EVE!

[Martimus]

Another interesting story (at least to me): I have been scanning out wormholes and checking who was inside. Most of the time all the juicy ships are POSed up, and aren't really viable targets, but sometimes you catch guys while they are running an op.

Anyway, I scanned out a couple WH's in the high sec system just outside our home system. I didn't have time to do anything with the worm holes, so I Bookmarked them (actually I accidentally book marked the same one twice ... oops) and logged off. Later on I checked the Wormhole that I had bookmarked earlier (twice) and it was still relatively stable, and no-one was inside. Since one of my corpmates is building a Tengu, and needs salvage, I got together with another corpmate, and we cleared the WH of sleepers. While he was killing sleepers and salvaging, I left the wormhole to give a warp in point for my alt to help with the salvage. It was then I noticed a neutral Myrmidon sitting outside the wormhole. I brought in my alt, but stayed out to see what the Myrmidon was going to do.

It turned out he was waiting for his buddy in a Drake to enter the wormhole, and they were planning on killing sleepers too. We had already cleared out the wormhole, so I had the rest of the guys warp back to the entrance to leave. They entered at the same time, and saw our ships leaving. They seemed spooked, as they instantly warped off and probably didn't get to bookmark the entrance. This part plays into the rest of the story.

I called out in the intel channel to see if I could get a HIC pilot who to help me kill these targets. I managed to get three volunteers (only one HIC, but that was all I needed) I didn't get more because most of us can't enter highsec. The problem with the volunteers was that they were both relatively new, and that plays into what happened next.

I went back into the wormhole in my Helios, and proceeded to probe down the two ships. I found the Myrmidon on the Star, and warped to within 20 km. He was alone (or the Drake was cloaked) but I called for the support ships to warp to me, and when they arrived the Onyx put up a bubble, and the other two ships started attacking without pointing the ship first. This was a problem, because the HIC pilot didn't approach the ship to get into bubble range, and the Myrmidon just warped off. At this point, I figured we lost our opportunity, and the two would just go back to the entrance and bug out.

I ordered the other ships to stay there and I started to scan again, just incase. To my suprise both ships were still in system. (I figured out later that they might have just forgot to BM the entrance when they jumped in, since they scattered so quickly when they saw us.) I managed to probe them both out this time, and warped to them cloaked. This time I got within 10 km of both ships, and called in the reinforcements. They were both in the HIC's bubble this time, and we got both ships and pods. I noticed how bad they were at PvP, so I took the chance and uncloaked to ninja my way on one of the killmails. WH Battle

It was fun, because you don't often get to kill things in a High Sec system. Actually, I have enjoyed all my engagements in Wormhole space thus far.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

I havent dont much in WHs yet.

 

[JSt0rm]

I was with martimus on that wh and its moments like those that you go aha, this is different. Martimus is becoming an expert with probes

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: JSt0rm01
I was with martimus on that wh and its moments like those that you go aha, this is different. Martimus is becoming an expert with probes

Thanks for the complement.

I am having some fun in my Helios right now. It does get in the way of my modest Kill-board goals though, as I can't get on many kills when I am probing out the enemy. But it is fun nonetheless. I have only been able to get on 2 of the kills of the 6 ships I have probed out thus far, and the first one was because I actually BM'ed the ships location, docked, and got a combat ship. But it is actually pretty fun, and somewhat exciting, as if they move while I am trying to get a proper warp in point, they could decloak me and I would be dead almost instantly. I have been flying this ship for 2 weeks now, and it has become a habit to undock with this ship first to probe for wormholes before I even go out on a roam through low-sec.

I used to run missions and Ops with my newer corp members rather frequently, but lately I have been shirking that. I really need to get back into helping out the newer members more often, and try to incorporate them into my new habits if they want to join. For those members from this site, I appologize for that. I'm going to try to get you guys out with me on the next Wormhole I find. If any of you need agent standings, I will run a few L4 missions with you later this week as well. I know I am not the most experienced member, but I will help you with what I can.

 

[v8envy]

You can almost always get on a killmail in a helios if you remember one thing: IT HAS A DRONE BAY! That's right. 5 m^3 for that warrior II, just for KM whoring. Almost but not quite makes up for the ship turning like a pregnant sow filled with cement and the missing high slot.

Also, as far as missions: I've got about 150 million SP of mission grinding capability across my accounts. Marauders for the 3 useful NPCing races (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente), command ships (Minmatar, Caldari) -- the works. If you can figure out a way to motivate my lazy ass to undock the mission whore characters I'd be happy to help out with the grind as well. Falling asleep and being stupid (see posting above for ~1B of mission grinding hardware going poof) has put a damper on my desire to roll another mission ever again. But I have access to any L4 empire agent, and a good portion of 0.0 pirate ones as well.

 

[Genx87]

When I get sick of being a pussy mission whore. Ill have to join your corp martimus. Sounds you guys have a blast.

 

[Riverhound777]

Someone should look up my old character Fruchten. I wonder if he is still active. I had 43mill skillpoints when I quit a few years ago and sold him to a corpmate. He was one badass char.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: v8envy
You can almost always get on a killmail in a helios if you remember one thing: IT HAS A DRONE BAY! That's right. 5 m^3 for that warrior II, just for KM whoring. Almost but not quite makes up for the ship turning like a pregnant sow filled with cement and the missing high slot.

Also, as far as missions: I've got about 150 million SP of mission grinding capability across my accounts. Marauders for the 3 useful NPCing races (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente), command ships (Minmatar, Caldari) -- the works. If you can figure out a way to motivate my lazy ass to undock the mission whore characters I'd be happy to help out with the grind as well. Falling asleep and being stupid (see posting above for ~1B of mission grinding hardware going poof) has put a damper on my desire to roll another mission ever again. But I have access to any L4 empire agent, and a good portion of 0.0 pirate ones as well.

Speaking of Mauraders, I found a WH yesterday in our home system that had a Palladin, Abbadon, and two Harbingers in it. I started probing for the Palladin, and almost immediately, one of the Harbingers came up next to me and sat at the WH I just came out of. I reported it, but all of us wanted to kill the Palladin, so we left the Harbinger alone. I finished probing the Palladin out, and warped at 100km. He was in a Deathstar type POS, along with the other ships. As it turned out, this person was living in WH space, and also had a Vengeance, Prorator, and Anathema in the POSes Ship Maintenance Bay. (I know this because I stalked him in my Helios for about 3 hours, while he did his errands. )

At one point he left his Harbinger and got into his Paladin. JACKPOT I thought, but he just sat there for about 5 minutes, perhaps wondering if he should go run the CA's in the Class 5 WH that was stable in there. He thought better of it (he likely saw my combat probes on scan earlier, and decided against it) and instead got into his Prorator. He took that out to my WH, and left the system to get fuel and whatnot for the POS. We could have ganked him on the way back, as we had a full fleet ready for him at this point, but we wanted that Palladin. We had also planned on ransoming his POD and threaten to bubble the entries to the WH and close them so he couldn't get back to his POS and lose Billions of ISK worth of ships when he had no entry into his wormhole. Anyway, we let him back in, and I continued to stalk him while he took out his Anathema to check out the other two WH entrances in the system.

He eventually went back to his POS and got into his Vengeance, and went between the different entrances continuing to scout, as if he were going to run some CA's in his Palladin after he felt sufficiently safe. Eventually, his paranoia got the better of him, and he went back to his POS and logged off, after wasting 3-4 hours of my time. I waited another 2-3 hours to see if he would log back in, before I logged off myself. Oh well, sometime you get chickens, and sometimes you get feathers.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Genx87
When I get sick of being a pussy mission whore. Ill have to join your corp martimus. Sounds you guys have a blast.

Cool. It is always nice to have new members.

 

[Raduque]

I'm running L3s on my main and salvaging with my alt now, so my cashflow should increase substantially sometime soon - I'll be buying ships for PVP soon.

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: JSt0rm01
I was with martimus on that wh and its moments like those that you go aha, this is different. Martimus is becoming an expert with probes

Thanks for the complement.

I am having some fun in my Helios right now. It does get in the way of my modest Kill-board goals though, as I can't get on many kills when I am probing out the enemy. But it is fun nonetheless. I have only been able to get on 2 of the kills of the 6 ships I have probed out thus far, and the first one was because I actually BM'ed the ships location, docked, and got a combat ship. But it is actually pretty fun, and somewhat exciting, as if they move while I am trying to get a proper warp in point, they could decloak me and I would be dead almost instantly. I have been flying this ship for 2 weeks now, and it has become a habit to undock with this ship first to probe for wormholes before I even go out on a roam through low-sec.

I used to run missions and Ops with my newer corp members rather frequently, but lately I have been shirking that. I really need to get back into helping out the newer members more often, and try to incorporate them into my new habits if they want to join. For those members from this site, I appologize for that. I'm going to try to get you guys out with me on the next Wormhole I find. If any of you need agent standings, I will run a few L4 missions with you later this week as well. I know I am not the most experienced member, but I will help you with what I can.

Heh... I just got to level II's and I dont' play all the time so I imagine it will be a while until I get to Level IV missions

 

[v8envy]

With a Drake you can be running level IIIs your first week and at least tanking L4s by week 2-3 (if you have the standings that is). That ship (as all missile spam platforms) is insanely newbie skill friendly. I remember running L3 blockade with 50,000 SP in missiles, BC III and about 300k SP total. I think this was back in 2006, before new characters got 800k SP to start or doubled training time.

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: v8envy
With a Drake you can be running level IIIs your first week and at least tanking L4s by week 2-3 (if you have the standings that is). That ship (as all missile spam platforms) is insanely newbie skill friendly. I remember running L3 blockade with 50,000 SP in missiles, BC III and about 300k SP total. I think this was back in 2006, before new characters got 800k SP to start or doubled training time.

Ok, but I don't even know what a drake is. And you are saying missiles... I can't even use missiles. I went the drone route. Some L2's even are tough for me right now (though most are fine).

 

[v8envy]

What you have to realize is eve is balanced differently for PvP than PvE. In fact, the two are completely different games. Any PvE setup is easy meat for just about any PvP setup, and very few PvP setups can stand up to a wall of NPCs never mind be efficient at mulching.

Missiles are regarded as primarily an NPCing weapon. They have drawbacks and benefits which make them perfect for missioning but inferior to every other weapon system otherwise. They also take far fewer SPs to be effective than any other weapon system.

The Drake is a Caldari battlecruiser designed for an obscene, low skill point tank and missile spamming. You would need Caldari frigate IV, Caldari Cruiser III, Battlecruiser III and Heavy Missiles III to use it for any level3 you feel like. That's about a 4 day training program starting with a brand new character. As you improve missile, BC, shield tank and drone skills it'll continue to get better.

On the way to the Drake you get to use the Caracal -- a minidrake if you will. Unlike the Vexor, a Caracal will have zero problems with any level2.

You don't even need good fitting or capacitor skills to fly passive shielded Caldari NPC mulching machinery. Unlike every other race where capacitor = life.

For other races you typically need a frigate/destroyer for L1, cruiser for L2, BC for L3 and a BS for L4. A Drake (and command ship variants) is suitable for L1-L5. Drake's t2 bothers, the Vulture and Nighthawk can even solo some level 5s.

 

[datalink7]

Ok, good info. Though I'm not sure if it is worth it. I can already fly the BC for my faction (Gallente Myrmidon). Just don't have the money yet (I just made my first 10 million, yay).

I am currently 11 hours from getting Scout Drone Operation V, then I can to Gallente specialization and get Hammerhead level II's. Not sure I should put all that on hold and go towards the skills for a Drake?

 

[Genx87]

The Caldari missile boats are supposedly the most uber for PVE. If you want to be the absolute efficient for missions I think the Raven is supposed to be tops. Knowing that, I still went down the drones path and currently fly a myrmidon on my way to a domi. Drones + defense for me.

It all depends what you want to do with your character.

 

[Michael]

I like my Domi for missioning because I can get to a certain point in any level 4, and just let it sit in space and my drones will auto aggro and kill everything. At my skill point level and fittings, this is usually very early in a mission. At worst, it is the last wave.

This lets me go do other things while isk rolls into my wallet.

Myrdin

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Michael
I like my Domi for missioning because I can get to a certain point in any level 4, and just let it sit in space and my drones will auto aggro and kill everything. At my skill point level and fittings, this is usually very early in a mission. At worst, it is the last wave.

This lets me go do other things while isk rolls into my wallet.

Myrdin

I agree. I do the same. The Domi is the best AFK T1 BS missioner around, but it is subject to neuting. So far there has only been two L4 missions, that could could not aggro the entire room with 2 large reps and 4 mission specific hardeners going, and one is the bonus room for AE. (Can't remember the other, but the Domi does have an effective 900 DPS tank with my meager skills.)

I have found in Plexes, Caldari ships often have problems, since many of the Overseers have defender missiles, and if you get in range to negate their defender missiles, they increase their local repair rates (to godly levels). Plus, in my area the Blood Raiders have heavy EM damage, which is also Gallente's BS's best resistance (and Caldari's worst). So in that case, Caldari is inferior, but for the most part they have some mean tanks, and good damage to boot.

In WH's, on the other hand, I had a hard time keeping drones alive against the sleepers. So a non drone boat would likely do better. I would prefer to fly caldari there, since the only regularly available Logistics pilot flies a Basilisk and Scimitar. Maybe I will train my alt to fly a Guardian after I am done training him for a Freighter. Or maybe I will probe with my main, and train my alt to fly a Drake for Wormhole space.

 

[v8envy]

One of my characters has Gallente BS V, Drone Interfacing V, perfect fitting and armor tanking skills, blah blah. So I have experienced the wonders you speak of. A dual rep Domi is certainly a very safe ship to take into missions (and, in fact, is one of the very few PvE setups that has a prayer in PvP) and costs nothing to lose. However. It is also very slow at blowing up rats compared to a non-afk mission mulcher like the Navy Raven. There are very few ships which can tear apart NPCs as efficiently as a CNR or Nightmare/Paladin. Anyone getting into the whole "competitive missioning" mindset better start training both Caldari and Amarr now.

As far as EM -- two EM hardener IIs and an invuln field in the mids and you're at 82something % EM, 75% something thermal resist. That's comparable to a typical armor tank. Besides, with enough gank 400 dps tankage is enough (so long as you don't fall asleep).

The counter to overseer repping is a nos. I'm not kidding. It works on NPCs to lower their repair chances. You have 2 utility slots on a normal Raven to fill with 1200mm artillery or nos/neut too, and it can pack 3 sentries or 2 heavy/2 mid/1 light drones.

Martimus, I'd love to tag along to laugh at you if you try a logistics boat in a wormhole. Nothing makes sleepers go "OMFG KILL IT WITH FIRE" like turning on a remote rep. It is the only way to keep drones alive in w-space, in fact. Solid plan on the Drake alt -- HAM Drakes have even been used in PvP effectively.

 

[Michael]

We actually use 2 logistics ships repping each other. Sleepers go crazy trying to kill them. We're all remote rep fitted and at least our drones ae safe.

We tend to do level 3 wormholes, I've heard the class 5 and class 6 are extremely tough to run without the right crew and the right ships/set-up.

Myrdin

 

[Martimus]

Killing a large POS and all it's support modules with only Battleships (Even if you have 50 of them) takes a really long time. Completely ruined all my plans for Saturday.

 

[Raduque]

My schedule at work just increased so I'm unfortunately going to have less time for EVE. I'll only be on between the hours of 10am-2pm during the days now. I also only have one day off (it'll be either Sat or Sun, it changes) so I'll play some eve then, mainly in the evening.

 

[Michael]

I was up early today making sure that POS went *boom* after all the work reinforcing it. It went boom.

Tower mail

I was #3 in damage.

Michael

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Michael
I was up early today making sure that POS went *boom* after all the work reinforcing it. It went boom.

Tower mail

I was #3 in damage.

Michael

Nice job for a first try sniper fit. I should probably build a Megathron. I just can't seem to fit one with more DPS than my gank Brutix, although I am sure the Mega will tank gate guns much better. I was planning on waiting until I could use T2 large blasters, but it might be useful to have one before hand as I just don't seem very good with my logistics Domi.

EDIT: I lied, I just checked and I can easily fit a buffer tanked Mega with 25% more damage than my gank Brutix, with RR and twice the buffer. Other than Cost, I don't see why I shouldn't get one. (although my fit isn't remotely cap stable with MWD or RR running)

 

[Malak]

I don't know how you could think your Brutix would do more than a Thron. I was going to make a full Gallante fleet but since one of the throns is impossible to get I decided against it. Unless I could convince the current owner of the thron to give it up.