Furl0w's faction warfare navy destroyer guide.
The Navy Destroyer Metagame
Web Edition · YC 128
The original First Edition · YC 126 was written by Furl0w. Reddit announcement
The original First Edition owed special thanks to Jakub Tivianne for insightful feedback and discussion, Thehin Zamayid for his comments, the FL33T and BSB discords, and everyone who motivated Furl0w to finish the guide. Faye Vaelent designed and edited that print edition.
"This is badass"
"It's a great guide, good work"
Minmatar Fleet Alliance Thinkspeak Editions
Sosala, The Bleak Lands
First Edition · YC 126
Web Edition · YC 128
YC 126
Furl0w publishes the original guide: fits, matchup notes, and solo plex tactics for faction warfare navy destroyers.
YC 128
Adapted for my.minmatar.org with searchable fits, matchup charts, and live [NVY] fittings in the Fleet library.
After Uprising, faction warfare shifted from frigates to destroyers. Destroyers can run every plex size except Scout, which made them the warzone’s best ISK printer and the ship class everyone else had to answer. Navy destroyers raised the stakes further: more EHP, better projection, and more damage than T1 hulls, at the cost of tracking and price.
Two years on, they are still the default tool for FW pilots and the most common ship on d-scan when you are plexing or hunting a fight. Furl0w’s First Edition (YC 126) covers the fits and 1v1 matchups below.
What follows covers the archetypes you will actually see in space, their 1v1 matchups with and without plex high ground, and practical notes on when to commit, when to bail, and where a fit can be upgraded without losing its identity.
The navy destroyer metagame looks different from the frigate metagame described in the frigate yearbook. Scram-kiting matters less: most destroyers, even blaster hulls, can scram-kite when they want to, thanks to the hull’s built-in projection bonus. What you get instead is closer to a binary chart: kiters with high ground beat brawlers, and brawlers with high ground beat kiters.
Destroyers also run several equally viable archetypes. You cannot read a Comet and know the fit; with a destroyer on d-scan you often cannot tell kite from brawl at all. You lean on local knowledge, scouting, and sometimes assuming the worst before you slide.
One surprise for frigate pilots: most brawling fits here use a 5MN microwarpdrive, not an afterburner. That trades some range control against other AB brawlers for advantages that tend to win out in FW:
This guide is written for soloing. Many of these fits are wrong for structured gang work; there are better options when you are flying with others. The example fits are not meant to be the final word. Module tier, rig choice, and bling all matter, but each one is a solid representation of its archetype and will perform as described.
Matchup notes describe the optimal line when nothing else is in play. If you know your opponent’s fit, if you have fought the same pilot twice in a row, or if local conditions differ, change the plan. Being predictable is sometimes worse than being slightly suboptimal.
The most flexible and widely favoured destroyer in both warzones. Its two main lines (blaster brawl and 10MN rail) cover each other’s weaknesses: you do not want to be on top of the blaster fit, but you do want to hug the kiter, so even with high ground the defender faces awkward choices. Probably the best slide-in hull in the class.
The scariest destroyer to punch into. Kiting variants (beam or locus pulse) deliver unmatched point-range DPS; brawling variants bring enormous EHP and frightening neuts. Slow speed and only two mid slots make it a miserable hunter, but a brutal ambush ship.
Weak on paper in many 1v1 charts, still a fan favourite. Speed lets clever pilots disengage losing fights and commit only when the kill is there. Strong punching down (280 mm alpha deleting SAAR frigates) and up (MWD sig-bloom reduction for manual piloting).
A one-trick pony (slow, awkward active-tank bonus) that stat-checks most other destroyers at brawl range. Alternative fits exist but usually need more bling to justify the hull over a Catalyst.
High ground Low ground
| High ground vs Low ground | Catalyst Blaster | Catalyst 10mn | Coercer Dual Neut | Coercer Brawl | Cormorant MASB | Cormorant Buffer | Thrasher AC No Web | Thrasher AC Web |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalyst Blaster | ||||||||
| Catalyst 10mn | ||||||||
| Coercer Dual Neut | ||||||||
| Coercer Brawl | ||||||||
| Cormorant MASB | ||||||||
| Cormorant Buffer | ||||||||
| Thrasher AC No Web | ||||||||
| Thrasher AC Web |
High ground Low ground
| High ground vs Low ground | Catalyst 10mn | Beam Coercer | Pulse Coercer | Cormorant 10mn | Thrasher 5mn | Thrasher 1mn dual web |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalyst 10mn | ||||||
| Beam Coercer | ||||||
| Pulse Coercer | ||||||
| Cormorant 10mn | ||||||
| Thrasher 5mn | ||||||
| Thrasher 1mn dual web |
Gallente Destroyer · CatNI
The warzone’s most flexible destroyer: blaster brawler and 10MN rail kiter in one hull.
High raw DPS, strong bulkhead-rig synergy, and two archetypes that cover each other’s weaknesses. The brawler plays like a Federation Navy Comet with a better slot layout: double web and scram for range control. The kiter is an overpropped 10MN rail platform that stat-checks many matchups if you accept slower plexing.
Plate vs SAAR is the main fork. Plate brings buffer EHP but loses to cap warfare; SAAR plus nos is faster and more flexible but thinner. Reasonable upgrades: plate + SAAR with cap inject and small neut, fewer bulkheads for more damage, or Ion blasters.
Up close the blaster CatNI wins most scram fights: if you land scram and web on entry. It loses to anything that can kite or scram-kite you (AC Thrasher is the classic example).
Overprop lets you slide safely against scrams. You will not outrun everything, but you win many matchups outright: best for pilots who care more about kills than plex efficiency.
Web-kite at 10-15 km and watch capacitor. Meta 150 mm gauss for range; T2 125 mm rails for tracking and damage. Snake and Genos implants pay for themselves here.
Live [NVY] fittings from the First Edition. Copy or open in the fitting library.
Versatile blaster brawler with armor plate, web, and scram. High buffer EHP wins most close-range destroyer scram fights; very weak to anything that can kite.
Active armor blaster brawler using a SAAR and nosferatu for sustain. More flexible than the plate variant but with a thinner buffer; still beats most destroyers you can land scram and web on.
10MN afterburner rail kiter with 150mm gauss guns. Slippery scram-kite fit that controls range against other destroyers; over-propped, so turn on prey early and avoid slingshots.
Faster 10MN rail kiter with T2 125mm rails and a disruptor. Even harder to catch than the 150mm variant but with lower raw DPS; excellent for picking destroyer fights on your terms.
Ignoring kiting fits. Brawler vs brawler lines.
Load Void
Approach, F1, orbit 500. Good fight.
Load Void
Double-neut Coercer DPS is awful, but the cap wall is real. With a nos you might steal it, but most likely you lose.
Load Void
With high ground, hug the beacon and land scram + web: you win. On a slide, or if they establish scram-kite range, you are probably dead.
Load Void
Approach, F1, orbit 500.
Load Null
Straight stat check: you lose if they rep well. Scram-kite with Null; if they swap to Null, ram back in on a Void reload.
Load Null
Stat check in your favour. Scram-kite with Null.
Load Null
Scram-kite: they likely have Void loaded. Force a reload, or bait Null and ram on Void.
Load Void
Approach, F1, heat prop. If it turns bad, burn opposite: they struggle to keep point.
Web-kiter at 10-15 km.
Stay out of Conflag and neut range; hold Antimatter range. Stat-check win: they cannot hold you, so leave anytime.
Get out of neut range immediately.
Very bad. Punching a beam Coercer at 20 km gets you deleted.
Heat AB and pray they are mediocre: otherwise you get munched. With high ground, make them crawl into Hail range as long as possible.
Range control vs a close-range weapon: you are fine.
Stat-check win, but you will not hold them: agility gap.
Align out and warp.
They run you down. Heat prop and pray; with high ground, make them crawl to you first.
Load Antimatter
Neither holds the other well. Ram with Antimatter: heat, skills, and drugs decide it.
Range control: easy win.
Same as blaster CatNI but easier: slower, less EHP.
Amarr Destroyer · CoercerNI
Peak laser DPS and neut pressure: held back by two mids and slow speed.
Massive tank bonus, best-in-class small lasers, and a huge neut bonus: almost the peak destroyer. Two mids, second-slowest speed in class (Cormorant is slower), and an armor-bonus hull mean you usually lose range control in brawls. You win blaster fights with neuts and kiters with Scorch projection.
The main brawl fork: drop a gun for double neut or not. Double neut trades DPS and projection for cap warfare: with hull bonus, two neuts drain like three unbonused smalls and cap out most destroyers in a couple of heated cycles.
Single-neut or no-neut brawlers have poor range control and get stat-checked by blaster brawlers without the neut trump card. Scorch projection still makes them harder to kite at point than other brawl destroyers. Keep at least one neut: otherwise an AB + web frigate orbits you to death.
Pulse kiter: technically weaker at point than beam but Conflag DPS is real. SAAR vs multispectrum coating; bulkhead vs third locus vs polycarbon are the usual rig forks.
Locus pulse: do not punch into a plex to brawl: sit inside and delete entrants at point range.
Beam kiter: better at kiting ranges despite tracking. X-Ray (~20 km), Gamma (~17 km), Multifreq (~13 km) DPS bands. CPU-tight: storyline point, Geno pod, rolled heatsinks, event boosters all help.
Two webs, no point/scram. Hold 8-9 km off the beacon for tracking. No tracking bonus: if they get under your guns you are in trouble.
Genos / Amulets are the easy win. Mutaplasmids on meta neuts are cheap; spare PG (and CPU on the no-prop fit) helps good rolls.
Live [NVY] fittings from the First Edition. Copy or open in the fitting library.
Classic dual neut brawler with MWD. Uses the hull neut bonus to drain cap-reliant targets, then grind them down at scram range. Beware kiters and capless guns.
Slow brawler with dual neuts, web, and no prop mod. Trades mobility for more tank and control at scram range; ideal when you expect a straight brawl rather than a chase.
Afterburner pulse brawler for tighter range control without MWD signature penalty. Full dual-pulse rack with a neut for cap warfare in straight scram brawls.
Focused pulse MWD brawler with a full gun rack and no neut. Pure scram-range DPS for pilots who want to close quickly and brawl.
Locus coordinator pulse kiter with SAAR for mid-range pressure. Uses tracking and the hull's neut-adjacent slot layout to fight at pulse falloff while staying mobile.
Beam kiter with tracking enhancer for fighting near falloff. Keeps range with MWD and disruptor while applying steady beam DPS to slower brawlers and other kiters.
Double-web beam fit for catching other kiters and holding them in beam range. A niche meme build that punishes pilots who assume every Coercer is a neut brawler.
Ignoring kiting fits.
Heat neuts: win the cap war.
Heat neuts to stay in range; watch the DPS race; warp if losing.
Easy: they cannot fight neuts.
Stay in neut range even through a nos.
Hard. MWD in for optimal neut range; cap management is everything.
Pulse brawler: not the dual-neut line.
Load Conflag
Ram, heat, let the dice roll.
Probably losing: counterneut, align out; cap pressure makes tackle slip.
Easy stat check.
Coinflip on fit. Orbit = Multifrequency; range = Conflag + heat.
Load Scorch
You can often force them out with Scorch: keep moving, make them turn risky to hold point.
Load Conflag
Lose if they reach blaster range. Start at edge of Conflag range.
Load Conflag
Paper win possible; close orbit = toast. Start away from beacon.
Straight stat check: you lose.
Never hold in Conflag; Scorch vs Antimatter DPS race, and they leave whenever they want.
Beam, pulse, or locus: with high ground.
Kite them: do not get caught; heat prop correctly. Swap ammo as needed.
Nothing matches your DPS/EHP at point range with high ground.
If you get bored and slide in, expect to die when someone scrams you correctly.
Minmatar Destroyer · TFI
Bad on paper, popular in the cockpit: speed, alpha, and sig bloom for manual pilots.
Worst navy destroyer on paper in many 1v1 charts: most loved in the cockpit anyway. Minmatar roleplay, 280 mm alpha dopamine, or MWD sig-reduction for manual piloting: pick your poison. Excellent for punching up and down; underwhelming in pure destroyer mirrors.
The default TFI. 280s are hard to fit but projection wins kiting matchups. You lose to 10MN rail CatNI and beam/pulse CoercerNI on chart: but you are MUCH faster. Disengage losing fights; slide on brawlers with a reasonable (not guaranteed) scram escape.
Shield AC: higher DPS, common, often worse: loses range control vs CatNI and CormNI; AB + web frigates orbit you unless you run a small neut.
Armor AC: scram-kite vs blaster-heavy hulls. Both variants: open by kiting, commit to brawl range only when ready.
Third mid fits AB: punch most brawlers. Stat-checks CatNI and CormNI variants; loses to most CoercerNI except dual-neut. No point: they warp. Keep at range 8500, F1, chill.
Live [NVY] fittings from the First Edition. Copy or open in the fitting library.
Standard 280mm artillery kiter with collision accelerator for alpha and range control. Excellent for fighting on your terms; if you get tackled, you die.
Simpler overdrive artillery kiter with more speed and less alpha than the ACR variant. Good entry 280mm fit for pilots learning Thrasher Fleet Issue kiting.
Armor autocannon brawler with a rocket launcher for close-range brawling. Scram, web, and MWD into range then tear down other destroyers with AC alpha.
Shield autocannon brawler with a neut for cap-dependent targets at scram range. More speed and buffer than the armor AC variant; trades some EHP for mobility.
Dual-web afterburner arty fit for catching kiters and controlling range at artillery optimal. A meme build that turns the tables on other 280mm kiters who rely on keeping you at range.
Hull-tank artillery kiter.
Load Fusion
Stat-check loss: they outrun your tracking abuse and out-EHP/out-DPS you. Dip when it is over.
Load Fusion
Web + transversal is your only shot. Punching a setup kiter: heat away and leave.
Load Fusion
Focused pulse: orbit at point edge: they usually force you out. Dual light: dead past 17 km: keep moving.
Load EMP
Little they can do sliding in. Even scrammed, 280 alpha + web often kills active tank.
Load Plasma
Heat everything: hit quality decides it.
Excluding kiting fits.
Terrible solo fit: heat, F1, pray. High ground: Barrage-kite CatNI/CormNI, then Hail commit (never kite a CoercerNI). Reliable win: other TFIs: ammo coinflip.
Excluding kiting fits.
Load Hail
Stressful: they close to Void. Scram around 8 km; on slide start 10 km out and burn as lock lands.
Load Hail
Far from beacon vs 10MN = unwinnable (same speed, web both, they out-DPS outside Hail). Intel says 10MN: hug beacon, preload Hail, heat MWD cycle 2 (cycle 1 they are slower). Far start vs 10MN: leave.
Load Hail
Keep ~1500 m. Coinflip on their tank spec (exp/kin vs not).
No range control, cannot scram-kite their optimal bonus, cannot Hail through shield: avoid.
Load Hail
Sad coinflip without scout. Hail covers armor; shield opponents kill you anyway (extra gyro + 15% Hail). No web on them: align, heat web, pray scram drops before you pop.
Caldari Destroyer · CormNI
Slow and narrow: but at brawl range it stat-checks most of the class.
Opposite of the TFI: often the most disliked navy destroyer. Too slow to kite at point; built for sniping in theory. Regular Cormorant is cheaper (~20M) for pure snipe. Shield-booster bonus is slot-inefficient: one MASB is not enough tank; MSB needs cap inject and eats mids.
Redeeming quality: brawl range. Tank + damage stack high; optimal bonus resists scram-kite. AB over MWD for range control and double-MASb fitting room.
Full compact + neutrons or full T2 + ions. Standard blue pill (or improved) + hardshell. MG-Crystal pod is cost-effective; skip abyssals: tight fit, MASBs are hard to roll.
Ignore active-tank bonus; single MSE. Worse CatNI on paper: you play the surprise MWD + web angle. Snake pod + speed drug scrams kiters who thought you were slow. Lose brawl supremacy vs dual MASB lines; bling MSE required: do not cheap out.
Anomaly on paper, strong in practice: 10MN + scram + active tank + 75 mm rails. Antimatter close, Iridium for kiters. Stat-check at scram; range control vs 5MN/web brawlers.
Live [NVY] fittings from the First Edition. Copy or open in the fitting library.
Dual MASB neutron brawler with burst shield tank for winning scram brawls. Pulses XLASB charges and overheats to outlast other destroyers at close range.
Dual MASB ion blaster brawler with slightly longer reach than the neutron variant. Same burst-shield brawl concept for pilots who prefer ion range and tracking tradeoffs.
Surprise MWD buffer fit with a Republic Fleet medium shield extender. Looks like a kiter until you scram and brawl with strong shield buffer and blaster DPS.
10MN rail scram-kite with cap booster and shield booster for sustained mid-range pressure. Uses 75mm rails to control range while staying under scram and applying steady DPS.
AB + double MASB brawler.
Neuted out: you die.
Load Void
Close ASAP: you win. They kite: leave. High ground: easy.
Load Null
Scram-kite; hope they have Void loaded.
Easier than MASB mirror.
Load Void
Hug them: stat check.
They kite you to death.
Load Void
Stat check.
Align out and warp.
Load Void
Win if you scram: watch reps, arty alpha hurts.
MSE + MWD surprise brawler.
Neuted out: you die.
Load Void
Close ASAP: you win.
Stat check: you lose.
Load Null
Scram-kite.
Load Null
Better CatNI (faster, more EHP). Trick win: Null scram-kite, Void ram on their Null reload.
Can run them down: close, depends on start range.
Load Void
Hug them: easy win.
Align out and warp.
Pithum MSB + cap booster bling line.
Leave neut range fast: heat AB, heat cap inject, ease off reps (-1 gun hurts their DPS). Manual orbit ~8 km once clear.
Manual orbit at scram edge: spicy vs best DPS type into you.
Dead unless heavily blinged (crystal pod): trans-match beam DPS wins.
Perfect hits needed to break tank: pepper with Thorium/Iridium; they leave without scram.
Load Antimatter
Scram range: nothing they can do.
Scram-kite: you have range control.
Cannot break your tank: cannot hold them either.
Load Antimatter
Scram range: easy win.
/alliance/ /alliance/story/ /alliance/values/ /alliance/playstyle/ /brand/ 
/alliance/corporations/ /alliance/corporations/associates/ /alliance/tribes/ /alliance/tribes/1/ /alliance/tribes/2/ /alliance/tribes/3/ /alliance/tribes/4/ /guides/ 
/alliance/propaganda/ 
/ships/ 
/ships/fittings/ 
/ships/doctrines/ /ships/navy-destroyer-metagame/ 
/market/ 
/market/freight/calculator/ /market/freight/contracts/ /market/freight/contracts/history/ 
/market/contracts/ 
/market/sell_orders/ 
/industry/ /industry/orders/ /industry/orders/history/ /industry/blueprints/ /industry/blueprints/copies/ /industry/products/ /industry/colonies/ /industry/planetary_production/ 
/intel/ 
/intel/combatlog/