Missions & Complexes

So, I recently obtained a Drake, and got given my first level 3 mission in it - the Blockade. Now, you can imagine my thinking (****) so I jumped right in as a first test in the Drake. I noticed the pithium stuff hitting me surprising hard, despite both of my invulnerability shields were active, forcing me to warp out once I got to armour. Since then, I have basically have been warping out and in to take out 2-3 ships at a time (still on the first wave). This tactic has been going fairly well, but I have hit a problem. I am now down to the last 3 ships of the first wave (one of them being the trigger ship), and all 3 of them can regenerate their shields faster than I can kill them with all of my Heavy missile Launchers on them. They kite me, forcing me to activate my Afterburner, which results in my capacitor running dry before I am able to catch up.

I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong, here is my setup. Some friendly advice would be much appreciated.

Heavy Missile Launcher I x 6
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Shield I x 2
Large S-59 Regolith Shield Induction x 2
Shield Recharge I x 1
10MN Afterburner I x1
BC System x 2
Shield Power Relay I x 2

Using Scourge Heavy Missile as ammunition.

Now, I've had a look at people posting things like this in the past, and they were bombarded how low skill they were and 'how a ship is only as good as its player'. I am a noob, there is no denying that, but I just want to know what I am missing in my build/skills. I just don't see how upgrading my stuff to teir 2 level would counter this complete ownage. I was just under the impression that the Drake could own level 3 missions, so with my low levels I would be able to survive, but not completely own the mission

Thanks in Advance!

Lol, sounds very familiar. I am also far from an expert, having gone through the same thing, not long ago.

With regards to your shields, make sure you fit damage specific modules instead of the invulnerability ones, it will help.

For your damage problem, try moving to a slightly better launcher with a faster rate of fire (malkuth, arbalest, experimental) every bit helps. You don't mention your drone type, but getting to lvl2 drones will help your dps. If you are really stuck, swallow the cost and get some faction ammo to put it over the edge. You are usin scourge missiles, but if your BC skill is under 4, you are probably better off with the correct type (nm just realized gurista is Kin/therm). Also train the lower level missile skills, anything that gives you a bonus to rot or damage, if they aren't lvl 3 or 4, get them up..

Last thought, throw on a few ballistic control systems, and/or get some launcher rigs if you still can't out dps their tank

So, after fitting the drake with Kinetic and Thermil resist modules, I can now tank all of the damage, but I face a new problem. The dire pithium ships, worth 240k or so, are literally unkillable. The damage I do is instantly regened back up. I have no idea what to do here, these ships are impossible to kill, and there are 3 of them. I have 3500 scourge heavy missiles in my cargo, and I'm sure that is not enough to kill one of these cruisers, despite me being able to very easily take down the battlecruisers

However much ammunition you got wont change how much DPS you do, which is what will be the deciding factor in whether you can break their tank or not.

90DPS output will never kill a 100DPS tank. It's just simple numbers.

So what can you do? Increase your DPS is the first logical answer.
By increasing your skill in battlecruiser (to ship bonuses) or training heavy missiles (to increase overall damage).

Secondly you can increase your damage by adding modules to the ship. BCU's in your low slots is the first and easiest choice. Fitting a target painter in a medslot also helps (by increasing the signature of your target which in turn makes the missiles hit better). Furthermore, depending on the speed of your target, fitting webifiers to slow them down can also help increase the damage application of your missiles (bigger missiles do less damage to smaller ships due to 1) low signature radius and 2) high velocity factor).

And you can also invest in rigs for your drake, which can give you a bonus to damage, or a bonus to damage application on fast moving ships, or improve damage on ships with low signature and so on.

I saw someone mention neutralizers. Do they actually work on NPC ships now? Previously they didn't because rats had unlimited capacitor (which made them great for using a NOS however). Didn't know this had changed.

Yet another option is to switch out your Heavy Missile Launchers with Heavy Assault Missile Launchers. The assault ones are basically the cruiser size rocket launcheres. They have really short range by comparison to heavies, but they have a higher damage output. Granted, you might not be trained with assaults which in turn means your DPS will be low due to skills anyways... but it's an option as well.

So... what choices?

Train the skills that affect damage output.
Fit BCU's in lowslots.
Fit target painter in medslot
Fit stasis webifier in medslot
Install rigs
Swap HML's with HAM's

And of course, final option... bring friends :)

I do not know where your skills are at, but there are a large number of skills where each make you a little better. Training them all to L2 takes just a few hours. Things like rapid launch, warhead upgrades, missile projection. It is better to have all such skills to L2 rather than one to L3, and takes less time too.

Look through the skill list, look at the description of each, and ask "Will this help me?" If the answer is yes, get the skill and train it to L2. Worry about higher levels once you got anything and everything helpful at least to L2. Then start cherry picking skills up to L3 and then higher.

Heh I just got my new shiny Harbinger decked out in T2 Pulse lasers, T2 drones, and everything else T2. My first mission was this one Sunday. What a doozy of a mission. I had to warp out 3 times to finish it off. I was using mission specific hardners as well. Finally had to look it up because I couldnt believe this ship was not going through this lvl 3 like a hot knife through butter. Turns out this is one of the hardest ones out there.

I ended up having the drones work over ships while using the AB to bring them within range of my lasers.

If you can get through this one you can probably get through any lvl 3 out there. The next mission I got was an absolute breeze.

eve-survival.org will help you a lot.

All great advice. As I recall you can warp within the mission space.

Don't feel bad everyone has gone WTF? the first time with this one.

was just thinking.

Drake is a stepping stone for missioners. If they drop the resists/nerf it. These players will be hit the hardest.

/not intending to de-rail the thread.

I ran my L3 in Hurricanes and Cyclones. Somehow I managed.

I also don't want to de-rail the thread, I only want to point out that people have been doing L3 with ships other than Drake for some time.



As far as the OP. Most of his errors where already pointed out. Just want to reiterate:
* fit rat specific resists, none of that omni tank bull crap
* fit full rack of launchers, 7 launchers, not 6
* blockade lets you warp at the distance you want, you are not forced to warp in at specific point, so use this ability
* blockade is not gated, you can make a bookmark and warp in with reference to the bookmark
* upgrade your launchers, meta 1 and 2 launchers are not that expansive, you probably have some from the loot from l2 missions

Tau's fit will do the trick.