Spent some time on SiSi this weekend running some Abyssal sites.
I was mainly focused on seeing what the experience would be like for “entry” level type players, so I was running a plain old Vexor. Basically stuff that should be accessible even to Alpha clones. I only ran the lowest level sites - Calm filaments. The fit I used is all the way at the bottom.
For the most part, I was successful. Here are some of the spawns I saw and some comments on each.
The drone swarms were pretty easy, and I never used the suppressor towers as help. Honestly, I never had a suppressor tower that made any sense to use, they were either not present or so far away that they weren’t practical to use. The drone swarms were tough on my drones though. I really had to pay attention. If the swarm switched targets before I got a few of them down, there was no saving the first drone they targeted, it simply died before my drones could return. With a Vexor, it wasn’t a huge issue, I had spares. I might be somewhat concerned for non-drone focused cruisers without room for spares, because losing a drone or two early in a pocket could kill their chances for the rest of the pocket.
The Triglavian frigate group was somewhat challenging. Had I not equipped a web, this group would have killed me, 100%. With the web, it was just a matter of waiting until they got into web range, webbing them, and taking them down one by one. My light drones did draw some aggro at times, but seemed slightly more forgiving as far as losing drones.
I saw a couple instances of a wounded battleship with drone escort. These spawns were not especially challenging. The biggest trick to me was killing the drones first so they didn’t kill my drones, then taking down the BS after.
Next I caught a double battleship spawn, both wounded. This spawn was incredibly challenging in my fit. It was basically a race to get one of them down before I died. Once the first died, the second one wasn’t quite capable of breaking me. The place I see an issue here is that even when you survive, you can’t simply jump the next pocket right away. You need to take a few minutes to regenerate yourself, because there is always the chance the next pocket has the same thing - or something worse - and going in already in deep armor is going to get you killed. Because of the timed nature of these events - which I enjoy - not knowing what’s next can be a big issue.
Finally, and by far the worst, was the untouched Triglavian cruiser. That thing was a big can of nasty. It was very fast - faster than I could get to and web. My drones, even my light drones, had a very difficult time hitting it and keeping up with it. It also hit harder than both battleships. Not sure this encounter is very well balanced for the lowest level Abyssal pockets. I only saw two of these spawns - and the second one is the one that killed me.
I didn’t have much interaction with the various towers at all. I understand what they do, but they didn’t seem like they were worth the trouble. My only concern with them is they could perhaps create a Kobayashi Maru scenario. For example, a drone based cruiser trying to fight one of the battleship spawns that wants to hang out near one of these towers.
Sure, when facing that Triglavian cruiser it probably would have been handy if a tracking tower had been available. Or a sig increasing cloud. But they were not, and given that you can’t count on them I don’t think it’s wise to use them as the “answer”. Since you can’t count on them, at best they are a net neutral in the encounters as a whole. Because they have the capability of creating no-win scenarios, I see them as a net negative.
Here’s the fit I was testing. The fit is cap stable (33%) with all mods running for me. The cost should be under 50 mil on TQ.
[Vexor, Abyssal fit]
Medium Armor Repairer II
800mm Steel Plates II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
10MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Large Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
Phased Scoped Target Painter
150mm Railgun II, Javelin S
150mm Railgun II, Javelin S
150mm Railgun II, Javelin S
150mm Railgun II, Javelin S
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Group 1 -
Hobgoblin II x5
Group 2 -
Federation Navy Ogre x2
Hobgoblin II x1
Hammerhead II x2
Spares -
Hammerhead II x1
Hobgoblin II x3
Perhaps a VNI or an Ishtar would have fared better, but I wasn’t testing those scenarios. The Ishtar is a little dubious simply because it’s bonuses also skew a little toward sentry drones, which are a major weakness in these encounters. You cannot afford to sit still given time limits, and tracking is very much an issue. Thus, sentries are probably a very poor choice for Abyssal deadspace, and likely weaken the overall profile of an Ishtar.
, I’ll try muninn + 650’s and Mwd. 2367 speed just just fast enough to stay out of range would have to fly like a king thou haha no pressure… I bet I die to 3 frig’s under my gun’s.
i like it, that I would risk my but for! no muta’s thou T_T. Those suppressor’s are great they make sniper fit’s more viable.