- Please forgive me if this is posted in the wrong section -

Hello my name is Ld Collins I would like to discuss the possiblity of having a LAV squadron.

It has come to my attention that a lot of players are pretty much ignoring light attack vehicles because they are fragile and expensive. I on the other hand have become very fond of lavs and I would like to put together a group of drivers who can squad up and support each other in battles. A properly fitted lav could be quite useful on the battlefield and I believe that 2-3 lavs with skilled drivers could provide a richer experience for players investing in lavs.

Lavs can come in a few variations *currently based on armor lavs*

Light Attack Vehicle - Fitted with a blaster turret
Light Armor Vehcile - Fitted with a blaster / missle turret
Light Artillery Vehicle - Fitted with a missle / railgun turret

Scout Lavs
Extraction / Deployment Support / Squad Command Vehicle
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Light Attack Vehicles

This would be a lav thats designed to go into a hot zone attack and make a hasty retreat to rep and circle back into the hot zone rinse and repeat until death. With this build you could focus on maintaining your shield you don't need to have a lot of shield but you just need to be able to build your shield back up fast. With that said the following modules are what you should work up to Shield Boosters, Shield Resistance, Damage Control, Armor Hardener, Armor Plates, Armor Resistance. You can fit a light SB, 15% SR, 9% Armor 9% Shield Def, 25% Armor Hardener and 15% Armor resistance.

A 3 clone crew would be effective but a full squad with 2 Lavs could be far more devastating.

A TCC could consist of the following

Driver - Logi with shield and armor reps equiped with dropup links and a repair tool
Passenger - Logi or Heavy the Logi would have to have a simular setup to the Driver but instead of armor reps you would use armor plates and maybe one repper. The Heavy would have an armor rep and a HMG.
Gunner - The same as above.

With this crew you could do the following run into the hotzone and have your heavy jump out and mow people down then have your passenger take over the turret this will allow you to provide cover fire for the heavy. You could probably drop him off then circle around to pick him back up. With this setup it would be wise to use a fairly cheap Heavy Dropsuit your friend could possibly die and we wouldnGÇÖt want you to have this become very expensive.

Light Armored Vehicle

This would be the vehicle that you would fit with shield extenders and armor plates. Having the extra shield would allow you to tank AV grenades and explosives. This lav could be used for capturing objectives I would suggest using a similar crew as I mentioned above but you could have a more aggressive crew maybe 2 heavies, 2 assaults, or 2 logibros. Though you forgo the shield booster this would allow to go deeper into hostile territory or closer to the enemy. I would fit a armor rep, armor plate, armor hardener shield extender damage control and a blaster turret with high damage they tend to have lower CPU and PG requirements.

Light Artillery Vehicle

This would be a lav that has no place near the infantry this is long range installation destroying or area denial operations only. The artillery lav would be a glass cannon long range high damage turrets with damage mods in the case of missile turrets and heat sink mods for railguns. No armor plates no shield extenders maybe a damage control unit. It would be best to perch yourself on a mountain or ledge as if you were a sniper but make sure the driver cannot be shot.

What you would do is place a drop uplink close to the area where you've chosen to snipe from in the event that you or a crew member dies they can spawn back in and save your lav and continue the operation. I would bring a crew that could carry the following weapons laser rifle sniper rifle swam launcher preferably a heavy and as for your gunner they could be similar to the previous lav setups. Your sniper or laser operative can use your vehicle as a shield while melting the shields off of infantry or installations while your heavy can man the turret. With the driver controlling the modules and warning the gunner when to shield himself into the passenger seat you can effectively deny an area from the opposing team.

Scout lavs

The Gallente scout lavs I haven't really had the chance to skill into but as far as I can tell they could be used as emergency extraction vehicles or shield/armor reps for lavs this only allows for two passengers. Your scout lav should be able to shield rep for your Light Armored Vehicle since it will lacking a shield booster or rep armor for Light Artillery Vehicle I wouldnGÇÖt recommend supporting a Light Attack Vehicle. As squad leader and not being able to call orbitals while within a vehicle the scout lav offers you and opportunity to quickly escape to a safer area while having yourself covered by your gunner.

I donGÇÖt claim to be an expert on lavs I donGÇÖt know how much things have changed with uprising but im willing to discuss fittings test fittings or strategies with other like minded people.

I started a chat called Matador Squadron there is no password anyone is free to join i would like to try to get a full squad that way I could run 2 lavs or possibly 3 just to see what a coordinated crew could do.

Please Join the Matador Squadron it doesnGÇÖt matter what corp your in lets just experiment and have some fun.