Bibosikus
Elite United Hard Moose Moose Alliance
4
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Posted - 2011.12.29 18:22:00 -
[1] - Quote
I flew an Ishtar in L4's for about 18 months. It was very quick and much more fun to fly than a BS.
There are plenty of fit suggestions here so I'll not bother on that score. But you did ask about tactics.
I used a 'tar for HS exploration for a while too, until I realised that it's native dps (sentries) isn't the best match for HS complexes. The mechanics are just wrong. Sentries are ideal when you have a large number of ranged rats to kill, and there's no real urgency to be elsewhere (eg. another gate 40km away).
But HS Exploration is about speed, speed, speed. Find the plex quicker than anyone else, and run it it minutes.
Your primary focus is the triggers; nothing else. Kill whatever needs killing to unlock the next pocket. Get to the final target asap, loot and move on.
Take the Sansha Vigil as an example. A lot of players will spend half an hour killing everything in sight, which is basically ratting not exploring. In reality, there are 4 targets. The Security tower, the Overseer (unlocks gate) then in the next pocket, the stasis tower, the Overseer/faction rat. Kill, bookmark wreck, warp away, site despawns, return to bookmark and loot. This takes about 2 minutes.
With that in mind, your tactics with the Ishtar don't involve sentries. Dropping & orbiting them is just too fiddly, you can't align, you have to stay in place when you need to be motoring on. The new 3/10 "Frigfest" plexes have about 30 rats in each of 4 pockets and 40km between gates. They drop very nice loot, so run them when you find them. But you need to be moving & firing, so use Hammers and Hobs.
There are a handful of occasions when sentries are useful where you are in Sansha space (Mul-Zatah Monastery is one) so take a rack with you. But most of the time you'll need meds and railguns.
Also do not fit an MWD. The new 3/10's don't allow its use between pockets. Use a Shadow or RF AB, it's plenty.
There is another drawback - the Ishtar is very short on CPU so you'll have real trouble trying to fit an expanded probe launcher - which is a de facto standard for hs exploration, since it allows you to use deep space probes which filter a LOT of crap out.
Also don't bother with an Analyzer. The hs mag sites are and will always be totally crap and not worth your time. Fit a Codebreaker, and ODL's & Drone Nav comps. You want your meds & lights to be as quick and accurate as possible. The box said "Requires Windows-á2000 or better", so I installed Linux. |