FOB in system/roaming "diamond" rats - need pointed in the right direction

[Leiron]

Hello, FOB’s and their roaming “diamond” tagged rats are new content for me.

While I have read up on the FOB mission to be found in the agency I cannot find an answer to a simple question. Why are groups of random rats - in this case Guristas Kestrels (Gallente Space 0.8) hanging out around a player owned citadel - and why are they so powerful?

If there is a guide I missed while searching, a dev blog, or other related information you could point me to?

My initial thought (before I read up on FOB’s) was "oh here are 5 random Guristas Kestrels, no problem - let me go refit to properly tank their damage in a BS and i’ll insta pop them from 110k+ out) yeah, that didn’t work - I barely scratched their paint. I read up on eveuni and a few other places but why do these rats roam and tend to hang out around citadels?

Thanks, Leiron

I’ve been away for a few years, back now for 6 months and this FOB situation is all new to me but i’m no newbro so please be respectful.

[Buoytender_Bob]

Pirate FOB do they attack L4 missions and Ice Belts?

I cannot find info one way or another but keep hearing they will come into your missions and destroy you and will also show up in high sec ice belts in addition to the normal static belts in system. Is this true where is the info on this? Also was told they attack player citadel too without mechanic and can destroy them in less than 15 minutes even if your invuln timer is not active. Wow. This seems nuts.

Blood Raiders FOB Questions

They are sending raids of 4 Punishers out through the belts shooting everyone. They also attacked an Athanor in the system during its vulnerability window. If you warp to the FOB at 100km away, it neuts you 1500 GJ at a time, hitting for 3000-4500 GJ drain. And defensive Omens warp to you within seconds of arrival.

appears missions and probed down sites are safe (some dispute on the latter, ran into one person claiming he was attacked at a hacking site) ; anywhere else the threat is real. They tend to give you a brief safety delay, if you are active and aware, they let you escape. afk or abandoned equipment are destroyed. They will pod you either soon after ship destruction or up to 2 minute delay (see killboard). Good luck.

[Mina_Sebiestar]

@Leiron

Why are groups of random rats - in this case Guristas Kestrels (Gallente Space 0.8) hanging out around a player owned citadel

So they can shoot at it ignore them 4-5 frigs cant do enough damage to drop structure shield below 95% even unused structure.

However they use “advanced” AI and player like ship/fits so your l4 raven might not be very optimized for task of effectively killing them.

Webing them down and smaller guns works to kill them faster scram / point will prevent them from warping on grid but you don’t need it in general when they commit they stay on top of you.

Patrol rats don’t scram anymore(question mark) if you don’t like how they treat you warp away.

[Rivr_Luzade]

Forward Operating Base / Fob Tips

Greetings, We would like to share our experience on pirate FOBs, to show that dealing with them might not be as hard as it may have considered from compiling previous posts. As we are unknown to the vast majority of the cluster, let’s remedy on this : we are one of the first fleets which have managed to destroy pirate FOBs on a weekly basis both prior and after the patch of december, 05th. Our strategy has gone unchanged even after CCP patch. First things first, let’s keep in mind that Forwar…

[Leiron]

@Buoytender_Bob

appears missions and probed down sites are safe (some dispute on the latter, ran into one person claiming he was attacked at a hacking site) ; anywhere else the threat is real. They tend to give you a brief safety delay, if you are active and aware, they let you escape. afk or abandoned equipment are destroyed. They will pod you either soon after ship destruction or up to 2 minute delay (see killboard). Good luck.

Thank you for the above links and good advice.

[Leiron]

@Mina_Sebiestar

So they can shoot at it ignore them 4-5 frigs cant do enough damage to drop structure shield below 95% even unused structure.

However they use “advanced” AI and player like ship/fits so your l4 raven might not be very optimized for task of effectively killing them.

Webing them down and smaller guns works to kill them faster scram / point will prevent them from warping on grid but you don’t need it in general when they commit they stay on top of you.

Patrol rats don’t scram anymore(question mark) if you don’t like how they treat you warp away.

That’s good to know. I read about them warping around on grid as a tactic, very sneaky

Thank you!

[Leiron]

Cheers, thanks!

[MinorFreak]

the blood raider FOBs will neutralize and web you, if you attack the main base. the one thread you can find using google will throw a bunch of **** elitist bafflegab at you, about how you take it out with a 5k dps fleet against increasing reinforcements (basically your average “harden the eff up” trollage)

if you want to gank the FOB there’s a few things you need to know:
the hauler is the key to preventing reinforcements.
getting a bookmark set so you can warp in around 350km ish and still be on grid is helpful too (really fast frigate would do for initial scouting) for a few reasons (staging and aftermath)
–The ability to make sure your hardeners, watch list, and drone bay are active, set and visible (respectively)
– waiting for that damned hauler to warp in and then out (so you don’t trigger reinforcements)
– The ability to warp to 10km from that BM, dump drones, target structure and align as a team towards a celestial, while the FOB engages your team and you see the drones engage the hostile.
– The aftermath collecting the drones is made easier by that BM and warping to 0 on the FOB lands you pretty much where you left the drones

micro jump drives are crucial for keeping the drones under you control, so they continue to attack FOB.
Remote energy xfers and remote armor reps are key as well, and a team of 4 battleships is perfect (3 xfers and 3 RR) - the best is the Nestor with its bonuses but i prefer the good old armageddon (mostly for its capacitor and familiarity with flying it…and AMAR VICTOR)

you don’t really want to be running around at high speed because the FOB will web your guys out of range of each other…and that would be bad. The amount of DPS put on you by 3-4 rat BS is substantial.

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either that or get a rattlesnake and pound the stuffing out of the silly FOB at close range.

[MinorFreak]

TL;DR - dump drones, MJD out to far enough range

As for the rats? damned hard to kill, and dish out alot of DPS. i myself have used a zealot with maximum tank and only small lasers, with help from the upwell in the form of ECM…it’s hard to deal with the diamond spawn when it’s 5 rats, but sometimes they only spawn 3 so easier.
they’re also very fast…around 900m/s+