Originally posted by: Malladine
Originally posted by: HumblePie
You can do L3 missions with only a normal frig. A passive tanked Rifter is more than enough for the occasional cruiser you'll run into during L3's. L4's you need a BC or a BS. Doing them in a BC is a bit tougher and takes a lot longer, but it can be done. LV4 missions in a BS is just retardedly easy if you have a built up ship.
yeah, i doubt that. Also, there are cruisers in level 1 missions, the fact you're saying "occasional" cruiser for L3s implies you have never done any...i find it hard to believe you're still fighting destroyers and frigates in L3s.
For the naysayers that don't believe me just do a search on the official forums for Passive Rifter. You'll see guides and videos of a well done and CHEAP rifter setup (meaning a newbie in a month of playing or so can get the setup) that can do pretty much all level 3 missions. Now, is it going to cost a few mil? Yeppers. But a few mill isk is nothing in the grand scheme of cash in the game. If you join a corp, chances are, the corp will just give you what you need as a newbie if you can't make enough to buy it yourself. It also does take about a month or so as well to get the skills needed as well for the setup.
Basically, you need to get the Rifter around 2K-ish shield totals if I remember, and not the shield rechargers but the other ones which drain your cap for shield recharge. Forgot what they are called. You end up with a Rifter recharging 60ish shield points per second at the "sweet" spot of your shield regen which I think is at 30% or so of your total shields.
I think it included a medium extender, a small extender, and three of those "rechargers" which I forgot the name of. Plus having good skills.
When I first started playing, I found the guide on the official forums and followed it word for word. Then I started learning more about the mechanics of the game and started tweaking things and making huge spreadsheets and REALLY got into the passive tanking aspect of the game which wasn't as big then. I basically took every ship possible in the game and use the absolute BEST possible upgrades for passive shield tanking potential and figured out which ship classes were the best for it and which were the worst. Basically, the Megathron base class Battle ships for non Cap ships are the best passive tanking ships in the game. The hurricane also passive tanks better than a drake too when all relative skills are maxed and with the best equipment. Now the drake is easier to passive tank out because of the inherent resistances. Meaning even if you don't have max skills and the best equipment, the drake setups will out passive tank a hurricane. But if you do have maxed skills and the best equipment available, then it won't due to a lack of slots on either mids or lows that the hurricane just flat out has way more of.
Anyhow, I would have to re-find that spreadsheet and give it all out. I did EVERY non capitol ship in the game along with a "minimum" amount of skills and basic equip, versus maxed out skills with good equip, versus the best possible setup that can be done for that. I tried multiple combination for everything.
But back to the original naysayers. Yes LVL 3's can be done in a passive rifter. Do they take a long time? Hell yah. Are most of them a piece of cake? Pretty much since there is little chance of dying. Is it the best in the long run? Depends on how you pick your missions. All you have to do to verify is search the official forums for the backlog of posts on it and I think there was some video's showing it as well.