Missions & Complexes

I've noticed that an NPC corp has a level 5 security agent in a station near our space. Seeing the possibilities, I have some questions about what it takes to run a level 5 mission.

1. What rep with the host corporation do you need in order to access a level 5 agent?
2. I am aware that level 5 missions are meant to be run by fleets, rather than solo. How many of what size ships does one need to successfully run a level 5 comfortably?
3. What kind of rep/isk/LP rewards does a level 5 mission typically give?
4. Are level 5 missions any longer than other security missions? Or just harder?

Pinstar:

Some things I recall from running level 5 missions for Fed Navy in Stacmon and surrounding high sec before they were moved back to low sec.

* Loyalty points vary from 70 - 100k per mission (with my social skills at that time)

* Bounties are probably comparable per hour to a high sec level 4 - after you factor in that you really need several people to do a level 5 efficiently - and you split them several ways

* Some of the level 5 missions are listed in the mission guide. Check there first and see if the mission has a blitz

* Missions vary and may be against the opposing faction navy, drones or normal rats, e.g. Sanshas

* Faction navy missions pay in tags rather than bounties but the plus is that there are a lot of high end navy tags and these are the most in demand, the minus is that they need to be looted

* Don't expect awesome salvage, it's pretty nuch comparable to a good level 4, at least based on my experience

* Some L5 can be blitzed, see the mission guide to check the mission

* There are probably some L5 missions that aren't listed in the mission guide

* There can be some nice extras, one mission that I did had a Sansha Mainframe there that dropped an extra 60 mill in stuff when I hacked it, if I recall correctly, although hacking and analyzing will cause extra spawns to appear as well. In this case several high value BS

* L5 are not designed to be solo-ed though people have done it in passive Nighthawks / Ishtars. It is going to be time-consuming though unless it's a blitz-able one. People have been known to solo them in Carriers - King Rothgar used to post on this subject

* When I used to do them I was with two corp mates and our setup was Raven, brick Domi and RR Rokh though we often had a few other people tag along

* They can be tough and you need to stay alert, one guy lost a Navy Mega cus he pulled too much aggro and we couldn't get the rats off him quick enough to save him

* They often have neut towers. I can remember one where there were 12 neut plus 12 cruise towers at 100km from the warp in. In that one misson the Raven came in handy as I just spammed cruise at the towers first to help the Domi tank

* Running them with a couple of logi, a brick to go in first and get aggro, plus some DPS, preferably with ability to use long range ammo / have some prop mods is recommended

* You can pod in to get a quick idea of what the mission is like if it isn't listed on the survival guide

* Some are gated some aren't

An Ishtar? Could someone suggest a build that could, in theory, solo these?

Decent ISK if you blitz for the LP, but a hassle to unload it. Perfectly doable solo with passive fits that can tank around 1k dps+, duo makes it a lot easier, anything more makes it a cakewalk but starts to cut into your profit share. Knowledge is key, look up all the missions, if you know what you're doing and pay attention they're perfectly safe to run even with a carrier. Those missions that aren't blitzable will take awhile, but those that are can be even shorter than your average lvl IV.

All in all, not worth it as an income source when compared to exploration/incursions/WH's/anything else really, but can be fun to do for the challenge and if you're based in an area where agents are available. Standing requirement is 7.0 I believe. Also very good ISK if you farm faction missions for the tags, but get ready to tank your faction standing with the opposing factions if you take that route.