EVE Evolved: Flying the Dominix, page 2
PvP ships are usually fit with a buffer tank, but the Dominix has a great trick up its sleeve with the popular dual repairer fit. The setup above is designed specifically to take on small gangs of battlecruisers or cruisers on its own, and as a lone battleship, it will look like a tempting target for such a gang. It deals up to 766 damage per second at point blank range or 810 with the guns overloaded, which can be increased a little with hardwiring implants.
This setup doesn't get much benefit from damage modules as most of its damage comes from drones rather than turrets. Instead, low slots ordinarily reserved for damage mods have been filled with resistance gear to buff up the ship's tank. The two large armour repairers can tank over 850 damage per second with good skills, which can be increased further with hardwiring implants and combat boosters. Keep one unit of Standard, Improved or Strong Exile Booster in your cargo hold and inject it as soon as you know your tank is breaking with both repairers running flat out.
The trick to flying this ship is to manage your capacitor usage effectively, as you have a limited supply of Cap Booster 800 charges to work with. Try not to activate the Heavy Capacitor Booster IIs until you're almost empty, and remember that you still need capacitor during the booster's 10 second reload timer. Try to get the two reloading at different times so you always have access to capacitor. Overloading your capacitor boosters is generally a good idea as they take several minutes to burn out from heat damage. When fitting the ship, put the two capacitor boosters as far apart as possible to minimise heat damage bleeding from one to the other.
I couldn't let an article on the Dominix finish without talking about my favourite slightly unorthodox setup: the shield-buffered neutraliser Dominix. There are plenty of armour-tanked neutraliser fittings for the Dominix, but I have a particular fondness for this shield-based variant. It regenerates between fights without docking to repair, has more capacitor for the initial microwarpdrive push to get in range of a target, and is slightly faster and more maneuverable. Unfortunately, it must either sacrifice some tank to fit a warp disruptor or be flown with a wingman who can tackle for you. Unlike the armoured variant, this isn't really a solo ship and is probably best used in empire warfare or small gang warfare.
The special ability of this setup is that it can run six heavy neutralisers continuously against targets up to 26km away. Three Egress Port Maximizer I rigs decrease the capacitor usage of the neutralisers enough that all six will run off one Heavy Capacitor Booster II with cap to spare. The 26km range on all six neuts is a big deal because it reaches people out at the edge of warp disruptor range. If anyone is close enough to warp disrupt you and therefore present a threat, he's likewise close enough to be neutralised. Six heavy neuts will often shut down the target's warp disruptor by depleting his capacitor, giving this Dominix setup a useful survivability edge over traditional setups using three heavy and three medium energy neutralisers.
Activating all neutralisers on the same target for the initial hit will scare the heck out of almost anyone, killing half a battleship's capacitor in one shot and completely emptying anything smaller. After the initial hit, try to space each neutraliser activation apart by about 4 seconds to prevent the target from using all the energy from a capacitor booster cycle before some of it is neutralised. Drones are situational, but it makes sense to bring a set of Ogre IIs for dealing maximum damage and a set of Warrior IIs for chasing down frigates. Bringing some ECM drones will help you disengage when things go wrong, but the neutralisers on their own are usually enough to let you disengage in any small encounter.
The four Dominix setups listed in this article are just a few of my favourite ways that this incredibly versatile battleship can be set up. Unlike last week's cruiser fittings, the setups above are aimed at older players with at least six months of skill training under their belt. There are potentially hundreds of ways to fit the Dominix for PvE and PvP, from standard shield or armour fits to some hilarious but potentially very effective hull-tanked PvP setups. The Dominix's heavy tank has made it a staple mission-running ship for Gallente pilots, and its versatility can make it hard for enemies to predict how it's fitted in PvP.
The shield-buffered energy neutraliser setup above is incredibly fun to fly with a wingman, and the dual repairer fit can successfully take on gangs of several battlecruisers or cruisers at once. If you have a setup you find particularly effective, please feel free to share it in the comments and explain why you like that setup. After writing this article, I'm itching to try out some new fittings and take the upside-down mouldy shoe out for a spin.
Brendan "Nyphur" Drain is an early veteran of EVE Online and writer of the weekly EVE Evolved column here at Massively. The column covers anything and everything relating to EVE Online, from in-depth guides to speculative opinion pieces. If you have an idea for a column or guide, or you just want to message him, send an email to brendan@massively.com.
