While true, this isn’t something you can escape by attacking the NPCs scramming you… You need to have a near perfectly fit (and expensive) ship, but can’t know whether you will have a chance before entering. The discrepancy in ewar, raw DPS, and piloting ability needed is immense. All risking a ship/pod worth upwards of one billion.
in T4/5 maybe but then they should be much harder. T1-3 with +1 bill you should be able to run it easily or its a bad fit and no real loss, passive tank gila can counter most things easily for only a few hundred mill
They should open up F4s to T3C, T1, Faction and T2 Battlecruisers; F5s to T1, Faction and T2 Battleships. This whole limiting everything to cruiser theorycrafting is ■■■■.
@Dark_Engraver is bang-on with his comment regarding mutaplasmids. If you’re going to need these to consistently beat F4 and F5s, you’ll be further ahead selling them than risking them for some token rewards.
I don’t see how the rewards of an F4 or F5 justify the risk of losing billions in Deadspace modules and implants and then running the gauntlet of free ganks with suspect status.
Client and network stability are also absolute ■■■■. If I didn’t have to worry about the flaky OSX EVE client locking up every 30-45 minutes I could probably gloss over the recent socket closures and general network instability. These almost ensure that I’m going to die half the time just because I can’t reconnect or log back in before the timer pods me.
I’m less worried about the NPCs than I am CCP’s ability to provide a stable environment for these filaments.
3 Likes
My first experience… T2 fit Gila that I used for recently concluded Drifter event sites. (4 rapid light launchers and hammerheads, ~550 dps) Tier 1 no problem, went for Tier 3 and OMG owned in 1 minute by 5 Leshak spawn in the first pocket. Bye-bye genolution set - i’d be crying on TQ.
They sent out 3 target painting drones that were easy to knock out and reduce the incoming, but my normal reaction of “pulling range” to reduce damage and buy time to think about what to do next, does not work in this limited-size space. Even tho Leshaks were already heavily damaged, I could not crack any of them before explosion.
Expensive trial and error is going to be off-putting to a lot of players. There’s a disconnect between player complaints about static, predictable PvE, and this extreme. Be careful what you wish for 
2 Likes
We’re kinda arguing in circles. You’ve written the same thing already previously.
Allowing stonger ships to enter the stronger sites defeats the purpose of having a rise in difficulity with rise in tier.
→ restriction to cruisers is fine.
will not exist. Hunters have no way of knowing if the beacon they scanned down results in a suspect or a non-suspect coming out. So if someone wanted to hunt abyssal runners she/he would almost always waste their time staring at a beacon for a non-suspect to emerge. With such boring gameplay, noone will do that and the suspect timer you get on tier 4 and tier 5 has no effect.
2 Likes
CCP - Allow us to reprocess Filaments into some amount of zero-point condensate; I don’t think high-level filaments will be too valuable, if only a select few players are able to run them.
2 Likes
Yes, but this was before TQ had experienced weeks of network instability. Cruisers only currently work under ideal (and unrealistic) server and network conditions.
Client crash (as happens under OSX) … dead.
Socket closure, network issues or DDoS … dead.
At least under existing PvE my ship (and definitely pod and implants) have an excellent chance of surviving intact. With a fixed 20-minute timer, any minor issue on CCP’s part pods you and relegates you to filing support ticket after support ticket for reimbursement.
SiSi has not been stable in the least. Every time I try to run one of these filaments it crashes and I die. There is no reason to believe TQ will be any better when this is released in a few weeks.
What exactly should I be getting excited about here?
1 Like
The shiptype you are flying while the server is crashing does not influence the result of you having to file a support ticket.
Some stats and npcs compositions i’d love to see changed for the sake of testing:
Reduce number of leshak battleships in the damaged triglavian bs group as follows:
2in tier 1-only 1 of them being renewing
3in tier 2-only 1 of them being renewing
4in tier 3-only 2 of them being renewing
5in tier 4-only 3 of them being renewing
6in tier 5-only 3 of them being renewing
We already know renewing leshaks repair some odd 1000 armor per cycle this will make players make decissions on which npc to primary to break the group tank easier.Remove remote repair from all non renewing leshaks.
Now as far as how many non renewing leshaks i’d like to see tested in each tier that have neuts
0 in tier 1
0-1 in tier 2
1 in tier 3(means 1 guaranteed per spawn)
1-2 in tier 4
2 in tier 5(means 2 guaranteed per spawn)
Note as far as neuting ranges leshak tracking and damage,speed,RR range all that i feel with changes mentioned above they could be kept the same as now for sake of testing only.
2 Likes
Vedmak disintegrator group changes I’d like to see for the sake of testing and balance again.
tier 1 // 3-4 demavik(1 tackle 3 dps/ewar)
tier 2 // 1 vedmak(no neut) or 4-5 demavik(2 tackle,1 neut,1-2 dps/ewar)
tier 3 // 1 vedmak(neut)+3 demavik(2 tackle,1 ewar/dps) or 1 vedmak(no neut)+4 demavik(2neut,2dps/tackle)
tier 4 // 2 vedmak(neut)+4 demavik(3 tackle,1 dps/ewar) or 2 vedmak(no neut)+6 demavik(3 tackle,3 neut)
tier 5 // 2 vedmak(neut)+1 vedmak(no neut)+5 demavik(3 tackle,2 dps/ewar) or 2 vedmak (no neut)+1 vedmak(neut)+6 demavik(3 tackle, 3 neut)
Finaly remove rr from demaviks keep only on vedmaks maintain all other current stats for the ships with this composition for the sake of testing including orbits,velocity,dps,neuting amount.
I feel ewar is a lost potential for this group it is designed in my view as an anti kiting tool to maintain the need for some tank in the sites instead of range and kiting so I wouldn’t rule out taking all ewar from demaviks out and replacing it with tackle or almost all tackle.
2 Likes
Vedmak/demavik drone controller group
Add tackle demaviks into the mix so far i haven’t encountered any
@Dark_Engraver I just wanted to say thanks and extend my appreciation to you (and others) for your exhaustive efforts in testing these. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t got a lot of feedback or interaction with the devs as frankly I feel these Abyssal pockets still leave a lot to be desired.
I really think CCP is making a mistake by implementing a permadeath feature for Into The Abyss on release. I suspect there will be a lot of teething issues for at least a month - including the aforementioned network stability. This could potentially result in a lot of lost ships, modules, pods and implants through no fault of the player.
5 Likes
Thank you however i still am testing and watching npc behaviour and changes despite most of it going in a very wrong direction as far as balance.
Thus far tier 3 offers a most balanced aproach in all regards for a good player with good abysal knowledge and a solid fit anything above is a flip of a coin in regards to winnign or losing.
A small update on the new rat spawns the eliphailes have too much ehp combined i had to deal with 22 of them in a tier 5 firestorm yesterday and they had a standard tier 5 drifter bs too despite good flying shooting right dmg at them etc to clear everything took 10 MINUTES 1room.
Also clearing a full BC drone group took too long by comparisson to most spawns until now had about 9 of them. last room in this situation was drone BS i simply gave up and took a tiny break after that.
The new npcs speed along with updated drone swarms mostly negate the use of afterburner sig tanking now you are too slow and they can overrun you so keeping some mobility with mwd is the way forward in my opinion thus far.
Increased agression toward drones makes deploying light drones a risky option especialy if you aren’t in a drone bonused ship i had 1 hobgoblin launched from a vagabond get instapoped by a drone bc aparently the BC have 4000 tracking
So with the recent NPC spawn changes, are the Gila and Ishtar still the frontrunners for Abyssal F1-F3 pockets?
well not rly considering let’s say in theory you deploy heavy or gila drones on a bc group you have about 5-6 bcs in tier 3 now they can deal a combined 6000 dmg to a drone they pick in an instant,leshaks love to shoot drones if you run out of their range they can melt heavy drones easily,vedmaks the disintegrator ones can run away with them a bit then kill 1-2 rly fast.tiny drone swarms can’t rly do much to gila drones but they can damage light ishtar drones or destroy them easily.
1 Like
How much aggro can you draw through the use of drones? I wonder if buffing the Gila’s drones with durability rigs would do the trick? I also know that in PvE if you hit your drones with a remote EECM you can usually (but not always) draw aggro away from your drones on to yourself.
I try to figure out what expendable ship to lose in first dive into T1 Abyss. Gila is clear
[Gila, Abyss passive]
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Thermal Dissipation Amplifier II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Thermal Dissipation Amplifier II
10MN Afterburner II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Light Missile
Medium Energy Nosferatu II
Medium Core Defense Field Purger II
Medium Core Defense Field Purger II
Medium Core Defense Field Purger II
Hammerhead II x2
318 mio isk
But what about Ishtar:
[Ishtar, Abyss]
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II
Damage Control II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 150
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
10MN Afterburner II
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing II
Medium Drone Speed Augmentor II
Hobgoblin II x5
Ogre II x5
Wasp II x5
Berserker II x5
Inferno Fury Light Missile x4820
Nanite Repair Paste x404
360 milions ISK, ship even slower but do more damage
and now Vagabond:
[Vagabond, Abyss LASB]
Assault Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 150
10MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Inferno Fury Light Missile
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing II
Medium Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer II
Acolyte II x5
Almost 1000 m/s, 313 Milons Isk, very short range but dual web…
Those are ships for very first dive for Abyss newbie, empty clone etc…
What I wanted to ask is
- At what distance drones / frigates are orbiting ? Will 13 km web range enough?
- Is it still true, that you should count with thermal / explosive damage from NPC?
- Do I have a chance to remove most of DPS from small targets and start sig tanking larger NPC before my LASB will run out of charges?
Thank you for your answers.
@erg_cz About that Vaga fit … if you really insist going in abyss with it - I would drop the 425mm ac’s for 220 ones - tracking is way better, also 4 gyros are a little bit overkill - would go with 2 max 3 of them - the rest can go for a tracking enhancer
2 Likes
yup went similar 2 gyro 2 TE
[Vagabond, Abyss LASB 220]
Assault Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
10MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
‘Arbalest’ Rocket Launcher I, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing II
Medium Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer II
Acolyte II x5
Double tank and 10 % better tracking for 15 % less DPS output. Not sure I need over 700 EHP/s for T1… But less DPS means longer time to finish site. Tracking dual webbed target should not be a problem if you manual piloting (turn your ship to the point in space, where your enemy is currently pointed).
Thank you for advice, more advices appreciated.