The Top 5 Most Oppressive things in the solo/small gang meta right now

The Svipul. This ship has greatly shaped the meta in numerous ways, the first way is that it has made a lot of Cruisers or above either redundant or need to have the possibility of dealing with one. With a small amount of pimping, on the dual extender AC fit (T2 CDFE x3, RF MSE x2) a Svipul is capable of 26k EHP in defense mode, while dishing out 370 DPS cold, and passively regenerating almost 90 EHP/s, on top of that, it has a very low signature radius and high base speed, meaning that it can usually mitigate a lot of cruiser grade weapon DPS. the 90 EHP/s means that a flight of light or medium drones which normally is a good enough defence against lighter classes is permatanked, shrugged off, or easily killed with the Svipuls frigate gun tracking, kiting cruisers have to deal with a ship which goes almost 3.9km/s while still having <18k EHP in propulsion mode, which is usually something you just can’t afford to be on-grid with.





It’s not just Cruisers and above that have suffered miserably at the hands of the Svipul either, while the Dual Neut AC Extender fit might be a huge menace for bigger craft, luckily Frigates have the agility to avoid it, it still is very oppressive and often forces Frigate sized ships to have to clear the field in it’s presence, as it’s essentially a cruiser in terms of EHP and DPS stats while having Frigate Tracking and Speed.







However, Frigates have to deal with Instalocking Arty Svipuls which have an Alpha Strike of 2.25k, capable of one-shotting almost every non-buffer frigate in the game, while also being able to fight 1 to 1 with even brawling pirate frigates and Assault Frigates, With just a single sensor booster in sharpshooter mode, the Svipul achieves a Scan Resolution of 1.5k cold. thanks to the huge base speed of speed mode and the defensive web it’s impossible to ever go under it’s guns, It also brags about having 6k EHP in sharpshooter/propulsion mode, or 8k in Defensive, which might not seem like much, but the 450 DPS with heat easily brings its EHP/DPS ratio above Brawling AFs like the Enyo. Not only that, but any frigates that come close to being able to challenge it are significantly slower than it.





In comparison, a ‘fast locking thrasher’ cannot fit a MWD with 7 NAMED 280mm arty fitted without fitting help, it’s also much slower, despite having the 50% tracking bonus “always on” the lower base speed and no web (unless you drop a sensor booster or the prop, and you probably want no prop 2 sensor booster anyway to match the svipuls scan resolution), means that frigates can actually kill at 0km if they can weather the initial volley and possibly a second glancing shot, The Thrasher is also much more likely to be caught since it can’t instawarp and likely doesn’t have a prop-mode either, so it can’t chase frigates that survive the volley, or, it is at least 1.1km/s slower than the Svipul cold if it makes the sacrifices (2 PG rigs + -1 mid, for prop). The Svipul can also instawarp doing the mode swap trick, and has frigate speed/agility so catching one is incredibly difficult.





The Svipul has killed off most slower brawling frigates in the meta, and the only ones still left are buffer tanked frigates that can out-run it on the entry gate, that now have to carry mobile depots to repair at every gate they jump into one at.



Because of this, the Svipul is the #1 most oppressive ship in the meta.

Rapid Light Missile Launchers. Rapid Lights are a Cruiser Grade Weapon, which does High Anti-Support Cruiser DPS while having very light fitting requirements, and Frigate Grade Application, while having Mid Range and beyond Projection. This is counter-acted by having a longer than usual reload time of 35s and 20 charges, however, they do so much raw damage before this reload actually takes place that they are incredibly oppressive, and not just to Frigates like you might think, but to Cruisers too.



Enter the Rapid Light Caracal, now a staple amongst junior FCs and home defence doctrines (Note, I don’t think that the Caracal itself is oppressive, just the RLML weapon system)





With 63km Optimal Range (With optional improvements with missile guidance modules or rigs). 370 DPS cold with CN Missiles, Good Speed, A Staggering 35.2K EHP while having a decent resistance profile for any possible logi. It’s pretty obvious to see why a Caracal is a “Sorry, you’re going to have leave the grid m8” for any Light Craft on the field. However, Despite what you might think, It’s not Frigates that the Caracal oppresses the most. It’s other Attack Cruisers. Why? The Raw Damage that it deals before reloading.



Caracal with CN Missiles deals 825 Damage Per Volley, For a Total of 825 x 20 = 16.5K Damage before reloading. It also has 2 Acolytes, that during this period will attack a total of 10 times (50~ / 5) which deal 139 x 10 = 1,39k Damage. For a Grand Total of 17.89k Damage before it reloads.





Caracal with Fury Missiles deals 1008 Damage Per Volley, For a Total of 1008 x 20 = 20.16k Damage. Including the Acolytes, which deal 1.39k Damage during this period. That’s 21.55k Damage before the Caracal Reloads it’s weapons. The 444 DPS (COLD) is also very significant and can punch through a lot of active tanked cruisers, many of which cannot actually catch the Caracal.



So a Cruiser needs Essentially 22k+ EHP to survive a RLML Reload, + Residual Acolyte damage while it’s reloading~.



Using an Attack Cruiser as an Example



DC Only: 10k EHP

DC + 1LSE II: 15.2k EHP

DC + 1LSE II + 3 CDFEs: 19.5k EHP

DC + 2LSE II: 20.3k EHP

DC + 2LSE II+1CDFE: 22.3k EHP



DC + 800mm II: 15.3k EHP

DC + 800mm II + 3 Trimark: 19.5k EHP

DC + 1600mm II: 20.5k EHP

DC + 1600mm II + Trimark: 22.5k EHP

DC + 800mm II + EANM + 3 Trimark: 23.6k EHP

DC + 1600mm II + EANM: 24.9k EHP



Here one can see the sacrifices that an Attack Cruiser must make in order to survive the Caracal’s Fury Reload which is almost impossible (barring links) to mitigate DPS from. However, this isn’t the end all.



The Attack Cruiser still needs to effectively deal with Frigates/Ships that it’s hunting. It also needs to be able to kill the Caracal which has an EHP of 35.2k (Cold) or 37.9k With the Invul Field heated before it can actually reload.



The Caracal fires all it’s charges in 49.2 seconds (Assuming it didn’t heat). It then reloads over 35 seconds. During this period the Acolytes strike an additional 7 times doing roughly 973 damage or almost 1k extra. This means that a Cruiser needs to kill a Caracal in 84.2 seconds before it can reload (and probably kill them with an additional 22k damage)



Cold Invul to kill in 84.2 Seconds = 35,200 / 84.2 = 418 DPS

Heated Invul to kill in 84.2 Seconds = 37,900 / 84.2 = 450 DPS

(This is of course ignoring the 50 EHP/s peak regeneration on the Caracal)

This is OFC assuming the fight takes place at 0km and the Caracal is very capable of kiting out ships.



This requires every viable cruiser in the meta to be able to Achieve at least 420 DPS with 22k EHP Minimum, with probably expecting more, while also being viable at defending itself against a Svipul and other Frigates, while also being able to actually catch the Caracal. This is the reason why the Stabber and the Omen have disappeared to the depths, and to a lesser extent, the Thorax. To actually meet these minimums they are so gimped in applying anything that they are food for any Frigate or T3D that catches them. So it rotates back on to the same point, if you can’t meet these requirements while not being gimped, you might as well fly the RLML Caracal instead, it also doesn’t suffer from capacitor issues like the Omen and Thorax, and doesn’t have any issues with dealing with Frigates.



I want to make it clear once more, I don’t think the Caracal is an oppressive ship, It’s Rapid Lights which are the problem. it’s just the best example.



Want to know something disgusting?



A HAM CARACAL WITH FACTION HAMS LOADED ALMOST DIES TO A RLML CARACAL AT 0KM. NOT EVEN JOKING LOL





This Ham Caracal can survive the Reload with Heated Invul, but with only 395 DPS cold, it comes very dangerously close to not being able to break the 420 DPS/22k EHP ratio needed to actually kill the Caracal, the Ham Caracal will actually win with very low Structure HP. With Rage HAMs it’s a lot closer but you run the danger of not being able to fully apply to other ships that may be present. And this is all assuming the fight starts at 0km



The reason for this is the fitting difference between the RLMLs and HAMs and the fact that HAMs require a web to apply fully.



So while, a HAM Caracal might (Very Barely) be able to achieve a victory against a RLML Caracal, you have to ask yourself, Is it worth fitting HAMs instead of RLMLs for a minor brawling benefit, and the conclusion to that is often… no. RLMLs just have so much more benefits vs almost every other ship type, and give you more kiting freedom.



Rapid Lights just have so much more freedom in both application (No need for a web/TP/Guidance mod or Rigs unlike HAMs/HMLs), but also in superior fitting room.



Just in case you didn’t know, a HML Caracal dies to a RLML Caracal. lmao.