Title says most of it. I’m currently trying to rush through standing to get L4s, I’m using a Megathron with Large hardpoints (I tried both blasters and rails, and while I enjoy rails more just for range, the turret tracking is 8 times better on blasters, although the difference seems negligible), and I’m versus destroyers and (at best) cruisers still. My large hardpoints simply aren’t hitting my targets. What are some methods of getting around this problem WITHOUT changing ships? Some methods I know of will be listed below.
Tracking (computer) upgrades
Skills
Webifier and Grappler
Those are the only methods I know of that can help me hit targets more consistently, within reason. I do have some possible answers, that I will list below, and those answering can critique me.
It may be prudent to simply equip smaller guns to my battleship and up them as tracking becomes less of an issue.
Are there other modules that can help reduce relative velocity so tracking doesn’t suffer as much?
Relying entirely on drones. I dislike this idea. It’s there nonetheless.
Manual piloting. Match the target ship’s vector to minimize angular.
If you have annoying crap like elite cruisers, start moving away from them and theyll try to maintain orbit and fly parallel if you match their speed.
If you are dealing with elite frigates, you try to either pick them off while theyre flying straight at you, or you field and micromanage light drones. While faction or t2 drones sound tempting the dps is negligible and you can use them to drop aggro from frigs that scram you which costs you thousands instead of millions of isk.
The main upside of using long range weapons is that enemies usually spawn at medium-long range with few exceptions, meaning youll have time to snipe down anything flying at you in a straight line. On top of that you won’t need to spend time driving up to each wave, and time is money.
If you have medium slots to spare, sueeze in one or two tracking computers as those can give both range and tracking. That said, an MJD is mandatory because you always get an opportunity to get clean shots on elite frigates as well as escape those that disrupt you.
Web - Usually better for application than a tracking computer/enhancer (and will help your drones apply), but, of course, it has limited range.
Grappler - I’ve honestly never used them because they aren’t improved by ship bonuses, links, or implants. I’ve seen some people use them in PvP on non-bonused ships though.
Tracking Computer/Enhancer -Good for kiters.
Motion Prediction and Relevant Spaceship Command Skills - Get to IV ASAP. Get to V when you can.
Motion Prediction Implant -Variations available at many different price points.
Drop Drugs - Synth Drop now gives a 6% bonus to tracking, and ranges from like 1.5 mil buy order price in Jita, to 7 mil in an incursion focus (where they’ll price gouge you).
Small Drones - As you noted, they can work, but given the amount of small ships you’ll encounter in most content, you don’t want to rely entirely on them because it will greatly diminish your isk efficiency.
Picking the right tool for the job- I know you said that you don’t want to change ships, but I wanted to mention it in the interest of completeness. Picking a tool that works well, and that fits your play style, can have a huge impact on outcomes, and, quite possibly, increase your enjoyment of the activity.
Anyway, I used to use a Talos in level 4’s. So, a megathron should do just as well, if not better (assuming decent skills and a good fit). Of course, a dual web vindicator (or a kronos) would probably be the ideal choice for pilots with gallente/blaster skills.
I also didn’t manually pilot, but instead used keep at range against the smaller ships, and orbit against BS’s when I needed a little damage mitigation. If fact, I’m of the opinion that if you have to manually pilot in PvE that isn’t extremely high end/difficult, then your ship/fit needs work (or you need to adjust your keep at range or something). Maybe someone can offer a good counterpoint, but I look at it as an instance of work smarter, not harder. Anyway, I usually use keep at range, or just post up near spawn points and let everything orbit me (obviously, you wouldn’t want to do that if you were in a kiting ship).
For pve just equip a MWD and set the speed to match their velocity or close enough, and then position yourself to fly parallel with them. Viola, even 1400mm artillery can hit that frigate under 10km moving at 400+ m/s.
For pvp, you’re boned because people complain that they deserve a trophy because they participated.
You might use an MJD when NPCs get too close and snipe them from 100km away, but since you’re not using a Marauder this will affect your mission completion times negatively whenever you’re in a mission that has acceleration gates becuase of long MJD reactivation time.
Always fly using the tactical camera with the tactical overlay. First person useless and orbit is just for screen shots.
The tactical overlay with give vector arrows for both your ship and a selected item. Getting these two arrow to match as close as possible will greatly improve turret accuracy.
standings with amarr yes, security status no. thats up to you to raise that up yourself, nobody can help with that… but with amarr standings, you can certain pay to have those raised.
… My only pve standing grinding victory was do enough truff so i can use locator agents …
else than i put some iskes to concordicks pockets and they look other direction while i have been passing by …
Faction standings can be bought the same way, through Data Center missions which exchange Pirate Tags for faction standing. With good Socials and a bit of prior standing they’ll get a character above 5.0 faction standing.
