Ships & Modules

So I am just coming back to the game after a long long break. I had been flying an AFK Dominix in missions prior to my leaving. I came back and decided I wanted to actually use the Ishtar that I spent the time training on. I have been reading thread after thread after thread trying to figure out the best fit to go and am still torn between passive shield and active tank.

What I am wanting to get into is some low/null plex/ratting.


At the moment my current set up is this:

Highs:
Civ gat
Small tractor I
Salvager I
Improved cloaking device II
Core Probe Launcher w/ sisters core probes

Mids:
Fed Navy 10mn AB
Med Peroxide Cap Power Cell
Cap Recharger II x2
Omnidirectional I

Lows:
Corelum C Med Armor Repper
Damage Control II
thermic hardener x2
coreli b em hardener (was cheaper than the C some how)

Rigs:
Med CCC
Med Aux Nano Pump

Resists: 83/93/97/24
Speed is 594 m/s with AB

Due to CPU problems I usually keep cloak/probe offline to fit everything. I have to use faction armor since I can't use t2 yet. I also am using t2 light/med, t1 heavy/sent drones atm. Sents are almost t2 and haven't bothered with heavies yet.

My main question is will this fit work for null/low sec plexing and ratting or would a passive shield fit work as good/better? I am able to use t2 shield items since I skilled up for WH's at one point. I am completely new to the exploring/ratting/plexing solo thing. I have been getting used to the Ishtar in lvl 3/4 missions and doing plexes I find in my mission hub (usually 3/10 which I burn through).



Passive Shield fit would be something like

highs:
same as above

mids:
3-4x large shield extender II
1-2x passive specific resist

lows:
Beta reactor x5

Rig:
Med Def core field purger I x2

Any critiques or advice is much appreciated.

As always, thanks in advance.


edit: I am also curious if either of these fits would be able to solo WH's and what lvl's could I do? I assume 1's and 2's but not sure...

Might I ask why you take Nano Plating over Membrane? Is it CPU use?

Oh please note that in hisec and if you access low/null via gates, you should maybe dual-prop it like Hungry Eyes advises.

MWD is a clear advantage in contested hisec sites, and MWD+Cloak can save your butt on low/null entry points.

Would the armor tank fit I have set up be good for null/low exploring? Also, would it be able to take some c1/2 WHs?

If not what would you change on it? Thanks much.

That brings up the main problem I have been having since coming back. I forget what rats are in which space lol. I have just been kind of wandering around my mission hub in Pamah at the moment.

Awesome thank you very much.
I think I am going to hold off for Null/low until I get my t2 sents done in my next training phase. I will start using the Ishtar more though to get a better handle on what it can and can not do so I'm not running blind into everything.

I hopped into a c3 yesterday when I was out screwing around. Almost ended very badly after I started seeing the towers plinking me for 600 dmg. Luckily I warped off before I blew up.


One last question before I stop posting here: How is your cap with your set up? One thing I hate is having to worry about my cap all at the time while fighting. Especially if I were in null/low having to watch d-scan and pay attention to the cap and everything else going on. Would drive me nuts.

This is what the Build I have at the moment looks like:

Modal Electron Particle Accelerator I / Cal Navy Antimatter M
Modal Electron Particle Accelerator I / Cal Navy Antimatter M
Modal Electron Particle Accelerator I / Cal Navy Antimatter M
Core Probe Launcher I *will be changing out for tractor while getting used to this ship
Proto Cloaking *changing out for salvager during carebear high sec

Fed Navy 10MN Afterburner
Medium Exlectrochemical Cap Booster 800
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Cap Recharger II

Damage Control II
Centii A-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Corlum B-Type EM Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Thermic Hardener
Corlum C-Type Medium Repairer


Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I
Medium Sentry Damage Augmentor I


Running t2 scout/meds and faction heavy/sents while they are training. With the tracking the faction ogres should be able to take care of the small things.


Looks like I am cap stable with everything running full time minus the repper (will pulse when needed).

Resists come in at a respectable:
87/91/90/42

also, as the ishtar is an expensive fit, you should be able to afford modules for both the passive shield and armour fitouts, as well as appropriate rigs since they cost a few mil each or so.

Both fits are great, and depend mostly on neutralisers being present or not

cpu issues? ishtar with single rep i find one cpr and one recharger to be enough. it's not really stable, but the stuff runs long enough for my taste.

The first few things that comes to my mind are :

- Dont use faction mods on a rating/plexing ship if you plan to go into hostile territory, if you dont have good enough fitting skills, train those skills first, and replace faction by T2. The only faction mods you should have are cheap armor/shield resist, that gives you same resist than T2 and cost a few mill each

- the moment you undock with your ratting/plexing ship, direction null or low, you want to be mentally ready to loose it because thats what will happen sooner or later.

- you should have the cloak online all the times. you dont want to stay at a safe waiting for enough cap to online the cloak. If someone enters the system and you can see something other than a shuttle on scan, you just warp to a safe, cloak and wait there. So in your setup, plan to keep your cloack online, if it does not fit, change your fitting or get better fitting skills, simple as that.

- your main concern is other players, pve by itself is not a big danger if you stick to doable plex in an ishtar.

- try your setup on the test server, its very important. You dont want to do15 jumps to 0.0 to realize that your setup sucks and you have to go back in empire to correct it

- im not sure how familiar you re , with doing ninja pve in others people territory, but it is far different and much more dangerous than high sec missioning or even doing pve in 0.0 with a lot of blue around. This requires a lot of awareness and a good knowledge of games mechanics/. your are on your own, and you want to avoid npc 0.0 stations as much as possible.

- If its a new thing for you , i would advise you to just start with things like belt rating in a bomber in 0.0, that would give you a decent start on how to move around and thats less costly to loose than a fully T2 fitted hac.

- using lower and higher class WH to go from empire to null is also an option.

- if i was you , i would go for 0.0 instead of low sec. The ending might be the same than in 0.0 ( your ships being blown up ) but the rewards are higher, also in low sec pipes are more used than 0.0 for most of em, so more annoying people trying to get a shot at you.

- in 0.0 and low, your main danger will come from jumping trough systems using gates, thats why having a MWD is usefull, it will allow you to run back to the gate . That does not mean you will make it but at least you will have a chance, also like i said before you should always have the cloak online to be able to use the mwd/cloak trick .

- if you do ninja pve only fo rmoney, do it in a WH rather than in 0.0 or low, its less risky and still fun. Dont use an ishtar, drones and sleepers are not friends. go for a drake and run C2 or if 2 accounts , use 2 drakes and run C3 anom,

- also plan on anchoring a few secure containers around when you find an area you like, you dont want to loose your ship with lots of valuable stuff inside. let it in the cans and bring it back with th right ship/