EVE:Thorax
From Basin Wiki
Sleek, sexy (pun intended), and tough. The Thorax can be an effective killing machine, and will look great doing it.
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Frozenmax's Thorax
A thorax in cruiser-pvp is the epitome of ganking. It's not usual to fit a very good tank on it, and try outlasting the opponent. Nope, mostly it's a passive armor tank, with as much damage as possible, to make the other guy die before you do. To do that, you want to get as much damage. This means using the ship damage bonus for medium hybrid turrets. Now, let's look at the hybrid turrets. Two types, blasters and railguns. It's pretty obvious blasters do more dps than rails.
You'll also see blasters don't have a very long range. That's where the second ship bonus comes in, the boost to microwarpdrives. It gets you in range fast, so you can shoot at people faster. Then, you want to prevent him from getting away. That's two-fold. You don't want him to outrun you, so he escapes your blaster range, nor do you want him to warp off. That means a stasis webifier and a warp scrambler are in order.
That rounds off the midslots. Now, on to the lowslots. Here, we need to strike a careful balance between survival and damage, between getting killed and killing. That means maximizing your effective hitpoints, while trying to squeeze in a few damage mods as well.
That concludes to this proposed setup:
Fitting
High Slots
- 5x Heavy Electron Blaster
Mid slots
- 10MN Microwarpdrive
- Stasis Webifier
- Warp Scrambler
Low slots
- Damage Control
- Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
- 1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates
- Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Surprise! You're Dead!
Fitting
High Slots
- Heavy Ion Blaster II
- Heavy Ion Blaster II
- Heavy Ion Blaster II
- Heavy Ion Blaster II
- Heavy Ion Blaster II
Mid Slots
- 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
- 'Languor' Drive Disruptor I
- Warp Scrambler II
Low Slots
- Medium Armor Repairer II
- Damage Control II
- Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
- Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
- Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Rigs
- Capacitor Control Circuit I
- Hybrid Burst Aerator I
- Ancillary Current Router I
Drones
- Pick 5 Tech II Medium Drones, except for Infiltrators. Infiltrators aren't good.
Commentary
300. Not the Frank Miller-inspired retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae, but rather the ballpark (depending on skills and target) low-end amount of DPS that you should be doing with this setup. Depending on the ammo you have loaded and your skills, your results might vary, but it's a serious hurting once this beast gets into range.
Getting into range is accomplished with the MWD, which should push the ship well north of 1 km/s. Your alignment and travel speed will play into your choice of disruptor. You want to make sure they're not getting away. Once you're burning toward them, slap out the web, and go to work. The blasters and drones will pour out the damage while you laugh. Just make sure you turn the MWD off; there are a lot of cap-hungry modules running, and you're definitely on a clock.
Counter-webbing can cause problems to any blaster boat, but if you're aligned and burning, you should eat up some distance before grinding to a halt. Slightly longer range ammos (when compared to Antimatter/Void/Faction Ammo) such as Null or Iridium can also help your Medium Blasters reach out and touch whoever dared web you. Jamming and tracking disruption can also cause the normal issues for any direct-fire vessel.
The Medium Armor Repairer isn't really there for tanking, but to patch up scratches. This isn't a ship in the Dominix mold, where it can hang out, persist in combat, kill scores of ships, and casually leave whenever it wants. Rather, it's a ship designed to target one thing, and make it vanish from local.
Anti-Frigate Thorax
Fitting
High Slots
- 150mm Railgun II
- 150mm Railgun II
- 150mm Railgun II
- 150mm Railgun II
- 150mm Railgun II
Mid Slots
- 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
- Stasis Webifier I (Upgrade for effectiveness, but not required.)
- Sensor Booster II / Cap Recharger II
Low Slots
- Medium Armor Repairer II
- Damage Control II
- Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
- Armor * Hardener II
- Armor * Hardener II
Rigs
- See below.
Drones
- Pick 5 Tech II Medium Drones, except for Infiltrators. They aren't good.
Commentary
The Thorax makes a decent anti-frigate platform, and as an added carebear bonus, this setup absolutely owns every Level 2 mission out there. The small railguns don't get a damage bonus, but can reach out a deal long-range damage while not becoming completely useless at close range, and the tank is strong enough to kill frigates before they kill you. In a PvP environment, this is most certainly not a solo ship, since you'll get laughed at for your pitiful DPS output against anything big, but can help tear through support ships with aplomb.
Because of the massive amount of powergrid not used by this setup, it behooves you to mount three Hybrid Weapon Rigs to help your guns out. The Hybrid Burst Aerator has to go in to boost damage, and then you're free to pick your other two favorite rigs (except the Collision Accelerator, which takes 200 calibration). I'm a big fan of the optimal and falloff rigs, since they make the railguns hit at silly-long-for-small-gun ranges.
Also, be aware that the MWD isn't going to work in deadspace PvE missions, but an afterburner fits nicely in that slot as needed.
