Combat Pilots

[Jeros]

At the moment im zipping around in a thorax and i chose my char as a solider when i started.

I seem to get eaten easily on LVL2 missions a lot of the time tho

Heres the setup i usally run

HI: 250mm Railgun, 2x 200mm Railgun, tractor beam, salvager

Med: Targeting computer, target painter, target painter

Low: Med armour repper, Reactor control unit, 800mm armour, resistance plating, resistance plating.

Drones: Hammerheads

This is all cheap t1 stuff btw

What am i doing wrong?, i have had my account for ages but not really played much.

Im thinking of changing to a setup with lots of capaciter rechargers and duel armour reppers

Trying to get enough to get myself a brutix, was thinking that maybe using a interceptor would be a better option for the lvl 2 missons im doing at the moment.

 

[rynnor]

A lot depends on your skills you have trained - have you considered a cap booster and active hardeners rather than passive resists?

 

[taB]

Right, I've not flown a Thorax but a few points:

Do the target painters do anything for railguns? Not sure that they do.

A cruiser is pretty mobile, yet you've filled a high-slot that could hold a gun with a tractor beam.

Resistance Platings are pretty shit - try and get some energized membranes on there. One rep should be more than enough for level 2 missions.

Resistance rigs are very cheap (relatively to others), you could consider putting one each of kinetic, thermal & explosive on there - they are the weaker resists.

Get EFT and have a play around with various mods. I would start with 4/5 guns of the same type and then build a tank onto that.

 

[Ctuchik]

no, target painters are for minmatar guns only, and missiles IIRC.

but anyway, ditch the armor plating and get some more resists. check up what damage the mobs u fight do and use resists to counter that with active hardeners if you can fit them. and a damage control is also a really good mod as it wont get any penalty from stacking it with the active hardeners (or passives)..

and imo Cap rechargers >>> Cap bosters, lose the target painters and fit 2 cap rechargers instead. boosters may be better if u need cap NOW, but u wont have any space in your cargo for loot because the "ammo" for the boosters takes up a shitload. can even lose the targetting computer for a third recharger if you want. and railguns is probably not the best you can use on low lvl missions as the mobs there usually try to swarm you at 5 - 10 km making you miss alot with railguns that usual have a opt at 30+ km. try blasters insted.

 

[Ctuchik]

.

Resistance rigs are very cheap (relatively to others),

probably would still cost more then twice each what the thorax cost. and tbh its no worth losing those rigs on a T1 ship anything.

 

[Sharkith]

what these guys said - you want the following as quickly as possible:

Damage Control II or Damage control I

Active hadners that are race specific - i.e. you only need to tank two types of damage so buy enough hardners for each damage type - use those over and above the Damage control. One repper should be enough.

A big point worth considering is that 5 100mm T2 guns does more damage than say 4 tech I 125mm guns. Always fit the most guns you can and try to have them all at the same calibre - because you want to be working off the range bonus of your ammo. The more dps you do the less you have to tank. Your drones might be too heavy for the rats. if your trying to kill frigtes then Hammerheads could be too slow to do enough damage and you might need to try out something faster.

I really am guessing your damage is too low. Another thing that you might be doing is engaging at the wrong distance for your ammo. Work out the optimum range of your guns. Then factor in the bonus range for the specific ammo and you will find out that you might be for example fighting too close for the ammo or too far away.

Also as Ctuchik says cap rechargers are way better than boosters - you want to eventually have tech two here as well.

 

[Jeros]

thanks everyone

I thought all drones were pretty much the same but just did different dmg types

I train myself up to get active hardeners and beef up the weapons, ill get a cheap frig with salvagers on for getting the nice salvage after the mission.

I did have cap rechargers at one point but i lost em when i lost a ship soo ill buy some more.

 

[Jeros]

Thanks guys, im doing much better now

5x Med Blasters

3x cap rechargers

repper, dmg control, cap recharger at the expense of shiled recharger thingy and 2x energized membranes

I took a entire amaar rat fleet down on one misson without getting into serious trouble or having to run away once

then i send in the frig with its 3x salvagers and AB

Still thinking of giving a inty a go tho

 

[taB]

Glad to hear it

I'm sure interceptors would work for a lvl 2, but they do lack fire-power. The Retribution (Amarr Assault Frigate) is a great mission ship for lvl 2s - I have run 3s in it also but they take a bit of time Shame it only has one mid-slot though.

Also, have a think about getting destroyers lvl 1 just for having an awesome salvage ship. When I did missions, I used a coercer with 4 salvagers & 4 tractor beams.

 

[rynnor]

Also, have a think about getting destroyers lvl 1 just for having an awesome salvage ship. When I did missions, I used a coercer with 4 salvagers & 4 tractor beams.

Aye - I have a catalyst with that fitting on my second account - very handy

 

[Jeros]

lol dint think of the destroyer thing

I already have destroyer skill as i saw it as the next logical step for when i got my first million isk

im quite liking the look of minimatar ships and projectile weapons look much more verstile than hybrids, might think about getting the skills for them, then again im sure gallente ships have some blaring advantage in combat....its the drones inst it?

 

[Ctuchik]

all factions can have lots of drones nowadays, the only ship that gallente is superior when it comes to drones is their carrier as far as i know. other then that its pretty equal across the factions now, with gallente having a few more ship with drone bays.


but i can be wrong as i havent trained any other race then amarr and minmatar so only really speaking from experience fighting them and looking at ship stats

 

[rynnor]

Yes - Gallente ships while still ok lost their major advantage in drones - the drone bandwidth change was a direct nerf to the gallente and hit the myrmidon in particular pretty hard.

Now they are ships with plenty of room for drones but not enough bandwidth to fly em all - lol

I'd go caldari - missiles are pretty powerfull and quick to train...

 

[Ctuchik]

just a slight tad oftopic, probably old for some but i giggle whenever i watch this

RMR, Blood, etc

 

[rynnor]

Lol! That first carrier looks like its still under construction - do they really look like that!!!

 

[LordjOX]

Nidhoggur

Yes they do
Looks cooler in Premium GFX though. But definately the coolest of Carriers, the minmatar one that is.

 

[Ctuchik]

yep. minmatar carriers (or minmatar ships in gereral) looks unfinished.

 

[rynnor]

yep. minmatar carriers (or minmatar ships in gereral) looks unfinished.

If you look closely at that carrier you can see scaffolding

 

[taB]

For some reason I reckon the Rorq was built by a Minnie

 

[Jeros]

Hmm finally almost got all the skills needed to get intercepters

thing is would a inty be a better ship than my thorax

half my time as a thorax seems to be running away from hordes of enemys trying to out range them with my railers

when i made a supa fast tristan a while back i was able to very slowly take down rat battleships in O.O without dying, my thorax would have not stood a change

so im tempted to give em a go

 

[Sharkith]

intys rock tbh in PvP - always good fun to play if you keep out of web range!!

Have you figured out how to use your on board scanner yet?

Nat

 

[Lexa]

As far as mission running goes if you plan on staying on the Gallentte ship route you want to work towards the HAC drone carrier (ishtar) and the Domi (BS drone carrier). Whilst blaster ships work at low levels they wont work in lvl 4 missions.

The Myrmidon is still a very good mission ship as it has a better passive tank than the drake although it can take a while to kill anything with it.

Although the undisputed king of mission running is the Caladri Raven, if you plan on doing serious mission running that's the way to go.

 

[Ctuchik]

As far as mission running goes if you plan on staying on the Gallentte ship route you want to work towards the HAC drone carrier (ishtar) and the Domi (BS drone carrier). Whilst blaster ships work at low levels they wont work in lvl 4 missions.

sure it will. if you have all the right skills theres np

tho most ppl dont

have a mate thats running lvl 4's in a blaster mega.

but yeah, if he gets one of those "uber" missions he aint going in there with blasters, but anything else is doable.

 

[Kev]

I mission in a blaster navy mega (neutron II's with a faction repper / tank) and its amazing. The character that i use to do my missions has level 5 caldari BS and level 5 gallante BS. the Raven is only better then the mega at longer ranges where the T2 425 rail fit lacks the volley damage of the Caldari Navy Raven. Up close and personal (Angel missions etc) the blaster mega is far far superior in every way. It's also alot more fun

 

[taB]

Well, I've passed 24mil SP & jumped into a Battleship for the first time. While I think a nightmare would be awesome, I just don't have that kind of isk, so have gone for an Abaddon. It seems to run well so far but I much prefer flying my Sac still - Gotta get T2 large lasers though to get the Abaddon properly working, got distracted bumping up my missile skills

 

[Kev]

The Abaddon is one amazing shp. I fly one for pvp when i am not in my Paladin. If you are going to use one for pve tho you would do well to go for the mega beam laser fit as it works really well (close range with Amarr Navy Multifreq and long with Amarr Navy Radio) Scaramunga, my amarr pvp alt, has just under 30 mill SP now with Amarr BS 5 / large pulse 5 and i tell you this now the Abaddon rips things to pieces.

This is the fit that i used to raise my sec in 0.0 recently.

HIGH'S : 8x Mega Modulated Energy Beam I - Amarr Navy Multifreq
MED'S : 4x CPR II
LOW'S : 1x LAR II, 1x Thermic II, 1x Kin II, 1x EANM II, 1x DC II, 1x HS II, 1x CPR II

RIGS : 3x CCC
DRONES : 5x Hammerhead II

Does quite nice DPS with really good resists. You can easily omnitank this beast by dropping the CPRII for a explosive II active hardenor. This ship is cap stable with the mids and lows the way they are but you NEED the rigs. Using T1 guna for the fitting and with amarr mutifreq the DPS is only slightly lower then using Gleam L in a MBL II

**Edit - This ship was used in a safe pocket of 0.0 with access to a station to dock in if a gang was comming down. We had advanced scouts positioned up the choke as well to keep us informed of any activity.

 

[taB]

That's pretty much what I have, with T2 rigs (lol) and a faction rep on top of that. Also for missions I can tank specific damage so stick an extra Heat Sink on. I'm generally using beams but switch to pulse for closer range missions.

I do spend most of my time in 0.0 and wouldn't rat in a BS in our space - nano gangs running through all the time. Sacrilege is awesome for that.

 

[Kev]

yeah hehe it can be a right pain in the ass I used a nano Pilgram for ratting when i needed to be able to warp out fast. i feel so dirty even thinking about flying an amarr missile boat ^^. Seems a waste to have 14 mill+ in gunnery to use missiles so i aint training em

 

[taB]

Khanid all the way If only there was a BS. Missile skills also mean I can fit them up on a curse as having all the highs with nos / neut now isn't terribly effective.

 

[Kev]

Khanid all the way If only there was a BS. Missile skills also mean I can fit them up on a curse as having all the highs with nos / neut now isn't terribly effective.

i beg to differ i fly a curse in our recon gangs (nano fit as it can't tank for toffee) and with recon 4 i can nos / neut at 32 - 35K, depending on type of NOS, away from the ship in question. Its really fun to use and i can nos/neut a ship dry with my talismen set in 20 - 40 seconds (even battleship class) With a simple staggering of the NOS's (i use 3 med nos II on the curse) i can rip a full cap 800 charge out of a BS's system in a matter of seconds. I have killed every ship under the sun, sub capital, with this setup.

NOS used right is still amazing.