Artillery Ruptures

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Artillery Ruptures

At first glance, the Artillery Rupture is unimpressive when compared against its T1 Cruiser equivalents. Its tank is extremely light even with good skills, at around 25k EHP, and while it is fast, its sustained DPS initially seems very low at around 250-300 DPS vs the 400+ DPS most other doctrines can achieve The key to the Rupture though is its volley damage or “Alpha Strike”. Like the Artillery Thrashers, The Rupture specializes in delivering huge (up to 2.5k) damage in a single blow, immediately deleting an opponent from the field. The step up to Medium weapons for the Rupture vs the Thrasher, means that it is able to project that alpha strike out to much higher ranges, up to 60km with Tremor ammunition

Implementation

With a decent speed, low tank, and high volley damage at long range, the Arty Rupture is a natural skirmish cruiser, in a similar manner to the BLAP Caracal. While it is more than capable of using shorter range ammunition to gank outnumbered targets up close, in fleet vs fleet combat it is best used to warp in at range, alpha a few targets off the field, then disengage before the main bulk of a fleet can get on top of you

Just like any skirmish cruiser, when engaging another fleet, always try to fight aligned to something, so that you can disengage once they start to close range on you. Up close, your low sustained damage, and low tank generally puts you at a disadvantage against similar sized fleets, unless you have managed to pick enough ships off from range to give you a numerical advantage by the time they catch you

Your ability to alpha targets off the field often lets you directly target DPS ships in a fleet, killing them with alpha volleys before their Logistics wing have time to land repairs

Your maximum alpha strike with close range ammunition is around 2.5k at 18km (+30km falloff), or 1.45k at 64km with T2 Tremor (+30km falloff). T1 fits have a slightly shorter max range at 55km (+29km falloff) with long range faction ammunition, but even a low skilled pilot should be capable of achieving close to a 0.85k volley at that range, making it fairly easy for a fleet of 20 pilots of varying SP levels to reach a combined volley enough to delete almost any T1 Cruiser in a single volley. Even if you don’t have the alpha to take out cruisers, it’s an equally satisfying tactic to simply alpha off small tackle and support ships, then escape before the main DPS can catch you

Coordinating that Alpha strike is fairly key. If your volleys are staggered and land a few seconds apart, then the Logistics ships have a greater chance to catch repairs on someone. Ideally, all your damage should land in a single server tick, to instantly delete an opponent. The best way to achieve this is rather than have all ships free-fire on the primary target, an FC can count down 3-2-1-FIRE for each new target

Note that, like all T1 Cruisers, your capacitor life is awful when using your MWD. Unlike the Moa, the Rupture doesn’t really have the spare tank to fit a capacitor booster instead of a shield module in the mids, so capacitor life needs to be managed carefully, and FC should call out for use of the MWD selectively – “prop mods on two cycles” etc for whatever period is needed to maintain the appropriate range. Perma-running the MWD is not an option on this ship, although at least with Artillery, you can still shoot things while you float motionless and tank-less in space waiting for your capacitor to recharge

Like BLAP Caracals, Arty Ruptures can be effective in both Low-Sec and Null-Sec. The lack of bubbles in Low Sec, combined with a lack of tackle on the ship itself might discourage FCs from using these in FW space, but in reality, your alpha strike means you can kill most ships instantly without even needing to tackle them. Anything which takes more than 1-2 volleys to kill probably isn’t the best target for you anyway. In Low you want to avoid people using Plex mechanics to fight you in brawling range, but you can be a very effective gate camper, and gate fighter. Those same characteristics make Ruptures an effective option in Null as well, where bubbles can offer even more tactical options

The key to an effective Rupture fleet, as with any Alpha Strike doctrine, is simply numbers. Your effectiveness lies in your combined alpha strike. Get that as high as you can, and use it to delete everything

Fleet Composition

Primary DD Fit

There is some debate as to the best balance of Gyrostabilizers and Tracking Enhancers for the low slots. While many groups will go for 3:1 in favor of Gyrostabilizers for maximum damage, for the Uni, 2:2 is probably the best bet, to help lower skilled characters reach the range which makes the doctrine work. Extra damage isn’t much use if you can’t apply it because the fleet is fighting outside of your range. Tracking Enhancers also have lower fitting requirements than Gyros, which helps players with lower fitting skills

Logi

Given you aim to skirmish, and warp out before you take too much sustained damage, Logistics are marginally less important here than for doctrines such as Rail Moas, where you aim to fight a sustained battle. Bringing Logi is still advisable, however achieving a critical mass of Logistics is less of a priority. Any MWD Logi can work, so BLAP Ospreys, or Scythes work well, although Ospreys rely on their Cap chain, so you need at least 3 Ospreys to be effective

Support Ships

Your primary scouts and tackle remain Interceptors as always. In Null Sec you will also, of course want an Interdictor or two for bubbles. As with most Cruiser doctrines, Command Destroyers make very effective support ships. The MJFG helps with fleet repositioning, and the command bursts add a few benefits. Shield tank boosts are universally useful, but the most useful command burst for the Rupture is information, which lets you boost lock range – very useful for a long range doctrine where your maximum range with good skills actually slightly exceeds your lock range. Command Burst assistance can therefore be very useful for fighting at extreme ranges. Given the use of Information Bursts, the Stork is your best option Finally, given Artillery has terrible tracking, support ships which help you maximize your alpha strike are essential. The Bellicose is a great ship for this, offering a good shield tank, excellent damage maximization at long range with Target Painters, as well as offering some nice additional DPS via its light missiles Long webs such as the Hyena are always useful for pinning down smaller ships for alpha strikes as well, although it should be noted that very often you will be fighting outside of the Hyena’s 30km web range, and so, depending on preference, a Hyena pilot may be more usefully deployed elsewhere in the fleet.