Marauders: Difference between revisions

'''Marauders''' are T2 [[battleships]] designed to be damage dealers with a strong local tank. For that, they can fit the [[#Bastion module|Bastion module]] which doubles the rate of fire, the local repair amount, and improves resistance to damage and [[EWAR]], but at the same time has drawbacks such as making the ship immobile, not receiving remote repairs, and giving a [[Timers#Weapon_Timer|weapon timer]]. Besides that, they have additional strong hull bonuses: A 100% bonus to their corresponding weapon system means that their four hard points correspond to eight un-bonused weapon slots which are further improved by skill-dependent bonuses. The Paladin, Golem, and Kronos have a 7.5% bonus to their preferred local tank per marauder skill level which results in 37.5% with maximum skill. The Vargur receives a 5% per level bonus for both armor repairs and shield boosting, resulting in a 25% bonus to both at max skills. Further, they have a 70% reduction of the [[MJD]] reactivation delay which changes the delay from 180 seconds to 54. And tractor beams' range and velocity are doubled when fitted to Marauders. The four Marauders are:

== Bastion module ==

[[File:Icon bastion.png|left|link=]] ''An electronic interface designed to augment and enhance a marauder's siege abilities. Through a series of electromagnetic polarity field shifts, the bastion module diverts energy from the ship's propulsion and warp systems to lend additional power to its defensive and offensive capabilities.''

Interestingly, while a Micro Jump Drive will not function while the Bastion module is active, the [[Micro Jump Field Generator]] of a [[Command Destroyer]] is not blocked, and so bastioned marauders can still be booshed around.

The Bastion + MWD trick allows marauders to reduce their align time when after coming out of bastion. Hover the mouse on the decycling bastion module to see exactly how long it has left. At the 9 second mark, start cycling the MWD for one cycle and start spamming "warp to" hotkey. After the bastion mode ends you will get one second of MWD that accelerates you to near warp speed and the marauder will warp in 2-3 seconds.

Marauders are usually not seen as a ship for large engagements. While their local tank is strong, it still won't be able to tank a big hostile fleet and they can't receive remote repairs while in bastion. Nevertheless the alliance Pandemic Horde introduced a Paladin doctrine in 2022. The reasoning is that the Paladin should mostly be used outside of bastion and outperforms other options even without bastion (the fit includes a bastion module fitted though). At the same time they claim that it can be better sourced than corresponding faction ships.

For many years, marauders were a neglected class. For PvE purposes, they only matched the damage of pirate battleships, without the mobility of a {{sh|Machariel}} or a {{sh|Nightmare}}, leaving them unsuited for mission blitzing. They were also generally more expensive than pirate battleships, with marauder hulls costing around 2 billion ISK when comparable pirate hulls could cost anywhere between 500 million and 1 billion ISK, making them more expensive sidegrades if the bastion module or utility highs weren't being leveraged. For PvP purposes, they were outmatched by [[HAW]]-equipped [[dreadnoughts]], a configuration made possible by a capital ship rework in 2016. They had comparable cost, and could similarly anchor themselves down in solo PvP against multiple enemies, but held significantly more damage and tanking potential. And prior to 2021, bastion lasted 60 seconds, which complicated its use in high damage fleet environments. Thus, they were left as expensive highsec mission boats, which could comfortably, but not speedily run them.

* Bastion module

* Fixed an issue that caused ECM to not work on Marauders with an active Bastion module.

* Rate of fire bonus for the bastion module which results in twice the DPS when in bastion