Ships & Modules

Today is a happy day, I can fly an Assault Frigate! But, I have questions too.

I will first use it for L3 missions and hi-sec exploration and maybe for low-sec missions & exploration with a friend. This will hopefully keep me busy while I train for my CovOps ship and more drone and scanning skills.

I really enjoy exploration and my next big goal is an Ishtar. I would like to get out of hi-sec reasonably soon, but I am only 2 months old and I don't think I will be very effective reaching my goals right now.

At first I wanted an Ishkur because I <3 my drones, but it looks like a blaster Enyo has such amazing damage and tank. So far I have flown a blaster and rail Incursus in L2 missions and blasters are a pain but they do so much damage!

Here is my current skill breakdown, if that will affect any recommendations: http://i.imgur.com/4yYdf.png I am training AF to 3 right now and then Hull Upgrades to 4 so I can train the passive armor resists.

I guess I'm just wondering what other people's experience has been with these 2 ships in PvE and which weapon platform is preferred for what I want to do. I read some old posts but it seems the ship has been changed recently so some of the fits don't work now.

Thank you for your reply! The time to apply damage is something that I was a little frustrated with in my Incursus so I'm glad to hear the Ishkur is competitive in action.

Do you recommend rails or blasters for the Ishkur? And what about a Magnetic field stabilizer vs Drone damage mod?

[Ishkur, PvE Rails]

Shadow Serpentis Energized Kinetic Membrane
Shadow Serpentis Energized Thermic Membrane
Small Armor Repairer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Experimental 1MN Afterburner I
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

125mm Railgun II, Spike S
125mm Railgun II, Spike S
125mm Railgun II, Spike S
[Empty High slot]

Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I


Hobgoblin II x5

I still have a fair bit of wiggle room for fitting, but that was what I came up with.

If you're running level 3's in an Ishkur, you may want to use blasters. Certainly rails are more practical for standard engagement, but there are some tough BC targets that can take a long time to pop with rails+drones. Everything else will die pretty handily to your drones. Blasters help you break the tank of the occasional (relative) big nasty that shows up.

Give them both a go and see how you feel.

Honestly I'm highly impressed that at 2 months old you are still flying frigs.

enyo is much better for dealing with serpentis. You're going to have trouble breaking serpentis bs tanks with just 200ish dps.

Ishkur is great for high sec exploration in serpentis and guristas space. Has no troubles with DED4 or any of the unrated complexes and escalations that spawn in high sec. The overseer battleship at the end of the DED4 missions takes a little while, but nothing unbearable. Overheating on that one helps.

You can also do lvl3 missions with it but it's a little slow. Honestly a myrmidon is a better option on all fronts for that.

Recommend railguns with antimatter. Don't use spike, you don't need the range, and lower dps/higher cost is bad. You'll go through a fair amount of ammo.

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[Ishkur, Exploration Rails]

Damage Control II
Shadow Serpentis Energized Thermic Membrane
Shadow Serpentis Energized Kinetic Membrane
Small Armor Repairer II

Experimental 1MN Afterburner I
Codebreaker I
Cap Recharger II

125mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge S
125mm Railgun II, Antimatter Charge S
Core Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe

Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I


Hobgoblin II x5

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~200dps @ 8k optimal with reasonable skills, has something ridiculous like 15k EHP tank and 170dps sustained tank vs. kin/therm. Just orbit a structure with AB on, pew pew to get aggro, and mind your drones. It's not quite cap stable, but to be honest if you're perma-running the repper you're in trouble anyway.

That's just what I'm using right now for hisec exploration, there are a bunch of ways you can modify the bits to taste.

• There's not much to do in the midslots: cap rechargers and exploration scanners. You could fit a tracking computer if you like but you'll run tight on CPU.
• Juggle resist/cap/damage between your low slots and rigs as you like
• The shadow serpentis energized plating is dirt cheap (like <400k cheap) and with decent armor comp skills, performs almost as well as an active hardener but uses no cap and less CPU. Highly recommended - you can step up to Corelum C-type for increased pimpage at very modest cost increase. To be quite honest, except in DED 4/10 or L3 missions, the rats never even break the shields so it's mostly a moot point.

The fit and its variations are mostly CPU limited. If you were to use non-energized resist plating you could probably get away with stepping up to 150mm's or using a MWD, but I don't really see a lot of value in either.

Don't try this fit in Angel space, though, due to fat explosive hole. And not appropriate for lowsec exploration.

The Ishkur is not the best choice for a lot of tasks. But it is fun. Running L3 missions in one is rather skill intensive, but you are on the edge of your seat flying through there.

Yes a Vexor would do it faster, and a Myrmadon is the best drone boat for the job. But it is exciting using a smaller faster ship to do the job of a big slow-boat.

The same goes for using a Kiting Talos for L4 missions. Sure a Megathron would do the job better, but we are doing this thing to have fun not just be efficient at isk/hour.

I like the idea of the shield tanked Iskhur with gank mods in the lows. Never really considered this before. I've never fit faction mods on a frigate before either though, haha.

You will love the Ishtar for it's battleship size firepower and nigh-invulnerability to serpentis/guristas (93% kin/therm resists with t2), it's an excellent goal to work for but it needs drone SP.

Ishkur is my default ship for highsec exploration in Serp/Guri space ... no problems with anything up to DED4 ... this fit is an experiment for Blood raiders, but they hurt on cap too much.

[Ishkur, explo]

Small Armor Repairer II
Coreli A-Type EM Plating
Coreli A-Type EM Plating
Damage Control II

Experimental 1MN Afterburner I
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
Codebreaker I

Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S (CN AM or Null)
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Core Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe

Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I


Hobgoblin II x5

The best thing about the ship is the multitasking .... usualy I send the drones to enjoy some frigates while I chew down the cruisers. If a big target shows up, concentrate all firepower on it. The best thing approach is to clear the frigates/dessies as fast as possible then nothing ever hits you if you maintain reasonable speed.