Originally posted by Ijuin
Hellcat:
A decent balance between speed and firepower. The guns are slightly heavier than those of the Arrow, although with shorter range, and it has slightly better shielding and armor, plus it can use any type of missiles. However, I think that in comparison to the Thunderbolt, it sacrifices too much firepower for too little added speed and agility--it only has 40kps faster cruising speed, 200kps faster afterburner speed and 10dps faster turn rate, and in exchange it gives up 20 armor, 30 shields, the torpedo, the rear turret, and about 40% of its gun power (ion/neutron vs. plasma/photon/meson). If it were up to me, I would give it an extra 5dps turn rate and 20kps cruising speed to bring it back in line (for a total of 440kps cruising speed and 65/65/65 dps turn rate).
Longbow:
If any WC3 ship is a pig to fly, it is this one. Don't even bother trying to dogfight Darkets in a Longbow--just shoot missiles at them. As for Strakhas, by the time you have turned to face them, they are already starting to cloak again, and if you use FF missiles, they have an annoying habit of STAYING cloaked until your missile runs out of fuel. Just wait for the Strakha to decloak behind you, and use your turret to blast it. The main strength of the Longbow is in its missile/torpedo load--the extra shields and armor hardly help at all because you NEED them just to survive since this ship is so slow. I only use the Longbow for the Torgo jump point mining mission and for missions where you need multiple torpedos--using it for anything else is a waste when you can take the Thunderbolt instead and get more speed and gun power.