Solo Class 3 Wormhole Tactics: Caldari T1 Battleships
This is the second in a series on how to fit and fly T1 battleships to solo Class 3 wormhole anomalies in EVE Online. If you haven’t caught the first in the series yet, go give it a read. It has some vital information regarding implants, boosters, and how to use your mobile depot and what refitting gear to carry.
EDIT: The quotes on ISK below were made prior to the Blue Loot Buffs that arrived with the Phoebe expansion in November 2014. Class 3 Sleeper loot is considerably more valuable now, and it’s even more worth it to solo your heart out!
So you’ve skilled up to Caldari Battleship IV. You’ve run some missions in hisec and are bored, and learned that you can double your ISK (or better) in Wormhole space. In my humble opinion, Class 3 wormhole space is the most lucrative space for a solo artist to play in; Class 4 becomes much harder for not much more reward, and Class 2 doesn’t drop enough blue loot to be competitive with Level 4 missioning in hisec.
As always, before you embark on your solo journey, let me remind you that my first piece of advice to anyone thinking of flying solo in W-space: Don’t. Get a fleet, or at least have a horde of bloodthirsty savages in your corporation or alliance who are ready and willing to come rescue you (or avenge you, perhaps) from the jaws of evil W-space pirates.
Like me. And my good buddies in the Outer Ring Sleeper Collective (part of The Illusion Of Solitude alliance). Come learn to be an evil W-space pirate with us, and enjoy PvP without the security status hit of lowsec piracy, and without the endless Calls To Arms of null blue donut alliances!
Remember The Rules about fitting your battleships for Class 3 solo PvE. I’m going to sum them up again here, because they really are that important! These are the shortened version; go look at my first entry in this Class 3 Solo series for the full-length reasons.
- Be able to hit at 19km, 35km, and 65km.
- Avoid sniping fits; they work, but not well.
- Minimum 600DPS “gank” to burn a Sleepless Upholder in 60 seconds or less.
- Have some way of dealing with frigates.
- Keep it cheap.
- Use combat boosters (drugs).
- T2 weapons are required. If you can’t fit T2, go back to hisec until you can.
- Active tank required, but a deep buffer is helpful. No XLASBs allowed; your charges won’t last a site.
- A challenging pilot workload is fun & flexible.
- Avoid the relic site “Forgotten Frontier Recursive Depot” and the Data site “Unsecured Frontier Database” with these fits.
- Assume modest skills, but overheating may be required.
Sorry. I know you’re eager for the fits and tactics. Let’s dive in! First, let’s start with that amazing-looking, enormously-powerful Scorpion, shall we?
Scorpion
Don’t. Just don’t. I’ve done it. It’s an amazing fleet support boat. But it has absolutely no bonuses that are going to help you in W-space. You might think that the ECM bonuses will help you out. And they will, with tank. But in essence, if you’re going to use ECM as tank, you end up devoting a lot more slots to tank than any other battleship you might fly in Class 3 space. I did Fortification Frontier Stronghold once in a Scorpion. It took me two hours. Seriously, just don’t. I may do a future series on the faction battleships, and the Scorpion Navy Issue is more than enough to take any Class 3 site, but the T1 Scorpion is simply not made for PvE. Fly a Raven.
Raven
The Raven ain’t bad at all for running Class 3 sites. In fact, with its prodigious range, it’s one of the few I’d be willing to fly in a fleet in Class 4 space, too. It’s not quite the “King of PvE” boat it is in hisec, though, because the ability to select damage type is really kind of pointless against Sleepers; Sleepers have slightly higher Thermal resists on average, but that’s about it.
Remember your PvP refit: neuts, smartbombs, Cetus ECM Shockwave for the mids, extra combat boosters, cap boosters, micro jump drive, warp stabs, mobile depot, etc. Your Raven should be able to destroy or drive off any frigate in warp-scrambling range, but you’re not invincible just because you’re prepared. You just need to plan what you’re going to do under some various situations:
- Jumped by a T1 frigate orbiting close with a warp scrambler? Neuts, smartbombs, drones, warp stabs, MJD, and moonwalk away.
- Jumped by a T2 frigate orbiting close with a warp scrambler? Same as T1, but you might not break his tank. Fit dual warp stabs and GTFO.
- Jumped by a warfare-link-boosted Interceptor orbiting you at 30km+ with a point? Fit one warp stab and warp off.
- Jumped by a HIC with a bubble? Just fit a MJD and jump away.
- Jumped by a HIC with two points? Both a bubble and scripted infinipoint, which I recommend in wormholes for this reason? Refit neuts, neut the HIC like mad, and pray you can deal with him before the rest of his fleet lands or you’re totally screwed. In fact, with this kind of HIC, opening a chat window for a ransom offer right away ain’t a bad idea. They might let your pod go home if you offer them the battleship; it’s a cheap ship anyway that you should have earned in the first 10-15 sites, right? And your implant set is fairly cheap, too, right? But because they will know your T1 battleship ain’t worth much, the kill is probably worth more to them. But whatever happens, fight back and fight back HARD.
- The key to all this is that you’re a battleship. Don’t bother with transversal. Drop your mobile depot early so that it’s anchored if you get jumped, have refits in your cargo hold, and you have options to deal with mean pointy things. Don’t do so, and you’re just meat for the grinder.
The Fit & Recommendations
- Recommended combat boosters: Standard Crash (for cruises to hit better vs. smaller targets), Standard Blue Pill (for tank).
- Recommended implants: EO-603 (faster cap), EM-803 (more cap), TN-903 (missile velocity buff), and RL-1003 (more DPS).
- You may note the lack of Rigor rigs. I really wanted to fit them, but the Raven is capacitor-challenged, and unfortunately due to Sleeper neuts you really want to be “cap-stable” with a repper running if possible. The dual target painters helped me a lot in testing this fit, but completion times are a little slow due to frigate/cruiser-sized targets. I’m open to suggestions.
- Like the Amarr ships, you’re riding on buffer during double-battleship spawns. You need to burn down one of the two battleships in less than 60 seconds to survive.
- If you’re not seeing at least 600DPS from your launchers, you may not make it through the wave!
- My missile-poor test pilot was only hitting 434DPS from his cruise launchers, and died repeatedly in testing as a result unless I overheated my tank or went for Improved Blue Pill at considerable cost. Try your fit on Sisi first if your skills are low! Another option is to temporarily ditch the target painters for two extra shield boost amplifiers — you do have a mobile depot out, right? — and if your missile skills aren’t great, at least you’ll have the tank to weather the wave
- Use your ability to refit. Refit warp stabs and warp out if it gets too hot. Refit extra tank as needed. Refit cap rechargers if your cap gets low. The Mobile Depot and their large cargo holds are the reasons why T1 battleships actually work in wormholes now. Abuse it like mad!
- Rapid light missile launchers are small, and light missiles are both cheap and small. If frigates give you too much trouble, just refit launchers as needed.
- You’re using medium drones and two target painters to deal with frigates. Valkyries are not as high-damage as Hammerheads, but their superior speed is what makes them keep up with Sleeper frigates decently well.
- You’ve got a slight Thermal hole here. It didn’t hurt too much in my testing, but be aware when refitting for tank, a T2 Thermic Dissipation Amp would help and be easy on the CPU.
Remember this fit is a BASE FIT. You’re going to refit your Raven a lot while running the sites. Once you get good at it — and if your skills are up to par — 20-minute completion times per site are within your grasp.
[Raven, C3 Raven]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
Large Shield Booster II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
[Empty High slot]
Large Core Defense Operational Solidifier I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Valkyrie II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Inherent Implants ‘Squire’ Capacitor Systems Operation EO-603
Inherent Implants ‘Squire’ Capacitor Management EM-803
Zainou ‘Deadeye’ Target Navigation Prediction TN-903
Zainou ‘Deadeye’ Rapid Launch RL-1003
Rokh
The Rokh is very much like a Shield and Blaster version of the Abaddon. You really need to have T2 guns — my T1 version didn’t work well in test, and I had to switch to Rails, which were far less effective — and be ready to use/abuse the MJD if the Sleepless Preserver (55km) or Sleepless Upholder (65km) get out of range. If you have troubles with range, be ready to burn down some Cruisers first, fit extra tank and cap, pick up your Mobile Depot and burn into range as required.
The Rokh would be my go-to Caldari ship if the bonus to the ship weren’t kind of useless for railguns and if the range on blasters weren’t so challenging. Railguns make it easier but slower, and are much harder on your tank; with the remote reps going on in Forgottten Frontier Quarantine Outpost, I had the devil of a time trying to break the Sleeper tank orbiting at 55km! My advice on that final wave: burn the frigates down ASAP, then MWD out to the battleships and burn them down at close range.
The Fit
- Combat Boosters: Standard Frentix (for range), Standard Blue Pill (for tank). If you don’t find a way to bring these in with these fits, you are a fool and will die in a fire. Seriously, you can run 2-3 sites on one booster, and they only cost 2M ISK apiece. Each site is worth AT LEAST 28M ISK. You do the math.
- Null ammo plus the Rokh’s optimal range bonus gives you the range to hit almost anything in the sites; burn Sleepless Upholders ASAP because of their 65km orbit range. But bring plenty of Null. And Void. And faction intermediate-range ammo, because faction ammo is totally worth it when you should earn a minimum of 84M per hour once you learn how to do it right.
- You have a really, really deep buffer on a Rokh. The natural resistances help your tank; boost your shields when you’re hovering around 33% shield to leverage the innate recharge. This is true for the Raven, too, but the buffer is considerably thinner on the Raven than the Rokh and this move is a bit more risky.
- Refit, refit, refit. If the Upholder is pulling range, refit tracking computers. If the frigates are bugging you and you’ve lost your drones, refit webs and painters. If you’re getting low on cap, fit extra cap rechargers or flux coils, sacrificing some DPS or range to deal with your cap issues. We do this in our Dreadnaughts all the time using carriers; you should get used to it, as it is the way you deal with changes in battlefield conditions in PvP and PvE in EVE today!
- Like the Abaddon, the Rokh requires pretty good skills to get the most out of it. Caldari Battleship IV, T2 blasters (yeah, I tried with T1; it didn’t go very well, but it is do-able. Bring plenty of refits, and use rails despite their paltry DPS.), cap support skills to 5, Thermodynamics 4+, target painting 4, etc. But at least you’re continuing to skill into your preferred battleship platform instead of a T3. There’s that.
This is a BASE FIT; you are expected to refit throughout the battle, and drop your mobile depot pretty much first thing upon entering the site. Carry PvP and PvE mods. It’s all T2 stuff, so you can afford plenty of spares in your cargo hold as long as the sizes are reasonable! Large Guns aren’t typically that reasonable, but webs, painters, warp stabs, scrams, cap rechargers, flux coils, magnetic field stabilizers, tracking enhancers, targeting computers, relevant scripts, cap boosters and mods, mobile micro jump units, large micro jump drive, and a selection of ammo to work at various ranges are expected. Don’t leave a ton of cargo space to spare; Sleeper Loot is quite small. A few cubic meters will do.
If you are prepared, you have little to fear.
Except the scripted infinite-point HIC. Always fear the scripted infinite-point HIC. He can fit through frigate-sized wormholes, and he has your number. Running away is rarely an option!
[Rokh, C3 Rokh]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Damage Control II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Booster II
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Cap Recharger II
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
[Empty High slot]
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Large Core Defense Operational Solidifier I
Valkyrie II x5
Inherent Implants ‘Squire’ Capacitor Systems Operation EO-603
Zainou ‘Deadeye’ Trajectory Analysis TA-703
Inherent Implants ‘Squire’ Capacitor Management EM-803
Zainou ‘Deadeye’ Sharpshooter ST-903
Zainou ‘Deadeye’ Large Hybrid Turret LH-1003
Well, that’s it for this week’s installment. Hope to see you in W-space soon. Don’t forget your mobile depot!
TXG SYNC 