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
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