Thorax (Guide)
Tech 1 Gank Thorax Fitting Tutorial
This article is not intended to provide a PvP Thorax fitting, but rather to show the rationale and thought processes behind creating one.
The gank thorax is a classic example of how to think about fitting a ship for PvP. We will be assuming the use of a hypothetical "newbie" character for this tutorial, with low skills.
To begin with, we should decide what this fitting has to be able to accomplish (the fewer things, the easier it is to create an effective fitting!). Here is a pretty good list:
- Deal lots of damage
- Keep the enemy from running away
So for the damage part, since the Thorax has a bonus to hybrid guns, we will be using blasters, as they do far more damage than railguns. Since blasters are short range, this adds a third requirement to the fitting:
- Be able to get in close to the enemy quickly so they have minimal time to shoot you while you close the gap
Okay, now that we know what the fitting has to be able to do, let's start adding modules!
First, we'll start with the high slots: the blasters. Blasters come in three varieties, which are, from most powerful to least: Neutron, Ion, and Electron. The trade-off is that the weaker (less damage, less range) ones are much easier to fit, as they have much lower power grid requirements, and don't drain the capacitor as quickly. Since our "newbie" character will have difficulty fitting 5 heavy neutron blasters on a Thorax, we should probably just start by trying to fit electrons. Since the Thorax has five turret slots, we will add:
- 5x Heavy Electron Blaster I (using Antimatter Charge M, because antimatter does the most damage and the range trade-off is worth it since blasters are close-range anyway)
Now that we have the "lots of damage" part figured out, it's time to move onto "keep the enemy from running away". For this we will want either a warp disruptor or a warp scrambler. (You can read about the differences between the two in the relevant wiki sections.) In this example we will use a warp disruptor as they are still the more popular module, which takes a mid slot. In addition, there are many fast ships in EVE, and we will want to slow them down so they can't simply fly out of range of the disruptor! The way to do this is with a stasis webifier, which also takes a mid slot. Our fitting now looks like:
- Highs:
- Mids:
This leaves one mid slot and five low slots! Since our Thorax still can't close the gap quickly, we will add a 10MN MicroWarpdrive I, filling the last mid slot.
- Highs:
- Mids:
Now our fitting is finally complete, but what can we do with the low slots? It just so happens that a bunch of useful and easy-to-fit module types take low slots! Including:
- Armor-related mods (no ship should be without a damage control!)
- Damage-enhancement mods
- Maneuverability mods
All of the above would benefit this setup greatly! If survivability is not an issue and you are simply going for a "glass cannon"-type setup, add a bunch of damage mods (magnetic field stabilizers in this case) and call it a day. However, most people will want at least a little tanking layer (e.g. an armor plate, and active or passive hardeners - you can't go wrong with an EANM), and even a glass cannon should have a damage control I. A lot of players might consider maneuverability mods to be of lesser benefit since it will still be pretty hard to get a Thorax to the point where it can conceivably catch faster ships, but it is an option.
In summary, fitting a ship in EVE is all about choosing your priorities, and choosing only mods that help accomplish those. While one can also put rail guns on a Thorax and use it as a mini-sniper, the damage will be far less, and this fitting strategy is for maximum damage close-range ganking!