Missions & Complexes

If you play the game for isk/hr you will end up not having any fun.

I lived in the Drone regions for quite a while until recently.

The anomallies are quite nasty in that the ships dish out omni damage.
Check out the individual ships here NPC Ships e.g. Alvus Queen and Matriarch Alvus

For the Patrols and Hordes I'd recommend a shield Dominix long range sniper fit.

[Dominix, Sniper Domi (shield)]

Damage Control II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Signal Amplifier II
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II

Large Micro Jump Drive
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II, Optimal Range Script
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Large Shield Booster II

Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Large Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Large Drone Scope Chip I


Hobgoblin II x5
Curator II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Hammerhead II x5
Warrior II x5
Acolyte II x5
Valkyrie II x5
Infiltrator II x5


This will let you engage from circa 100km depending upon skills, whereas you won't start taking heaving incoming DPS until the NPCs reach around 70-50km IIRC.

If you warp in at 100km this will put you anywhere from 70km to 110km away from the NPCs due to how warp ins work and which angle you're warping from, you can then use the Large Micro Jump Drive to re position if needed.

You want to be shooting EM so its the Curators you want, the other drones are just there for any unwanted guests (know their damage types!).
The neuts are also there in case you get scrammed by other players to switch off their scrams/disruptors. Stagger them if applying them, and don't cap yourself out!

The Shield Booster is there just to keep your shields topped up and should be pulsed when needed. You could drop the Target Painter for a Shield Boost Amplifier or a Cap Rrcharger II so experiment with that, but I found the Target Painter useful for blooming the sigs of frigates and cruisers on the way in for maximum DPS application.

The Patrols, although worth less money, will escalate more often than Hordes, and the bookmarks were selling for 100M each a couple of months ago in the correct market channels.

I never salvaged, as it was all junk except if you're into manufacturing rigs I believe, so ask around in your corp.

Have fun

Edit:

Align to your POS/safe bookmark when you reach your optimal firing position, for a faster warp out in case of neuts, and be aware if there's any wormholes in system for the same reason.

Would say nightmare would do pretty well in Drone space.

The OP is a year and a few months old so I suggested what I know works, that isn't too skill intensive.....although that is subjective of course.

I never saw any Nightmares or Machariels in Outer Passage, but there's no reason why they wouldn't work as they can put out EM.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone got them to work in Hordes?

I did see an Armageddon or two out there doing ok in Patrols, but excluding the Carrier guys, the best tick I heard from people was in a Cruise Missile Rattlesnake with either a Gecko, 2 x Curators or 2 x Praetors, but they're rather more skill intensive of course.

I eventually ran another character and had two armor spider tanking Domis that could operate up close and do a Horde in 15 minutes. The Hordes paid about 30M each IIRC so it worked out well at the time.

Make use of the test server to see what works for you before spending your ISK.

Certain drone hordes will cap you out like a big dog. Most guys run hordes in a carrier; OP said he is ruling those out... On one account, he will become very frustrated and eventually give up on the sub cap idea and use a carrier.


Sometimes we would do them with a mare/Mach combo with scimmi support.

Fixed that

If you live in drone space before they added bounties and played the game for isk/hr you ended up not having any fun