Blackbird

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Fittings need to be updated to reflect extra low slot.

EVE University Database
 
Ship Database
Blackbird
Blackbird
Caldari State
Caldari State
Standard Cruisers
Blackbird Class
RELATED UNI-WIKI REFERENCES

The Blackbird is a small high-tech cruiser newly employed by the Caldari Navy. Commonly seen in fleet battles or acting as wingman, it is not intended for head-on slugfests, but rather delicate tactical situations.

SHIP BONUSES

Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:
15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level
12.5% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal range and falloff per level.

Required Skills
  • Caldari Cruiser II3h 55m
    • Spaceship Command III4h 26m
    • Caldari Frigate IV2d 2h 17m
Training Time what's this?
2d 10h 39m
Estimated training time only for the listed skills based on zero implants and without neural remaps.
Grouping
▪ Variations
Falcon
Falcon.jpg
CornerT2s.png
Falcon
Recon Ships Blackbird Class
Icon highlights.pngCan Use Covert Ops Cloak
Icon highlights.pngHigh Amount of Medium Slots
Icon hi slot.png4 (1/3) Icon mid slot.png7 Icon low slot.png3
Icon powergrid.png700 MW Icon cpu.png500 tf
Icon velocity.png192 m/sec
Icon capacity.png315 m³
, Rook
Rook.jpg
CornerT2s.png
Rook
Recon Ships Blackbird Class
Icon highlights.pngHigh Amount of Medium Slots
Icon hi slot.png5 (5/2) Icon mid slot.png7 Icon low slot.png3
Icon powergrid.png680 MW Icon cpu.png600 tf
Icon velocity.png194 m/sec
Icon capacity.png305 m³

Ship Attributes

Fittings
Powergrid
powergrid
525 MW
CPU
cpu output
425 tf
Capacitor
capacitor
1,250 GJ
High
high slots
4
Launchers
launcher slots
3
Turrets
turret slots
3
Medium
medium slots
6
Low
low slots
3
Rig
rigs
3
 
medium
Calibration
calibration
400
Navigation
Max Velocity
max. velocity
190 m/s
Inertia Modifier
inertia modifier (agility)
0.48
Warp Speed
inertia modifier (agility)
3 AU/s
Base Time to Warp
base time to warp
8.32 s
what's this?
Base Time to Warp is essentially the time needed for this ship to align and accelerate until it reaches 75% of its top speed and goes to warp. The time displayed here is the base calculated time with no account for any warp related skills, modules or any other effects.
Drones
Drone Capacity
drone capacity
0 m³
Drone Bandwidth
drone bandwidth
0 Mbit/sec
Targeting
Max Tgt. Range
max. targeting range
85 km
Max Locked Targets
max. locked targets
8
Gravimetric Sensor
Gravimetric sensor strength
20 points
Sig. Radius
signature radius
150 m
Scan Res.
scan resolution
230 mm
Structure
Structure Hitpoints
structure hitpoints
1,400 HP
Mass
ship mass
13,190,000 kg
Volume
ship volume
96,000 m³
Cargo Capacity
cargo capacity
305 m³
Armor
Armor Hitpoints
armor hitpoints
1,200 HP
Armor Resistances
EM
electromagnetic resistance
50
THR
thermal resistance
45
KIN
kinetic resistance
25
EXP
explosive resistance
10
Shields
Shield Capacity
shield hitpoints
1,400 HP
Shield Resistances
EM
electromagnetic resistance
0
THR
thermal resistance
20
KIN
kinetic resistance
40
EXP
explosive resistance
50


Summary

The Blackbird is the Caldari EWAR cruiser, and is bonused for ECM. A large number of Blackbirds is almost the signature of university fleets. The blackbird has hull bonuses to jammer range as well as strength, allowing it to fight from much further out than a griffin, which is great for an EWAR ship. A blackbird has the mid slots to support a rainbow fit of 4 racial jammers with 2 mids and 3 lows to spare, allowing the flexibility of a propulsion module and a shield or armor tank module.

Skills

There are a few skills which will improve your abilities as an ECM pilot:

Caldari Cruiser - Skills for the specific types of ship you are flying will give you the greatest improvement in ECM effectiveness. Training this skill to V is expensive but useful, especially as it also unlocks several T2 ship options as well.

Long Distance Jamming - Increases the optimal range of your ECM modules by 10% per level. Requires Electronics 4. Another great skill to work towards if you enjoy EWAR. Since the tank of your ship is mainly in its range from the fight training this to at least IV is high on your priority list.

Electronic Warfare - Required to use ECM mods, reduces their cap usage by 5% per level. You are more then likely to warp away from the battle before your cap runs out. This skill is a prerequisite for several other useful skills, and training it to IV is recommended for Signal Dispersion (and as a bonus will also unlock Electronic Warfare drones).

Signal Dispersion - Increases your jam strength by 5% per level. This skill requires Electronics 5 and Electronic Warfare 4. Caldari Cruiser gives a bigger benefit, but this is still very useful.

Frequency Modulation - Increases the falloff distance of your ECM mods. You will usually aim to jam at your optimal, so train this skill after Long Distance Jamming.

Electronic Superiority Rigging - This will allow you to use the ECM rigs. Level I is required to fit the rigs at all, and higher levels will improve your tank slightly, especially if you combine ECM rigs with a shield tank.

Source: ECM Guide

Fitting

Blackbird/Fittings

Template:Fittings

Caldari cruiser 5 really helps with ECM, especially with the new sensor defense skills against being jammed. This fit came from a conversation with BobbyRush. This is a ranged BB, armor tanked to resist tornado alphas, and still able to have six jams. May not be possible to fit guns and a MWD if one is needed, even with perfect fitting skills. This one is specialized for gallente/minmatar countering. Ewar pilots should use their own intel sources to find out what the most likely enemy race will be, however.

Template:Fittings

This is a good (well maybe not that but it's cheap/free) ship to start off ecm with, if one wants to try a (suicidal) experimentation with it before investing skills. Even with skills at 1 for range and jam strength, the multiple jammers will compensate somewhat for low skills. ECM benefits from skill stacking, since the higher your skills, the more effect you get from jam rigs/modules and the Caldari cruiser bonus. Whereas sensor damp skills mostly just increase your range. Upgrade to Meta 4 jammers prompto since the jam % is improved significantly at little cost compared to the hull.

Tactics

  • Work in Progress*

The fit supports the pilot and allows the pilot to utilize certain piloting techniques and abilities. So a specialized or ultra specialized fit could only be good for a certain kind of high ace pilot or only in a certain situation.

For ECM, there are various considerations which some prioritize over others but generally fits seek to accomplish as many of them as they can so that the pilot can make use of such benefits.

1. Prepare for battle in the form of bookmarks. This has the least to do with the fit, but the most to do with the pilot's abilities. Having tactical on grid and off grid bookmarks to use to maneuver around the battle, instead of using your MWD all the time (which you won't even need except in null sec bubbles trying to escape, not fight), you just imagine the battlespace in your mind and choose the appropriate bookmark to get the job done. Drop a BM as you warp off a gate/celestial or as you land on grid to one. Then warp back to it and name it "nearest object distance". If it is towards the sun, away from, westward from sun or eastward from sun, up or down, you can put that in too if you use more than 1 tactical near an object.

2. Range control is one of the most important aspects, as BB boats utilize a ranged bonus and become similar to sniper damage dealers in the sense that they don't have enough tank and can't do much brawling without dying. Since most battlecruiser short weapons have max range of 20-25 km, simply being outside that range envelope gives the ECM blackbird superiority. Without tacticals, you will find it difficult to impossible to control range at all, and it doesn't matter if you try to use a MWD either. Tacklers are faster and won't run out of cap using them for most tackler builds. Because people can warp to fleet mates, having enemies close to you is a sign somebody is going to come and kill you soon. Pay attention to the range of ships and their negative radial velocity on the overview.

3. Being pre aligned. Since the Caldari cruiser isn't very nimble, it is vital to be aligned to a tactical bookmark or celestial before you start engaging in jamming or dps. Thus a BB pilot should pre align before he activates offensive modules. This allows withdrawal from the battlefield or a bounce literally at the speed of the pilot's own reflexes. The moment you know you are in danger and want to get out, you will get out. Rather than having to wait 6+ seconds to align out, which is plenty of time for frigates and destroyers to lock you. It's better to bounce to a tactical at 1000-5000km, since it takes a long time to go 14 Aus and back again. Battle will probably be over by the time you get back.

3. Tank is something many consider less important but for newer pilots, they will need to prioritize it a bit higher. The more battle experience a new pilot gets, the more effective they become at the job, but that doesn't work out too well when you die in the first salvo before you can even align. When roaming around certain low sec regions, the pirates there like to use oracles, tornados, nagas, and taloses, so having a tank that can survive 1 or 2 alpha strikes from a tornado is the gold standard for roaming around. Otherwise, you will never get the time to show any of your piloting techniques, when your ship's fit doesn't allow it. This is especially to be aware of if you are using the 1 slot shield fit here. A 1 slot shield tank isn't much of a shield buffer and it takes away jamming power of the cruiser. Options to consider: remove the MWD. Remove the LSE. Replace with 1600mm plate and damage control II. I only use shield tanks with at least 3 slots and 1 resist rig. That'll give you time to cycle your jammers again.

4. Having smaller guns or launchers to deal with drone aggro or ecm drones. A lot of ships may not have the range to hit your cruiser if it is at more than 20-50km from them, but their drones are a different matter.

Normally, blackbirds using 6 full mid slots for jammers, a 1600mm plate, and ionic projection rigs will be looking to stay at the furthest engagement envelope feasible. Align time from plates isn't an issue since pre align works around it. Sometimes you get unlucky or you have bad reflexes and make the right decision too late, so it became the wrong decision.

Blackbirds that expect to be undocking from a station, like PTS, and fighting on grid all the time without range control, might want to fit a shield tank + small blasters to deal with drones. Armor works as well if you have the skills. Having enough EHP 20-30k will allow you to easily jam smaller ships and warp off or dock back up if something is trying to alpha snipe you from the undock. More tank is desired if your reflexes, skills, and abilities are still low. Those with more skills multiply their jamming strength with more jammers, and have a naturally higher EHP and can fit more tank to begin with. Plus their reflexes mean they can get more jams off, get more of them on the right ships, carry the right jammers for the right ships, align out faster, pre align out faster, and generally speaking are worth 3-5+ new blackbird pilots. Plus they have thermodynamics skill trained so they can get 20% jam strength on top of their superior jam strength based skills. A more experienced pilot might be able to jam out 3-6 ships and maintain it through the battle. A less experienced pilot might wish to focus on jamming only 1 to 2 ships.

Blackbirds can be used to solo and bait as well, by fitting a 3 slot shield tank. If you can't fit a 3 slot shield tank or think more jammers will compensate for low survivability or low skills, remove the MWD or fit an armor plate instead. In high sec, MWD isn't that useful for a BB. In low sec, having around 15k+ EHP to survive small gang tornado alpha will be more important.

When doing creative fits instead of copying someone else's, jamming % is important, range is important (without rigs, you can't lock out as far), and dps is last. I believe the 1600mm plate is hard to fit, so it discards the weapons entirely. Fitting weapons is less important vs the jams.

Notes

You can write additional notes for Blackbird here.