Hyperkittens

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Hyperkittens (Kiting Tristans)

Hyperkittens are a long standing quick response gang for the Uni. They’re fast and agile enough to kite well, while carrying a larger tank than most kiting ships, and using drones as their weapons system which removes the usual complexities of managing tracking which a turret based kiting ship would face, while still doing very impressive damage. In addition, the simple fitting means they’re one of the cheapest doctrines to field, and they build upon skills which almost every character will train due to their usefulness with ratting

Implementation

Hyperkittens are best used as a semi-independent “small gang” style engagement. Like all kiting ships, they rely on their speed to avoid taking damage, and will die almost instantly if tackled. If facing a single target, orbiting at 18km is optimal, however as soon as there is more than one target on grid, the Hyperkittens will need more cunning piloting to avoid tackle. If you are confident in your pilots, then this can be left to the individual (as in a small gang situation), alternatively this is a good time to practice anchoring for a new FC

While the Kittens can be used to gank lone targets, it should be remembered that Warp Disrupters do not deactivate MJDs, meaning large ships may MJD out of your tackle, and neither do warp disrupters slow an opponent down, meaning catching anything faster than you can be difficult The better mindset for an FC looking at Hyperkittens is to use them to Skirmish rather than to gank. Warp in at range on a fleet, or a fight already occurring, anchor up on the FC (or fly independently), and burn away from, or around, the fight or fleet, while your drones head in to deal damage. Your ideal target is usually a small frigate or destroyer gang where you can pull range and kill things rapidly

The doctrine is therefore a very useful first step in an FC’s shift in mindset from pure brawling, ganking doctrines like Golden Horde or Magic Merlins, towards skirmish doctrines. However it does have a number of notable weaknesses. Most notably, they do not scale well with Logistics ships. Their buffer and resists are too low to make it worth it, while the disorganized nature of kiting can make it hard to keep in range of the Logi. This also makes fighting on gates in Low Sec impossible due to gate guns

In addition, Drones as a weapons system have limitations. They have a long travel time to start applying damage, and they can be easily smartbombed by any ship equipped with such modules. In addition, given you aim to Skirmish, if you are forced to warp off, and leave your drones, you are effectively toothless until you can retrieve the drones or buy more

Another key thing to note is that Rapid Light Missile Launchers are the worst enemy of this ship. While RLMLs are very dangerous for most frigate gangs, Hyperkittens in particular, with their large signature radius, low tank, and relatively low speed for a kiting ship, will simply get torn apart. The prevalence of RLML ships in the current meta (Caracals, Orthrus etc) means that FC’s may have to be very selective about their fights

Fleet Composition and Fits

The beauty of Hyperkittens is their simplicity. The fit below is the T2 variation, however the Alpha friendly variant below is almost equally effective. The performance of your ship is more generally determined by your drone skills than the actual modules on the ship here

Support Ships

EWAR ships, while useful on almost any fleet, are very valuable here. You live or die by avoiding damage (rather than tanking it in a brawling doctrine with Logi), so any ship which helps limit an opponent’s ability to apply damage to you is invaluable. A Griffin, Crucifier or Maulus can make a huge difference in keeping your ships alive

A Hyena or Vigil Fleet Issue can be extremely useful as always for webbing an opponent at range, due to the fact the Hyperkittens lack any kind of ability to slow an opponent otherwise.