Some advice needed on drone-boat 5-man fleet planning

Hello,

I am a returning player, dabbled in 5-boxing EVE a few years ago, mostly by running/training a mining team in hi-sec. I decided to return to EVE being a little burnt out boxing fantasy games (EQ2, WoW, Rift, Lotro). I use ISBoxer, has been for many years, and consider myself to be an advanced user.

I am returning to a team of one Orca (booster/hauler) and 4 Skiffs. Two of the miners already have pretty good drone skills trained and are already capable of using Sentries II, While I intend to continue mining from time to time, I would like to create a longer-term development plan to engage in other aspects of the game - initially in Hi-sec (missioning, exploration) and then moving on to more dangerous stuff in null-sec/wormholes. Traditionally I am not a PvPer while boxing, and while I foresee the need to defend myself against other players, I am not actively seeking to engage in PvP.

I researched this forum and got fascinated by an idea of run 5 RR spider-tanking drone boats (Dominix for example) with drone assist, this kinda feels right for me as a multiboxer :).

Obviously, initially I'd like to train while using smaller boats to get the hang of it, thus my post - I'd appreciate a word of advice on how to train my mining team into an efficient drone-centered combat unit.

Should I be training armor or shield tanking/support? I saw setups for both, but I am not experienced enough to make a choice. On the surface Domi is an armor ship...

Can Vexors or Myrmidons be used for RR spider-tanking to run missions? Even if using fleet in missions is overkill, I'd like to train myself and work on effecient ISboxer setup for repping, commanding drones and fleet movement etc. Or should I do ratting for training?

My Orca pilot has good command skills, should I be adding to that or its a waste on full domi fleet?

What are the logical next steps for a 5-man domi rr fleet after leaving hi-sec, e.g what types of activities should I be researching while relaxing with mining? I am pretty noobish in EVE, aside from mining, so any advice will be greatly appreciated. I make enough ISK from mining (about 90-100mm per hour) to afford good ships/fittings too, and for now I do not aim to Plex my accounts, so the idea is to have fun most of all. I also intend to stick with 5 accounts max.

Thanks in advance.

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Originally Posted by Alex66

Hello,

I am a returning player, dabbled in 5-boxing EVE a few years ago, mostly by running/training a mining team in hi-sec. I decided to return to EVE being a little burnt out boxing fantasy games (EQ2, WoW, Rift, Lotro). I use ISBoxer, has been for many years, and consider myself to be an advanced user.

I am returning to a team of one Orca (booster/hauler) and 4 Skiffs. Two of the miners already have pretty good drone skills trained and are already capable of using Sentries II, While I intend to continue mining from time to time, I would like to create a longer-term development plan to engage in other aspects of the game - initially in Hi-sec (missioning, exploration) and then moving on to more dangerous stuff in null-sec/wormholes. Traditionally I am not a PvPer while boxing, and while I foresee the need to defend myself against other players, I am not actively seeking to engage in PvP.

I researched this forum and got fascinated by an idea of run 5 RR spider-tanking drone boats (Dominix for example) with drone assist, this kinda feels right for me as a multiboxer :).

Obviously, initially I'd like to train while using smaller boats to get the hang of it, thus my post - I'd appreciate a word of advice on how to train my mining team into an efficient drone-centered combat unit.

Should I be training armor or shield tanking/support? I saw setups for both, but I am not experienced enough to make a choice. On the surface Domi is an armor ship...

Can Vexors or Myrmidons be used for RR spider-tanking to run missions? Even if using fleet in missions is overkill, I'd like to train myself and work on effecient ISboxer setup for repping, commanding drones and fleet movement etc. Or should I do ratting for training?

My Orca pilot has good command skills, should I be adding to that or its a waste on full domi fleet?

What are the logical next steps for a 5-man domi rr fleet after leaving hi-sec, e.g what types of activities should I be researching while relaxing with mining? I am pretty noobish in EVE, aside from mining, so any advice will be greatly appreciated. I make enough ISK from mining (about 90-100mm per hour) to afford good ships/fittings too, and for now I do not aim to Plex my accounts, so the idea is to have fun most of all. I also intend to stick with 5 accounts max.

Thanks in advance.

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Since one of the characters will not be able to target itself, it will remain lock on current target,

You are going to end up remote repairing enemy ship.... if you mine in null/low/wh.

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Originally Posted by shadowfoot

Since one of the characters will not be able to target itself, it will remain lock on current target, You are going to end up remote repairing enemy ship.... if you mine in null/low/wh.

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My idea was to have a lead drone boat with a single target painter, who will be the only one targeting enemy ships and calling shots, the rest of the team will assign drones to the lead ship and only target each other for cap feed and armor or shield remote repair by targeting via fleet broadcast window. They will not target any enemy ships, so they will be unable to heal them. The DPS is to come from drones only, no guns.

I highly suggest NOT doing spidertanking with 5 ships. Anything more than 3 ships and you'll give yourself an aneurysm trying to micro that shit.

Rather, I'd suggest running something like 2 logi, 3 dps for 5 chars. (or maybe a tinker 1 logi + 4 dps repping logi)

I also HIGHLY suggest gilas - they're a bit expensive, but they're freakin awesome, even with low SP.

I'd also recommend checking out the ingame channel "Oatmeal" for tips. If you're looking for a corp that's very friendly to multiboxers - you can find us all in the same channel. :)

Check out the "sleepover" thread for more info.

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Originally Posted by LordsServant

I highly suggest NOT doing spidertanking with 5 ships. Anything more than 3 ships and you'll give yourself an aneurysm trying to micro that shit.

Rather, I'd suggest running something like 2 logi, 3 dps for 5 chars. (or maybe a tinker 1 logi + 4 dps repping logi)

I also HIGHLY suggest gilas - they're a bit expensive, but they're freakin awesome

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Thanks for the input. Hmm, I was under the impression that RR spider-tanking is actually not that hard if you use isboxer's click bars and fleet history for calling your reps... more so if you don't use guns on non-lead ships. I watched Mosg2's YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jjridfGJMM, as well as looked at this forum thread http://isboxer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2474 and it seemed to me it is not actually all that complicated. I could be wrong I suppose, but I would like to understand what makes it more complex than healing in WoW for example. I liked the notion of spider-tanking vs. Logi support primarily because all 5 ships contribute to dps via their drones and that I have no need to sync enemy targets across dps since no guns are being used. The combined rep power of 5 ships seems awesome thing to have too.

As to Gila - I actually own a shiny one from my past days when I was toying with sentries and briefly running some solo stuff to get a taste of combat in EVE. My understanding was that it is now more of a medium-drone centered boat, and I was thinking about fitting it for exploration stuff to swap out one Domi in the fleet for such activities.

I did read your "sleepover" thread too and will be dropping into your chat channel for tips etc., thx for the suggestion.

OK, the spider fleet idea was effectively shot down by CCP's announced changes to multiboxing. It relies heavily of repeater regions. which are being banned. I am thinking about LordServant's suggestion in the post above - maybe having 3 dps Gilas and 2 logi for healing or some such.

LordServant, what would be your recommended 3 x Gila plus 2 x Logi ship setups assuming no repeater, only video FX feeds? My orca pilot has good Leadership skills, ideally would love to use those too via warfare links on one of the ships.

Ok, I am thinking about three of these Gilas for DPS:

[Gila, Gila - Missions etc]

Drone Link Augmentor II
3x Prototype 'Arbalest' Rapid Light Missile Launcher (Inferno Light Missile)

2x Omnidirectional Tracking Link II (Optimal Range Script)
2x Large Shield Extender II
10MN Afterburner II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

3x Drone Damage Amplifier II
Damage Control II

3x Medium Core Defense Field Purger I

2x Vespa II
2x Hammerhead II

DC2 makes me more secure as I dont have much combat experience, which is also why I dont want to use any bling for now, just T2 stuff. It is cap stable with my skills with AB on, cannot fit fourth Arbalest due to CPU. Any thoughts on this fit and also which 2 support ships I should be looking at for my other 2 toons?

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Originally Posted by Alex66

Ok, I am thinking about three of these Gilas for DPS:

[Gila, Gila - Missions etc]

Drone Link Augmentor II
3x Prototype 'Arbalest' Rapid Light Missile Launcher (Inferno Light Missile)

2x Omnidirectional Tracking Link II (Optimal Range Script)
2x Large Shield Extender II
10MN Afterburner II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

3x Drone Damage Amplifier II
Damage Control II

3x Medium Core Defense Field Purger I

2x Vespa II
2x Hammerhead II

DC2 makes me more secure as I dont have much combat experience, which is also why I dont want to use any bling for now, just T2 stuff. It is cap stable with my skills with AB on, cannot fit fourth Arbalest due to CPU. Any thoughts on this fit and also which 2 support ships I should be looking at for my other 2 toons?

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If you were to go shields I would look into the Osprey and than training for Basilisk.

With my 2 Basilisk pilots once I max train them for logistics I will further train them for the Falcon for manual attempt at pvp.