Missions & Complexes

(Here I will make reference only to L4 PvE security mission, assuming I'm talking of a Tech 2 version of everything, unless i state so).

o/ fellas missioners!

I've been told a lot on how to and what to fit to complete L4 sec missions by people with lot of experience, and I hate ppl who brags about their experience and such, so I'll just throw what I think it might help you, and u decide.

Tips:

- Fitting: Don't trust Battleclinic! The site is full of good fittings and overwhelmed with bad ones. If you are a new player who barely reached his battleship L2 skill within his first 7 days, I strongly suggest u to look at the market, get to know each mod and analyze and discuss their use with other players. "Give a player a fit and he'll run a mission, teach him how to fit and he will PvP"

- Payout of missions tells u how cheap they will be, not how hard they will be. you can use a site I trust called EVE-Survival to get to know each mission and what to expect there, know, however, that the information is not 100% correct and regardless of its "step by step" guide on how to complete the mission, You will more likely want to fin your own way to do it.

- Tanking: The equation of the tank in PvE is quite simple: If X dps received Greater Y dps tanked Equal Ship will explode. So here's my tips on how to get a X=Y or a X Less than Y equation easily to avoid getting your tank overrun:

* Kite: I've been told a lot of times to "align" to something in order to get away instantly if my tank cannot stand the damage; however, I've found that doing that causes you to soak all the damage from everything you have aggroed. In 9/10 mission, your best chance is to kite to avoid taking unnecessary damage by keeping at distance, orbiting and avoiding aggro.

* Know your tank capabilities. There are lots of mod that help to tank, but what you really need is just the armor repairer / shield booster, some good resists and a capacitor to last for a decent amount of time (generally, with only the repper or SB and the guns on and the capacitor lasting 15 minutes is enough). You must know when ur tank is going to be break and when it cannot, by simply checking how good it is handling the incoming dmg in different missions.

* Lower the rats dps ASAP: a mission generally contains a bunch of cruiser sized ships, some frigates and some Battleships. In a BS, it's almost impossible for u to kill frigates other than sniping, with drones or properly sized missiles, what you must do against them, is get used to deploy you drones and kill the small ships with them while you are using ur guns on something else. (Don't panic on small frigates ewar! with decent drone skills, you can kill them without fuzz; care about your drones tho, if they are getting damaged, u might be losing ur only way out of a frigate scrambler).

The best way to deal with missions damage dealt, is to kill red crosses fast, that's it. Now, what to kill and when can be a heavy punchline here. Let's say you are facing a full room aggro of 6 BS, 12 Cruisers / BC and 6 frigs, you know ur tank wont last forever, you best way to lower the overall dps is to shoot some cruisers and a couple BS; if u turn a (BS / cruiser / frigates) 6 / 12 / 6 into a 4 / 8 / 6 u literally cut the damage receive by almost the half using the least volleys / gun cycles; since BS deal the more dmg but 2~3 cruiser might deal the same amount, cutting both by half, BS and cruisers will reduce the dmg greatly, making the X dmg fall into a closer match to the Y tank. One mistake, or at least "worse move" is focusing in one size of ships at a time; this can cause the dmg to be reduce too few, or the ships amount to get lowered to slow.

- Know what skills you need. L3 Battleship and L4 guns / missiles or drones with Drone interfacing L4, Scout drone L4, Combat drone L4 and the "Core Competency Standard" certificate should be enough for most missions, especially if you have meta 3~4 weapons, T2 tanking mods and T2 resistance ones and a Damage Control Unit. So far, I've never required more than 3 Energized adaptive nano resistance to armor tank any L4 mission; like I said, the best way to tank dmg is completely avoid it by getting out of rat's range, orbiting to close to BS and aggroing the least ships at a time. I am not going to lie: this requires experience doing the missions more than anything I could tell you. And of course there are always missions where you dps is not high enough and an armor plate or a shield extender wouldn't look like a bad idea, for those missions, I recommend T2 guns as a must with good overall gunnery / missiles support skills, as well as T2 drones that unless they pop too often they are always good.

From what I've tested, any L4 mission for any faction in any ship can be tanked with 60% all resists plus a DCU and some clever kiting and aggroing.

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If you find any of this useful, feel free to referral this forum thread to anyone who asks about L4 missions fits and etc. Also, if you have any productive comment, I'll gladly add it over here.

o7 w/<3 Luna

tl;dr: know your triggers

Something I actually learned very late in the game:
If you are not cap-stable (and there is no need to be; see Zaxis´ post on this) but nevertheless want to buff it, a Semiconductor Memory Cell might actually give you more Cap than the common Capacitor Control Circuit.
Check EFT for this!

Yes it may give you more cap out the bat. But once that cap is dead it doesnt help you at all . So for missions that take longer than your cap stability (which is most of them) a CCC is usually a better choice.

For missions the cap booster is a better choice. Make use of your cargo space.

My best advice: be careful not to run too many missions, or you'll go batshit insane from boredom.

Did I even mention fits, like at all ? o_O

And BTW: L2fit instead of recurring to battleclinic.

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As per the ship size order, the med sized die faster, yes, but they not always lower the damage the most time wise. If you actually shoot 40% of the BC and then 20% of the BS you'll lower the total dps received more than if you shoot down 80% of the BC and you probably used the same time.

I also, didn't say you need to be cap stable, I say "you need enough cap to tank enough" basically; sometimes an AB and no repairer tanks more than a repper and no AB.

This is mainly a guide for people with very low skill points and not much experience in missions, its a basic tips mainly for those people who wonder what do they require to run level 4 security missions.

It's not some either/or proposition. Battleclinic is a good starting point for new players or for players new to a ship type to see and read discussions about the types of loadouts that follow the "common wisdom" for a given ship. Top rated loadouts are usually top rated for a reason and there are lots of discussions on those pages for and against. Obviously, some are outdated, but that's not the argument.

Should people learn about proper fitting and not just blindly follow a diagram? Absolutely. But just saying "lern 2 fit" isn't helping anyone here. Players using BC or even loadout suggestions here should be learning WHY a given set of modules were chosen. There's no detriment, here, if that's their approach.

People should be steered towards any and all information that will add to his or her knowledge base. Battleclinic is a tool in the toolbox. Blindly using outdated loadouts, failfits with terrible ratings, mimicking fits without knowing WHY are all misapplications of said tool.

I run level 4 solo missions, in a Rail fit Hyperion

When I start a coversation, I look at EVE Survival, set my armor hardeners for that mission, pick the right weapons (drones) for the mission, and then accept.

I'm a big fan of sniping, so I point my Hyperion in the other direction to the rats, fire off a volley to get their attention and then jump using my trusty MJD.

At range, I target the rats in this order, Frigs/Dessi's, Cruisers, Battle Cruisers and finally Battleships.

If you have the right ammo, which the Hyperion hardly ever does, you will kill most things before they are within range of doing any serious damage.

If I'm overwhelmed, I jump again, not forgetting to pick up my sentries.

I repeat this process until the room/mission is clear and then I mop up with a Noctis.

As long as you have the right information about the mission your doing, and you pay attention to what's happening to your drones, you'll finish the mission, and earn lots of ISK.

As for fitting, you'll find a fit that works for you eventually.

I fly almost Cap stable fits where possible, I do this because my internet sucks!