Ships & Modules

Hello everyone, I am an alt fo someone who has flown carriers for a few years now, and multi boxes with them too, even in PVP!

Recently a friend asked me a number of general carrier related questions and how best to use one in a PVE environment to ensure good ticks as well as survivability.

The following is what i said.

1. say you ratting and you align towards a pos. how long from the moment when you hit warp to the moment you're in warp hard enough not to be pointed any more?

It's about 20-23 seconds from standstill, depending on what your Capital Ships skill is at, as affects agility. I think Advance Spaceship Command does too? Not sure. But about 20 seconds is the general norm.

If you are aligned already and hit warp when a neut appears next to you, you will warp as fast as a frigate/pod/any ship.

2. can carrriers be pointed with points (warp srambler) or do they have to be bubbled to stop them from warping/jumping?

Yep, they can be pointed just as a sub cap can be pointed: warp scram, warp disruptor, bubbles, focuesed warp points from Hics etc. Be aware though that when you are pointed even by 1 disruptor, you cannot jump away. In effect, jumping is the same as warping. I am not sure if having warp core stabs will let you jump, i assume yes.

3. would you dock up/safe up in a pos just because a neut/hostile is in the system or would you only dock up if: bubbler/hot dropper - yes, if just a solo ganker, no

I always dock/safe up when i see a neut/orange/red in local. I have local open in it's own window and there are few enough people in local so when a neut does jump in, i notice it immediately, and start warping.

If the system is cyno jammed, then that opens up options. Namely, was the guy reported in your intel channels? Is he a member of a known corp/alliance, or an unknown person? Member of a WH corp maybe?

If there is just one guy reported in intel and you get confirmation there is just one, then i would gate camp in my carrier with a Hic as well :) If the guy was not reported at all, then i would safe up, as that tells me he is most likely from a WH, so who knows how many others are waiting.

If a small gang comes in, i would safe up. But, if the system is cyno jammed AND there are other ratting carriers out and you are all in your own little fleet, then i would go and gank them as best i could. Carriers can rep each other for silly amounts so it's all fun and games. If it's not cyno jammed, then safe up. Last thing you need is a few Nyx's on ur head.

4. do carriers require a lot of tank vs rats ? I am currently ratting in a tengu+loki (flap me dead so much button pressing cant wait to rat in a carrier) and these guys don't need much tank - small, agile, 1 shield booster, 2-3 hardeners, maybe a boost amplifier thrown in, perma run everything np ? do ratting carriers need to devote a lot of slots to tanking or are you pretty free to have tons of fun stuff fitted ?

Not really. I use Archons to tank, and i have one repper, 1 hardener and 2 EANMs. the rest are cap mods. There is nothing in EVE that will kill a perma 2 Cap repper carrier. If you are wanting to use a Chimera, then one Cap shield booster and 3-4 hardeners + a boost amp and CPRs in the lows will be enough. Bear in mind i am talking about omni tanking and not rat specific tanking.

If you want to go rat specific tanking, then 2-3 hardeners are more than enough. One Cap booster and one boost amp would be fine.

I Can only fit a Sebo in a mid slot on my Archons, you may find that after a Sebo you will need to fit cap mods too :(

5. can carriers still deploy a flapton of sentries or only fighters? i remember reading something about a nerf like that a while back or does it only apply to supercarriers or never went in ?

Carriers can use every drone up to Fighters in EVE, so 10 Warrior 1's or 10 webber drones FTW! 10 fighters are good, i have found 10 sentries to be slightly better, but way more attention needs to be paid to spawns. They are pretty squishy, fighters can easily tank rats till they have killed them off, so depends on what you want to do more: relax or go faster.

Train up your Advance Drone Interfacing to 3 though and you get 3 more drones to chuck out; 30% more DPS is 30% more afterall. Use the two remaining slots for one Capital RR and one Capital cap xfer. This will allow any friendly subcaps or other carriers on the field to remain a lot longer.

6. roughly how far can carriers jump? i have no idea about lightyears in eve btw - say deklein or fountain - can a carrier with all 4s in jump skills go through 1 of those systems or half or two ?

Generally, about 10-12 systems. Be sure to check Dotlans jump planner though.

Having your JDFC to 4 is great, i never bothered with getting it to 5, thats usually just for jump freighter and SC pilots. I have JDC to 5 though.

7. triage modules are pretty expensive i think - do i need one just for ratting?

They should be between 40 to 60 mil each for the T1's. I have never bothered to train for one as there was never any need for it even when i was running around with Raiden killing the NC, my job was to cap the SCs up as fast as possible, and i did it fine without a triage module. Archon and Niddy pilots may already have one to rep POSs and stations up, and for the odd SC deployment, but meh. Usually a lot more trouble than they are worth unless you are in a small carrier gang ala R&K style.

Remember, when you enter triage you are stuck there for 5 minutes. Easily enough time for a titan to say hello with it's DD lol Had that happen a number of weeks ago, but i snuck into the POS field quicker than it could get me.

Really strange thread.
Informative i guess.

Ground level tips but important for people considering carrier as ratting ship.

I would like to add one comment to point 3. Even if system is cyno jammed I would still dock up. Chance somebody will have covert cyno are terribly small but its possible. It may take a while, but eventually no carrier can tank stealth bombers paired with pilgrim or two.

I agree that insuring carrier is not worth it. Nevertheless, do everything you can to avoid loosing it (make neutrals to blink in local, have local open in separate window, have neut or two and rack of heavy ECM drones). After all your corp/alliance leaders and mates may not be as forgiving as your wallet is...

In short carrier rating is grate ISK and safety but its also boring. If you look for excitement in PVE do sanctums in tier 3 bc. Similar ISK but null tank makes you go gray-hair in minutes ;)

With regards

Yes it does.

Whats more, with 5 mids you can add in one or even 2 Omni trackers for better sentry DPS too if you want to.

My advice would be, is that if you're a carrier the best thing that you can do now is fess up to your partner / loved one / significant other.

It'll only cause more pain in the long-run otherwise.

...

Also I'll probably pass this on to a couple of friends who're getting into carriers soon I guess.

People are a lot more die-hard about catching ratting carriers than they are catching some random tier1 battleship. If someone comes into your system, sees a carrier (yours) ratting, you can be 90% sure they'll remember your name and the system name and try to catch and kill you sooner or later.

No one would really invest time and effort into catching some random scrubby dominix they spotted ratting during a roam.

Good information! I'm training for a carrier at the moment but I probably have at least a year left.

range control units have any effect on fighters?

I don't fly a carrier yet but I have had fighters assigned to me. They can go anywhere in the system so I'm not sure how they could get more rage.

I don't fly a carrier yet so if I'm wrong don't pod me!

Found this thread was wondering why corps and such get all mad about carrier kills on their boards like what was said earlier that a faction fitted tengu cost more. What ever happened to playing this game for fun?