I ran a few filaments today before SiSi locked up my client and kicked me out (man I hope the TQ release isn’t this glitchy). Some general observations:
*Armor fits rule. The RAH and ancillary armor repairers give a huge advantage over shield fits (and paste takes up almost no space. Stasis webs are a prerequisite to hit anything so passive shield fits aren’t going to cut it (RIP Gila).
*T2 or go home. You might get lucky with a T1 or Navy cruiser in tier 1 filaments, but it’s going to be a dicey proposition at best. Pirate cruisers are pretty much the minimum for tier 2 filaments. Any filament beyond this needs a T2 cruiser and V skills, implants, drugs, etc. Don’t kid yourself - these things are not going to be like theory-crafting Burners.
*You need a minimum of 3 mids for propulsion, web and cap booster (you can probably get by with a cap battery for the lower tiers). A 4th mid for additional EW will be essential for higher tiers.
*Drugs, drugs, drugs. A combination of Agency, Drifter and Stong drugs can significantly boost your repair rate, damage and tracking. Worth carrying for SHTF (cheaper than losing your ship).
*Asklepian and capacitor implants are going to be key for surviving the higher tiers (provided you don’t get hooped with unbeatable spawns).
*You’re going to need to deal upwards of 600 DPS. I just don’t think anything less is going to cut it beyond the base filaments.
On the plus side I think I found a ship and fit that will reliably run tier 1-3 filaments with a high degree of confidence. 700+ DPS with a majority T2 fit (a few Faction modules took the total fitting cost to around 230m; prop mod, batteries and pair of EANMs were the only things I splurges on).
I’m not going to share the fit just yet as I need to run quite a few more filaments on SiSi first.
Good to hear you found a ship that suits you,all you mentioned is pretty much spot on only ship that can get away without a web is a rlml cerb eagle needs web Gila is in the dumpster with being t1 hull even with its resist bonus and super drones.
I ran a F4 (+velocity/-range) in a Gila but forgot to fit a web in my haste (oops). The initial spawn was a Trig cruiser/frigate combo so the drones couldn’t hit anything). Precision light missiles worked better but I couldn’t break the tank on anything.
This is where it got strange. I opted to self-destruct and eject - figuring they’d pod me for certain. Except they couldn’t hit me (for shits and giggles I’d gone with Halo implants to reduce my signature radius). For around 5 minutes I just sat there staionary as they failed to hit my pod time and time again. Eventually I had to self-destruct as it was clear they weren’t going to be able to pod me.
So it looks like the Trigs can’t hit anything below a 25m signature radius. Bizarre!
A Cerberus can do tier 1-4 without any issues. You can facetank 2k+ dps in that thing, while ADC runs. 15 secs is enough time to take the top off the dps peak.
Its the tier 5 thats ■■■■■■. The randomness is real and the dps is insane.
I’m assuming that’s with rapid light missile launchers? Even with dual webs and rigors I’m not sure you could reliably hit anything with HAMs. On a side note, does anyone else get a kick out of a Stratios being on the splash screen for the Into the Abyss expansion?
Tier 1 sites are simple to figure out, but you still will probably lose some ships while figuring them out. They can be done very easily in mostly T2 fits even with some meta 4 T1 modules, no implants and no boosters. Just follow some general rules.
Pick a ship with natural resists and damage type for the fliament weather. If filament effect is for example penalty to thermal resistance, then pick a ship that has very high built-in thermal resistance and its primary weapon systems do thermal damage.
Make sure you can do at least 500 base DPS while having enough tracking to kill super fast moving frigates / drones.
Make sure you have minimum 31+ km range or have high enough movement to close in with your targets to optimal weapon range but without blowing up your sig from using MWD. This is very important.
Make sure you are cap stable, I recommend runnign either cap booster, battery or rigs. You should be cap stable with everything running for minimum 6-8 minutes. The exception here is Electrical Storm weather.
Tank wise pretty much get the main resist up to 80+, rest can be lower but do make sure there is at least some omni tank.
I do not recommend flying drone and missle boats until you experience and understand how the Autmata Supressor structures work, how to use or avoid their range etc. or you will lose your ship and pod.
Tier 2 sites:
Stick to the above, might want to swap out some stuff for faction or the cheap end of deadspace, but stay mostly T2. Alternatively, stay all T2 but use implants or some basic boosters like the Agency boosters or alike. You do not need both. You will need to know how to manually fly to speed tank, to close with your target while speed tanking, to manually orbit etc. This is critical. If you do not know how to do this, you will lose your ship and pod regardless of any extra modules, implanst, boosters etc. You can not slack off. You will need to use the support structures or you will die from the final timer. So instance mechanics are also critical.
Tier 3-4-5
If you even have to ask such a question, I highly recommend you jsut flat out avoid these. Even if you get extremely spawn lucky and finish 2-3 sites at start, it will be followed by a much longer streak of losses guaranteed.
Hope that clarifies some stuff, sorry but fit and ship is pretty much up to each player and their own comfort / performance zone, so posting fits is kinda pointless, just follow the above guidelines.
That is false. RLML Cerb can’t do multiple BSes beyond Lvl 2 filaments cause of the reload timer on the RLMLs and the BS rep times vastly improve. RHML Cerb can’t do small ships without guidance mods or rigs thus giving up tank or utility and you need to tank way more then just 2k. Weather you use supressors or tracking support structures for extra hits or speed tank is of course up to you, but 2k is no where near.
Spawn RNG is a huge factor. Often times you get NPC group spawns inside a Automata Supressor field or have 2 or even 3 of the heavy, long range ones covering large percentage of the entire instance thus quite literally negating the Cerberus.
Cerberus is a great ship for the lvl 1 and 2 instances, both RLML and RHML variants, but not beyond that.
I did a 7 leshak group with a rlml cerb yesterday^^ and finished the site too
Also looking at eve droid fitting now despite the fact tank wasn’t any big issue I got shot once or twice around to half shield by the leshaks I can increase the tank I had about 3 times over without spending more than 2 bil on the pod and ship.
Site was tier4 exotic
Ran a pair of Tier 4 Raging Exotic Filaments (+scan/-kinetic) with my Deimos fit. First one I managed to clear without incident and 5 minutes to spare. The second had a Trig Ghost, Harrowing, Starving and Tangling spawn ( 8 frigates + cruiser) and I only managed to last about 5 minutes under combined neut, damp and tracking disruption. Back to the drawing board…
Which brings me back to idea, that current tier 4 and 5 must be scrapped and replaced by current tier 3. New tier 4 could be current tier 3 with 40 minute timer instead of 20 minutes… Otherwise RNG will prevent PvE players to go to tier 4 and 5 all together. There must be consistent way how to win any Abyss if fit / fly properly.
A few additional notes for F4 and higher filaments:
• If you’re not running a T2 hull - you’re ■■■■ed.
• If you don’t have Thermodynamics V - you’re ■■■■ed.
• If you don’t have V primary skills - you’re ■■■■ed.
• If you don’t run a 60% stasis web (preferably Faction) - you’re ■■■■ed (can’t hit ■■■■).
• If you don’t run an afterburner fit (preferably Deadspace) - you’re ■■■■ed (run out of time).
• If you don’t use Asklepian implants - you’re ■■■■ed.
• If you don’t use drugs - you’re ■■■■ed.
• If you can’t run your active armor fit for 20 minutes - you’re ■■■■ed.
• If you can’t deal a minimum of 600 applied DPS - you’re ■■■■ed.
Well i did over 15 different Deadspace pockets, ranging from tier 2-4 with random weather effects. Cerberus nailed all of them, some tier 4 could get hairy, but there were never really a real issue.
Im killing the battleships in time, even in tier 4. In tier 5, i cant deal with the dps from drone swarms though.
With xl shield booster overheated and ADC running, i can facetank the drone swarms just fine in tier 4 and they are by far the biggest damage dealers in Abyssal Space.
The point of this Deadspace is to NOT make it consistent and farmable. Hence the procedurally generation and the RNG level og NPC’s.
Its suppose to be very unpredictable and a very unstable form of income.
What are you running for missiles on your Cerberus fit? Precision, Faction or Fury? I wouldn’t mind having a quick peek at your fit if you feel like sharing.
Precision and fury. Never faction. But because of the RNG it can be hard to time your reloads and missile choice.
I was also using blue pill for tier 4, if i needed.
This is what I am going to take for today’s large tests:
[Vagabond, Abyss XLASB 220 volt]
Assault Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 400
10MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
‘Arbalest’ Rocket Launcher I, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing II
Medium Projectile Metastasis Adjuster II
Acolyte II x5
Zainou ‘Gypsy’ CPU Management EE-603
Eifyr and Co. ‘Gunslinger’ Motion Prediction MR-703
Eifyr and Co. ‘Gunslinger’ Medium Projectile Turret MP-803
Inherent Implants ‘Lancer’ Gunnery RF-903
Zainou ‘Gnome’ Weapon Upgrades WU-1003
Agency ‘Pyrolancea’ DB5 Dose II
Antipharmakon Iokira
Antipharmakon Thureo
Hail M x2000
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M x4000
Nanite Repair Paste x1000
Navy Cap Booster 400 x30
Fit itself is about 320 milions. Implants are other 100, but you really need only those, that help CPU. So - 25 milons. All together without drugs and damage implants = 350 millions.
Idea is to use XLASB as long as NPC let you and then use ADCU to get time for reload charges. You have only about 6 minutes per pocket after all.
Fit is all about tracking and speed. 1000 m/s, 70+ tracking, dual web… In theory you should be able to kill any drones in web range before they get to their optimal. Rocket launcher means you get slightly more DPS, than Eagle t2 fit if you get to battleship. Over 700 DPS cold at 1,5 km range (Eagle has 6 km) with all implants and boosters… Over 20 km optimal + falloff with faction ammo (about 270-300 DPS with 70+ tracking at that range).
Cap stable at 87 %. Biggest issue so far is shield management under cruisers spawn. You just can’t run your tank constantly, unlike T2 Eagle fit. If you set proper spiral and than orbit around batleship you are not getting hit so hard and can recharge shield booster. But if you are not ready with drones / cruiser spawn before XLASB runs out of charges, you are doomed.
Less, than 7 seconds align time with AB running (vs 9+ seconds of Eagle)
This is so overdramatic and a bit incorrect. With a well though through fit and good situational awareness and initial risk assessment this content can be completed with a much lower degree of risk.
The fit has changed since then. that in essence is it though in terms of approach and essential use of implants for t4+ filaments.
Its not foolproof and by no means the only way or undefeatable. One mistake can cost you. but that is part and parcel of high end pve content.
Also i must emphasise that the success of this style of fit does depend heavily on your game play style and has signifcantly improved sicne the last build update on SISI which lead to spawn changes (before which it was much more touch and go)
If you look closely at the hoboleaks pages there is some tantilising evidence of a shield version of a RAH on the horizon. which would be a game changer for shield ships.