Mission Strategies

[Redbeard]

So I've been thinking a lot about ship composition for missions lately. As much as I enjoy mining, missions are really where the money is at high sec wise. People make good money SOLOing missions.. im bringing 6 ships, so I am trying to figure out the best way to just utterly annihilate these things so I can chain them.

Whatever i bring will be overkill since L4s are meant to be soloed. Im thinking, as a basis for the group:

1 gang linking strategic cruiser. If I go shields, were talking tengu. If I go armor, were talking legion.
1 noctis for full time looting / salvaging.

That leaves 4 ships. Again this will depend on whether I go shield or armor tanking.

- Read some good points online about using missile boats... basically, if im bringing this many ships, i want an "instant damage" type rather than missiles, because missiles have travel time so i could potentially be wasting ammo / time firing too many missiles at a target with 4 ships when the first missile in the volley would be sufficient.

- If I go with drone boats i will have zero ammo costs but will have to pay for lost / damaged drones. With this much fire power its feasible there wont be any lost drones, but you never know.

- t1 Laser weapons dont use depletable ammunition so after the initial investment, zero ammo cost.

Hmmm. 3 pimped domis perhaps?

Then Id just want a smaller ship type to help with fast frigs etc.

[ShadowKntSDS]

6 ships is uber overkill for missions. I'd consider a gang link setup for a level 4 a waste of pilot since there are no good DPS gang links. And, sadly, you get diminished returns pretty quickly. Once your pilots have enough skills to run a L4 by themselves, youd make more money by having each of them run their own missions rather than running them together. The time spent traveling between gates and back to your agent would easily be on par with the time you spent actually pew-pew-ing with that much fire power. This was a big complaint with EVE PVE, as playing with friend could lower your $/hour.

At least until worm holes came about. The wormhole encounters require team work unless you are running one of the lower level ones in a pimp ship. If you have 6 pilots, you could easily stomp most c1-c4's once properly setup.


That said, sentry drone domi's are awesome in groups. You can drop the drones, have them assist a gunship, and more or less forget about them. No travel time is a huge bonus. You can even use the high slots to remote rep.

[RobinGBrown]

Nice thing about Domis is you that they've got enough drone bay to have a second or third set of drones so you can switch from sentries to mediums or support

[Kromtor]

the domi, a beautiful metal whale of cost effective goodness.

[Redbeard]

if drones are set to assist, is it just like a "guard" or will they attack things I attack?

Im going back and forth on what i want to do.

I dont think I can manage running 6 missions at once lol. I was thinking maybe 2 groups of 3 could be cool.

One thing I know for sure is that, ESPECIALLY if im running more than 1 group, i want to overtank my stuff. The more i look into it though im thinking what about a killer running just a single gang link? Like for example rocking a nighthawk and then using the +shield resists gang link for good measure.

Not sure.

I know i hate hate hate hate having to warp out of missions... i have a domi on my main and he has maxed armor skills, etc. I tried an l4 last night and almost got popped they were doing so much damage to me. I dont know.

Id like to do an omnitank so I dont have to swap it aorund all the time but thats not necessarily going to be possible.

[ShadowKntSDS]

if drones are set to assist, is it just like a "guard" or will they attack things I attack?

Setting "Assist" on a fleet mate means they will attack w/e the fleet mate is attacking. We usually nominate someone as the "fire captain" for all the sentry drones to assist, and it is usually someone with a fast firing gun (lasers) so they can change targets faster after a bad guy goes pop. Sentry drones fire every ~4s, so there is some delay from when you first tell them to fire.

Im going back and forth on what i want to do.

I dont think I can manage running 6 missions at once lol. I was thinking maybe 2 groups of 3 could be cool.

Yeah running 6 missions at once is pretty unreasonable. 2 or 3 might be doable, especially in over tanked Domi's. You can take a uber tanked domi on a mission with no additional spawns, grab all the agro, release Ogre's and go make a sandwhich. 2-3 domi's would just make that faster. That said, it's not the most isk/hour efficient way to use a domi. If you micro manage it right, you can have a domi run with the best of them for solid DPS buy using guns and drones effectively, but that is hard to extend to 6 pilots easily.

One thing I know for sure is that, ESPECIALLY if im running more than 1 group, i want to overtank my stuff. The more i look into it though im thinking what about a killer running just a single gang link? Like for example rocking a nighthawk and then using the +shield resists gang link for good measure.

Not sure.

The gang mods that add resists stack funny, and generally dont add very much when it comes down to it. The ones that speed up repair rates coupled with the ones that reduce cap usage on reppers can easily boost your local and remotes tanks by 35%. That said, with the exception of a few missions, you should be able to tank the snot out of a domi without any gang links.


Additionally, since domi's don't NEED to use their high slots to do DPS, you could roll in with a few domis with remote reppers in the highs. Put 2x on each domi, and then have them all repair the one who gets agro. My posse has used 2x domis maxed out for remote rep to run C4 sites. These sites can crank out incoming ~3000 DPS and put level 4 missions to shame (random agro, 60km webs/scrams, remote repping rats, and other fun stuff).

I know i hate hate hate hate having to warp out of missions... i have a domi on my main and he has maxed armor skills, etc. I tried an l4 last night and almost got popped they were doing so much damage to me. I dont know.

Id like to do an omnitank so I dont have to swap it aorund all the time but thats not necessarily going to be possible.

These two are somewhat contradictory. If you want to take less damage, you dont want to omni tank. Surviving a level 4 with max armor skills is about fitting, not hitting triggers at the wrong time, and keeping agro off of your drones. You CAN omni tank a domi, especially if you put some $$$ into your fitting, but there is no need. Post up your fitting if you need some help.

[Redbeard]

Im at work, im sure my fitting is wonky though. It most certainly is NOT tailored for the mission I was doing... Ill just have to quit bellyaching and learn the missions damage types like everyone else so I can switch out drones / tank for effectiveness...

Dont know why im being weird, I know how the game works. Blah.

So you think just rock domis then shadow?

I could still split into two groups... train one char in each as the booster for the leadership bonuses (more hp etc)

If I was going to do that I would probably rock vexors for a whil in L2s (L3s?) to get the hang of it and skill up. HMMMM.

Edit:

When you did your remote rep gang how does that work? Does everyone still rock their own tank and then everyone focus fire RRs? those things eat a mean amount of cap. Or does nobody have their own reppers installed and you just rely on the gang?

[ShadowKntSDS]

Domi's are a great place to start. They are not the end all be all, but you can get a new character in them and contributing quickly. As long as they can tank themselves, even just some t1 drones add to the DPS. You can scale up to more DPS with more skills, and can add guns later. They would be my choice if i was building a 6 man team from scratch for level 4's.

It's pretty easy to setup a dual rep domi, and its hard to beat for ease of use. 2x repper, 3-4 hards, a DC, and then cap mods/rigs to suit. Any free slots can go to drone tracking modules.

[Redbeard]

Been pondering more, decided to drop 2 accounts. I dont need them for high sec mining and figuring out what to do mission wise was stressing me out... which defeats the whole purpose.

So rocking 4 now.

Can never make up my mind =P

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Still running 5 here. Eventual plan is to have 3 guys running missions, with one set up for mining for the missions that occasionally spawn rocks in the pockets, and a companion for him that does hauling, salvage and guards against rat spawns while he's cleaning up.

At least, that's what I'm thinking today. Running 5 guys at once ain't like WoW, fo sho. :P