<b>Minmatar Frigate bonuses (per skill level):</b><br>5% bonus to Light Missile and Rocket Launcher rate of fire<br>7.5% bonus to Shield Booster amount<br><b>Assault Frigates bonuses (per skill level):</b><br>5% bonus to Light Missile and Rocket explosion velocity<br>5% bonus to Light Missile and Rocket damage<br><b>Role Bonus:</b><br>50% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty<br>• Can fit Assault Damage Controls<br>
325 GJ
130 m³
Assault Frigate
180
20 m³
Minmatar Republic
Assault Frigates
4
Rifter Class
3.176
The Jaguar is a fast and versatile missile platform boasting strong shield systems and substantial utility. It follows in the footsteps of the more affordable Breacher frigate, which has become a reliable staple in the Minmatar arsenal.
The Jaguar was originally developed by Thukker Mix as a skirmish platform but improvements to engine efficiency in assault craft brought the competing Wolf assault frigate up to parity in speed. The Thukker considered an even faster propulsion system for the Jaguar, but ultimately chose to sell the design to Core Complexion Inc. Eager to make an impression in this market, Core Complexion have revised the Jaguar's role, replacing its hardpoints and shifting focus from speed to shields.
The Jaguar is known an assault frigate with the ability to fit an exceptional tank. It has a remarkable 5 mid slots, allowing it to fit multiple tackle modules and a shield tank module to give tank without compromising speed. It has strong shield damage resistances and can fit the Assault Damage Control for brief spells of near-invulnerability. These factors combined make it one of the best frigate-sized heavy tacklers.
The Jaguar can also be flown as a solo PvP ship, a kind of super-Breacher, taking advantage of its many mid slots to fit utility modules. It can be given a balanced fit for a DPS/tackle role in a small gang, but in that context a balanced fit should be weighed up against the value of either a specialized tackling Jaguar or a heavier-DPS Wolf.
The Jaguar's damage is augmented by a small drone bay.
Skills
The Jaguar is generally flown as an extremely tanky frigate, relying on both an active tank and its small signature radius to mitigate incoming damage. Because of this, navigation skills like Acceleration Control, Evasive Maneuvering, and Navigation are all very useful. Additionally, the Shield Rigging skill will be useful to allow you to add shield rigs without significantly hurting your signature radius. Shield skills might be less important, because Jaguars are generally fit with medium ancillary shield boosters, which do not require any skills to use well. For solo or very smallgang Jaguar fits, where the Jaguar is doing damage in addition to getting tackle, Tech 2 rockets are useful.
Tactics
Jaguars are most commonly fitted and flown to get fast-yet-sticky tackle on kiting ships. Typical tackling fits include one or more Medium Ancillary Shield Boosters for burst tanking, an Assault Damage Control, a nosferatu module in the high slots to sustain the capacitor by taking energy from a tackled target, and (very often) no weapons at all.
Depending on the exact fit, and the type of enemy ship, tactics can vary, but generally the goal is to establish a very close orbit around the target, and then tank until backup arrives. Against non-missile ships, make sure to approach at an angle until you are very close, in order to maintain transversal velocity and make it hard for their weapons to track you. Against missile ships, transversal is not a concern, so just get into warp scrambler range as soon as possible.
Once you are in close, warp-scramble the target, and then orbit at 500. With a dualprop fit, switch from MWD to afterburner at this point. In a MWD-only fit, if you have sufficient capacitor strength to keep the MWD on after tackling, do so: the MWD signature bloom reduction bonus on the Jaguar hull will reduce the impact of your MWD on your vulnerability to missile damage and turret tracking.
Dualprop Jaguar fits work best against enemies that use long-range turrets (artillery, beam lasers, and railguns), especially if the enemy is fitted with a warp scrambler and a stasis webifier: their scram will shut down your MWD, but with an afterburner you can maintain some speed and hopefully escape their guns' tracking.
However, against missile-based ships, or ships with short-range turrets, signature-tanking the incoming DPS is not always possible. In this case, a fit which sacrifices the afterburner for another shield booster is useful, since the Jaguar's bonuses allow it to sustain startling amounts of damage with several Medium Ancillary Shield Boosters. For example, against a autocannon Cynabal, a dualprop Jaguar would be able to mitigate a significant amount of damage with its afterburner. However, against an Orthrus, the afterburner will be less helpful, and working through 3 shield boosters in a row would buy reinforcements a significant amount of time to arrive.
