Ships & Modules

I have been flying a Dominix for a week, and have been, for the most part, only moderately satisfied. I am using beams on it, and I dont have very good weapon skills, so that is a drain on the DPS, but that is not why I had been unhappy about. It is slow, and I couldnt get my fit to work out well if I was going to have a MJD and afterburner, so I slow boat everywhere, which is mentally draining. I typically fly a Tengu, so I am used to four times the speed. The character has mediocre armor tanking skills, but can still fit T2 tank, and has been doing well overall.

On my Tengu pilot, I was fairly bored, so I decided to fit an SNI, and mess around. I cant use T2 Cruise, but I have excellent shield tanking skills, and all the missile support skills are in line, so I figured that it was worth a go. I took Angel Extravaganza, put on three mission specific hardeners (2 exp, 1 kin) and a Pith A-type large shield booster, and went out there. Rooms 1-5 went well, mostly without incident. Slow boating still sucked, but I had an AB on, so I could at least do 400m/s.

So I get into the bonus room and... Wow. Things went downhill quickly. I did as I always do, and dropped the cruise towers first, and then started on the sentries. I had to warp out after just 4 towers. This was fairly shocking, as my Tengu usually has to warp out on this room as well, but often manages a bit better, and I thought that the "legendary" tank on the SNI would hold better, especially with 91% exp, and 83% kin... So I go back in (10 minutes later, due to all the slow boating, being out of shields, and out of cap...) and have the same problem. I got through most of the towers, but was, again, forced to warp out. So I logged in my Dominix alt, and brought them both out. The Dominix was in first, and had no problems. MJD to a good distance, drop wardens, switch to Gardes when the ships were at 65km, no problems. Had half the stuff dropped by the time I brought the SNI back in.

I have done this bonus room on the Dominix 3 times prior to this, and never had a warp out. The Tengu has had problems, but not the Dominix. On my second warpout with the SNI, I has half way through my structure, and was already chalking up a loss on the ship. This is somewhat perplexing, as the SNI always seemed to have a great rep for its tank, and my shield skills on that char are great, while the armor skills on my Dominix are not. The Dominix had one exp, and one kin hardener, as well as a C-type LAR and a reactive armor, therefore not even as good resists. (low 80s on both)

So... Yeah. Any comments? Is this about right? Seems odd with my Dominix being a considerably better tank. (although I was range tanking a good deal, but still. Do I need to MJD the SNI as well for such occasions? I was sure that the tank would hold...)

TL;DR: Mediocre skilled Dominix pilot easily outtanks well skilled SNI pilot. Normal?

I do hope you are not using beams on a Domi....

I never shoot the towers first that could be your issue.

Firstly I fly vertically up, this speed tanks some incoming damage even in a BS.

I always go for battlecruisers first, they do a fair amount of damage but die easily, while setting my warrior IIs on the frigs also reducing the amount of incoming ewar.

Then cruisers, tougher to kill but they get in optimal quickly where they put out some nasty DPS.

Once cruisers are down move on to BS, then towers, then the trigger then the 2nd spawn.

I haven't had to bug out in a long time and I run with minimal tank.

I'd be willing to bet your SNI has a huge EM hole (Shield base is zero). And the Domi being armor tanked would have its best natural resists there.

You were taking some EM damage from something.

fit?

Bonus Pocket (Optional)

Whole pocket aggro as you warp-in.
Killing the Gist Seraphim battleship will trigger a spawn near the Angel Bunker.

Warning

Angel Cruise Missile Batteries spam Cataclysm Cruise Missile every 25 secs. Each missile deals 900 Thermal damage at 0% Therm resistance.
Tower Sentry Angel III fires every 2-3 secs. Each hit deals 80-250 Explosive damage at 0% Exp resistance.


Sentry Group: (20-70km)
2x Tower Sentry Angel II
5x Tower Sentry Angel III
2x Angel Light Missile Battery Piranha Light Missile
3x Angel Cruise Missile Battery Cataclysm Cruise Missile

Ship Group: (40-70km)
4x Elite Frigates (Angel Viper/Webfier/Arch Gistii Ruffian/Arch Gistii Nomad) Web/Scramble (Webifier/Viper) / Target Painters (Ruffian/Nomad)
4x Elite Cruisers (Arch Gistum Breaker)
3x Battlecruisers (Gistatis Legatus/Tribunus)
1x Battleship (Gist Seraphim) Trigger
4x Battleships (Gist Malakim/Warlord/Nephilim)

Single Spawn: Angel Bunker (40-45km)
5x Battleships (Gist Throne/Malakim)


http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=AngelExtragavanza4

Not one NPC, the whole room minus the towers.

When you enter the AE bonus room the rats are at about 70k+ at that range they do very little damage, once they get to 20k they are doing maximum DPS, so it's better to ignore the towers and focus on the rats, at least in my experience anyway because they move in pretty quickly, faster than you can kill the towers with a full gank marauder/faction BS.

If you spend time killing the towers the rats will by then be on top of you and force a warp out, though maybe this is due to the sort of setups I run.

I suspect a combination of range (MJD) and the SNI has /probably/ got low DPS without furies and in that room it's all about brining the pain urgently.

I do find it odd your tengu has to warp out though.

Some players jettison a can (i.e. containing 1 missile) and use it as an anchor for their Tengu and to orbit it. This reduces quit a bit of the incoming damage.

I have used the jettisoned can trick man times before, or orbited a beacon, or around a second ship (when I am not watching TV or something, I sometimes run two chars in a mission, and then have the Tengu orbit the Dominix) and it still takes a beating from the sentry towers. Nothing else really hits it, but the sentries do it a number. It is the only mission section that I have had to warp out from with the Tengu, with the rare exception of messing up and getting 2-3 webs on me while there is stuff close in.

I used to fly a Vargur, and yes, you are correct, it tanks like crazy. But it also has the huge advantage of faster cycling (autocannons) and being able to one shot frigs. If I put all 6 launchers, and both TPs on a frig, there are many that wont die in a single volley. My old Vargur would put two guns on each frig, and they insta popped, and I could shoot again a few seconds later. I spent more time targeting frigs than shooting them. Complete opposite with the SNI. My SNI has about 2 and a half minutes of cap for a full load, but I usually turn off the AB when taking heavy damage to double my cap time.

I put out drones for smaller stuff, obviously, but as I mentioned, it is, at least when I first warp in, mostly the sentries dealing damage. TPs from the frigs are annoying as well, but it doesnt really matter against the SNI, since it is so large, and not very quick. The TPs are likely what is hurting my Tengu, though.