Ships & Modules

I have been away from Eve for a while and I know things have changed, but I cant figure this one out and I have been googling for days. I am flying a Navy Issued Scorpion and my friend is flying a Harbinger. I used to be able to fly into a Lvl 4 mission and grab all the aggro and then let him fly in and we could complete missions that way. Now that we have returned I fly into the mission grab all that I can and he flies in and get targeted and popped before he has a chance to move. What is the trick, equipment, etc. to be able to hold aggro as a beefy ship?

NPCs have been target switching now for a while (they use the old Sleeper AI). There's no magic bullet to prevent it. Some believe that running EWAR helps to draw NPC aggro, but the evidence for that is sketchy since CCP patched that exploit a while back. You can always run a flight of drones to give them more targets to cycle through though.

If it was me, I'd launch drones and put remote rep on your friend. Whether it draws aggro or not, it might help to keep him alive long enough for the NPCs to switch targets.

Thanks everyone, between this post and asking around in game, I'm coming to the conclusion that will will both have to run tank fits now instead of tank and dps. oh well...

If you've been away long enough then the naven ravy issue has had an extra mid slot added. the sizeable tank advantage the SNI had over the RNI isn't really there any more.

Edit: Also, look up micro jump drive modules, they can be added to ships as somewhat of a "panic button."

I believe that ewar increases your likelihood of being attacked but does not guarantee it eve doesn't have anything like a taunt that forces a target to attack you.

also your experience with drones is so far from mine I have no idea what to even say. The only thing I can think of is that new waves can target anything on the field and often whey will go for whatever drones are there. If they are already on field and attacking you the only thing that should ever switch to light drones is elite frigs. Of course incursions, burners, and sleepers have their own target priorities and I can't say what they will do. I also like sentry drones as I can scoop them whenever they take aggro.

Look on the bright side of the aggro swapping... if you ever go mad for a moment and warp to an incursion site and take the acceleration gate all by your lonesome... dropping 5 drones and aligning (if you can't warp immediately) JUST might save your life if you can tank long enough for the aggro to swap to one of those 5 drones. It works (sometimes!).