Missions & Complexes

Before i took a break from Eve a few years ago i remember going on a level 4 mission with a corpmate and while I was salvaging for her in my Catalyst I was floored that she was able to solo it in a little Ishtar. I was super impressed, it seemed so effortless. And now that I am back I find I want to be able to do that too. But she is not around anymore to pester for advice so before i start planning and training i turn to you friendly forum folks.

1. Passive shield tanking or armor? I see fits for both but is one preferable over the other? I currently can solo level 3's in my armor tanked Myrmidon but if shields are the way to go im not afraid to train that up. Patience is a virtue.

2. Sentries will do the long distance work but is it worth it to fit guns?

3. One of the new things i noticed is that the AI has been targeting my drones. No specific question, i just wanted to complain about it.

4. Any other fitting issues i should be aware of?

5. Also i'm sure there will be those that will argue that this can be accomplished cheaper in a Domi, which I am also open to. Losing an Ishtar would be an expensive mistake.

Is this a worthy goal? The Ishtar seems a logical choice with the skills I have and the type of ships i previously flew, are there other options i should be considering?

ishtar is a nightmare trying to fit. Not enough cpu by a mile

if you don't fit and fire guns and land hits the npcs will switch to the drones very quickly.

The ishtar is more hamstrung by drone aggro than the dominix, because the dominix has sufficient ehp bulk to just sit on its drones, and can immediately bay them where as the ishtar is great when its not getting drone aggro and can speed tank. The net result occasionally finds me having to traverse to a perch to make the ishtar work - ie sentry drones that are not close to frigates often get no (meaningful) aggro.

I do fly my ishtars all the time, but mostly for exploration where its combo of speed, fast locking, gurista/serp tank, firepower and being allowed through most gates is pretty hard to beat.

I prefer dominix for level 4 missions because its greater firepower will clear pockets faster and because its easier to get 1000 dps, decent rat specific tank and counter fit ewar all in the 1 package.

@Blue, not exactly an answer to your question, but Ishtar has great capability for passive shield. I've been flying with such setup long time ago, long before NPC AI change, and the tank was marvellous (only place where it failed was AE bonus and even then it took a while so there was a time to make plan B). The downside is there's not much room for anything else and eventually I've reverted to active armor - holds well enough, allows more fitting options. An interesting but unexplored (by me) option is active shield.

@Stazzmo, even while drones make the most of your DPS, guns are still worth having. If anything, you can use them to protect your drones.

Back before DDA's, I (almost) always fit a 800 plate to my ishtar, because it has very thin base armor. I was doing nullsec explo though, and not missions.

as for guns, I used to use a 75mm railgun to draw aggro. I never really had spare cpu for anything else. If you want to get some extra dps out of your ishtar with guns, I think a mwd fit using ogres would be more natural. If you throw a weak passive shield tank on, you have a really high dps fit that's ideal for nullsec belt ratting. Before, it was sufficient to get aggro from the rats once and then deploy sentries. That one gun is still mandatory, but I haven't done enough testing to see if changing from 0 applied dps to 50 or 100 is sufficent to reduce aggro on the sentries. I do know that if I get initial aggro in a tengu and then warp in a gila and the gila drops sentries (even before shooting some weak light missiles) I'm much more likely to get aggro on the gila than on the gila's sentries. I've also experienced that with just the gila, if I don't do any missile dps, the rats will always instantly aggro the drones as they're scooped and redeployed without ever targeting the gila. I mean to try out the solo-1-gun approach soon, just to see if the drone aggro is significant, in the hopes that 1 gun is still sufficient to keep drone aggro low.

Thanks for the replies. I'm eager to use the Ishtar for progressing to level 4s but it's potentially a lot of wasted (or rather misdirected) SP if it doesn't work out or is too impractical.

@hmskrecik - are you using that active armor setup post the NPC change in level 4 missions? Any problems with the EHP being so thin or drone agro?

@Derath - are you using the Ishtar for level 4s? Assuming you're armor tanking, any problems with the EHP on the armor being so low?

@Kodama - be interested to hear what you find out when you try one gun with the new AI change. I'm reluctant to go with a shield tank since it seems like omni trackers are a must (and realistically I'd need to sink SP in to improve my shield tanking skills). I might give the 800 plates a go, good to know that you've used them successfully.

@Cypher - very helpful post. What rigs are you using on your mission active armor Ishtar? One sentry one CPU?

Below is a fit I have used. EHP isn't a problem due to the signature of the Ishtar. Heck, I've run LVL 4 missions in an assault frigate, which has no EHP. It is slow, but it works because the big stuff (like the battleships) simply can't land a hit. Sig and speed tank is very useful.

Against serpentis it also has a 405DPS tank, which is huge for a ship this size.

Also, yes the Ishtar is a bit tight on CPU, but unless your fitting skills are crap (and let's face it, you shouldn't really consider flying a Tech 2 or Tech 3 ship without the proper skills). It isn't a huge deal. If you faction up my fit a little you can upgrade to medium blasters. As configured however I rarely ever even use the guns. They are mostly there to take down frigates that get close so I don't have to pull sentries and deploy some lights.

[Ishtar, Moldy one Mission copy]

True Sansha Medium Armor Repairer
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II

Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
10MN Afterburner II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II

Salvager I
Centii A-Type Small Remote Armor Repair System
Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I


Garde II x5
Warden II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5

If you don't have the skills to use T2 sentry drones, you can use the navy faction drones. They are a lot more expensive, but pretty close to T2 damage and only require T1 skills.

Unless you plan on doing missions semi afk, you are probably not going to lose them, and they really are a big upgrade compared to the normal T1 sentry drones or standard heavy drones.

not exactly

For Garde's as an example

Optimal on T1 vs faction is the same (20km vs 24km)

tracking

T1- .03
Faction- .038
T2- .036

Damage modifier

T1- 1.6x
Faction- 1.728x
T2- 1.92x

So while you really just need to get to T2 if you are serious about drones. The faction are a worthwhile investment while you wait. I did that and when I was done I sold the faction ones back for about the same as I had bought them.

Yea I never used T1. I invested in Navy for about 7 weeks until I had T2 sentries trained.

Pretty much I've found with 2 omnis, Gardes can drop most things easily. Cruisers down to 10km or so and everything outside that. The only time I pull them for lights are if some frigs get too close.