Musings on HACs

Musings on HACs

Ok, so unless you've been living under a rather large rock, you would have noticed that the entire HAC line up has had an overhaul in the latest patch.

The reception of the new HACs has been generally mixed and I tend to fall in the 'not good enough' camp on the changes but I have decided to fly exclusively HACs on my main for a while to try them out and see if they are a viable alternative to my strategic cruisers for WH armour brawling once CCP take them away from me.

I actually started this trend before the changes with the Zealot.  Before the changes the Zealot was the only HAC even remotely worth a damn for close range armour fleets with the rest of the HACs ranging from pretty bad to god awful to 'lol Caldari'.

So let's have a look post changes.

CCP look to have learned at least something from what they did to the poor Rifter and Hurricane in the frig and BC balance passes, ie:  making them complete junk compared to the other buffed ships in their class, and the Zealot is still a top level HAC.

So what about the other HACs?

Well, I'm not interested in the least in Caldari HACs for 2 reasons; 1) They don't armour tank and 2) as far as I'm concerned, if you're flying a Caldari T2 cruiser that isn’t a Falcon, you're probably in the wrong ship.
Vagabond is also a shield only ship that has very little use in a WH so I'll leave that for now as well.

This leaves me with the Sacrilege, Munin and the 2 Gallente HACs to armour fit and play with.

I also decided to go for resilience in my HAC fits since that is what they are allegedly for and so have been going with 5 slot tanks over the more common 4 slot tanks.
The tanks consist of T2 1600mm plate, faction EANM and 3 active hardeners, along with a T2 resist rig for the hole.
This may seem like overkill but the result is that these HACs tank a serious amount more under reps than a Proteus or Legion and even a bit more than a Loki.  They can also overheat the tank for even more tank.
Running active hardeners makes them vulnerable to neuting so I have made cap boosters mandatory on the fits.

The first new HAC I added to my hanger was the Ishtar.  I looked at both Gallente HACs but the Deimos still remains a kite/snipe ship that is utterly disappointing up close, where I like to be, and so I quickly dumped it in favour of its drone boat brother.
Note:  I'll admit that the new Deimos does have its role but that role is something I have no use for or interest in.

Since I have T2 heavy drone skills and not T2 sentry drone skill on my main (I know right?! Sue me...) the new heavy drone bonuses on the Ishtar suit me perfectly and I dusted off some Ogre IIs and electron blasters.
The main issue I always found with the Ishtar before the changes was that it was one of those ships that seemed specifically designed to be unfittable.  It had high, med and low slots but could barely fit 2 of those properly. 
Well, the days of 800mm plate Ishtars with light ion blasters look to be over.  I was extremely happy to find that the ship is very fittable now and I was able to get a T2 1600mm plate, MWD, AB, small cap booster and a full rack of medium electron blasters, along with proper tank and tackle, with just a single fitting rig.  Very nice.
Stat wise the Ishtar has a bit less EHP than the Zealot (which I'm more or less using as a base line) but a decent amount of DPS more, even with my no damage mod fit.  The Ishtar's resistances also lean more heavily into therm/kin than the Zealot's at the expense of its exp resist which I like since explosive is by far the least used damage type in WHs.  Yes, it's weak against Lokis which are prevalent but it does considerably better than a Zealot against a Proteus which is very relevant.

I have not had much chance to play with my Zealot or Ishtar yet but they have both performed very well in the few fights I have used them in.
One thing I will definitely note as a weakness of the Zealot is tracking.  If you find yourself alone in a Zealot without a web and get tackled by a frigate, you best hope you have friends close by as you won't be able to do anything to it.
I found this out when I went to kill a Harpy and had to shamefully log in my Loki pilot to come web it.
I'm yet to use either ship under heavy fire but am happy with both so far.
No they don't have Proteus DPS or T3 EHP but they do have Legion and Loki DPS and do tank better under reps than any T3.

I will stick to the Zealot and Ishtar for now but am looking to try the Munin next.
I really hope the Munin works well and the Minmatar line up is severely lacking in the armour brawler category with the only viable option being the Loki, which I hope the Munin changes have addressed.
Unfortunately, initial EFT fitting do not look promising and I suspect the Munin will not cut it.

I'll also give the Sacrilege a try but I'm not really a fan of missiles so I'll leave that for last.

Will do a follow up post once I get to play with all the HACs a bit more.

JM