Warfare & Tactics

Has anyone had success with running level 4 Faction Warfare missions in a ship built to both do the missions and engage enemy faction players? I would like to get the PvP content and the mission payout ISK in the same play sessions. The whole stealth bomber thing puts you in the "hunted" category and I would prefer to stand and fight rather than always be hiding and warping hoping I don't get pointed. When I was doing lower level missions I did them in a kestrel with all T2 modules, LML T2 and with a scram. It only cost 5 mil a ship and I could engage enemies at will and if I lost that was fine. I am having trouble figuring out an equivalent for the level 3-4 missions.

- Should have a point and have a reasonable chance to defend itself against enemies
- Has to be able to complete the level 3-4 FW missions, so probably a kiter
- Has to warp 20-30 systems all over enemy space. The bigger the ship, the longer that takes and the easier for a camp to get you on the gate.
- Price sort of matters, but only in relation to the potential risk versus reward. A battlecruiser like a drake is 50m, but if you lose one every time you do a mission run that isn't going to work. A T3 is 500m and if you lost one every 20 missions it would still be too expensive.
- I would also be fine with a frigate like an AF but I am not sure they can do the missions.

Has anyone done this before and can offer me some suggestions?

Thanks!

FW missions are frequently ran in bigger ships than bombers by Gallente pilots.

Use MWD+Cloak tricks along with Mobile Depots and stabs to travel through space. If you insist on being combat ready then drone ships in general seem to be like a good bet for doing both FW missions and PvPing in mission complexes (depending on what the aggressor brings) due to the projection and application of drones, as well as the leeway they offer in terms of fitting.

Ishtar seems like the obvious candidate.
As long as you don't do missions for the Gallente side, since Cal NPCs jam hard making it difficult to manage targets in PvP even if you could somewhat reliably run the missions once your drones are aggressed.

Thanks everyone for their feedback.

I am Gallente FW. I used a navy Vexor with the mwd+cloak warp to get around fast. I also carried a mobile depot to switch out two mods that made me more pvp ready. Dropped a battery for scram and a specialized resist for an adaptive. I've lost a few, bit I'd also killed. My buddy had used a fleet Scythe to similar effect.

Besides bombers I did missions in an Ishtar. Except gallente missions you were able to spare one or two mids to scram/web. You could have a variety of drones to engage smaller and larger targets.

All those ceptors and slicers warp into your mission and disturb your isk earning and you think it would be nice to be able to contest them.

Problem is you will not get rid of the "free game" sign on your head with getting an Ishtar, Gila or something else. The ceptors this time will never warp into your mission when they see you on dscan. Instead they will bring lachesises with 10 other friends in the next door. And even if they brought small stuff you will have a hard time locking and pointing them, because you need cloaking device/mwd to avoid gatecamps.

I decided that it is not worth lowering your isk/hour while increasing the isk you risk (bomber cheaper than ishtar). Being ready for pvp that can possibly happen significantly increases the amount of time you spend in pve to make the same isk. Instead, just focus on earning your isk and do the pvp in some other time.

If you are really annoyed by those ceptors what I did was multiboxing it, doing the missions in a bomber meanwhile having a sebo lachesis on the acceleration gate, killing all those annoying ceptors. In time frequent hunters began not to warp into my missions anymore. It was also good to not get disrupted. Of course not everyone has means to multibox.

If you still wanna give it a try, I would say try to fit droneboat with neuts which can still do missions of your faction. Drone neut ships can surprise buttsex even 2 to 4 people waiting in the next system to warp into their ceptor friend after he gets a tackle on you, especially if they are active tank. But seeing that you are Gallente it is hard to spare mids because you need eccm.

But again, I suggest improving your bomber survival skills (if you keep dying) rather than mixing your pve and pvp activities. The chances of you dying approximate to 0 if you take enough precautions against those people that hunt mission runners.

As has already been said its possible if you use a HAC, but I personally would not recommend it. Any lone HAC or T3 is a prime target in low sec, so the risk of losing it to a gang of pirates or WTs while running the mission is pretty high.