After more than a month of training, my first ganker, Botslayer Goblin learned to fly a Talos and used it to destroy a Mackinaw. While I couldn’t fit T2 blasters, the 1250DPS of the Talos was impressive. By the time this post goes up, I’ll be able to fly an 1500 DPS T2 Talos.
There are two questions about Talos ganking: when and how?
A T2 fit Talos costs about 100M, 10x more than a T2 Catalyst and its DPS is only 2x higher. Therefore Talos isn’t a cost-effective ganking method. There are two reasons to use it. The first is near stations or gates. Gateguns can pop a Catalysts way before Concord would arrive while a Talos with DCII can fire all the way. The same applies when there are gun-based (and not ECM) white knights protect the target. The other is when you simply don’t have enough pilots in your fleet to fly enough Catas.
However just because a Talos can do it while a Catalyst can’t, it doesn’t mean it should. You should only if the target worth it. It means either 200M+ fitting, or a hull+pod expectation that worth the trade of 100M ISK for a killboard value. In my Talos gank, the T2 rig fooled me. T2 rigged miners usually fly hilarious pods. If I knew that it’s just a lame 170M pod, I let him be.
While Catalyst ganks usually pay for themselves from random target drops, Talos ganks usually don’t. My main ganker has 813 kills for October. About 1/3 of them are pods. If I’d casually throw Taloses to every ship I meet, I’d be burning about 50B ISK a month, which is impossible even to my budget. This is there the “you only need to tank that much” hits. Gankers simply can’t force a kill with Taloses regularly. Not even I can.
Now to the execution. I suggest the following fit:
[Talos, Suicide]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script
Tracking Computer II, Tracking speed script
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Medium Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Medium Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Acolyte II x5
Its DPS with perfect skills is above 1600. The Acolytes are chosen for their EM damage, which is typically the weakest of the targets.
Upon landing, lock, release drones, fire, scram, engage drones and wait a second before web. If the server processes web before scram, you might get unwanted results. Don’t approach or move any way, the gun tracking isn’t stellar, even with the computer. You should be able to lock a mining barge or hauler in 3 sec with the Sebo, a second sebo would give you another second, I’m not sure it worth giving up the tracking computer.
Taloses shouldn’t gank alone, since they can’t lock up pods in time and even if they could, they shouldn’t. Since a Talos is 100M and lives 25 seconds in 0.5, every second costs 4M. Do you really want to spend 6 seconds locking up a pod? They should be escorted by at least one dual-seboed Catalyst that lands after them, making sure that the Cata lives 5+ seconds after the Talos is concorded. To minimize costs, a looter should also arrive to grab what’s left after the mighty battlecruiser.
Don’t fleetwarp Taloses! They align much slower than Catas. They are best started under gatecloak, but if you undock from a station, always use instawarp. Just warp the Talos instantly as it arrives and wait with the Cata(s) until you see it warping off. Good luck, bring death and destruction to blinged, untanked fools, fill the morons of the week posts!
The anti-tear of the day was recorded in Nakugard. It seems voice populi says "if you get yourself killed, it's your fault":
While I haven't been in Nakugard for two months, the ice field is still clean:
The moron of the day is me! I warped my pod to the station with weapons timer is still on and switched to other client. Switched back for the shield sound, which is usually a bad thing for a pod. Someone so dumb deserves to lose his pod, but luck had other plans:
There are two questions about Talos ganking: when and how?
A T2 fit Talos costs about 100M, 10x more than a T2 Catalyst and its DPS is only 2x higher. Therefore Talos isn’t a cost-effective ganking method. There are two reasons to use it. The first is near stations or gates. Gateguns can pop a Catalysts way before Concord would arrive while a Talos with DCII can fire all the way. The same applies when there are gun-based (and not ECM) white knights protect the target. The other is when you simply don’t have enough pilots in your fleet to fly enough Catas.
However just because a Talos can do it while a Catalyst can’t, it doesn’t mean it should. You should only if the target worth it. It means either 200M+ fitting, or a hull+pod expectation that worth the trade of 100M ISK for a killboard value. In my Talos gank, the T2 rig fooled me. T2 rigged miners usually fly hilarious pods. If I knew that it’s just a lame 170M pod, I let him be.
While Catalyst ganks usually pay for themselves from random target drops, Talos ganks usually don’t. My main ganker has 813 kills for October. About 1/3 of them are pods. If I’d casually throw Taloses to every ship I meet, I’d be burning about 50B ISK a month, which is impossible even to my budget. This is there the “you only need to tank that much” hits. Gankers simply can’t force a kill with Taloses regularly. Not even I can.
Now to the execution. I suggest the following fit:
[Talos, Suicide]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Alumel-Wired Sensor Augmentation, Scan Resolution Script
Tracking Computer II, Tracking speed script
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Void L
Medium Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Medium Hybrid Collision Accelerator I
Acolyte II x5
Its DPS with perfect skills is above 1600. The Acolytes are chosen for their EM damage, which is typically the weakest of the targets.
Upon landing, lock, release drones, fire, scram, engage drones and wait a second before web. If the server processes web before scram, you might get unwanted results. Don’t approach or move any way, the gun tracking isn’t stellar, even with the computer. You should be able to lock a mining barge or hauler in 3 sec with the Sebo, a second sebo would give you another second, I’m not sure it worth giving up the tracking computer.
Taloses shouldn’t gank alone, since they can’t lock up pods in time and even if they could, they shouldn’t. Since a Talos is 100M and lives 25 seconds in 0.5, every second costs 4M. Do you really want to spend 6 seconds locking up a pod? They should be escorted by at least one dual-seboed Catalyst that lands after them, making sure that the Cata lives 5+ seconds after the Talos is concorded. To minimize costs, a looter should also arrive to grab what’s left after the mighty battlecruiser.
Don’t fleetwarp Taloses! They align much slower than Catas. They are best started under gatecloak, but if you undock from a station, always use instawarp. Just warp the Talos instantly as it arrives and wait with the Cata(s) until you see it warping off. Good luck, bring death and destruction to blinged, untanked fools, fill the morons of the week posts!
The anti-tear of the day was recorded in Nakugard. It seems voice populi says "if you get yourself killed, it's your fault":
While I haven't been in Nakugard for two months, the ice field is still clean:
The moron of the day is me! I warped my pod to the station with weapons timer is still on and switched to other client. Switched back for the shield sound, which is usually a bad thing for a pod. Someone so dumb deserves to lose his pod, but luck had other plans:
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