Previously we have discussed various weapon systems and means to disrupt your opponents with electronic warfare. But all of it will be for nothing if you can't keep them in range of your guns, or they simply warp away. Today, we'll be taking a closer look at equipment that either slows ships down or prevents them from using warp drive and its related modules.
Warp Disruptors
Warp disruptors have a singular function - stop your opponent from leaving the grid. This mid-range module has one warp scramble strength which is enough to prevent most of the ships from warping - natively ships come with zero warp core strength - if warp scramble strength is higher than the core's, the vessel will be unable to initiate warp. Disruptors, otherwise known as points, have a moderate range and high capacitor consumption. They are a perfect choice if you plan to keep your enemy at bay and use your speed to your advantage.
Warp Scramblers
Warp scramblers are a short-range tool for locking targets down. They offer increased scramble strength and in addition to that, shut down any warp drive-related modules, like micro warp drives or jump drives. Applying a scrambler to a ship with MWD or MJD active will instantly deactivate them and prevent reactivation of said modules for as long as scram is active on them. Keep in mind that a ship with MWD that has been scrambled will maintain its momentum - it may happen that it will coast out of its range and re-activate the drive to pull range. You can find a few ships with bonuses to either range or strength among Gallente electronic warfare ships, like the Maulus Navy Issue or Arazu.
Stasis Webifier
Usually going hand in hand with the scrambler, stasis webifier, or web for short, reduces the target's movement speed by a given percentage. No matter how close or far they are, the slow will have the same effectiveness. By default, they have a relatively short range of operations, so they are mostly reserved for brawling ships or those with hefty bonuses to their operational range, most often found on Minmatar ships like the Vigil Fleet Issue or the Huginn.
Stasis Grappler
Stasis grapplers are webs' bigger cousins. Due to increased power grid requirements, they are limited to battleships and bigger vessels. Instead of slowing the target down by a given percentage, their effectiveness increases as you get closer to your opponent. If you can get them to under one kilometer, a single grappler will slow them down by a whopping 90%, usually allowing you to apply the full might of powerful weaponry. A common strategy is to pair the grappler with a single web to ensure you can get the full effect out of it.
Interdiction Spheres
While a rare sight in low-sec, as they can be activated in low-sec only in fully corrupted insurgency systems, the interdiction spheres (or bubbles) are certainly worth mentioning. They come in two flavors - launchable probes that can be fitted on interdictor destroyers or warp disruption field generators fitted to heavy interdiction cruisers, and they are exclusive to those two ship groups. Both create a sphere that prevents any ship within it from engaging warp drive. Probes launched by the dictor are stationary - wherever they are launched, they will stay there until they expire or get destroyed. The bubbles created by the hictor will move with the ship generating them.
It's important to know that bubbles, in addition to preventing warp, can also be used to disrupt warp tunnels. If your warp path crosses a bubble, or a bubble is placed within 100km and in line with your warp vector, you will land at the edge of it instead of your intended destination. This can easily trap unwary travelers, which is especially effective at gates outside the directional scan range.
One final note is that heavy interdictors can use scripts to change the behavior of their generator. By default, it works as an AoE warp disruptor. If loaded with focused warp disruption script, it turns into a long point with plenty of additional range, while focused warp scrambling script turns it into a beefier scrambler with extended range and 100 scramble strength, ensuring that it can pin down even the biggest ships of Eve Online.
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