So in response to several comments in the ratting carrier articles about ratting in Battleships I'm going to be doing a three part series on Smartbomb ratting. While the fits I'll share aren't set in stone and are certainly tweak-able, and there may also be better ships to use or other formats, this is the way my corporation, Imperial Dreams, as developed our technique. When used properly and efficiently can produce up to 30 mil an hour ticks when working with another battleship. Solo it can make up to 15 to 16 mil ticks.
In this first part I will be sharing ship fittings.
My setup generally involves two battleships, which I run on two accounts together. This isn't necessarily required as you can easily either work with someone else when running the more advanced sites or you can even use this set-up solo with specific anomalies.
The Ships I use are the Typhoon Fleet Issue as the smartbombing hull and the Armageddon Navy issue. The reasoning behind the Typhoon Fleet Issue over a normal typhoon is the larger base armor and shields and faster speed. The reason I prefer a Typhoon hull to say an Apocalypse is the greater speed and the base EM resist bonus that Minmatar hulls receive. The reasons behind using the Armageddon Navy Issue over saw a normal Armageddon is for three reasons. First it has higher raw armor and shields than the base hull. Second it has an extra medium slot. Third is its increased drone capacity allows it to not only carry a full flight of sentry drones but also a flight mediums (or two flights of lights) for situations when you might need them.
The Typhoon Fleet Issue
My fit puts its emphasis on capacitor generation. 8 Large smartbombs will drain your capacitor very quickly.
In My low-slots I have
x5 Capacitor Power Relay II
x1 large 'Accommodation' Vestment
x1 Armor EM Hardener II
x1 Armor Thermic Hardener II
I have generally preferred Meta 4 Large Armor repairs on my ratting ships, mostly because I have generally not needed the extra repair amount that a tech II armor repair provides. It also uses less capacitor overall which is generally what I am in need of the most.
My Middle slots consist of:
x2 Cap Recharger IIs
x1 Stasis Webifier II
x1 Experimental 100mn Afterburner I
When working with a turret battleship the web is really not needed but if you ever plan to smartbomb rat solo the web becomes vital when you get a double battleship spawn as makes it much easier and more efficient to keep the battleships in smartbomb range. If you don't want the web you can drop it for another Cap Recharger II
My Large Slots consist of a mix of 8 True Sansha and Dark Blood Large EMP Smartbombs. You can use any combination of faction smartbombs as the three Navy versions and the two Pirate versions have exactly the same stats. This allows you to shop around on the markets, picking up whatever combination is the cheapest for you. Using faction smartbombs is pretty important. not only does it provide extra damage than its T2 counterpart, it also has an expanded range (7500 meters) which means your hitting more ships for longer periods of time. When I first started ratting faction smartbombs were running around 70-80 million each. Now they are between 100 million and 120 million. But when your making 30 million ticks, it doesn't take long to recoup your investment.
Lastly my rigs are all Large Capacitor Control Circuit Is. With this fit, running all the modules, I become cap dry in a little over three minutes with Energy Pulse Weapons V. However you will very seldom be running your afterburner and your smartbombs at the same time. The theory behind smartbomb ratting is to sit on the spawn/respawn and smartbomb things as they spawn. This involves no movement so your afterburner is mostly used for getting to the spawn after warp in.
Armageddon Navy Issue
The fit for my Armageddon Navy Issue emphasizes two things, raw damage and capacitor longevity.
In my low slots:
x1 Capacitor Power Relay II
x3 Heat Sink II
x1 Large Armor Repairer II
x1 Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
x1 Armor EM Hardener II
x1 Armor Thermal Hardener II
In this case I do have a faction module in my lows, in this case it is simply because I had it on hand and the extra resists were nice when I was using the fit solo against hubs and ports.
My low slots:
x3 Cap Recharger IIs
x1 100mn Afterburner II
Rather self explanatory, afterburner to get into optimal faster and cap rechargers for cap regeneration.
My High Slots:
x7 Mega Pulse Laser II
x1 Utility (I have a Salvager II fitted)
I find the tech II Pulses very convenient as it allows me to utilize Scorch Crystals in the rare cases when something has managed to get far away. Normally I use IN Multifrequency or IN Gamma and carry IN Infrared for long-range stuff.
My rigs are of course Capacitor Control Circuit Is
The next key fit for this ship is drone layout. When working with the smartbomb battleship you want to use sentries, Garde IIs are the best choice around here because of their thermal damage against Sansha rats. Being a Geddon Fleet Issue also allows you to run a complementary set of medium drones or two flights of light drones, for the pesky frig that spawns too far away.
In general these ships are fairly light on their tank, only tanking the bare minimum. Alone the Armageddon Navy Issue can tank a hub as long as it stays afterburning underneath the Sansha guns. (Yes you can sig tank rats in battleships). If your wanting to run harder anomalies or use these settups for other things I suggest running a heavier tank. But you need to be careful, the Typhoon Fleet Issue is at a sharp balance between armor tank and capacitor life. I have never had a problem but if your armor and capacitor skills are lacking you may need to overtank.
