Rapier

Overview
The Rapier is a Minmatar Force Recon Ship.

The Rapier, as well as the Huginn, the other Minmatar Force Recon Ship, gets an enormous (+60% per level) bonus to the stasis webifier range. A reasonably skilled Rapier pilot using normal 10 km webs can reach out to 24 km with Recon Ships IV, using domination faction webs one can web out to 36 km, or 30km and 45km with Recon Ships V. Not to mention they can use covert ops cloaks, so they can warp while cloaked and do all the good stuff that covops frigates can do. These ships are absolutely fantastic for surprising interceptors and other ships that require speed to survive, and in conjunction with the Gallente Recon ships (which gain bonuses to warp disruption range) can immobilize and scramble ships outside the 'standard' ranges that most players consider.

The stats for these ships are also quite good. Resists are not quite at the HAC level, but the large number of mid slots means that if one were so inclined one could fit a decent shield tank on board. While the idea of a tank is somewhat counter to the idea of these ships, the extremely high price tag means that you will probably want to fit SOMETHING at least. If things go well, however, you won't need the tank at all. An overall fantastic ship, and one that many Minmatar players are no doubt training toward.

Bonuses

 * Minmatar Cruiser Skill Bonus:
 * 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire per level.
 * 7.5% bonus to target painter effectiveness per level.


 * Recon Ships Skill Bonus:
 * 60% bonus to stasis webifier range per level.
 * -96% to -100% reduction in Cloaking Device CPU use per level.


 * Role Bonus:
 * 200-unit reduction in liquid ozone consumption for cynosural field generation.
 * 50% reduction in cynosural field duration.

Standard Rapier

 * High
 * Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
 * 2x 650mm Artillery II
 * 1x Heavy Missile Launcher


 * Medium
 * 1x 10mn MWD II
 * 1x Warp Disruptor II -or- Invulnerability Field II
 * 2x Stasis Webifier II
 * 2x Large Shield Extender II


 * Low
 * 3x Nanofiber Internal Structure II
 * 1x Damage Control II


 * Rigs
 * 2x Core Defence Field Extender


 * Drones
 * 5x Warrior II

If you are in a gang, and you should be, drop the warp disruptor II for the Invulnerability Field II for added survivability. With the speed nerf, speed is no longer a primary concern in a rapier and the reduced effectiveness of your webs can be pretty problematic so you want as much of a buffer as possible. Ideally you want to have domination or True Sansha webs on your rapier so you can stay as far as possible from anything that might tackle you but even the lesser faction webs are good. Your DPS is pretty anemic, and your drones are there just to help shake tacklers off of you, you will not be soloing anything except for possibly frigates in this ship really so your main focus is gang support. If you have recon V you may want to consider dropping the missile launcher for a probe launcher

Pyrion Flax's Purely Theoretical "Ye Bubble Campe Rapier"

 * High
 * Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
 * Expanded Probe Launcher
 * 2 x Medium Unstable Neuts or whatever the hell you want, guns I guess


 * Medium
 * 1x 10mn MWD II
 * 2x Sensor Booster II with scan res
 * 2x True Sansha Stasis Webifier
 * 1x Large Shield Extender II


 * Low
 * 3x Nanofiber Internal Structure II
 * 1x Damage Control II


 * Rigs
 * 2x Medium Targeting System Subcontroller


 * Drones
 * 5x Warrior II

Here's the good part - you web to 66km overheated. Holy shit. You lock a cruiser in a little over 1 second. Wowser.

Bad part - 12k ehp. Extreme cost. 2 Sansha webs? Shit negro, did you win the lottery?

Sit cloaked somewhere safe near the camp so you don't get sniped or bombed. When the scouts report someone incoming, decloak and get ready. As soon as their cloak runs out you lock and web and then sick your boys on them. This ship would be useful in a big ol' gate campe, but alone it's basically dead meat. However, you do travel nearly 2km/s so you can web and get away from most stuff that is trying to tackle you. I didn't bother with a point because you shouldn't be anywhere near point range. Stay aligned too.