Ships & Modules

Ya know, im getting a bit confused. You started a thread that looked like you wanted some help, but the only advice you've taken is toning back some of your tracking... getting rid of the rig was a good idea, getting rid of the TC was not... I dont want to argue either, so this will be my last post in this thread, provided you dont agree.

The way I see it, we probably disagree in 2 major areas. First is the offensive profile. Second is the looting/salvaging strategy (which is kinda related to the offensive side of things cause autos deal more dmg the closer you get, giving a mobile strategy better offensive output).

Concerning the offensive profile, I'll do an 'on paper' comparison for you, using this for you:
Gyro II x3
TE II x2
TC II x1
800mm II x4 t1 ammo
Bastion x1
Metastasis II x1

And this as my suggestion:
gyro II x4 (would actually recommend 3 of these being RF, but will use t2 for the example)
TE II x1
TC II x2
800mm II x4 t1 ammo (would recommend RF, but will use t1 for the example)
Bastion x1
Burst II x1


Your fit:
Bastion active: 763dps @ 4.6+72
No bastion: 763dps @ 4+66
@ ~40km bastion active: 604dps
@ ~40km no bastion: 570dps
max potential tracking: 0.123

My suggestion:
Bastion active: 861dps @ 4.7+77
No bastion: 861dps @ 4.1+71
@ ~40km bastion active: 701dps
@ ~40km no bastion: 669dps
max potential tracking: 0.128

Note, that at the 40km mark my suggestion if not in bastion, will deal more dmg than your fit in bastion mode, by about 65dps. Now here is the major point: in this scenario, you are likely sitting bastioned near a mtu doing your thing, while Im out of bastion mode managing tractors and salvage drones, the tractors + salvage drones will not only clean up faster than an MTU + salvagers, but it allows me to be mobile while doing it. For example, let's say I start moving toward the target(s) that are at 40 km w/ my MWD. I continue to loot / salvage, but now I'm 35km away from them and your still at 40km. My dps would be around 721, which is around a 7% paper dps increase from my prior 669, just from moving ~5km. Of course, compared to your 604 dps, its about a 26% increase in dmg, keep in mind, that is me outside of bastion, while you have bastion active.

The last thing to be mindful of is cycle time. My suggestion will use fewer cycles solely based on the dps difference, but on top of that the cycle times are 0.288 shorter, meaning that for roughly every 4 cycles, I'll shave around a second off of the mission time, even before considering the dps difference.

At any rate, I'd encourage you to at least try what I suggest. Tractors + salvage drones are more efficient at clearing stuff. It takes a little more effort cause you gotta lock wrecks and send each individual salvage drone to a particular wreck, but it is more efficient (and this is coming from a guy who trained into salvager IIs for the vargur...). This will let you be more mobile which can increase your dps as well.

It depends on the mission. In general though I really dont use it unless I need the tank / saved cap, EWAR immunity, or the targets are large enough and close enough to where mobility makes little to no difference.

Examples.
Damsel in Distress:
* lands in missions
* locks cruisers + frigs + battleships
* kill a cruiser while frigs are still getting locked
* kill frigs before moving to keep angular low then start MWD to the Damsels structure while shooting BS
* Bastion near structure

Since everything spawns near the structure, mostly battleships spawn, and the vargur's tracking is beastly, there isnt much to gain from the mobility, and the extra tank from bastion is nice if not required at that range. Damsel is a good mission to practice (careful of your drones on the structure blast of course) on b/c there are a large number of wrecks and the targets have decent HP, which gives you time to micro manage tractors, individual drones, and looting, while really focusing on turret reactivation. I skip the remaining spider drones and frigs that spawn here. You should be able to keep up with salvaging / looting to the extent that the last spawn that you kill is the only group left to loot / salvage

The Assault (serp). Anymore I usually just blitz this one, back when I was clearing it though:
* Activate and queue deactivation of Bastion immediately in pocket one + destroy the dampening group.
* MWD to a better spot for dpsing the majority of the battleships
* Bastion again cause the dps in that room gets pretty high

Other than those types of scenarios, I keep mobile and forgo activating bastion. Off the top of my head, missions I usually wont activate bastion at all:
* Right Hand of Zazzmataz
* The Score (serp)
* Rogue Slave Trader
* stuff like that