Derpatrons
Contents
Derptron fits are now maintained in the appropriate forum thread. The following article is legacy and therefore deprecated
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The Derptron is a MWD, close range brawling Atron. Extremely fast and inexpensive, it makes for an excellent entry level ship both for E-Uni Newbros and junior FCs. Using cheap hulls and attrition tactics, the main tactic of the fleet is to rush in and swarm over prospective targets. Some people also argue the the goal is to do this as cheaply as possible to win the ISK efficiency war, as you will certainly lose fleet members. Having both a low SP and ISK entry barrier, a Derptron fleet can be quickly assembled for a variety of reasons, such as QRFs or impromptu roams, and can easily be reshipped into when the inevitable loses do start to occur. |
Implementation
The strength of the Derptron is its speed. Able to reach 4km/s, it easily outpaces frigate doctrines such as Magic Merlins and Punishers, and almost any fast kiting ship. To some degree with Derptrons you can ignore the usual weakness of brawling frigates (being kited), and simply swarm even a fast nano-cruiser - the speed of this doctrine often surprises an opponent
The weakness is the tank. Lightly tanked (in either shield or hull tank formats) to ensure maximum speed, the Derptron doesn't synergize well with Logistics, as it is generally dead before reps can land. The Derptron is the prototypical glass cannon, delivering massive damage in a rapidly moving swarm which can overwhelm almost any ship, but melting rapidly if the opponent has time to actually target each ship.
The main strategy to use, similar to a lot of our current frigate doctrines, is to quickly close range, immobilise our targets with scram/webs, and brawl. What the fleet can or should engage all depends on the total numbers. Realistically FCs should be looking to gank lone, expensive targets however a decent sized Derptron swarm can still be effective against a small cruiser gang. Avoid fleets of similar sizes, small gangs fitted with rapid light missile launchers unless you have a huge numbers advantage, and anything that can comfortably kite faster than 4km/s (very few ships). Finally, FCs will lose ships, sometimes in large numbers. Expect it and do not be disheartened by it. If you kill the target and come out ISK positive, then consider that a win and reship.
Fleet Composition
Being an Attack Frigate, the Atron is naturally a fast and agile ship. Coupled with the Microwarpdrive, the Derptron reaches roughly 4km/s cold for a moderately skilled pilot and a little over 5.5km/s overheated, which means it has the speed to quickly close distance and catch the vast majority of ship types. With the addition of a scram and a web, once in range the Derptron is able to quickly lock down and immobilise the target. Being fit with close range blasters allows us to squeeze the most DPS possible out of the ship as the fleet is able to get extremely close to the target, often at times also then being able to mitigate additional damage by orbiting inside the enemies guns.
To free up the needed midslots, you'll notice that the Derptron is actually hull tanked. This gives the fitting some slight buffer without impacting on the speed and mobility of the fit, however it is still relatively paper thin. This is one of the downsides to the doctrine, as you can and will most likely lose a number of ships in each engagement and primarily why we want to keep the fitting as cheap as possible. On the plus side, being hull tanked means we have omnitanked resists.
Newbro Derptron
There are a number of upgrades that each fleet member can make to their ship to both improve their effectiveness and to lower the cost.
The first and most important is to swap the IFFA Compact Damage Control for a Damage Control II. The T2 DC will further increase your base resists, therefore giving you more ehp (sadly not that much) but more importantly lower the cost of the fitting by approximately 1 million ISK (or roughly 25% of the total cost!). It's a win win all around.
Secondly, when pilots have the appropriate fitting skills, they should add a Small Gremlin Compact Energy Neutralizer into the empty utility highslot. While individually the module won't make a vast difference, when we scale up the effects to a fleet of 30+ Derptrons then the fleet now also has the ability to quickly drain the capacitor of the enemy, which has the additional benefit of potentially crippling their ability to tackle, actively tank or even fire their guns in some cases.
Once pilots are cap stable with the MWD on, another great upgrade is to move from the enduring MWD to the 5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive. The main benefit here is that the restrained MWD has a lower signature bloom, making an already extremely fast moving target even harder to hit.
Being hull tank means that the fleet will not have logistics pilots. If you find yourself being targeted at any point in the fight, pilots need to get themselves off grid fast. Do not hang around, do not be a hero. You do not have the tank for it. Bounce to a celestial and then warp back to the fight. Do not hesitate, just get off grid and stay alive.
Mainline fleet members should now be flying this fit.
Mainline Derptron
Additional T2 upgrades are up to the individual pilot. Light Ion Blaster II offer some additional DPS and open up the option of T2 ammo. The Overdrive Injector System II increases the speed of the fit by roughly 30m/s for an additional 500k ISK to the value of your ship (roughly 10%) and the Reinforced Bulkheads II offers an additional 150 ehp for 200k to the total cost, however they cannot be fit with T2 guns unless you remove the energy neutraliser. Personally I'd upgrade the guns to T2 as the additional DPS will scale up if others in the fleet also fly T2 guns, while the upgrades to the lowslots only have marginal improvements to the individual hulls for a 15% increase in cost.
Scouts can also fly either the standard Derptron fit or, with a slight adjustment to midslots, something very similar to a standard fleet scout. The other obvious alternative is that scouts just fly an actual, properly fit fleet scouting ship if they bring one or you have the time to persuade someone to reship into one.
Shield Derptron
There are also a number of shield tank Derptron variants, from a time before real pilots hull tanked their ships. Shield tanking allows the Derptron to have a larger ehp buffer and can bring the price of the overall fit down by roughly 20-25%, however the obvious downside is that they need to sacrifice a tackle module from their mid slots to fit a Medium Shield Extender, plus the larger signature radius makes them easier to hit
