Warfare & Tactics

Hi all,

I'm trying to find a way to avoid beeing warp scrambled in my lo-sec exploration trips. Until now I used to fly an Imicus (the gallente exploration ship), which has 3 low slots. I got scrambled by a player once with 2 warp stabs fitted and once by another one with 3 warp stabs fitted.

Actually, I've been told that 3 doesn't protect you much more than 2, I guess that's because PVPers often fit 3 warp scramblers ?

So I was wondering : what about flying a magnate (the Amarr exploration ship) : it has 4 low slots, allowing to fit 4 x warp stabs. Would it help me warping away ?

I understand that warp stabs have their drawbacks (radius sig and targeting range malus) but if I can warp away more often, I'm willing to sacrifice this.

Any thoughts ? Thanks in advance.

hes trying to explore which requires entering data sites and hacking cans. Which means you have to decloak and shift your attention to the mini game which makes you quite vulnerable.

It would seem to me that fitting the maximum # of core stabilizers you can, each one lets you escape a higher % of ganks. Gankers field varrying numbers of destab capability so youll never know how much you need so pack as many as you can.

Would have loved to be a fly on the wall watching the gankers face as you warpped off, I suggest staying away from that area for a bit cause next time they might be ready for you.

I must confess I can't tell for sure. Here is what I can *see* (but I'm fairly new to the game so maybe I do not understand everything) : they are not using probes to zero my ship or the site because I d-scan every 5 seconds or so and every time, there were no probes around me at all (I usually fly away where there are 4 probes around me on a site). Rather than that, it seems they already scouted the system and just d-scan me while i'm probing/ When they see I'm on the site, they just approach, decloak and attack (every single time, they were using stealth bombers). I would like to see them coming earlier : maybe there are some settings I don't know about on the d-scan ? Or another method ?
I've been ganked three times that way (many others tried but I always managed to escape before beeing reduced to my pod. To be entirely fair, it seems pretty hard to get a kill for them too and I'm not sure that's worth their efforts. Well, that's another problem entirely. I sure wish I could escape them even more often.

[Imicus, Damn Site Campers!]

Damage Control II
100mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Cargo Scanner II
Data Analyzer II
Relic Analyzer II

Core Probe Launcher I
Improved Cloaking Device II
75mm Gatling Rail II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Ancillary Current Router I
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I


Warrior II x4



Something like this would have about the same damage the two ships that killed you were capable of, assuming they have no tank, you might be able to take them out.

I realize you are far from flying this setup but it will give you something to work towards.

Thanks Dombe, I'll try to follow your advices regarding the systems I pick : until now, I just clicked on a random far away system and selected the "less secure travel" option on the map so I could have a looong list of nice low-sec systems following each other. I realize now that this is maybe a little too crude of an approach I also noticed that there were many more attempts to kill me yesterday, is it just bad luck or are the week-ends very busy in terms of piracy ?

How can you find so many details about the kills ? I'd like to add my killers on my watch list so I can be more careful next time but I didn't find the infos.

I'll give your setup a shot, even though I never actually fought in this game, except a few rats during the tutorial sessions.

Andracin, thanks for the link, I really like Jonny Pews videos : actually, he's one of the reasons why I chose the exploring carreer on this toon.

Dscan wont find cloaked ships so u can smash it as often as u want theyll still get u.

My understanding of the minigame is that its a race against the computer but i could be wrong and it doesnt matter because taking a break to dscan still wont show the cloaked ship.

The advice about going deeper into null is good

Gankers like these are like crocodiles; if you drink from the same spot twice they get an idea to probe down the sigs ahead of time and wait for you. It's lame to lurk a site for hours to kill a magnate, but...I've done it.

So keep moving, moving, moving not only system to system, but region to region.

Regarding the setup of your ship, skill trumps the ship bonuses, so I would suggest if you're efficient at it now in a T1 prober, you can ship up into a decent combat frigate (eg; Merlin, Maulus, Breacher, Condor) and go out there with enough tank and spank ability that a bomber (even rocket fit) won't be bothering you.

eg, if you fit up a small AAR Tormentor with 2 lazors and a probe, sacrifice mids to ONE analyser (just dock to swap), AB and web, you can tank the bomber's paltry rocket DPS while orbiting his soon-to-be carcass while your drones go to work. Pew pew.

If these guys a rocket fit, don't use a MWD; they'll be scramming you nine ways to sunday so MWD is worthless. But an AB will let you keep mobile and maybe break lock (overheat your web to get out of scram range and GTFO). Also train thermodynamics.

Once they lose a 40M bomber to a 8M ISK frigate, they won't be doing that again. Thereafter their only other option is a recon. Falcons will own you, Pilgrims will cap you out and drone-murder you, but you CAN win fights against Rapiers and Arazu's with a frigate.

300 mil in 2 days is pretty good when you say you played a lot do you mean like 12 hours a day or like 4 hours a day a lot?

Get Into a Covert Ops Scanning Ship ASAP.