Interdictors

Interdictors

Interdictors and HICs (Heavy Interdiction Cruisers) are the only ships that can tackle Titans and Motherships. They play a key role in nullsec. They launch warp disruption probes, usually called bubbles. Those probes create a warp disruption field in a 20km radius from the probe: inside that field, nothing can warp, no matter how many stabs they fit.

Interdictors are Tech 2 Destroyers. These are near-useless in highsec and lowsec, because bubbles cannot be used in lowsec or highsec space.

• Amarr: Heretic
• Caldari: Flycatcher
• Gallente: Eris
• Minmatar: Sabre

General Tips

1. Here's a basic guide to using an interdictor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdoR7mhyWe8
   1. Dictor bubble radius is 20km
   2. Dictor bubble launchers hold three interdiction probes and can launch one every five seconds.
   3. Account for the ~1.5s delay between launcher activation and bubble drop when moving
   4. Bubble affects ships that have activated warp, whether trying to warp in or out of it.
   5. Know where the undock is for station camping
   6. Bubble the middle of the gate for system gate camping
   7. Place bubbles outside of anticipated smartbomb range, 5km (this is less necessary with Rev 2's bubble HP boost)
2. Interdictor pilots will have poor Kill/Death ratios. You will be called primary in every engagement with the enemy. You will be the number 1 threat to any enemy fleet, so focus on survivability (read: escape), not damage output. Drop a bubble and jump out or warp away. If you do this and come back to the fight, chances are the enemy will not call you primary straight away.
   1. Practice bubble dropping to get accustomed to the delay. A good dictor pilot knows the time and range to launch for his ship to ensure a perfect placement while passing at top speeds.
   2. Speed is Life -Because you want to live, fit speed mods (overdrives/nanofibers) in the low slots.
   3. Fit a MSE - Medium Shield Extender, this is your buffer. You should have between 1500-2000 HP of shield by comparison with speed rigs my sabre has around 650 HP of armor. Once you get below 50% seriously think about warping away. Once that shield buffer is gone, you will just about be alpha'd.
   4. A MWD is required to escape. Remember, though, that the MWD will drastically increase your sig radius, although training up the Interdictors skill will reduce this penalty by 10% per level. After leaving your bubble either warp out or transition smoothly into a high transversal orbit. You need to travel faster than 3.5kms (and preferably over 4kms) to speed tank missiles.
3. Bubble launcher does not auto-repeat. (Rev2.0)
4. The dictor launcher can reload fast enough to perma-bubble(Rev2.0). The bubble lasts two minutes and it takes one minute to reload the launcher.
5. Be ready, always position yourself on the center of the gate either above or below it and aligned to something so that you can drop your bubble, burn and warp out. When camping a gate do it with your ship directly under the little stargate icon in the middle of the stargate if it's Gallente or Caldari. If it's an Amarr gate, right in the middle of the ring on top of the icon instead. If it's a Smuggler Route gate, a little towards the front of the gate, just in front of the icon.
6. Cloaked interdictors are great for laying traps (and general survival). If an enemy ganksquad is nearby, consider cloaking a dictor under a gate and have the rest of the fleet >15au away from that gate, outside of scanning range. When the enemy jumps in, the dictor decloaks, drops a bubble and then jumps out. The rest of our gang can then warp in to bookmarks above/below the gate and wipe them out. Even if the gang has a cov ops scout, they will think its clear and jump in.
7. You might want wrecks on your overview; you're going to want to use them as warp-ins to bubble the rest of the enemy fleet. see How to be the Hero

About the "bubble" (Warp Disrupt Probe)

1. Anyone trying to warp to a spot within 150km of the edge of the bubble will be pulled to the edge of it, if the bubble is in line with the two objects the ship is warping between, and on grid with the destination object.
2. It cannot be targeted, thus it is vulnerable only to bombs and smartbombs. Bubbles have 1000 hitpoints with no resists (revelations 2)
3. Launching a bubble does not count as aggression HOWEVER once someone tries to warp inside your bubble, you will become aggressed.. Therefore, you can drop a bubble on an enemy at a gate and still jump through if you do it quickly. This is valuable for bubbling an enemy then jumping through and bubbling other side in case they try to jump through and run.
4. Interdictor bubbles cannot be deployed outside of 0.0 space.
5. Bubbles function with an anchored bubble nearby.
6. Bubbles stop cap ships in them from cyno-ing out.
7. Bubbles will cancel warps in-progress in the same way as warp scrambler modules
8. Bubbles will NOT prevent emergency warps (from logging off) if they (the bubble) are deployed AFTER the ctrl-q / log off.
9. Bubbles last for 2 minutes, during that time they act like Mobile Warp Disruptors, but will only catch ships that initiated warp AFTER the dictor bubble was deployed.
10. A tech 3 cruiser fitted with the Interdiction Nullifier subsystem will however not be affected by any kind of bubbles.

Fleet ops

1. Understand your Fleet Commander's bubbling strategy. Some will tell you to bubble anything you can, others want only sniping bs's, others want you to bubble only on order. A bubble where your FC doesn't expect one can get your gang caught and killed.
2. Always know where the Fleet Commanders safe warp to spot will be. Often this a POS or a spot near the Sun. This can be tricky, but you must ensure that your bubble would not be in line with this safe spot and prevent your fleet from warping out. They will get sucked into your bubble.
3. After-warp bubble deployment in fleet fights can be hairy, since lag and timing issues might drop your bubble too far from the enemy.
4. When learning, it is expected to receive some grief from fellow gang mates when you get them killed with your bubbles. Take it in stride but learn from your mistakes.

Advanced Techniques

1. Using your bubble like an anchor'd bubble. When a hostile enters local but not from your gate, bubble then move to the edge of your bubble that is facing the gate they came from, if possible get others to assign you drones. This will help in decloaking covops. If you are doing this solo, be aligned, at 3/4 speed, and constantly spamming scan. The worst thing you can catch will be a rapier (follow'd by other recons), but the decloak calibration should be enough for you to escape to warp. Everything else dangerous you will be able to scan before it is caught. You can do this 100-150kms infront or behind the gate or station. It is just like using a medium anchor'd bubble, except -1. the bubble only lasts 2 minutes,2. will only catch things that initiate warp AFTER bubble is deployed and 3. will give you a 30sec aggression timer whenever someone tries to warp within your bubble.
2. Bubble infront of the kiting fleet: every kiting/sniping bs fleet aligns on something and its easy to see what it is; when you land at the enemy fleet align on the same thing and drop your second bubble infront of them [you drop the first one when you land]
3. Delay bubbling - a technique pioneered by BlackOps; used when gatecamping, often useful for catching small ships. When the target jumps through the gate, the dictor waits until it decloaks before bubbling. Often, a person jumping through a gate into a gatecamp will try to warp away immediately if they see they're in a bubble, especially if they're in a small, fast ship. Then, when the dictor drops his bubble, not only will the attempt to warp be aborted, the person will also be aggressed and thus unable to burn back to the gate to jump through. Often, the person falling for the delay bubble trick will be confused for a couple of seconds when the warp fails, until he notices the bubble - which is all the time you need to tackle him. The weakness of delay bubbling is that unless the dictor pilot is paying close attention, or if the system is considerably lagged, the bubble will be dropped too late to catch the target.
4. Probing Dictor. By fitting two Co-Processor II's you can squeeze a Bubble launcher and an Expended Probe Launcher on a Heretic and still have room for a Microwarpdrive. You do not get any scan bonuses but if you have four Combat Scan Probes out set up with 1 or 0,5 AU range you will get 100% hits on battleship on grid easily. Which means you'll be able to warp to that sniper fleet about 8 seconds after they appear on grid to bubble them. Since you have no tank at all you'll very likely die but you cannot be popped on the way in.

How to be the Hero

Dictors command a lot of power in Fleet battles. They are the Number One Threat to the enemy fleet, and will be treated as such (i.e. primaried). You can be a hero and single handedly turn a blueballs fleet encounter into a full on rampage. Follow these simple guidelines:

• Accept the fact that you are already dead. Most of the time you will die, so you must make sure you cause maximum anguish to the enemy. This isn't so expensive for sabre pilots anymore since the alliance reimbursement program started.

Strategy A

1. Not all fleet fights happen at or beyond 150Km. When the battleships are given a warp-in, warp in at 50Km or more. When done correctly, you will exit warp beyond most enemy optimals and be more than 150Km from their fleet. Adjust your strategy if your warp-in is on the far side of the fleet. NOTE: Spatial awareness is required to pull this off.
2. Align towards the enemy fleet with your MWD off and wait for something to pop.
3. As soon as a wreck appears in the enemy fleet, warp to it at zero and launch your bubble. Immediately align to a warp-out and hit the MWD. You will most likely die, but you will also have the satisfaction of hearing the FC talk over TS about how good that bubble was and you will know that you managed to completely destroy a 100 man BS fleet in the process.
4. If you die, go fit another dictor, then do it all over again. Your job is to be a kamikaze and cause the enemy to be bubbled.

Strategy B

1. Coming in with the fleet then burning out of range then cloaking is also a decent tactic provided you don't get popped.