Missions & Complexes

Hi guys, I'm fairly new to the game and I've been having a lot of fun with exploration, but so far it's either varied between terrible isk or lots of risk. High sec sites seem completely worthless. I tried a few Pirate sites in Wormholes but I don't think my skills are high enough to make it worthwhile, it takes way too long for me to crack the cans and half or more of them end up exploding.
I've been thinking I might have better luck with combat sites and Anomalies in Sansha/Blood Raider Lowsec and I'm wondering if it's worth the time, and what ship I should use. At the moment almost all my SP is in Scanning, but I have Amarr Destroyer IV, so I was thinking of skilling to a Confessor to see how that works out.

Is there anything I should look out for, or is this just a terrible idea? Any advice is appreciated.

Things you can run with Confessor in lowsec are rated DEDs up to 4/10 (except Angel 4/10), all unrated DEDs up to Provisional outpost and some Outposts (atleast Sansha one is doable but it takes long time, probably others too), you can run many expeditions you get from those unrated sites except most last parts (don't even try that with Confessor xD, maybe some with Jackdaw.....idk).
You can also run Ruins and Rogue Trial Yard unrated rogue sites and their escalations.

I think thats mostly it. For a new player, more than enough.

Also make sure you fit expanded probe launcher to chase away any unwanted visitors with combat probes

I used a hecate (the gallente version) for a week or so, imo it was basically a training distraction from the cruiser I should have been flying. The site it was optimal for was the 2/10. some 3 and 4/10s it struggled with because of its sig and bonuses, making it necessary to clear pockets that a cruiser can headshot the key target (much slower, much more likely to be overrun by other players).

The confessor has much better bonuses for PVE than the hecate so you might get more use out of it than I did with the hecate, but exploration is mostly a cruisers game, if its what you want to do, you should focus on cruisers

If you want to do sansha 3-5/10 DED sites on a regular basis the ship you want to train into is the muninn. It can even do 6/10 sites though your dps may be lacking for the final overseer and you will have to do the kiting trick to kill it if you don't have a friend or back up toon. The muninn can do most of the sites with minimal tank thanks to its 90 em base resist so you usually can get by with 1 MAR and 1 thermal hardener. Only for the last room of 5/10 and some unrated sites do you need to buff the tank a bit.

The general fit is something like this:

[Muninn, Unnamed loadout]
Medium Armor Repairer II
Armor Thermal Hardener II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Tracking Computer II
Tracking Computer II
10MN Afterburner II

720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet EMP M
[empty high slot]

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Projectile Burst Aerator II


Hobgoblin II x5

You can of course tweak it as you like and carry a depot with extra tank mods/cloak/travel fit. I'd suggest scanning down the sites first in a cov ops then coming back in this to do the site.

It might work for BR sites too but I have less experience with them so can't say for the 5/10 and 6/10. You would have to work on your kiting to keep out of neut range but it will do 3/10 and 4/10 easy.

Agreed. I use a T3 for 5-6/10s, a Stratios for 3-4/10s, and whatever Assault Frigate or T3D available for 2/10s... 1/10s can be run in an Astero too, the rats are so fragile and do so little dps, that the Astero can handle that without a problem.

Good reading so far! I have a quick question, though: What are the "x/10"'s that people keep talking about in this thread (and a lot of others)?

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Cosmic_Anomalies



Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the advice guys. I've actually been doing these sites for a few days now in my Confessor. It's been fantastic! I've occasionally been crashed by people in Stratios's (Stratei?) and Asteros, and I've beaten them to the loot every time. I've found tank is pretty much irrelevant since I just sit 60km plunking everything with Aurora anyway. I haven't tried a 5/10 yet, because I haven't actually found any, but 4/10's are no problem at all. I just did Mul Zatah Monastary actually, it took about 15 minutes. I got a whole load of nothing though, just Overseer's effects.
Some choice things I've found are a C-Type EANM, a MG Halo Omega, a C-type 5mn MWD, and a Nexus Chip that went for 50m. I'm up about 450m as of today.

Had one hairy moment with a Carrier sitting 1500km off a gate trying to blap me, but the 3 second align time saved me.

How would a Cerebrus do in low sec combat sites? I've not run across many fits at all. Just wondering if it would handle things well.

Which anoms escalate into 6/10's? So far I've only gotten 4/10 and 5/10 to spawn by running highsec anomolies.

Also I've had terrible luck with the loot so far. Out of about 3 dozen sights only one 5/10 has dropped a can worth 400mil and other than that just OPE's and modules not worth 100mil even. All the 4/10's I have done so far have dropped nothing but OPE's and one or twice one module worth 100 mil. I haven't seen ONE adaptive invuln from either escalations in 3 dozen DED's so far....


Is this normal or just exceptionally bad luck? Everyone has been telling me how good the money is running these and so far it has not been worth it for me.