Bumbaclot

How frig holes work for most ships

Since the release of Hyperion in August 2014, w-space has been populated with tiny little frigate holes. Frig holes are common but aren't taking over; they make up about 10-15% of the chain at any given time. As their name would suggest, they can fit only small ships such as frigs, destroyers, and hictors with multiple bubbles fitted. They also regenerate mass, which makes them just about impossible to close. Their qualities give them a very limited engagement profile, but with the right numbers and fleet comp, anything can happen.

One day last week an FC asked us to form up in bombers. This is a comp that is rarely used on a large scale in w-space, being mostly limited to small gangs. One of the reasons for this is that the best place to catch people in w-space is a sleeper site, and bombers are notoriously flimsy. Even a weak sleeper frig will take one down without much trouble.

We went down the chain and I saw unfamiliar names joining fleet - the telltale sign of a large joint op. This is exciting, as it meant that there were a lot of things to kill. After holding on the entry wormhole for what seemed like an eternity, we jumped into J124942. You've never heard of J124942, you say? Me either. Even after four years of wormhole squatting, I can barely even remember the j-number of the wormhole I live in. The liquid, random nature of the chain makes for much more challenging geography than nullsec, where longterm residents often memorize entire regions.

Anyways, J124942 is inhabited by unabashed carebears called the Pornwaffe Federation. I guess they're really into porn and that's cool; I mean who isn't? These guys were hardcore isking with multiple caps while they had a frig hole open. I imagine they have done this several times since Hyperion and been perfectly safe, as who would go through the trouble of bringing in a 50-man bomber cloud?

The FC gave the order for our bubblers to warp in, followed closely by the 50-man bomber cloud. We made short work of them, as the average bomber has probably 400-500 dps, and more skilled pilots can clear 700. It took ten minutes to melt one archon, one thanatos, two revelations (2), one moros, and a nag. We also got about 2.5b in pods and a mobile tractor unit with much of their wrecks inside. Most of the sleepers had been killed and the remaining few were focused on the caps, so we didn't lose a single ship.