Can a Gnosis complete the Gallente Syndication Epic Arc?

[Tal_Galaros]

I can already here the shouts of don’t be silly - of course it can’t.

BUT it can, and it does surprisingly well. I have completed it 3 times now on different ALPHA alts. On my third run I managed to complete Studio I and Showtime without any warp outs. and I’m damned proud to have done so.

I am always looking for difficult challenges. First I set about running L4s as an ALPHA in a Gnosis to see what the alpha experience was like. I finally settled on a hybrid fit that runs them well, in quite decent times and is fun to fly. Of course I could have run them in a Rattlesnake but my interest is in challenge not ease of execution. I have succesfully completed ‘Smash the Supplier’ and the bonus level in Angel Extravaganza in a Gnosis but they were extremely hard and having succeeded once I would not bother again. Most other L4 missions are straightforward. For an ALPHA It clears L4 missions quicker than a VNI and is more fun.

So I then looked for a new challenge and looked at the Gallente Epic, having never run it before. I looked at the fora and read tales of Battleships melting under the onslaught so I set about it with some trepidation. Missions up to Studio I were straightforward but Studio I and Showtime bring a lot of dps. Clearly a Gnosis cannot hope to tank it all so you have to fly smarter and avoid most of it. I found in L4 missions that Battleships aren’t much trouble to an afterburning Gnosis as long as you get close enough. Studio I is the hardest of the missions as the Elite short range battleships put out a huge amount of damage with good tracking so getting under their guns and staying there is hard. The initial ships are ok if you can break them up, then you shoot the studio, trigger the reinforcement wave, pull them away from the studio before warping back to it to finish off. The reinforcement wave is hard to kill but I have done so by breaking them up and picking off isolated ones until you get down to 3 elite BS then you can get in close and finish them off quickly.

The secret with Showtime is to find a warp in point that means you are close enough to the Battleships to quickly get under their optimal but far enough away to kill off the frigs and cruisers by the time you get there - not easy but doable. The final reinforcement wave is not a problem at all as they are long ranged.

I have now run Syndication 3 times on 3 different ALPHA alts using the Gnosis each time. I have really enjoyed doing this. I will be dropping out from the game when ALPHAs are no longer allowed to run L4 missions as they bring me the types of challenge I enjoy running. I did subscribe for many years on my main from the early days but only play casually now and there will not be any suitable challenges in security missions if only L3s are available.

My fit for showtime was:
10mn afterburner
Large cap battery
3 shield hardeners
1 Copasetic shield boost amplifier
1 Pithum c-type medium shield booster

2 Magnetic Field stabilizers T2
2 Drone damage amplifiers T2
2 Capacitor Flux Coils T2

5 250mm railguns T2
1 Drone link

Rigs: 2 cap circuit rigs 1 T1, 1 T2 and one T1 cpu overclock rig

T2 and faction ammo and T2 drones mainly vespas.

Earlier missions used 2 hardeners and 3 of each damage mod to give higher dps.

I have been very pleasantly surprised to discover just how effective the Gnosis can be for ALPHAs.

Hope some of you will find this interesting and give Syndication a try in something smaller than a BS.

Have fun

Tal

[Leah_Crowleymass]

I seriously love this post- very well done, man!

[Anderson_Geten]

Same, it’s nice to see people enjoying the game

Showtime should be very difficult though, IIRC they can shoot you to 80km with ±1800 DPS.

Studio I is to me the hardest one, because the BS are damn fast. good thing you can warp inside the pocket, still the mix of long-ranged and close-ranged BS means you can’t expect to remain safe for long.

[Xuxe_Xu]

Interesting, thanks.

I hope you don’t leave but rather find ways to challenge yourself even as a casual player.

[Tal_Galaros]

Many thanks for your positive comments, greatly appreciated.

Yes Showtime puts out a lot of damage and for a smaller ship greater distance makes things worse. My poor little shield booster can rep 70dps per second with crucial resistances around 75% so nowhere near the dps from those veteran BS. It’s all about getting under their guns before they get through my shields and keeping transversal up. Once under 35km ish they are not a problem at all. Their missiles supposedly doing 125dps actually hit me for 50 every 8ish seconds so around 6dps - the value of speed and low sig.

My fit produces 650 dps using faction AM or Javelin, but even so the intital ships plus reinforcement wave of cruisers were down in 13:37 mins and Rosulf Fririk was dead at 16:04 so mission basically complete then. I stayed on to kill the 6 Syndicate Battleships which took till 22:18. I’m pretty happy with those times. I have a recording of it and will see about getting it up on youtube.

Studio I was much slower ie 48:20 as it required time to pull the reinforcement wave of Elite BS away from the Studio so I could warp back to it and finish killing it.

Have fun

PS Youtube link

[DeMichael_Crimson]

Gratz on completing your challenge.

This game can be more challenging than just running lv 4 missions with an Alpha clone. Can try running lv 3 security missions in a Frigate or use a Destroyer / Cruiser to run high level exploration combat sites like DED 3/10, 4/10, Watch and Vigil sites.

Anyway, sad to hear you’re leaving. Thanks for posting this thread.

[Tal_Galaros]

Many thanks for your reply.
Already done those, I have run just about everything possible in a standard Vexor (which is a great cruiser) including many L4 missions and Serpentis and Guristas 4/10. Also the odd Serpentis Port in a Tristan/Vexor in low sec.

L4 security missions were something you could quickly dip into in a reliable timeframe whereas finding escalations can be a really frustrating process with most of the higher level ones spawning in low sec so very risky to run given the level of ship you would need. I lived the null sec experience for many years and enjoyed it but I do not want to return to that.

I agree there are a range of challenges available but CCP having enticed me back into the game have chosen to remove the one I find most accessible and enjoyable for casual play and have hence pushed me out again with these latest changes.

I thoroughly enjoyed working out how to complete the Epic Arc but alas that is gone too now and I am not sure there are any similar levels of challenge available.

Have fun.

[DeMichael_Crimson]

Have you tried Cosmos Agent’s? Their missions are actually tougher than regular missions, basically the level of difficulty for a lv 2 Cosmos mission is comparable to a lv 3 regular mission. Their missions are more than just go kill a pack of rats, they’re more like search and seizure, engaging various NPC’s in different complexes while looking for specific items.