Wormholes

So the other thread reminded me to ask this. After seeing many WH's of all classes being sold with caps (saw a C1 for sale with 9 caps once). I was curious about caps in wormholes. This is specifically about caps in C4 and below.

I'm not asking to make fun of those tho build caps in lower class wormholes, but I am genuinely curious about the utility of them. In a C5-6 I understand. Cap escalations and the need to defend against attacking caps.

If you are big into mining I get a rorqual. But without cap escalations I don't see the need for dreads. Sure it could help pop your customs offices.

I've heard of (and helped try and gank, darn SD mechanics) site running carriers.

So for those who have built caps in lower class wormholes, how much use do you actually get out of them? Did you build them just because you could? (valid reason). Did you build them for potential system defense? If so how often have you actually used them?

Yeah, the only reasonable use or caps in lower class WHs is for system defense. However, before you go and build a cap for your solo c2 venture, do remember that a cap without a support fleet to back it up is completely useless so if you can't support it, don't build it. The presence of potential cap killmails increases the chance of being attacked in the first place.

I was in edge, and that may have been the OP where I played warpin all night (I had only been playing a couple of weeks).

Personally I tend to agree with the sentiment. the only cap IMO that generally seems to make sense would be a rorqual IF you like mining that much. still it seems the ROI would be a bit long. But then I am not a miner so I wouldn't know.

Given how many C1-C3 WH's are sold with caps I was genuinely interested in whether they get any real use. I am afraid most people are likely afraid to post as they will get trolled for having built them etc. But I was hoping someone would.

1) Capitals are very useful in running sites in c3-4 sites in terms of remote rep. Mainly this is the radar and mag sites, but they help in the 100% sites as well. Sure none of these sites are a problem for experienced players with the right ships, but a carrier lets you keep your newbies who just skilled to fly a drake alive against sleeper. (Or for amusement armor tank a shield drake.) This is pretty safe if you have scouts on all entrances, and probes looking for new holes.

2) People use caps to solo or dual box sites in c1-2, but this is just asking to get ganked.

3) A dread can be a good deterrent against invading forces as it's SOP to setup a staging POS when you siege a worm hole. (Personally I think it's a waste of good isk to build a dread in a c1-4.) Likewise a carriers fighters can really turn the tide of a battle without ever leaving the POS force field. Not mention carriers remote repair abilities if you risk them in battle.


All of this said a dread or carrier can actually make you less safe if it appears you don't have the means to defend your wh. An enemy carrier is a nightmare in a POS siege if you are facing 5-10 real people who know how to pvp in a well configured POS with POS gunners. On the other hand a poorly configured POS without gunners and one guy with 2-3 account is easy meat. Never underestimate the desire for a cap ship killmail on the part of your fellow players. Also a carrier or means you have isk and make a good ransom target.

You build and use caps in lower class wh for 2 reasons, defense.. and well because you can what else would you do with all that isk??? you get bored of every day running sites in Tengu's, Bs, etc.. its a nice change.... and because you can

IF someone sits right on the edge of the shield and assigns fighters to someone, that would mitigate the risk. Albeit slightly. Although in a c2 this is just about useless since 2 drakes will run it faster and you wont have fret too much if you lose both of them to a gank.

Id say the only use for having a carrier or dread in a low level hole is for the simple factor of saying "I have the biggest stick inside this hole."

I looted an officer-fit Archon from a C2 one day. It was a good day. The corp was German.

As for that C3 with the 9 caps, they actually tried to sell them to us when we ropecaged their POS. Upon declining the offer to buy stranded assets in a C3 lowsec none of us really wanted, the owners stripped and SDed them all. We left sadfaced. The owners were Germans.

There was once Eldorado: a C1 with 6 dreads and 2-3 carriers. Starbridge got them a week before we were ready. I'm not sure if it was due to defueling of the POSs or an actual fight, but yeah. Doesn't matter, really. Sadface. The owners were Germans.

We also were involved in an attmpt on some Germans (see the theme here?) who would regularly drop caps into bubbles on their hisec. This eventually resulted in 2 carriers SDing. Again, sadfaced.

I still have fingers in the pies of a hole where I've seen guys doing C3 sites in their Moros' and 2 Nids. But it's nice trying to hunt for the kill, but unless someone is really dumb (it happens) most of the time it results in SD.

Wow that's a lot of nice ships wasted! I don't know what's with the germans and SD'ing the ships when they're being held hostage, but I can see that they'd rather lose their ships than let you have them :P

My corp had a Chimera in our C2 for when we got a wormhole leading into a C3 or C4 so we can do ops in them. We also used it to help prevent anyone from trying to invade our home. We had about 10 or so people in the hole at the time, so we were more than prepared to back up our capital.