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Solo'ing Angel lowsec exploration plexes -- *without* a Tengu
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Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#1 - 2012-04-19 14:57:13 UTC  |  Edited by: Petrus Blackshell
Despite having the windfall income of FW missions available to me, I like to have fun while carebearing, so I do lowsec exploration from time to time. I live in Angel space. Magnetometric and Radar sites are easy, but some of the combat sites I find (and their escalations) are rather hellish. Up until now I've been using a Sacrilege to tank them, while getting a newbie or two in destroyers or BCs to kill everything. When I'm bored and alone, though, I'm stuck up a creek without a paddle.

So, I'm looking for some way to solo these. I am allergic to FOTM and to HMLs in general, so I would rather not touch the Drake (even though I have BC V) or the Tengu. That said, I've got T2 Amarr/Minmatar cruisers and their respective medium weapons, plus Caldari and Gallente cruisers to IV, with T2 medium hybrids. What would you suggest as a ship to do this with?

From the ships I've looked at so far:

  • Sacrilege is promising, and can tank the sites easily, but has anemic damage.
  • Absolution also tanks them well, but EM/therm damage is really poor against Angels. It might do more damage after the Angels' resists than the Sacrilege does, though.
  • Hurricane and Cyclone do plenty of damage, but lack in tank.
  • Sleipnir may be able to tank better than the above, but I'm not sure it's enough.
  • Myrmidon looks interesting, but a bit low on DPS if I rely solely on drones (not great drone skills).
  • Gila is the same, but much better in the damage and tank departments.
  • Legion and Loki look promising, but I've never touched a T3 before (but only need to train up Strategic Cruisers and the subsystem skills to fly either of them).
  • Battleships look good, but are vulnerable in lowsec, and may have issues dealing with pesky tackle frigs and fast rat cruisers.


Opinions?

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Caldari Citizen 786478786
#2 - 2012-04-19 15:40:36 UTC  |  Edited by: Caldari Citizen 786478786
Ninja edit - TL/DR - Tengu >>>> Drake >>>> Everything else

I'm going to assume the sites you`re looking at running are the rated Angel 4/10, 5/10 DED sites, and possibly the non-rated 5/10 and 6/10 variants, Angel Annex, Minor Angel Annex and Angel Mineral Acquisition Outpost. If I'm mistaken, feel free to correct me

The 4/10's are your bread and butter and can easily be run by any of the ships you've listed. They have, far and away, the highest profit potential for the time it takes to run them. Following that is the 5/10 DED site, Angel's Red Light District. Despite the vast number of Battleship spawns and the multiple pockets, it really doesn't challenge your tank until the last room, at which point it can tear you a new one if you aren't able to gain some speed and transversal AND take out the Stasis Webification towers which are roughly 40-50km away from the warp-in. The non-rated 5/10 and 6/10 sites are similar to Angel's Red Light District, but with the ability to blitz them if the triggers are managed properly and with less danger of webbing

The 6/10 non-rated site, Angel Mineral Acquisition Outpost and it's Escalation (I've never seen it not escalate) can prove more difficult than the others due to the large number of elite frigate and cruiser spans and the potential for heavy neuting in the final pocket

All that said, based on the ships you listed, the most likely candidates to handle these sites would be the Gila, due to the long range of its Heavy Missiles, its immense tank and vast drone bay. Also, the Sleipnir should have little difficulty with a combination of active shield and speed tanking, assuming you can figure out a way to deal with the Stasis Webification towers at long ranges. The Legion and Loki should perform similar to the Sleipnir while being significantly more expensive, but also far more versatile. The Myrm, 'Cane and Cyclone may also be able to handle the 5/10s, albeit very slowly, with enough finesse and, as with the Sleipnir, the ability to deal with Webbing at long ranges

The caveat to all this, as you can assume, is that no matter what ship you choose, with the possible exception of the Gila, you will be seriously gimping yourself by not choosing the Drake or the Tengu. Less so the Drake, because while it can tank the **** out of just about anything, it's damage potential really isn't all that great when fit to tank the harder sites. The Tengu, on the other hand, is far and away the best choice. It's damage projection out to 100+km gives it the ability to pop any Stasis Web or Neut towers often before they come online, it's base resists lead it to tank Angels very effectively with very tank modules, leaving open the possibility for more damage projection through the use of a TP or Web

Don't get me wrong, feel free to choose whichever ship suits your taste, just know that you'll be only a fraction as effective in whatever choice you make until you get over your distaste for the "FOTM" and Heavy Missiles in general.
Liang Nuren
No Salvation
Divine Damnation
#3 - 2012-04-19 15:43:39 UTC
I've got a Loki that I ran them in. Its in Frerstorn if you want to buy it off me.

-Liang

I'm an idiot, don't mind me.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#4 - 2012-04-19 16:01:15 UTC
Caldari Citizen 786478786 wrote:
:snip:

Thanks! That's the sort of analysis I was looking for.

Question, though: You mention the Sleipnir doing a combination of speed and active tanking. How does one active tank a BC-sig (shield BC at that) ship against mostly cruiser and BC rats? I was sig tanking with my Sacrilege before (dualprop), but the Sac has a much lower sig and a better tank and resist profile.

Also, re: Drake/Tengu. I have flown a Drake before, and nearly fell asleep. Tengu may or may not be fun, but I don't have Caldari Cruiser V at any rate, so I can't fly it yet. They might be easy mode and most profitable, but I play Eve to have fun, not to see numbers tick up. It's why I'm doing exploration and not solo'ing infinite FW missions in a Purifier.

Liang Nuren wrote:
I've got a Loki that I ran them in. Its in Frerstorn if you want to buy it off me.

-Liang

Noted.

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Liang Nuren
No Salvation
Divine Damnation
#5 - 2012-04-19 16:09:10 UTC
Petrus Blackshell wrote:

Question, though: You mention the Sleipnir doing a combination of speed and active tanking. How does one active tank a BC-sig (shield BC at that) ship against mostly cruiser and BC rats? I was sig tanking with my Sacrilege before (dualprop), but the Sac has a much lower sig and a better tank and resist profile.


Yeah, I wouldn't say that the Sleip is sig tanking the rats so much as either active tanking or range tanking them. It has no trouble tanking the sites IME.

-Liang

I'm an idiot, don't mind me.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#6 - 2012-04-19 16:15:14 UTC
Liang Nuren wrote:
range tanking them

Sanity check, you mean Barrage, not artillery right?

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Liang Nuren
No Salvation
Divine Damnation
#7 - 2012-04-19 16:17:29 UTC
Petrus Blackshell wrote:
Liang Nuren wrote:
range tanking them

Sanity check, you mean Barrage, not artillery right?


Hmmmm, no. When I've done low sec exploration its always been artillery fits.

-Liang

I'm an idiot, don't mind me.
Stetson Eagle
Paird Technology
#8 - 2012-04-19 16:27:23 UTC
Gila and ishtar are good options with drone damage being less dependent on high slots (at least for now). You can drop a cloak + probe launcher there and do it all in one.

Zerkers are not really all bad, with good skills and an omni or 2 they will slaughter frigates. Bouncers are a bit lacking in the dps department.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#9 - 2012-04-19 16:28:32 UTC
Liang Nuren wrote:
Petrus Blackshell wrote:
Liang Nuren wrote:
range tanking them

Sanity check, you mean Barrage, not artillery right?


Hmmmm, no. When I've done low sec exploration its always been artillery fits.

-Liang

So... something like this?

Quote:
[Sleipnir, Explodation]

650mm Artillery Cannon II, Fusion M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Fusion M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Fusion M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Fusion M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Fusion M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Fusion M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Fusion M
[Empty High slot]

10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Booster II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Shield Boost Amplifier II

Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Medium Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I


Warrior II x5

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Liang Nuren
No Salvation
Divine Damnation
#10 - 2012-04-19 16:54:07 UTC
I want to say that I found a way to squeeze 720s on with a T2 ROF rig. It's been a while since I used it.

-Liang

I'm an idiot, don't mind me.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#11 - 2012-04-19 16:58:24 UTC
Liang Nuren wrote:
I want to say that I found a way to squeeze 720s on with a T2 ROF rig. It's been a while since I used it.

-Liang

Hmm...
Quote:
[Sleipnir, Explodation 720]

720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Fusion M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Fusion M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Fusion M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Fusion M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Fusion M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Fusion M
720mm Howitzer Artillery II, Fusion M
Core Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe

10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Booster II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

Reactor Control Unit II
Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Medium Projectile Burst Aerator II
Medium Ancillary Current Router I


Warrior II x5


That... does rather stupendous amounts of damage, for an arty fit. Shocked

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Liang Nuren
No Salvation
Divine Damnation
#12 - 2012-04-19 17:06:19 UTC
Petrus Blackshell wrote:

That... does rather stupendous amounts of damage, for an arty fit. Shocked


Yeah the theory was that it does more DPS at the appropriate ranges and would let me stay well away from the warp ins. I think you can do even better with faction gyros and I have some vague recollection of having to train projectile rigging 5 for it to fit without a fitting mod. I could be wrong about that... that could be the Loki that required that.

-Liang

I'm an idiot, don't mind me.
Petrus Blackshell
Rifterlings
#13 - 2012-04-19 17:19:10 UTC
Liang Nuren wrote:
Petrus Blackshell wrote:

That... does rather stupendous amounts of damage, for an arty fit. Shocked


Yeah the theory was that it does more DPS at the appropriate ranges and would let me stay well away from the warp ins. I think you can do even better with faction gyros and I have some vague recollection of having to train projectile rigging 5 for it to fit without a fitting mod. I could be wrong about that... that could be the Loki that required that.

-Liang

Not sure, the arty Sleip fit is really tight. An autocannon Sleip appears to operate at a little lower DPS at very long range (35 km, with Barrage), but has +100 (or more with T2 rigs) DPS tank, and works much better at lower range. It's also much easier to fit.

I wish I were a newbie again, so people could just yell at me for being useless and tell me to train for another year before I can fly useful things.

Accidentally The Whole Frigate - For-newbies blog (currently on pause)
Caldari Citizen 786478786
#14 - 2012-04-19 19:41:54 UTC
[Sleipnir, Artillery]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Domination 10MN Afterburner
Gistii A-Type Small Shield Booster
Gistii A-Type Small Shield Booster
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon II, EMP M
[empty high slot]

Medium Projectile Burst Aerator II
Medium Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer II


Warrior II x5
Hornet EC-300 x3

Is probably what I would use, if I had any interest in Minmatar ships. 720mm artillery CAN fit onto this, but it requires a PG implant. Of course you can drop the bling for straight T2, but if you spend any amount of time running Angel DED's you'll find all the mods in my fit are in HIGH supply.