Thorax
RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES
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Development SHIP BONUSES
Gallente Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):
Ship Attributes
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Summary
The Thorax is a gun boat, designed to use hybrid turrets. In PvP the Thorax is used as a hard hitting blaster boat. This can be highly effective but is very "do or die", and will make most Thoraxes' lives glorious but short. In PvE, the Thorax is less popular; the slow and steady style of the Vexor is more suited to mission running. Despite this the Thorax can be popular as a first mission running cruiser, because most pilots will have trained gunnery skills while piloting frigates and destroyers, while they will probably have neglected the drone skills required to use a Vexor effectively. Having said that, the Thorax has a 50m3 drone bay, so will also benefit greatly from drone skills.
Skills
- Gallente Cruiser to at least IV to properly take advantage of the massive DPS buff that the Thorax gains with every extra level in the skill.
- Gunnery V, Medium Hybrid Turret V and Medium Blaster Specialization/Medium Railgun Specialization trained to at least I to fit T2 guns, which do more damage and are substantially cheaper than the meta 4 variants, along with the ability to use T2 ammo types.
- Rapid Firing, Surgical Strike, skills which increase DPS and are thus vital to all turret-based damage dealing ships, should all be trained to at least IV.
- Along with the obvious Power Grid Management and CPU Management fitting skills required for fitting most ships, Weapon Upgrades and Advanced Weapon Upgrades should be trained to V and at least II respectively to help alleviate fitting problems associated with the ship's powergrid.
- Capacitor Management and Capacitor Systems Operation to at least IV due to hybrid weaponry being capacitor dependent.
- Sharpshooter to IV to improve hybrid optimal range.
- Drones V, Combat Drone Operation V, Drone Interfacing IV and Gallente Drone Operation I/Minmatar Drone Operation I are all are important for getting as much DPS out of the 50m3 drone bay as possible.
- Also, High Speed Maneuvering, Acceleration Control, Evasive Maneuvering and Navigation all to IV or above to improve maneuverability and the use of MicroWarp Drive propulsion modules.
- The appropriate skills required for fitting a Full T2 Armour or Shield Tank.
Fitting
For more info on fittings, please go here
Tactics
As a heavy damage dealer(usually from 230DPS up to more than 700DPS) and a weak tanker(usually less than 20k in EHP), Thorax can be often primaried in fleet combat.
For this reason, it might be better to decloak after your fleet has engaged ---- dont be the hero, since you have MWD fitted on most thorax fits it might only take you seconds to join the battle. If you do so, even if the enemy turns on you(which become less likely in large scaled battle), you have earned your teammate a good respite from focused fire.
Even though Thorax is usally a gunboat, drones can be a good part of your DPS, they have a good range(more than 25km), better accuracy on small targets, and they are not affected by ewar usually, so always remember to launch the drones in battle.
Hybrid turrets can change ammo in a short time, if you are using T2 medium blasters, bring a full round(400 for neutron, 600 for ion, 1000 for electron) of Null M charges with you just in case(they could be quite useful in OGC-like situations).
Another key to using the Thorax, especially if your are in a high dps short range blaster fit, is positioning. Even with an MWD, you are not going to catch anything smaller than you, MWD Frigates, Inties, Assault Frigs etc. (unless your enemy has failfit or they happen to jump into you while you're camping a gate), so DO NOT give chase if they're more than 40km away and waste your precious cap. Let your gang/fleet's tackle do their job, even should they chase an enemy 90+ kilometers away from you. Turn your boat 180 and burn in the opposite direction of the chase with your MWD. As soon as they hit 150+km distance from your ship, you can warp to your own tackle bro and land right on top of the enemy guns blazing. It seems so simple and obvious on paper, but as a newbro you are going to find it difficult to avoid tunnel vision and bull rushing eagerly into battle. Fighting Cruisers or bigger with the Thorax is more straight forward, get to your Optimal and blast away. Make sure to keep transversal to battleships high so those big guns can't track you.
Changes in the later versions of the Odyssey expansion, has brought a buff to Medium Rail Guns, this makes a kiting mid range Rail Thorax viable with a very respectable DPS as a possibility.
Notes
This vessel qualifies for the University Ship Replacement Program, PYOS, and BYOM.