Staring Into The Abyss

Greetings fellow capsuleers! I had originally planned to write up an article about racial frigates' strengths and weaknesses.

Then I looked at the calendar, and said "oh my, old chap, where did the month go?" Also expressed by beginning with "Oaf" and ending with "Uck."

Yeah, the Triglavian event is upon us, and fortunately I've practiced a fair bit with capable and budget friendly fits. As usual, my fit is alpha clone capable, and fairly forgiving.

So let's get to it! One of my favorite fits for running Tier 1 and 2 sites is the Ashimmu. Yes, you read that right. It's just over 100 million Isk, and will clear T1 in about 9 minutes, and T2 in 14. A bit slower than the workhorse of the Gila, but its a quarter of the price, and will pay for itself quickly.

Ashimmus are wonderful for two things: Web range, and Nos drain amount. In Triglavian space both work to your advantage. You face a lot of frigates, and tracking them is an issue for a lot of ships. The Triglavian frigates are a particular menace, because their damage ramps up quickly, and when faced with a swarm of them, can quickly overwhelm your tank. So before they get close, dual web them, and burn them down. Webs with alpha skills extend to 18km, which is within the optimal for Scorch crystals. Usually I can burn down two before they are close enough to hit me. The Nos drain amount is the other factor in choosing an Ashimmu. Remember, you can drain cap as long as the target has some. And it costs you nothing, so even if your target is way into nos falloff, it gets you some cap. Put a nos on the targets you aren't attacking, and they become little flying cap batteries with teeth. I typically only have to use a cap booster when I need to kick on the Ancillary repper, and have been using my MWD a lot. 

Tactics:

This fit is optimized for Electric abyssal space. It reduces EM resistance for you and your enemies. Ashimmus already have decent EM resist, and your guns deal a lot of EM damage, so its a good synergy. I only use this with Calm and Agitated Electric Filaments. If you want to make things even easier, you can use Standard Drop booster for a 25% tracking bonus. It makes hitting frigates easier, but if you get the armor repair penalty, don't hesitate to destroy your clone and try again. It makes a difference. 

When you enter the pocket, enemies will be over 40km away. Switch to scorch or radio, and start burning them as they close in, while approaching the Cache LCO. Destroying that gives a wreck with the only loot for the pocket inside. 

Most enemies are pretty straightforward, but there are a few that deserve mention.

Anything which applies a scram prevents your MWD from activating. They are a priority for keeping speed as an option.   

Triglavian frigates with drones function like player ships: destroy the ship, drones shut off. Knowing this will save you a lot of time, not having to trash those annoying things. They don't have to be killed to activate the gate.

Drifter ships will kite you, and are fast, so you will have to burn hard to get close. Once you are though, a 1k m orbit will be under their guns, and damage will drop quickly.

Rogue Drone battleships have a LOT of HP. Killing them will take the most time in the pocket, so don't be afraid to overheat.

Watch the timer. Its better to squeak a ship back out with no loot from the last room than lose one at the last second. You have 20 minutes. Make it count.

Watch the towers. Rooms will randomly have effect towers in them. They provide effects which can be useful and harmful at the same time. Deviant Automata Suppressors are a point defense effect. It will slowly kill your drones or missiles. That's bad. It will also kill enemy drone swarms. That's very, very good. Same with sig radius boosters, tracking speed pylons (construct additional ones of these, CCP) and other effects. Show info on the tower to see what it does, and use it to your advantage.

The Payoff

We don't do this for free, so what are you risking your ship for? Well, its a bit random. You will always get some red loot (so called for its icon color), which is able to be sold to NPC buy orders. Its small, but will usually pay for the filaments easily.

Crystallized Isogen-10 and Zero-Point Condensate are used for all Precursor construction, and worth a fair bit, although drop quantities are very random. Take the time to sell it, or build with it. Buy orders are usually a waste of isk.

Blueprints are more valuable. Even meta modules are going for a lot, and worth building. Ammo prints are decently expensive on contracts, but might be worth more building yourself. Have to do the math. Ship blueprints are the real jackpot, since they are in high demand right now.

And skill books are a nice payoff. The cruiser book netted me a cool 55m on buy orders, and more if I had been patient. But if you've seen my killboard, patience isn't my strong suit.

Final Thoughts

These sites may not have the best payout on Tier 1 and 2. But they have something that PvE in eve doesn't offer very often: a rush. I can't say well done enough to CCP for designing something which is a major challenge, and actually fun. These sites remind me of player combat, and require you to be on your toes just as much as a lot of PvP fights. The constant risk of the timer is a nice mechanic, which adds an additional nail biting feel, and the scenery is amazing. Seriously, if you are running something better than my lapotatotop take the time for screenshots. One environment is a shattered ice field which would make Elsa from Frozen jealous. The art team deserves pizza and a raise for this, and it doesn't have any annoying gas clouds (WHICH YOU CANT TURN OFF GRRCCP) to crash your framerate. I really wish it didn't scare people as much as it did, because you owe it to yourself to take a look. Go challenge yourself, make some isk, see some sights, and as always,

Fly Chaotically!