Posted - 2008.02.10 01:45:00 - [152]

 

Over the last few weeks, I've quite come to like this ship as a solo gank machine. I've successfully escaped many gatecamps, and nicked a lot of kills like this:

Hi:
3x Malkuth cruise (to save cpu) w/caldari navy wrath missiles
1x 200mm autocannon II (cause it fits)
1x Improved Cloaking Device II

Med:
2x Sensor booster II (scan resolution script, i dont need more than 84km locking range)
1x Low frequency sensor supressor (to save isk, muons are ridicilous in price)
1x Parallel weapon navigation transmitter (ceptors has no chance, 1 volley=dead, literally)

Low:
2x Ballistic Control II

Rigs:
Can't be bothered, too expensive and still a decent risk of losing the ship

This fits with 1 CPU and 2 PG to spare, and costs less than 30 mill in Jita. To quote another poster in this thread: "there is great fun to be had with this setup". Couldn't agree more. I haven't lost to any AFs/ceptors 1v1 yet. They think they can take me, cause a stealth bomber is weak in shield and armor, but i shred them before they can kill me. (Closest i've come to death is 70% armor, against an enyo).

Don't get me wrong, I have lost a few of these, but only cause I've gotten bumped out of stealth in gatecamps.

Posted - 2008.02.11 23:18:00 - [154]

 

Originally by: Aaron Bhucks

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highs: cruise launcher and cloaker
mids: 1x sensor booster(best you can afford)
2x sensor dampener(best yca)
1x webber(byca)

lows: co-processor II, bcu II

tried this setup against a lot of my teammates flying an inty. they never had a chance. then i tried it in real fights. the same. but after the first volley, they mostly warped out. you def. need another ship against intys/dictors to scramble them. nevertheless, 1 volley against frigs, 2 volleys against intys, 3 to 4 against dictors. try it, i love this setup. but use 2 bombers against dictors;-)

fly save and a salute to all of the proud bomber pilots out there

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[This guy has it right..]

U looking for a good corp?

Posted - 2008.03.07 03:01:00 - [156]

 

Hey everyone. I'm pretty much an exclusive manticore pilot. All I'm ever doing is clearing belts out with them to mine in 0.0, or hunting enemy frigates. I've spent a LOT of time ****ing around with the EVE fitting tool, exploring every option of the versatile stealth bomber class (with the exception of the broken nemesis). I've come up with some unorthodox and hilarious setups that up the WTF factor of the manticore significantly when flown right. Thus, much to the pleasure of my 0.0 enemies I'm sure, I will submit to you my favorite working setups.

First off a bit of a side note. These setups are meant for surprise solo ganking of idiots, long-range support in fleet battles and stealth bomber ops in groups against victims or stationary targets. I don't understand what else you would use a missile manticore for other than those things. You should not solo pvp a cruiser at 70km in a manticore. It is generally a bad idea. That being said, The setups hardly ever use a dampener as a countermeasure because they do not need one. You SHOULD NOT be taking on cruisers solo at less than 100 meters anyways unless you're a real idiot, and if you're taking them on in a decent group at range you will not be primary anyways so there is no real need for these taxing modules. You do not need a dampener on battleships because you will not be fighting them solo or you will not be their primary in a fleet battle. You do not need a dampener on interceptors because you will be killing them before they're in weapon range and webbing them or escaping rather than trying to damp such a small range and a fast targetter and prevent the inevitable lock. The nerf to the dampeners in trinity made them less than half as effective as before, and you'll notice this as you're getting targeted and hit much faster at the sub-100km ranges you really shouldn't be uncloaked at anyhow if the odds are against you.

In solo work, the enemy won't die if he doesn't want to or isn't stupid, whether you're at 20 or 200km. Cruise missiles are SLOW, and manticores can't tank. In an ideal situation, you never have to target paint or sensor dampen much because you're far over their range. In a situation that is not ideal, you're warping away or sitting in a pod as soon as your cycle breaks because you pilot a glass-cannon of a ship. People who warp in at 40-80km using duel dampening setups and fail miserably and then complain that manticores suck have not adapted to the fact that sensor dampeners are pretty useless after the trinity patch; You have half the pre-trinity buffer range now, so this guide attempts to adapt and compensate.

If you're loosing bombers at any point except for terribly-ranged warp-ins, warping into bubblecamps, or docking/undocking from stations, ur doing it wrong and should fly with a friendly veteran for a bit (not that I claim to be one!).

Also, no T2 launchers here. You can get a huge DPS bonus with cruise specialization V and T2 launchers based on rate of fire, but seeing that we're mainly hunting frigates and doing general versatile work, I'm not going to include them in the setups because they are not practical to the midslot requirements and require a retarted amount of skill and fitting to do anything.

Lastly, people are going to say stuff like: Well that's dumb, people are just going to escape or something like that. Well, that's a given. Go fly a falcon or a curse or something. This is about instapopping ****y interceptor pilots and laying down serious damage while you laugh your ass off from 200km away. Naturally, the setups have some major tactical significance in certain areas, like protecting sniper battleships from a cruiser rush or ambushing in groups with aid of a tackle. But please don't insult my setups if you're not of the opinion that stealth bombers are the ultimate LULZcrafts of the EVE world, because that's what these ships and setups are all about.

Posted - 2008.03.07 03:03:00 - [158]

 

LONGBOW: FLEET TAUNTING / SNIPER GUARD SETUP:

High:
3x 'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I
1x Improved Cloaking Device II

Mid:
3x F-90 positional Sensor Subroutines ( Skills IV = 1 targeting range, Skills V = 2)
1x 4th F-90 positional / Passive targeter / webber (requires weapons upgrades V) / phased muon sensor diruptor (also requires weapons upgrades V)

Low:
2x Ballistic Control System II

Rig:
2x Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I

Charges:
Caldari Navy Wrath

Cost: Around 90 mil

Minimum skills beyond missiles/covops/electronics: Weapons upgrades IV (or V depending on modules), Launcher rigging III

Usage: This setup is absolutely hilarious to use and it is quite lenient on the skills required. The 3 sensor boosters with 1 targeting range are a must. The 4th mid slot can be varied depending on how you deal with interceptors and what will give you the best advantage, a small increase in locking time and sensor strength, invisible locking (my favorite), an anti-inty web, or a further safety net with the sensor dampener. With missile skills at IV, your caldari navy wraths get a range of 191 kms and a speed of almost 7kms/s, although they will not be able to have the explosion velocity to take down an unwebbed interceptor with an afterburner or MWD on. With missile skills at V, you get a range of over 210 kms and will have to put a 2nd targeting range script up or sub in the 4th booster. Because you are warping in at around 200km to bookmarks you have already made like a good stealth bomber pilot, you have over 15 seconds to escape or prepare to web any charging interceptor. But the best part is (especially with a passive targeter) a large enemy gatecamp typically will not give much immediate coordinated attention to a frigate (even a manty) out at 200km until you've already got 3 volleys of missiles into the air and an interceptor or a cruiser on the other side has a heart attack as the first volley slams into their hull and they have to align or jump away. The WTF-LULZ factor with this setup is legendary. This can REALLY mess with a gatecamp, even with a single manticore as it provokes retaliation, the spreading of forces away from their stationary objective and furthermore, you WILL pop frigates and interceptors that enjoy false security in a giant cate-camp and you WILL go into laughing fits as they pop and you're aligned and warping away right as the other intys close in past 30kms. This is the typical setup I'm using for PVP/****ing around when not in a fleet and it does get surprise buttsex kills from 190km and it does intimidate gatecamps to jump out, either from fear of reconnaissance, or from not being able to maintain frigate solidarity.

Note: Subbing a Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I for a bay thruster would achieve roughly 4km more range with skills IV and around 5km more with skills V. In my opinion this negligible range increase is not worth losing 10% of your missile velocity when your main risks are fast frigates.

Posted - 2008.03.07 03:17:00 - [160]

 

Oh, PS. If any of the bomber team pilots from the Vth alliance tournament are reading. I'm really enjoying watching your work and I'd love to hear about your setups!

Posted - 2008.03.13 17:40:00 - [162]

 

Hmm, nice stuff.. I wonder about some of the logic, but if its working for you awesome. I will have to try some of them out on the test server :) Thanks again!

Posted - 2008.03.20 01:08:00 - [164]

 

Originally by: Logan Galactor

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(with the exception of the broken nemesis)

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Sir, might I ask you why you think the Nemesis is broken? I was going to train for it after I'm in my purifier..

Aside from that, excellent posts you've made.

Posted - 2008.04.10 14:10:00 - [166]

 

Has anyone tried using 3 o4 manticores with corp mates in a "wolf pack" type setup. I was wondering what you can reasonable expect to take down with 4 ppl uncloaking and getting off two vollys before recloaking and warping away?

Posted - 2008.04.11 07:39:00 - [168]

 

I'm pretty new to the game, and have been flying a hound for a month or so. Its reasonably skilled and fitted, does 224 EFT DPS. My point is, I see a lot of talk about killing interceptors here, and I don't see how thats possible, or even killing a T1 frigate that is competantly flown. The missiles take so long to get to the enemy that most frigates and certainly any interceptor is going to be going well in excess of 3000m/s by the time the missiles get there, at which point they are pretty much immune to anything I can do to them.

Posted - 2008.04.25 06:14:00 - [170]

 

Originally by: Radcjk

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As to interceptors, no. I don't care of SB's do get the bonus for their target sized, an interceptor will blow through your first volleys explosion with speed, land on top of you like an angry slave in an uprising, and commence to beating you to death with a rock and a warcry.

By the time your second volley is being ignored by his speed / damage control / luck he has your pod locked. SB's dont kill intys mate.. at least not if the inty pilot has flown it longer than 3 days.

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Look what a damage control does to the mass of an interceptor, most don't fit them... isn't the stealth bomber tactic verse interceptors to sensor damp them into web range?

Nice image with the rock by the way :)

Posted - 2008.04.25 06:38:00 - [172]

 

Originally by: Logan Galactor

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NOVEL SPEED SETUP - ANTI-INTERCEPTOR HILARITY
1x Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thruster Microwarp Drive (or similar 15 power unit MWD [advanced weapons upgrades V needed if more than 15 power])

Low:
1x Ballistic Control System II
1x Reactor control Unit II (or similar 15% Power boost faction module)

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Have you ever heard about micro auxiliary power core?

Posted - 2008.04.25 08:00:00 - [174]

 

Posted - 2008.04.25 23:31:00 - [176]

 

Edited by: Leeluvv on 25/04/2008 23:31:40
nt

Posted - 2008.04.30 12:59:00 - [178]

 

Originally by: Leikung

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I fire mine at over 200km. Nuttin can hit me, and WE can strip a fleet of anything smaller than a crusier in mintues.

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That wasn't my point, but good for you. Heres a cooky.

Posted - 2008.04.30 15:49:00 - [180]

 

I've got pretty decent missle skills, everything maxed except for a couple of the "spec" skills. My cruise spec is at lvl 4 and I still can get only 162km. My manti is not rigged so my question is will the addition of the right rigs get me up over 200km? Are there any other skills that would either increase missle velocity or max flight time?