The Stabber is one of the few cruisers that can be flown more like a frigate than a cruiser. It is cheap, fast and makes a great heavy tackler. Though it cannot be fitted with both a decent tank and tackling gear, the Heavy Assault version, the Vagabond, can fit both and also fly fast enough to run away from anything that might be considered a threat.

The Stabber is the mainstay of the Minmatar fleet. It is light and extremely fast, yet surprisingly powerful, with a wide variety of weapons. It is one of few Minmatar vessels that have reached popularity outside Minmatar space.

• Minmatar Cruiser I
  • Spaceship Command II
  • Minmatar Destroyer III
    • Minmatar Frigate III
    • Spaceship Command I

Minmatar Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):

• 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire
• 10% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret falloff

When speed is required, no other cruiser comes close to the Stabber. 2.4km/s is the lower end for this ship, with specialised high-speed setups coming close to 3km/s without a great deal of effort. Unsurprisingly, this makes the Stabber very proficient as a kiter.

A 6/4/4 slot layout makes the Stabber a little unusual, particularly given that it only has 4 turrets. Where the Rupture made up for this with an extra damage bonus, the Stabber only gets a single rate of fire bonus leaving its damage output underwhelmingly low. It does get launcher hardpoints to fill the two extra high slots, however the low damage output that unbonused launchers generally offer (and an overall lack of powergrid to fill them), leaves them fairly unappealing, and most Stabber pilots use the slots for cap warfare instead. That's probably not a bad idea, given that the Stabber has very little in the way of tackler defence - it has no drones whatsoever*, and since it's typically a shield tanker (to tank armour would be to give up what little dps the Stabber has), it usually can't afford to carry a web either. Get on top of a Stabber in a small ship, and neuts are its only real backup plan.

What it lacks in damage, the Stabber makes up for to some extent in projection. It doesn't have the powergrid for artillery, however thanks to a falloff bonus even the autocannon Stabber comes out with with fairly impressive range - about 3+29km with 220mm ACs, barrage and a single tracking enhancer. Peak dps with that kind of setup is only a little over 200 though, and at 30km it's going to be around half of that again - not particularly inspiring. This isn't a ship which can blap a frigate in seconds while kiting away - it needs prolonged fire to do significant damage to anything with a proper tank. That's not to say you should underestimate it of course - time can go surprisingly quickly when you're only a few km away from landing a scram.

Like its damage, the Stabber's tank is fairly poor even for an attack cruiser - 20k EHP is really the top end, with most setups coming in lower. This isn't a ship that's going to brawl anything, except for maybe another Stabber or a smaller ship which decides to sit still instead of orbiting. If you're not able to catch it however, and particularly if the Stabber is operating in a group, it can be surprisingly dangerous. Since it's such a fast ship, it's possible to user the Stabber's speed against it if you're not able to close range - a well timed slingshot or reversal of direction can throw a Stabber pilot out of point range, or even better straight into your waiting scram. While it kites well, the Stabber can't kite forever - its capacitor is weak, and running its point and MWD together will suck it dry in around two minutes. Expect that number to drop considerably if the Stabber pilot has already been burning around a bit before the fight starts.

Should you manage to get in close, don't forget that the Stabber has some neuting power from those two spare high slots. While it doesn't really have the powergrid to carry two mediums, dual small neuts or one medium and one small are fairly common combinations and can cause problems for a smaller ship relatively quickly. While it probably won't hit a small ship up close, you might well struggle to stay close once all your tackle turns off! Bring a nos, bring a friend, or simply overheat and aim to finish it quickly. In anything larger than a frigate, you should have no problem brawling a Stabber down providing you can get close - pound for pound it simply doesn't compare well to the other ships in the class.

NOTE: The Stabber is currently slated to receive a buff as part of the Odyssey expansion this summer. The current plan is to give it a further boost to falloff (increasing its bonus to 10% per level), in addition to 25m3 of drone bay and bandwidth. While this won't bring the Stabber's damage output up to the level of other cruisers, it will make it significantly more dangerous to frigates attempting to get under its guns.

Source: evealtruist

Finger of Bang

39.3k EHP

[Stabber, Fingerbang 3.0]

Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II

10MN Afterburner II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II
Stasis Webifier II

200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
200mm AutoCannon II, Barrage S
Prototype 'Arbalest' Rapid Light Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile
Prototype 'Arbalest' Rapid Light Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Nova Light Missile

Medium Explosive Armor Plate I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Warrior II x5

Cargohold:

• 3x Optimal Range Disruption Script
• 3x Tracking Speed Disruption Script
• Liquid Ozone
• Nanite Repair Paste