The Deimos used to be my favorite HAC for PvE, but now it’s the Ikitursa. It really shines when dual boxing spider tanked ships, but it’s still good for solo players. It gets really good damage application against smaller ships, and the DPS ramp up helps it take out larger ships with ease. And since it’s a HAC, you can fit an ADCU, which goes a long way towards deterring gankers if you’re fitting some bling. The biggest downside is the price tag, as an ikitursa is like 3 times the price of other HAC’s.
Missions /AB /Cheap
I don’t fly missions any more, but I would start with something like this. If you’re willing to spend more, consider the following upgrades:
- T2 AB + Decayed/Gravid Mutaplasmid (CPU and PG can be treated as dump stats, which keeps costs to a minimum. If you have any questions, ask).
- T2 Medium Armor Rep + Decayed/Gravid Mutaplasmid (Once again, CPU + PG can be treated as dump stats)
- T2 Entropic Radiation Sinks + Decayed/Gravid Mutaplasmids (Entropic Rad sinks and mutaplasmids are more expensive than their empire equivalents, but they’re still affordable, and certainly cheaper than buying faction sinks)
- Faction Webs will allow you to web things further out into your optimal. Webs with 15k optimals are kind of pricey, however, so you might consider something like Caldari Navy webs (13k optimal, 55% web strength, 50mil).
- If you have crappy cap skills, you can beef up the large cap battery by making Meta Large Compact Battery + Decayed Mutaplasmid. It’s so cheap to do with Jita buy orders, it might as well be free.
- Repair Systems, Navigation, or Warp Speed Implant (slot 6)
- Motion Prediction Implant (slot 7)
- Gunnery Implant (slot 9)- note that an increased ROF will help you spool faster, thus this implant is better than Surgical Strike. Also note that the Sharpshooter implant would be nice, but it uses the same slot as the gunnery implant, so I’d rather use that, and try to control my range.
Summary
[Ikitursa, Missions /AB /Cheap]
Assault Damage Control II
Entropic Radiation Sink II
Entropic Radiation Sink II
Multispectrum Energized Membrane II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Medium Armor Repairer II
10MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Large Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
Heavy Entropic Disintegrator II, Occult M
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
Auto Targeting System I
Medium Kinetic Armor Reinforcer II
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing II
Hammerhead II x5
Mystic M x2000
Occult M x2500
Oh, and do note that the autotargeter is used to help reduce drone agro. You’ll also have room to fit a tractor and salvager, if that’s your thing. You can beef up tank by slapping on specific resist hardeners. You can also make a MWD fit, but might have cap stability issues. You can mitigate this by (1) training cap skills, (2) managing your MWD and armor rep, (3) prioritizing cap usage when making abyssals, (4) using cap implants (slots 6 and 8), and/or (5) switching the polycrapon rig for a cap rig.