Whenever I’m feeling pretty flush I start running around with a head full of implants. To some this must seem like madness. After all I am predominantly a null security solo frigate pilot, I must lose implants all the time. To a certain extent this is true, I do lost more pods than gang pilots or low security PvPers but it is not anywhere near as bad as most people imagine. For a start, I view solo interdictors as very good targets. Anyway, digress, the point of this post is to discuss the relative merits of fitting implants.

As always let’s make this discussion about a particular ship. Here is my current Enyo fit, nicely boosted by the blaster changes that Crucible brought us:

[Enyo, MWD Neutrons]

Hobgoblin II x1


Those of you who’ve seen my previous Enyo post will notice that the improved fitting has allowed me to squeeze on a nosferatu. At Jita sell order prices this fit comes in at a nice round 37 million ISK which is really not bad for a frigate with 7087 EHP that can push 269 DPS out to 4.72 km + 4.84 km range (with Null) and effectively hit a frigate with 500 m/s transversal for full damage between 2.5 and 6 km.

Can we squeeze some more out of this already excellent hull without spending a ridiculous amount of ISK? Why yes, we can. A few implants here and there can make a real performance boost without breaking the bank.

Inherent Implants ‘Noble’ ZET300

No Gallente ship can consider itself complete unless the pilot has a ZET300 implant plugged into his head. For just 100,000 ISK you can give yourself 3% more structure hitpoints. In the case of my Enyo this boosts the EHP from 7087 to 7189, just a 1% increase to overall EHP but enough to potentially mean the difference between life and death on a ship that relies upon its structure buffer (3499 of those EHP are in structure). Its worth noting that in some markets you can pick up a ZET330 for a similar price and get an extra 0.5% structure buffer.

Zainou ‘Deadeye’ ZGS1000

This implant used to be a no-brainer for blaster frigates. It cost peanuts and delivered a 5% increase to blaster DPS. Since the Crucible patch prices have inflated and the current Jita market price is hovering around 20 million ISK. I would expect (hope!) that the price will normalise once speculation over the blaster boost settles down but I would be surprised if it returns to its previous low. Still for your 20 million ISK you get the Enyo’s damage boosted to a very respectable 282 DPS. If this is a bit steep for you then you can grab a ZGS100 for a 3% boost for just 600,000 ISK and get 277 DPS which is an absolute bargain.

Eifyr and Co. ‘Gunslinger’ CX-1

We are no longer in the territory of obvious choices now. This 3% damage implant will set you back a fairly hefty 20 million ISK in Jita. If you decide to splash out on it then (combined with the ZGS1000 above) your DPS will grow to 289. It becomes a decision as to whether you are willing to fork out this much ISK for what seems like just 7 DPS on a ship that already does more than enough. When combined with the cheaper ZGS100 it increases your total damage output to 284 DPS meaning that as long as small blaster implant prices stay high you are probably better spending your ISK on the more flexible ZGS100/CX-1 combination than a single ZGS1000. I say more flexible because the joy of the CX-1 implant is that applies to all turret types so you could combine it with a medium and/or large turret implant or even swap out the small hybrid one for another weapon system.

Zainou ‘Deadeye’ ZGC100

In the case of the Enyo you benefit more from boosting turret falloff than you do from a tracking bonus due to the ship’s native bonuses and the addition of a tracking enhancer on my fit. That makes this 3% falloff implant the best choice for your Slot 8 than the AX-1 in my opinion. Prices are highly variable but you can pick one up from Jita sell orders for 24 million. The actual net benefits of this implant are pretty questionable and I would suggest that you were maybe better off leaving this slot empty. The AX-1 adds no effective DPS to the Enyo at all so I’d steer well clear of it.

The graph below compares an Enyo fitted with the above implants to one with no implants. Both ships are shooting a hypothetical frigate with 500 m/s transversal.

So what can we conclude from this? Well, for the price of a couple of very cheap implants you can get a fairly respectable performance boost for the Enyo and, by extension, whatever ship it is that you fly. For a bit more you can really push the margins and if you’re willing to try and get things on buy orders you can do it without breaking the bank. Personally it means that I am going to streamline my implant choices a bit and rather than rolling with the best part of 100 million ISK in my head I am going to drop down to just a ZGS100, CX-1, ZET300 and a +3 learning implant for my current skill’s primary attribute coming in at a nice affordable 30 million or so. Much more reasonable, I’m sure you’ll agree while still squeezing a bit more from this and other hulls.

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Uncategorized December 7th 2011