Skybreaker Abyssal experience

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1

Sorry for another Skybreaker post but wanted to share my experience and see if there were any suggestions.

I like to run Abyssals, usually T0 to T2, so low level. I kinda enjoy T0 in a frigate and have several frigates I run; Incursus, Rifter can be challenging. I have a Worm I sometimes use, but not much, since any loss from a bad room or a gank leaving the Abyssal would take forever to cover the cost of the ship. Lately I have been busy at work so not looking for a huge challenge (want to just play for a bit after work) and have been running a Navy Comet. Guns are Modal Light Neutron Particle Accelerators (x2) With Vortex Magnetic Field Stabs (x 2) and Caldari Hornets (x3):
with AntimatterS my DPS is 202.
with Federation Navy Antimatter my DPS is 227.

Point being, I have seen Skybreakers rarely and have beaten them, usually getting into (my) armor but fairly comfortable. (just got Armor Repair V)
I just ran into a Skybreaker and lost to time. With a small armor repairer II, the Skybreaker couldnā€™t kill me but I couldnā€™t even get through itā€™s shield.

Initially I sent my drones and orbitted at 15K. The drones did not even dent it. I saw maybe 2 small boxes of red, which healed instantly. Then I got in close, orbiting at 2000m.
I had beaten Skybreakers before so started with regular antimatter. Barely scratched shield, maybe 30%. Had to pull in my drones as they were getting into armor.
Then I loaded Navy Antimatter and resent my drones. Never got more than 60% of itā€™s shield, having to pull drones intermittently (but honestly drones didnā€™t seem to make much difference in this fight).

Looking online and on these forums, the recommendation for T0 is 100 dps minimum, 120 to be comfortable. I had 227 and couldnā€™t kill this thing.

I guess I understand they want there always to be riskā€¦ but everything Iā€™ve read online or seen on YouTube suggests 150 DPS is enough to beat Skybreaker.
(again, I was able to repair OK. It couldnā€™t kill meā€¦ I just couldnā€™t kill it and time ran out).

Annoying but not catastrophic.
I was in Dark Abyssal, so maybe Firestorm would have made a difference.
Not sure if there was anything else I could do differently but am always open to suggestions.

Also, posting because I havenā€™t seen anyone else mention this Skybreaker on steroids so thought Iā€™d tell my tale.

My fit:

Federation Navy Comet

Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Vortex Compact Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Vortex Compact Magnetic Field Stabilizer

1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
X5 Enduring Stasis Webifier
Small Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery

Modal Light Neutron Particle Accelerator I
Modal Light Neutron Particle Accelerator I
Small Ghoul Compact Energy Nosferatu

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Hybrid Collision Accelerator I

Caldari Navy Hornet x3

Itā€™s cap stable once I was able to fit the Nosferatu

edit:
Actually, I have skilled up and now can fit Magnetic Field Stabilizer IIā€™s (with 0.5 PG left).
Ups my DPS to 134.9. Maybe that will be enough??

2

Thanks for detailed post, it makes it much easier to answer. The reason why you suddenly dont kill skybreaker is dark weather mechanic: all turrets including drones have 30%/50%/70% less optimal and falloff range. In case of T0-T3 its always 30% or 50% penalty. Here is graph where I simulated your fit with all 5 skills(but without drones) to show how different penalties affect your effective blaster DPS at 2000m.

image
image826Ɨ865 133 KB

So you couldā€™ve tried to get within 1000m range to start applying decent damage in your case. Generally bringing turret/drone ships in darks is not advised, bit for low tiers it still can work.

1 Like
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Thanks for reply (and for taking the time to simulate!) . I know Dark is not ideal for turret/drone but I have a bunch on hand and it hasnā€™t been a problem (which is the way it goesā€¦ itā€™s not a problem until it is).
To be clear, my orbit is set at 500 but the skybreaker is fast enough, even with my web, that I was mostly around 2000. With Striking Damavikā€™s I usually approach instead of orbit, which gets me a little closer (with Damavik if I donā€™t approach I tend to have wide swings, out of my range).
I donā€™t recall in this case if I tried to close/approach but will keep it in mind.
[just looked it up. For my fit/skills with Federation Antimatter Optimal range is 1080m, Falloff is 4080m]

So it feels as though the short answer is that I have gone into the ā€˜wrongā€™ Abyssal but have made up for it by bringing an overpowered ship. I just happened to run into something more overpowered than me. :thinking:
(edit: or unlucky combination of power and a room that was randomly 50% penalty).

4

What is overpowered about that Comet?

The ā€œideal targetā€ preset in PyFA isnā€™t representative for damage inflicted on ships: the skybreaker is equally affected by the dark matter field which means itā€™ll receive a velocity bonus itself, but even w/o the dark matter field effect, anything that moves will eventually outrun an attackerā€™s tracking if only it is close enough, and the blastersā€™ reduced range guarantee it to be close enough for tracking to become troublesome. After the web has achieved itā€™s full slowdown effect, the graph looks more like

image
image624Ɨ636 71.9 KB

5

Thats part of the learning process and thats why people should start in low tiers with cheap ships.

You donā€™t ā€˜run what you have on handā€™ and then try to somehow ā€˜compensateā€™ for the effect, you choose a type of weather that benefits your ship/weapon system and build your fit around that. The filaments that donā€™t suit your shipā€™s abilities you sell, or store them and build other ships specialized in running these.

6

Moko Musana: Thanks. That gives me an ideal range to try to get into (for that ship and fit, which I should probably not be using anyway) .
What I need to do is learn to use that tool.

Syzygium: I canā€™t argue with that (because of course you are correct).
I played around with different ships and fits and this was the fit that worked best (on paper anyway). I am relatively new, so am trying different things.
So with a Comet, blasters and some version of antimatter ammo, Iā€™m trying to figure out which filament is best.
Firestorm makes sense: Comet is an armor ship, antimatter does thermal (and kinetic) damage
Exotic: antimatter does kinetic damage, Hornets do primarily kinetic damage. Iā€™m not sure how much scan resolution does for me at the ranges I need to be.
Electrical not good for me since I am weak in EM resist and with nosferatu I am cap stable already.
Gamma doesnā€™t do much for any of my strengths so fairly neutral/not a great choice.

I am skilled for projectile weapons as well, not skilled (much) with energy weapons or missiles.

Anyway, thanks for your input!

7

You are pretty much right with those ideas.

Now here some additional tipps:

  • Firestorms can become problematic if you encounter Kikimoras. Because they deal Thermal+Explosive damage and quickly ramp up to very high damage. And the tracking of their weapon system is high enough that they will hit you, even if you orbit them close. You can get under a medium triglavian gun (Vedmaks or Drekavaks), but not a small one.
    Unfortunately for you as Gallente Armor ship, your Explosive Resist will already be very low and the Firestorm effect will also cripple your Thermal Resist. It can easily be that you simply cannot tank them long enough to shoot them down in a Firestorm Environment.

  • Exotics on the other hand reduce your Kinetic resistance, but there arenā€™t many dangerous NPCs in the Abyss that deal mainly kinetic damage. You will still benefit from the damage type because your weapon will deal large parts kinetic damage. And you can use Caldari Drones which tank on shield, which means if you use Caldari Navy Hornets, they can soak up quite a bit of damage before they die. Giving you more time to scoop them back in if they come under attack / tanking more damage for you.
    The NPCs also donā€™t get any HP buffs, meaning you will kill them quicker, not running into time issues.

Should be pretty obvious now which filaments would be the recommended ones for a Navy Comet.