[Solo] Getting familiar with the Insta Thrasher.

[Maekchu]

The Instalocking Alpha Thrasher is not a new concept, and I've seen a few fly them in some fleets.

After watching the following EVE Pro Guides video on an instalocking Svipul, I figured I'd give it a try with the cheaper Thrasher version.

My fit is fairly straightforward. It is made to maximize locking speed and Alpha damage.

Spoiler

[Thrasher, Alpha/Instalock]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Warp Disruptor II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script

280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
[empty high slot]
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S

Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I
Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

The ship is designed to Alpha frigates when on gates. You don't want to take a fair 1v1 fight in this ship, cause this ship will perform poorly in such a situation. Your advantage is the element of surprise and "hopefully" slow reaction time from the ganked target.

I take my Thrasher out to the fairly populated Ostingele/Agoze and hope to find a few frigs on gates. When flying solo in this particular fit, your biggest threat is jumping into a fleet waiting on the otherside of the gate. This is because of the lack of a scout, but that is the nature of solo.

I reach Agoze and find an already on-going fight in Agoze with a Tristan vs a Curse. I fly in and decide to go for the Tristan, since this is what I know I can take down. I prealign out and throw a shot in his direction. He goes down from the first volley resulting in the following kill.

http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=281914
Approx. 22M

I make a greedy mistake following the kill. Since the Tristan pilot was perma flashy, I decide to turn back for the pod, even though I'm prealigned and can warp out. Obviously, I get neither the pod and the curse get a point on me. This ship, being what it is, really can't do much if it's pointed. So I'm left looking really silly, and my ship goes down cause of my own stupidity.

http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=281913
Approx. 10M

Some after thought, I'm not particularly happy with this kill. Screaming Hayabusa have some really good solo pilots, with a lot of my old corpmates in their ranks. There is a big chance, that I robbed Nuke Cave of a really nice killmail (Tristan vs Curse). But alas, such is EVE and the life of a solo pilot.

I warp back to Stacmon to get a new Thrasher and I return back to Agoze. I continue to warp between gates, checking d-scan/local in the attempt to be on a gate as soon as someone wants to warp away from the particular gate. Getting the timing right is the hardest part of this style of flying. I've missed several potential targets, cause I'm either too slow or wrongly predict their out gate.

I manage to engage a Slicer. Once you've actually found something on a gate, the engagement is fairly simple. You lock as fast as you possibly can, and hope for the best. Always overheat all your guns, for that second volley to come in faster. Align out immediately and warp away as soon as your target is down. You can take maybe 3-4 gate gun volleys, so you need to be comfortable taking lots of incoming damage and not panic.

http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=281918
Approx. 19M

I move down to Cumamare and neighboring systems, with the hopes of finding some explorers. I do not find any explorers, but I find a flashy Breacher. Being flashy makes everything easier for me, since I don't have to tank gate guns.

http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=281929
Approx. 10M

So I'm about to wrap up my little roam. I decide to peek into Dastryns and I happen to find a newbie lost in space. Even though his fit and skills are poor, my paper tanked Thrasher still take a beating. I still get him in the end and pod him back to safety.

http://killfeed.eveuniversity.org/?a=ki ... _id=281936
Approx. 2M

My experience with this particular fit is still sparce. But my time with it has been great. It's quite a fun and enjoyable way of flying. It might not be the most newbie friendly ship, but for those who can fly it efficiently, I'd definitely recommend to try it out.

[Cupid Stunt Master]

Thanks for the review, lots of useful info there.

Q1. Do you have the guns in two groups or one?

Q2. Why RF Plasma and not RF EMP?

[Glasi Vookto]

This used to be fairly common in nullsec, where one or two arty Thrashers were camping a bubbled gat. They made good targets for other solo frig/dessie pilots . But nowadays it's all about Svipuls, so meh..

However, the concept becomes really powerful when several of these things get together. They can insta-kill pretty much anything below cruiser. 10 of them will kill a decently tanked cruiser.

Now take that fit, replace the ship with a Claw, slap a WCS and a pair of nanos in the lows , get 20 guys in those with a good combat prober and go haunt nullsec. You have reached the true art of hit-and-run
PS. That's a PL invention btw.

[Maekchu]

Thanks for the review, lots of useful info there.

Q1. Do you have the guns in two groups or one?

Q2. Why RF Plasma and not RF EMP?

I have my guns all in one group.

I chose Phased Plasma, cause of the resists on T1 frigs. My reasoning is, since I won't have time to switch ammo depending on the type of ship I'm shooting, Thermal damage is a decent middleground for the targets I'm facing. I don't intend to engage T2 frigates or something else with some wonky resists. But I don't think it would make too much of a difference, if you'd choose to use EMP instead.

[Xia Saraki]

Very good post showing the fit, the tactics of using it, and what to avoid Maekchu.

Quite educational, thanks for taking the time to write this out.

[Glen Burney]

Well I was going to make exactly this post, because Insta Thrasher is my favorite thing to do 'round here. I'll never forget the first arty thrasher I found on corp contract out in Jufvitte. When I play FPS games I love to camp corners and I love picking up the heavy machine gun kit with tons of bullets, then break out the tripod and just rain heavy metal hell upon choke points. The is the EVE equivalent and I love it. Here's my fit:

Spoiler

High

7x 280mm Howitzer Artillery II

Medium

1x Warp Disruptor II
2x Sensor Booster II

Low power

1x Gyrostabilizer II
1x Damage Control II

Rigs

1x Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
1x Small Ancillary Current Router I
1x Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

Charges

140x Republic Fleet EMP S
2x Scan Resolution Script

This fit balances DD and targeting speed while providing some tank in order to get off a 2nd volley. If you have to go down to T1 guns and lower the meta of other items, that's OK, just know that your target selection will have to be more on the order of rookie ships and shuttles. Don't bother taking too much ammo, you'll only cycle two times with each engagement.

This is how I do: When I am not flashy, I go to the Stacmon gate in OST and wait for people coming into Low from High. If you get flashy, don't camp this gate because you don't have the option of jumping through if things get hairy (flashy in high-sec can be nerve-wracking, but in a pinch you can always just warp over to the Dastryns gate in Stacmon to get back to Lowsec before you attract the attention of the locals). If I AM flashy, I go to the Agoze gate in OST, or, most recently, the Alperaute gate. This OST - ALP gate is on the main pipeline for BRAVE newbies these days, so I get alot of action there If you're somewhere else, just find a gate with alot of traffic, but make sure it's not a regional gate, only the small gates guarantee that your targets will be within disrupt range.

This ship is pretty slow, so if you are any distance from a gate and want to jump, you're screwed. So what I do is get as close to zero as possible and pre-align to something, then stop my ship. Make sure your sebo's are on, and then overheat your gun stack. I put my warp disruptor in the F2 slot and watch local and the gate. When the gate flashes, hit F1 and F2 (so that they are blinky) and hold down CTRL (this locks the overview). Put your mouse pointer at the bottom of the Overview, the target will appear there.

Once your target emerges from the gate cloak, you have to make a snap decision: Engage (and incur the wrath of the gate guns), or wait for another target. I just engage anything frigate and lower. Shoot first, ask questions later. If you engage, watch the damage your first shot does (if it doesn't obliterate the target). With this fit, if your first shot does more than 50% damage, wait for a few seconds, and then hit warp. Before you get up to warp speed, your guns will cycle and you'll take one last shot before warping off. Nothing is more awesome than finishing off the enemy a split second before you boogie out.

Your biggest risks are:

A) You engage the wrong thing and it shoots back. LOL FAIL!

B) You engage the right thing, but it warp disrupts you before you kill it. If you get warp disrupted, DON"T PANIC! Align to your warp out. ALIGN! This way, if you kill your target before you die, you're already aligned and at warp speed and you can warp out fast. Your guns ARE overheated, right?

C) You run up against a fleet. If there is a fleet in the area, especially a frigate fleet, GET OUT. A smart fleet will land on the gate with you, target you and force you through, while at the same time sending a vanguard through to wallop you on the other side. Your slow tank-less arty thrasher will be quickly eliminated, and it won't be pretty. But at least it's cheap, right?

The joy of this is the content creation... Gates are the obvious choke points. Within a few minutes you'll be pewing all manner of things you've never shot at before. Your security status will plummet like a stone. You will make people poop their pants. You'll learn ship names quickly. You'll learn to think quickly but with a sense of calm and purpose. You'll slowly lose the heart pounding that comes along with PVP in EVE. You Only Live Once, so take a chance!

BONUS MATERIAL:
Gate guns shoot at only 1 aggressor at a time. This means that with two thrashers, you can do MUCH more damage, because only 1 will be taking damage at a time. If there are two of you, don't warp out until your target dies or you start taking guns. Then, you can warp BACK to the gate at zero and keep laying on the DD without getting gate guns any more. I'm not entirely sure how far away you have to warp to lose the guns, it's probably just off grid?

Looting: Gate tacticals are your friend here. DO NOT slowboat out to a wreck, you're a sitting duck. Instead, warp to a tactical and then down to the wreck to loot, then back to the tac. Probably best to drop that loot off in station before your next engagement. It's embarrassing when 50% of the value of your loss is in your hold!

[Coaxster]

I futzed with an insta thrasher the other day for giggles. I practiced on the OST gate in STAC -- seeing if I could get the lock in time -- with safety to GREEN I might add. Yeesh. Couldn't get any frigs locked in time (I think I got one dessie who was slow -- or hoping I would get koncordonkan -- and a few cruisers). Very sad. Then a flashy noob ship came through and I popped it instantly. So yeah there ya go... My point is you can practice the locking speed thang (F1 F2 CTRL) somewhat safely...

[Zeddicus Zantosa]

Well I was going to make exactly this post, because Insta Thrasher is my favorite thing to do 'round here. I'll never forget the first arty thrasher I found on corp contract out in Jufvitte. When I play FPS games I love to camp corners and I love picking up the heavy machine gun kit with tons of bullets, then break out the tripod and just rain heavy metal hell upon choke points. The is the EVE equivalent and I love it. Here's my fit:

Spoiler

High

7x 280mm Howitzer Artillery II

Medium

1x Warp Disruptor II
2x Sensor Booster II

Low power

1x Gyrostabilizer II
1x Damage Control II

Rigs

1x Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
1x Small Ancillary Current Router I
1x Small Targeting System Subcontroller I

Charges

140x Republic Fleet EMP S
2x Scan Resolution Script

This fit balances DD and targeting speed while providing some tank in order to get off a 2nd volley. If you have to go down to T1 guns and lower the meta of other items, that's OK, just know that your target selection will have to be more on the order of rookie ships and shuttles. Don't bother taking too much ammo, you'll only cycle two times with each engagement.

This is how I do: When I am not flashy, I go to the Stacmon gate in OST and wait for people coming into Low from High. If you get flashy, don't camp this gate because you don't have the option of jumping through if things get hairy (flashy in high-sec can be nerve-wracking, but in a pinch you can always just warp over to the Dastryns gate in Stacmon to get back to Lowsec before you attract the attention of the locals). If I AM flashy, I go to the Agoze gate in OST, or, most recently, the Alperaute gate. This OST - ALP gate is on the main pipeline for BRAVE newbies these days, so I get alot of action there If you're somewhere else, just find a gate with alot of traffic, but make sure it's not a regional gate, only the small gates guarantee that your targets will be within disrupt range.

This ship is pretty slow, so if you are any distance from a gate and want to jump, you're screwed. So what I do is get as close to zero as possible and pre-align to something, then stop my ship. Make sure your sebo's are on, and then overheat your gun stack. I put my warp disruptor in the F2 slot and watch local and the gate. When the gate flashes, hit F1 and F2 (so that they are blinky) and hold down CTRL (this locks the overview). Put your mouse pointer at the bottom of the Overview, the target will appear there.

Once your target emerges from the gate cloak, you have to make a snap decision: Engage (and incur the wrath of the gate guns), or wait for another target. I just engage anything frigate and lower. Shoot first, ask questions later. If you engage, watch the damage your first shot does (if it doesn't obliterate the target). With this fit, if your first shot does more than 50% damage, wait for a few seconds, and then hit warp. Before you get up to warp speed, your guns will cycle and you'll take one last shot before warping off. Nothing is more awesome than finishing off the enemy a split second before you boogie out.

Your biggest risks are:

A) You engage the wrong thing and it shoots back. LOL FAIL!

B) You engage the right thing, but it warp disrupts you before you kill it. If you get warp disrupted, DON"T PANIC! Align to your warp out. ALIGN! This way, if you kill your target before you die, you're already aligned and at warp speed and you can warp out fast. Your guns ARE overheated, right?

C) You run up against a fleet. If there is a fleet in the area, especially a frigate fleet, GET OUT. A smart fleet will land on the gate with you, target you and force you through, while at the same time sending a vanguard through to wallop you on the other side. Your slow tank-less arty thrasher will be quickly eliminated, and it won't be pretty. But at least it's cheap, right?

The joy of this is the content creation... Gates are the obvious choke points. Within a few minutes you'll be pewing all manner of things you've never shot at before. Your security status will plummet like a stone. You will make people poop their pants. You'll learn ship names quickly. You'll learn to think quickly but with a sense of calm and purpose. You'll slowly lose the heart pounding that comes along with PVP in EVE. You Only Live Once, so take a chance!

BONUS MATERIAL:
Gate guns shoot at only 1 aggressor at a time. This means that with two thrashers, you can do MUCH more damage, because only 1 will be taking damage at a time. If there are two of you, don't warp out until your target dies or you start taking guns. Then, you can warp BACK to the gate at zero and keep laying on the DD without getting gate guns any more. I'm not entirely sure how far away you have to warp to lose the guns, it's probably just off grid?

Looting: Gate tacticals are your friend here. DO NOT slowboat out to a wreck, you're a sitting duck. Instead, warp to a tactical and then down to the wreck to loot, then back to the tac. Probably best to drop that loot off in station before your next engagement. It's embarrassing when 50% of the value of your loss is in your hold!

This sounds like fun. I'm definitely gonna have to try this out.

[Cozniros Aukry]

Thanks for this report, and the replies to it. Useful to a person with low combat experience like me - and an improved Instalock Thrasher build (over what I had) in the bargain! Thanks.