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New Frontiers Mission (lvl 3) is very hard

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Keyn Thror	Posted - 2008.02.02 22:41:00 - [1] Hello! I have just lost an Abaddon Battleship on a [LEVEL 3] Mission - New Frontiers - Stage 5... It seems that this mission is a bit imblanaced for lvl 3 mission... I recieved loads of damage and couldn't warp out because of several warp scrambler rogue drones. I tanked with the right armor hardeners against main enemies damage type, had Tech 2 Large Armor Repairer running non-stop all the time (though energy neutralizer towers cause lots of trouble with my capacitor), used drones to destroy small enemies but still lost my ship... 5 energy neutralizer towers + lots of warp scrmabling drones... And the damage is enough to destroy the heavily tanked battleship, that survived most lvl 4 missions... Isn't it too much for a lvl 3 mission, that is supposed to be done with a Battlecruiser at most? Dear CCP, if you could, please rebalance this mission. It's nearly impossible to be done. I'd also ask GMs to refund the loss of my battleship and equipment, I didn't expect to get that damage and warp scramble on a level 3 mission, to be honest. I wrote a petition with nearly the same text as above, and soon got this answer from GM Dionysus: Quote: Hi, Thank you very much for your suggestion. As we in the GM team have no direct ties to the Development team, I suggest that you post about this idea and any other ideas you might have for optimizing and improving the game in the Features and Ideas Discussion section of our official forums. The Dev team regularly reads it and takes feedback into consideration while working their hardest to improve the game. Here is a direct link to the section: http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=channelchannelID3523 Best regards, GM Dionysus EVE Online Customer Support So I posted here, because I consider the difficulty level of this mission a serious issue. Please, let me know if GMs can help me to recover from the loss of my ship on this imbalanced mission, that would be much appreciated. Thank you again.
Ofca	Posted - 2008.02.02 22:54:00 - [2] Do you want some cheese with your whine? Several (two) warp-scrambling frigates too hard for you? Maybe try L1 missions ;) Grats to the guy/gal that made this chain. It was really interesting first two times :)
Keyn Thror	Posted - 2008.02.02 23:31:00 - [3] Thank you for your very helpful answer! First: I don't whine, I just see some disbalance in the gameplay and report about it. Second: I've been doing lvl 4 missions on the same ship for a long time, and it has never been that hard as on this level 3 mission. Third: There should be a "difficulty curve" in the gameplay, as it was before Trinity (in which this mission chain was added, I think), so most lvl 3 missions should be balanced to be done with Cruiser/Battlecruiser class ships and much less skills than I have. So, if there is enough damage per second and additional effects (web + scramble + energy neutralize)to destroy lvl-4-tanked Battleship, I suppose this mission is imbalanced and needs to be fixed. Or just moved to lvl 4 missions pool, with according rewards. If I knew this is a lvl 4 mission, I would have brought additional resources to complete it and would be much more careful in the beginning of the combat. But since I knew it was lvl 3 - I thought that one battleship is more than enough to complete it without any serious problems.
Ofca	Posted - 2008.02.02 23:41:00 - [4] You've done L4 missions and didn't notice you were scrambled? Why don't I believe you? You've done L4 missions and didn't do any research before going on a mission? When I've done it more than a month ago, it was hard to find info about this chain in usual databases. It isn't today, so what's your excuse? You've done L4 missions and now you're doing L3s? What kind of curve is that? ;)
Prokonsul Piotrus Minmatar Astral Light of Nature	Posted - 2008.02.02 23:54:00 - [5] Shouldn't this be in the mission forum? Yes, this is a hard mission; drones dealt more damage to me than I received from any lv4 mission. Be careful. The game would be no fun if all missions were cakewalks :) -- One day, we will return to the planets... please, CCP? :) EVE-Wiki - share your knowledge in one place.
Keyn Thror	Posted - 2008.02.02 23:55:00 - [6] 1. Yes, I have noticed that I am scrambled, but my armor was already damaged heavily, and I didn't have time to kill all scramblers before my ship blew up. 2. Yes, I have done some research on this mission, and saw people's comments about doing it in Nightmare or Nighthawk, it doesn't really state the missions difficulty. Just something to be compared with. 3. The reason I switched from lvl 4 to lvl 3 missions is quite simple - I am working for higher standings with another NPC corporation, nothing more. 4. Who are you to question me, as if I am guilty? I wrote my suggestions to CCP game masters and asked them to respond to my request. Please, save your time and use it for something else, than flooding in this topic. Thank you again, and good luck to you!
Keyn Thror	Posted - 2008.02.03 00:01:00 - [7] Originally by: Prokonsul Piotrus Shouldn't this be in the mission forum? Yes, this is a hard mission; drones dealt more damage to me than I received from any lv4 mission. Be careful. The game would be no fun if all missions were cakewalks :) Perhaps it should be in a mission forum, you are right, but I hoped to get some response from developers on this problem, so I posted here first. I absolutely agree, that missions should give a player some challenge, but if they are divided into "levels", so all missions of similar "level" should be more or less equal in difficulty. That's why I think the best solution ot this problem will be moving this mission to lvl 4 missions pool, with according rewards, because right now the troubles this mission causes don't worth the reward it gives (about 1 million ISK including time bonus reward).
Ofca	Posted - 2008.02.03 00:35:00 - [8] If you didn't want responses, why then you posted in public forums? Or maybe you just wanted "You're right! We love you! CCP give him his ship back and fix0r the level yesterday!" responses, and not the others? ;) You are guilty of whining after losing your ship fair and square. I did this mission 4 times in a raven - lost it once because I didn't know what to expect. If this L3 mission is too hard for you, maybe L2s will be better suited for someone of your caliber? PS. You can skip this chain as a whole without any standing loss. PS2. Lets make this mission an L5, because it may prove too hard for someone doing L4s, apparently.
Ikasu Gallente The Durandal Organization	Posted - 2008.02.03 06:45:00 - [9] Originally by: Ofca If you didn't want responses, why then you posted in public forums? Or maybe you just wanted "You're right! We love you! CCP give him his ship back and fix0r the level yesterday!" responses, and not the others? ;) You are guilty of whining after losing your ship fair and square. I did this mission 4 times in a raven - lost it once because I didn't know what to expect. If this L3 mission is too hard for you, maybe L2s will be better suited for someone of your caliber? PS. You can skip this chain as a whole without any standing loss. PS2. Lets make this mission an L5, because it may prove too hard for someone doing L4s, apparently. You just happen to be a very hateful person don't you? I agree this seems like the wrong forum, it's not necessary a bug or issue, but it does sound imbalanced. ------------------------------------------------- Attention Devs, for every isk you send me one member of your family will be returned safely.
ThaDollaGenerale The Bloody Red	Posted - 2008.02.03 10:34:00 - [10] Originally by: Keyn Thror T Third: There should be a "difficulty curve" in the gameplay, as it was before Trinity (in which this mission chain was added, I think), so most lvl 3 missions should be balanced to be done with Cruiser/Battlecruiser class ships and much less skills than I have. Most missions already do have a difficulty curve, your argument is baseless.

Keyn Thror	Posted - 2008.02.03 11:36:00 - [11] Originally by: ThaDollaGenerale Most missions already do have a difficulty curve, your argument is baseless. That's what I'm talking about, actually. Most missions already have a difficulty curve, but this one goes too far from all other lvl 3 missions. That's all. As for what Ofca says - I posted in public forums to attract developers attention, and may be hear some reasonable people's advices. Right now I heard what I expected to hear - this mission is REALLY hard, so it's not my imagination or mistake. Ofca lost a Raven first time, Prokonsul Piotrus says he got more damage than on any lvl 4 mission. I bet there are other people who had the same problem with New Frontiers... If CCP developers read this forum, may be they will consider rebalancing this mission - that would be very good. Thank you all for the discussion in this topic, it helps to keep it up on the board :)
evilminge	Posted - 2008.02.03 18:46:00 - [12] forum smackers with nothing better to do than trawl and flame. slowly making these boards a pointless place to make posts. thanks for bringing this up i currently run lvl 3 missions and havn't had the pleasue of this one, so mebe you have just saved me a hurricane .
Ofca	Posted - 2008.02.03 19:53:00 - [13] This chain was great. It probably was most exciting L3 mission I've done. It is hard. All missions should be as challenging as this one. I'm not a hateful person - I'm just defending my right to have fun. And for the record, my whole reaction is based on your "give me my ship back" and nothing more. This mission IS difficult and there is no reason to dispute this fact. Was your loss avoidable? By all means. Did it happen for fault of anyone other than you? No. Bzzt, sorry, no bonus. And no refund. :) Funny thing is: My friend got this chain, I warned him about both cap-sucking towers and scrambling ships, yet he managed to lose his ship also. - "Because when it said I was scrambled, I didn't know what to shoot" - "did you look for ship shooting at you with blue ray?" - "yes, but I didn't see any" - "erm, you ofc zoomed in a bit, right?" - "oh, was I supposed to zoom in???" Doh. Well, at least he managed to shoot down 4 towers first ;)
Gadawan	Posted - 2008.02.03 20:34:00 - [14] Originally by: Ofca Edited by: Ofca on 02/02/2008 22:55:53 Do you want some cheese with your whine? Most over used phrase ever. Makes you look like an idiot and contributes nothing. Should be bannable tbh.
Ofca	Posted - 2008.02.03 21:04:00 - [15] Yeah, and "gimme my ship back" (in tech forum) contributes so many levels of contribution more. Anyone else in the thread wants to decide something about the game? More bannable offences or any mission difficulty level upgrades/downgrades? ;)
Keyn Thror	Posted - 2008.02.03 21:05:00 - [16] Originally by: Ofca Did it happen for fault of anyone other than you? No. Bzzt, sorry, no bonus. And no refund. :) I just don't understand, Ofca... Did I ask YOU to refund me my lost ship? You take it too personally I think... Relax, I was asking (not _demanding_, by the way, just asking) Developers, not you. :)
Gadawan	Posted - 2008.02.03 21:13:00 - [17] Originally by: Ofca Yeah, and "gimme my ship back" (in tech forum) contributes so many levels of contribution more. Anyone else in the thread wants to decide something about the game? More bannable offences or any mission difficulty level upgrades/downgrades? ;) smiley smiley Hello, I have no clue what this topic was about, just decided to spam it with clishTs. smiley
Ofca	Posted - 2008.02.03 21:15:00 - [18] Glad you figured it out by yourself.
Keyn Thror	Posted - 2008.02.03 21:19:00 - [19] Originally by: Ofca Anyone else in the thread wants to decide something about the game? We are here not to decide anything about this game, we're not a developers. I see some strange things, and I report to developers about them, because I think it's important for them - to keep everything balanced. EVE is a very balanced game, and that's why I like it so much. I work in game-development industry myself, and I know how hard is to keep that balance, especially in MMO games. That's why I think such issues should be at least considered to be rebalanced. As for the loss of my ship - as I already said - I just asked, not demanded anything. If it works - very good, thanks to GMs and CCP. If not - still thanks because I learned something useful from that loss...
Durzel Caldari	Posted - 2008.02.04 12:18:00 - [20] Reading the mission guide on eve-survival.org it does sound pretty brutal. Thanks for the heads up on this one, I think I'll get my drone skills higher before taking this one on.

Eleana Tomelac Gallente Through the Looking Glass	Posted - 2008.02.04 16:14:00 - [21] Web + scramble + neut sounds pretty high for a lvl 3 mission! I thought there was no other neutralizer towers than in the level 5... Or the blood raiders NOS cruisers and BS (so only level 4 for the BS or maybe a storyline level 3?)... Anyway, I wouldn't have thought about running level 3 missions in a battleships, it never helps kicking all the small ships that are around. And for the pocket not being tanked by a dual repairer abaddon, sounds like high damage output from the drones! PS : is it a storyline or not? -- Pocket drone carriers (tm) enthousiast ! Assault Frigates MK II
Durzel Caldari	Posted - 2008.02.05 04:57:00 - [22] I just ran the 2nd part of this mission and those neut towers are insane! Even with just 2 of them I was down to half cap in less than a minute. Luckily my Drake doesn't really need cap except for active hardeners, but even so. The 5th part apparently has 4-5 heavy neut towers with 110km range if eve-survival.org is anything to go by,
Koraeth	Posted - 2008.02.05 09:32:00 - [23] Done this series of missions twice with my abaddon, love it. First thing to do is nail those towers on jump in. This series of missions is the only time I've fitted 2 Smartbombs to my ship, to clear out all the little close range ships, works great. If the towers are draining your cap too fast, are you built out right? I've got 3 ccc risgs, 3 cap recharger 2's in mids, and 2 cap relays in low slots. Makes for a ton of recharge capability. Dunno. Personally I love this series of missions, pays good, lots of salvage amongst all those ships, and the crystal loot does add up at the end
Durzel Caldari	Posted - 2008.02.06 09:54:00 - [24] Did up to part 6 of this mission last night and to echo what the OP has said I think this is too hard for a level 3 mission, but that's just me. I don't have a build that's specifically designed to maintain cap because my ship is passively shield tanked so doesn't really need it, that being said I was on zero cap in part 5 of this mission in less than a minute from warp-in. The 5 heavy neut towers must've been taking about 1/6th of my cap on every activation cycle. Added to which the damage from the ridiculous number of drones had me running on 50% shield for most of the mission. Bear in mind this is on a ship which is well specced (3 x purger rigged Drake with 3 LSE IIs) which has little problem running level 4 missions as a co-pilot (haven't tried it solo yet). The other mistake I made was going with EM damage missiles. Whilst they seem to be better than kinetic (despite the Drake battlecruiser bonus) they did hardly any damage to the armour of the neut towers. I ended up having to warp out on zero cap, refill it by docking, and warping back into the mission zone by which time of course the drones that form part of the mission had spawned. A pretty brutal mission and probably the hardest level 3 mission (I've run Angel Extravaganza level 3 too), I wouldn't recommend it to any player who isn't 100% confident of their skills, and particularly not to an active tanked setup.
Cpt Cosmic	Posted - 2008.02.06 10:32:00 - [25] I dont think its too hard, kill the neut towers first, then the scrambling drones. Did this mission 2 times already, once in my Sacrilege and once with an active tanked drake. never had any problems, the neut towers goes pop before my cap even reach 50%.
Durzel Caldari	Posted - 2008.02.06 11:34:00 - [26] What missiles were you using in the Drake out of interest?
Eleana Tomelac Gallente Through the Looking Glass	Posted - 2008.02.06 12:23:00 - [27] Originally by: Koraeth Done this series of missions twice with my abaddon, love it. First thing to do is nail those towers on jump in. This series of missions is the only time I've fitted 2 Smartbombs to my ship, to clear out all the little close range ships, works great. If the towers are draining your cap too fast, are you built out right? I've got 3 ccc risgs, 3 cap recharger 2's in mids, and 2 cap relays in low slots. Makes for a ton of recharge capability. Dunno. Personally I love this series of missions, pays good, lots of salvage amongst all those ships, and the crystal loot does add up at the end Here I see people saying it is doable with a tier 3 BS or a fully passive drake (people solo lvl 4 with such ships), well, all I can say is that it's a level 4 mission... Just moving it to level 4 would avoid peopl entering in the mission with a cruiser or a battlecuiser (appart from fully passive shields) and get popped. Neutralizer towers are the perfect T2 ship killer, it is the thing that makes using an HAS instead of a cruiser close to useless. It seems really level 4 difficulty and then should be moved up. If someone finishes this one with a vexor without tons of war outs, tell me, All the other level 3 missions worked with my vexor. For the more trapped missions (webifiers on pocket entrance in numbers), I used a myrmidon for the tank... I can't see how efficient will be a myrmidon or a vexor in such mission... -- Pocket drone carriers (tm) enthousiast ! Assault Frigates MK II
Durzel Caldari	Posted - 2008.02.06 14:38:00 - [28] It does feel like a level 4 mission to be honest. There's only 1 BS in the mission but there's enough drones to make up for it - I took more damage running this mission than any other level 3 I've done, not to mention that I was running on near zero cap for much of it (I did primary the neut towers but 5 of them all sapping constantly still meant I had no cap by the time they were all down). Then you've got the several webbing/scramming drones as well, it's not like you can even escape from the carnage. There isn't anything wrong with the mission persay, only that it feels like it should be a level 4 mission - not a level 3 one.
Visko Altertunity	Posted - 2008.02.11 20:31:00 - [29] This mission is ridiculously hard.. I'm not as experienced as all of you I've only been playing about 2 weeks or so.. I still play on my own so I don't get any tips or advice or help or anything so... The little bit I did get recommended were that lvl1s are difficulty for Frigates, 2 for Destroyers, 3 for Cruisers... So.. I'm flying a cruiser and I'm doing lvl3 missions, And I'm Caldari. Thing is most lvl2's and 3's I can do no problem. I don't come close to getting destroyed but this New Frontiers mission has shocked me. I accept it thinking it'll be like the rest. Each stage has been difficult. But I spend more than 3-4 hours trying to complete the single mission because I'm forced to warp in and out about 30 or so times before it's actually done. And constantly reconfigure my ship to take on different tasks I aim to complete each time I warp back in... No other mission requires this much effort. I've lost 4 cruisers trying to complete this series for the first time and I'm only on step 4.. from reading this, I'm gonna give the middle finger to step 5 and just call it quits for this agent. Maybe come back when I can afford a battleship.
Weles Paene	Posted - 2008.02.12 10:44:00 - [30] Originally by: Visko Altertunity Edited by: Visko Altertunity on 11/02/2008 21:02:12 Edited by: Visko Altertunity on 11/02/2008 21:01:12 This mission is ridiculously hard.. I'm not as experienced as all of you I've only been playing about 2 weeks or so.. I still play on my own so I don't get any tips or advice or help or anything so... The little bit I did get recommended were that lvl1s are difficulty for Frigates, 2 for Destroyers, 3 for Cruisers... So.. I'm flying a cruiser and I'm doing lvl3 missions, And I'm Caldari. Thing is most lvl2's and 3's I can do no problem. I don't come close to getting destroyed but this New Frontiers mission has shocked me. I accept it thinking it'll be like the rest. Each stage has been difficult. But I spend more than 3-4 hours trying to complete the single mission because I'm forced to warp in and out about 30 or so times before it's actually done. And constantly reconfigure my ship to take on different tasks I aim to complete each time I warp back in... No other mission requires this much effort. I've lost 4 cruisers trying to complete this series for the first time and I'm only on step 4.. from reading this, I'm gonna give the middle finger to step 5 and just call it quits for this agent. Maybe come back when I can afford a battleship. MIND YOU, in the designers defense it DOES suggest you bring multiple partners to aid you on the 5th part of the series. So... it's not necessarily designed to be completed Solo by the looks of it. I was always under the assumption that cruisers were ideal for lvl 2's and battlecruisers fit best with lvl 3's. Go get a BC and avoid this mission until you've got a little more experience and a well-fitted ship. Happiness is a warm gun, Mawma!

Kina Putten Amarr Noble House	Posted - 2008.02.12 11:30:00 - [31] Originally by: Gadawan Originally by: Ofca Edited by: Ofca on 02/02/2008 22:55:53 Do you want some cheese with your whine? Most over used phrase ever. Makes you look like an idiot and contributes nothing. Should be bannable tbh. He/She is an idiot, so..... Oh and this should be on the mission board, not here. A suped up mission isn't a bug or tech problem. It's a tank problem.

CCP Mitnal	Posted - 2008.02.12 19:07:00 - [32] Moved to Missions Mitnal, Community Representative EVE Online CCP Games Email/Netfang

Wet Ferret	Posted - 2008.02.12 19:47:00 - [33] In missions you're not familiar with, always find out what's going to be scrambling you and kill it first. Had you done this, you wouldn't have lost your ship. Even if nobody has done the mission before, if you know what faction you're up against (or drones) you can find out what to watch out for. Nobodies fault but your own, here.
Abrazzar	Posted - 2008.02.12 20:19:00 - [34] I actually loved this mission line. The story is amusing and the difficulty is challenging enough to require you to think about tactic for a change. I had the mission in Amarr space, where I used a active shield tanked laser myrmidon to run it. The neutralizer towers are indeed annoying. So I tried to get out of range, which is somewhere above 100km and destroyed the drone spawns first, then i blew up all the towers. Having a lot of cap recharge also helps, or being a passive tanked drake. This mission inspired me to ideas about a drone faction that players can join for factional warfare. -------- Ideas for: Mining Clouds
nihlanth	Posted - 2008.02.12 22:47:00 - [35] This was the funnest line of missions I have ever had the pleasure of running. I just BARELY completed it in my CCC rigged pulse harbinger (switched to T2 beams for step 5 mission to take out neut towers). I was actually fairly lucky to have made it out in one piece! I was webbed and neuted at the same time. I was firing my beams at the towers and the webbing drone. I thought I was going to die... My cap was at 5% and my armor was just about to goto structure...as I had two lasers firing at the drone and the other 5 firing at the tower. I managed to destroy both of them AT THE SAME TIME just as I was warping out! I was at 90% structure and 1% cap when I warped out - if I had remained there for even 10 seconds longer, I would have capped out and my active hardners would not protect me and I would have been dust! That is why this mission is suited to snipers equipped with webs and tracking computers, as well as cap boosters!
nihlanth	Posted - 2008.02.12 23:09:00 - [36] This mission should not be dumbed down... I wasnt even using a capbooster on my battlecruiser and I was able to complete it in a relatively short time with just a couple warp outs. You just need to pick your targets carefully and know how/when to shoot and manually fly your ship in a way that will give you optimal transversal. I was flying all over the place taking out drones and nuet towers - it was fun because I actually had to think while I fought.
nihlanth	Posted - 2008.02.12 23:12:00 - [37] Besides, a BS would actually be WORSE than a BC on this mission because the targets are so small and so fast.. You need better speed to maneuver and better tracking speed to kill the drones quickly enough in case you're in trouble.
Rainbow Bear Care Bears	Posted - 2008.02.13 11:53:00 - [38] Not easy, but certainally doable without any warp outs if you plan properly. First time was a bit hairy and I lost a full set of T2 Hammerheads, but the ship survived intact! Eg: Fit a strong omni tank. I fly a Myrm and just pack some T1 drones (ie: disposable) and set them on the Neut towers while out at 55km. Then just jettison some junk and orbit it at 2500m and let the T2 drones do their thing. Pretty straight forward. ------------------------------------- Where Care Bears Came From!
Venkul Mul Gallente	Posted - 2008.02.13 13:11:00 - [39] It can be done easily with a semy passive drake. Every time you deswtroy a netralizer tower you get a new spawn of drones (and even if I didn't checked it, I had the impression the another 2 or 3 towers spawned too). So you need to kill the drones first, then 1 tower, then the next group of drones, and so on. That is a problem with a active tank ship or one depending from cap using weapons, but is very easy for a passive tank, no cap weapon like a drake. So you can say it has a strong pro caldari bias, but it is not so hard.
FlameGlow	Posted - 2008.02.13 13:59:00 - [40] Originally by: Venkul Mul It can be done easily with a semy passive drake. Every time you deswtroy a netralizer tower you get a new spawn of drones (and even if I didn't checked it, I had the impression the another 2 or 3 towers spawned too). So you need to kill the drones first, then 1 tower, then the next group of drones, and so on. That is a problem with a active tank ship or one depending from cap using weapons, but is very easy for a passive tank, no cap weapon like a drake. So you can say it has a strong pro caldari bias, but it is not so hard. If you kill tower and then drones and then another tower you'll lose cap and hardeners will switch off(if by semipassive drake you mean that). Better kill all towers and tank the drones, drake is capable of that. Also this is one of few missions where it's actually worth to fit a smartbomb into your drake's 8th highslot.

Cragen o'mass Caldari Free trade for freedom	Posted - 2008.02.13 14:12:00 - [41] Edited by: Cragen o''mass on 13/02/2008 14:12:47 this chain of missions is my new favourite TBH, this level was also quite easy after the first time (passive Invun t2 Drake). as i had never seen this chain of missions before went to take a look in my pod saw the neut towers and came up with a plan. kill neut towers set drones on scrammers warp out after neuts go down to recharge shields come back in to take care of other stuff, warp out when needed.. if you go in to things thinking it will be easy you ain't gong to be able to deal with the curve ball's eve throws you every now and again --------------------------------------- I Think everyone @ tiscali plays WoW
Saarjuk Khan Caldari Incoherent Inc Otaku Invasion	Posted - 2008.02.13 16:18:00 - [42] Edited by: Saarjuk Khan on 13/02/2008 16:20:03 I did this mission several times now, i lost a passive drake on my first try due to the scramblers. I think this mission is perfect as it is, as a lv3 mission. If you can handle the mission and the scramblers, neutralizers you can do lv 4s. There are so many threads: Can i do lv4s with theese skills or this ship. Its not about skills or ships only, its about if you can handle anything else but activating your weapons. And New Frontiers gives you a pretty good idea. @OP: You obviously dont read this forum because this missions was discussed a lot already. And it can be done, you just have to adjust your fitting instead of using pwnfitting 01 for each mission. And you said you have done lv4s before, well there is a difference bewteen actually doing a mission or hide behind some faction BS and just loot up. Im happy to have a challenging mission and New Frontiers makes AE look like a pleasure cruise. The only thing that could be changed is the loot, since there are T2 drones id like to see some t2 salvage or other items needed for the augmented drones. BPC maybe? ;) Anger is a Gift
Goa Vibe	Posted - 2008.02.13 16:26:00 - [43] Edited by: Goa Vibe on 13/02/2008 16:45:30 Stop crying. I cried a little inside when I went in my first time. But then I got over it.... I lost two Drakes my first time in (dual boxing). Wait.... I lost 3. After I came back in quickly to loot my old wrecks. That 3rd one didn't have insurance. doh! I came to appreciate that mission ALOT. It taught me to prepare prepare prepare. strategize strategize strategize. 1) never take active hardners when you'll be cap drained to 0 for a couple minutes by several energy neut towers. With no escape since they have range of over 150km and if you even HAD any cap, you're still warp scrammed by a bunch of strain drones. 2) maneuver. if you can't tank every single drone that just aggroed you, keep moving away from them. better to salvage a 150km line of wrecks than to salvage your own wreck because you let an entire room swarm you. (Now I have the passive tank for that, I can jsut sit still). 3) tanking vs kiting. Got this mission AGAIN a couple days later. Instead of bringing 2 drakes, I brought my drake and a condor. Condor warped in first, went away from all the mobs on AB, cruised at 450km/s after getting neut'd. Got ABs back around 160km and was kiting the entire room (kept them over 60km away). Flew the drake in and killed all the towers, then picked off the mobs one by one. 4) Kill order: this one you gotta get the neut towers down first. Then once you have freed your cap, you need to make sure you have an escape route: kill the strain drones - they scram. Now you can come and go as you please. I think alot of people who have completed it will agree.... keep it like it is. Best learning experience evar! Even if it did cost us a ship. Once you figure it out, you'll pwn, too. I've come to help corpies with this mission since I've done it like 4 times now. This mission screams 'passive tank drake' at a peak 238 shield/sec they barely put a dent in me. This does seem to be difficulty of a lvl 4... but I say keep it 3 because its just so easy once you figure it out. And plus, I've seen harder rooms than this... that lvl 3 with the blood chaple? sure you can loot and run but you can also take on 2 groups of 4-5 BS, 4 BC/Cr, and a handful of frigates in a lvl 3. So like... you gonna have to make that a lvl 4 too... and it goes on and on... pretty soon everything is gonna be a lvl 4 or 5 because there is someone out there for every mission who thinks its too hard.
MilowFV	Posted - 2008.02.14 07:24:00 - [44] I like the mission myself. It might be the hardest lvl 3 mission, but some mission has to have the honors. I went in cold with a so so skill Drake and lucked out in the fact that I blew up the drone scraming me when I tried to warp out. It was luck as I didnt know any lvl 3 did that until it told me tough luck your not warping out. After that though I knew to kill the drone scraming me and it wasnt so bad. I dont feel the mission need any change what so ever the LP reward and the warning in the mission itself should be plenty for of info for you. If your worried a lvl 3 is to hard just dont accept any that offer over 400 LP and you should be fine.
Saerdna16ID Gallente 16th Interspacial Dynasty	Posted - 2008.02.14 12:14:00 - [45] Edited by: Saerdna16ID on 14/02/2008 12:15:14 I have done up to stage 6 which is the courier mission. I did level 5 with my BC (Myrmidon) and was easy but time consuming. You first equip your ship for passive tanking cause your power grid is sucked to death very very fast. You first kill the first wave of the drones and then the battleship. while you kill the battleship 2 more waves of drones spawn. our primary target is always the drones due to the reason they warp scrable you. Once they are dead move again to BS. Due to the lack of power grid you have to warp out a few times (I had to do it 5 times) but if you make sure the drones are dead you can warp out if not you die. Do not move to the sentries until after you have finish the drone waves and the BS. This is because once you damage the csntries more drones spawn. If you keep to this stradegy you will finish it with no problem. BTW I almost died to stage 3 one when I was warp scrable from the dornes that spawn after you destroy the structure which has the crazy guy. I escaped with 80% hull damage today will try final stage 7.
Venkul Mul Gallente	Posted - 2008.02.14 13:10:00 - [46] Originally by: FlameGlow Originally by: Venkul Mul It can be done easily with a semy passive drake. Every time you deswtroy a netralizer tower you get a new spawn of drones (and even if I didn't checked it, I had the impression the another 2 or 3 towers spawned too). So you need to kill the drones first, then 1 tower, then the next group of drones, and so on. That is a problem with a active tank ship or one depending from cap using weapons, but is very easy for a passive tank, no cap weapon like a drake. So you can say it has a strong pro caldari bias, but it is not so hard. If you kill tower and then drones and then another tower you'll lose cap and hardeners will switch off(if by semipassive drake you mean that). Better kill all towers and tank the drones, drake is capable of that. Also this is one of few missions where it's actually worth to fit a smartbomb into your drake's 8th highslot. With semy passive I mean that I had extenders, resists and a booster. Never used the boster as my cap was costantly 0, but I never got lower than 35-40% shield. So it is easy for a drake. Doing the same with a armor tanker is almost impossible. The mission is very unbalanced between shield tankers/no cap weapons (easy, especially for ship with basic high resists) and armor tankers/cap using weapins ships (hard).
SillyWaif Galactic Kingdom	Posted - 2008.02.14 21:40:00 - [47] As I stated in one of the other threads about this mission: Step 5 can be very easy. I am using a passive drake and let the neutralizers drain my cap while i take out the sentry guns. I park my drake at about 70 kms out and let the missiles do the work. Once I am done with the sentries i take out the drones. They approach pretty slowly. Once they are gone you have only 1 BS left to kill, and the BS is all that is needed to accomplish the mission (for me it takes killing 3 sentries and 13 ships in total). While the neuts still drain all the cap i slowboat to pick up the mission objective and after that warp out (short jump first due to the lack of cap but sufficient to get out of reach, regain cap and then the rest of the way). No need to shoot the neuts (they drain cap but do NO damage) or bunkers or whatever. Shields stayed close to 100% all the time... Really, if you don't need cap for your weaponry its easy as pie. And the mentioned drake has 4 LSE's and 2 invuln. II's (turned off) so the resists are marginal at best... I guess most players start to panic by the neuts and by shooting them putting themselves in a jam. I didn't get jammed/scrambled at all.
Kalfu Arcturus	Posted - 2008.02.16 15:08:00 - [48] Wow you got to Stage 5. Stage 4 in a freeking Raven, getting >250 Damage per second from drones - I get absolutely nowhere. Fitted two large EM smart bombs, firing full time to keep the swarm of unending drones at bay I still can't get to the BS fast enough to wreck it. I get it down to structure, and my shield is buggered - and there is no chance in hell I'm sticking around for my armour to get beat up. 3T2 SPR, 2T2 LSE, and 4 T1 resist fields. Guess I need 2 ravens to do this. On an L3?! Maybe a Drake would have more luck, but overall the damage is too varied to tank effectively in any direction from what I can make out.. (Yes, I should be fitting siege missiles or something but they aren't generally useful on L3s - except this one I suppose...)
Durzel Caldari	Posted - 2008.02.16 15:21:00 - [49] Originally by: Kalfu Arcturus Wow you got to Stage 5. Stage 4 in a freeking Raven, getting >250 Damage per second from drones - I get absolutely nowhere. Fitted two large EM smart bombs, firing full time to keep the swarm of unending drones at bay I still can't get to the BS fast enough to wreck it. I get it down to structure, and my shield is buggered - and there is no chance in hell I'm sticking around for my armour to get beat up. 3T2 SPR, 2T2 LSE, and 4 T1 resist fields. Guess I need 2 ravens to do this. On an L3?! Maybe a Drake would have more luck, but overall the damage is too varied to tank effectively in any direction from what I can make out.. (Yes, I should be fitting siege missiles or something but they aren't generally useful on L3s - except this one I suppose...) I ran this part quite comfortably in a passively-tanked Drake, although I was using 4 drones (not T2). Did you try using drones yourself?
Wet Ferret	Posted - 2008.02.16 15:29:00 - [50] Originally by: Kalfu Arcturus Wow you got to Stage 5. Stage 4 in a freeking Raven, getting >250 Damage per second from drones - I get absolutely nowhere. Fitted two large EM smart bombs, firing full time to keep the swarm of unending drones at bay I still can't get to the BS fast enough to wreck it. I get it down to structure, and my shield is buggered - and there is no chance in hell I'm sticking around for my armour to get beat up. 3T2 SPR, 2T2 LSE, and 4 T1 resist fields. Guess I need 2 ravens to do this. On an L3?! Maybe a Drake would have more luck, but overall the damage is too varied to tank effectively in any direction from what I can make out.. (Yes, I should be fitting siege missiles or something but they aren't generally useful on L3s - except this one I suppose...) Raven can't passive tank for crap, is your problem. Either use a Drake or fix your tank. I did part 4 in my Drake without killing anything except the Drone BS and the scramblers so I could warp off after picking up the mission item. Same thing I do with part 7 (minus the mission item).

Kalfu Arcturus	Posted - 2008.02.16 15:38:00 - [51] Active tank, with resist fields. Using Infiltrator drones (not T2), gone through about 7 of them now :( Just managed to finish it, the waves of drones just seem so ludicrous. There are literally hundreds. Getting assist for 5, no chance I'm soloing it.
Wet Ferret	Posted - 2008.02.16 15:46:00 - [52]