Success Despite Being Sloppy

I came within a hear's breadth of losing my well worn Daredevil yesterday to the Single Guristas Worm.

The Worm is my very favorite burner mission.  I love the mwd-fueled dash under the barrage of the oncoming fire.  I love using blasters to melt his gurista face off.  I love the race of dps - dealing enough damage before my Cap Boosters run empty.  It's a unique fight in the burner world, and I always look forward to it.

I normally run a link ship, which makes the fight much more straightforward and reduces some of the overheat dance for lows and mids required if attempting fully solo.  Over the past many months, I've gotten pretty good at the mechanics of it, and measure myself by how many Cap Boosters that I return to the dock with.  (Normally that's 5, sometimes 6 of the 11 that I take with me).

Last night was a different matter.  The mistakes were mine, and they were many.

It was late in the day, and I am fighting off a case of the plague.  My head wasn't in the fight. I should have deferred.  That was mistake #1.

Mistake #2 was my approach.  I left the mwd run too long and I ended up bumping my target.  This put me out of optimal range, and required two more squirts of mwd to make the correction.  The repeated mwd use consumed additional cap.

Mistake #3 was not minding my armor rep.  With links running, the repper can get ahead of the inbound damage.  Depending on how the damage and rep cycles happen to sync up, I can turn the repper off several times a fight, thus saving capacitor.  Instead, I got distracted by the mwd tomfoolery and let the repper run despite being at 100% armor, pissing more capacitor into the wind.
Mistake #4 was turning off overheat on my highs too soon.  I've been bitten more than once while running burners by letting my guns burn out.  I normally turn my launchers off at about 60% burnt, as the heat grows much faster than blasters.  Blasters I let run to 70-80%.  As the gravity of the other mistakes began to register, I got too eager and unheated at 54%.  Maybe that would have been fine, but with the trouble of getting situated at the start of the fight, most of the overheated dps didn't actually land very well and the target was still at 40%+ shields.

By the time all of this happened, I'd run through my normal allotment of Cap Boosters.  Target is at 40% shields and I had maybe 4 reload cycles remaining on the cap before I'd fold up and explode.

Even this was surmountable, but as the target entered armor, a misclick (perhaps I was trying to spin the camera? not sure) turned off my guns with 4 rounds left.  Mistake #5.  I realized it too late, the target had begun to repair shields.  Instead of reloading, I turned guns back on (Mistake #5 1/2), ran the 4 antimatter out, and then waited for a reload.  Meanwhile the Capacitor clock was ticking and I'd let the target get back to 40% shields or so.

Weighing options, I overheated highs again and began to squint at the screen in preparation for the insurance payout.  Heat climbed higher, 70%, 80%.  I intended to unheat at 90% but now the target was well into armor.  I was loading my last Cap charge and was floating at 50% armor.  The UI's alarm bells were sounding every few seconds.  I made the only good decision of the entire fight and didn't unheat.  Target exploded with my highs at 95% burnt, one Cap Booster loaded but none in cargo.

A win is a win, but sheesh, that's no way to fly a ship as good as the Daredevil.

I type this out not to brag about the win, but as an example of how these encounters can sometimes trip you up through a cascade failure.  I consider myself a veteran of the burner mission, this one in particular, but I almost bit it last night.  Most of what happened was due in part to the very sloppy approach.  Dealing with that one error distracted me from other things going on, which cost me time and resources I didn't really have.  Had the approach been better, most of the other things wouldn't have happened or wouldn't have mattered.

Fly better next time, Abavus.  Fly better.

Back on Duty

Reposting this and editing lightly. Oddities from using the Blogger app shoved it to January 4th for some unknown reason.

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Well, Evil isn't going to smite itself, so I have fired up the armada again, jumping back into the front lines against the Gurista, Sansha, and Angel menace.

Actually, I have been trying to get anomic agents to spawn as I haven't checked some of my fits in ages.  Considering the number of missions I got through this week, anomics were quite stingy. I did get World's Collide approximately 27,457 times, but very few burners. (And some of the ones that did get offered repeated.)

I will need to update my fit posts eventually, and ideally work out a more user friendly format.  I don't crave blog hits, but I see from my stats that many of you find this blog via google searching for burner strategies.  So even if I did update my fits and develop a better format, there's some significant web momentum behind the current set of blog posts.

Anyway, I digress.  I did determine that Blood Raider Cruor is still doable in my Jaguar and an off grid linker.  Guristas Worm is still fun in my Daredevil.  The Worm still holds its place as my favorite burner.  But the Team Enyo is no longer soloable in the kite fut Garmur. For that one I grab an alt in a mwd Kestrel to lend some dps.

Guristas Anomic Base Live

Vanguard deployed today, which means the Guristas Anomic (cruiser/BC sized) mission is now available from your friendly neighborhood lvl4 agent.

I haven't been able to get on SISI and play due to several consecutive family commitments, work commitments, work drama, and a (woohoo!) pending job change.  But that's the subject of a whole 'nother post.  However, while typing I'll say that things look crazy until well after EVE Vegas and I'm only moderately hopeful for a quiet holiday period.  And at the moment I have a head cold.  Bleh.

I'll chain grind some missions if I'm able and see if I can get the new mission to drop.  In the interim, here is some guidance from the forums.

• The SISI thread is here.
• This post seems to have a reasonable guide almost in the style that I would write it (Deimos).   Credit goes to Talsha Talamar.  
• This post is another approach (Vigilant) and a good guide.  Credit goes to Chainsaw Plankton.

Both posts are dated today, based on the SISI content but could (in theory) not represent the final live version.  Beware of surprise changes. :)

Pending a confirmation, the mission text is as follows.  Sounds like a fun scenario.

Anomic Base

I have a special optional and extremely difficult mission for you, we won’t penalize you if you decline it. 

The Wyvren-class Supercarrier Antero was recently stolen from the Caldari by a group of hijackers funded by the Guristas. They seem to have somehow double-crossed their employers, and now both the Caldari Navy and the Guristas are after them. Their Supercarrier is severely damaged, but still commands a powerful contingent of heavily modified fighters. 

I wouldn’t normally care too much about this ship, except that it just showed up outside a nearby repair depot demanding repairs and threatening violence. If they damage that depot I’m going to personally lose a significant investment, and we can’t let that happen. If you accept this mission, you’ll need to get over there and convince them that there are better depots to hold up than mine. There’s no way that you’ll be able to kill it, but if you wipe out enough of its fighters I’m sure they’ll get the hint. 

Only medium sized ships can gain entry to the repair yard, so don’t try to bring anything bigger. 

These rogue pirates have waves of heavily modified fighters and fighter bombers with strong shield tanks and small signatures. They deal all four damage types, with their modified Dragonfly fighters spewing Explosive, Kinetic and Thermal at close range, and their modified Mantis fighter-bombers lobbing EM damage from longer ranges. They always fly with Stasis Webifiers and Warp Scramblers fit. To save my repair depot you’ll need to keep destroying waves of fighters until the Wyvren decides to cut its losses and leave.  

A word of warning: these rogue pirates are extremely dangerous and have proven very capable of destroying capsuleer ships. If you choose to decline this mission or if you fail to complete it, you will not lose any standings. 

Declining a mission from a particular agent more than once every 4 hours will result in a loss of standing with that agent.

Inquiry: Missile Changes and Burner Missions

I haven't run a burner mission in a few weeks, and not since the missile modules and associated changes went live.  I haven't messed with anything on SISI either.

I went trolling around forums this morning looking for potential impact to my burner fits (many of which are rockets or LML) but saw no particular warnings about old fits not working anymore.

If you've got experience (positive or negative) with burner fits and the most recent release, please drop me a note ingame or leave a comment.  Thanks!

Why I Like Burners

I was asked recently why I liked Burners.  Simple question, and I think I gave a reasonably elegant answer, but I've been chewing on it during quiet moments since.

First things first, Burners were not what I originally thought of when I wanted "advanced" lvl4s.  But they are darn close.  This post goes through my concept of what small ship mission content could look like; at the time I had no idea that Burners were on the table with CCP.

I point this out because the content isn't what I'd secretly been longing for; CCP didn't fulfill all my hopes and dreams with this content, and I don't think of myself as a Burner Fanboy.  

Anyway - Why do I like Burners?  

1. The Mechanics.  I like to dissect the mechanics of the content and understand the encounter thoroughly.  I take a good bit of pride in not only knowing what to expect, but also vigilant enough to react properly when the game throws you a wrinkle.  I like to know the content well enough to come up with my own twist on the ship fits and not just use what's "accepted."  

While "the mechanics" are true for all lvl4 content, the time is long gone when vanilla lvl4s required much thinking about how to approach a specific encounter.  Most of us fly omni-tanked ships capable of doing any and all vanilla lvl4s that are offered, with full pocket aggro, and (at most) an ammo change between missions.  The margin of success with Burners are such that the Mechanics still matter.

2. The Rush.  The first several Burners I completed resulted in me sitting at the desk with shaking hands and a sweaty brow.  The new mechanics, new ships, and challenging content really got me.  With dozens and dozens of Burners now under my belt, this is no longer the case (tho I am FAR from complacent about Burners).  I still take a deep breath and cry TALLYHO when I drop into the pocket.

3. The Familiarity.  This is a more recent phenomenon.  There are now so many Burners that I don't see some of the variants all that often.  At this point, it's like seeing an old friend when some of them pop into queue.  I get to dust off a ship I haven't flown in weeks/months and knock the cobwebs off my knowledge about the encounter ... and hope that nothing drastic has been changed in the patches since I last ran it.

What's Playing:  Static-X, Wisconsin Death Trip, December

Coffee Politics and Incursions

At work, there are few things worse than what I call Coffee Politics.

We have a small break area with one of those monster coffee makers and several pots.  The coffee itself is free but they do take up a collection here and there for "bonus supplies" like creamer and sugar.  I'm a coffee drinker, but I haven't participated in the Coffee pool for 4-5 years.  I get up every morning and make my own Folger's (French Roast) and bring it in a thermos.

Why?  It's just easier to bring my own and watch the natives self destruct over little things.  Who left the coffee pot on overnight?  Who took the last pour and didn't make more??  There are fights about how best to make the coffee (how strong, how weak, how much water).  There are fights over when to clean the pot (some guys like a mildly dirty pot, yuck).  Why are there grounds in the pot again??  There are fights over getting the supplies from the centralized closet up front.  Who made a pot late in the day and then didn't drink any?  Who left the pot on again over the weekend and left the pot to evaporate down to tar?

How I Mission

This might be a repeat post, not sure.  But it's come up in conversation a few times over the past week, so here's the brain dump that I came up with this morning while I was out riding between corn fields on the bike.

Vanilla Level 4's

I use a mix of ships.  Typically this is the Golem, but I also keep a N-Apoc, Sacri, Drake, and Nighthawk handy.

Over the years, I have done various modes of lvl4's.  Blitzing, kill-all-no-loot, kill-all with an alt salvager trailing behind.  For a long while, I simply looted the large wrecks looking for large meta4 guns and left the rest.  (Not optimal, but I'd rather SHOOT STUFF than LOOT STUFF).

Sunday Wrap Up - Deimos Cap Use and Aba on TV

The Anomic Base (Talos) popped up this afternoon.  I've only done it once on live and my eyes lit up when I read the text.  

Like last time, I ran it with my offgrid link ship.  On SISI, I had of course not used links, but the test server has everything at 100 isk and the real server ... does not.  So when things get serious, I drag the link ship along.

Last time, I chewed through a TON of cap boosters.  It was very unlike SISI and I left grid scratching my head (but got distracted by a very nice shadow serpentis module).  I docked up, put the Deimos away and forgot about it.

Today, of course, I check cargo before undocking and realize "Oh yah, I used a crap-ton of boosters. That was weird."  Once on grid and moving, cap again was vanishing at an astonishing rate, and I realized that the Link ship was the difference.  With 2x armor reps running  every 7 seconds instead of every 9 seconds, I was repping more HP but eating into my profit margin by consuming faction cap boosters.  So I turned one Armor Repper off and the cap situation improved.

I typed all that so I could type this....  My Deimos fit (which is pasted on the click through below) is almost cap-stable and with careful flying can permatank the Talos pocket.  I didn't need to turn the 2nd repper back on, despite blundering into a few of the proximity guns.  I timed the run at 10 minutes, although I looted the wrecks as I went.  So I'm slower than some of the guys on forums, but this is a pretty forgiving setup, especially with the off grid booster.


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Second up, had this odd thing happen last night.  Was the end of my game session, but was still chatting a bit with the gang.  I rarely use Captain's Quarters, but decided to hop in and sit on the couch while I typed.  I then remembered that we had gotten new clothes lately, so went in and played Ken-doll with Abavus and dressed him up all shiny.

A few minutes later, I'm sitting on the couch and I see Abavus come through as a "New Pilot Certification."  Wait, wtf?  Really?  Abavus is like 12.   Apparently resetting your portrait qualifies you for New Pilot graduation.  Was a surreal moment that made me look twice and then grunt loud enough that Mrs. Durden asked what I was doing.

Click through for my current Deimos fit.

Angel Cruiser Burner on SISI

So, I got distracted by real life last week, and while I wasn't looking CCP went and added some new content to the test server!

CCP Fozzie on 08-May-15:

There's another set of tweaks coming early next week for the first two medium Burners. The turrets in the Serpentis mission will now work properly and we're toning the range on the Ashimmu down a bit again. 

We're also working on an Angel Cartel mission that should hit SISI before too long.

He clarifies that the turret matrix on the Talos mission will continue to fire once you exit a 10km radius from them.  Previously they activated at 10km and then stopped firing once you got out of 10km.  Looks like now they'll continue to fire.


CCP Fozzie on 11-May-15:

You guys are going to start noticing a new Angel Cartel burner mission on sisi after today's update. The version in this build is definitely too hard, we're still at an early stage of balancing it. So feel free to give it a try if you want, but don't worry we won't release it with this level of difficulty.

If I have time next week, I'll poke on SISI.  Apparently there is a new mirror, and apparently they're going to set it up again so that only the new missions will be offered from agents.

I completed my first Anomic Base (Talos) mission on live last night, and confirm that the new turret matrix behavior is active on the live server.  It added quite a bit of damage, but my Deimos tank held fine.

BC Burner Alternatives

I had been using the Gila to kill the new Ashimmu Burner.  As I noted a few posts back, it was kind of a risk - you're betting your hull that the Ashi will continue its lust for drone death, which allows your drones to soak damage for you.  On SISI this worked well, if being somewhat expensive (t2 drones aren't free, you know).  But if the Ashi decided to keep you as primary, or if you somehow ran out of drones, you'd be toast.

Happened back across this forum thread last night.  It's always been my go-to source for Burner info. Jorie McKie has of course done a great job of explaining the new content.  He offers up a fairly straightforward strat to kill the Ashimmu with a Cerberus here.  I like the Gila, but the Cerb is a ship I've always wanted to use but never have (I generally use the Sacri instead).

So now the Cerb is on my to-do list.

He's also got a different Deimos fit for the Talos than what I used; from his description his version is probably a faster kill (higher dps) but looks more aggressive in terms of cap management and tank (single repper).  I've been plenty happy with the dual rep MWD Deimos in terms of killing speed and overall wiggle room in the encounter, though I readily admit my fit isn't min/max'd.

There are some other fits listed:  Vagabond for the Talos.  VNI for the Talos.  I'm posting my Gila fit for the Ashi to get some feedback.

Again, thumbs up to Jorie.

Anomic Base

Mosaic launches tomorrow!  (golf clap).  Time to get in for some last minute testing on SISI.

Short version:  I've run both of the new missions using the previous fits and think I'm about as ready as I can get for these to hit the live server.

I could milk this and make it into two separate posts, but meh -- I'll just make you click through to get the rest.

Serp and Blood BC Burners Live Next Tuesday

The first two BC-sized burner missions are slated for the April 28th release (Mosaic) according to the new updates page.

Burner Missions: Serpentis and Blood Raiders 

Put your cruiser skills to the test as you face off against some of the most powerful pirates in New Eden. One faction famed for their extensive connections and the other for their thirst for blood. Dominate and destroy, or end up another "donor" to their illicit cause.

Based on the picture, the Blood Raider Proph got some much needed background flair for the mission.  I've been away from the keyboard the past few days, so haven't run him lately to know if this is relfected on SISI or not.

Random Bits of Burner

I posted my "official" feedback yesterday to the feedback thread.  If you saw my earlier post here, you saw the bulk of it.

I did notice that the Prophecy now pays out 15M isk bounty instead of 5M.  The Talos was 3x5M so it makes sense that the Prophecy should pay 1x15M.

The Prophecy has evolved a little bit since my earlier posts.  He now seems to orbit at 8500m or so instead of 12-14km.  This puts you more at risk for his Nos (although whether he uses it is still hit or miss) but as a trade he is also in range of non-faction webs.   This could make for some more interesting fits and perhaps better application of dps.

I will be tied up for the next few days, so won't have a chance to poke around on SISI.

Another Prophecy Killer

Funny enough, I've not successfully used a BC to kill any of the new BC burners.

Here's another option I came up with.  It's maybe a little bit slower than the Gila, but if you're more into missiles than drones, it seems to work just as well.

I've got two runs in it - first I used HMLs and for the second I switched to HAMs.  I finished the fight at about 50% shields both times.  It's a little hard to gauge because in the first fight the Proph went after my drones and killed 3, meaning I took less damage (had a short amount of time for shields to recharge while the drone sacrificed himself honorably for me) but my overall dps was lower at the end.

Fight is very similar to the Gila, though for HAMs I set my orbit distance to 29km instead of 35km (I have 30km overall HAM range with this fit).  Like the Gila, he will run you down and web/scram/nos, so the orbit setting is just a way of keeping yourself moving.

No Fleet/links involved, though I did overheat launchers to ~60% damage both times.

[Orthrus, Abavus Durden's Prophecy Killer]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Shield Power Relay II 

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
EM Ward Amplifier II
EM Ward Amplifier II
Thermic Dissipation Amplifier II 

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II 

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

Hobgoblin II x5
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Assault Missile

The Gila and the Orthrus are relatively slow fights; I'll keep looking for other options.

Gila Fit for Burner Prophecy

I've run the Proph a few more times now; this is where my fit currently sits:

[Gila, Gila - Prophecy Kill]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Shield Power Relay II

10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Thermic Dissipation Amplifier II
EM Ward Amplifier II
EM Ward Amplifier II 

Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Heavy Missile Launcher II 

Medium Warhead Calefaction Catalyst II
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Hammerhead II x10
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile

There's still maybe some tweaking that can be done by folks that are better at Pyfa than me.  But this version finishes the encounter at 50-60% shields with my skills.

With my skills, I show 812 dps from this setup, 634 of that from drones.

Fight works like this:
- Warp to pocket
- Set yourself to orbit the Proph at 35km or so, activate AB and lock all 3 targets.
- Once all 3 are locked, kick the drones out the door and nuke the two frigates, it won't take long with only drones.
- While the drones work over the frigates, put your HMLs on the Proph.  Move the drones over when the frigs die and go make a sandwich.

The Prophecy will eventually run you down and apply web.  Until he does, you will be semi-kiting him and mitigating a little bit of damage.  I leave the AB running while webbed just to try to keep some speed throughout the fight.

The previous version was an active tank with a medium shield repper, but in one of my runs the Nos stayed with me the entire fight and I almost lost the ship.  I managed to hold out for the victory, but I was very deep in armor and it wasn't pretty.  I immediately flew back and pieced together this passive shield tank version.

Edit:  I should also note that the current version of the Proph seems to be less likely to kill your drones (although he still does) and more inclined to drain you crap to zero with his Nos.  Previously the Nos seemed to be very random; was perhaps bugged or something, I guess.

There are no doubt other ways to kill the Prophecy.  For now, this is how I'm doing it.

BC Burner Thoughts

This will eventually become a post to the official forums.  For now I'll keep it here and maybe edit it as l go.

Thoughts so far:

Serpentis Talos:

1. Overall, I like the Talos encounter.  The matrix of sentry guns is pretty impressive upon warp-in.  I like shooting at the Talos, it is a good looking hull.  Overall the mission feels special/impressive enough to be included with the other existing burner missions.
2. The Guristas Worm is my favorite frigate burner, and I really like a "big" burner that has the same kind of brawling feel.  Any excuse to use blasters and hot antimatter....
3. I don't like the far distances of the Talos mission... the distance, combined with damps, forces you to fly from A to B to C and burn up extra time.  It could be just a little bit smaller and not lose any of its overall feel.
4. I wish the Talos ships flew a bit quicker, or perhaps varied speed. All three are the same in terms of mechanics and could/should act differently or each have its own flavor. The first is the hardest because of overall DMG inbound and the remainders feel more like cleanup.
5. I wish the sentry matrix in the Talos encounter did more.  They look cool but are generally ignorable.

Blood Raider Prophecy:

1. It's an interesting problem to solve - big tank, lots of tracking disruption, web, scram, and nos up close.  However, the initial version I tested didn't have the same "whoa" factor like the Talos sentry matrix.    There needs to be some items in the pocket or something neat to look at.  It doesn't feel as "epic" (forgive the overused term) as the Talos.
2. I like that the Prophecy seems to adjust its speed.  This is new behavior for a highsec mission and helps keep you on your toes.
3. Other than variable speed, the mission isn't that much different than Duo of Death or other existing vanilla lvl4's, except with a restricted ship list.  I'm afraid it won't hold up well as it ages unless some adjustments are made.
4. Increasing the (relatively low) damage could make this much more challenging.
5. Extending the Nos range could make this mission a real, real bastard.
6. If you want it to be interesting, change one of the frigs to a hictor/dictor and put a warp bubble at your land-in.  Something you can navigate out of and still escape, vs. some unfair perma-scram.

That's all I have from the dentist's office. Time to get my gums scraped.

Triple Talos with Links

The Deimos is a mean little ship, and is the only way I've been successful with the Triple Talos as a solo fight.  I pulled the Talos tonight on SISI and decided to grab the link ship and see what might be possible.

Since the BC Burners were announced, I've tried and tried to get a Sacri into the fight.  It's my favorite HAC, and it's a tough little bird.  Thank goodness SISI hulls are cheap, because I've thrown quite a few away over the past week or so.

I tweaked my last fit and got stats as close as I could to the Deimos in terms of armor HP repaired per second, resists, and dps.  All stats were lower, but not horribly lower.

With the link ship running (3x Armor links, 1x AB speed, and 1x sig radius), the fight was surprisingly similar to the Deimos.  I still needed to watch transversal, especially while killing the first target.  DPS was a touch lower, so the killing spree took longer, but the speed under AB was a touch faster so overall the undock to redock time was a bit lower.

Would the fight have been better/easier/faster with Links and a Deimos instead?  Sure.  But that wasn't the point.  The Sacri got to come out to play and I didn't send another hull to a premature scrapping.

Oh, and I've officially jinx'd myself.  Two of the 3 Talos dropped faction mods, which no doubt perpetually curses me to never see Serpentis faction mods once the missions are live.

Btw, the Talosi did target my light drones once, but didn't kill any.  The new AI seems to favor focusing damage on you.

Blood Raider BC Burner is Bested

The first incarnation of the Blood Raider Prophecy is on SISI.

After a lot of trial and error (as I said, I'm no fit wizard), I finally beat him using a Gila.  It wasn't an elegant fight, nor was it a short fight, but I emerged the victor.  I'll post the fit after I've run him some more; there's some room for improvement.

The crux of this fight is dealing a lot of damage and dealing with turret disruption.

- The Proph has a healthy active tank and travels at between 800 and 1200m/s or so.
- Initial distances are about 50km.
- He orbits you at 12-14km, or outside web range.
- He's got two Corpii buddies (frigates) that apply the turret disruptors.
- Proph applies web out to about 14km, and scram to about 22km.
- There is some initial Nos that comes and goes, and seems to happen under 10km.  So if you let him orbit you at his preferred distance, Nos isn't an issue.
- Total bounties of 5.547M isk (I killed the two frigs).

Compared to the Serp mission, there's a lot less going on.  No matrix of turrets, no monster damp ranges, and no teeth smashing crits from 250km away.

And on the plus side, the damage isn't that horrible compared to the Talos encounter.  All of my fits quickly swapped to a single repper.  During testing, I could break contact if I could do about 1400m/s and get out of scram range for a warp out and refit.

The trick is doing credible damage against a relatively fast target while having your eyeballs full of turret disruption.

Solo, you've got a lot of constraints.  With faction webs and a link ship running to boost web range, I think this fight would be a TON easier.

This is the first iteration; I'd expect CCP to adjust as we get further into testing.

Blood Raider Battlecruiser Burners Now on SISI

Happy Monday!

CCP Lebowski announced the following today:

Thanks for all the reports and feedback so far! I've updated the known issues in the op and I'm enabling the blood raiders mission now. Enjoy!

So that makes a Serpentis and Blood Raider.  I suppose that means that Sansha, Angel, and Guristas will follow.  I was kind of hoping for a Drifter Burner before this was all done with.  Maybe the agent should say something like "Abavus Durden! Hurry!  Our officers just entered battle with one of the mysterious Drifter ships.  They were destroyed in the encounter but reported that their target was damaged during the battle. If you hurry, you might catch him.  I'm making this mission optional, but we desperately want to get our hands on that Drifter technology before our competitors do, and I'll pay handsomely for your efforts."

The SISI mission system appears to be bugged, I'm flying to another lvl4 agent to see if I can get ANY offers (appear to be locked out at the moment) ... and yes I'm killing the time by typing.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it, the successful Serp mission battle report somehow got put below my Friday notes in the post list.  Not sure what blogger is doing, but it insisted that's where the post belonged.  Scroll down a bit if you want to see how I tackled the Serp Triple Talos.

Friday Talos Burner Notes

EDIT:  Editing on Sunday for things revealed via the forums and correcting my generalist observations with more precise answers.

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More time on SISI last night. Learned a few things and got closer to actually bringing down the evil Taloseses (Talosi?).

Notes in no particular order:

- Best tank seems to be speed tank. I didn't spend a ton of time on it, but any slow tanky fit I threw at it melted quickly.
- Damps are still present. I seemed to burn through at about 45km.
- There are still three Taloses, each worth 5.5M.
- Starting ranges are still very far (175 to 199km). One target will be straight ahead of you. His friends will be 90 deg on left and right.
- No frigate targets anymore. Just the 3 BCs.
- Scram at 24 km from a Talos.
- Sentries still don't seem to do much.
- I was able to approach carefully in an AB fit Phantasm but not deal damage.
- Best runs of the night were in a 100mn AB Gila, but I still managed to only kill one Talos. His friends killed me as I let transversal drop while switching targets. Spiral in carefully or fiery death awaits.
- As before, I was running T2 fits and no link/fleet buffs. I may break that rule next session to see where the edges of the encounter really are.

- Talos targets move very slowly at about 75km.

I still feel rubbish at fitting a big variety of ships. What I know, I know pretty well, but many of the hulls I grabbed I have not flown significantly.