Interceptors
Interceptors ("inties", "'ceptors") are one kind of Tech 2 frigate. They are Eve's fastest ships, and they have attributes and bonuses which make them supremely effective tacklers, or dangerous high-speed damage-dealers. Inties are often one of the first classes of T2 ships that pilots train, and they're often helpful in Eve University's fleets.
This page won't make you a good interceptor pilot -- only practice can do that -- but it does cover a lot of information that's useful for new interceptor pilots.
Contents
Overview
There are two types of interceptor: interceptors designed purely for tackling ("tackle" or "fleet" inties), and interceptors designed for combat ("gank", "damage", "damage-dealing" or "combat" inties). Each of the four races has one interceptor of each type. For simplicity's sake this guide will refer to the two types as fleet and combat interceptors, but different players will use different terminology.
All interceptors, of both kinds, share certain characteristics:
- They all have a '80% reduction in Propulsion Jamming systems activation cost' role bonus, letting inty pilots permanently run warp disruptors/scramblers and webifires much more easily.
- They all have a '15% reduction in MicroWarpdrive signature radius penalty' for each level their pilot has in the Interceptors skill, dramatically reducing the signature bloom effect caused by having a MWD on.
- Most ships have to use MWDs in short bursts only, because the bloom makes them much more vulnerable to large guns and missiles. This crucial bonus lets interceptors run their MWDs permanently but still keep (relatively) small sig radii.
- They all have very high base velocities.
- They all have very high base scan resolution, letting them lock on to targets rapidly.
Fleet Inties
Fleet inties are so called because they are a great help to a fleet (especially in high- and lowsec where bubbles can't be used to pin the enemy down) but, being more or less pure tacklers, they aren't so good solo.
- Fleet inties are tied with the covops frigates for Eve's fastest base warp speed in Eve, 13.5 AU/s
- Their defining feature is a 5% bonus to warp scrambler and warp disruptor range per level in the Interceptor skill
Fleet inties move fast, catch people quickly and can hold a point on someone while orbiting them at high speed and beyond 20km range -- for example, with Interceptor trained to level IV the range of a T2 disruptor on a fleet inty will be over 28km (and over 34km if you overheat). The rest of the fleet inties' bonuses, tied to the racial frigate skill which you need to train to V to pilot them at all, are weapon- or tank-related.
The four races' fleet inties, together with their racial frigate skill bonuses, are:
- The Amarr Malediction: 5% bonuses to rocket damage and armor resistances
- The Caldari Raptor: 5% bonus to hybrid damage and 10% bonus to hybrid range
- The Gallente Ares: 5% bonus to hybrid damage and 7.5% bonus to hybrid tracking
- The Minmatar Stiletto: 5% bonus to projectile damage and 7.5% bonus to projectile tracking; the only inty with 4 midslots
All four of these are useful, though the Stiletto's fourth midslot gives it a bit of an edge.
Combat Inties
The combat interceptors are better suited to actual fighting. They are popular solo ships, can be useful in a fleet as a fast-moving anti-frigate defense and are occasionally used in all-interceptor gangs.
- Combat inties have more combat-orientated slot layouts, usually more lowslots at the expense of midslots
- Combat inties have more powergrid than the fleet inties, making it easier to fit weapons
- Combat inties have an extra combat-related bonus tied to the Interceptors skill, instead of the fleet inties' tackling range bonus
The four combat inties, together with their bonuses, are:
- The Amarr Crusader: 10% less laser cap use, 5% bonus to laser damage, 7.5% bonus to laser tracking
- The Caldari Crow: 10% bonus to kinetic missile damage, 10% bonus to missile speed
- The Gallente Taranis: 10% bonus to hybrid damage, 7.5% bonus to hybrid tracking
- The Minmatar Claw: 10% bonus to projectile damage, 7.5% bonus to projectile tracking
The Taranis's hefty damage bonus -- applied to the already face-meltingly high DPS potential of blasters -- has made it a very popular dogfighter. The other three all have their proponents, however, and they're all deadly in the right hands.
Skills
[ones you need] [ones you should have] [ones which it's nice to have]
Fitting
[Basic priorities: a MWD, a point] [Any other basic principles/comments which apply to all interceptor fittings]
High slots
[weapons. According to glepp one defender missile rocket launcher can help a fleet inty]
Mid slots
[prop, point. Other useful things: scram, web, sensor booster, MSE]
Low slots
[Options: damage control, speed mods. Claw is sometimes plated -- Crusader?]
Rigs
[Options: speed, again; damage rigs; exp resist rigs for the anti-warrior II MSE Stiletto]
Stacking Penalties and Speed Mods
[A concise note about them; link to Morty's in-depth comparison ]
Flying Interceptors
[general remarks, general tactics (spiralling approach?)]
Fleet Interceptors
[holding people down, avoiding web/scram range, avoiding smartbombs, avoiding neuts, avoiding drones, remote sensor boosters; other tactics]
Combat Interceptors
[I have no idea how people fly these! Except I know it's possible to lose them to t1 frigates.]
Ship-Specific Remarks
[fits/tactics for particular ships, can be sub-heading'd]
Countering Interceptors
Various modules and tactics can be used to kill interceptors or drive them away.
To add:
- [missiles?]
- [other things? manual piloting?]
Drones
Drones are a common defence against all small ships, inteceptors included. The Minmatar Warrior light drones are the nimblest and fastest drones, and so are the commonest choice for this.
However, interceptors go so very fast that even Warriors are likely to still spend time fruitlessly chasing them around. Furthermore, it is sometimes possible to tank an interceptor against drones: a Stiletto with a medium shield extender and one or two explosive shield resist rigs can soak up a lot of fire from Warriors (which do explosive damage), for example.
Fleet inty pilots can also fit weapons specifically to shoot drones. The smallest, fastest-tracking turrets, combined with the tracking bonuses that several fleet inties get, perform quite well against drones.
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 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 Bhaalgorn battleship 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.
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. (Or dead in the vacuum, strictly speaking.)
Medium neuts have similar ranges to scrams and webs, and so are not dangerous to a competent inty pilot 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).
Further Reading
[links to other pages on this wiki or elsewhere which would be useful]
