Hi everyone. I play with my brother and we run security missions.
Right now we’re both rocking the Vexor because I had read that it was a good ship for beginner players (we are alpha players by the way).
We are having issues during fights where our Hammerhead I are getting absolutely wrecked.
We were thinking of switching things up and having 1 person in the Vexor and the other in a quick tanky ship that can go up close. Does anyone have any suggestions on ship combos?
Thanks all.
Two Vexors should be fine for up through level 4 security missions.
Many things in EvE are more enjoyable when done with others, glad you seem to be doing that.
I’d guess your drone problem might be due to a few things:
In general, especially starting out, use light drones against frigates. (Hammerheads are medium drones, generally best against cruiser-sized targets). The damage type your drones do versus the enemy you face is useful to match.
Make your drones as fast as you can. Drone navigation skill trained and drone navigation computer module on ship. Other drone skills trained up are good also.
What level of security missions are you doing? Would you post your Vexor fit?
To add to what Xuxe Xu said, you can move your ships up the agro table relative to your drones by using autotargeters or remote reps. Don’t know if you have the spare highslots on your fits, but they can make a big difference to how much agro your drones take.
We are currently on level 2 security missions. I feel like we should be crushing these missions but when we come accross targets with a bounty of 200k + we struggle to eliminate it (referring to the targets with bounty because I don’t know the ships enough to know what type they are)
As for my fitting, I don’t know if there’s a quick way of showing it but I’m rocking 2 small 150mm railguns with antimatter charges, 1 drone link augmentor, 1 remote armor repairer, 1 medium shield extender, 1 afterburner, 1 microwarpdrive, 3 drone damage augmentors, 1 armor repair module, and 1 armor plate.
I was using hobgoblins I as drones but have switched to hammerhead I since the damage output wasn’t big enough.
In regards to what shipwreck jones said, how can I increase my aggro?
First on the fit:
Please, don’t dual tank. Shield or armour, not both (hint: this case Armour)
As for upping the drones to mediums. Bigger =/= always better.
Ever seen a battleship trying to hit a jetski that goes in circles around it? That is what tracking is.
Match size of guns (and drones) to the situation and your enemy
Noted. I’ve come across the drone eve wiki page which showed you can create folders for drones. That’s gonna be a great help. I’m gonna be mixing up the drones I’ve got from now on and try to match what’s going on.
If you are coming across frigates that have 200k isk bounty on them… those are considered “elite” frigates.
Generally speaking, they are tougher to kill… even with optimal loadouts.
Here’s a thread to reference why “dual-tanking” is not a good idea.
Also… this applies to weapons as well. Try not to mix different weapons and/or ranges.
Pick a range that you want to operate at (based either on desired damage output or preferred tactics) and fit your ship around that range.
Here’s an age-old phrase in EVE:
Bigger is not always better
This applies to damage as well.
Even after years of playing the game, veterans will often come back to the same ships they started out as newbies with. This is because ships and weapons are like “tools.” Different tools have different strengths.
In your case: Light drones may not have much in the way of damage output compared to Medium drones… but they are better at hitting smaller, faster targets.
You will notice the same thing when using guns or missiles too; larger weapons may deal more “paper damage” but their application on different targets (specifically smaller targets) will vary more wildly.
I would recommend skilling up to use Tech 2 Light drones. You will notice a large improvement in performance once you can use them.
Do note that Tech 2 drones will need to be “babied” more as they are significatly more expensive.
On that note…
NPCs hate everything. But there are a few things that really piss them off.
Remote repairs: Think “buffing” or “healing” from other games. Simply target your friend or even your own drones and start repairing away.
Be mindful that remote repairs have very limited range and consume a lot of precious Capacitor Power.
Electronic Warfare: This can include ECM, Sensor Dampeners, Target Painters, Energy neutralizers, Nosferatus, etc.
Each one projects/casts a “debuff” on a target.
For your purposes, I would recommend a Target Painter. It will help make targets “bigger” on sensors and make them easier to target and hit.
Drones: As you have already found out, NPCs really don’t like drones.
When drones catch aggro, the best way to deal with it is to pull them in and wait for the NPCs to refocus on your ship.
For this reason, most veteran PvE pilots would recommend not letting your drones venture more than ~20km away from your ship (even though at max skills and with certain modules they can go out to 55-100km)
Pro-tip: The same way you should not mix your tank or your weapon types… don’t mix up drones.
Choose one type and group those together. The same for any spares or sizes too.
If you mix Light with Medium drones you will have a situation where the Light drones will reach their target before the Mediums and not apply enough combined damage before the NPCs turn their attention to them.
Deploy lights, use them, and when a larger target shows up recall them and deploy the mediums.
Hope this helps!
Vexor is a “Drone Boat”, meaning it’s main weapons are drones. Guns aren’t very important on it. Perhaps one gun with iron charges (longest range if I recall) mostly to draw aggro (get rats to shoot at you rather than your drones)
For drones and for your fleet? ok
nah, take that off. Mission Vexors are often armor tanked.
nah, pick one prop (propulsion) mod. Afterburners (AB) are easier on energy requirements but slower than microwarpdrives (MWD). MWD are pretty fast, but more energy to fit and run and they bloom your ship’s electronic signature 500% (thereby making it easier to hit)
Perhaps put a damage control mod in there at least until you get comfortable doing missions, then perhaps switch it for an energized adaptive nanomembrane or an armor resistance mod specific to the damage type those particular npcs will be shooting at you most. Plates are more often used in pvp where you want the most hitpoints possible absorbed for a shorter time. Missions pve you can afford to use an “active” repair module.
So perhaps something like this:
high slots -
mid slots -
low slots -
Rigs -
-probably capacitor control circuits for now at least
Train lots of drone skills. Myrmidon is the gallente battlecruiser drone boat, Dominix the battleship.
07
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I feel like I’ve learned more since I wrote this post than from my time actually flying.
To add to this, initial aggro also matters. If you start combat by sending drones from range into enemies - NPCs will target them first, but if you aggro them on yourself from the start - Mission rats are less likely to change target to drones. Do note that if mission has “waves” of enemy spawns you will have to account for initial aggro for each wave separately.
And for quick drone handling, get used to “shift + f” to get all your drones home into drone bay. Additionally, “ctrl + f” to reload your guns.
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