I've said before how delighted I am about all the lore work being done by CCP. I love the story of Eve, and I'm definitely experiencing a deeper level of engagement because of the attention they're paying to it.
And now, we have some more fun activities to do.
I'm finding that the temporary Blood Raider Gauntlet sites are an enjoyable activity in lowsec. In many ways, it's exactly the kind of variety i was asking for in high-sec (the sites also spawn in high-sec, as well). Right now, the loot is actually quite expensive, though I suspect the price will drop as more people become aware of the kinds of fits you can use and they saturate their own characters with these injected boosters.
In particular, I'm really enjoying how this temporary opportunity presents a mix of PvP and PvE opportunities. Every site I've been in has been challenged at some point- either by a friendly or a hostile. You have to be on your guard when running these sites, for you should expect company. And that's just good fun, all around!
In the interests of ruining that market, allow me to share the fit that I've used successfully:
This ship is very much built to do the job of clearing the sites, but keeping an eye on pilots warping in to you. The whole cluster seems to be in Gauntlet-mania right now, and you can't simply go with a straight PvE fit here.
When flying this particular ship, frigates will give you the most trouble, ironically. You'll want to orbit, web, and cap siphon one of the frigates while you shoot the others with Imperial Navy Standard S loaded. That first frigate is your anchor and your supplemental capacitor. You should be able to 4-5 shot each of them.
The tricky part comes in managing your tank. Being armor tanked, your reps will hit at the end of your repair cycle, meaning you have to gauge the incoming damage and anticipate when you will need the repair. Your capacitory can endure just over a minute with absolutely everything running - including the NOS - but you likely won't have the MWD on very much; the signature bloom will wreck you.
Be very careful to sip your armor repairer. If a neutral warps in on you, you want to have as much capacitor as possible at the start of the fight.
For the first room, I stick to Defensive mode, since speed-tanking the frigates isn't possible. In fact, with the frigates, you can approach if you want; orbiting doesn't mitigate damage from the frigates at all.
When you warp to the second room, pick the nearest ship and orbit it at about 1000 to 1500 meters with your mwd off. For this room, I switch to speed mode; only a very rare shot will hit you when your speed and direction happen to line up perfectly. Otherwise, you can easily speed tank the whole room. All of the tease rests in the battlecruiser. When you kill it, you'll automatically get an Abaddon skin. If the wreck isn't empty, there's your cerebral accelerators. I managed to get two advanced once in a single wreck (currently 250 mil a pop).
Watch your dscan, enjoy the fight against a fairly well-matched ratting opponent, and enjoy!
Loaded up your fit, switched the point for a Tracking Computer, undocked, warped, cleaned the site (don't do the 1st wave in speed mode like me), got an accelerator.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I would have stayed with my belief that I didn't have enough SP to do it otherwise :)
It's a fun fit, isn't it? Of course, shortly after posting this, I warped to a site to fight a Hecate there. I was doing very well against him, until his Worm friend showed up. I even had an accelerator in my cargohold. I was able to ninja-loot my own wreck out from under a Pilgrim keeping watch, and got it back!
DeleteHey Tal... you see that there buhtan what's called [Copy to Clipboard]? Well, ifn ya clicks it, ya can and post it so's we can all actually USE the fit...
ReplyDeleteJust sayin... =P
Throwing this out here. Not as fast clearing them but frigs can be used, faction or T2 with a bang for buck fit without the expense or sp needed for a t3d. 1 drop and you hit profit, bring friends if you like.
ReplyDeleteLess blingy and skill intensive.