I’m back from the game after 3 years break. I used to do a lot of mining and explorations back in the day. Now I want to try something new and decided to do ratting in high and low sec. But I know little about belt ratting, missions, and combat fitting. I’ve skeem through some old thread and people advise frigates or destroyers for ratting. I’m planning on playing as an alpha clone since I’m not playing often. Do you guys have any suggestions and tips? Thanks a bunch, fellas o7
Ratting as an alpha in HS, one cannot do better, IMO, than a Harbinger (preferably Navy) or a Ferox. The former with T2 heavy beam lasers, the latter with rails plus AM ammo. Both can kill any HS PvE target at 30+ kms. The only things that kill faster are T3 destroyers, not an option for alphas. You might want sensor boosters and tracking computers - the former especially if hunting Guristas, as they can jam alphas who don’t have improved sensors, and tracking computers add a few kms onto the range of ammo such as Gamma crystals and AM.
PS - I mean a bog standard Ferox, not a Navy version, if you want to kill at a reasonable range, as the type bonuses are quite different between the two.
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At what eve time do you play?
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I’m not sure what type of rats you’re looking to shoot at in Low sec, I usually hunt Sansha’s and it’s hard to go wrong with a coercer. This is my alpha friendly coercer fit i used for hunting clone soldier negotiators (0.1 space).
The fit is cheap (somewhere around 5M) it uses meta guns and faction ammo (which is basically the most expensive part of the whole fit). Pretty straightforward using it, mwd to close range, orbit at 500, and make a sandwich while it grinds through their tank.
Looking at the fit now, i might swap the cap recharger for a battery instead to see if you get a little more cap life, but either way it’s usually sufficient to kill everything that spawns down to .1 space (minus mordu rats).
I’ve never had great luck using a frigate for low ratting, killing things like battleships already takes quite a while using the coercer, maybe something fit with t2 blasters would work.
Edit: sorry Vortigern i didn’t mean to reply directly to what you posted, my phone was acting up while i was typing. ;^)
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I’m not playing on a fixed time schedule. usually I’m just play for 30min-1h a day whenever I’m free. XD
Wow thanks alot what a great guideline. I’ll try fitting a Ferox then 
Oh very nice fit, very cheap too. Gonna try this out asap. I think I prefer smashing Dcan more than a sandwich tho haha o7
No worries, you’re welcome. I put the fit together a little after I moved out to lowsec, with the idea of hunting clones in mind.
Once I figured out the best method for killing them i started making a game of how cheap a fit I could use and still kill them. I’ve used a fit with lower meta guns and standard MF crystals as well, and it will still work. Though at some point it’s not really worth the isk savings as your dps becomes too close to their ability to rep and you have to sit there waiting for “good” hits to break their armor, which is more time you’re stuck in the belts. But even with the fit i linked, if you kill just 1 negotiator with it, you’ve basically paid for about 4-5 of them fully fit with the bounty + tag.
Hah yeah the sandwich part was a joke, afk is a bad plan. However, the .1 clones will scram you once you’re within ~25km, and take about 2-3 mins to grind down with that fit, so you’re basically stuck there until one of you explodes.
Your only hope if someone drops in on you while you’re shooting it is, to kill it fast, loot and leave. Or that it takes an interest in them and scrams them instead so you can leave.
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The Ferox will be fine for hi sec, but I would be cautious taking it into low. It’s just not slippery enough to get away from everyone else in the system.
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