Stalker Fleet Assemble
A large part of playing EVE in the AU time zone, especially in wormholes, is that you need to be able to find things to do by yourself when the rest of your corp is asleep. One of my favourite past times is camping out in other people’s holes and just generally pissing them off, er, I mean having good fights with them! Doing this requires relatively little asset investment and can be done quite effectively even while afk.
The only real challenge in this line of entertainment is finding the right kind of targets so to assist in doing so, about 2 years ago I started purchasing scanning alt characters off the market to fill up the spare slots on my accounts.
These scouts are nothing fancy, just a few mil SP, Astro 5, Covops 4, astro supports to 4. They go for (or at least did when I was in the market) for 2-3bil, skill dependent, and are worth every penny.
I like to think of them as wormhole bookmarks that I can park in a system for weeks or even months without caring and they allow me to drop by and visit whenever I like.
They are also out of corp which helps when scouting targets.
I had to break out EVEmon to do the math but I currently have 13 fully covops capable characters across my accounts, including my mains.
So how do I use these scouts?
Well, some I use as backup scouts in our home system, others I have parked in systems of 'interest' but what I mainly use them for is keeping tabs on active low class wormholes with HS statics that I like to visit from time to time to shoot stuff in.
Generally these tend to be C2s with HS and C3/C4 statics though I don't insist on HS static systems but generally those are the most active.
I only really have 2 selection criteria on deciding which systems get the honour of hosting an authentic Jack Miton scout alt:
1.) They are active in the AU time zone.
2.) They piss me off.
The first category of people is self-explanatory since they give me someone to interact with in my TZ. I also try to make them fun groups that will actually come fight me. Often these are larger entities that don't have AU TZ as their peak time but do have some actives on at that time.
Previous groups in this category include The Kairs Syndicate, Clann Fian and Valkyrie Coalition, all of which were great fun to mess around with, though sadly I have since removed scouts from all 3 systems as they were needed elsewhere at one time or another, as well as the corps themselves fading in activity.
This brings me to the other group; people who piss me off.
This category mostly includes people who will not fight us when we connect to them, people who smack talk in local or, in the very special case of the most recent addition to this group; people who smack in local right after not fighting us.
These people I treat very differently than the first group. I am not longer interested in fun fights with these guys, their holes I visit for ganks and general griefing.
Generally I will have 2 scouts in these systems, one that I openly show to the locals, most people add this one to their watch list, and the other that I take care to keep hidden. I also often keep a PVP character and ship logged off inside the system itself, rather than just coming to visit.
This offers several fun griefing opportunities. Firstly, it lets me keep the scout they do know about logged in day and night to keep them paranoid about their activities and if they are POSing up/being careful when the scout is on, I can log it off and swap to the scout they don't know about and watch them go about their business in apparent safety. It can also be quite entertaining to get my known scout 'accidentally' collapsed out of their system or even podded, only to blow up their orca next time they're rolling a hole carelessly.
Keeping the PVP toon in system allows for faster response times to gank opportunities and means any scouts they leave on their exit holes are worthless.
Lastly, just had a fight with the locals, ended up jumping to highsec and now need to head out or go to sleep? Don't forget to leave your PVP ship orbiting their WH within jump range on the HS side :)
Anyway, as I briefly mentioned earlier, I have had to pull most of my deployed scouts out of target C2s over the past 6 months or so for various reasons but they are now free again and my month of camping BNI's lowsec with my combat toon is over so it is time for the stalker fleet to assemble once again.
So if you live in a suitable wormhole, you might find yourself hosting one of my alts soon.
And for those of you who will not fight when we come visit, know this; you owe me a kill mail. It can be yours or it can be mine, but either way I will get it.
Oh and if you decide to really piss me off? Remember, I'm not stuck in your hole with you; you're stuck in it with me.
JM
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Thursday, 19 September 2013
My Alts Are A Lie
So as most people would have noticed, CCP made some rather terrible changes to the EULA.
I was going to write up about it but I doubt I could have done it better than this:
http://themittani.com/features/james-315-responds-new-anti-scamming-rules?page=0%2C0
I highly recommend giving this article a read.
Also, I have no alts, my alts are a lie.
I was going to write up about it but I doubt I could have done it better than this:
http://themittani.com/features/james-315-responds-new-anti-scamming-rules?page=0%2C0
I highly recommend giving this article a read.
Also, I have no alts, my alts are a lie.
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Have You Got What It Takes?
Have You Got What it Takes?
"What skills do I need for wormholes?" is a question that gets asked all the time on the forums. It was asked again a couple days ago and I decided to think about it and write up my personal recommendations.
The skills you need do vary based on what class of wormhole you live in and what kind of PVE and PVP activities you partake in so I'll split them up between PVP and PVE and try to cover the class ranges.
These skill recommendations are for general wormhole living and are designed to allow you to participate in as many activities that wormholes have to offer as possible.
Ok, let's get the very basics out of the way first.
You need probing skills. They are the very first thing you need to train if you want to play in w-space and the absolute minimum probing skills you need before venturing into a wormhole are Astrometrics 4 and all the support skills to 3. You should also get the support skills to 4 very early into your wormhole career.
Scanning ship wise, you need a covert ops. No, a tech 1 scanner does not cut it. There is one allowable exception and that is if you're in your very first wormhole, you have been there for less than 2 weeks and you are actively training covert ops pre requ skills.
You should have your covops skill to 4 and need cloaking 4 so that you can use a covops cloak.
Given that there is very little you can do in w-space that does not involve shooting something, you will also need to have some sort of combat ship capability. As a basic start point for low class w-space you should be able to T2 fit a battlecruiser with T1 guns for PVE and be able to fly a T2 fit cruiser with T1 guns for PVP. These are really the bare minimum ships that will let you participate in WH combat.
There is also non-combat PVE in wormholes which consists of mining, gas harvesting and PI.
Of these I would highly recommend you stay away from mining as it isn’t profitable and you will die. A lot.
The PI in wormholes is the best anywhere, regardless of WH class, so it is recommended that you train up some skills for it as it is free income. (That said, I have zero PI skills and don't do it at all, but each to their own).
Gas harvesting can be very profitable and training gas cloud harvesting to 5 is a very good investment if you live in a wormhole, along with venture skills.
You will also need to train salvaging to at least 3, preferably 4, so that you can get those tasty tasty nanoribbons and Noctis skills to go with.
Likewise with hacking and archaeology.
Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s break it down by WH class.
Class 1 and 2.
The above bare basics will do here. A battlecruiser can easily run all the combat sites here and this is as 'entry level' as WH PVP gets.
Note that you will still run into a lot of groups with fancy ships but a cruiser will get you started.
Class 3.
The basics will do here too but you will not be able to run the combat sites by yourself in a battlecruiser so some people in your corp will need to have remote repair skills trained to run sites in small groups.
You may want to train battleship skills here as the sleepers start to get bigger but a BC still works.
If you do want to solo the sites you can do so but you will need to skill up and invest in a T3 cruiser, command ship or T2/Faction battleship.
PVP here is much the same as C1-2s.
Class 4.
Here you start getting into higher class WH interactions more and how you operate will depend a lot on your static. Basically, the skills you need will depend a lot more on what your static is than on the fact that you live in a C4, specifically what ships you will need for PVE.
The sites are no longer soloable and how you run them will depend on your corp. Generally it will involve remote rep Tengus or Domis, or logi supported battleships.
At C4 level, you should really have T2 weapon skills and BS skills. You should also be able to fly T2 cruisers, specifically HACs and at least one of recons or logistics, if not both.
Class 5 and 6.
Here is where the heavy weights of w-space play and if you live here they will expect you to be able to interact with them at least a bit so you should have a decent skill set to play with.
While you do not need to bring it to every fight, you should have access to and skills for a well fit PVP tech 3 cruiser in C5/6 space. You should also seriously consider training logistics (specifically the Guardian) if you have not already as Guardians are a vital part to the vast majority of PVP fleets here.
At this level you should also at least consider training capital skills as PVE is run almost exclusively with dreads and carriers. If you find yourself attacked, you will also need those capitals to defend yourself. If you don't want to train caps, Loki or Rapier skills are highly recommended as they are used for webbing in PVE.
If your corp does not use dreads for PVE, you will need a T2 fit, including guns, battleship.
Notes for specific skills and ships.
Logistics.
If you train this skill at all, and you should, you really should take it straight to level 5. This rule applies everywhere but in wormholes, where you often need to squeeze the absolute most out of your limited resources to come out on top, it is especially important.
Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration.
Train this to 5. Personally I wouldn’t get in a dreadnaught without T2 siege.
Command Ships.
These are very good WH PVP ships and are recommended if you can fly them. It is also highly recommended at least a couple people in your corp can fly them and fit links as they make a huge difference for PVP and you will need them for PVE.
Salvaging.
You need this to 5 to access the advanced sleeper wrecks but you can get around this by rigging your salvaging ship, which you always do anyway.
Orca.
An orca is very useful to have in all WH classes apart from C1s. It's obviously not a skill everyone will train but your corp will need access to a few orca pilots for collapsing and hauling.
Carriers.
Not all ships are created equal and for carriers this is especially true. If you're training a carrier, make it an Archon. It is vastly superior to all other carriers in every way. The obvious exception is if you live in a pulsar, in which case train a Chimera.
Dreadnaughts.
Here you do have some choices, just stay away from the Phoenix as it is just bad. All other dreads are fine to train, though the Moros stands out as top dog in the dread world.
This more or less covers everything you'll need to know about skills for wormholes.
Additionally, most WH corps will have some sort of fleet doctrines, joining pre requisites or recommended skills they will want you to train which will depend of the corp.
As a final note, the nature of WH space is that quality matters. Numbers still play a large part but a highly specialized pilot in the right ship can often turn the tide in a fight. I highly recommend that you find a useful ship that you enjoy flying and skill to fly it at near 100% efficiency and get practice doing so.
This goes double for key role pilots such as Guardian, Ewar or capital pilots.
"What skills do I need for wormholes?" is a question that gets asked all the time on the forums. It was asked again a couple days ago and I decided to think about it and write up my personal recommendations.
The skills you need do vary based on what class of wormhole you live in and what kind of PVE and PVP activities you partake in so I'll split them up between PVP and PVE and try to cover the class ranges.
These skill recommendations are for general wormhole living and are designed to allow you to participate in as many activities that wormholes have to offer as possible.
Ok, let's get the very basics out of the way first.
You need probing skills. They are the very first thing you need to train if you want to play in w-space and the absolute minimum probing skills you need before venturing into a wormhole are Astrometrics 4 and all the support skills to 3. You should also get the support skills to 4 very early into your wormhole career.
Scanning ship wise, you need a covert ops. No, a tech 1 scanner does not cut it. There is one allowable exception and that is if you're in your very first wormhole, you have been there for less than 2 weeks and you are actively training covert ops pre requ skills.
You should have your covops skill to 4 and need cloaking 4 so that you can use a covops cloak.
Given that there is very little you can do in w-space that does not involve shooting something, you will also need to have some sort of combat ship capability. As a basic start point for low class w-space you should be able to T2 fit a battlecruiser with T1 guns for PVE and be able to fly a T2 fit cruiser with T1 guns for PVP. These are really the bare minimum ships that will let you participate in WH combat.
There is also non-combat PVE in wormholes which consists of mining, gas harvesting and PI.
Of these I would highly recommend you stay away from mining as it isn’t profitable and you will die. A lot.
The PI in wormholes is the best anywhere, regardless of WH class, so it is recommended that you train up some skills for it as it is free income. (That said, I have zero PI skills and don't do it at all, but each to their own).
Gas harvesting can be very profitable and training gas cloud harvesting to 5 is a very good investment if you live in a wormhole, along with venture skills.
You will also need to train salvaging to at least 3, preferably 4, so that you can get those tasty tasty nanoribbons and Noctis skills to go with.
Likewise with hacking and archaeology.
Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s break it down by WH class.
Class 1 and 2.
The above bare basics will do here. A battlecruiser can easily run all the combat sites here and this is as 'entry level' as WH PVP gets.
Note that you will still run into a lot of groups with fancy ships but a cruiser will get you started.
Class 3.
The basics will do here too but you will not be able to run the combat sites by yourself in a battlecruiser so some people in your corp will need to have remote repair skills trained to run sites in small groups.
You may want to train battleship skills here as the sleepers start to get bigger but a BC still works.
If you do want to solo the sites you can do so but you will need to skill up and invest in a T3 cruiser, command ship or T2/Faction battleship.
PVP here is much the same as C1-2s.
Class 4.
Here you start getting into higher class WH interactions more and how you operate will depend a lot on your static. Basically, the skills you need will depend a lot more on what your static is than on the fact that you live in a C4, specifically what ships you will need for PVE.
The sites are no longer soloable and how you run them will depend on your corp. Generally it will involve remote rep Tengus or Domis, or logi supported battleships.
At C4 level, you should really have T2 weapon skills and BS skills. You should also be able to fly T2 cruisers, specifically HACs and at least one of recons or logistics, if not both.
Class 5 and 6.
Here is where the heavy weights of w-space play and if you live here they will expect you to be able to interact with them at least a bit so you should have a decent skill set to play with.
While you do not need to bring it to every fight, you should have access to and skills for a well fit PVP tech 3 cruiser in C5/6 space. You should also seriously consider training logistics (specifically the Guardian) if you have not already as Guardians are a vital part to the vast majority of PVP fleets here.
At this level you should also at least consider training capital skills as PVE is run almost exclusively with dreads and carriers. If you find yourself attacked, you will also need those capitals to defend yourself. If you don't want to train caps, Loki or Rapier skills are highly recommended as they are used for webbing in PVE.
If your corp does not use dreads for PVE, you will need a T2 fit, including guns, battleship.
Notes for specific skills and ships.
Logistics.
If you train this skill at all, and you should, you really should take it straight to level 5. This rule applies everywhere but in wormholes, where you often need to squeeze the absolute most out of your limited resources to come out on top, it is especially important.
Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration.
Train this to 5. Personally I wouldn’t get in a dreadnaught without T2 siege.
Command Ships.
These are very good WH PVP ships and are recommended if you can fly them. It is also highly recommended at least a couple people in your corp can fly them and fit links as they make a huge difference for PVP and you will need them for PVE.
Salvaging.
You need this to 5 to access the advanced sleeper wrecks but you can get around this by rigging your salvaging ship, which you always do anyway.
Orca.
An orca is very useful to have in all WH classes apart from C1s. It's obviously not a skill everyone will train but your corp will need access to a few orca pilots for collapsing and hauling.
Carriers.
Not all ships are created equal and for carriers this is especially true. If you're training a carrier, make it an Archon. It is vastly superior to all other carriers in every way. The obvious exception is if you live in a pulsar, in which case train a Chimera.
Dreadnaughts.
Here you do have some choices, just stay away from the Phoenix as it is just bad. All other dreads are fine to train, though the Moros stands out as top dog in the dread world.
This more or less covers everything you'll need to know about skills for wormholes.
Additionally, most WH corps will have some sort of fleet doctrines, joining pre requisites or recommended skills they will want you to train which will depend of the corp.
As a final note, the nature of WH space is that quality matters. Numbers still play a large part but a highly specialized pilot in the right ship can often turn the tide in a fight. I highly recommend that you find a useful ship that you enjoy flying and skill to fly it at near 100% efficiency and get practice doing so.
This goes double for key role pilots such as Guardian, Ewar or capital pilots.
Sunday, 15 September 2013
Anomalous Mining
Anomalous Mining
It's been a little while since Gravimetric/Ore sites were
downgraded to Anomalies from Signatures and since I have the pleasure of
ganking a few miners in w-space lately, let's have a look at how this change
has affected WHs from the ganker's perspective.
Firstly, let me just say that mining is a profession that
I take zero part in but understand that it is essential to EVE's economy.
CCP have been giving miners all sorts of handouts on
golden platters over the past 6-12 months or so with the mining barge HP buffs,
cargo buffs and ore yield buffs.
However, these changes were all mostly aimed at highsec mining to make
it harder to suicide gank miners and to make it more profitable in general to
mine.
I have no doubt that the recent move of Ore sites to anomalies,
which do not need to be scanned out with probes, was intended by CCP as a
benefit for miners who, in general, are too lazy to scan out sites to mine in
kspace (certainly in highsec). However,
this 'boost' for miners is a very big double edged sword in wormholes where
needing to probe out the site you are in is not so much a hindrance as it is a
safety buffer.
Before the changes there was no way to find and kill an
active miner in a wormhole without dropping at least core scanner probes, or
more likely combat probes, which the miner has a chance to spot on dscan if
they are watching it like they should be.
In addition to being able to spot the probes, this meant that
the miner had several minutes from you jumping into the system until you were
even able to be on grid with them.
By comparison, you can now be on grid with the miner
within 20 seconds of entering the system, even if you have never been there
before. All you need to do is enter
system, hit dscan, notice mining ships, warp to the Ore site. Add to that a 54km heated point range on a Proteus
(or even more on an Arazu) and you can simply warp to zero and you'll more
often than not be in point range of whatever is there.
Not needing to use probes dramatically reduced the window
a miner has to notice you entering system and if your WH entry is off dscan
from the Ore site, it closes it entirely.
WH space has always been the single most dangerous area
for mining but now it is out right foolish to do so.
That said, there are still plenty of people willing to
take the risk to gather their Ore in w-space but since most miners are not
completely stupid, there are a couple significant changes that have occurred
regarding WH mining.
Firstly, while they used to be reasonably common, I have
not seen a Hulk or a Mackinaw in a wormhole for many months. Miners look to be going far more favourably
for cheap T1 mining ships or even lowly Ventures.
Secondly, virtually every mining ship I have come across
lately has been warp core stabbed (and I have missed a few because of this).
Bottom line is that the days of max yield fit Hulks in
w-space are well and truly over.
So what does this mean for the hunter? Well, it means a few things.
Miners in wormholes are now very easy to catch. Before you needed to have probes and to be
able to use d-scan effectively to locate the ships and then run a combat scan
in as few cycles as possible to catch them and now you just warp to their
site. However, I would highly recommend
bringing 3 points of tackle to guarantee a catch as the ships will be stabbed
way more often than not.
In practice, the overall change is that there are less
people mining in wormholes now than ever before. The miners that do remain present little
sport as the effort to find them is literally zero and since they were not
smart enough to move their mining operations to a safer area, they generally
are not smart enough to pay close attention to d-scan either, seemingly
preferring to rely of their warp core stabs.
Blowing them up is still a fine hobby, but the
satisfaction of getting a 100% lock off a single probe scan is now gone.
Many PVP players hate all miners on principle and while I
would never join a corp that mines as a regular past time, it is a valid play
style.
That said, each play style has a time and a place and
wormholes are becoming less and less the place for mining.
The move or Ore sites from signatures to anomalies was a
pretty big shafting of WH mining by CCP.
PS: I am going to
invest in a Sabre as missing miner kills to warp stabs is not on.
Monday, 9 September 2013
Musings on HACs
Musings on HACs
Ok, so unless you've been living under a rather large rock, you would have noticed that the entire HAC line up has had an overhaul in the latest patch.
The reception of the new HACs has been generally mixed and I tend to fall in the 'not good enough' camp on the changes but I have decided to fly exclusively HACs on my main for a while to try them out and see if they are a viable alternative to my strategic cruisers for WH armour brawling once CCP take them away from me.
I actually started this trend before the changes with the Zealot. Before the changes the Zealot was the only HAC even remotely worth a damn for close range armour fleets with the rest of the HACs ranging from pretty bad to god awful to 'lol Caldari'.
So let's have a look post changes.
CCP look to have learned at least something from what they did to the poor Rifter and Hurricane in the frig and BC balance passes, ie: making them complete junk compared to the other buffed ships in their class, and the Zealot is still a top level HAC.
So what about the other HACs?
Well, I'm not interested in the least in Caldari HACs for 2 reasons; 1) They don't armour tank and 2) as far as I'm concerned, if you're flying a Caldari T2 cruiser that isn’t a Falcon, you're probably in the wrong ship.
Vagabond is also a shield only ship that has very little use in a WH so I'll leave that for now as well.
This leaves me with the Sacrilege, Munin and the 2 Gallente HACs to armour fit and play with.
I also decided to go for resilience in my HAC fits since that is what they are allegedly for and so have been going with 5 slot tanks over the more common 4 slot tanks.
The tanks consist of T2 1600mm plate, faction EANM and 3 active hardeners, along with a T2 resist rig for the hole.
This may seem like overkill but the result is that these HACs tank a serious amount more under reps than a Proteus or Legion and even a bit more than a Loki. They can also overheat the tank for even more tank.
Running active hardeners makes them vulnerable to neuting so I have made cap boosters mandatory on the fits.
The first new HAC I added to my hanger was the Ishtar. I looked at both Gallente HACs but the Deimos still remains a kite/snipe ship that is utterly disappointing up close, where I like to be, and so I quickly dumped it in favour of its drone boat brother.
Note: I'll admit that the new Deimos does have its role but that role is something I have no use for or interest in.
Since I have T2 heavy drone skills and not T2 sentry drone skill on my main (I know right?! Sue me...) the new heavy drone bonuses on the Ishtar suit me perfectly and I dusted off some Ogre IIs and electron blasters.
The main issue I always found with the Ishtar before the changes was that it was one of those ships that seemed specifically designed to be unfittable. It had high, med and low slots but could barely fit 2 of those properly.
Well, the days of 800mm plate Ishtars with light ion blasters look to be over. I was extremely happy to find that the ship is very fittable now and I was able to get a T2 1600mm plate, MWD, AB, small cap booster and a full rack of medium electron blasters, along with proper tank and tackle, with just a single fitting rig. Very nice.
Stat wise the Ishtar has a bit less EHP than the Zealot (which I'm more or less using as a base line) but a decent amount of DPS more, even with my no damage mod fit. The Ishtar's resistances also lean more heavily into therm/kin than the Zealot's at the expense of its exp resist which I like since explosive is by far the least used damage type in WHs. Yes, it's weak against Lokis which are prevalent but it does considerably better than a Zealot against a Proteus which is very relevant.
I have not had much chance to play with my Zealot or Ishtar yet but they have both performed very well in the few fights I have used them in.
One thing I will definitely note as a weakness of the Zealot is tracking. If you find yourself alone in a Zealot without a web and get tackled by a frigate, you best hope you have friends close by as you won't be able to do anything to it.
I found this out when I went to kill a Harpy and had to shamefully log in my Loki pilot to come web it.
I'm yet to use either ship under heavy fire but am happy with both so far.
No they don't have Proteus DPS or T3 EHP but they do have Legion and Loki DPS and do tank better under reps than any T3.
I will stick to the Zealot and Ishtar for now but am looking to try the Munin next.
I really hope the Munin works well and the Minmatar line up is severely lacking in the armour brawler category with the only viable option being the Loki, which I hope the Munin changes have addressed.
Unfortunately, initial EFT fitting do not look promising and I suspect the Munin will not cut it.
I'll also give the Sacrilege a try but I'm not really a fan of missiles so I'll leave that for last.
Will do a follow up post once I get to play with all the HACs a bit more.
JM
Ok, so unless you've been living under a rather large rock, you would have noticed that the entire HAC line up has had an overhaul in the latest patch.
The reception of the new HACs has been generally mixed and I tend to fall in the 'not good enough' camp on the changes but I have decided to fly exclusively HACs on my main for a while to try them out and see if they are a viable alternative to my strategic cruisers for WH armour brawling once CCP take them away from me.
I actually started this trend before the changes with the Zealot. Before the changes the Zealot was the only HAC even remotely worth a damn for close range armour fleets with the rest of the HACs ranging from pretty bad to god awful to 'lol Caldari'.
So let's have a look post changes.
CCP look to have learned at least something from what they did to the poor Rifter and Hurricane in the frig and BC balance passes, ie: making them complete junk compared to the other buffed ships in their class, and the Zealot is still a top level HAC.
So what about the other HACs?
Well, I'm not interested in the least in Caldari HACs for 2 reasons; 1) They don't armour tank and 2) as far as I'm concerned, if you're flying a Caldari T2 cruiser that isn’t a Falcon, you're probably in the wrong ship.
Vagabond is also a shield only ship that has very little use in a WH so I'll leave that for now as well.
This leaves me with the Sacrilege, Munin and the 2 Gallente HACs to armour fit and play with.
I also decided to go for resilience in my HAC fits since that is what they are allegedly for and so have been going with 5 slot tanks over the more common 4 slot tanks.
The tanks consist of T2 1600mm plate, faction EANM and 3 active hardeners, along with a T2 resist rig for the hole.
This may seem like overkill but the result is that these HACs tank a serious amount more under reps than a Proteus or Legion and even a bit more than a Loki. They can also overheat the tank for even more tank.
Running active hardeners makes them vulnerable to neuting so I have made cap boosters mandatory on the fits.
The first new HAC I added to my hanger was the Ishtar. I looked at both Gallente HACs but the Deimos still remains a kite/snipe ship that is utterly disappointing up close, where I like to be, and so I quickly dumped it in favour of its drone boat brother.
Note: I'll admit that the new Deimos does have its role but that role is something I have no use for or interest in.
Since I have T2 heavy drone skills and not T2 sentry drone skill on my main (I know right?! Sue me...) the new heavy drone bonuses on the Ishtar suit me perfectly and I dusted off some Ogre IIs and electron blasters.
The main issue I always found with the Ishtar before the changes was that it was one of those ships that seemed specifically designed to be unfittable. It had high, med and low slots but could barely fit 2 of those properly.
Well, the days of 800mm plate Ishtars with light ion blasters look to be over. I was extremely happy to find that the ship is very fittable now and I was able to get a T2 1600mm plate, MWD, AB, small cap booster and a full rack of medium electron blasters, along with proper tank and tackle, with just a single fitting rig. Very nice.
Stat wise the Ishtar has a bit less EHP than the Zealot (which I'm more or less using as a base line) but a decent amount of DPS more, even with my no damage mod fit. The Ishtar's resistances also lean more heavily into therm/kin than the Zealot's at the expense of its exp resist which I like since explosive is by far the least used damage type in WHs. Yes, it's weak against Lokis which are prevalent but it does considerably better than a Zealot against a Proteus which is very relevant.
I have not had much chance to play with my Zealot or Ishtar yet but they have both performed very well in the few fights I have used them in.
One thing I will definitely note as a weakness of the Zealot is tracking. If you find yourself alone in a Zealot without a web and get tackled by a frigate, you best hope you have friends close by as you won't be able to do anything to it.
I found this out when I went to kill a Harpy and had to shamefully log in my Loki pilot to come web it.
I'm yet to use either ship under heavy fire but am happy with both so far.
No they don't have Proteus DPS or T3 EHP but they do have Legion and Loki DPS and do tank better under reps than any T3.
I will stick to the Zealot and Ishtar for now but am looking to try the Munin next.
I really hope the Munin works well and the Minmatar line up is severely lacking in the armour brawler category with the only viable option being the Loki, which I hope the Munin changes have addressed.
Unfortunately, initial EFT fitting do not look promising and I suspect the Munin will not cut it.
I'll also give the Sacrilege a try but I'm not really a fan of missiles so I'll leave that for last.
Will do a follow up post once I get to play with all the HACs a bit more.
JM
Bravery in the Unknown
Bravery in the Unknown
by Jack Miton
I have been around in the realm of WHs for a long
time. There are those who out date me by
a few months by since September 2009, I doubt there has been a week where I
have not visited at least 1 wormhole and certainly not more than a month where
I did not live in a WH.
There are many people living in WHs today that have a
similar history from whenever they first found the joys of the unknown space
lanes but there are also those new to wormholes who are just discovering their
many mysteries, dangers and joys that we, the 'veterans', often forget or take
for granted.
To us, wormholes are no longer the scary places of
nightmares where cloaked predators wait to pounce. The mechanics of wormholes are our bread and
butter and it is we who are now the nightmares we used to fear.
In my time I have seen a lot of people do great things in
w-space and I have also seen a lot of people do some monumentally stupid things
and make incredibly bad calls.
Such is the way of w-space.
I have been finding lately that I often forget what it is
like to be new to wormholes, to make mistakes due to lack of knowledge and to
follow others blindly into the unknown.
This brings me to my story.
As you may or may not be aware, we in SUSU have had
several dealings with the Brave Newbie Initiative over the past few months and
for the past couple of weeks I have had an alt in their lowsec home system
where I have been picking fights, rather meanly, in my PVP Tengu.
Last night I got home and decided to see if any of them
wanted to play. After checking the
system, there was little to no BNI activity and additionally, there are another
hostile group of 6 or 7 that was also trying to kill some newbies so I wrote
the night off and was going to go to bed.
First I decided to check their Mumble comms (yeah, they
have open comms!) and what should I discover?
The reason their system was so quiet was that there was a C3 wormhole
connected to it and that they had a fleet of 15 or so assorted cruisers, BCs
and BSs bashing a large, undefended tower in it.
Now this was a wormhole, my home turf. There was no way I was going to bed without
at least playing a little so I boated a scout down to probe it out.
Note that this was not the wormhole living part of BNI
but the main lowsec core of the alliance.
Let's take a short break here for a situation/expectation
check.
Situation:
I have a 15-20man fleet bashing a large POS in a C3 WH
whose only connection is its LS static.
Expectations:
- Cloaked scout sitting on the entry hole at all times.
- At least half the people in fleet hitting dscan at
least every 30 seconds.
- The other half of the fleet watching for new sigs.
- At least 3 scouts with probes in the WH to scan new
exits if needed.
- POS bashing fleet to have full PVP fits on at least half
of the ships.
- Fleet members to have the exit bookmark, or access to
it in corp bookmarks.
These are expectations from my WH experience and I would
never in a million years even think about conducting a WH POS bash without all
of them being filled.
As such, this was my expectation going in and I expected
not to catch them by surprise or to be able to fight a force that size for
long.
So what was the reality?
Firstly, no scouts.
On the WH or elsewhere, the fleet had zero covert scouts anywhere in system.
(Apparently there was a single probe launcher on one of
the bashing ships, 'just in case'.)
No one in the fleet was watching dscan and they didn't
notice me until I was on grid.
I cannot talk strictly about fits and I assume there were
some points in that fleet but what I can say is that all of the ships were
afterburner fit because apparently MWDs are bad in wormholes, according to
their FC, and he told them all to AB fit their ships!
Some members did in fact not have the exit bookmark and
had to ask for warpins when the fleet was leaving.
Given my expectations, I warped in at 50km when I engaged
as I expected their 6-7 cruisers and 2-3 tier 3 BCs to be able to chase me down
and lay down decent damage.
Needless to say, had I realized they were all AB fit, I
would not have been so careful.
As it was, I managed to kill a bomber and then started to
work on an Oracle but since I was being needlessly careful I was out of point
range and it warped out in deep structure and I missed it just barely at the
next 2 planets it bounced off. I need to
invest in a sabre pilot...
After that I went back to the POS but the FC realized
they couldn’t deal with me and warped the fleet back to the WH before I got
into point range.
Shortly after this BNI rolled out the works for me and
camped the WH with fast tackle, a few T3s (including a webbing Loki), and a
kitchen sink fleet with way more DPS than my lone Tengu could handle.
At this point it was also hitting 1am for me and with
work at 7:30 I didn’t have time to stick around so I waited out my timer and
logged off in the WH.
Always remember: I'm not stuck in here with you, you're
stuck in here with me.
Sadly, this was deep AU time zone and no one else was on
in my corp. Have we had even 5 people,
this would have been much more fun.
As it turns out, the other hostile party that was camping
their system also found the wormhole at some point during the night and I woke
up to find multiple wrecks and corpses on dscan.
Looking into it quickly, I found that they had bombed the
POS bash fleet to decent results:
While this operation did not go as planned for BNI, I
truly hope that they are not discouraged from w-space after this as these kinds
of people are exactly what w-space needs.
Not for the free kills or laughs at their attempt but for the initiative
they show in braving the unknown and generating content for themselves and others.
In particular, their FC was a 3 month old character yet
he directed the fleet competently and calmly even under fire.
I spend a lot of time poking around low class wormholes
looking for fights in the very same Tengu and I've lost count of the times the
people who live there simply will not fight in any way, regardless of numbers.
When faced with an enemy that out classed them, BNI did
not just run and dock/POS up like many of our wormhole brethren are known to
do, rather they reshipped and came back to fight.
This is the kind of new blood we need and want in
wormholes.
I hope they take their lessons from this event and
continue to participate in the unknown in the future.
To BNI, there is no mercy in wormholes and you should not
expect it from myself, the environment, or anyone else should you venture there
again. That said, you are most welcome
to fly here again and should I run into you, I'll be happy to engage you more
directly next time.
Take care and keep flying bravely.
JM
Jack’s Guide to Running Sleeper Sites like a Baws
Jack’s Guide to Running Sleeper Sites like a Baws
v.1.2
The aim of this guide is to provide a complete rundown of how to properly capital escalate class 5 and 6 sleeper sites.
It assumes basic knowledge of the fact that WH sites capital escalate and how they escalate, along with a working knowledge of the ships involved and wormhole anomalies.
If you do not have said knowledge, you are not ready for this.
13/08/2013 - A second pass has been done on this guide to bring it up to date.
What you will need:
1 Triage capable Archon.
2 Dreadnaughts.
1 Carrier, any race.
1 Loki.
1 Armour and Skirmish capable fleet booster. (Information is also recommended.)
1 Noctis.
First, a Word to the Wise:
This method of running sites is not noob friendly.
It requires heavy asset, ISK and SP investments to be successful.
Yes, you can run this fleet with level 4 skills across the board on your capital pilots but at this level of investment, don't be a scrub.
Train T2 siege, train gunnery support skills to 5 (yes, all of them), train carrier 5, train dread 5, hell, train salvaging 5.
Don't think about 'is it worth it' to train 45 days for dread 5. You're flying the biggest, baddest ships you can fit into a WH, just train it. (The obvious benefit in PVP is also obvious.)
In Theory:
The basic theory of full capital escalations is simple. Use an Archon for reps, Loki for webs and target painters, dreads for DPS and a second carrier for the last escalation wave.
Fleet boosts are needed to keep everyone alive and get enough range on the webs and the Noctis cleans up.
You should only be killing the escalation battleships and the first wave, making sure to leave 1 trigger alive. Leaving the trigger alive resets the site at downtime and you can run the escalations again the next day.
Anomaly Notes:
Do not run this fleet in a Black Hole.
If you live in a Pulsar you obviously need to run a shield version of the fleet.
Running in a Cataclysmic is NOT recommended.
Magnetars are great for Moros/Naglfar dreads but Revelation suffers a lot on tracking and the explosion velocity nerf makes the Phoenix unusable.
Wolf Rayet is the easiest due to tank bonus.
Red Giant has little effect, it means you can use smart bombs to kill frigs.
In Practice:
The reality of it is that in practice, running capital escalations gets done badly a lot and ends up in lost ships and inefficient site running all too often.
There is a big difference in being able to muddle through an escalation without losing ships and being able to run them well.
When site running goes wrong, most of the time it comes down to horrible fittings or pilots not being prepared for what they are warping into and panicking.
If at all possible, I would highly recommend running with at least one pilot who has run sites successfully before your first few times.
This isn’t always possible so I will run through what each ship needs to do to stay alive and play its role correctly below.
The Method:
Setting up your fleet is fairly simple.
Booster sits in wing command, Loki/first carrier sits in squad command, everything else in squad.
Squad commander tags the BSs.
Warp in your first carrier (Archon) first. As soon as it lands, warp in first dread and Loki, have Loki orbit carrier at 500m. (Note that orbiting close to the carrier is actually important, do not wander off as it messes up the ranges for your dreads.)
When the dread comes out of warp, align it back to wherever it came from for fast slow down and siege it when it hits around <5m/s velocity.
From there, web and shoot in order of tags.
Once 4-5 battleships and any battleships from the normal first wave are dead, warp in the second dread.
Once there are 8 battleships left, warp in the second carrier.
Note, the dreads may bump the carrier a bit if it isn't in triage, make sure it stays in refit range of the dreads.
If the trigger is a battleship, keep the second carrier on field to keep the Noctis alive while salvaging.
Use EC drones from the carriers to jam out any scramming triggers.
The Ships:
I have listed the ships you need above. Here are the specifics on how to use each one.
The First Carrier:
The first carrier's role is to keep the Loki, and itself, alive and to keep the Loki capped up.
In addition, it can be used to kill sleeper cruisers with its drones.
This carrier needs to be an Archon. Sorry, but if you're a carrier pilot in non pulsar wormhole space and don't fly an Archon, go train it right now.
You should not need to triage the first carrier but if the sleepers primary it for longer than usual you will need to, so make sure it is triage capable and has stront.
The Archon needs to have 2 local reps, 3 remote reps and 1 cap transfer. A 2/2 split on reps/cap transfers also works and makes it easier to keep the Loki capped up.
It needs 1 EANM, T2 CCC rigs and cap mods everywhere else. (Faction CPRs.)
Do NOT fit more tank than this. You don't need it and fitting it risks you capping out and get everyone killed.
As first carrier, you will need to run 1 remote rep and a cap transfer on the Loki. Stagger your cap transfers to keep its cap up easier if you have 2.
If the Loki takes heavy agro for a long time you will need to cycle a second rep on it too.
You should also keep 1 local rep running at all times, this can save you in case of a disconnect.
Anomaly Notes:
You will never need more than 1 rep on the Loki in a Wolf Rayet.
The Loki:
The role of the Loki is to web and paint sleeper battleships so that the dreads can hit them.
Generally the Loki will also be in squad command position so that it can tag the targets but this can also be done by the first carrier.
Orbit the carrier at 500m to help sig tank and stay close to it.
The Loki needs to have 3 faction webs, Fed Navy recommended, and 2 target painters.
It should be putting 2 webs and both painters on the primary target and 1 web on the secondary target.
While many people don't, you should fit guns on your Loki and use it to kill off sleeper frigs. Since you're shooting frigs only, fit 220s max.
Anomaly Notes:
You will need to fit 2 T2 targeting range rigs in a Magnetar to be able to lock out far enough.
Fit dual 180s in a magnetar to aid in tracking.
The First Dread:
This should be your highest skilled pilot. The speed at which this dread can kill the sleeper battleships will determine the safety and efficiency of your site running.
If possible, make the first dread a Moros. Naglfar has become a good choice too but moros remains top dog of the dread world.
Revelation still works fine and is pretty much on par with the Naglfar for PVE. It should always use faction ammo since it lasts for ages and is dirt cheap.
The Phoenix was previously right out for this work but it is actually viable now. You need to rigor rig it but with T2 rigs it deals around 7.5k applied DPS to a dual web, dual painted sleeper BS which isnt all that bad. That said, it is still obviously the least desireable dread for any WH work.
Here is a DPS graph for all 4 dreads vs. a 2 web/2 TPed sleeper BS:
Green - Moros
Red - Naglfar
Light Blue - Revelation
Dark Blue - Phoenix
(Standard gank/tracking fits used)
The basic fitting rule for PVE dreads are:
T2 siege
meta guns (optional but highly recommended)
3 damage mods
1 meta local rep
2 faction, or better, EANMs
1 sensor booster
T2 capacitor rigs (CCCs and mem cells both work, rigor for Phoenix)
Tracking mods everywhere else, pimp to taste
Unlike the Archon, the dreads cannot tank the sleepers indefinitely and as such, you will likely need to refit mods off the carrier if you are taking heavy agro, which you generally will.
To this end, all dreads must have spare tank (DC, EANMs and active hardeners) and cap mods in their cargo. Even things like reinforced bulk heads are good to have if you really get into trouble.
Refitting on the fly and knowing when to refit is something that you will need to gain experience with to get the hang of.
Until you do, refit to more tank early. Drop a TE for a DC as soon as you start taking agro and drop another TE/damage mod for a 3rd EANM if they stay on you.
At the ~40% cap mark, start fitting cap rechargers and CPRs to stay above 33%.
If your dread is in trouble, don't be ashamed to drop siege and tell the Archon to triage to rep and cap you up.
Once you gain enough experience running first dread, you will be able to start swapping out mods later, or even not at all.
As a note on the rigs you choose, CCCs will help you recover cap faster but mem cells give you a much bigger buffer, meaning you don't run low for longer.
It's really up to personal preference (I have used both and very much prefer mem cells) and ultimately, most people run CCCs because they’re half the price.
Anomaly Notes:
Being in a Wolf Rayet is roughly the equivalent of having an extra A-Type EANM fit. As such, you will rarely need to refit, if ever.
In a Magnetar, you really want the first dread to be a Moros, or Naglfar as a second option, since the tracking on the Revelation really suffers (it does still work fine if you don't have any alternative though).
The Second Dread:
Your second dread works much the same as the first dread except there is a lot less pressure on it.
The sleepers will rarely primary it heavily and with 2 dreads on field the battleships die much faster.
As such, this pilot can be less skilled. If you do not have 2 skilled dread pilots available, you can just warp the second dread in and out to trigger the wave.
Same piloting principles apply for this dread as the first.
The Second Carrier:
This carrier is only really there to trigger the second carrier escalation wave. It should just warp in and straight out.
If you need to, use it to kill any remaining sleeper cruisers/frigs with drones.
Anomaly Notes:
You can fit smartbombs and kill frigs with the second carrier in a Red Giant if you don’t have guns on your Loki. Warning: Doing so agros your entire fleet.
The Fleet Booster:
The booster doesn't really do anything other than sit at a POS with links running.
You should be running these T2 links, in order of importance:
Web range - Mandatory
Armour resists - Mandatory
Rep amount
Ewar strength
Rep cap use
Sig radius
Note that the rep amount and cap use links do not affect capital local reps so they only boost your remote reps on the Loki which isn’t strictly needed.
The booster should preferably be in an EOS but any boost ship with a skirmish boost bonus will work fine too.
The boosting pilot should have a Skirmish/Fed Navy mindlink plugged in.
A Skirmished mindlinked Eos booster bumps out fed navy Loki webs to 47.1km or true sansha webs to 50.4km.
The recent nerf to links has made it pretty mandatory to have maxed out boosts for this but you can still get by with lesser links.
The Noctis:
Salvaging isn't exactly rocket science, I'll leave the salvager/tractor ratio arguments up to personal preference.
The Noctis pilot needs ORE Industrial skill to at least 3 to have sufficient tractor range and not need to slow boat for hours.
The Noctis should have 2 shield extenders and a damage control so that it can tank a frig or cruiser trigger without assistance. It should also have a warp core stab fit so that it can warp out of sites where the trigger scrams. It needs an 800mm plate and a carrier repping it to tank battleship triggers. (Or you can use a Falcon to jam them out.)
Anomaly Notes:
You will need to fit a sensor booster in a Magnetar if you have a warp core stab fit.
Final Thoughts:
Running sites with this fleet is by far the most efficient method of ISK making around.
You're looking at ~700-750mil per site and you can comfortably run 4 sites an hour, more with an experienced crew.
Ultimately, if you run sites in this manner you will quickly gain enough ISK to stop caring about it.
That said, this initial investment in such a PVE fleet is not small and is not available to all.
You also run a very real danger of losing the entire fleet if the wrong people happen to connect to your wormhole when you are committed in a site.
I would recommend taking care and know what to do if you do get attacked, be it stay and fight or attempt to bail.
As always, fly fun.
JM
v.1.2
The aim of this guide is to provide a complete rundown of how to properly capital escalate class 5 and 6 sleeper sites.
It assumes basic knowledge of the fact that WH sites capital escalate and how they escalate, along with a working knowledge of the ships involved and wormhole anomalies.
If you do not have said knowledge, you are not ready for this.
13/08/2013 - A second pass has been done on this guide to bring it up to date.
What you will need:
1 Triage capable Archon.
2 Dreadnaughts.
1 Carrier, any race.
1 Loki.
1 Armour and Skirmish capable fleet booster. (Information is also recommended.)
1 Noctis.
First, a Word to the Wise:
This method of running sites is not noob friendly.
It requires heavy asset, ISK and SP investments to be successful.
Yes, you can run this fleet with level 4 skills across the board on your capital pilots but at this level of investment, don't be a scrub.
Train T2 siege, train gunnery support skills to 5 (yes, all of them), train carrier 5, train dread 5, hell, train salvaging 5.
Don't think about 'is it worth it' to train 45 days for dread 5. You're flying the biggest, baddest ships you can fit into a WH, just train it. (The obvious benefit in PVP is also obvious.)
In Theory:
The basic theory of full capital escalations is simple. Use an Archon for reps, Loki for webs and target painters, dreads for DPS and a second carrier for the last escalation wave.
Fleet boosts are needed to keep everyone alive and get enough range on the webs and the Noctis cleans up.
You should only be killing the escalation battleships and the first wave, making sure to leave 1 trigger alive. Leaving the trigger alive resets the site at downtime and you can run the escalations again the next day.
Anomaly Notes:
Do not run this fleet in a Black Hole.
If you live in a Pulsar you obviously need to run a shield version of the fleet.
Running in a Cataclysmic is NOT recommended.
Magnetars are great for Moros/Naglfar dreads but Revelation suffers a lot on tracking and the explosion velocity nerf makes the Phoenix unusable.
Wolf Rayet is the easiest due to tank bonus.
Red Giant has little effect, it means you can use smart bombs to kill frigs.
In Practice:
The reality of it is that in practice, running capital escalations gets done badly a lot and ends up in lost ships and inefficient site running all too often.
There is a big difference in being able to muddle through an escalation without losing ships and being able to run them well.
When site running goes wrong, most of the time it comes down to horrible fittings or pilots not being prepared for what they are warping into and panicking.
If at all possible, I would highly recommend running with at least one pilot who has run sites successfully before your first few times.
This isn’t always possible so I will run through what each ship needs to do to stay alive and play its role correctly below.
The Method:
Setting up your fleet is fairly simple.
Booster sits in wing command, Loki/first carrier sits in squad command, everything else in squad.
Squad commander tags the BSs.
Warp in your first carrier (Archon) first. As soon as it lands, warp in first dread and Loki, have Loki orbit carrier at 500m. (Note that orbiting close to the carrier is actually important, do not wander off as it messes up the ranges for your dreads.)
When the dread comes out of warp, align it back to wherever it came from for fast slow down and siege it when it hits around <5m/s velocity.
From there, web and shoot in order of tags.
Once 4-5 battleships and any battleships from the normal first wave are dead, warp in the second dread.
Once there are 8 battleships left, warp in the second carrier.
Note, the dreads may bump the carrier a bit if it isn't in triage, make sure it stays in refit range of the dreads.
If the trigger is a battleship, keep the second carrier on field to keep the Noctis alive while salvaging.
Use EC drones from the carriers to jam out any scramming triggers.
The Ships:
I have listed the ships you need above. Here are the specifics on how to use each one.
The First Carrier:
The first carrier's role is to keep the Loki, and itself, alive and to keep the Loki capped up.
In addition, it can be used to kill sleeper cruisers with its drones.
This carrier needs to be an Archon. Sorry, but if you're a carrier pilot in non pulsar wormhole space and don't fly an Archon, go train it right now.
You should not need to triage the first carrier but if the sleepers primary it for longer than usual you will need to, so make sure it is triage capable and has stront.
The Archon needs to have 2 local reps, 3 remote reps and 1 cap transfer. A 2/2 split on reps/cap transfers also works and makes it easier to keep the Loki capped up.
It needs 1 EANM, T2 CCC rigs and cap mods everywhere else. (Faction CPRs.)
Do NOT fit more tank than this. You don't need it and fitting it risks you capping out and get everyone killed.
As first carrier, you will need to run 1 remote rep and a cap transfer on the Loki. Stagger your cap transfers to keep its cap up easier if you have 2.
If the Loki takes heavy agro for a long time you will need to cycle a second rep on it too.
You should also keep 1 local rep running at all times, this can save you in case of a disconnect.
Anomaly Notes:
You will never need more than 1 rep on the Loki in a Wolf Rayet.
The Loki:
The role of the Loki is to web and paint sleeper battleships so that the dreads can hit them.
Generally the Loki will also be in squad command position so that it can tag the targets but this can also be done by the first carrier.
Orbit the carrier at 500m to help sig tank and stay close to it.
The Loki needs to have 3 faction webs, Fed Navy recommended, and 2 target painters.
It should be putting 2 webs and both painters on the primary target and 1 web on the secondary target.
While many people don't, you should fit guns on your Loki and use it to kill off sleeper frigs. Since you're shooting frigs only, fit 220s max.
Anomaly Notes:
You will need to fit 2 T2 targeting range rigs in a Magnetar to be able to lock out far enough.
Fit dual 180s in a magnetar to aid in tracking.
The First Dread:
This should be your highest skilled pilot. The speed at which this dread can kill the sleeper battleships will determine the safety and efficiency of your site running.
If possible, make the first dread a Moros. Naglfar has become a good choice too but moros remains top dog of the dread world.
Revelation still works fine and is pretty much on par with the Naglfar for PVE. It should always use faction ammo since it lasts for ages and is dirt cheap.
The Phoenix was previously right out for this work but it is actually viable now. You need to rigor rig it but with T2 rigs it deals around 7.5k applied DPS to a dual web, dual painted sleeper BS which isnt all that bad. That said, it is still obviously the least desireable dread for any WH work.
Here is a DPS graph for all 4 dreads vs. a 2 web/2 TPed sleeper BS:
Green - Moros
Red - Naglfar
Light Blue - Revelation
Dark Blue - Phoenix
(Standard gank/tracking fits used)
The basic fitting rule for PVE dreads are:
T2 siege
meta guns (optional but highly recommended)
3 damage mods
1 meta local rep
2 faction, or better, EANMs
1 sensor booster
T2 capacitor rigs (CCCs and mem cells both work, rigor for Phoenix)
Tracking mods everywhere else, pimp to taste
Unlike the Archon, the dreads cannot tank the sleepers indefinitely and as such, you will likely need to refit mods off the carrier if you are taking heavy agro, which you generally will.
To this end, all dreads must have spare tank (DC, EANMs and active hardeners) and cap mods in their cargo. Even things like reinforced bulk heads are good to have if you really get into trouble.
Refitting on the fly and knowing when to refit is something that you will need to gain experience with to get the hang of.
Until you do, refit to more tank early. Drop a TE for a DC as soon as you start taking agro and drop another TE/damage mod for a 3rd EANM if they stay on you.
At the ~40% cap mark, start fitting cap rechargers and CPRs to stay above 33%.
If your dread is in trouble, don't be ashamed to drop siege and tell the Archon to triage to rep and cap you up.
Once you gain enough experience running first dread, you will be able to start swapping out mods later, or even not at all.
As a note on the rigs you choose, CCCs will help you recover cap faster but mem cells give you a much bigger buffer, meaning you don't run low for longer.
It's really up to personal preference (I have used both and very much prefer mem cells) and ultimately, most people run CCCs because they’re half the price.
Anomaly Notes:
Being in a Wolf Rayet is roughly the equivalent of having an extra A-Type EANM fit. As such, you will rarely need to refit, if ever.
In a Magnetar, you really want the first dread to be a Moros, or Naglfar as a second option, since the tracking on the Revelation really suffers (it does still work fine if you don't have any alternative though).
The Second Dread:
Your second dread works much the same as the first dread except there is a lot less pressure on it.
The sleepers will rarely primary it heavily and with 2 dreads on field the battleships die much faster.
As such, this pilot can be less skilled. If you do not have 2 skilled dread pilots available, you can just warp the second dread in and out to trigger the wave.
Same piloting principles apply for this dread as the first.
The Second Carrier:
This carrier is only really there to trigger the second carrier escalation wave. It should just warp in and straight out.
If you need to, use it to kill any remaining sleeper cruisers/frigs with drones.
Anomaly Notes:
You can fit smartbombs and kill frigs with the second carrier in a Red Giant if you don’t have guns on your Loki. Warning: Doing so agros your entire fleet.
The Fleet Booster:
The booster doesn't really do anything other than sit at a POS with links running.
You should be running these T2 links, in order of importance:
Web range - Mandatory
Armour resists - Mandatory
Rep amount
Ewar strength
Rep cap use
Sig radius
Note that the rep amount and cap use links do not affect capital local reps so they only boost your remote reps on the Loki which isn’t strictly needed.
The booster should preferably be in an EOS but any boost ship with a skirmish boost bonus will work fine too.
The boosting pilot should have a Skirmish/Fed Navy mindlink plugged in.
A Skirmished mindlinked Eos booster bumps out fed navy Loki webs to 47.1km or true sansha webs to 50.4km.
The recent nerf to links has made it pretty mandatory to have maxed out boosts for this but you can still get by with lesser links.
The Noctis:
Salvaging isn't exactly rocket science, I'll leave the salvager/tractor ratio arguments up to personal preference.
The Noctis pilot needs ORE Industrial skill to at least 3 to have sufficient tractor range and not need to slow boat for hours.
The Noctis should have 2 shield extenders and a damage control so that it can tank a frig or cruiser trigger without assistance. It should also have a warp core stab fit so that it can warp out of sites where the trigger scrams. It needs an 800mm plate and a carrier repping it to tank battleship triggers. (Or you can use a Falcon to jam them out.)
Anomaly Notes:
You will need to fit a sensor booster in a Magnetar if you have a warp core stab fit.
Final Thoughts:
Running sites with this fleet is by far the most efficient method of ISK making around.
You're looking at ~700-750mil per site and you can comfortably run 4 sites an hour, more with an experienced crew.
Ultimately, if you run sites in this manner you will quickly gain enough ISK to stop caring about it.
That said, this initial investment in such a PVE fleet is not small and is not available to all.
You also run a very real danger of losing the entire fleet if the wrong people happen to connect to your wormhole when you are committed in a site.
I would recommend taking care and know what to do if you do get attacked, be it stay and fight or attempt to bail.
As always, fly fun.
JM
Combat Probing
General Guide to Combat Probing
Ok, so first of all, combat probing comes down to practice first and foremost.
It's not a skill you can become great at just by reading a guide but since you need to start somewhere, this guide is designed to cover the general principles involved.
Objectives of Combat Probing
Obviously, the basic objective of combat probing is to scan down a ship so that you can warp to it.
Other objectives should be doing so in the least amount of scan cycles as possible, ideally in 1 scan, and to do it without the target ship noticing.
Situational Setup
So when do you actually want to drop combat probes? This is actually not that simple a question and lots of people have different thoughts on it.
Personally I feel that people either use combat probes too often, or not often enough.
Some large WH groups, AHARM for example, only ever use combat probes, even for normal signature scanning. They do it because it makes no difference strength wise for sig scanning and means they never need to reload probes if they need to combat scan. (In AHARM's case, their scanning tool also works off signature strengths derived from 64au combat scans.)
Personally I find this is an excellent way of scaring off anyone you might meet while scanning since people see combat probes as far more intimidating on dscan than cores.
(As a note, you should take ALL probes, core or combat, as the same threat level on dscan, but people don't.)
The other end of the spectrum are people so reluctant to drop combats that they almost never do it and when they do it's often too late.
My rule is simple: If you see ships on dscan that are not at a planet, anom or a WH/sig you already have bookmarked, drop combats immediately. The sooner you scan them, the more likely you are to catch them.
This means that you need to check all anoms and planets for ships on dscan first, then if they’re not there, drop combats and find them.
If at all possible, drop combats off dscan from your targets. This isn’t always possible so if it isn’t, find a safe spot (a planet will do in a pinch, don’t do it on a WH), drop combats and immediately move them off dscan range of any celestial and hit scan.
Remember, when in doubt, it's better to drop combats and scan blindly for ships than to not even try.
Finding Where to Scan
Once you have your probes out, off dscan and have re cloaked, the first thing to do is check that your targets are still there. Honestly, a lot of the time the gig is up already at this point as most people pay good attention to their dscans these days and will have POSed up if they saw your probes or ship and you may as well just scan the system for sigs.
Assuming they did not rabbit, you now need to narrow down their location using dscan so that you can get them in the least amount of scans as possible.
This is the most important part and is also the part that just takes practice to perfect.
You need to use 3 tools for this:
1. Dscan range
2. Dscan angle
3. Tactical overlay
You should get used to adjusting your dscan range on the fly. 1 AU is 149597871km, or 150m km since you're on the clock.
Do your dscanning from whatever celestial the targets are closest to and get their distance to within 1au. To do this, set your dscan range to 150m at 360deg and increase it in steps of 150m km until you find them.
Eg: Targets not on scan at 300m but are at 450m? They’re at 2-3au.
There isn't much need to narrow the range down past this but you can if you want, just play with the ranges. If you have low actual scanning skills, you may wish to get it to within 0.5au.
Next, get their direction by narrowing down your dscan angle at whatever range you determined previously.
Note: Do this from the solar system map window, NOT from in space!
Narrowing the angle down to 15deg is enough.
Running the Scan
Once you have both the range and direction, time to position your probes.
To do this, drag them back to where your targets are from off dscan but do NOT hit scan. Once you have done this, hit your tactical overlay on the system map window and use it to position your probes on top of your targets at the correct range.
Before you hit scan, make sure your probes are setup so that they actually can lock down your targets. Basically, they need to be small enough to lock the ship you are scanning, BUT you also don't want them too small as this will reduce your coverage area and increase the chance you will miss entirely.
As a general rule, I use 4au probes for capitals, 2au for BSs and BCs, 1au for anything smaller. This varies on your skills a bit but is a good general guide.
Regarding the probe formation to use, use the one you are most comfortable with and one where you know what secondary hits (rings and double dots) mean and where to move your probes if you happen to be off and get those.
I use my normal formation of 8 probes (4 small inner, 4 large outer), generally stepped down to 4au/1au for sub BS targets and 4au/2au for BSs (if I'm off by more than 4au I've done something very wrong).
I use this formation even though I know it is not the strongest result producing formation because I use it a lot for general scanning and know exactly where to move the probes if I miss on the first scan.
Once you move your probes into the correct position and double checked your range and angle, you are ready to run your scan.
Hit scan. You will either get a 100% result on the first scan, or you won't. If you do not (it happens to the best of us), work as fast as you can to lock down the target.
Once you do get the lock, after 1 or multiple scans, bookmark your result and move your probes off dscan range again immediately and hit scan to hide them again.
(You can just recall them too but it can be useful to already have them out later.)
This is obviously the second point where your targets can spot your probes and run away which is why it is important to do it in the least possible scans to reduce that danger window.
Assuming your target did not notice anything was up, you can now warp to them to scout and/or blow them up. Very nice :)
I recommend NOT warping to zero.
Ok, so first of all, combat probing comes down to practice first and foremost.
It's not a skill you can become great at just by reading a guide but since you need to start somewhere, this guide is designed to cover the general principles involved.
Objectives of Combat Probing
Obviously, the basic objective of combat probing is to scan down a ship so that you can warp to it.
Other objectives should be doing so in the least amount of scan cycles as possible, ideally in 1 scan, and to do it without the target ship noticing.
Situational Setup
So when do you actually want to drop combat probes? This is actually not that simple a question and lots of people have different thoughts on it.
Personally I feel that people either use combat probes too often, or not often enough.
Some large WH groups, AHARM for example, only ever use combat probes, even for normal signature scanning. They do it because it makes no difference strength wise for sig scanning and means they never need to reload probes if they need to combat scan. (In AHARM's case, their scanning tool also works off signature strengths derived from 64au combat scans.)
Personally I find this is an excellent way of scaring off anyone you might meet while scanning since people see combat probes as far more intimidating on dscan than cores.
(As a note, you should take ALL probes, core or combat, as the same threat level on dscan, but people don't.)
The other end of the spectrum are people so reluctant to drop combats that they almost never do it and when they do it's often too late.
My rule is simple: If you see ships on dscan that are not at a planet, anom or a WH/sig you already have bookmarked, drop combats immediately. The sooner you scan them, the more likely you are to catch them.
This means that you need to check all anoms and planets for ships on dscan first, then if they’re not there, drop combats and find them.
If at all possible, drop combats off dscan from your targets. This isn’t always possible so if it isn’t, find a safe spot (a planet will do in a pinch, don’t do it on a WH), drop combats and immediately move them off dscan range of any celestial and hit scan.
Remember, when in doubt, it's better to drop combats and scan blindly for ships than to not even try.
Finding Where to Scan
Once you have your probes out, off dscan and have re cloaked, the first thing to do is check that your targets are still there. Honestly, a lot of the time the gig is up already at this point as most people pay good attention to their dscans these days and will have POSed up if they saw your probes or ship and you may as well just scan the system for sigs.
Assuming they did not rabbit, you now need to narrow down their location using dscan so that you can get them in the least amount of scans as possible.
This is the most important part and is also the part that just takes practice to perfect.
You need to use 3 tools for this:
1. Dscan range
2. Dscan angle
3. Tactical overlay
You should get used to adjusting your dscan range on the fly. 1 AU is 149597871km, or 150m km since you're on the clock.
Do your dscanning from whatever celestial the targets are closest to and get their distance to within 1au. To do this, set your dscan range to 150m at 360deg and increase it in steps of 150m km until you find them.
Eg: Targets not on scan at 300m but are at 450m? They’re at 2-3au.
There isn't much need to narrow the range down past this but you can if you want, just play with the ranges. If you have low actual scanning skills, you may wish to get it to within 0.5au.
Next, get their direction by narrowing down your dscan angle at whatever range you determined previously.
Note: Do this from the solar system map window, NOT from in space!
Narrowing the angle down to 15deg is enough.
Running the Scan
Once you have both the range and direction, time to position your probes.
To do this, drag them back to where your targets are from off dscan but do NOT hit scan. Once you have done this, hit your tactical overlay on the system map window and use it to position your probes on top of your targets at the correct range.
Before you hit scan, make sure your probes are setup so that they actually can lock down your targets. Basically, they need to be small enough to lock the ship you are scanning, BUT you also don't want them too small as this will reduce your coverage area and increase the chance you will miss entirely.
As a general rule, I use 4au probes for capitals, 2au for BSs and BCs, 1au for anything smaller. This varies on your skills a bit but is a good general guide.
Regarding the probe formation to use, use the one you are most comfortable with and one where you know what secondary hits (rings and double dots) mean and where to move your probes if you happen to be off and get those.
I use my normal formation of 8 probes (4 small inner, 4 large outer), generally stepped down to 4au/1au for sub BS targets and 4au/2au for BSs (if I'm off by more than 4au I've done something very wrong).
I use this formation even though I know it is not the strongest result producing formation because I use it a lot for general scanning and know exactly where to move the probes if I miss on the first scan.
Once you move your probes into the correct position and double checked your range and angle, you are ready to run your scan.
Hit scan. You will either get a 100% result on the first scan, or you won't. If you do not (it happens to the best of us), work as fast as you can to lock down the target.
Once you do get the lock, after 1 or multiple scans, bookmark your result and move your probes off dscan range again immediately and hit scan to hide them again.
(You can just recall them too but it can be useful to already have them out later.)
This is obviously the second point where your targets can spot your probes and run away which is why it is important to do it in the least possible scans to reduce that danger window.
Assuming your target did not notice anything was up, you can now warp to them to scout and/or blow them up. Very nice :)
I recommend NOT warping to zero.
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