malediction 101

I 4-box maledictions.  The fit I use is https://zkillboard.com/kill/56721607/

I fell in love with instaceptors after CCP made them nullified, I would run interceptor gangs through deklein -- one time a few of us roamed for 3 hours and got 90m in loot, per pilot, per hour (while murdering every goon we saw and losing nothing).  Peligro told me goons sent in several hundred petitions against me, I suspect that number has grown since. I have never received a ban.  I tend to fly solo nowadays, because I can move more quickly if I don't have to coordinate with people, and I can go afk whenever I want.  I don't have a good estimate for how much isk I've killed doing "solo" pvp this way.

Crow has kinetic lock and shit align.  Sader/claw have too few midslots.  Raptor/taranis/ares have wrong damagetypes.  Stiletto doesn't have enough damage.

Malediction has the best selectable damage past 15k in an instaceptor with an MSE.  Selectable damage is important (otherwise can't kill things), past 15k is important (otherwise die to every scram honeypot), instaceptor is important (or die to every gatecamp), MSE is important (or die to every lagspike or smartbomb).

If you have a gang that can spare the dps, then an instaraptor or instastilletto with longpoint and (web or scram) can be pretty useful for killing AB stuff or knocking out MJDs.  The damage from a raptor is useless against serp/gurista ratters (or ishtars ratting anything), stilletto has no damage.  This isn't a ship for people with low skills to fly -- you have to be really on the ball and do driveby tackle (just be within 10k range for a second), if you just orbit something at 5k you will die to heavy tracking (many ratting fits are built entirely around heavy drone tracking, that shit can alpha an interceptor).

This is not a travel-fit interceptor, it only goes below 2s align when you have a skirmish mindlink squad commander in system.  The align bonus from skirm 5 and mindlink is active BEFORE gatecloak is broken, as long as you wait a second in new system (don't immediately spam warp if you see inties/svipuls on gate).  You can still die to instalocker camps with low ping, try to remember where these are setup and avoid them.

I go to systems, hit dscan at maxrange, and then warp to 4 different anoms based on where I think ratters are.  If I see something within 14 AU, then I hit those anoms (usually top haven, top sanctum, top forsaken hub, etc).  If you are not multiboxing, you can use the low-angle dscan, I never bother with it.  I just hit max range, and sometimes 5 AU 10 AU dscans.  Very occasionally I go in 1 au increments (e.g. if there are 30 viable anoms, but only 1 ratter).  If you see something on dscan when you land in a new anom, you can use range-dscan again to narrow down how far away, and then refresh anomaly list (and distances) by unchecking/rechking show anom button in the probe scanner window.  If there are a lot of ratters, just start hitting as many anoms as quickly as possible.

Whether you are solo or in a gang, then always sort anomaly list by TYPE and not distance.  This way, everyone sees the same thing for "top forsaken hub", regardless of whether you refreshed list, or what gate you came through, etc.  If you are in a gang you can assign out warpins.  An example which I like is --- A goes to top haven, B bottom haven, C top forsaken hub, D bottom forsaken hub.  E goes to sanctums, but ice > enorm > colossal if it is a mining system.  If you hit dscan and can see your assigned anom is empty, then hit something else (haven > forsaken hub > rallypoint > sanctum, the less commonly used ones in gurista space are forlorn hub, forsaken rallypoint).  Keep track of what anoms people use, remember which type of anoms they tend towards in different ships.

If you remember which anoms people use, you can check them first when you doubleback on a system.  Sometimes if you doubleback after only 30 seconds you can catch a dumb who warped back to his same anom.

Different PVE ratings for systems imply different amount of anoms.  Sometimes it is sanctum, 5 haven, 3 forsaken hub.  If you see what type of system it is, and see an anom missing, that means someone just finished it.  I.e. if you enter a system, and see sanctum, 4 haven, 3 forsaken hubs, then hit all those havens.  Someone may be just starting a new anom, or (if you are lucky) in warp to a new anom.

If you see battleships in system, they have slow warp times.  When you land in an anom, wait a second, hit 1-au scan.  If you see something, then he may be landing on you (i.e. he hit warp before you entered system)

Large gangs of instaceptors will draw smartbomb battleships like flies to honey.  They will be waiting for you on gates, and it will take twice as long to travel b/c you have to ping off every gate.  Keep gangs to 10 or below.

Svipul gatecamps will be setup if you are too predictable and/or recross the same area in the same way too much.  An area like the testagram can be traversed indefinitely with no fear.  Svipul gatecamps can catch instaceptors if the svipul has extremely low ping.

Smartbombs on gates can be avoided by going to a ping.  It takes 2 perfect rokhs to kill MSE maledictions, people tend to fuck up the timing though.  If the system is such that your angle-to-gate is predictable, and there are 3 or more unknowns in system, then use a perch (or just an asteroid belt near the gate).  If you have a gang that shotguns a system, and one of your guys is in range of the outgate, make sure to hit dscan to look for battleships.

Smartbombs at zero in anoms can be avoided by warping-at-20.  Don't do this normally, but it is an easy counter to this kind of strategy once you see a group adopt it.

Train thermo 5 on all acounts always, tbh it should be done before you have any t2 weapons.  Malediction can get 3 heated mwd cycles, or 2 mwd/point cycles with thermo 5 without fear.  Go to 60-70%+ heat damage on launchers FOR EVERY FIGHT ALWAYS YOU FUCKS.  Fights with interceptors are quick, learn to always be overheating when it is beneficial.  If you are fighting a passive tanker, then heat from 60% shields to 20%, to get over the hump.  If it is active tank, then don't start overheating until all interceptors are brought to bear.  Don't overheat until you are certain you are using the right damagetype (usually EM for shieldtank, explo for armor).  Repair heat damage while warping around, making sure to cancel repairs when you go through a gate (and restarting once through).

You usually want to be using fury missiles against any ratters, but if you have shit skills then faction missiles win for AB cruisers.  Faction missiles against things smaller than cruisers.  If someone makes a tackle, and calls for people to warp to him/her, then it can be nice to tell people what missile to load while they are in warp (shield --- mjolnir fury ... armor --- nova fury ... ABing > 1k/s then mjolnir caldari navy).

I set my default orbit to 19k.  If it is a battleship, I'll do a 25k orbit (with max skills you'll still hit with fury, if you don't have max skills then this will only hit for faction missiles), this means you can usually escape a heavyneut/longpoint honeypot by usuing your momentum to get out.  If it is ABing > 1k/s then I use a 15k orbit, so that missiles don't putter out during travel time while I am at the long end of an orbit.

Don't bother shooting drones.  If drones that do significant damage are sent towards an interceptor, DO NOT WARP OUT UNLESS IT WILL KILL YOU.  Burn directly away from the ratter with overheat mwd, warping back in once you hit 150k.  Unless the ratter is really paying attention, then you have mitigated his drone damage while they were chasing you, and removed the drone damage entirely while they burn the 150k back.

Webbing rats will straight up kill you against an afk VNI with heavies out, you slow down and the heavies alpha.  Be cautious, rats aggro you very quickly while you are using ewar and the ratter is using none.

If you want to take a break, warp to a safe or a planet and burn in random directions at 5k/s.  It is headache to probe this down and then also catch up with it.

When you enter a system, hit ctrl-a on local list, so you can see homedef gang coming in.  If you see just one guy come in and you can kill it, then do that.  It'll make the rest of your roam more convenient.  If you see a lot of tryhards chasing you and you are solo, just go afk for a half hour.  Do not reward their tryhardness.

When you land in an anom, hit alt-z twice to flash up wrecks and/or abandoned drones.  Keep track of which anomalies people are using (both in terms of particular anoms in particular systems, but also the kind of anomalies that a corp/alliance favors with certain ships).

Make sure mwd/point/missiles are all f1-f3.  Quickly hit shift-f3 to overheat launchers, for example.  Being quick about heat is important even when soloing, much more so when multiboxing.  Never bother with trying to lclick the small overheat-button-on-top-of-the-module, that will fuck you up.

When you enter a system and see a ratter on dscan, you can quickly switch to a drones-overview and hit dscan again.  If you see a VNI/ishtar, but don't see wasps out, then that VNI is either safed up or already leaving anom.  Rattles will have 2 wasp, gilas 2 vespa, etc.

Occasionally hitting drone-only-dscan will also let you know if people have aug drones or geckos out, which are worth looting.  Rattlers in particular are great for this --- even if there is a defense gang up and/or he has an MJD and can avoid you, if you can pressure him to abandon drones then you profit from his loss.  Regular faction drones and t2 mods are never worth looting.  Blow up wrecks once you are done with a ratter.

Procurers/skiffs are bait and/or part of a defense gang.  Retrievers/hulks are dumb pilots who will lose their ships.  Dominixes usually bait, no one ever rats in an armageddon ever.

I sometimes like to ask people for ransoms in order to save their ships.  It is best if you never honor the ransoms though, because to do so sets a bad precedent for solo pvpers and pirates everywhere.  A nice trick is to ask for ransom, stop all dps at 10% hull, tell them they have 60 seconds to pay, but then blap them after 15 seconds.  Maybe you catch the pod unaware.

If someone has aggressed you, and they die but warp pod out --- check the station.  You have 60 seconds from their last aggression until they can dock, sometimes they will be dumb.

If you see someone angling to get a fight with you after you have been in their space for a bit, never forget that this is a fight they want.  They know how you are fit, they know what you might bite on, they are fit to kill you.  If you see someone being dumb on a gate, 95% of the time it is a trap.  Never engage on a gate unless you can see both sides, never get in shortpoint range of anything ever.  The place to take fights is in an anom, the rat aggro is sauce for the goose, and you can see reinforcements coming with dscan and/or local.  If you see a soloable defense guy running around, try luring him to an anom by letting him see where you warp, tackling something you don't/can't kill (e.g. procurer or rattler) and waiting for warpin, or asking for "HELP IN XYZ ANOM PLS" with an alt.

The more you feed, the more people will try to kill you.

WHAT DO I DO IF I SEE ...

3+ machariels, warp to havens at 20k, this is a setup people use for ratting.  They will firewall your missiles.  There will be a controller at 20k orbit, vindi or rattle or something.  This has to be played carefully, the trick is to isolate the controller or a single machariel.  If you orbit the controller at 20k, eventually machs will smartbomb you, if you orbit machs at 20k, eventually controller will web you.

carrier, ignore

vindicator/tengu, check havens, then forsaken hubs, then sanctums, make sure you figure out where they were ratting, then write it down.  This is where isk comes from.

vexor/myrm/drake - check rallypoints, belts, etc

XYZ's hauler (and XYZ is in system) check customs offices, use dscan to narrow

3+ rokhs/geddons, don't land on them, that is a trap on a gate or at zero in an anom

a ratter, of any sort, who locks you up as soon as you land and never tries to warp.  Don't fixate on getting this kill, he is part of the defense gang, he may have a longpoint, or a recon waiting to land, or something like this.  It is nice to tackle him, apply dps, but be ready to get out immediately as soon as local spikes and dscan starts filling up.  This tires their defense gang out with useless bullshit.

a ratter who just MJDed,  CHASE THEM DOWN.  Hit approach with OH mwd until you are at 40k, then you hit orbit-19k-default-orbit and target and OH longpoint (while turning off OH on your mwd).  Bads will sometimes be aligned to the next anom, MJD, and then hit warp to station/astrahaus (which they are not aligned to).  Malediction can go over 7k/s with heat, and you might be able to kill them before they can MJD again.

svipuls/confessors/ospreys/caracals etc this is the homedef gang.  Run them around and waste their time as much as possible.



TL;DR -- thermo 5, don't honor ransoms, don't feed