The Art of the Defeating the Slingshot (The Art of Part 4)

Your target, hapless at 21 KM's from you as your DPS of choice pounds him down.  There seems to be no escape for this poor, fat, slow ship.  It turns away, burning to escape, MWD active, pulling range quickly as his speed shoots up to MWD levels, passing 23KM you act quickly, turning towards your running target, thinking there's no way you'll let this kill get away!

5 minutes and a loss later you realize you have just been the victim of the slingshot, pulled into range and killed by your "easy" kill.  Shame burns your ears as your pod warps away.

How could this have been avoided?

Avoiding the Slingshot, while maintaining tackle and getting that kill, is more difficult than it sounds. For those who have read my previous post about the Slingshot, you might have already come up with a few good idea's.

Basically the idea is to stay outside of overheated web/Scram range, even at the cost of losing your point and the target getting away.  Of course that is less than ideal, so we'll try to avoid that.

The first of course is knowledge of what your opponents ship is capable of.  Know, roughly, what it's top speed should be, and plan accordingly.  For instance when he starts burning away, know how much speed you need to catch up to him and don't fly after him at full speed, instead match his speed to maintain your range, so when he tries to turn back into your path you can easily avoid it and just use that chance to pump more rounds into their ship as they pass 0 transversal.

One automated tactic is to use the "keep at range" button. When he starts burning fast away from you, use your MWD and keep at 18-26km.  This should automate keeping you at range outside his scram and web range.

Knowing overheated ranges of various scrams and webs is also a good idea.  Rapiers/Huginn and Arazu/Lach non-withstanding, here are some of those ranges broken down.

Type                              Range                  Overheated               With gang boost Loki(and overheated)
Warp Scrambler I          7.5km                   9km                          10.7km               (12.5km)
Faint Epsilon                 9km                      10.8km                     12.8km               (15km)
Warp Scrambler II         9km                      10.8km                     12.8km               (15km)
TS/Domination scram    11.5km                 13.5km                     16km                  (18.8km)
Stasis Web I-II               10km                    13km                         14.2km              (17.9km)
TS/Domination web      15km                    19.5km                      21.3km              (26.9km)

If you really want to be depressed, look at similar numbers for ships like the Bhaalgorn, with a Loki.  How about you just avoid those, without backup, okay?

Usually under a web, you can still get away or at least try to get into warp before the scramble lands, but to be safe, 18-26km distance is usually good, or close to your max point range while he tries to snag you with this move.  Though this is inside of heavy neut range, to be safe from neuts you should fit a faction point and stay outside of 28/29km of every battleship we suspect have faction neuts, or 24km for best named heavy neuts.  Anyways, fat chance of staying clear of those every time.

Always have range and speed on your overview, but keep your eye especially on range, both to stay inside point range, and outside their scram/web range.

Manual piloting really helps here, instead of using "keep at", instead point your ship at a point that will only pass at the nearest 18km from the ship you are closing on, and update your heading as they spin towards you, manually keeping your distance from them. Of course this takes just a little practice to be able to eyeball or use the tactical overlay a good approach angle, but it is much more reliable in keeping you out of trouble than any other method.

Previous Art of's

Art of the Slingshot

Art of the Vagabond

Art of the Rifter