Missions & Complexes

You were prudent IMHO, there was a good chance you were the target of the probing.

AE is gated so if they were looking to engage in shenanigans with you then they would have to come through the preceding pockets to get to you, you can set DScan to pick up the gate into a previous pocket and see anyone entering it when you scan.

It was more likely a mission baiters than gankers. Now if you see a bunch of flashies in local and things named Catalyst or Thrasher showing up in large numbers on dscan, it's time to bail. Watch out for attack battlecruisers like Tornados or Talos off station and gates too.

We can't judge if you were prudent or not. I would not have docked up, I would ahve laughed and waited to see what shows up to pop me and probably tried to fight it with. But I am not you. If you were concerned and docking up made those concerns go away and you didn't feel you lost much ISK/Time from your life, then you most def made a good choice.

You were careful. A little more than most are, though many are not nearly as cautious as they ought to be, so I'd say you were appropriately prudent. That sort of range that close to a Marauder, given their bloated probe size, means you were likely what someone was scanning. Now, whether your were in any real appreciable danger is anyone's guess. Your "budy" might just have been looking for an unattended MTU for some free loot, since people like to pick them off when you leave them out for too long. He may have been someone looking to turn your Golem into his next mark. You chose to take matters into your own hands sooner than many rather than leave that up to chance. Complacency kills, and you've proven to be a more difficult target of opportunity than most of us here.

tl:dr

You did fine. Good on you.

What I would have done is changed my d-scan range to 1AU and kept checking it every 5-10 secs. You were in the last pocket of a mission with 5 gates, and even if he scans you down, he has to go through each gate. 1 AU d-scan will tell you if he is in one of the previous rooms. And I would have immediately stopped bastion mode and aligned out.

I'll be frank: the fact you use D scan sets you apart from the majority. I would normally say "if in doubt warp out" and just leave it at that, but your asking for solid info. Yes the gankers if they come will kill you. No you won't be able to fend them off if your in a PVE golem. Dont try. Abandon tractor units and if nessercary drones, don't engage anyone just get out of there. Your time between scans should consider how many gates they have to transit to get to you. I believe the wormhole rule is every 15 secs, but if your behind a gate you have more time. Once a min was probably very safe.

Again I want to stress this, you did good and you should keep doing exactly what your doing. This is eve. There is no such thing as "too cautious" or "too paranoid".

if they were combat probes, good for you. Probably saved yourself.

If they were just core scanner probes, they can't probe mission runners.

Oh rubbish. The only thing that will successfully suicide a golem is a lot of ships. If the mission is gated then they would appear on dscan long before they were a threat. OP over reacted.

If it was someone targeting him, it could also have been a ninja looter. In that case the only reason he would have been at risk is if he aggressed the guy.

If a single ship warps into your mission and starts looting your wrecks the best way to get rid of them is to abandon all the wrecks. It is very frustrating :)

Btw, Golems are very easy to scan down. If he didn't have you at 5 AU then he would have had you on the next scan.

Local tank is the best tank. Learn to pay attention to local chat /player list. Flashy yellow suspects in local generally indicates can flippers, mission baiters, or station games - some sort of mischief but not an immediate threat if you don't see them. The more active local is the more often you should check D-scan. Keep scan at max range; if you see combat probes or multiple gank ships like catalysts or attack battlecruisers, bring scan range down incrementally. Gank ships on 1 AU means it's time to be going; probes on 1 AU means you are probably going to be visited by a mission baiter. Gallente assault frigates and their T1 variant the Incursus are popular with baiters. Flashy red criminals in local will be gankers; if there's only 1-2 they're probably doing untanked miners and T1 industrials and thus not a threat. More than 2-3 reds is a serious concern and you may wish to dock up, or go to a safe. Instant docks/undocks are a must; keep all tank/resist mods active at all times - not only when in the mission but when docking/undocking and aligning off stargates. Watch for tears/smack talk in local as this is another free intel source. If someone's crying about getting ganked ask them what happened. Mining barges 'sploding aren't your problem. You can even d-scan for wrecks and watch for them off gates/stations.

Learn to glean info from local and D-scan and put that together to keep an accurate picture of what's going on around you. I frequently pull up the browser while I'm missioning and run killboard searches on suspect/criminal players in local, to see exactly what sort of bad guy they are.

Thanks - this is awesome, detailed advice.

To confirm, players who show up flashy red in my overview will ALSO show up flashy red in local?