Interceptors

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Interceptors (often called "inties" or "'ceptors") are a class of Tech 2 frigates. They are some of the fastest ships, and they have attributes and bonuses which make them supremely effective for tackling and scouting. Inties are often one of the first classes of T2 ships that pilots train. Besides their core roles, they are also used for pure travel. If they are fitted for pure travel they are called travel ceptor.

Overview

There are two types of interceptor: fleet interceptors and combat interceptors. Each of the four empire factions has one interceptor of each type. Besides those two special edition pirate interceptors exist, the Sansha's Nation Imp and the Guristas Whiptail. Technically they are fleet interceptors but they are of little interest here because they are very rare and expensive.

All interceptors share the following characteristics:

  • They all have an 80% reduction in Propulsion Jamming systems activation cost role bonus. This makes it easier to have tackle modules running.
  • They all have a 15% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty for each level their pilot has in Icon skillbook2.png Interceptors. This allows to reduce incoming damage by speed tanking.
  • They all have very high base velocities. This allows great on grid mobility to get tackle on targets.
  • They all have very high base scan resolution, letting them lock on to targets rapidly.
  • Interceptors have a warp speed of 8.0 AU/s. This means they can overtake most ships in warp and also get to a target quickly to secure tackle.

Fleet Interceptors

The fleet interceptors have following traits in common which make them ideal fleet support as fast tackle and scouts.:

  • They have a 5% bonus to warp scrambler and warp disruptor range for each level their pilot has in Icon skillbook2.png Interceptors.
  • They have immunity to non-targeted interdiction, which means they can warp while inside a warp disruption bubble.

The tackle range bonus allows the fleet interceptor to hold tackle at a relatively safe distance. The interdiction nullification means that you can reach targets quickly even through bubbles. This is also important in the scout role. Further, they have bonuses tied to the skills of their respective empire faction's frigate:

  • Amarr Malediction: 5% bonuses to rocket damage and 4% bonus to all armor resistances per level
  • Caldari Crow: 5% bonus to Light Missile and Rocket explosion radius and 10% bonus to Light Missile and Rocket max velocity per level
  • Gallente Ares: 5% bonus to hybrid damage and 7.5% bonus to hybrid tracking per level
  • Minmatar Stiletto: 5% bonus to projectile damage and 7.5% bonus to projectile tracking per level

Those bonuses are only of minor importance for their usual role. (Which doesn't mean they might not matter for more unusual roles and fits.) They distinguish each other mostly through base stats like speed, slot layout, and fitting space as those define the possible fits. The Stiletto is very popular in a shield buffer fit, while the Malediction is usually flown with an ancilliary armor repairer. The Crow is lacking one lowslot in comparison to the Stiletto which means it can't fit for as much speed. The bigger shield buffer can't make up for that as speed is very important for fleet interceptors. The Ares can be fitted in a similar way as the Malediction. But its base speed is significantly lower, it has less armor buffer and is lacking the armor resist bonus. The low align time of the Ares makes it a popular travel ceptor though. As a fleet tackle this can be an advantage because a target might not consider the Ares the same thread as a Stiletto or Malediction.

Besides their usual roles as scout and tackle, fleet interceptors are often used in unconventional ways. Travel ceptors are fleet interceptors which are fitted to have less than two seconds align time. This is often paired with rigs for faster warp speed. Fleet interceptors are also sometimes fitted for exploration in nullsec. The idea is that they are safer for traveling than covert ops ships which are bonused for scanning. But it's doubtful, if the interdiction nullification is really worth to pass on the scanning bonus. Another use is to fit them with ECM burst jammers to disrupt enemy fleets. In this case they warp in ECM burst and warp off again. The warpins are usually provided by combat scanners.

Combat Interceptors

Combat interceptors are more combat oriented than their counterpats, as the name suggests. They shared the interdiction nullification traits with the other interceptors until October 2018 when it was removed. Before that change combat interceptor fleets were a common concept. Especially Claws fitted for fast align and high alpha were very successful. These so called Fozzie Claws caused CCP to remove nullification from the combat ceptors. Since then combat interceptors struggle to stand up to other ships especially assault frigates which can also warp at over 8 AU/s if they are hyperspatial rigged (status November 2019). This doesn't mean that you cannot find a niche use for them.

The combat interceptors don't have one common skill bonus. The first bonus mentioned is tied to the Icon skillbook2.png Interceptors skill, while the others are tied to the skill of their respective empire faction's frigate:

  • Amarr Crusader: 10% less laser cap use, 5% bonus to laser damage, 7.5% bonus to laser tracking per level
  • Caldari Raptor: 5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret Damage, 10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret optimal range
  • Gallente Taranis: 10% bonus to hybrid damage, 7.5% bonus to hybrid tracking per level
  • Minmatar Claw: 5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret damage, 5% bonus to Small Projectile Turret rate of fire, 7.5% bonus to projectile tracking per level

Skills

To be able to sit in an interceptor, you need the relevant T1 frigate skill at level five and Interceptors at one which has Evasive Maneuvering 5 as a prerequisite. If you want to use a fleet interceptor in the tackle role you should train Interceptors at least to level four and level five is recommended.

Besides the required skills you mostly need good general support skills (compare Magic 14) to improve your speed/agility as well as your capacitor life. The following skills are important to improve your navigation:

  • Navigation 5% bonus to sub-warp speed per level. Level 5 is recommended.
  • Acceleration Control 5% bonus to afterburner and MWD speed per level. Level 4 is recommended.
  • Spaceship Command 2% to ship agility per level. Level 5 is recommended.
  • Evasive Maneuvering 5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level. Level 5 is a prerequisite anyways.

Interceptors don't have a lot of capacitor but MWDs are capacitor hungry modules. Thus, skills to improve your capacitor or to reduce capacitor consumption are important:

Other generally important skills for an interceptor:

Fitting

This section focuses on fitting principles for fleet interceptors in the role as tackle. You can find solid fits for each fleet interceptor on their respective articles. Here we only want to talk about the general considerations. Many people who specialise as an interceptor pilot also have highly specialised personal fits which suit their personal style but are not recommended for a beginner or general purpose. Experienced pilots also often choose the more expensive and better faction modules. One of those modules alone usually costs more than a T2 fitted interceptor. This is reasonable for experienced pilots as they know how to fly a fleet interceptor without ever losing it. A new pilot will surely lose several interceptors before he masters piloting them. (Most players never focus enough on this special role to ever master it.)

To fulfil your role as fleet tackle you always need to fit:

  • a warp disruptor (also called point or long point). This is for your main purpose: to hold tackle on another ship. You usually choose the T2 version which has a range of 30 km cold (means without heat) and 36 km hot (if you have the interceptor skill at five, a bit less otherwise). Experienced pilots sometimes choose faction points as those have an even bigger range.
  • a 5mn microwarpdrive. This allows you for great speed which means mobility but also reduces the damage you take. You usually choose the restrained version as its signature bloom, capacitor reduction and fitting space is relatively good. The other meta versions might be useful for special cases. The T2 has no true advantages over the meta modules. Again, experienced pilots might invest more here. Notice that A-types are about the same price as the other versions although they have the best stats.
  • a warp scrambler (scram). The scram is not primarily used to hold tackle but for scram passes, to go close for a scram if you see a microjump drive animation, or to prevent targets from gate crashing. In certain specialised cases the scram might be omitted but in general you need to fit a scram as your FC expects you to have a scram fitted. Omitting it without the awareness of the FC hurts the fleet's performance significantly. The scram is usually T2 for its longer range compared to the meta versions. It's less often upgraded to a better version than the point or MWD.

The targeting range of interceptors (36.9 to 40.6 km at Long Range Targeting 5) is short compared with their point range especially if heated. In the hunter role you want to be able to lock the target while you spiral in so that you can lock it as soon as it is in heated point range. For this reason, nearly all fits use a Small Ionic Field Projector II rig which increases the targeting range by 30%. The alternatives would be Signal Amplifiers or Sensor Boosters but the slots and fitting space are too valuable to use for them.

The next important consideration is speed. Interceptors are already fast but the higher the speed the quicker you get on a target to tackle and the less damage you take through speed tanking. Typically, you fit a T2 Nanofiber Internal Structure which increases speed and agility combined with a T2 Overdrive Injector System which simply increases speed. On top of that you fit one of the following navigation rigs: Small Auxiliary Thrusters increase your speed, Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints improves your agility, and Small Polycarbon Engine Housing for both. Overall be aware that you don’t want to only fit modules which increase speed but also modules which increase agility.

The remaining slots are usually used for tank. A T2 damage control is usually fit to any interceptor. The shield interceptors, Stilettos and Crows, are usually shield buffer tanked. Which means they fit a Medium Shield Extenders. The armor interceptors, Maledictions and Ares, are usually fit with a Small Ancillary Armor Repairer. Buffer armor fits are unusual because a plate slows you down.

Guns or missile launchers are only of little concern. If the fitting space is there, you fit some and use them to get rid of light drones. If you don’t have the fitting space don’t compromise the rest of the fit to squeeze some guns or missiles in.

Energy Nosferatus are an option for the highslots. The idea is to steal a bit of cap, but realistically you are rarely close enough to anything to improve your cap significantly.

Experienced pilots often use snake implants to improve their speed even more. Skill Hardwiring can be used to further increase speed or improve cap. If you want to use medical boosters, overclocker and quafe zero are obvious candidates.

Above covers the base fitting considerations. Experienced pilots might break the above rules with a special case in mind. For example, some might even fit an expanded probe launcher for combat probes but this takes a lot of fitting space. This said only break those rules if you know what you are doing.

Flying Interceptors

Generally, inty pilots want to keep speed and angular velocity high as these are the main form of tank.

Fleet Interceptors

Fleet interceptors are generally flown as a special tackler, often staying a couple of jumps ahead or behind the main fleet to hold enemies in place until the fleet arrives, or providing mini-warpin* points and mobile safespots during a battle. Depending on the fleet style, they can 'scout and skirmish', roaming around to find targets, often holding them in place for up to 10 or 15 minutes while the rest of the fleet arrives; sit at gatecamps and a put a fast point on anything flashy coming through; or get initial tackle and then hold valuable non-primary targets during a longer engagement until the fleet is ready to DD them.

Inties should approach targets at an angle to maximize traversal while spiraling in. If you are flying an inty and charging straight at a target from a distance rather than spiraling in, you are ignoring one of the ship's principle defensive abilities -- agility -- and are needlessly risking a potentially crippling amount of damage or even a fatal alpha strike. Once in place, the inty should orbit at around 15-25km in order to stay out of web/scram/neut range while keeping angular velocity up. **REPEAT: wandering into scram range = very, very bad for fleet interceptors.** Scrams nearly always portend the destruction of your fleet interceptor. BEWARE! Battleships can fit large neuts that can reach out to 25.2km, so these should be kept at a distance, while faster cruisers should be orbited at a smaller range so they don't escape. Orbit speed should be around 4-5km/s, so if the target launches drones, they will generally end up getting kited by the inty and be fairly easy to track and pick off. Note that, depending on skills and ships, the range at which the inty orbits will not necessarily be what the pilot has set in the UI. Pilots should check their actual orbit distances so they know what to choose in order to orbit at the correct range. When orbiting a target, avoid being "slingshotted" out of point range. Savvy targets delight in slingshotting.

Fleet interceptors should generally avoid faster targets like frigates and speedfit cruisers: these have a good chance of breaking the inty's orbit and applying a scram or web. Some enemies, like the Privateers, specialize in kiting and picking off smaller tacklers and running before the fleet arrives: these should just be avoided unless a warpin for the whole fleet can be generated.

In some circumstances, such as a planned long gatecamp, ships will be asked to fit remote sensor boosters to assist inties in grabbing targets quickly. This will generally be up to the fleet commander to organize, although you should know how many boosters can be assigned to you and still be useful (ie, before lag and reaction time become the dominant factor in how fast you can lock a target). An interceptor should also be the first to de-agress and jump back through a gate if the targets seem to be trying to jump back, chase after targets that break through the camp, or picket the other side of a gate during a fight- giving intel on what is coming through.

* Providing mini-warp points ("tactical miniwarps"): An inty may be sent 150km+ from the rest of the fleet so that other ships can warp out to it if necessary -- to reduce incoming damage or break target locks without having to bounce all the way to a planet or station.

Combat Interceptors

A combat interceptor's job is to establish dominance of the frigates on the battlefield, including the enemy's tackle/interceptors, by counter-tackling and killing them. Combat interceptors fly like assault frigates in many ways. They will often have their own important targets independent of the fleet's primary.

Countering Interceptors

Various modules and tactics can be used to kill interceptors or drive them away. When in a ship with speeds similar to the inty then some piloting techniques or maneuvers can be used to break the inty's orbit and bring them into web or scram range. Cruisers and destroyers fit for tracking and killing frigates can also be effective. While most guns will have tracking problems against inties, missile systems can still be effective even though the inty's speed and small sig radius will mitigate much of the damage. Missiles can slowly eat through an inty's buffer if they don't have any repair or recharge ability on their armor or shields. Drones are commonly used to counter interceptors and can be particularly dangerous.

Some ships, like combat interceptors and Dramiels have the speed and tracking to keep up with an interceptor, and should be avoided. Other frigate hulls and destroyers should be avoided by fleet interceptors as they are generally cheap, so not worthwhile to tackle, and have a decent chance of killing the interceptor. Afterburner-fit assault frigates may be worth chasing. Vagabonds and Cynabals are very dangerous to interceptors since they have heavy weaponry with good tracking but can move at around 4km/s, which severly cuts down on the amount of transversal that an interceptor can create.

Drones

Drones are a common defence against all small ships, interceptors included. The Minmatar Warrior II light drones are the nimblest and fastest drones, often matching interceptor speeds, and so are the most common choice. Since the release of the Kronos patch, and the rebalance of drones, Acolytes have become a threat to tackle frigates as they are often shield fit and lacks resistance for EM. Acolytes are almost as fast as Warriors.

However, interceptors go so very fast that even those drones are likely to still spend time fruitlessly chasing them around. Furthermore, it is possible to tank an interceptor against drones so that it can soak up a lot of fire from Warriors and/or Acolytes.

Ships with large dronebays and bonuses to drone hitpoints and damage, like the Arbitrator and Vexor have much more problematic drones (and if you do manage to kill them, they probably have more).

Counter-Tackle

Webs (especially two at once) to directly cut an inty's speed or a warp scrambler to shut down its MWD are both excellent ways to slow down an inty and make it vulnerable. The problem is of course that webs and scrams have short ranges, and good inty pilots stay beyond web/scram range at all times. The single most important defensive maneuver a newly trained fleet interceptor pilot can make is to manage distance from target and avoid scram range, which ranges from 10 km to significantly more for bonused ships.

Apart from other inties, there are a few ships that are particularly effective at webbing. The Minmatar Huginn and Rapier recon ships both have bonuses to web range. They can push a normal T2 web out to 40km range before heat (overheating the web and/or fitting a faction web can produce considerably longer ranges). Both ships are consequently very dangerous to interceptors, and a good countermeasure.

A few other, rarer ships also have web bonuses but these are mostly to strength rather than range, so an inty that stays away from the range of normal webs shouldn't be troubled by them. Note, however, that the Blood Raider's ships, Cruor, Ashimmu and Bhaalgorn, has a web range bonus which can push the optimal of a T2 web out to 20km before heat.

The Gallente recons, the Lachesis and Arazu have bonuses to warp scrambler and warp disruptor range. They are most commonly fitted with disruptors, to point the enemy from a long way away, but they can be fitted with warp scramblers. This is less of a threat than the Minmatar recons' webs, but their bonuses can still put a T2 scram's range out to 18km before heat, so they should be treated with a bit of care.

The Caldari and Amarr recon also have range bonuses to ECM and neuts respectively, both of which can also heavily counter an interceptor, and should be avoided. Range damping a fleet inty can be an efficient use of a sensor damp; it will essentially nullify the fleet inty's bonus point range, forcing it to orbit much closer to hold tackle, making its job considerably more difficult and dangerous.

Energy Neutralizers

A few cycles from a medium energy neutralizer or just one cycle from a large neut can remove all of an interceptor's capacitor, shutting down its MWD and point and leaving it dead in the water.

Medium neuts have similar ranges to scrams and webs, and so are not dangerous to a competent inty pilot (who stays clear of scram range) unless they're mounted on a ship which has range bonuses for them. The Amarr combat recon, the Curse, does have such a range bonus, and it can neut at nearly 40km if the pilot has good skills. (Being based on the Arbitrator hull, it also has drone bonuses, making it a nightmare target for an interceptor to tackle!)

T2 large neuts have 25km range. Fleet inties must therefore maintain a very careful orbit, further than 25km but near enough to be within warp disruptor range, when pointing a battleship which they know or suspect has one or more energy neutralisers fitted. Neuts are particularly common on the Dominix, the Scorpion, in solo/small gang fits for the Typhoon and Tempest, and on the previously mentioned Bhaalgorn (which has bonuses to neut strength, though not to their range). The Armageddon was changed to a drone/neut boat as well and now can reach out to >37km when mounting heavy neuts.

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