This is the most dangerous vanilla L4 mission in eve IMO.

http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=IntercepttheSaboteurs4gu

Intercept The Saboteurs for Guristas Pirates

If you **** up the triggers and are unlucky with getting extra ECM spawned in the pocket there is a very good chance you could lose your ship.

One thing I've been doing a lot more now since getting a Kronos, and using that MWD. Is I snipe much more more from around 80k or so. If a mission has me warping right in on top of a mob of rats, I get outta dodge ASAP jump out 100k. Snipe the little devils that will scram, jam and otherwise ruin my day before they get all offensive on my ass. Then take out the rest. NEVER, and I mean EVER shoot at more than one cluster of rats, so to draw complete room aggro. I shoot one of the smallest rats, wait to see who's attention I got, then target them once they exposed themselves, and rinse and repeat. The Marauders bastion mode enables not only a super tank, but also longer range on your weapons. Sometimes if I feel I'm safe to do so, I will use blasters, but rails have been doing just fine for me, for the most part. Sure I may kill a little slower, but I feel much safer keeping those little buggers out of scram, jam range.

This is actually the best way to fly a Kronos even though 425's get a crappy 900dps top end. Blasterfits are inefficient :(

However, a Hyperion does this better with damage from both sentries and 425's.

This is actually the best way to fly a Kronos even though 425's get a crappy 900dps top end. Blasterfits are inefficient :(

However, a Hyperion does this better with damage from both sentries and 425's.

This is the most dangerous vanilla L4 mission in eve IMO.

http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=IntercepttheSaboteurs4gu

Intercept The Saboteurs for Guristas Pirates

If you **** up the triggers and are unlucky with getting extra ECM spawned in the pocket there is a very good chance you could lose your ship.

This is actually the best way to fly a Kronos even though 425's get a crappy 900dps top end. Blasterfits are inefficient :(

However, a Hyperion does this better with damage from both sentries and 425's.

I think the issue with L4 missions is that as a long-time mission runner: you know the triggers, you know where everything spawns, you know how to properly fit your ship and you have level 4 or 5 all relevant skills. It seems like L4's are built to be difficult for someone who's just started to fly a BS and has not yet learned how to fit their ship properly, or come close to having level 4 in all relevant skills. I remember the days of white-knuckling my way through missions, but that ended quite a long time ago.

This is actually the best way to fly a Kronos even though 425's get a crappy 900dps top end. Blasterfits are inefficient :(

That's a pretty sour feeling when you're about to lose a nice ship like that. Only feeling worse I think is when you suddenly realize you allowed yourself to be probed out while doing a mission in low sec, and you're about to have your day ruined.

Yes world collides have to be the hardest lv 4 mission I've done.

Mainly because I lost my navy raven due to scrambling frigates, drone aggro and jamming that ran out my cap. I'm still bitter about it

For a change I just did STOP THE THIEF with my Ishtar, and that was actually sort of fun. Maybe it's time to give the Kronos a rest sometimes, lol.

On a few rare occassions I will pull out the Mach or Nightmare for solo Minnie/Amarr missions (respectively), or the SNI for dual-boxing, but typically I don't use battleships anymore. Really don't need to for high sec missions.

[....]typically I don't use battleships anymore. Really don't need to for high sec missions.

Sorta, kinda. There are needs and there are needs.

If you need a ship just to complete the mission, you can do it even with an assfrig. Jokes about Drakes being used there are not even funny. Hell, if you play things right, you probably could finish the mission even with an exhumer or an indy.

Though if you need a ship to run missions efficiently then... well, let me put it this way: I was thinking the same way like you until I completed training ship and gun related skills and trained gun specialization. Judging both from EFT stats and my first-hand experience I see no way how T3 can be faster at finishing the mission than properly fitted and flown battleship, even vanilla Tech1. But T3s are admittably easier to fly and to tank, of course.

Easy to compare your own numbers with what the others are saying.

Full room 1 aggro in the Assault of the serpentis flavour is painful with the insanly powerful damps. I had something like 175km lock range dropped to about 20-25

I dont use a tengu there.

I tend to only use that when I'm not feeling like paying any attention whatsoever.


To be fair - and to enter into the "what's faster" debate, briefly when people say tengu is fastest, they are referring to blitzing - they have speed and tank a BS does not to get in, pop key rats and leg it. When it is scorched earth, the big guns always win.

2011.04.24 17:50:00
Destroyed: Loki
System: Trer
Security: 0.7
Damage Taken: 9904

Involved parties:

Name: Ripper Alvior / Unknown (laid the final blow)
Damage Done: 9904

it took quite a long time for that webbing&scramming drone to chew through that Loki. I was unable to track it with my 180mm ACs, so i leaned back sipping coffee, contemplating my first ever T3 loss for about ten minutes..

Not sure I can agree with this. But since I have recorded some mission times lately with the HAMgu, I'll do the same with Battleship hulls and draw my own conclusion.

When I posted at the beginning of this thread how easy doing these missions have been in my new Kronos, I think I might have spoken too soon. Since then I have had a couple sort of close calls in it. Which just goes to prove, if your head gets too big, and you get careless, it don't matter what ship you have. You can lose it if your not careful.

For example I MJD'd into the middle of the Battleship spawn (Blood Riders) in the last pocket of Dread Pirate Scarlet just to see how much beating the bastioned Kronos with 74.5/70.9/75.1/54 damage profile can take. Spawn after spawn, armor down to ~35% and back up to ~90% with a single rep cycle and with the DPS over 1600 with 11km optimal it was a massacre.

The Kronos became a monster. I have yet to try the Vargur and the Paladin with the Bastion Module, but I was not really impressed with the performance of the TorpGolem.

Any specifics?
For example I MJD'd into the middle of the Battleship spawn (Blood Riders) in the last pocket of Dread Pirate Scarlet just to see how much beating the bastioned Kronos with 74.5/70.9/75.1/54 damage profile can take. Spawn after spawn, armor down to ~35% and back up to ~90% with a single rep cycle and with the DPS over 1600 with 11km optimal it was a massacre.

The Kronos became a monster. I have yet to try the Vargur and the Paladin with the Bastion Module, but I was not really impressed with the performance of the TorpGolem.

I can't come up with too many details. The one which does come to mind is (random mission) might even have been When Worlds Collide the other day, I had MWD into a collidable object of some sort, think it was a asteroid with a station or mining outpost or something like that on it, and I began taking much more damage than I cared to take. Went to warp out of there as I was getting about to go into structure, and my ship had gotten sort of stuck there, not able to warp because it couldn't align and get out of there due to something in the mission being in its way.

Finally I managed to get out of dodge, but I was in flames, and was a little too close to going boom in that expensive Kronos than I cared to be. That's sort of what I went in an earlier comment here in this thread about getting cocky, and careless. You start to get this feeling your almost playing in godmode flying one of these Marauders, and thats your worse enemy. Thats when you'll slip up make a stupid mistake, and find yourself in a pod if you're not careful.

I ended up too close at point blank range, and aggro'd like the whole room on accident because my darn head was getting too big, lol.

As far as I know, the anti-Amarr mission "Smash the Supplier" has the most dps of any standard level 4 at around 8,000 if you wait for all the spawns.

Another question I have is are the Missions any more difficult for one faction vs another?

Example:

Are the missions given by a Gallente Federation Navy any more difficult than those given out by an Amarr Theology Council agent?

Or are they all pretty much the same missions, just rehashed with different rats to fight, all basically with the same EW they use?

There is only one mission pool. Meaning a "Gone Berserk" will be the same in all systems of New Eden. Same NPCs, same triggers, same ewar.

I can't come up with too many details. The one which does come to mind is (random mission) might even have been When Worlds Collide the other day, I had MWD into a collidable object of some sort, think it was a asteroid with a station or mining outpost or something like that on it, and I began taking much more damage than I cared to take. Went to warp out of there as I was getting about to go into structure, and my ship had gotten sort of stuck there, not able to warp because it couldn't align and get out of there due to something in the mission being in its way.

Finally I managed to get out of dodge, but I was in flames, and was a little too close to going boom in that expensive Kronos than I cared to be. That's sort of what I went in an earlier comment here in this thread about getting cocky, and careless. You start to get this feeling your almost playing in godmode flying one of these Marauders, and thats your worse enemy. Thats when you'll slip up make a stupid mistake, and find yourself in a pod if you're not careful.

You start to get this feeling your almost playing in godmode flying one of these Marauders, and thats your worse enemy. Thats when you'll slip up make a stupid mistake, and find yourself in a pod if you're not careful.

I lost a marauder when i got stuck in bastion mode and ran out of cap, came out of bastion mode in deep armor and didn't have enough cap to activate mjd, lacking the resist from bastion mode i blow up before i entered warp.

Using a cap stable setup now :)

Which of these missions is the most difficult?

For me it's "Buzz Kill"

LvL4 Mission but only Frigs and Cruiser in 8km range - I'm there with a Domi - if I release my drones they are more or less instant down.....

Sometimes it's boring and sometimes it's a really bad joke...
It was funnier yesterday, when I had the 2 Stasistower in 140km range and I had to destroy them with my Domi (6,7 m/s)....

I had better Millionticks in lvl3 Mission - aka - There is no reason for me to fly lvl4 mission, because lvl3 brings more ISK.

Cheers

Buzz Kill is a sniper mission, period. Fit appropriately. ODL's and Bouncer IIs, MJD or warp to 100 off beacon.
I run BK in dual Domis in around 8 minutes. No tank needed, nothing gets close and Bouncers set everything on fire. It's a great mission because the LP is good, and in my experience it's always spawned in the agent's system.

I don't think I've gotten that mission yet. I seem to keep getting the same 6-7 missions over and over. Gone Berserk, Angel Extravaganza, Ambush the Convoy, The Assault, Damsel in Distress, and Massive Attack seem to be what I get over and over.

Confirming that Buzz Kill can get hairy fast if you blow the triggers. So can Attack of the Drones, and the salvage from that mission is crap despite all the battleships.

Not every agent gives every mission. They have portfolios, and not all the portfolios are the same size. There are some rare missions that are only given out by a couple of agents. If you get bored of your agent's portfolio, locate another agent and hope they have a significantly different one.

Going on a whole different tangent in this thread but related to doing missions. There seems to be a whole new challenge to us mission runners out there. We got a few folks hanging out in the more popular systems for doing level 4 missions, and probing out mission runners doing missions and destroying the mobile tractor units we use, stealing the loot they have inside, and an added insult to injury, some folks have drones out, set to aggressive, which attack the thief when he commits the aggressive act, and the hapless mission runners find themselves getting concorded, losing expensive ships. I've found such a criminal doing this in the system I have been frequenting lately, and still trying to figure out a way I can set a trap for the rascal. They seem to only fly frigates, and destroyers, so popping them quickly don't seem to be too tough. Best thing I can think of is just camping his ass, and suicide gank him every chance I get. Would be nice to think of something a bit more original though. Still thinking about this one.

This is currently my favourite tactic too and I can confirm it's a gangsrape (that is, Kronos is raping whole gang, in short succession).

However for example Epic Arcs are noticeably harder and I had a couple of surprises when I grew overconfident. The ship had survived fortunately. My feeling of invincibility a little less so. ;)

What means overconfident? Did you killed the triggers by accident, ran out of cap while in bastion, or something else?
I ask because I might gonna repeat the Gallente epic arc one day with a Vargur, the plan is to use Bastion mode most of the time but that's not a good plan if incoming damage ship is greater than my ship can tank. I remember that few missions in that epic arc (especially "Showtime") were particularly nasty.

With so many mission griefers now out to spoil the mission runners day, and so many suicide gankers who will stop at nothing to blow you up to get fancy loot. I've actually decided against doing these epic arcs right now. That's just making yourself an unnessecary target.

because it's impossible to do anything in eve without officer fitted max dps paper tank faction battleships.

The breakout
Cost me a Paladin, overconfidence being the culprit here ,shortly followed by panic...leading to sadness, no tears though.

I jumped into the middle of the bs's, bastioned up and let rip.
Thing was , I hadn't brought enough tank. I'd enough for most 4's but that took my ship.

Still though, lesson learned.

I'm going with Smash the Suppliers. It is a big truckload of dps.

Which of these missions is the most difficult?

I'm going with Smash the Suppliers. It is a big truckload of dps.

Thank you for your advice, and you are correct, I am fairly new to these level 4 missions. Actually trying to make some ISK instead of spending it all the time, lol.

I can't remember the exact name of the mission, but it's vs. Sansha and you're breaking up their attempt to collect slaves.

It's not especially hard. You clean it up, bring the Noctis in.... and a damn battleship spawns and attacks it. It's one of those things, like the fact that Dread Pirate Scarlet isn't set in a deadspace pocket, that you just have be careful of.

Rogue Slave Trader. Friend of mine use to call it the "troll mission". I hate timed spawns as well. Some missions would take less time to complete if they allowed timed spawns to appear early if the spawn ahead of it was cleared instead of having to wait for the next spawn. Enemies Abound 5 of 5 would be a lot more efficient that way.

easy showtime in the l4 gallente epic arc i consider it a l4 security mission ^^.

but else wc can be abit tough but the hardest missions for a mission runner without a marauder is easily the blockade by serpentis, gurista rats. Sansha blockade if u use turret boats and Blood Raider if they get to neut u.

I agree with all of this post. The epic arcs I have not done any of yet. Maybe I should try. I've been slacking.