Wormholes

I am flying either an Ishtar or a Proteus [please, this is a drone thread, don't offer me a Tengu that i have no skills for], more leaning towards the Ishtar because: a) sentry tracking, b) no SP loss.

Many fits i see use sentries for DPS. But i am having trouble using my own sentries efficiently.
Let's say i drop into Frontier Stronghold
http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=FortificationFrontierStronghold
2x frigs and 2x cruisers (trigger)

My logic is to warp slightly at range and kill the frigs with long range before they close. I deploy bouncers, and if i am lucky, i will get 1 frig to half armor before they get too close.

I tried shooting at the cruisers first, but by the time i chew through one of them, the other is now too close + the 2 frigs.

Gardes don't have the range to reach them when they are far, and don't have the tracking to hit when they start orbiting, and the time that the sleepers are in optimal range/tracking is very short, enough to maybe kill one, and after that time is wasted scooping sentries and deploying hobs/hammers.

So what am i supposed to do with sentries?
- Go for super long range and warp in at 100?
- Fit 3 tracking omnis and hope with the Gardes?
- Drop sentries at 60, and then fly and web the target at 60km from sentries?

... Forget about watching d-scan at this point...

Second issue i am having is the drone assist. I've got an alt in same Ishtar, RRing to avoid sleeper agro on drones, and to make it easier i set one char's drones to assist the other. But unless the one with assist gets new agro, the drones sit idle. Plus they don't follow the same target that the main's drones are shooting at. They only time the 2 flights of drones would attack the same target is when i web it.

Do assisting drones don't understand attack commands to other drones and only follow direct module activation, such as a web or guns (which i don't have)

Any insight on proper use of sentries (preferably with assist included) will be very appreciated.

p.s. i've seen fits with ogres and navigation computers, but i found that the ogres are flying faster than their own tracking and missing more.

Yeah I'm seconding that. The sentries will pull aggro and either scooping or remote repping them means sitting in place. That means no speed tanking the sleeper DPS and makes you an absolute sitting duck for any gank attempt. Use Ogres if you're going to run an Ishtar or Proteus.

Just use Berzekers with Tracking and speed mods You can buzz around the site making you a lot harder to get a warpin on and fit a TP and that should draw aggro away.

Many Ishtar pilots take advantage of the speed bonus and use Heavies for the battleships, buzzing around the site and keeping moving. It's the same reason I prefer a Legion when soloing in C3; despite the slightly lower DPS, mobility is a real advantage avoiding the cloaky gank attempts as long as your speed is higher than about 500m/sec. And in truth, it keeps it more interesting for me; PvE is boring, and I only do it to make ISK so I can shoot you in the face later.

You alwaysl have a prominent exposure point at your MTU if you use one. If you have drones, bust out your EC-300, EC-600, or EC-900 drones as you approach your MTU to give yourself a modest solo-cloaky-gank escape route. A ship that can tank a C3 Relic site can typically tank a cloaky tackler indefinitely. It's his six or seven friends that show up a few moments later that get you.

If you want to be mobile, you want Heavies for the battleships. That one Relic site with the orbiting battleships at 67km can really be a pain in the butt with heavies if you don't fit for speed, though, because the battleships are really quite fast at burning away from you in order to maintain a preferred orbit.

Sentries have one additional advantage: in a way, they are extra tank. Because Sleepers aggro them, and the Sentries are pretty tough if your skills are good, your tank gets a break here and there until you re-deploy them.

In short: Orbit your sentries if you use them, re-deploy often when they lose shields due to aggro, deploy Lights for frigates, take out high-DPS targets first, and prioritize scrambling frigates next. If the high-DPS battleship is the trigger, stay mobile and use your Lights/Mediums. If you plan to solo Relic sites, you need sentries with range exceeding 67km optimal or else mobility (afterburner, MWD) to chase them down for your Heavies.

RR domi will work fine as well. A flight of bouncers, gardes, and warriors.

To get drone assist to work reliably use a target painter and you won't have to worry with aggro mechanics. Just assist the pilot with the painter then activate the module on the one you want dead. Throw in a web for the frigs and you really should not even have to worry with dropping the warriors.

Sure you are a sitting duck and so some ecm drones could help. However the setup is fairly cheap and you will be able to clear sites in 5-7 min.

How do you chase after frigs in a Domi with a web (while being webbed)

Also, do you use Aggressive drones for this?

Thanks

My bet is direct module activation. Even more screwed up, if you assist drones to someone shooting a target, the sentries will go idle unless that person stops cycling their weapons and starts again manually.