280MM

Last wednesday minmatar scientists were able to measure a few deceased Rifter pilots' immortal souls: The diameter was 280 millimeters.

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Kitchen Rifter

Ah, the Rifter. It's the ten dollar hooker of New Eden's Low Security space: You find one at every other gate and if you're nice it will follow you to a belt. But sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes it has friends waiting there to take your wallet. And sometimes it is not fit the way you expected and sometimes ... ah well ... I had the feeling this hooker analogy would take us nowhere. Let's start all over again.

Ah, the Rifter. It's New Eden's apple pie. Everybody loves it. It's superior to any other fruit cake. And sometimes it will bludgeon you over the head and take your wallet. See? This analogy is much better, it's always worth the time to think about a brilliant introduction. You heard me: BRILLIANT!

The Fit
I want to share with you my favourite Rifter fit, the 280mm Artillery Rifter. I know for the savvy Rifter addicts of you all this will be pretty obvious, but bear with me. I like this fit so much I simply have to blog about it. I've been using it excessively in the past and I had lots of fun with it. Also I may have lost more than a hundred of these so decide for yourself if my advice can be trusted.

Yeah, that's right: 280mm.

[Disconnection Notice]
Damage Control II
Local Hull Conversion Overdrive Injector I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

1MN Afterburner II
J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I

3x280mm Howitzer Artillery II, RF EMP/Fusion S

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

I've tried some variations: First I had a Gyrostabilizer II in the lows instead of the Damage Control which I changed at one point when I realized that the tank without DC wasn't always up to the task to get my sorry ass out of the opponents range. Another thing I tried was a tracking disruptor (cap!) or something similar instead of the web in the mids. But thats way too dangerous. The web is imperative! Also speed and agility are very important hence the rig selection, the AB II and the (cheap) overdrive. This fit's total costs are less than 5 million ISK.

OK, What's so Damn Good About It?
With the range (7.5km + 11km) and speed (~1300m/s) of this fit you will lose very few (fair) frigate fights if you're careful-you can almost always disengage. And the alpha is just great, here's my favourite sample:

[ 2010.11.10 22:15:32 ] (combat) Your group of 280mm Howitzer Artillery II places an excellent hit on pilot 'pilot'(Rupture), inflicting 1121.0 damage. 

What's the Catch?
Well, the DPS is bad, with less than 100dps (RF Fusion S or EMP S) it can take some time to take a Punisher's armor tank down. In some cases you can increase your damage by carefully lowering traversal (keeping range instead of orbiting). Having no tank is bad, very few good volleys from a cruiser sized vessel will put you in a pod. So will most frigates at close range.

The Artillery Rifter is not shy about exploding.

Storm Warning
Avoid anything faster than you, i.e. any frig with MWD. You have no scram, only web, and you have very bad tracking. Avoid anything that can hit hard at your preferred range, like faction frigs with range bonus, frigs with 200mm and barrage loaded. Avoid drone ships. Also be careful engaging multiple targets at once. It can be quite a task to keep a comfortable range from two ships at the same time without losing point or getting too close to one or the other.

Flying Technique
Carry at least EMP and Fusion and load what's best for your customer. In many cases he'll be eager to fight, so just kite him a little without your AB until he gets in range. Your standard opponent will be an armor fit AB Rifter which does about 1000m/s which will make you much faster as soon as your afterburner kicks in.

In case your opponent is not conveniently coming to you, avoid direct approach and try to fly a tangent of your preferred 13 km orbit. Otherwise you might overshoot and get too close. Never get closer than 10 kilometers! Now overheat your guns and your web, as soon as he is at about 15km disrupt him and then let them guns do their shit. You know, like shooting stuff. At 13 kms range start orbiting the enemy and keep an eye one the range and incoming damage. As soon as he gets closer: web. As soon as he tries to get out just overheat the AB and disruptor and go after him. Do this until the other ship explodes which can take a while. Also keep an eye on incoming damage. If it's too much just increase your orbit until you get out of his point range and GTFO safely.