Level 3 Missions...

[Darakor]

Well, I have finally managed to get close to being able to run level 3 missions in my armour tanked Rupture. Only a couple more missions or so and I will be able to move on to a new agent. So I am kinda wondering, how much of a jump - difficulty wise - is the move up from 2 to 3?

I have yet to lose a ship in this game and haven't had a close fight in a while. I manage to blow through most run of the mill missions fairly easy. And I am not only looking forward to the L3 implants I get from L3 storyline missions, but an added challenge and more cash loot.

So, can anybody give me any pointers what I should expect? Any changes to my normal pve setup that I absolutely have to do? Should I move on to BCs from Cruisers to keep up with the demands?

Dara

 

[Rochdale]

I can't remember if I'd moved to battleships when I was doing L3 or not, I think I had because I'd moved up to a Maelstrom and lost it to my first ever mission with warp scramblers in it.

I think I was still in medium guns though, which is a horrible fit for a BS.... I suggest whatever you do you make sure you're well fitted

 

[Darakor]

I am planning on staying with medium ships for my eve life, so there will be no moving up to BS on my side. Too skill intensive and too expensive when the ships are lost.

I am planning to skill up in the direction of heavy interdictor (or something like that) and try my hand at joining some pvp corps when I get there. In the meantime, I try to earn as much money as possible and a good number of implants, as well as have some fun.

Have played around a bit with EFT, but am still not 100% sure what to try out for L3. I have not had to warp out from a fight in a loooooong time, so I am not overly worried about warp scrambers... At least I wasn't until you mentioned losing a BS on a L3 mission. I guess I am worried now.

Using EFT I played around with a shield tanked Hurricane with 190 defense (forever sustainable) and a dps of 179 and a shield tanked Cylcone with 224 defense (only lasts 4 mins, though) and a measly 149 dps... Hmmmm.... Both are using my very favourite artillery approach. I think I will have to take some time tomorrow trying to built a decent comparable armour tanked hurricane version...

Oh well, I will stick with L2 missions for a bit longer then, while I try to find out what do you with L3.

 

[Requiel]

Level 3s are designed for Battlecruisers, some may be doable in a well fitted cruiser but in general you'll find that the level of incoming fire requires a BC sized tank. A battleship will be overkill to be honest.

Mission wise you'll meet mostly cruisers and battlecruisers with the odd destroyer and elite frigate (scrambling/webbing) thrown in. I don't think there are many with Battleships as as an end boss. You'll mostly want rat specific hardeners rather than omni resists and you'll need to tune your type of damage output as much as possible as well.

Other than that, the jump from 2-3 is not all that harsh. 1-2 and 3-4 are much bigger steps IMO.

 

[Darakor]

Well, I am lazy and would like to avoid having to reconfigure the bloody ship all the time.

Since I do not currently have the money for a fully kitted out BC anyway, I don't think I will do the switch to L3, yet. Will have to stick with L2 for a bit longer then. I have 46 mill atm and expect I need a lot more, considering that I would like to use T2 stuff for the parts I already have the skills for.

Does anybody have any built suggestions for a Cyclone or Hurricane? I have recently started appreciating armour tanking more and am no longer as nervous when shields go down as I used to be. That aside, most of the builts I tried were shield tanked.

I prefer builds where I don't have to pay attention to every little thing, so semi-passive builds work best for me.

 

[Requiel]

If you have EFT (and i f you haven't then you definitely should), there is a ship browser in the 'plans' section. THe latest version has a list of suggested loadouts so you can get an idea of how other people fit their ships. I know very little about Minnie ships so I have no personal advice to give you I'm afraid.

 

[Chick]

drunk and giving Battlecruiser advice ITT

Hurricane's are bloody awesoem ships for l3 missions. I "Active shield tank"'d my way through hundreds of them and had a good time.

try something like this:

6x 650mm arties (scouts for preferance), 2x missile launchers.
3x t2 cap recharger, 1x AB OR a web
Med repper II, Damage control II, 2x Mission specific armour thingies, 2xGyro II
5x t2 light drones

if you wnt to rig it - use either aux-nanobot pump thingies to boost your repper, or Cap control circuits for - erm, more cap.....

you should be able to pretty much perma-run the repper with ok cap skills and no rigs, use drones to shred frigates, use the arties and missiles on the rest.
/drunkpoast

 

[Chick]

oh, passice cyclone fit that walks through all l3's - if you have cash to spend on the rigs:
swap t2 for best named t1 and it works OK .....

 

[Darakor]

Damn impressive built, Chick.

I don't have the money or skills to use rigs extensively, yet, though, so what I came up with on a hurricane was this:
4x PDS2
DC2
Gyro 2
2xInvulnerability Shield 2
Medium Shield Booster 2
Large Shield Extender 2
SV-2000 Assault Missile Bay
6 x 650mm AC 2
Salvager 1

And then I need to work on some skills to get 20.9 more cpu from somewhere, because that's the cpu I don't have to fit it all in. ;-)

197 defense with everything (except salvager) running and 186 dps. With 3 core defense shield purgers 1s, that would hit a massive 296 defense. Kinda a mixture active/passive shield tank, which is funny, I think.

Signature 353, ouch.

 

[Darakor]

Ah, switching the 650mm Arty2s out for Scouts solves some of the cpu problem, but I am still 10 shy of what I need. Probably need to take the time to get weapon upgrades to 5, before I can run that.

 

[Rochdale]

Ah yeah, that's right, I flew a Hurricane. Brilliant ship

 

[Requiel]

For level 3s it's definitely worth getting a dedicated salvage boat rather than using up a hislot on your missioning ship. It will take ages to clear most of the missions with a single salvager and a slow BC, also BC cargo bays aren't usually all that huge.

Train destroyers 1 and fit a Thrasher with 4x salvagers, 4x tractors, 2 expanded cargo bays, an AB and 2 cap rechargers. You'll clean up after your mission ship in no time with that.

 

[Chick]

You shouldn't ereally ever mix active and passive tanking to any degree. If you want to active shield tank it - replace the shield extender with a Shield Boost Amplifier, or for passive tanking replace the Booster for another LSE II.

Shield power relays in the lows, of you are going for the Passive route give increased peak shield recharge, making passive more doable. You lose some Cap recharge, but you don't use cap

to get 10 more cpu, drop the DC II for a named version.

 

[Pegasus Belgar]

Just started doing Lvl 3 missions with my passive tank Drake, certainly a step up from Lvl 2.

 

[Darakor]

LOL. I played around with your suggestion, Chick.

Current result, shield tanked Hurricane:

4x SPR2
DC 2
Gyro 2
2 x Invul Field 2
2 LSE 2
2 Arbalest Heavy Missile Launcher
6 650mm Medium Scout Arty
3 Core Defense Field Purger 1

End result: Defense 481

Unfortunately, with everything turned on, cap only lasts 17m 58s. ;-)

Also will have to do some further tweaks, as I lack 15 power and 48 CPU to actually run all that. Might have to look at putting at least 1 PDS2 in, to make sure I can sustain all the stuff for longer.

It also looks like I have a signature to match a battleship using that.

Good call on the dedicated salvage boat, will probably have to go that route.

 

[Rochdale]

The salvage boat is definitely a good investment, I got myself one when I was doing L3's and I'm still using the same one. It's ace.

 

[Chick]

that'll work
the only real problem you will have is in some missions vs, erm, Mercs i think it is, and possibly sanshas where they do Heavy EM damage and you have a massive em resist hole.

Swap one of the INV firelds for a photonic hardener and you should be ok though.

You should be able to drop 2 SPR's though - 1 for a PDS II and 1 for another gyro. The faster you kill stuff the longer your tank lasts

 

[Darakor]

I am guessing I need 125 mill to buy the hurricane with all the stuff, which I don't have right now. And I probably need 2-3 weeks worth of training time to be able to fit everything in.

Do you mean swap inv field for photo hardener on those specific missions, or generally?

***EDIT: When I swap the inv field for the photo permanently, my Termal resist is as low as the emp resist with 2 inv fields. ***

***EDIT2: All I need is 6 days for Engineering 5 and about a week for Shield Rigging 1. Well, as well as way too much in the way of cash, but I will have to see what I can do about that. ***

 

[Rochdale]

Don't forget to insure it

 

[Darakor]

If I lose it, I will go back to my still fully kitted out Rupture and start working on L2 missions until I have the cash for L3 again. ;-) As the insurance only pays for part of the ship, not all the modules, it can save me like 20 mill or so max, I expect.