Missions & Complexes

wait till the bug is fixed

/thread

very well. as the "hub" for a cap chain, I can run the basilisk's large anci booster empty on auto-repeat. the biggest threat is ECM/ewar isolation from the rest of the chain.

the rattlesnake has a large shield transporter fitted along with its 2 cap transfers. with 5 large shield drones and the L shield transporter, the rattlesnake is as much logi as the basilisk, but different;

the rattlesnake's shield transfer range is the base 9km, but its shield drones are cap-free and have longer range than the basilisk--110km, currently.

I can answer your question about Vanguards vs lvl4's. I took two rattlesnakes and the nightmare into a vanguard site, just the three of them, to see for myself what a vanguard felt like. the rattlesnakes killed frigs with drones quite easily, and then i locked tank with the cruisers. when it came time to apply damage, the nightmare couldn't scratch the cruisers.

I took the same rattlesnakes and nightmare into enemies abound part 5 to retrieve an alliance pilot's wreck--faction fit navy raven. all the waves had been spawned. this happened: http://i.imgur.com/sIqqJ.jpg The room looked like this: http://i.imgur.com/rcqHs.jpg

(this was one or two days before retribution, and a corp mate speed tanked the room in a slasher while I picked them off with the nightmare. post-retribution, I would not touch that situation with fewer than 4 instant dps battleships with serious local reps.)

because of those few missions that are not permatank-able, if a pilot had to pick a single ship to solo lvl 4's with, I would suggest a dual XL-ASB nightmare.

http://i.imgur.com/vkKAr.jpg the fitting of the ships I'm talking about--I had them tanked for a string of sansha missions (EM/Therm).

I sometimes undock with three rattlesnakes, identically fitted this way for chain and logi, but only when someone else is providing dps. rattlesnakes can handle level 4's with pure drone dps, especially 3 of them, and it's a good motivator for training drones, but drone dps takes a long time and you're in danger of falling behind waves.

lastly, the gila has the same drone bay, but the rattlesnake has a deeper reserves of cap and hp.

ship-wise, ravens no. scorps, no. anything cruises, no. drakes, no.

golem only if it's fit with torps, a prop mod, an extra large booster, and with a proper logi on site to keep it pumped full of cap at range while it burns to targets. it gets great dps and has the shield boost bonus, but the 30km-ish range of torps sucks and being out of range is as good as 0 dps.

as close to 1000dps total is all a gang needs, and then worry about tank.

Level 4s don't pay enough to make me want to do them with other people.

Completely wrong, I suggest you to stop talking about things you have no idea.

Coming from a guy who's whining about not even killing Gistii frigates, I don't think we should talk about who doesn't have any idea.

programming error....

I think nothing is wrong with full-aggro. I think it makes sense, and the accusation that it is a programming error is unfounded. (also somewhat insulting). what hostile group of pilots that you know would just watch another squad in their fleet take damage, and not help? what CCP-authored guide says one pocket will aggro while another will not? none--player expectations of missions are from third-party mission guide websites, not from promises CCP has made saying "don't worry about full-aggro."

full-aggro used to be a gang role for players designated the tank. those players are still out there. if tanking is an issue for a player, it probably means they shouldn't do level 4's solo.

I attended EVE vegas this year, and CCP Bettik made it clear that he feels "designated tanking" is somewhat of an exploit tactic.they want every player in the mission to have a chance to be afraid--if you're solo, it means you're always the one they're trying to scare.

is it working?

level 4 npc's are low-sp pilots in poorly fitted hulls. in contrast, "officer spawn" NPCs take forever to kill, are hard to kill, and the types of items they drop are what are fitted to their ship. stop and think about what people are complaining about: that a room of 20 ships is posing a threat. they should be thankful they have a weak enemy as a source of ISK from the programming ether.

level 4's are the easiest ISK to be made in high sec, especially if you also loot and salvage, and super easy ISK for a ninja salvager who didn't have to kill anything at all. complaining about full aggro? do you want CCP to just give you isk?

but it's not always about the ISK. lvl 4's are so consistent, that if all you do when you log in is missions (like me, just to look at my shiny fleet), there's no "need" for isk. T2 fittings are great, some faction items help with cpu and it's l337, sure, but if someone is trying to fix a dps skill hole with faction highs, they are doing something wrong.

level 4's are supposed to be somewhat difficult, or else they'd be called level 3's. still, they're super easy for higher sp players. but don't be the player who lacks the sp and complains level 4's are hard. it's embarassing

level 4's are the safest ISK to be made besides mining. they're consistent, and by the name of the mission you know exactly what the engagement will look like. It's a game, it's supposed to be fun; I have player contacts who make 10, 20 jump trips to join me with their cap-unstable shinies, because they know I'll swap a battleship for a basilisk to give them ranged cap. and alpha'ing through an npc battleship is fun--like knocking down paper targets.

I will be honest with you, I wish there was capital missioning available in high sec, and that's probably not going to happen. please don't cause a fuss about battleship vessel missions, or be anything besides appreciative for the opportunity to undock multi-billion ISK ships against targets in the safety of high-sec.

QQ? I was just pointing at your incompetence, because it certainly takes alot of it to think 2 accounts doing 1 mission is efficient way of doing l4s.

Always has been, you can pick up double the missions in space from one agent. You don't need as many slots dedicated to tank, can put more into damage/utility onto the ship.

Missioning with someone else who is as capable as yourself, is more effective than running solo, unless you've got a reason to suggest otherwise?

half the bounty and reward, when it is very unlikely you can do the missions at least 2 times faster (including docks, warps, travels to accel gates, etc)

matter of opinion on that :D

I still doubt overall it is "more effective" iskwise than solo, probably safer, but more isk/hr is doubtful (granted that is my own thought on it, given adding other people into the equation tends to slow things down, soemtimes a just slightly, but still slower due to more bio breaks, slow replies, targeting npcs that are already about dead, etc)

But to each their own :D