My rifters - I love them.

Hmmm, even after flying for almost three years - why do I still love flying the rifter? Well, a number of reasons:

1. It is cheap. For a deadly setup, it costs me under 600K: even better when the items are 'salvaged' off other ships.

2. The rifter looks like a pirate ship.

3. It's fast and packs a nice punch up front. Other frigates may tank better, fly faster (unlikely), hit harder (which one?) or look better but the rifter is nice combination of all of them.

4. It is a T1 frigate. And it's cheap.

I prefer to use my skills to make the ship deadlier as I reckon:

skills + T1 + experience > T2

Also love taking on bigger ship classes, nothing gives me a rush than attacking another ship much bigger than you. However, the largest ship class the rifter has managed to successfully take down was a BC-class, solo. Most of the kills have been other frigates, destroyers and cruisers. I have tried against a BS and a tier-3 BC but no success yet. I have lost over 40 rifters.

Frigate killing in a rifter is great though - I love the speed and the instant turning ability.

Been tinkering with the rifter setups but the classic setups seems to work best for me:

Highs:
x3 150mm Autocannon (named)
x1 small knave nosferatu

Meds:
x1 Afterburner
x1 disruptor
x1 webber


Lows:
x1 gyrostabiliser
x1 small armour repairer (T2)
x1 200mm plate

The above, mix and match named with basic with T2 as one fancies. I had a full T2 fitted rifter once; it rocked but came up against a big gate camp and was insta-popped.