EVE New Citizens Q&A

Bump.

To be quite fair, Covert Ops Frigates are NOT viable as PVE ships. Reasons as follows:

A) There are too many NPC frigates that can catch you and pin you down like a lamb being slaughtered
B) You have no real tank that can take any damage, even from frigates
C) The intended use for Covert Ops is to swiftly kill high value targets. Frigates will always get in your way, and the torpedoes you use will do little to nothing to frigates.

As a PvE ship, you should be using a Cruiser or higher. Most notably would be a battlecruiser. Reasons are as follows:
A) You have a sustained tank to soak damage easily
B) You have the cap to repair said damage
C) You have several ways to deal with almost anything (Drones deal with frigates, main arms deal with larger targets)
D) You have DAMAGE.

Pick your poison.

YTK

pick the one you like most. they all do fine. edit: also consider planning your fit out in eft to see its strengths and weaknesses.

I don't entirely agree with these sentiments. I've once snuck a BPO into NPC nullsec, carefully ratted some modules I could reprocess by choosing my belts and ammunition well. I locally produced an item (yay market PVP) that was absent from the market but applicable to the region, and sold it for an interesting markup. All in all it was an enjoyable combination of ninja indy and PVE stuff and I made enough ISK over the solo adventure to say it was worth it. Not from a cold ISK/hr perspective perhaps, but from the fun proving you all wrong on the internet.

Once you carefully remove a few BC's you can pretty much sig tank the remaining BS's. Since you don't use bombs but torps, you could fit a salvager module if you think it would be worth it. Realize wrecks prevent cloaking if you are to close. I used a minerals-based BPO and snuck the salvage out to hisec with the SB itself. Your small cargospace is a great disadvantage. It will require you to often visit a station and risk your neck. Abuse the hell out of bookmarks. There are probably a million better ways to raise ISK, but it can be done. And it's pretty fun!

Can you PvE in a stealth bomber?

In certain situations with good skills you absolutely can use a bomber in some PvE roles.

You need to be able to hit out to at least 60km (You can probably get a bit closer than this but I like to be safe). Keep your range and snipe. You can kill most frigates but it's not really optimal. Thankfully many sites like Forsaken Hubs do not have frigate spawns. If you let anything get within weapon range you die near instantly.

I have ratted in bombers quite a bit and know plenty DNS pilots who have as well. I've even cleared a Magnometic and Combat Ladar site in one.

You cannot do missions and it's an extremely bad idea to attempt any type of plex with an acceleration gate.


Now, a better question to ask yourself is should you PvE in a bomber?

Unless you are in ninja ratting in 0.0 or low-sec the answer is no, you should not. If you are doing that though, a bomber is a good ship for it.

Stealth bombers are great for belts and Radar/Mag sites in 0.0.

As others have pointed out, missions and sites in higher-sec space usually have more frigate support so it doesn't work as well there.

Bombers are fine for belt ratting and if you'd want to use a recon for exploration then the Pilgrim comes to mind but it's never really ideal (it can tank just fine but the dps is below par). Stop ogling Tech 2 ships, they're not "must haves".

Bombers work fine for belt ratting; warp cloaked to belt at ~30-40km, only uncloak if there is a BS spawn. Uncloak, shoot BS, leave.

I did this with some success in a Manticore in Guristas space. From memory, the fit was

3x T2 Seige Launchers (Caldari Navy Scourge Torps), Covops Cloak
Afterburner, CL-5 small shield booster, Dread Guristas Kinetic resist amp, PWNAGE target painter
2x T2 Ballistic Conrtols

CCC rig
Polycarbon rig

Once your afterburner is on, you can easily tank the large/medium ships. The real danger comes from rat destroyers, which do a suprising amount of DPS.

Confirming SB's are very effective NulSec ratters.

With hte Hound you want to head into a nice quiet chain of systems in 'The Great Wildlands' off the main pipe, where the Angel rats are most susceptible to your Explosive bonused ammo.

Approach a belt at 70km (Don't want to be decloaked) and leave rat packs that contain Elite Frigates.

Be careful with your orbit. You need to control it to avoid flying straight into a roid and being 1 shotted due to 0 transversel.

If two of you go, it's a great way to learn how to make bombing runs. Use the Tactical Overlay, and 2 bombs will alfa the frigs and destroyers, leaving only the big rats (Which can't hit you) for the torps.

Not very good income, but effective Sec Status repair.

Confirming that ratting like this is also mind-numblingly boring.