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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Slow progression

Well things are progessing in my plans to go deep in wormhole space. Just 9 more days and I'll have reverse engineering on all 6 types of BPCs (5 subsystems and hulls) at a usable level. this means Reverse engineering 4 and all appropriate skills to 4.

My hauler/pos-gunner/pos-refiner alt is finally approaching his designated "hold up" point. What this means is that although there are other skills I could get for him, he's at the point where I don't really need to work on him for my current uses of his skills. It will soon be time to switch over to my hauler/researcher alt on that same account and get his skills up so he can research/copy the more advanced blue prints.

The entire weekend was spent with my main in high sec. I was doing the usual run around for datacores. This particular session was more amusing than most since at the first stop I got a storyline mission. This necessitated the imediate purchase of a Mammoth, three T2 Expanded Cargoholds and a T2 Inertia Stabilizer. 3 round trips later and the 40k m3 of cargo was transferred and the Mammoth and modules were back up on sale and I was just under 5mil richer. By the end of the day all the modules and the hull sold so it was well worth it. On the third stop, it was a courier mission two jumps into low sec.

Ok, look, I fly a Prowler. Low sec courier missions just don't scare me any more. So off I go. I drop off the stuff, finish the mission and head on back. Just as I jump thru the mid point stargate I come out on the other side with a -9.9 pirate 14km from me. One of Ka Jolo's boys. And of course he greets me:

pirate> Hiya!

Select desitination high sec gate. Hit warp to, cloak in sequence.

Letrange> Byea!
pirate> :P

Man I love blockade runners. Especially ones with Low Friction Nozzle Joints and Inertia Stabilizers. I find people tend to fit BR wrong a lot of times. Look There are two aspects to survivability in a BR. The first is the cloak. The problem with the cloak is that people can un-cloak you. This is why I fit my Prowler and rig it for maneuverability. The move and hit cloak trick tends to stop people from locking you up. But if they are quick and in an interceptor they could be close enough to move to your area and de-cloak you before you warp off if you're not nimble. Fit like I am I can usually warp off from a standing start around 4 seconds. Unless I'm horribly un-lucky I can usually get to warp in the time it takes an interceptor to get to me and un-cloak me.

If you fit your BR for cargo, you're missing the point of a BR. If you need to move volume thru dangerous space - use a DST, not a BR. A blockade runner is for small volume, high value stuff thru the most dangerous space going. The only exception to this would be back ops support where you need the volume for jump bridge fuel. THAT is when you fit for volume on a BR. It's the only case.

11 comments:

VonBargenJL said...

totally agree with you. i fit my Prorator with inertia stabalizers (theyre 5% better with agility at the lack of speed, but if youre warping to gate all the time you dont need speed) and then 2x WCS just to be safe.

Jaggins said...

So what is the cargo area in M3 on your BR, Letrange? Still better than an Itty I?

Letrange said...

4062.5m3

Caels Caldanhai said...

My first comment goes to you, Letrange! I feel proud, but you should probably feel scared... or maybe just a little annoyed.

I'll admit that some of your post was bad Caldari to me (i.e. - Greek) which will come to me in time, but I do have questions that I hope pertain, as I'm trying to train my way into my first covert ops myself:

What is a DST? And what kinds of tactics do you recommend in addition to blockade running?

I'm still high sec right now, but I plan on moving to low or 0.0 soon after getting my covert ops skills up to par.

control valves said...

Thanks for the helpful information. Hope to hear more from you.

Kename Fin said...

The BR with the inertial rigging is very, very nice. I keep a set of cargo expanders in the hold "just in case" because there are times you can just benefit from 7112 m3. And the loss of 10m3 in carrying them around is not really an issue. I have also had several local conversations go something like:

pirate 1> Incoming...
pirate 2> dang, not another BR
pirate 1> Still, try
pirate 2> You realize she's already at the next gate.
pirate 1> Gah, they need to seriously nerf those BRs, they are way to overpowered

Kename Fin> Can I pick you fellows anything up the next time I come through.
Kename Fin> I can call ahead if that would be convenient

Sorry, a bit cheeky when I'm having fun toodling around in my Crane.

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

That's why I hate Low-sec... no bubbles :))

Cj Didge said...

Agree with the fit, a friend of mine gave me pointers on how to fit a cov ops frigate so i took the rigs of that to a prorator as i presumed that would be best and with 4 lows to allow 2 inertia stabs and 2 nanofiber structures im almost as quick to warp as a frigate. And ive never been fully targeted going through gate camps, either they realise they cant get me or im gone before it finishes. As you may be able to tell i love transports :)

Letrange said...

@Caels
A DST is a Deep Space Transport. When you get the skill to fly T2 haulers (which is what blockade runners and deep space transports are) you can fly both types with the same skill. The difference is:

T1: tissue paper for defenses and warps at 4.5 AU (faster than a cruiser, but slower than a frigate), cargo goes up with skill and ship hull.

T2 BR: Based on the low skill, low volume haulers. More maneuverable, able to fit a cov-ops cloak, small(ish) cargohold, It's like owning a Ferrari. Warps at 9 (only interceptors, cov-ops and some recons are faster).

T2 DST: Based on the high skill high volume haulers, Actually has a tank (my Mastodon gets over 11k shields and the lowest resist is 50%), also has 2 integral warp core stabilizers (bring lots of tackle). Warps at 3 (same as a cruiser.

Rule of thumb: if you're trying to transport high volume high value stuff, use a DST or a Freighter to avoid the casual suicide gank. For small volume stuff, use a BR.

Caels Caldanhai said...

This is very good information for a friend of mine who wants to be a hauler pretty much full time. Thank you very much!

Carole Pivarnik said...

Great post, very informative. My business associate loves her Viator! It's rigged for space contrary to your advice, but I've jumped right through gate camps in it and not been caught. Just lucky, I guess? Excellent skills help, as well as instantaneously warping/cloaking as soon as my session change resolves. I like having 10+K M3, being able to haul a cruiser and some other small stuff (though having a jump freighter now kinda makes that a moot point).