Missions & Complexes

Hey all,

Quick question. I posted up a thread a few months ago about the Gallente epic arc. Since that time I ran through it, and my timer is up to give it another go.

I was hoping for some ideas on how to improve this time. The last time I ran it in a tanked, duel rep domi. I adjusted the fit per mission, removing tank on the easier ones etc. However the domi still never seemed to hold up as well as I would have liked. I ended up bringing along a Tengu alt to dual box the missions. Basically for most missions I warped in the Tengu to take aggro, and then zip around the arena missile spamming while the domi then warped in and shot stuff up.

This time I'd really like to try and run it with just one toon. I could dual box again, but my Tengu alt is kinda "busier" this time and doesn't want to waste the time coming along.

I'd also love to hopefully figure out a better ship if possible than the Dominix. Given the amount of travel etc, the dominix is quite slow.

this toon is pretty much 100% gallente, solid armor tank, decent shield tank. I've thought about a Proteus or Ishtar. The former having the tank, the latter having far better damage projection.

The part I keep having trouble with (at this stage just trying to come up with a potential fit) is that gaping explosive hole with armor tankers.

So any thoughts or insights would be handy. Has anyone tried these with something like an ishtar etc? Even though the tank isnt as big, it has the ability to kite around while heavies go mop up.

The easiest ship to do the gal arc in is definitely the tengu. The incoming dps is just too high on some missions to efficiently tank with a battleship. (at least one mission room deals 2000+)


Barring that, however, a proteus would also do the job nicely, or even a loki since it's easier to omni tank. (two missions have heavy exp damage on top of kin/th)
However, some of the rats neut the hell out of you IIRC, so bringing rails/arty along would be smart.

I soloed the Gallente epic arc in a passive shield regen Ishtar.
It is a serious pain to do, and requires several warp outs in several of the harder missions, but it is possible to do without changing the passive hardener.

You need to kill the neuts, and speed tank like mad.
You don't want to be anywhere near the elite NPC BS's.

My fit could tank 1215 DPS, but that was no where near enough tank to be stationary against the Veteran BS's.
But yeah, if you are careful and smart, you can do it solo.

I fly a Proteus also for some missions, but would not recommend taking it into this epic arcs.
The neuts in some cases are just too scary for an active tank.

But if you are going to try to do an epic arc in a drone boat, you better hurry.
CCP has said that with the Dec 4th release they will keep the loophole in the AI that allows drone boats to function.
But at some indeterminate time after that, they are closing the loophole and all drone boats are done as a PvE platform, especially in epic arcs.

Then your only solo option will be the Tengu or possibly an officer tanked Vargur.

i've taken to two tengu +/- booster / hauler for all the lvl4 arcs.

Absolutely no probs with tank, DPS output is fine, not terribly slow moving around between the arc systems, and I carry refit equipment with me so I can go cloaky for the lowsec legs.

Sadly the only T3 I can currently fly is a Proteus. I can get an ok fit, even with rails. It's that explosive hole that I find the most annoying If I could figured out a workable fit though I'd give it a try. I'm fine with bling.

Did not need to be said. Bling was assumed. And yea I've read those. As my title had suggested I've run them before. Just trying to figure out a new way to try.

I'm about to begin this arc for the first time. What fit did you end up using for your second go at it?

I'm currently doing my first try on the Amarr Epic Arc mainly for standing reasons. I wanted to try it in a deadspace tanked Sleipnir but ended up with the new TD ruining my day. The solution was easy and really not complicated though. I took my incursion Machariel and fitted it with an MJD. I haven't had a problem in any of the missions since then. SImply MJD out to somewhere between 100 and 150 km from the rats and keep range while sniping away with 1400s. I don't think there should be a problem with this in the other epic arcs or with other BS then the Machariel. I'm going to try the other arcs this way to once I get there but I believe this is a pretty fool proof and easy going way to do this :-)

You need almost no tank. As said I did the Amarr one in a Machariel with MJD and my fit has only 227 omni tank with a Large Shield Booster II. It isn't even capstable. The only issue I see with the Dominix could be that you can't move since you have the sentries. You can't move away from the rats as they approach you so you will have to use the MJD more often, I can't say if this makes it harder or you just have to jump more often though...

Usually run these arcs in a T2 fit Nighthawk. All the missions are pretty straightforward and simple as long as you tank it to match the damage the enemies fire at you.

-J