Cruisers recommended for L2 missions, but they dont pay anywhere near Cruiser 15 mil price

PvE Gameplay Center Missions
1

Title.

Overall seems like Missions are a bit outdated in terms of reward, atleast according to the guides on the eve university wiki and on youtube.

All the Level 2 security mission guides, from Youtube to Eve University, recommend a Cruiser to do them, which costs around 15 million ISK.

Do Level 2 security missions pay 15 million ISK?
Nope.
Like 150 thousand ISK and 150 loyalty points.
Sometimes 400 thousand ISK and 400 loyalty points.
But never enough to make back 15 mil ISK cruiser ship cost + module and ammo cost in a good amount of time, unless you dont have a sense of time at all and end up grinding for 1 week and it only feels like 1 hour…

I have tried running Level 2 security missions in a destroyer, but they require capacitator rigs to be able to run armor repairer for longer than 1-3 minutes, and destroyers are really big and slow, and because of that get hit really hard.

I had better luck running Level 2 security missions in a frigate with afterburner, going 700-800 meters per second and orbitting at around 10,000 meters (10 km).

That was going well for a while, but some missions have Cruisers which take a while to kill, and some missions have 25,000 bounty frigates that take very little damage and take a long time to kill, and the Serpentis mission [ The Blockade ] reduces your targetting range to 5500 meters, which kinda sucks.

Me running Level 2 security missions in a Tech 1 frigate might sound crazy, but i have been doing it for a while. It works, and makes more financial sense because you actually make back the frigate money, compared to going in a 15 million ISK cruiser and taking days of mission running to make back the 15 million ISK.

I tried doing them in a destroyer but i take too much damage, bigger does not always mean better, and that is true in this situation, destroyers are much bigger and slower and get hit hard by all the npc frigates and destroyers, even with 50-60% resists

1 Like
2

What ship/ammo cruiser wise, are you using?

3

Missions aren’t supposed to pay for the hull in one go. You also likely have better frigate skills than cruiser ones. There is nothing wrong with doing L2 missions in a frigate. What you are experiencing is called signature/speed tanking, which is a valid way to try and tank damage.

6 Likes
4

I’ve done pirate L2s in nullsec in a a thrasher with a small buffer tank with some shield regen and 200mm autocannons firing hail with basically zero issues.

5

That. I think except for Venture Gas Mining or so, no content does that. Be it Wormhole Ratting, Abyssals or whatever, all those things need a few successes to pay back for the investment in ship and fit, and after that, it’s profit.

I’d suggest either an Assault Frigate (brawl, sigtank) or Navy Destroyer (kite, longrange). Both work like a charm. Better then most cruisers, thats for sure.

A Beam Laser Coercer Navy Issue basically instablaps most Level2 content from range without taking any damage. And a Retribution tanks & shreds everything in there in record speed.

6

I do up to level 3 missions in a claw, mostly sig tanking and autocannons do good damage.

[Claw, Veep]

Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Multispectrum Coating II
Gyrostabilizer II

1MN Afterburner II
Small Cap Battery II

200mm AutoCannon II, Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II, Hail S
200mm AutoCannon II, Hail S
Small Energy Nosferatu II

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator II

Fusion S x3290
Phased Plasma S x3454

There’s quicker ways to do them, like in a cruiser, but it’s good enough.

It can struggle against a few missions where there’s a lot of light missiles.
With the nos off you get 3m27 of repping, so you could swap it for a rocket launcher if you think you won’t need longer than that.

27.8M tho, so not really the cheaper option you were looking for. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

[Slasher, qando]

Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II

X5 Enduring Stasis Webifier
1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
Small Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
X5 Enduring Stasis Webifier

150mm Light ‘Scout’ Autocannon I, Phased Plasma S
150mm Light ‘Scout’ Autocannon I, Phased Plasma S
150mm Light ‘Scout’ Autocannon I, Phased Plasma S
Small Knave Scoped Energy Nosferatu

Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Explosive Armor Reinforcer I

Carbonized Lead S x300
Depleted Uranium S x153
EMP S x1599
Fusion S x4544
Nuclear S x211
Proton S x1
Titanium Sabot S x343

So there’s the equivalent fit on a slasher, only 2.98M, still reckon you can do lvl 3s with it easily.

1 Like
7

[Missions arent supposed to pay for the hull in one go - @Malak_Starfire ]
L> i expected it to take like 3-4 missions including loyalty points, assuming 900 ISK/LP, or 2 very good paying missions, but seems like the rewards are not designed to pay back Cruiser 15 mil prices.

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[ what ship/ammo cruiser wise are you using - @Geo_Eclipse_Oksaras ]
L> Havent used a cruiser yet, just looking at mission guides on youtube for Level 2 security missions, and the pay is very low compared to the 15 mil price of a cruiser. I also do these L2 missions in a frigate and can confirm that the pay is not enough to pay back the 15 mil Cruiser in a good amount of time

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Also worth mentioning that i am intentionally not training my skills, which i understand i should not do and should 100% be training my skills, but i dont like the mindset that you can not do content unless you wait 6 months to 1 year for your skills to train to Level 4-5, so i am choosing not to train them at all.
I do understand that that is part of what is making me weak.

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The problem with the destroyer was only 3 low slots, meaning very little resists using armor resistance coatings, and armor hardeners are too expensive for my cheap looking butt to buy, even though i have the money.

Also worth mentioning i am using the wrong damage type for the missions, but i prefer using amarr energy turrets because the Tech 1 ammo does not run out.

I usually dont have problems doing them in a Tech 1 frigate, just the Cruisers take a while to kill, but thats completely fine, and the 25,000 bounty frigates are also pretty tough. And that Blockade misson reduced my targetting range to 5000 meters, which sucked, but i still managed.

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A amarr Coercer destroyer fit i just made off EveShip . fit with my skills applied has
8 energy turrets with Standard S crystals,
65.2 dps,
221 hp Alpha Strike

52 and 45% thermal and kinetic resists
Small i-a armor repairer

2 minute 7 second of cap with 1MN Mono Enduring afterburner and armor repairer and guns on at same time
62 meter Signature Radius and 550 meters per second speed

I wonder if it will work for L2 security missions

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Overall, the main problem i am having is the Cruisers and 25,000 bounty frigates taking a long time to kill in my Tech 1 frigate, and that one specific Level 2 Blockade mission where the Serpentis reduced my targetting range to 5500 meters, though i still managed to kill that wave without dieing.

will try the destroyer fit i shared, i might use rigs and am nervous about the capacitator only allowing 2 minutes of armor repairer. Usually i have my armor repairer on all the time.

I also got level 5 drones, so i could use the other Amarr destroyer, but id rather not use drones, i already used them alot in the past too.

I understand that me not training my skills is not a good idea, but i prefer low skills because i hate the mindset of not being able to play the game unless you wait 6 months to 1 year for your skills to train. Its not a good choice, but i prefer it.

I never really used a Amarr destroyer for L2 security missions. Tried it a few times and didnt work out, though i think i was not using a Afterburner for speed

=====
Overall, me is dum dum heehee

8

This is your problem.

You don’t need to train all skills to V to be able to do content, but having lots of them at III and IV really makes a difference.

Get skills trained!

3 Likes
9

Treat the magic 14 as a (what do I train now) if you dont have missiles or ship skills to train. Throw something from the magic 14 in between to work on getting them up

10

Missions are outdated. I believe it has been years since they were really looked at

On the other hand, you can take that same T1 cruiser, and most likely, do homefronts. and you will Gain 15 million for roughly 5+ minutes of work.

The only downside is that you need a group of 4-5(3 at min, but most 3 man do not use cruisers)

contact me in game if you want to know more.

2 Likes
11

Explo needs a word :))

12

you can mine ore like me. To be a miner not a shame:)

13

And since they are some of the oldest legacy code in game, is why ccp wont touch it

14

Agree 100%…

Agent mission and NPC bounty pay hasn’t received a raise in decades…

Meanwhile the price of everything else in New Eden has skyrocketed…

1 Like
15

But it is tho, isn’t it. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I honestly don’t know what to say here other than “your expectations are unreasonable and you’re intentionally handicapping yourself.”

2 Likes
17

Prices have not skyrocketed on subcaps…only capitals ships have. Cruisers have always been 10-15mil

18

And lets not forget, income sources have skyrocketed too over the years…

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19

I was specifically talking about Agent mission and NPC bounty pay…

20

You make a lot more money today running missions than you made whenn I started the game.

Mainly because they added Burners (insane LP per time spent), they added/rebalanced Marauders (insane clearing speed), they added and/or buffed Faction Battleships (very good average clearing speeds + high versatility), they buffed shortrange-ammo, they added MTUs (nice additionnal income).
Then we have a much better API/ESI support, which lead to thirdpartytools like EVE Tycoon or Janice, making it very easy for everyone to get good ISK/LP ratings by checking where the tags you need are cheap and where the items you sell are high.

tldr: If you professionalize in Missionrunning in Highsec you earn around twice the SK/hour today than you did ~2010. It was absolutely not nessessary to buff the direct payout, they simply buffed the tools.