubble in concert with an opposing gang to keep them tackled, or keeping the bubble out in front of a mobile friendly gang to screen their mid- and back-lines from hostile warp-ins.
The bubble can not be used in lowsec or highsec. If you see a HIC in empire that seems to have its bubble up, it is a graphical bug caused by loading the grid after the point was activated. (This bug has reportedly been fixed, but pilots may still see it in some old videos).
Infinity Pointing
The Warp Disruption Field Generator can be loaded with a Focused Warp Disruption script, or a Focused Warp Scrambling script, which turns the module into a kind of super single-target warp disruptor (or warp scrambler) with long range and infinite strength. When scripted to create this "infinipoint", the module still prevents remote support while active. However, unlike the unscripted warp disruption field mode, the scripted module can be activated in both hisec and lowsec.
HICs are the only ships that can, using this infinite point, tackle super-capital ships in low sec (in part because the use of this script also blocks capital ships from jumping through stargates). They are also sometimes used in high- and low-sec gatecamps to negate the effect of Warp Core Stabilizers, catching otherwise-slippery transport ships. Furthermore, these scripts can be used to shut down hostile Micro Jump Drives and Micro Jump Field Generators, and thus prevent enemies from either defensively micro jumping to safety or offensively micro jumping part of a friendly fleet out of position. While scripted, the Warp Disruption Field Generator also prevents ships from docking within citadels.
Rolling Wormholes
Heavy interdictors are also the only ships which can fit the Zero Point Mass Entangler high slot module. When activated, this dramatically reduces the HIC's mass (by 80%, to a fifth of its normal value) but even more dramatically reduces its speed (by 95%). It disables the warp drive and any microwarp drive fitted, and reduces the thrust bonus from afterburners by 90%.
These effects are unhelpful in most situations, but they make the ship a convenient tool for "rolling" wormholes, that is, moving mass through an unwanted wormhole in order to close it. In particular, the Entangler's mass reduction effects allow a HIC to jump through a critically destabilized wormhole, with minimal chance of that wormhole collapsing until the HIC jumps through it again (with its Entanglers off this time). To this end, most rolling HIC fits feature 3 Entanglers, which are activated together, to maximize the mass reduction effects.
| A long, long time ago... |
|---|
| Prior to September, 2018, it was the Warp Disruption Field Generator itself which provided the HIC with reduced mass and speed. However, there was an unintended interaction between the Generator and 500MN Microwarpdrives, allowing 500MN HICs to slingshot themselves around stargates at high speeds and thus tackle any ship no matter where it was coming from. When CCP moved to address this by removing the mass and speed effects from the Generator, it caused a severe outcry from the wormhole space community over the loss of "rolling HICs", and so the Zero Point Mass Entangler was hastily created to re-introduce the desired non-combat mass reduction behavior. |
Tactics
HICs represent an opposite trade-off to the cheap cost and vulnerability of the lighter interdictors: HICs are extremely tough, but more expensive and less expendable. In some circumstances, such as a fast, agile gang, light interdictors might be a better choice.
When used in fleets for their bubbles, HICs shine when deployed in pairs or larger groups with logistics ships as backup. With good coordination, the HICs can pass the task of bubbling around, so that the logistics ships can repair those HICs which are not currently bubbling. Many of the same considerations around bubble tactics relevant to interdictor pilots remain relevant in HICs; in particular, pilots should remember that an unwanted friendly bubble at the wrong time or in the wrong place can wreak havoc on a fleet commander's plans.
When used for low-sec or high-sec gatecamps, HICs benefit from local or remote sensor boosting, to pump up their already-good scan resolution for fast target lock times.
