EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi everyone,

my question is regarding the use of medium guns on a battleship for missioning. I currently am doing lvl 3 missions in a Myrmidon with 650mm cannons, the missions are fairly easy with that set-up, my drones do a lot of the work using light for frigates, medium for cruisers etc. I want to step up to level 4 missions, I tried one in the Myrmidon and only just got away with a tiny amount of hull left and had to quit the mission.

I have just trained Battleship skill, but am quite a few days away from having large hybrid or large projectile weapons trained and wonder if you could guide me on whether it is effective to put the medium guns onto a battleship in the mean-time? I would get Battleship to 3 before attempting to mission with it.

I was thinking along the lines of using a Dominix as I quite like my drones and have drones trained as my highest SP area (so support skills high). Obviously a Dominix as well, as the large hybrid bonuses of the other Gallente battleships are a bit pointless using medium weapons. It will also be easier to hit the smaller NPC ships with medium.

I would use 2 or 3 Gyrostabilizer 2's and 2 or 3 Drone Damage Amp 2's for damage, and up the guns to 720mm cannons.

Is the theory of that sound, or should I just bite the bullet and wait until I have large weapons trained? Does anyone have experience of running the mediums on a BS that they could share, particularly for level 4 missions?

Thanks in advance.

It's a bit strange that you're using projectile weapons on Gallente ships. How did that happen?

But yeah on a Domi it doesn't really matter. In fact I'd be tempted to just use small (200mm) autocannons, to take out frigs, while your heavy/sentry drones concentrate on the big guys.

Remember to fit drone control range augmentors (or whatever they're called?) in your high slots.

you can yes

on the plus side you'll have more cpu & pg for other things
on the down side you'll be doing much less damage against the larger targets, at shorter range

the dominix is a good missioning platform
and will perform even better when your using large guns & sentries

id skip training heavy drones aswell, and just train for sentries



a shield tanked blaster dominix can do around 1200 dps (on paper)

I had the Hybrids trained up to medium first, but in the missions the autocannons just didn't seem to be cutting it and I liked the numbers on the cannons, so I thought I'd give it a go. As I have been running drone boats when I use cannons I never miss any bonuses.

Thanks so much for the advice everybody - I think I have been running things a little wrong and trying to do a bit of everything ie. spreading between guns and drones, and being middling at both. I will definitely put the focus on the drones and their damage and support modules first, and tanking, and then guns after everything else is taken care of.

Having not had a lot of experience using drones against larger ships I wasn't sure, but you have convinced me it is worth a good try. I'll reply over the weekend and let you all know how I fared.

back in the day a myrm with 5 heavies or sentries and autocannons was a normal sight

autocannons were used as they left all the capacitor free for armour tanking
and any unbonused gun is pretty much the same as any other gun dps wise

Not really, aggro is partially based on how much damage you are doing so you're doing 50 dps with guns and 400 dps with drones, eventually the rats will switch to your drones.

Ewar and remote repping are a different story though, you can do relatively little of either and rats will prioritise you.

I have seen Domi fits with one Civilian Gun (to draw aggro) and Tractor Beams and Salvagers in the other high slots so I guess it is possible to only rely on Drones for damage.
I don´t know how that works out after the NPC AI changes now, nor would I personally ever voluntarily limit myself on DPS output but there you are....

Ramblings on drone stuff:
The "dazzle/smack" method works well for me...mixing light drones with heavy. The light drones get to the target much faster than the heavies and orbit target at speed. Target tries to shoot light drone(s), but bigger ships have trouble hitting fast-orbiting light drones. Heavie(s) catch up to fighting and begin "smacking" target around while target tries to hit light drone(s) buzzing around it. Frigates can hit light drones pretty good (plus web/scramble your ship if they catch you...yay micro jump drive!)- mix of 4 lights + one heavy first until they're gone, cruisers hit drones ok, (plus do most of the target dampening and such) they're next - mix of 3 lights + 2 heavy, battleships are toast with 1 light keeping them occupied trying to hit it while your 4 heavies kick it.
- Drone Navigation Computer module(s) make your drones faster = more survivability for them + obviously faster time to engage target.
- Target Painter increases drone (and all other) damage. As a side bonus, they're long-range and will draw aggro. Phased Weapon Navigation Generator Extron (P.W.N.G.E - heh, CCP :) ) are the best T1 variant.
- If you find your drones being killed off too much, look up how people fight Sleepers with drones and use those methods.
- Perhaps experiment with putting a light ECM drone in your mix. They're fragile, but maybe you'll like 'em.
- Keep in mind your ship's capacitor doesn't have to be stable. You can leave your armor repair module (or shield booster for a shield-tanked ship) off most of the time and "pulse" it on when damaged. Keep an eye on your capacitor and you're fine.

Drones are our buzzy little friends, eh? :D

creating groups for your drones, is a good method for dealing with them. especially if your drone bay can hold several different types

a "Triage Group" can be useful too .. just put any mauled drones you have into it, and they are so much easier to find in a bay crowded with a bunch of the little buggers .. especially useful with carriers, as they can carry quite a few drones.

Hi all,

thanks for all the good advice, I have run a couple of level 4 security missions, and while they take longer and require a lot more micromanagement for me (ie drones, cap boosters etc) it is not a massive problem with medium weapons. As you guys pointed out the tank on the battleship is really important, as much so as having the drones grouped and managed properly.

Please see my ship fit below, if anyone has any criticism or advice on how I could improve that, please feel free - I know you will .

My current training regime is to get all modules to T2, in order of importants -armour tank, cap, drones to sentries, weapons

5 x 650mm Med Scout Artillery 1
Drone Link Augmenter 1

Experimental 100mn Afterburner 1 (was using MWD but decided to try AB)
Large Ohm Cap Reserve 1
2 x Cap Recharge 2
Heavy Electrochemical Cap Boost 1 (using cap boost 200's)

2 x Drone Damage Amp 1
2 x Prototype Energized Adaptive Membrane 1
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates 1
Damage Control 2
Large Accomodation Vestment Reconstructor 1

No rigs yet, as I am unsure at this stage what to use for best effect.

Groups of Hobgoblin 2's, Hammerhead 2's, 1 each a mixed light and medium T2 if I don't know what to use against a particular enemy. 1 group Ogre 1's as I don't have T2 heavy skills yet.

Thanks guys!