And here we go:
Frigates are the best ships EVER!*
This is the start of the age of the frigate, we aren’t quite there yet, but the Quantum Rise speed changes were definitely the catalyst. God help any fleet that doesn’t have anti-frigate defences in 2009.
Being ridiculously cheap, you can afford to be frivolous with them. The T2 frigates are a bit expensive right now, thanks to the current Ferrogel Fiasco, but you can always fit out a T1 frigate for a pittance. An old pastime of one of my previous corps was frigate only suicide ops into 0.0; although that was back in the dark old days, where you either flew a Crow, or you didn’t come back.
They’re fast; stupidly so, in the case of Interceptors. Post-Quantum Rise they have pushed Nano-HACs from their dominant position and are able to outrun every other ship class, even with Afterburners. You can laugh at Battleship size guns all day long while orbiting, even when webbed.
Interceptors; dear god, where do I begin? 2008 was the year of the Crusader for me. Being the fast tackler for the fleet was fun, but the real joy came from single combat with other interceptors during our various wars- fights that I didn’t lose too often, either. I learnt to PVP in Battlecruisers, and the Harbinger will always hold a special place in my heart, but the future of combat is frigate sized for me.
EW Frigates and Electronic Attack Ships have comparable EW abilities to their larger cousins, but are able to use their size and speed to avoid fire and get the hell out before the enemy can come down on top of them. “Oh hi, don’t mind me, I’m just a 300k isk frigate that can shutdown a battleship.” Speaking of which; I’m currently looking at using a Maulus/Keres for stopping long distance jamming from bloody Falcons. The only downsides being their smaller lock ranges and that they are made of soggy cardboard.
Assault Frigates, like some kind of metal, space faring caterpillar, made a glorious transformation this year; from irrelevant to bloody brilliant. Not having to worry about being webbed to a standstill by a single web, they can add speed tanking to their T2 resists; helping them survive close range engagements. Even small groups of these things are going to be utterly vicious when pouncing on lone targets.
* Warning: Sentence may contain hyperbole.
Somewhere In England 