EVE Solo PVP: Republic Fleet Firetail

A morning of roaming in the artillery double web fit Republic Fleet Firetail.
You can find another cool arty firetail lowsec fight here: • Eve Online: Solo PvP -...
According to T_Skys excellent frigate guide, the Republic Fleet Firetail is a popular but not especially strong faction frigate, being 3rd in popularity, and 5th in win rate with a faction frigate 1v1 win rate of 43%. Despite what sounds like some lackluster statistics, I think the RFF has a lot of things that make it worth flying.
For one thing, everyone knows the RFF is a little on the weaker side compared to other faction frigates, and so t1 combat frigates are a lot more willing to engage the RFF then they would be something like a Fed Navy Comet.
The fit I am reviewing in this case is an old standby of faction warfare lowsec, the 280 2x web RFF:
[Republic Fleet Firetail, 280 2x web]
Gyrostabilizer II
IFFA Compact Damage Control
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
1MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Warp Scrambler II
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
Rocket Launcher II, Nova Rage Rocket
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator II
Small Transverse Bulkhead I
Small Transverse Bulkhead I
There are a few cons to this fit, the DPS is not especially good for a faction frigate at 203 (Heated), and the tank is also nothing particularly special (4.89k EHP and another 2.33k if you can get all SAAR charges). That said, two things make the RFF a real contender in the right type of fight.
The first is that the 280 arty has a low rate of fire, which lets the RFF crash through active tanks with high alpha. The second is that the RFF is a very fast hull, on par with an Atron, and slower only then the Slasher and the Dramiel. This, together with the fact that the fit has two webs give it an enormous amount of range control. This fit is very strong against active tanked brawlers, weaker against scram kiters where the range control just turns things into a DPS race you might lose, and weakest against buffer fit scram kiters where the alpha from the arty does nothing and it is a straight DPS race.
If you fly well, the vast majority of the time you can use the RFFs range control to disengage from a losing fight.
In general for most matchups you want to fly to minimize traversal, and maximize your damage/alpha (for example with a Keep-at-range 7.5 km command). With the range control this fit has if you position yourself correctly and pay attention in many cases you can disengage rather than losing if a fight is going against you.
In most cases I am comfortable engaging all attack and combat frigates, and as you move up to faction and pirate you want to fight shorter range active tank stuff more than you want to fight longer range buffer tank stuff.
The beam Tormentor and the dual rep Breacher deserve mention as fits that can potentially give you a good fight. In both matchups you will want to work to minimize traversal, and be sure to not start reps to late. Against the Tormentor, and most SAAR tanked ship, RF Fusion is a good ammo choice, but against the Breacher consider switching to RF Inferno (so as to not be shooting explosive damage into its active shield tank).
Fed Navy Comets are not too bad to fight if they are fit with blasters, but it is an uphill battle if they are rail fit (the superior damage and tank, combined with the fact that much of the tank is in hull sort of hard counters the alpha from the RFF). Hookbills have the worst of both worlds with buffer tank, good projection, and better tank and DPS. Other pirate and faction frigates will be good or bad matchups against this fit as a function of their tank type (The less buffer the better) and their weapon type (The less projection the better).

[@friendlytargets1522]

I give thumbs up at the intro because you have never made a bad video :D

[@grondhero]

I do the same. :)

[@Atompilzy]

At some point you know your content creators. Which reminds me: I haven't seen a new vid from you for a week :O Maybe some passive tanked scythe FI shenanigans again?

[@grondhero]

Today is a good day for a Lasker Emanuel video. :)

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

Thanks man, I hope you enjoy!

[@DoctorWrecks]

I feel like i learn more from this than i do from actually undocking a frigate o.o

[@pierrotbolduc9127]

Nice video. Keep up the good work!

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

Thank you!

[@shuoisibb8857]

good fight! you very strong! Dual WEB Firetail is an ideal range control master.

[@e4r281]

It looks so easy when you do it

[@ohgodhehasairpodsin7116]

ur an inspiration :)

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

Thanks man, I appreciate the kind words.

[@thinmuir7334]

lasker im still owe you 2b lol, good vid as always :)

[@AlexandarJankovic]

I've always wondered, where's your intro from?

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

It was made by CVA members long ago :)

[@AlexandarJankovic]

@@LaskerEmanuelEVE Thanks for the reply, I was specifically interested whether the short speech (What you give to this empire...) was from a movie or custom made. Regardless, its a damn good intro.

[@grimaxemopher7308]

I want more dred content

[@komrad822]

Back with CVA? Also, good vid, as always.

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

I am, came back to CVA, started my own corporation. Thank you!

[@komrad822]

@@LaskerEmanuelEVE Yo thats great. Good luck and spread your knowledge!

[@BlackHawk0oi]

I can’t tell you how much an alpha breaks my Hecate. I can deal with a Thrasher or svipul but it gets hard when you have two of them. The hardest fight and the most fun was two chremoas which I lost because I wanted to try to kill them so I went into propulsion but their alpha was nasty and it quickly forces me back into defensive making literally not headway

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

Hecate v Double Chremoas sounds like a fight I would like to see!

[@BlackHawk0oi]

Lasker Emanuel yea it was a really fun fight! Though it was one sided because that ship is a kiting beast and is extremely hard to catch. If it’s fit for kiting, nothing will get it. If you get too close you end up getting webbed and if that doesn’t stop you usually they might have a scram as well. Or it’s either or. Another good fit they might use would be dual prop which once you do scram them they will just get back out into kite range. The only way you can loose that ship is if you don’t choose you targets carefully or if you make a piloting error. The two that I fought manually flew around, I’m sure of it.

[@BlackHawk0oi]

Lasker Emanuel also here is the video for it. It’s around 8 minutes 30 seconds sadly there isn’t any music because everything god muted because of copyright. But yea. Also I swear this isn’t self promotion because I haven’t played the game in two years and only recently started playing and I have no plans to make any videos.

[@BlackHawk0oi]

Lasker Emanuel kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYPaoH96j616m5Y

[@williamnicholson8133]

Ever since the assault frig buff its so hard to fly these anymore

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

Here I am flying them in lowsec, so I don't have the AF problem so much.

[@williamnicholson8133]

I may have to take a few of these out to dumpster poorly flown retributions. Dualprop armor tanked with a TD . USed to be excellent for anti slicer duty.

[@magalaus45]

although i rarely fly it this is my favorite faction frigate.

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

It's a fun one isn't it? So fast...

[@grimaxemopher7308]

@@LaskerEmanuelEVE i fly the ck second crucifier realy makes anything without drones mad

[@nononunu9847]

"RFF being the worst faction frigate" -> Hookbill would like to have a word with you about that. But it's clear that Comet and Slicers are both light years ahead of these two that's for sure. Anyway, nice vid. And also it was surprising yet pleasing to hear birdy nam nam :D

[@malediction8984]

Hookbill is great. Maulus Navy is the one that really needs help.

[@nononunu9847]

@@malediction8984 Hookbill have some perks, but compared to the Comet & Slicer and even Firetail it's not nearly as good imo. As for Maulus I don't know, I never see those. This fact alone probably makes you right :D

[@fusionmechanic1]

I remember the old days aying amarr fw and being part of a corp in this area. We had daily fw ops and ran lots of fights those days these systems were held by amarr now it sadly fell to the rebellious children of amarr soon amarr will reunite its lost children to the fold and the galaxy be a better place lol.

[@0error.389]

Why use a booster that costs more than the fit

[@LaskerEmanuelEVE]

I often use drugs that are many times the cost of the fit, I am not especially ISK constrained on this scale. How much is the SAAR these days?