I thought I would try something a little different here. I’m at work right now and my computer is processing some big chunks of data, so I have a little time to think about this new Amarrian destroyer and how it might be utilized for pvp. But instead of just posting a fit and how it works I thought I would kind of spell out my thought process and how I come up with fits most of the time.
So let’s start out with the ship itself. I always like to read through the description and the bonuses to get an idea for how the developer’s think the ship should work. It also helps to weed out possible conflicts with fit designs. The Dragoon says it’s a destroyer built to deal a lot of damage but has a really weak tank. It also gets the following bonuses:
- 10% bonus to drone hitpoints and damage per level
- 20% bonus to energy vampire and energy neutralizer transfer range per level
- 25% bonus to drone microwarpdrive speed
So obviously what jumps out at us first is that this is a drone attack boat. Great! That makes some of our decisions a little easier. But let’s focus on this second bonus, the one to vamp and neut ranges. With these bonuses, assuming we have maxed our associated skills, we could neut or vamp out to about 13km.
Now let’s look at our fitting potential. We have 3 turret hard points and 3 launcher hardpoints available to us. With all the slots filled and hobgoblin II’s buzzing we can max out dps roughly around 400. Which is equivalent to the Coercer dps output if you really go all out on dps. The problem is we can’t get that same level of dps with the Dragoon and fit all the neuts and vamps would like (because who doesn’t like fitting those!?).
So when we look at it, we have a ship designed for dps output with a weak tank, that actually gives bonuses to things we can’t use if we want to have the same dps as the other standard destroyer available to Amarr. Between the weak tank, and the apparent lack of dps I’m already worried about flying one of these, but let’s delve a little deeper and see if we can figure something else out.
Let’s forget all about turrets and missiles for now. Let’s assume we run heavy neuts and vamps and just use drones for damage. Our dps would drop to roughly 250. Not great, but not as bad as it could be maybe but how are we going to mitigate incoming damage. Most of our low slots are already used up for drone damage amplifiers? Speed tanking might be a good option. We don’t have room for armor, but our neut range bonuses will let us get out of range for most people’s autocannons and webifiers (albeit with some fancy flying). That might work, but if we mix the two ideas together a little we end up with a few missile launchers (weapons independent of speed to hit) and drones with a speed tank.
[Dragoon, pvp]
3x Light Missile Launcher II (Mjolnir Fury Light Missile)
3x Small Energy Neutralizer II
Faint Warp Disruptor I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
2x Drone Damage Amplifier II
Small Armor Repairer II
Co-Processor II
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I
5x Acolyte II
5x Warrior SW-300
5x Hobgoblin II
What we end up with is still far from great. Especially if you start to compare the stats to other empire’s dps and tanking abilities. I can only really see this ship in a small gang scenario acting as an anti-frigate vessel. In solo pvp I would rather be in a Punisher or Coercer to be perfectly honest.
Capsule in the Void 
Awesome analysis, nice work! I am just starting a journey of all ships neut based and the Dragoon obviously is the latest of these. I was struggling with some ideas so thought I would consult the mighty Google and came across this article…very helpful indeed!
From my early thoughts I agree with your conclusion, but will also still give it a go and see how it pans out. My gut feel is CCP are releasing these new ships in a sad state and then plan on slowly improving/buffing them into usability.
We shall see 🙂
I hope so. I love the ship in principal, but with the current slot layout and bonuses I just don’t think it’s going to be particularly viable.
Hey Vult, I’ve been drafting up my first article for the ‘Capacitor Warfare’ edition at Electronics Evangelist (http://electronicsevangelist.wordpress.com) and trying out some different ship fittings. Here’s a thought for you on the Dragoon…
Put aside the traditional bias with Destroyers and their current roles. Instead consider that the Dragoon is now actually the first T1 ship that provides any form of bonus to Energy Destabilisers/Vampires. Consider it in that role.
Compared to the Sentinel for example, with a full compliment of Energy Destabilisers in the highs it can neutralise more capacitor than the Sentinel at two thirds the range. It has about three times the Sentinels EHP and over twice the DPS from the drones.
With those things in mind and the obvious limitations (two mid slots comes to mind…), does the Dragoon become more of an EW platform than it does a traditional high DPS platform?
As a strictly nuet boat I would agree with you it does that role well. I still worry about it’s weak tank though. It won’t take long for this ship to get primaried in a small fleet, but it will take a good chunk of cap down with it. I would see it working well potentially in a wolf pack with other dps frigates and destroyers.
Any form of Electronic Warfare shares the privilege of being primaried 🙂 And when you say weak tank, I’m not sure exactly what you’re comparing it to? The fit I’m playing with at the moment has ~8,500EHP, so I would have thought that’s a fairly decent tank for a destroyer? At least comparable to most others I’ve seen about (most).
I think the issue becomes when something is a threat, it becomes primaried and then you can never have enough tank lol 🙂