2 hours? With Gila. I don’t believe. The amount of jump itself prevents to make it under 2 hours.
I use sub 2sec align Sunesis myself - drones + neutron blasters. And I don’t think I managed it under 4 hours.
You must be doing something wrong then, perhaps unstack launchers? except boss, rats are very weak so you might be wasting dps. I would say Hecate would be better, but Jackdaw must also work very well, again I do it in Sunesis, the only mission that takes more than few seconds to kill rats is the Dagan. There I had to overheat blasters to get enough dps with my choice of ship, but I managed to break his tank and eventually beat him even with that.
The main time sink on SoE epic arc is moving around. It takes ages normally.
Coercer Navy Issue with beams is the best I have used so far. 90% of the missions it is just warping in, instablapping everything with 1 shot , sometimes burning closer to some objective with MWD. Doesn’t even need tank. Can’t imagine anything missile based being faster than that. Confessor might be for the abiity to enter Propulsion mode for traveling… but costs 5 times as much. Around two hours definitely possible, I don’t think I was much slower and I usually only do this thing on my indu-alts that are far from having all Skills V.
Interceptor if you want to speed run it. Sure, the last three combat missions take a bit longer due to lack of DPS, but since the bulk of the missions are “go there” types, the interceptor speed makes it much faster overall.
I read somewhere the arc is designed to be run in an interceptor, so that’s what I did it in, and it was pretty easy.
Here’s the fit in travel mode. Swap the modules in cargo into the low slots before undocking for a combat mission.
Even a regular coercer or a cormorant with rails is easily doable for these. I would say the Confessor is the ultimate simply due to the instablap, Beam range and speed mode and has a faster ROF than the Jackdaws Missile launchers.
[Cynabal, *Cynabal]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Sensor Booster II
Sensor Booster II
50MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Tracking Computer II
Tracking Computer II
425mm AutoCannon II
425mm AutoCannon II
425mm AutoCannon II
425mm AutoCannon II
Auto Targeting System II
Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Hail M x480
Scan Resolution Script x2
Barrage M x480
Optimal Range Script x2
Fast align time, high warp speed, fast lock time and range. Instakills most frigs with barrage. No need for tank, enemies are dead before they can do damage.
What @Andlaust said, interceptor is the fastest way to run them, with a bit more time spent on Dagan himself in the last combat mission.
Jackdaw, Confessor, should be good fun (and very OP).
Good fun and a good training at the same time are a t2 fitted blaster Merlin and (slightly more challenging) a t2 fitted beam Punisher. Need to have your sp in the right places of course, but alphas can do this.
Or you fit a megathron with smartbombs - that would be the real challenge
