For the past two weeks, I’ve been republishing Garbad_the_Weak’s “Ship of the Week” column (with his consent, of course!) and the Awstats numbers suggest that they’ve been well-received despite lack of comment. Of course, there’s no telling how many readers I’ve gained from the PotBS community and how many readers I’ve retained from the EVE Community after the recent shift of focus (I lub u gais!!!).

Thanks again to Garbad_the_Weak for agreeing to have his articles reposted for the sake of drawing attention to the unique dynamics of Pirates of the Burning Seas’ robust ship combat/PvP system!

Continuing his ‘Ship of the Week’ reviews column, this week we look at Garbad’s treatment of the ‘Tigre’ Sleek, a L50 Huge Scout ship carrying 36 guns and a standard compliment of 335 crewmen.

Key Ship Stats

• Max Speed: 16.00
• Acceleration: 2.90
• Turning: 10.14
• Turning Accel: 10.00
• Armor/DR: 1300/6
• Sails: 2400
• Top Deck: 12 x 8lb Guns
• Gun Deck: 24 x 12lb Guns
• Defining Characteristics: Faster, better sailing characteristics and 10% faster reload over base ‘Tigre’ Frigate

The Tigre in Perspective

The ‘Tigre’, affectionately called the Tigger (for the lovable cartoon tiger), is the largest of the “true scouts,” and is similar in many ways to its smaller kin such as the ‘Mediator’, the ‘Cerberus’, the ‘Raa’, the ‘Capricieux’, and their illegitimate merchant cousin, the ‘Mignone’. The true scout line has a lot of diversity in terms of best point and armament, but what they all share is moderate to high speed, extremely high acceleration and turning acceleration, and poor armor/sail integrity. True scouts are popular for all classes and many roles, and are particularly favored by Cutthroats and Privateers for their 1v1 prowess.

The Tigre line differs from its kin in two important ways — first, it is a 180º best point ship (which gives it unusual sailing characteristics) and second, it has long range guns for a scout. In a past patch, the MC ‘Tigre’ was considered one of the most potent long range fighters in the game because of its balanced long range gundecks, its ability to quickly switch sides, and its ease of escape against traditional frigates. However, other than the brief surge in popularity of the MC ‘Tigre’ (which was promptly and appropriately nerfed), the Tigre has never been popular. Most scouts do not want to fight at range, and thus prefer the tougher and higher DPS ‘Capricieux’ or the smaller, faster ‘Raa’. Indeed, I can’t think of a time I have ever seen a player sail a sleek or heavy ‘Tigre’ in PvP.

The Sleek Tigre

The Sleek ‘Tigre’ lacks the armor of the Heavy ‘Tigre’ or the large, balanced gundecks of the Mastercraft, and instead adds in more speed/agility and a smaller gundeck. This brings the Sleek ‘Tigre’ back more in line with other scouts, and in my mind, makes it the most attractive of the bunch.

When compared to its closest rival, the MC Capri, the Sleek ‘Tigre’ initially appears quite unattractive. The ever popular MC Capri has better sails, armor, and DPS at all ranges while retaining very similar agility. There is no dispute, the MC Capri is a better ship in every combat stat… yet the MC Capri is a very risky ship to use in 1v1 OS PvP, because its low max speed (15.75) makes it gankbait for a pack of failboats. Although the Sleek ‘Tigre’ has similar top speed (16.00) its unique best point of 180º combined with the Freetrader/Privateer Before the Wind skill and Studding Sails makes for a ship that can outrun many gankpacks at 180º. When push comes to shove, avoiding gankpacks is the first major hurdle a 1v1 ship has to pass, and in this area, the Sleek ‘Tigre’ has a major advantage on the MC Capri.

In combat, the Sleek ‘Tigre’ feels much like any other scout. Its broadside is pretty light (though it tends to lose guns less quickly than most scouts), but its excellent agility can often lead to uncontested shots. Both in getting behind a warship and in terms of quickly switching sides to fire more guns than the warship can match, this ship fits the bill. Warships in general are pretty easy prey. Other scouts and hybrid scouts are another story. The MC Capri and the bundlehercs have a significant combat advantage over the Sleek ‘Tigre’, and even a MC ‘Raa’ could be deadly. The Sleek ‘Tigre’s frail defenses and limited firepower mean it can only win if it can avoid fire for a long time and, against equally quick but tougher scouts, that just isn’t gonna happen.

Also, the ‘Tigre’s unusual best point makes it feel odd while making combat maneuvers. On a traditional ship, it has the two best points at 135º and a dip in between. This makes it so if you turn from 135º to 180º to 225º, as your max speed drops relative to your current speed, which makes your turning faster at first (because you have a high current speed relative to max speed, which means you use your high speed turning stat), then slow as you round into the second best point (where your low current speed relative to a higher max speed means you are lower on the high/low turning speed scale). This means your turn is initially fast, then slows. The tigre making the same turn would see its max speed rise relative to its current speed from 135-180º, making the initial turn slow, but then as you moved from 180-225º, faster. This isn’t the best explanation, and its a relatively minor factor, but when I sail the Sleek ‘Tigre’ I notice the difference in turning behavior and polars.

I thought of the Sleek ‘Tigre’ as a slightly more beefy ‘Raa’ — like the ‘Raa’, it can escape from almost all gankpacks and still take out many smaller ships and high level warships (vanilla ‘Hercules’, ‘Mercy’, SOLs, ‘Deliverance’s, ‘Dauntless’, possibly the ‘Myrmidon’ family, etc.). Like the ‘Raa’, its an extremely difficult fight against a bundleherc or a MC Capri. While it lacks the ‘Raa’s quick reload, the ability to use large outfitting, some agility, and its lower visibility, it gains a different sailing feel (not better or worse, just different), longer range, and more toughness. For example, in my ‘Raa’ I often find myself at 250-150 yards circling behind my prey, trying to stay out of their gundecks’ field of fire. At that range, I have to make a hard choice — a chainshot/bar mix can fire easily out to 350 yards doing ~60% damage, or I can gamble and load star/chain (only 260 yards but 90% damage). You know the drill — take a chance at a 50% increase in damage but if I am not where I want to be my accuracy will screw it over or just be out of my range completely. In a ‘Tigre’, the decision is much easier because of the longer range and closer range spread. It also means that quite often the ‘Tigre’ can be firing one heavier type of dismantling shot with better accuracy than the ‘Raa’ could (or at least on the 2nd deck), so its effective DPS can be higher in many situations.

Oh, one other thing: its OS speed sucks.

Conclusion

So in sum, the Sleek ‘Tigre’ is something of a Pariah. It’s not as effective as the other true scouts in combat, and is noticeably weak against its larger kin. Yet the ability to escape from gank packs is terribly important, and that factor alone gives the Sleek ‘Tigre’ some value. Overall, it’s pretty similar to a ‘Raa’, but the subtle tactical differences can be worth exploiting or if nothing else, as a change for an experienced ‘Raa’ captain.

Enjoy!

This article was originally posted by Garbad_the_Weak in the Pirates of the Burning Seas official forum here.

Garbad’s Ship of the Week Archive

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