User:Erwin Madelung/Sandbox2

Usage of Force Auxiliaries and Tactics

FAXs are used to provide a huge amount of remote repair. A single T2 Capital Remote Shield Booster fitted on a Minokawa with T2 triage provides 1581 HP/s remote shield boosts and usually has three or four remote shield boosts fitted. As a comparison a Basilisk with four T2 Large Remote Shield Boosters fitted provides 340 HP/s remote repairs. This means a FAX can about replace a subcap logi squad with respect to the remote repair amount. But, as it does so in triage, it lacks on-grid mobility which can be very important in fights. Because FAXs can’t receive remote support like cap transfers while in triage, they heavily rely on cap boosters. The following sections will explain common strategies for how FAXs are currently used.

Local Repair – Sub Cap Support and Very Small Capital Fights

The triage module provides very strong bonuses to local repairs. The combination of the 100% more reps per circle (120% for T2) and the cycle time bonus results in four times the local repairs (4.4 for T2). On top of that, the hulls either have a bonus to local repairs or a resist bonus which both further increase the local repairs. The exact amount of local repair varies a lot depending how much the FAX pilot invested into the fitting, but you can expect from 25k EHP/s up to 100k EHP/s before heat, with heat increasing that by another nearly 30%. Always bring Hardshell Dose IV and Strong Exile (for armor) or Strong Blue Pill (for shield) on local rep fitted FAXs. In combination they provide more than 40% more local repairs. (Usage of these is already assumed in the above approximations.)

All FAXs have six highslots. One is obviously used for the triage module and you usually fit 3-4 remote reps or cap transfers. This leaves one or two utility highslots. Useful modules there are, for example, a Shield/Armor Command burst with a harmonizing charge loaded. This leads to approximately 10% more repairs as well as buffer if measured in EHP. The Rapid Repair or Active Shielding charge should never be used on a FAX as it does not apply to capital modules. Another useful option is a cyno;. a FAX is pinned down through the triage anyways and does not die quickly, which makes it a good option for cynoing in reinforcements. A smartbomb is also a good choice in a subcap support fight, because it can kill drones on you, which reduces the incoming DPS by a good bit.

The amount of local repair limits the engagements in which you can use a local rep FAX. A dreadnought with short range capital guns usually deals around 10k DPS. So, you can calculate roughly how many dreads you can tank, or how many you would need in order to kill a hostile FAX. Presently, this means that local rep FAXs are usually limited to engagements with fewer than ten dreads on the field. As a side note, a Titan could usually volley an active rep FAX with its doomsday.

The common use cases for local repair FAXs are:

• To provide repairs in a wormhole brawl. Because the other side can’t escalate the fight at will, you usually do not have to deal with many hostile caps. For the use of FAXs in wormhole check the external links section.
• As part of a QRF if a (super)carrier or rorqual is tackled by a fleet of subcaps.
• To provoke a capital escalation in a subcap fight. If you have local rep FAX(s) on grid, which prevent the hostiles from killing anything, they might consider dropping dreads.

Besides the obvious option to apply more DPS than the FAX can tank, capacitor warfare is also a good option to break a FAX’s tank. FAXs rely heavily on cap boosters, and so strong neut pressure means they can only activate their reps and hardeners if they activate the cap booster at the same time. Because the activation time of a cap booster is usually longer than for a repair module this results in the FAX being able to tank less. If you only face a single FAX, the cap pressure can be further increase by not shooting the FAX but other ships in its fleet, because the remote reps are less cap efficient than the local reps. As an example, T2 remote repairs on a standard active Apostle fit repair 6016 HP per 1087 GJ = 5.53 HP/GJ, while a local T2 repairs 44069 HP per 2880 GJ = 15.30 HP/GJ. Even though the resists on other ships might be slightly better than on the Apostle itself they are not that much better.

Because neut pressure is the most common way to fight local repair FAXs, they usually fit a lot of cap boosters and often also cap batteries, to provide neut resist. As their primary function is the neut resist and not the extra cap, you usually use subcap faction or abyssal batteries with as high a neut resist as possible. Because these are all midslot modules, armor FAXs like the Ninazu and Apostle can be fitted more neut resistant than the shield FAXs. The Ninazu performs especially well under neut pressure as it has the most midslots. Conversely, the Lif is the most difficult to fit for neut pressure. Because the local tank of a FAX doesn’t matter a lot for the fleet type and the Ninazu and Lif both have the same bonuses to remote reps, the Lif is currently the weakest FAX. (Be aware that this is only in relation with the other FAXs. Any FAX is a very powerful ship.)

Usually, FAX pilots use implant sets. For local repair FAXs, the genolution set is common for its increase in fitting space, capacitor, and buffer, and for slot 6, an additional fitting implant is common. An armor fax would use the RA-700 series in slot 7 for less cap use of remote armor reps and the MC-800 series in slot 8 for more hull buffer in case you bleed through reps. A shield FAX would use the SM-700 series in slot 7 for more shield buffer to make bleeding through less likely and the SE-800 series in slot 8 for less cap use of remote shield boosts.

Buffer FAXs – Damage Sponges for Super Capital Fights

The local repairs of a FAX do not stand a chance if there is too much DPS on the grid. The low buffer is especially problematic as they can easily be volleyed by a group of super carriers or a single Titan doomsday. This means it becomes more viable to utilize buffer fit FAXs and accept that they die if primaried (though if a FAX exits triage while being primary, it can be repped up). The fits balance cost versus EHP to make it cheaper to lose a handful of FAXs rather than a super carrier or titan. Opponents will usually try to clear FAXs before they start focusing on super carriers or titans. If there is a good number of FAXs on grid, their remote repairs simply slow down the kill speed too much. An exception is if there are enough titans present to volley super carriers or titans with doomsdays.

Buffer FAXs usually fit an Emergency Hull Energizer (EHE) which hugely increases the hull resists for a short time. It will usually be activated if the FAX enters hull or if a Titan doomsday is spooling on that FAX. This way the FAX might live slightly longer and slow down the hostile kill speed, even if only a tiny bit. Though since the nerf of the EHE, some groups have decided to fit their FAXs without. As it is normal for buffer FAXs to die, you can easily see the current fits of major alliances by checking their killboards.