Tristan Fit Comes Full Circle

Starwalker had started out with a Tristan fit that was based on using blasters with the drones and fitting the ship with a medium shield extender, to give it enough tank to take on the brawlers like the Merlin and Incursus. He had found that he had no range control without a web and he was unclear at how effective the neutraliser was in shutting down the targets propulsion and electronic warfare modules. The fit had looked like this:

[Tristan, MSE]

Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Drone Damage Amplifier II

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Medium Shield Extender II

Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Energy Neutralizer II

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

Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x3

This fit had consequently been changed - to fit a stasis webifier and consequently the tank was shifted to a small armour repairer. Starwalker's experience was:

• Small armour repairer could not keep up with incoming damage on its own and at best simply slowed the incoming damage's progress towards the Tristan's structure. This had been the case with both the Breacher firing rockets and the Atron firing null
• Ships fighting at the edge of scram range were likely to have lower DPS and lower tanks than close combat brawlers like the Merlin. The Tristan tank had outlasted the Breacher and its drones would have done the deed if Starwalker had stayed in the fight longer

Starwalker had not fought many close range brawlers that orbited at 500m and simply wanted to melt ships, the only Merlin he had fought had not been fit to really test the Tristan. If the Atron had been afterburner fit and used Caldari Navy antimatter that might have ended differently but using an MWD and null scuppered any prospects it might have had for range control.

Given that experience, Starwalker now thought he needed a larger tank that could handle a close range brawler and anything kiting at the edge of scram range should be no problem and get killed by the drones. Ships kiting in point range may prove difficult to shake off through manual piloting but 5 drones should drive them off easily enough.

Strange, the preferred Tristan fit had now come full circle with what he had started out with. Starwalker had still not selected railguns as the weapons of choice because whilst railguns made more sense for targets beyond 4km they were useless up close, and Starwalker was concerned about a brawler trying to kill him at 500m.