[SOLO] Nullsec control Virgil

[Glasi Vookto]

Seeing that my last Solo AAR ([SOLO] Nullsec brawl Comet) got some interest and inspired several people to go hunt solo in Null, I decided to write another one but focusing on a different ship: the Vigil Fleet Issue to give some pointers and examples of fights.

The VFI, or Virgil, as I name my ships, is one of the most versatile lowsec FW frigates in the game and definitely my favourite. But it's not until recently that i discovered how good it is in Nullsec too. Here's how I fit mine:

Spoiler

[Vigil Fleet Issue, Virgil]
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer

1MN Afterburner II
5MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II

200mm AutoCannon II
Rocket Launcher II
Rocket Launcher II

Small Transverse Bulkhead II
Small Transverse Bulkhead II
Small Transverse Bulkhead II

Hobgoblin II x3

The fitting principle is the same with the Comet, dualprop hulltank with an AAR. Compared to the Comet it has less dps and less tank, but it makes up for it by having the utility of a long web and damage application through the entire scram range. In practice this translates into it being able to control and kill Sabres and other stronger brawlers like AFs and short range Dessies while the long web comes in handy when catching kiters and inties.

I had a pretty good roam a few days ago when I took a frig hole into Impass and I will describe the most interesting engagements I had during said roam:

Engagement No 1:
I had been poking at Brave for a while and had already managed to isolate and kill a couple of their ceptors and some frigs while running away from a Jackdaw and a sniper Algos that did a lot of damage at range. Eventually they got smart and hung together, making it more difficult to separate them.

I left system for a while and warped around, until I picked a tail in form of a Malediction a couple of jumps over. I stopped on a gate to see what he would do. Initially he stayed at range, but after a while he came in to tackle me. I was sure he had friends on the other side of the gate, so I jumped to see what they had. A Keres and a Tornado sitting at 0 on the other side. I tried a gate separation with the aim of killing the Malediction on the other side, but although the Keres and Tornado aggressed on one side, the Malediction got smart and didn't go for me again on the other side. This is when I decided to take on all 3 of them. I noticed the Tornado was sniper fit with no tackle, so if I could avoid getting hit by him I could tank the DPS coming from the other two long enough to kill them. So I jumped back in and burnt transversal against the Tornado using my AB. The Malediction followed me and they all aggressed. I decided to go for the Malediction first since he was the only one with a scram/possible web and could make my escape difficult should more reinforcements come in. I manually piloted to keep high transversal and used MWD to get in scram range of the Malediction then switched to AB until he was dead. Rinse and repeat for the Keres. Once he was dead as well I turned to the Tornado who was sitting duck on the gate at 0. All I had to do was orbit 500 and wear him down with my missiles. GF!
https://zkillboard.com/related/30002597/201802121900/

Engagement No 2:
After this, Brave got demoralized and didn't undock anymore. Seeing I couldn't get another fight out of them, I moved a few jumps over to my old friends Requiem Eternal. I knew from previous engagements that they like to camp you in if you got into their pocket, so I was hoping I could isolate a few weaker targets if they'd try that again.

They did try it, but with less numbers than in the past. They had Hecate, Sabre, Confessor, Harpy, Bellicose and some other stuff, but given the speed and agility of the Virgil, I was able to move fast through systems and get out of bubbles a lot easier than with a bigger ship. I didn't allow them to group up all their ships on one gate and make it more difficult to break the camp, so eventually some of them got bored of chasing me around and gave up, bar a Confessor and a Harpy.

I saw the Confessor was beam sniper fit, so he became my main target. I tried to separate them by gate but they didn't fall for it. The Confessor sat at 0 on the gate while the Harpy burned after me with AB on. The Confessor started crying in local that I was running and that I should stay and fight, so I invited him to an honorable 1v1 at the Sun, which he refused on reasons that "he doesn't want any of my kiting bullshit". So I tricked the Harpy into chasing me 100km from the gate by throttling my speed to keep around 20k from him, giving him the illusion he might catch me. I then quickly pulled to over 150km from the gate, turned and warped back to the gate at 0 and engaged the Confessor. He shot back so I gave him a good orbit@500 brawl and none of that "kiting bullshit", which soon led to his demise under the eyes of his Harpy buddy who was hurrying to close the distance with his AB. I then turned to the Harpy and started kiting him at the edge of my scram. He was quite tanky with the MASB, so the trick here was to kite him AWAY from the gate while wearing him down, so that when his backup arrived they were about 100km from him. This worked pretty well and both the Hecate and the AB Bellicose were too slow to cover that distance in time. They also had a cancer Orthrus that I didn't know about who poitned me just as I downed the Harpy, but I managed to slingshot him and get out in low structure. GF!
https://zkillboard.com/related/30002620/201802122100/


Engagement No 3:
This was a pretty standard fight, but it goes to showcase the versatility of the Virgil. This Sabre was really confident and bloodthirsty so he chased me for a couple of jumps and isolated himself from his backup. I dragged him off the gate and scram-kited away from the gate while slowly wearing him down. He popped just as the Orthrus and a Harbinger jumped system, so I had time to loot and wave in local as the cancer was burning in.
https://zkillboard.com/kill/67997443/

Engagement No 4:
I killed a few more of their ships and eventually they seemed to give up, so I considered leaving. Problem was the wromhole had collapsed behind me and I was almost out of missiles, so I asked if I could buy some more to fight my way out of sovnull but they didn't want to sell. So i went and looted about 70M from the ESS in system half out of spite and half hoping to trigger some reaction and go down guns blazing. Nobody came to stop me, but the Orthrus pilot from before invited me to a 1v1. He said he'd lost his Orthrus (thank god, not even the mighty Virgil would be able to 1v1 that ), but he didn't want to say what he was flying. He told me to warp to a gate at 100 and I'd see. Since I'm not one to refuse a 1v1, I did that and an Arazu decloaked on me. First I was reluctant to engage him, so I pulled some range fearing that with the long scram he would be able to hold me down long enough for the backup to kill me. I let myself long pointed for a while to see if his buddies would come, but it seemed to truly be a 1v1, so I committed into scram range and got under his railguns. He deployed ECM drones which I immediately killed, and then a long grind ensued. I had run out of Nova missiles, so I had to shoot unbonused Mjolnir then even Inferno into a gallente T2 armor ship! Eventually I ran out of any missiles as he approached hull, so I had to rely on my 3 Hobgoblins to wear down all his remaining armor and hull. GF!
https://zkillboard.com/kill/68000338/

At this point it was getting late and I had no missiles left so I didn't feel like traveling the 25+ jumps back to hisec. Instead I decided to take advantage of the infamous citadel asset safety mechanic and deposit my ship and all the loot I had so far in a freeported Athanor 3j over owned by the same guys I'd been killing. I thanked the guys for the fights and self destructed my pod to hisec.

It was a fun roam and I really enjoyed flying the Virgil. I killed 16 ships worth close to 1.2B, made about 250M in loot altogether and didn't even lose my ship. Here's how my killboard looked after the roam:



I hope this helps some of you to muster up the courage and go out there into the scary sovnull and try your hand at some frigate pvp. If you have any questions or need advice, hit me up here or ingame and i'll be happy to help. I know I promised some videos of fights, but recently OBS slows my computer down to a degree where the game feels slightly laggy and slow, so I don't record that often anymore.

[Glen Burney]

Incredible as always Glasi. Mad dual props.
A question: How would you fit your Virgil differently in Lowsec?

[Cryptic Sharvas]

Why fit Dual Propmods? Do you run them at the same time? (Asking because I have no knowledge about this)

[Glasi Vookto]

Incredible as always Glasi. Mad dual props.
A question: How would you fit your Virgil differently in Lowsec?

I usually fit AB, dual-webs and long point. A t2 missile range rig can be useful to kite outside scram/web range too.

Why fit Dual Propmods? Do you run them at the same time? (Asking because I have no knowledge about this)

You can't run them at the same time. The MWD gets shut down by scram, the AB doesn't. Given that most people fit just a MWD in nullsec, you can use your AB when scrammed to disengage if needed, dictate range or get under their guns or simply to mitigate damage.

[Decklin Quark Reiger]

Very impressive, Glasi

I see you weren't able to kill the Rapier and Rorqual gang though

[Glasi Vookto]

Very impressive, Glasi

I see you weren't able to kill the Rapier and Rorqual gang though

Yeah, I put a Rorqual in deep structure but then a Caracal came and I had to run

[Luca Goh]

Another nice write-up, Glasi. I recently moved into wormhole space and have been roaming in null in your brawl Comet a bit. I've gone after a few VNIs with some near-kills but haven't been able to land anything yet. Went back and read your write-up again and will adjust my tactics a bit to better maximize DPS. It's an intense race; as you mention, the VNI can put you into structure with one volley with unfortunate timing. It's fun.

Since a low sec version was asked about I thought I'd share a different fit than Glasi's that a buddy of mine in RDRAW ran quite often. It's kite fit, cap stable, and decently fast (3700 m/s cold with my less-than-perfect skills before drugs and implants; he runs it with Mid-grade Snakes), with awesome range control due to the web. The blingier version webs out to just shy of overheated point range with the Fed Navy web and pushes 3.8k. DPS is low so it's more of a support ship, but it's an animal in small gangs. It's biggest drawback is that it's notably more expensive than your fits of course, but its ability to disengage helps that a bit.

Spoiler

[Vigil Fleet Issue, Tenga’s Cheaper Kitey Vigil Fleet Issue]
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Warp Disruptor II
5MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Republic Fleet Medium Shield Extender
Caldari Navy Stasis Webifier

Rocket Launcher II
Rocket Launcher II
250mm Light 'Scout' Artillery I

Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit II
Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I

Acolyte II x3

Republic Fleet Fusion S x40
Nova Javelin Rocket x200

[Ersin Oghuz]

I am speechless. That is why it is always good to try out new things and be eager to find fights. I recently discovered VFI and was considering fit one so after this AAR I will definetly do it!

[Glasi Vookto]

The Comet I talked about in my previous thread is not meant to kill ratting VNIs, You may be able to kill those who are afk or bad, but if they're active and on the ball the outcome may be that you get alphaed by heavy drones (has happened to me several times when I got too cocky ), so be careful. I mainly mess with the VNIs to provoke a reaction and get them to undock small ships that I can actually kill.

I'm not a huge fan of the kitey Vigil. It has poor dps, mediocre application and a shorter range than I would like. With the fit you linked you'll have to stay within 18km to apply your 100-odd dps, which is a bit too close for my taste and not worth it to invest 100M in my opinion. You can go full range rigs and extend the reliable range to 24km which may be half decent, but that adds a cap issue on top of the already existing ones.