A little Ishkur lovin'

Ah my beloved Ishkur. Three ion blasters, two flights of Warrior IIs. Long pointy-thing that no one can explain the purpose of. Sexy green paint job. (/emote starts drooling)

I've had some fun in this ship, tackling as part of a large(ish) gang, baiting larger ships to engage me on gates, 2vs2 alongside eviwyn against another af+frig pair and as part of AF roams.

Fitting-wise, I follow Turelles's excellent fitting which can be found here. On occasion, for example if I'm flying as tackler, I'll drop the tracking disruptor for a web. I've heard people make the argument for using a MWD instead of an AB, but frankly I can't see a benefit: gimps your cap and makes you vulnerable to scrams.

Yesterday, I fought a 1vs1 against another Ishkur pilot. We fleeted up and he warped to my safe. Observing the velocity of his ship, and using the handy 'look at' function, allowed me to deduce that he was mwd and rail fit.

I had no way of catching him, however his hobgoblins were no match for my blasters and flight of warriors so his main bulk of dps was quickly eliminated. I'd love to be able to post a tasty km here, but when I turned my drones on him he quickly warped away. For me, this is the main argument against the nano-ishkur, while its speed and added mobility give advantages in many situations it simply cannot put anywhere near the dps down that a blaster build can.

However, I'm a believer that strength comes from flexibility so I do fly a range of urrm.. other assault frigates. Namely, the Amarrian Vengeance and Retribution. I fit my veng as a dual-repped tackler and my retribution for AF-gang dps support. Neither of them can replace the ishkur as my main ship though: the Veng is slow with poor damage output; the retribution only has one mid slot.

All-in-all, I love my Ishkurs. I'm currently finishing up my training for T2 medium pulses (allowing me to fly my harbinger more often on fleet actions), then I plan on taking a detour to pick up interceptors. Its between the Taranis and the Crusader for me at the moment, with the ranis slightly taking the lead. After that, its onto t2 large pulses and maybe, dare I say it, the long road towards carriers and dreads.

Until next time, when CCP FINALLY GET THE DAMNED SERVER BACK UP

o/