Ionclad is a tier 15 cruiser used by the Fringe Systems Resistance.
A somewhat dangerous Fringe cruiser, Ionclad can be defeated with ease if you know what you're doing. Its ion beams are flashy, but the real threat is from Ionclad's HE missiles. Point defense and flak will help greatly, but shields and armor will be necessary to tank the missiles that get through your defense. While Ionclad has four defensive flak batteries, they aren't positioned in particularly good spots and thus shouldn't cause many problems unless you're attempting to kite it with missiles. While Ionclad's bridge can be destroyed with minimal collateral damage, doing so will require enough firepower to get through eight large shields, and thus this method is not recommended unless you have multiple disruptors and/or chainguns that can take down its shields quickly. Its reactors are a better target for those lacking good anti-shield weapons. They have some amount of armor in front of them, but not as much as other ships of Ionclad's size, and none of its shields can protect its reactors. Attempting to destroy Ionclad's missiles is slightly faster, but destroying its reactor will also take many of Ionclad's missiles with it - if not from the explosion itself, then from becoming separated from the ship and losing command points.
Ionclad has spikes of armor in between its missiles, but flanking it is still a reliable tactic that makes it much easier to kill. Flankers with missile defense will also be able to shoot down a lot of Ionclad's missiles from their position. Ramming Ionclad is unlikely to accomplish much outside of getting missiles to hit your side and back instead of your front. Attempting to kite Ionclad will work well, but only if you're using railguns. Kiters attempting to use missiles or ions will be within range of Ionclad's weaponry. If you are using railguns, Ionclad becomes very easy to kite as it's very slow.
