Fighters

Bombers

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Maelstrom Combat Build Theory

Maelstrom combat Ships need to meet the following requirements:

• No Guardian Weapons or Modules without Anti-Guardian Zone Resistance (except GHRPs)
• Naturally low (<20%) heat, and similarly low heat while firing
• As much survivability as possible
• As much sustained damage as possible, with enough ammunition to remain on-station for a reasonable amount of time

We already went over the guardian equipment. Let us explain the others.We already went over the guardian equipment. Let us explain the others.

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Maelstrom Combat Equipment

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Low heat

Titans get angry. And angry Titans have the bad habit at shooting at you with both repeater turrets and missile turrets. Even worse, angry Titans will summon patrolling interceptors and hunters – generally in bigger numbers than you can hope to handle.

In order to shoot you directly however, the Titan needs a target lock on you. If you stay below 20% heat, the Titan will generally not be able to get a target lock on you (unless enemies assist the Titan by providing it with a lock on), and thus its turrets will not fire at you. You still do need to worry about patrols and the Torus special attack.

Remaining cold at all times has the additional benefit of allowing you to avoid triggering seed mines (unless you get REALLY close), avoiding most interceptor direct cannon fire, and attracting less attention from patrols to begin with. Note that Thargon Swarms disregard heat and remain a primary threat even to cold ships, and that Hunter repeater guns do not require a heat lock to hit you. They can whittle away the hull of a distracted commander quickly.

All in all, a “hot” ship will get you killed quickly in Titanspace. Stay, quite literally, frosty – and your dives will last a lot longer.

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Privilege survivability

Getting to Titanspace takes a while. Carriers cannot be stationed in a system with a Maelstrom. Hyperdictions jumping into a Maelstrom system have roughly a 50% chance to occur. Once there, interdictions (which you cannot successfully fight) are relentless. Even when you do manage to get to the Maelstrom cloud, you need to cross the caustic area and reach Titanspace proper.

If you log out while in Titanspace you will be placed outside of the Caustic Zone. If you die in Titanspace, you will have to trek all the way back. Consequently, you will want to make sure that you die as little as possible, as each death is a waste of your time and, worse, each death leaves your wingmates with one pilot down for an extended period of time.

We’ve already talked about the core element of survivability in Titanspace: running a cold ship.

Beyond that, there’s three other key elements that matter:

1. Speed and Agility: You need to be able to keep moving, at pace, while weaving in and out of the asteroid field, around mines, around the Titan itself and, in general, “be where you are needed.” A still ship is a dead ship in Titanspace. You want mobility, and plenty of it. This paradigm will privilege medium ships over large ones. The T10, Anaconda, and Corvette are simply too slow. The Cutter is fast enough but has awful maneuverability.
2. Hull and Module buffers: Try as you may, you will take damage in Titanspace and there is no friendly station nearby to repair if your canopy (or ship) blows. You need sufficient buffers on both hull and module protection for your ship to not fall apart when the first bullets start flying or you slam into a rock. This generally means at least 2k hull, and at least 3 module reinforcement packages – the largest of which should be a class 5 if at all possible.
3. Repairs: You need to be able to repair yourself out there, as your wing depends on you and there is no way to repair otherwise. That means kitting the largest repair limpet controller and one or more AFMUs. You will also need a cargo rack to carry the limpets needed for repairs. It is recommended to have at least a few emergency synths of limpets available as your cargo hatch will inevitably be damaged and malfunction, leading to the ejection of all your limpets, likely in a spot you cannot easily retrieve them.

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Keep in mind you will also need to power those weapons and cool them. The power distributor and heat factors come in prominently in designing a Maelstrom build.

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