Missions & Complexes

I manage to get to the lowsec escalation of this exploration chain.

I was unable to burn down the Mad Cats quickly enough to make my presence in this particular low-sec system go unnoticed. Regardless, I spent no less than 20 minutes throttling out (as far as 250km from warp-in) from the Guardians and other non-Mad Cat ships. While I do not believe that the large spawn arrived I was more or less holding on by a thread the entire fight at all ranges. Here's the ship/fit.

Muninn HAC Rank IV

5x 425mm II's - Phased Plasma and Titanium Sabot (Fleet variation)
2x Assault Missile Launchers (meta 3s) (Caldari thermal lights)

10mn ABer II
Tracking Computer (meta 4) - Swapped out Range/Tracking Scripts aswell as no scripts at all
Cap Recharger II

2x Kin Hardener I
1x Thermic Hardener I
1x Gyro ii
1x Med Armor Repairer II

2xCCC's

Surprisingly enough I found that even after having lost my drones before getting the 1st of the 3 Mad Cats down, getting the 2nd Mad Cat down was no less challenging. In fact I even had to overload my Highs to get the 2nd Mad Cat to pop, all the while playing a range game with him. It was almost as though the only way to break them down was to get their MWD'ing or Orbits out of sync from one another to break their fierce repair cycles. Though whether or not it was simply them not repairing while jetting at me faster than my ABer (512km/s) or their spider tanking AI I cannot tell. I am not sure and would appreciate any clarification.

The tactic I intend to use the next time I run this escalation is either:
1. Give a MWD (usable?) a shot in hopes that as the Mad Cats burn at me to catch up they will not repair, giving me more time to shred them before they full-shield-armor again.

2. Time the ABer pulse initiation until I have them at 40% shield or so, leaving enough of a deficit that by the time they get thru their MWD burn they are dealt with

Alternatively, a completely different ship or Muninn build for less hassle? The Muninn has served me well.
I've fit it w/ 650mm II's and 2x Heavy Launchers for the duration of what was that Muninn's high-sec career (a jaguar popped it) and only specifically for this low-sec leg of the expedition did I go for the 425mm II's.

Any anecdotes would be gladly received. thanks and lastly...

RIP Muninn

Thank you for the tips. I myself don't consider the risk of low sec to be worth the final escalation part. However, if you take all precautions, then you'll more than likely live through the experience. This is coming from an explorer who has completed countless low sec escalations.

btw, I find it odd that you can fly the Muninn, but can not use t2 armor resistance modules.

If I'm not mistaken, the loot's in a can that's already spawned at the site.

With an alt you could at least draw the aggro away from the can, loot it and then bugger off; but the last time I did JSH was a while ago and I can't remember what, if any, rats need to be killed before you can access the can.

I'm pretty sure there's a short cut - as is the case with all the highsec sites and escalations (except the new frigfest sites).

After I reached 250km+ from the can the Mad Cats dropped aggro and started slowly back toward their original spawn (probably around the can). When I noticed this I warped to the stash and tried to loot it w/o success. I wish I would have read the message that popped up but I was a little uneasy at the time w/ my proximity to the sentries so I felt I needed to micromanage my capacitor instead.

So I can say at least this much - If you don't have Mad Cat aggro but do have aggro from something else in the pocket that looting the stash of Officer Modules is impossible.

It would be quite worthwhile for someone to do a full aggro draw and let someone try to swoop in, though I have a gut (wrenching) feeling that nothing would come of it.



I think that's the ticket. I was not seeing many misses or low group numbers w/ and w/o the tracking computer active.

It is indeed only the 3 mad cats the need to be killed.