Nomads - Level 4 Storyline Wrap Up

Last night I wasn't able to finish the final mission of the Nomads story line mission I got from my Mining Agent,  downtime just came too quickly and there was no way I was going to be able to complete four rooms in nine minutes.

More so as the incoming dps was enough to make me warp my Gila out after landing in the first room, reading up on the mission was of little use as the reference to the mission was from 2008 and didn't go into much detail.

I petitioned to get the final mission reset before I logged off last night and spent a little bit before I went to sleep trying to work out how to do this mission.

When I logged in this evening I asked my CEO to assist and he offered an off grid booster and possible a suicide logistics ship but as luck would have it a PvP target rich environment happened tonight so he was distracted by that but he did run his booster for me with Siege (shield resistance) and Skirmish (signature radius) links.

If At First

I undocked the mission owner in his pod and warped to the deadspace area, this is a useful trick as NPC's will NOT attack a pod and I was able to move slowly 50km above initial spawn point. Whilst he was moving I warped my combat pilot in at 50km and arrived 30km underneath the spawn point and away from the serious dps that bothered me last night.

I then targeted the webbing ships and used my missiles and drones to kill them whilst staying around 50km from the battleships.

A few minutes later and the room was clear and I looted the Alpha Gate card from the last battleship I killed.

Alpha Room

I warped in and had a fright as my overview was NOT setup to show faction warfare NPC's so I didn't see the dozen webbing frigates that surrounded me when I landed. A quick change to the overview and I engage the afterburner and align to my repair station (just in case).

I primary the webbing frigates and receive a tip from alliance that I should run the Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link without any scripts to get both a bonus to tracking speed/optimal range. As soon as I did this my Valkyries started to kill frigates in one shot rather than the two or three when I had the tracking speed script installed.

#Winning

The room was cleared and I checked the last NPC killed for the Beta Room key, which I prompted used to use the Beta gate.

Beta Room

With my overview now correctly showing all NPC's I warped into the Beta room and was able to see that I had three groups of targets. 

• Group 1 were 3 battleships at 35km 
• Group 2 were a mix of frigates, cruisers and a couple of Battleships at 75km
• Group 3 were a mix of frigates, cruisers, three Battleships and a named cruiser at 90km

I noticed no aggro on landing and it was only when I attacked that any aggro came from the group I was engaging. As a result I maintained range with my afterburner on, so my drones could engage. Targeting the webbing frigates first, then cruisers and finally the battleships I was able to kill them all taking minimal damage.

The named cruiser was putting out significantly more damage than the battleships, when they did hit, so once the cruisers were finished I killed the named cruiser and finished off the battleships. I had a nice surprise when I looted the named cruiser and found two +3% and one 5% implants.

The final battleship I killed held the Gamma Room key and nothing else, so I grabbed the key and off I warped.

Gamma Room

The final room, again warp in was clear and this time I had two large groups of NPC's to deal with.

• Group 1 were a mix of frigates, cruisers and battleships at 70km 
• Group 2 were a mix of frigates, cruisers, 4 battleships and a named battleship at 90km 

I approached this room the same as the Beta Room. Maintaining distance with my afterburner whilst using my drones to kill the NPC's in order from smallest to largest, with a particular emphasis on the webbing frigates.

Group 1 didn't last more than 10 minutes and I moved on to Group 2, again webbing frigates were killed quickly and then cruisers. The battleships were around 40km from me now and, with the exception of the named battleship, not hitting me.

I was still very much tanking these, my shields hadn't dropped below 90% as of yet, so I moved in and engaged the named rat with HAMs and drones whilst orbiting at 15km. He took three minutes to explode at which point I checked his wreck and was very happy to see a pair of Republic Fleet modules which I grabbed and then finished off the rest of the ships.

Loot

I warped a Noctis in after I'd finished the mission and looted/salvaged every wreck in each room and as a result I managed to get quite a selection of T1 salvage and modules that I can reprocess as well as the implants/faction modules that I grabbed.

Excluding the T1 modules this is what I got out of the entire 5 mission arc that I received.

All up a little over 550m ISK worth of loot that I can use or sell on the market. A very profitable mission  arc even if it took a lot of effort and never ending clicking of d-scan.

Unexpected Surprise

I have previously blogged, a fair while ago, about getting a Dread Guristas Cloaking Device in a Level 4 mission in high sec but I've beaten that in a drop I got from a Level 4 storyline mission in null sec.

In the fourth part of the Nomads Level 4 storyline mission, there was a named battleship and he was quite a pain to take out as he was doing four or five times more damage than the normal battleships he had escorting him. I had to warp the Gila out three times before I reduced enough of the dps from the spawn to be able to tank it.

Once the named rat was dead I mosied over to his wreck and found this along with some basic modules:

Not an implant I've ever seen before and the description said this:

This is an implant worth keeping or should I sell it fetch a nice price. 

But as luck would have it this is a nice implant but Jita has quite a few for sale and they're only worth ~280m ISK. Still I have no intention of selling as this will make a very good Slot 7 implant for my Dreadnaught jump clone. 

Wallet Restoration

Cashing Out

It was time to cash out, I had less than 42m ISK in the wallet division that my trader has access to and I had a whole raft of things I needed to buy or sell (sales/broker fees still have to paid when selling). I still have around 19billion in sell orders pending but they're not items that will sell quickly.

My missioning in both High Sec and Null Sec has been profitable with ISK and rewarded LP, so much so that I went to market with ten Slave Omegas and nine Snake Omegas. All were put on the market immediately and when I woke up this morning every single one had been sold at an average profit of 700m each (this takes into account the ISK to purchase and the cost of the implant needed to cash out).

Instead of looking at a 42m ISK wallet division I now have over 7 billion available and this doesn't include another months output from my reaction towers that will be going on the market this weekend and I expect will run me over the 12 billion mark.. 

Don't tell my CEO though as he'll want some ISK for the Alliance coffers...

All Quiet On The South-South-East Front

It's quiet.

Possibly too quiet.

But then again I'm happy that it's like this, it's allowed me to concentrate on grinding standings with one of the NPC corporations in a fairly fast time frame. Zero to 8.34 personal standings with the corporation in a little over a week has meant that I now have access to all the Level 4 agents in the area. 

Mining PvE 

I've found the mining missions not as boring or repetitive as Security ones and much faster to finish. Mining missions seem to comprise one of three types, mining ore, gas or ice. I was told only to do the gas mining missions for best reward vs. risk but I've found that the ice ones (mine 20 blocks of ice) are quick to do with a Skiff or Procurer and are worth doing with Gas. I do decline all the ore missions as they take far too long and usually require two or three trips back to station to drop off what I've mined.

I invested some of my liquid ISK in buying six Ventures and fittings so I could get three characters running missions in the future, the LP rewards (between 7,500 and 12,500 LP per mission with Mining Connections IV) are excellent and I have some good items (Vindicator/Daredevil/Snake Implants) to choose from when I do cash out. 

One really good thing about the mining missions are that they take place in the system with the agent or at most 1 jump away so I don't have to worry much about being caught on a gate. 

Last night I was fortunate enough to get three gas mining missions in a row and not just the "rat free" 7,500 LP reward ones. I got the 12,500 LP mining missions with "drone rats" (which are very easy to tank in a shield boosting Venture) and an hour later I'm 36,000 LP better off and a few million ISK richer.

Towers

My towers are good, we haven't had any siphons since Brave Newbies Inc. moved out and whilst we get a lot of traffic this doesn't interfere with my towers or reactions I have running. 

I did make a mistake last weekend, I bought in new raw materials from Jita about three weeks earlier than I should have so. This caused my liquid ISK reserves to be depleted (read: I spent all my wallet ISK) and now I don't have to buy anything for six/seven weeks apart from fuel.

ISK Today, Gone Tomorrow

The lack of ISK isn't a problem, aside from Ventures I'm not in need of buying anything at the moment outside of tower materials or trading opportunities. I have nearly 20 billion in buy and sell orders active so I'm not really in any trouble it's just depressing to see my wallet balance so low.

The reason I'm so low is I finally bought, and injected into his skills, the Amarr Titan book for one of my characters, not that he has the titan nor do I have the need or ISK for one yet. 

Distribution Missions - a waste of time?

One of my characters has a 9.9 standing with Sisters of EVE that he achieved via Security missions. However I don't like to multi-box missions (I've failed badly before at that) and as a result I don't want to run two Security missions at the same time.

 

So I decided that a Distribution mission I could do with a Security mission at the same time because of the autopilot (not into Low Sec obviously). And having a Level 4 agent means I should get good rewards.

 

How wrong I was.

 

My character has Distribution Connections V and the first mission I got asked me to move some Dolls five systems for a few hundred thousand ISK and 512 LP.

Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot.

512 LP for a single Level 4 Distribution mission, I'm used to getting a couple of thousand LP for security missions and last time I did Distribution missions I know I got a couple of thousand per mission not a paltry couple of hundred.

 

Have Distribution missions changed in their rewards or have I gotten things so totally wrong. I asked in a channel with some more knowledgeable people. Their consensus was that Distribution missions pay poorly and this reward was right.

 

I checked my standings with the Agent and I'm wondering if it's the agent standings that caused this. The faction and corporation I have 9.9 standings with but the agent I had only 1.46.

 

Does anyone know if the standings between your character and an agent have an effect on the rewards you get?

Unexpected Loot

I've continued my L4 mission running, aside from the fact that the LP is reasonable and the items in the store are very profitable I've actually found myself enjoying them again.

No more running to EVE Survival and reading on the blitz and then following the instructions I actually warp in, drop in a Mobile Tractor Unit and start shooting. I do wish the MTU had an extra tractor beam and/or was faster to pull stuff in but what it does is fine and if I pace myself all is good.

 

This process is what I've followed and salvage and loot have been reasonable, nothing to go WOW over but I get a nice amount of T1 salvage and the modules I sort and reprocess what isn't worth reselling.

 

This all changed a couple of days ago, I got a faction mission that sent me to retrieve a Special Delivery item from some 'bad guys'. I warped in and there were no more than a dozen ships, a couple of frigates, cruisers and a battleship in the form of the 'head bad guy'.

 

I dropped the MTU and then MJD'ed out of the initial spawn area and started Bastion mode. Less than 5 minutes later I'd killed everything but the battleship of the 'head bad guy'. I focused on this with Imperial Navy Multifrequency and some Range scripts in my tracking computers. He was dead within two minutes and at 47km from me within my ship tractor beam range.

 

So I locked the wreck and pulled it in and what I saw was this:

A Dread Guristas Cloaking Device, not an officer spawn but still this one module is worth five or six standard missions in ISK (~20million). I've never had a drop like this outside of an officer spawn (I've only ever had one of those and it was a bitch) and/or faction ship in null sec.

 

The module has been added to the faction items I have and may or may not be sold at a later date. Regardless what a nice reward it was.

L4 Paladin Mission Runner - Revisited

After losing a Paladin to the Damsel I refit to add more survivability to my fit as well as increasing the DPS as much as I could without training further skills.

 

Now that Rubicon has been deployed I have had to modify my fit a little more as stasis webifiers no longer get a bonus. I have spoken to Bex a fair bit about my Paladin fit and he has shared his which I've modified to get what I now use.

 

I've used the following fit for nearly a week now and L4 missions are faster to complete than before Rubicon. DPS and tank are definitely increased when in Bastion mode and the reduction in MJD charge time really helps movement around the battlefield, if it's needed.

 

Fitting

My fit is as follows:

[Paladin, Knight]
Tachyon Beam Laser II
Tachyon Beam Laser II
Tachyon Beam Laser II
Tachyon Beam Laser II
Bastion Module I
Small Tractor Beam II
Salvager II
Salvager II

Large Micro Jump Drive
Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed Script
Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed Script
Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed Script

Corpum C-Type Energized Adaptive Membrane
Reactive Armour Hardener
Core A-Type Large Armour Repair
1600mm Steel Plate II
Imperial Navy Heat Sink
Imperial Navy Heat Sink
Imperial Navy Heat Sink

Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II

 

Pyfa reports this being 1.21 billion for the hull and another 987 million for the fittings (for a total of 2.2 billion ISK). It hasn't cost me that much, I bought the armour repair and ENAM for a lot less than the prices Pyfa is showing (335m and 197m respectively) and two of the heat sinks I actually had from my previous Paladin and were dropped when that blew up.

 

I can hear what you're thinking, THREE tracking computers in the mid-slots. Well yes, I originally was going to have a Sensor Booster with a range script but the range of the Paladin was tweaked so I now can lock to 113.5km which means I don't need further range. All my targets either spawn much closer or up to around 110km.

 

The three TC's actually double my tracking and help me to alpha cruisers at 90km with Imperial Navy Multifrequency and a few times I've changed one to a Optimal Range Script and that has helped me increase DPS at 70km to 90km on Battleships.

 

I don't use drones either, I lost so many before Rubicon that I gave up using them for all but the frigates I could web and even then would still go through 15 at least a week. Now I've changed how and what I target first and small tackle no longer poses a problem.

 

Thoughts

 

I'm almost certain the Bastion Module has made the most difference, whereas before Rubicon I was MJD'ing around to keep out of frigate range and also to having to wait for ships to come into optimum range now I don't have to.

 

Faction Multifrequency crystals have an optimum of around 65km with a falloff to 96km. I can alpha cruisers at 90km with INMF and still hit battleships for around 800/900 per salvo at that range. When they come within 70km I switch to a Optimal Range script in a Tracking Computer and the DPS rises to around 1100. No more than 7 shots per Battleship to kill it.

 

Frigates (especially fast webbers like the Spider Drone) are primaries and even as they accelerate the tracking I have allows me to kill them. Destroyers and Cruisers are next and if they do get within 20km I now have the option of MJD'ing away and maintaining the locks I have.

 

So far the Bastion Module has meant that I do more DPS but more importantly my tank has increased from 1555 hp/12s to 3110 hp/12s when it's active. More than enough even for the Damsel mission when you have aggro from the whole room. As a result I've never gotten lower than 80% armour and I typically pulse the Core A-Type repair only when I get into the low 80's.

 

Outcome

 

I'm certainly doing missions faster, before I was following the Blitz guides and hating every second. Now I warp in, drop a new Tractor Module then start shooting. As I move around I'm still killing things and the Tractor Module is moving all my wrecks to one spot so I can salvage and loot when I finish.

 

It works well and I'm making more on bounties and loot that pre-Rubicon and I'm enjoying L4 missions more than I was. Previous posts show how much of chore I felt it was, now it's not so much a chore but a challenge to complete as quickly as possible whilst killing and looting everything.

 

I'm only using one character for this and he's a high skilled Gunnery and Amarr Battleship character. I worked out since the Wednesday after Rubicon was deployed he's made just under 1.2 billion in ISK either as bounties, rewards or loot from missions (excl. LP). This isn't solid missioning, this is at most four to five hours a day ad hoc (I estimate two missions an hour at most he's doing).

Damn Damsel

It was the first time I was given the mission with this agent, considering I must have done over two hundred missions and this was the first time I was a little surprised. I've saved the Damsel before and knew what needed to be done.

 

I undock and warp to the site, as I land I load Gleam L and target the structure containing the Damsel. It takes significant damage and more NPC appear, yellow then red boxing me. I align to a celestial and continue to pour fire on my target, I overheat my guns and the damage increases by a few hundred a salvo.

 

Incoming DPS has whittled by shields to 0 and I'm taking armour damage, hardener is active and the repair module is running. Twelve seconds is a long time per cycle and the damage is creeping up my armour status.

 

I prepare to warp out but the target is in deep structure and I continue to fire, I overheat the repair module and hardener. 60% armour now, nearly ready to warp.

 

What's that, my wife is calling there is a problem and I need to help her. I can't just leave so I click the MJD button to activate it, only it does not. I'm out of cap, how did that happen. 10% armour, dammit I need to warp so I click Warp and my ship turns around 180 degrees and starts to gain speed.

 

Wait, what... I was aligned to my out celestial why have I turned around 180 degrees. Never mind, need to warp so I look for an object where I'm pointing, there is nothing. The structure I was shooting at explodes!

 

90% structure, it's melting fast without that Damage Control II... too fast. 60%, 30%, 10%... I'm in my pod.

 

 

 

Bollocks.

 

That should not have happened, I should have saved her.

 

So I toddle off and sort out the reason I was being called by the wife and return and try to work out what to do. I'm a little lost, this hurts the loss is about 1.5bn and I hate to lose ships especially when I should not have lost it.

 

A few items have dropped in the loot and I'm sitting in the site in my pod ignored by all the NPC's around me. I have an alt else where who can fly a Paladin and I have enough ISK to buy a new one and fittings, off he is sent to Jita.

 

What a waste, I liked that ship... I was attached and proud of her. Damn Damsel, damn sentiment.

 

A new Paladin is purchased, given the same name as the lost vessel, and fittings are procured. I've upgraded a couple of components as well as buying some tracking computers for use when the webifiers bonuses are removed in a couple of weeks. 24 jumps from Jita to my missioning system, it's a long trip but I make it.

 

I refit my ship and reboard it, warp back into the site and grab not just my wreck and the Damsel, I manage to salvage my wreck (12 intact armour plates and a few small other T2 salvage items) and warp out in low armour. I get back to my mission base and hand in the Damsel and get my reward.

 

If the Damsel needs help again, I can't help... I'll be washing my hair.

 

Missioning - 99% complete

I'm nearly ready to stop mission running, nearly but not quite.

 

The Plan

 

I set myself a goal when I started about four weeks ago, an amount of LP I needed based on what I wanted from the LP Store. I mentioned my aim to a couple of friends and one asked me to get him a set of implants so I added that to my LP requirements and then it was time to start.

 

Security Connections V was trained and a suitable fit for my ship, a Paladin, purchased and found in storage containers.

 

A little help

 

When I started I used an alt in a Guardian to provide remote repair in a Guardian and for a couple of days I had another alt in a boosting Damnation providing help. In the end I've done 80% of my LP without boosts or assistance. Instead I've managed the sites and limited the incoming DPS combined with a faction repair module means I've only had to warp out two or three times in the several hundred missions I've done.

 

Starting out

 

I started the missioning with Mega Pulse Lasers and after two weeks of frustration at having to continually move and new waves always appearing "just" out of range of my guns I took the advice of someone and refit my ship to use Mega Beam Lasers instead and removed my damage control II in favour of an extra faction heat sink.

 

The other suggestion I received was to drop the micro warp drive and instead use a Micro Jump Drive, I did this and it was a revelation. Now damage incoming could be avoided by jumping 100km away and then sniping until they came close again at which point the MJD is recharged and I move again.

 

Refit

 

The refit immediately made a difference, I had to now remember different ranges for my crystals but this was quite simple but now I was hitting out to 108km with Aurora L an doing good damage but using Gleam L for targets under 30km I was doing ridiculous damage.

 

I rarely have had to use drones now, occasionally a frigate or spider drone gets under my guns and no matter what crystal I use they're moving too fast. Using the dual webs I have to slow the frigate down and setting drones on them solves that but if I get too many webbing or scram drones I just MJD away before taking the frigates out at range.

 

I thought I'd have to use the boosting alt with this fit but Level 4 missions haven't needed it, at times I've been down to 20% armour but a little overheating and changing primary targets to remove dps ships means I never have really been under threat. Small ships are a pain but as I mentioned above the webs and drones deal with them and even if I'm swamped the MJD is my saviour.

 

The Fit

 

This is the fit I'm using, a little expensive I know but this is a Marauder based mission running ship that deserves a little bit of expense to maximise your return.

 

[High Slots]

Mega Beam Laser II, Gleam L

Mega Beam Laser II, Gleam L

Mega Beam Laser II, Gleam L

Mega Beam Laser II, Gleam L

Large Remote Armor Repair System II

Small Tractor Beam II

Small Tractor Beam II

 

[Med Slots]

Large Micro Jump Drive

Cap Recharger II

Stasis Webifier II

Stasis Webifier II

 

[Low Slots]

True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane

Reactive Armor Hardener

True Sansha Large Armor Repair

1600 Reinforced Steel Plates II

Imperial Navy Heat Sink

Imperial Navy Heat Sink

Imperial Navy Heat Sink

 

[Rigs]

Large Capacitor Control Circuit II

Large Capacitor Control Circuit II

 

I keep a full set of T1 Crystals in the ship, I've found X-Ray L to be the crystal I use most at the 30km - 50km range. T2 crystals are used to take on long range targets (Aurora) or short range (Gleam) and I made sure I have at least 20 of each.

 

Drones I use 5 hammerheads or 5 hobgoblins but rarely have to use them except as mentioned above.