Maiden Voyage of the Kestrel

Starwalker had been enjoying looking at the new capabilities of the ships in the New Eden tiercide and had focused on the Kestrel of the T1 frigates. He had used that ship previously as a pure kiter with the intent of pecking brawlers to death with its meagre ~100 DPS of kinetic damage. That had changed with the ship rebalancing and it was a better ship all round for kiting and could even brawl.

[Kestrel, Kiter]

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Medium Shield Extender II

Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Fury Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Fury Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Fury Light Missile
Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Fury Light Missile

Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

It had a decent tank (~5k EHP) for a kiter and more importantly it now had a selectable damage (~100 DPS) type with its 5% damage bonus to all rockets and missiles along with a 10% velocity increase for more range (~47km). This particular fit was capacitor stable by adding the semiconductor cell (+15% capacitor) and Starwalker had found that stability important due to the length of time it could take to kill anything.

This kiter could also move along at a credible ~2.6km/s and would handily kite anything afterburner fit. It would not keep up with interceptors and similarly fast ships but its tank and range would drive off any other faster kiters. However, the Kestrel could also surprise potential victims with a brawler fit based around rockets.

[Kestrel, Brawler]

Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II

1MN Afterburner II
Medium Shield Extender II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Inferno Rage Rocket

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

It had a good tank at ~6k EHP for a brawler and more importantly it now had a selectable damage type of ~137 DPS with a range of ~12km. Against blasters it would kite outside blaster range (~4km) to the edge of scram range and against other weapon systems like lazors and autocannons it could brawl at whatever range. Given no spare high slot for an energy vampire or another mid slot for a capacitor booster it was vulnerable to capacitor warfare, so it was unlikely to be able to take on ships that could drain its capacitor.

The maiden voyage of the new and improved Kestrel was not great. It succumbed to temptation and killed this cyno ship and the pilot was sufficiently aggrieved to offer the kill rights for 1m ISK. Starwalker seriously doubted how effective that would be to motivate bounty hunters but if it brought someone looking for a kill that would be good. However, the voyage did not last much longer as the Kestrel was lost a little later to a gate camp without really having had a fight first.