Missions & Complexes

I had the same problem, though I was only in a Drake.

I was being super cautious, descanning every 2 seconds at maximum range.

As soon as I saw combat probes I warped to safe. Waited at the safe spot, cloaked, warped back tried to continue.

What happened though was someone had already scanned down the drake as I was warping out (I pre-aligned when running the escalation).

They also had one of my safe spots locked down too.

Apparently, they were watching me almost the entire time in their cloaky proteus and had a second char jump me obviously in a hurricane, whilst also warning me in local before they jumped in. They didn't attack, but they could have, very easily.

Seeing as the drake is such a high sig, they probably got me in 2 probe passes or even one perhaps.

No way around this as far as I could see, just abandon the escalation as soon as I saw probes. In the end though, they talked to me, were fairly nice, and let me run the escalation without attacking me or stealing the loot (which was crap anyway).

Lesson sort of learned - don't bother with HS->LS escalalations.

Very true. I don't mind so often, this looked like a one off occurance, and the prober was very determined - they took way over 1 1/2 hours to lock me down (though they might have been lurking for a long time before that).

I will still do LS escalations, but I leave them if they end up in bad hotspot systems (e.g Tama).

My experience is that they do work in most rated and unrated DED sites.

If you are using mwd's and are not sure if a site allows you to use it, just make sure you have a afterburner fit in the cargo hold and which out the mwd on the nearest station, if you find out it's not allowed.

Most of highsec escalations can potentially lead only to small c-type type gear so yeah, even if they drop they are not really worth it. Always check wiki and other articles first to see what is it you are risking your ship and pod for. Especially not worth risking a pimped T3 for small c-type stuff. But some can be done in a AF. Or could have been done before the new agro mechanics.

You can get A-type small modules from some escalations that take you into low-sec, you also have the chance of getting T2 implants, faction frig bpc and faction modules.

I've found it's pretty common to get bugger all at the last losec stage of Trap! I've run it in total about 6 times in total now, and nothing at all dropped - the wreck was empty every time. Random is random but seems a bit odd nothing was there.

while fitting my cnr i wanted to try out my really dusty manticore on and slapped a probe launcher on it... which led me to an escalation, and another and another.
so i now find myself like 16 jumps away from what i actually wanted to do i a ship with bs-sized weapons to kill cruisers and frigs.

it has been a blast so far.

maybe it is the stealth bomber, exploration new feel combo that gets me but i do not see me doing any mission right now or near future experiencing this~~

aaaanyway i got a little bit of a problem tough, last time i warped to the site the beacon was on acc-gate which decloaked me and the rats where in a neat pocket around me at 10-12km range.
some suicide mwd activation and lucky celestial which i was almost aligned to on warp in let me escape in hull (the excitement~)
there is no way to warp to something like 100km from the journal i guess? the solution i came up was to warp my pod in bookmark and come back with appropriate range.
my next encounter is in a 0.4 sec system and i see enemys everwhere and feel them breathing down my neck. so if there is some other way to get some distance on warp in i am all ears. got myself a medium shield extender as my second option to collect bookmarks but i guess thats suboptimal, the next time the scrambler rat could be right next to me on warp in right?

I'd have to disagree with you there, running in a T3 is a hell of a lot faster, often you can clear the site in minutes, rather than tens of minutes, by which time someone else will probably come along in their T3 and ninja the loot from in front of your nose, leaving you fuming! :P

I speak from experience here where a Tengu stole the loot from a 4/10 (which they smacked in local was the 650M item) then proceeded to bait me by dropping a can in it's place, whilst his corp mate entered the plex behind me...

Now instead of beating them, I've joined them, and it's far quicker to blitz sites in a tengu than any Drake (slowass) or a destroyer (which will find a 4/10 too hard to do).

Lots of good info here still.

I just had a high sec escalation that actually ended in high sec! A first.

Was one of the ones where you have to use a frigate. Lott was nothing to write home about. low grade snake alpha and I got tha tbefore I got the overseer.

Mission rats see through cloak now btw.