Item Database:Ship Equipment:Propulsion :Microwarpdrives
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A microwarp drive (or MWD for short) is the ultimate tool for increasing your ships speed. All microwarp drives add 500% base speed (increased to 625%!! with skills), but have high fitting requirements, a sig radius penalty, and contribute to bad cap stability.
Contents
Skills
High Speed Maneuvering - Level 1 is required for most microwarp drives, level 4 is required for tech 2 drives. Also reduces cap usage by 5% per level.
Acceleration Control - Increases the bonus to speed by 5% per level.
Uses
High speed allows you to dictate range in a fight, ie keeping your target in optimal range for your weapons and out of optimal range for your targets weapons. Closing distance quickly is important for tacklers and ships with short range weapons. High speed may allow you to escape a fight and save your ship from a losing battle.
Speed Tanking - The speed boost can help speed tanks, however the signature radius penalty makes your ship easier to hit in some circumstances. An Afterburner has a much smaller speed bonus but doesn't have a sig penalty.
Drawbacks
All microwarp drives have a percentage penalty to total cap, and a high activation cost. The combination makes MWD fitted ships very cap unstable.
When active a MWD increases the signature radius of a ship, which makes it faster to target and easier to hit, especially with large weapons.
A warp scrambler will deactivate a MWD trapping a pilot at close range with a hostile.
Fitting
Microwarp drives use one mid slot and a large amount of both powergird and CPU.
1mn drives are meant for frigates and destroyers, 10mn for cruisers and battlecruisers, 100mn for battleships. Speed bonuses are based on mass and using smaller versions does not work well. Power grid restricts using larger versions.
You can fit both a MWD and an Afterburner but only one can be in use at a time. This is useful as a backup in case you get warp scrambled.
Because of cap issues a MWD is often paired with a cap booster which uses an additional mid slot, significant powergrid and CPU.