My main mission runner for L4s and the Minnie Epic Arc (Wildfire) has been an artillery fit Tempest (1400mm T2s) and it’ suited me well. I just recently gained access to the Gallente Epic Arc (Syndication) and have been reading up on the mission chain.
My Tempest is mainly fit to maintain range (MWD/MJD) and damage - at 130km+ I can pop most frigates, cruisers, and sentries within a couple volleys and can float just out of range of BS cruise missiles - I have a minimal armor buffer as well, but really, just enough to give me time to warp out if necessary. The only times I’ve really had any problem is in deadspace mission rooms that drop you right in the middle of the mob - and even in these instances I can usually pull enough distance with the MJD to stay out of my armor
From what I’ve read I think I should be able to complete Syndication…
For those of you who have run this mission arc - can you think of any pitfalls I might encounter?
A prime example would be getting dropped into a room where you get immediately scram’d (or are somehow prevented from pulling range) or particularly difficult ranged mobs that can hit beyond 150km.
So long as you are smart about using your MJD and MWD, you can run that arc in almost any battleship. Some of the missions are really, really slow because you have tons of rats to kill. But, in terms of risk of losing your ship, the only real risk is to screw up your MJD jump, and then somehow capping yourself out (or getting a bunch of webs on you) so that you cannot use your MWD.
Some of those battleships are very, very dangerous if you fail to maintain range.
Cool, thanks; my fit is built partly for agility (at least as much as you can in a T1 battleship) and I’m pretty good at maintaining my range “buffer” - that being said this will be my first time running this arc and I’ve had close calls before jumping into mission deadspace unprepared (hence this thread).
There are several missions where you need to look around, align, and MJD out first thing. So long as you aren’t completely stupid about that jump, you should be fine. Even if your jump lands you close to somebody bad, you can still pull range with the MWD.
The missions, if I remember correctly, are either low dps with mostly cruisers and frigates (where you might get webbed but still be okay) - or they are high dps battleship missions with almost no frigates. Read the mission summary before you go in to understand the spawn triggers.
Will do. I’ve got a few guides I’m parsing through - most of the advice is geared towards tank and short range DPS (one repeat “shortcoming” of ranged builds is that they aren’t used as much outside of gank it seems) - so I’m trying to cover my bases here.
Thanks again for the advice. I’ll keep my wits about me:)
The professional mission runners prefer to have blinged active tanked ships that have maximum dps - which implies short-range. These ships are expensive because they need very good modules in order to be cap stable, but they make these guys virtually immune to the NPCs. It allows them to complete the missions in the shortest amount of time because of the high dps.
Gallentean Epic Arc actuallt has the most difficult mission for snipers. In one mission those veteran Minmatar battleships can push still high dps at 100km. They can almost break the tank of my sentry domi. But if you’re not using sentry drones you can just keep the range with your MWD.
Basically you have two very dangerous types of rats : the elite BS that go 1100 m/s and 300 DPS IIRC will absolutely MELT your “little buffer” tank the moment they are 20km away. They come by 3 (not sure) and will close the distance your MJD gave you before it can get ready again. However the good thing is that some missions are non-dedspace so you can warp freely between the structure, asteroids and keep range.
The next danger is the long-range BS that can shoot you at ±100 km with high alpha. When you kill some, more of the previous fast elite BS will come and rush towards you.
This epic arc is the most difficult because those elite BS are very mobile, and in small independant groups, and surrounded by other groups with neut, so you can’t ignore them.
I don’t know who those guys are, I definitely am not one of them, but I know that in MANY missions projection beat raw DPS. That’s why the mach is so good : close range DPS(1k) at mid range level(50km), with speed to replace yourself and warp speed is the ice on the crop. But besides mach and vargur, I can’t find a good other BS that has correct projection with close range ammos. On the opposite, cruise missiles sport correct DPS at very long range, which makes raven/typhoon, or for people who like raw DPS barghest, able to apply their DPS without a need to reposition yourself after killing a rat. However their application is a bit lacking, because you can’t ignore it thanks to rats going in a straight line towards you, so you need to use application modules. Still the rattle snake has both advantages, its sentry popping incoming frigates and its missile shooting bigger threats - but the range is a bit meh as it needs drone control range, and targeting range modules, in order to be able to target after a MJD.
Most missions you will be fine. The last 2 are probably the toughest. In my early days I did them in a dominix, which was way before the MJD existed. It was rough, but you could warp around the grid. I would get a warp in at 100km. Fight as best as I could and MWD further, trying to drop a BS at a time, with many warpouts.
I then did them in a MJD Kronos. Much easier. You could easily just MJD in like a big circle on grid keep them away from you until they were whittled down. May be harder in a non-marauder since they get a bonus to MJD cooldown, but still doable.
Either way I would definitely make sure as you burn away you do so staying aligned to something. I’ve never lost a ship in the arc but I’ve warped out in structure back in the day.
My last 2 runs were in an AC Loki thanks to @DeMichael_Crimson. Honestly the best and most fun I’ve had in the epic arcs. Takes some manual piloting to keep your transversal up, but very active and surprisingly effective.
And like @Derath_Ellecon posted, I use a bling fit shield boosted T3 Loki Cruiser to run all of the level 4 Epic Arcs, with high skill points and some creative piloting it’s rather easy to complete the arcs without having to warp out / repair.
The last couple epic runs were for standing mostly. I finally achieved a long term EVE goal.
Bottom line you can run syndication in any well trained BS, just be careful on some of the missions. An dthe eve survival notes are indispensable. Even years later they are mostly relevant.
Hopefully by now you’ve already run the arc. If so how did it go?
I guess I should finally check out the cosmos missions? hmm.
