Caracal
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The Caracal is a powerful vessel that specializes in missile deployment. It has excellent shield defenses, but poor armor plating. Its missile arsenal, when fully stocked, is capable of taking on frigate packs and Assault Frigates. Excellent for Level 2 PvE missions. SHIP BONUSES
Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:
Ship Attributes
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Summary
The Caracal is an excellent choice for a level 2 mission runner because of it's ability to take on frigate packs. It can be either active or passive shield tanked. In fleets its main role is either going to be simple DD, or anti frigate, depending on how you fit it out.
With the changes to HAMs and Cruisers, the Caracal is a great solo/small gang kiting ship.
Skills
The following are the minimum skills you need to fly this ship
- Caldari Frigate IV
- Caldari Cruiser II
- Spaceship Command Level III
- Electronics IV
- Missile Launcher I
- Afterburner Level I
- High Speed Maneuvering I
- Shield Upgrades I
- Hull Upgrades Level I
- Weapons Upgrades Level I
- Launcher Rigging Level I
See Missiles#Missile_Support_Skills for information on more advanced skills.
Fitting
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Tactics
PvE
- Kite the rats !! Use your missile range to keep the frigates away from you while you pick them off with your missiles. It is possible to Alpha strike a rat frig with ordinary light missiles. If there are rat destroyers and cruisers with the frigates then take out the frigates first, then the destroyers, then isolate and take out the cruisers. Use your afterburner to stay out of their effective range but inside your missile optimal. Train your missile skills to increase optimal.
PvP solo
- The Caracal has nice bonuses for missiles and is decently fast, so it is a very good kiting ship. With the HAM tweaks it's good for taking out smaller ships (without using light missiles) that can catch it, while still being able to put a lot of DPS onto larger ships that can't catch it. Basically you just want to kite away from them, maybe heat your MWD initially if they warp in close/you are on a gate or station, then turn it off as it will burn out quite fast if you don't pay attention. Depending on your missile and cruiser skills you'll want to keep them from 20-30 KM away with HAMs. When you are running low on cap, simply pop a booster charge and keep burning along.
Your goal is to avoid getting scrammed at all costs, so try to hit smaller ships that can catch you first and deal with bigger ships later. If there is a big ship that can hit you from afar giving you trouble (for example Abaddon), pull a lot of range (at least 100 KM) and try to split smaller ships off for easy kills.
PvP fleet (Large)
- If you are Rapid Light fit, focus on enemy destroyers, frigates, and possibly drones if necessary. If you are HML or HAM fit, attack the target your FC calls primary. If you are using HAMs but it would be unsafe to get into range to use them on the designated primary, simply switch to attacking smaller ships such as frigates until such a time as you can damage the primary target.
Small Gang
- If you are kiting, small gang tactics are going to be pretty similar to solo, except that you will likely want to burn in the same direction/ be aligned to the same thing as your fleetmates. There are all sorts of small gang compositions that one can try out. Just one example: 2-5 Caracals, 1 Bellicose. The Caracals apply DPS while the Bellicose supports them with Target Paints and helps tackle.
Notes
This vessel qualifies for the University Ship Replacement Program, PYOS, and BYOM.