Missions & Complexes

Yep, so I finally gave in and focussed on drone-whoring skills (Ugh, I got some painful long training-times ahead) for an "all-in-one" solo* exploration Ishtar for losec, and eventually nullsec ninja-plexing.

But then a funny thing occurred to me:

I'm a lifelong PvE missile-thrower, and know almost nothing about using drones as one's primary weapon-system as opposed to the usual "Set to aggressive, launch, allow them to eat all the frigates and/or cruisers, whilst blapping the big stuff."

My Google-fu has turned up almost nothing, too.

So, a few questions for the experienced drone-whores in general, and PvE-Tar-in-hostile-space pilots in particular:

1) Sentry drones:

I want to be well off the warp-in beacon in the rooms in a 'plex, and will need to sig/speed tank, so how do you guys manage that with sentries--I'm thinking that one would poop out the sentries, set a wide (30+ km) orbit about them, let them blap the NPCs whilst they're burning in from range, and then fly back towards the drones when only a few NPCs are left to be ready to scoop them back up.

Or, should I launch lights first to deal with frigs, then use the 2 Heavy/2 Medium/1 Light grouping for the bigger ships, or lights and then sentries?

Are Tech 1 sentries and/or heavies "good enough" whilst I wait out the aforesaid painfully long trains for tech 2s?

2) Cloak/MWD:

The Ishtar's pathetic lack of CPU mandates the prototype cloak with medium-size guns, and having already tried the cloak/MWD trick getting the ship home, I notice that I can't get 75% of my normal speed with the proto cloak--it's close with three Inertia Stabilisers in the lows, but still needs to accelerate for a second or so before warping after you de-cloak, and a bit more without the I-Stabs.

Is this still good enough to slip most "average idiot"-type gate camps, or do you use implants (the ones that increase AB/MWD speed-boost) to make up the difference? I have Acceleration Control at level 4, will level 5 also help, preferably without needing implants? (I have the ship-agility skills at 5 already, and the 'Tar is quite manoeuverable, regardless.)

Also, I found that the Improved cloak will fit if you use small-size guns but will sacrifice about 50 DPS. Full skills with small neutrons will still do around 450-520 DPS, though (depending which drones are used), will this be enough for 6/10 and 7/10 (It should be more than enough for the 5/10s, my Drake does those just fine with much less, if slowly.) plexes as an alternative?

3) Tank:

Obviously sig/speed tanking is the main thing here (the ship is dual-prop'ed), which I'm used to doing with a PvE Tengu. Same deal, or any tricks/potential traps unique to this ship?

I do a fair bit of my explo in Angels space at the moment, and 3 Shadow-Serp Explosive hardeners give me about 86% resist, with the ship's native kinetic resists helping a lot, but EFT tells me I get around 200-ish tank vs. Angels--doesn't sound like a lot if things go pear-shaped (those webber towers in the Angel 5/10's last room need to die ASAP, or it will hurt a lot, even in a hard-tanked Drake). Or should I just stick to Serpentis and Guristas (475-ish tank against those factions)?

Thanks for the advice, people, o7.

Fly not-too-safe.

*Solo: As in, one player controlling one character. Because multi-booting is a crutch for lamers.

Fake-edit: The good ship The Jolly Crab shall ply the space-lanes soon(TM)!

Real-edit: I meant that it accelerates faster with the I-Stabs, not that it is faster, derp.

But I-Stabs get little handsome Tarryn off the gate in time


But, they are now consigned to the hangar, it's tank in the lows.

1) Get aggro, drop sentries and then either sit there or orbit a jetcan at like 500-1000 m (if you get visitors/combat probes, you can scoop them easily) - only if you need time to get tank stable should you go out farther. Flight of lights to deal with frigates (or if they are a bit out still, pop them with yer sentries) - however i much more like a buddy in another ship that takes care of the frigs. Personally i don't like heavies, because they travel slow.

2)Proto Cloak is not really good enough. To do the trick reliably you need improved cloak. Imo yes, you will pass most standard camps, but don't think that you can always make it - things that can happen: you derp on the cloaking, you jump and find yourself 2000 m from someone, they have fast decloakers, they have littered the gate with junk/drones. However those situations are not that often in my experience (well and you should know where to be cautious).
As to fitting: look into faction stuff that saves cpu - like hardeners for instance. Fits are tight as is.

3)Armor 'tar is fantastic in Serpentis and Gurista space, but will suck in Angel space. As said, better shield tank it or get a Gila. And yes an afterburner will help you significantly. This means either refitting between travel and site or dual-propping it (or just go with ab only )

Oh and put sentry rigs and/or ddas.

It's not complicated. i trained Gal/Cal cruiser to 4 (before i got my ishtar) and then bought a gila. Fitted it for 1200 passive shield regen against Guris, a probe launcher and a cloak then fit Some ogre II's - it was about 140 for the gila and about 40 for the rest of the gear.

I made sure i didnt go into anything bigger than an 8/10 and then i let my heavies slowly beat everything to death while i watched tv.

The people above take this far too seriously. it's money for nothing and not difficult.

Y u no give a link? :)
For the others interested: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=30338

Derp, sorry, my bad--everyone should go read that, though.