Tornado

Tornado The Tornado is a Tier 3 Battlecruiser that sacrifices durability for the ability to fit large (Battleship-grade) weapons. Development In YC 113 Republic Security Services learned the Amarr Empire was building a new battlecruiser capable of supporting battleship-class weapons. Determined to not lose their technological edge to their adversaries, Republic Fleet commissioned Boundless Creation to construct a gunboat to match. What they designed was the Tornado. Developed in record time and total secrecy, the Tornado is a testament to Minmatar engineering. Modeled loosely off of flying-wing designs of ancient planetary bombers, the Tornado supports multiple large projectile turrets, dealing massive damage while maintaining a small signature radius. Battlecruiser Skill bonus per level: 5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret rate of fire and 5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret falloff Role Bonus: 95% reduction in the powergrid need of Large Projectile Turrets and 50% reduction in the CPU need of Large Projectile Turrets
Shield Shield Capacity 1890 HP Shield recharge time 1400000 s Shield Em Damage Resistance 0 % Shield Explosive Damage Resistance 50 % Shield Kinetic Damage Resistance 40 % Shield Thermal Damage Resistance 20 % Armor Armor Hitpoints 1800 HP Armor Em Damage Resistance 60 % Armor Explosive Damage Resistance 10 % Armor Kinetic Damage Resistance 25 % Armor Thermal Damage Resistance 35 %		Fitting High Slots 8 Med Slots 5 Low Slots 4 Rig Slots 3 Calibration 400 points Drone Bandwidth 0 Mbit/sec Launcher hardpoints 0 hardpoints Turret hardpoints 8 hardpoints powergrid Output 1000 MW CPU Output 342 tf Combat Maximum Targeting Range 60000 m Scan Resolution 250 mm Max Locked Targets 6 LADAR Sensor Strength 17 points Signature Radius 170 m Misc Tech Level 1 Level

Know Your Enemy by Azual Skoll, The Altruist

Unsurprisingly for a minmatar vessel, the tornado is the fastest of the tier 3 battlecruisers, capable of around 1.6km/s without speed mods. With an 8/5/4 slot layout, it takes after the cyclone as a natural shield tanker; capable of mounting a fairly substantial shield buffer tank, at least in tier 3 battlecruiser terms. Unlike the low slot heavy hurricane and rupture the tornado isn't able to go all out on the gyros and tracking enhancers, however thanks to its 8 large turrets and some offensively slanted bonuses, the range and damage output that it is capable of are very respectable; the tornado receives a 5% bonus to projectile turret rate of fire and 5% to projectile turret falloff (lower than the 7.5% usually given for this bonus, but significant nontheless).

With autocannons, the tornado has an effective range of about 40km (4+39) with close range ammunition and 60km (7+58) with barrage, along with a damage output roughly comparable to the tempest. While the tracking of its guns may be poor, its range combined with its high speed makes such a fit very well suited to kiting gangs where the angular velocity of pursuing opponents is typically low. This is a ship which can out-run anything with the potential to match its range and damage output, while being able to significantly out-dps anything capable of keeping pace. It is, however, particularly vulnerable to tacklers as we'll discuss later.

With artillery, the tornado rivals the arty maelstrom as king of alpha strike, with a volley damage of 10-11k using close range ammunition or 6k at sniping ranges using tremor. In order to fit high calibre artillery the arty 'nado typically sacrifices a slice of its tanking capability, although usually less so than some of its competitors. The ship's falloff bonus continues to deliver with either weapon system, particularly when fielding close range ammo; typical ranges are 35+71km for close range and 124+71km with tremor, although numbers may vary depending on the pilot's preference for range mods over damage and tank. While it's one of the shorter ranged 'sniper' tier 3s, the volley damage makes this a popular choice and it is definitely one to watch out for.

The biggest weaknesses of the tornado are those which almost all of the ships in its tier share - its fragility and lack of defence against close range targets. Its poor tank presents a difficulty when taking on anything which is able to return fire at its chosen range, while its lack of drones, webs, and neuts leaves it relatively helpless should a light ship get under its guns. The high speed and flexible range offered by this ship mean that prevention the best (and often only) cure, and the tornado pilot will typically take advantage of these to avoid evading both opposing damage dealers and close range tackle if the first place. Your best bet as an opponent is to exploit the ship's weaknesses, closing range in a lighter craft or preventing the tornado pilot from pulling away if you're able to field comparable firepower yourself. When sending tacklers after such a ship, ensure that they maintain high angular velocity during their approach to avoid being killed before they're able to reach tackle range.

Against a sniping tornado, these weaknesses should come as no surprise given that they are shared by almost every sniping ship in the game. Beware of its high volley damage, and keep some angular velocity whenever one is on the field. Bear in mind that due to the unique characteristics of tier 3 battlecruisers (and particularly the tornado), this ship has excellent agility when compared to other snipers of similar calibre and getting a drop on one is likely to be difficult.

As a t1 shield tanker, the tornado is generally weakest against thermal or EM damage (with a preference towards EM vs arty 'nados given that they often fit a powergrid rig in place of an EM rig, and thermal otherwise). The tornado's damage output could potentially be any flavour, although at longer ranges (both for autos with barrage and arty with tremor) their damage will be primarily explosive with some kinetic.

Design History

The Tornado was created for the Design a Starship contest held on the popular artists' site DeviantArt in October of 2010. The contest was won by user dreamwa1ker, with CCP's creative team commenting, "Rendering very Eve like, grimy/dark as Minmatar ships should be, really good render in the dark cinematic style of EVE." [sic] The original concept was for this ship to be a tier 4 battleship with a long range stasis webifier as seen in other Minmatar recon ships. CCP felt that it made more sense to introduce an extra tier of battlecruiser instead. It was then implemented by CCP in the Crucible expansion of Winter 2011 as a tier 3 Minmatar battlecruiser.

Related Dev Blogs

• Ship-troduction: the minmatar tornado
• New Battlecruisers on the Test Server

External Links

• The Tornado on DeviantArt