Mission Retribution V01

You get two posts for the price of one today.

I think it was Sebadai ( http://sebadai.wordpress.com/ ) who remarked on running static sites in empire for quick ISK.  I haven’t looked at them for literally years, and given there are a few in the area I operate, I thought I would have a look.   First – these get farmed – constantly, by some rather old characters – so there must be some value in them.

I started out in my trusty old Hawk, which I leave in my hanger for when I have to grind low level missions for standings.  It soon became apparent that if you manage to get into one of these sites immediately after it respawned, you had to clear it quickly before someone else turned up.  While the Hawk easily tanked and one shot most of the rats, the cycle time of its launchers was painfully slow.  I quickly went through the options and settled on trying the Retribution.  A couple fitting changes later and I think I now have a new PVE Assault Frigate.  (With my usual mix of cheap faction fittings, all of which were in my hanger.)

[Retribution, Mission v02 rf]

Coreli C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Damage Control II
Heat Sink II
True Sansha Adaptive Nano Plating
Capacitor Power Relay II

Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner

Dual Light Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Dual Light Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Dual Light Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Dual Light Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Salvager II

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Energy Collision Accelerator I

It cleared the sites in literally a 1/4 of the time, had range options on its weapons, and was fun to fly.

And are static sites in Empire worth it?  I picked up a half a dozen faction modules over an hours effort, most not worth much, but which you might consider using on your ships.  They were interesting, and when you have a spare 5 minutes, worth having a look at.

Mission Rattlesnake v01

I might have been wrong in my last post – I seem to remember owning a Damnation for a week or two, simply so that I could say I achieved that goal.  Or was that on the test server?  As you can see, even though I lusted after the ship for quite some time, it failed to leave a lasting impression.

Speaking of ships I long desired, I took my Rattlesnake out on its first mission the other night.  T2 bouncers and Cruise Missiles made short work of the NPC battleships, while my Alt’s Proteus cleaned up the smaller and closer hulls.  It worked a little better than expected, and I might actually end up using the ship regularly.

I went for the long range flexibility of the Cruise (which I don’t have T2 yet) over the short range DPS of the torpedoes, which on initial appearances seems to have been the right option.

The goal of this fitting:

. Tank Level 4 missions
. Use only cheap faction modules
. Not required micro management

[Rattlesnake, Mission 01 rf]

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II

Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Pithum A-Type Heat Dissipation Amplifier
Gistum B-Type Magnetic Scattering Amplifier
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Shadow Serpentis 100MN Afterburner

‘Arbalest’ Cruise Launcher I, Paradise Cruise Missile
‘Arbalest’ Cruise Launcher I, Paradise Cruise Missile
‘Arbalest’ Cruise Launcher I, Paradise Cruise Missile
‘Arbalest’ Cruise Launcher I, Paradise Cruise Missile
Drone Link Augmentor I
Small Tractor Beam I

Large Core Defence Field Purger I
Large Core Defence Field Purger I
Large Core Defence Field Purger I

Ogre II x5
Bouncer II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Vespa EC-600 x5
Warrior II x5