It’s been a quiet couple of days in the home system. People have been in and out, but I keep hearing rumors of some other MMO that’s got folks all giddy and since I can’t get into the early access yet have better things to do, it’s just been me and a few other pilots puttering around and clearing a few Sleeper anomalies as they crop up locally.
But after a few days of that, I get a bit stir-crazy and go poking into our neighboring systems within unknown space. Hello, what’s this? Another abandoned system like the one Bre sold last week? One that clearly hasn’t been touched by anyone for weeks and weeks? Why yes, yes it is. The system is positively overflowing with Sleepers to shoot and there isn’t an active tower in sight (which is odd, since it’s actually a pretty good system for colonization).
I could make some pretty good money just poking at this by myself, but I can’t stand to see money left lying on the ground (as it were), so I place a scanning alt character in the system in hopes of a future sale, then fire up a flare to let all of our pilots know about the riches that await. That evening sees everyone logged in and ready for some money making. We set up proper operations, with Shan conducting salvage and acting as lookout while the rest of us convert Sleepers into shrapnel and money. The end result of about two hours of flying is a bit over 650 million isk in profit, split between the pilots involved.
Since I hate splitting up the actual loot itself with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, I volunteer to haul all the bits and bobs out to a market to sell, then distribute the cash proceeds appropriately — anything else is like trying to have five people pay 13.95 for two large pizzas when all anyone has is twenty dollar bills.
While out in the known world, conveniently close to our old home base, I decide to move our corporate headquarters out of the system of Jel (our former stomping grounds) to a system with far lower rent. Jel is great, but paying 65 million isk a month for an in-station office is an awful lot of wasted cash for something you no longer use. Our new home (which I find after a bit of research and flying around) is closer to more markets, cheaper by a factor of over thirty, and isn’t as generally out of the way.
Once the office is properly set up, I open transport contracts with the player-run Red Frog Freight (which specializes in high-sec hauling services) to move all the stuff we want to keep, then sell off anything we’re truly not using, which unfortunately includes my Ishtar heavy assault ship.
Don’t get me wrong: the Ishtar is a great ship, and we’ve had some good times together, but for sleeper combat I’ve found it’s generally outperformed by the (much, much uglier) Gila cruiser, and I just can’t see the point in owning the thing if I’m never, ever, ever going to use it. It makes me a bit sad, since the ship is built on the Vexor-class hull, one my favorite ship designs in the game, but it’s still the best thing to do until I can figure out a better way to fit the thing.
Also, if I sell it, I can use the proceeds to buy a Vagabond heavy assault ship with virtually no buyer’s remorse whatsoever, which is basically a win-win for me. The Ishtar relies very heavily on drones for its damage and is rather anemic in the guns department (I know some pilots use it for PvP, but I can’t see myself doing that, and as a mission ship, it’s beat out by the Gila), whereas the Vagabond is a bit of a terror when fit with some cruiser-sized auto-cannons, and is generally a more entertaining ship to fly, since it’s so bloody fast. Zooooom. Say it with me. Zoooooooom.
I’ve been looking forward to owning one for awhile, as the almost steampunk-like design of the thing appeals to me, and cuts the sting of selling the Ishtar substantially.
I can’t quite fit it the way I feel I must before I can risk it in PvP, however, so I leave it in the market up for now as an incentive to stick to my training plan for another week, and get ready to head back home.
Could you share your gila fit(s)?
I fly an Ishtar in WHs and I just can’t make the Gila better for my purposes.
Funny you should ask since, after writing this post, I had some second thoughts, reacquired an Ishtar, and came up with a fit I reliably wanted to fly in wormholes (more on that in a post in a couple weeks).
With that said, here’s the Gila I fly most often (there are a few in the wormhole).
[Gila, Gila PvE Omni (Drageron)]
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
Invulnerability Field II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
‘Malkuth’ Heavy Missile Launcher I, Nova Heavy Missile
‘Malkuth’ Heavy Missile Launcher I, Nova Heavy Missile
‘Malkuth’ Heavy Missile Launcher I, Nova Heavy Missile
Drone Link Augmentor I
Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I /OFFLINE
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Medium Core Defence Field Purger I
Valkyrie II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x5
Warden I x5
Garde I x5
Vespa EC-600 x5
This fit is ridiculously tight on CPU — it’s the reason I’m using Beta Reactor Controls instead of the tech 2 version (which, while cheaper, give no other benefit and use roughly 50% more cpu per module), one of two reasons I never bothered with tech2 missile launchers, and why the probe launcher is offline except in emergencies.
The benefits of the ship are:
* Tank. The gila’s got all the tank of a Drake, on a cruiser-sized hull. This particular fit, with my skills, tanks roughly 550dps, omni. With all fives, it tanks ~650dps, and that’s just standing still. If you’re really in a pucker-up situation, you can take out the omnidirectional tracking link for a passive EM shield hardener and get without spitting distance of an 800dps tank.
* Drone bay. The Gila is tied with the Rattlesnake for the largest subcap dronebay in the game. An Ishtar or Domi with perfect skills only gets up to 375m3. This gives me the ability to select from two full flights of lights, sentries, keep some fast medium-sized drones in reserve, and still tuck some medium ECM drones in if things go bad. That’s a lot of versatility.
* Range. The Gila’s missiles, while relatively anemic damage, fire almost twice as far as the ship can target. By comparison, the Ishtar’s guns (also relatively anemic dps) struggle to reach 2/3rds of its targeting range.
Finally, the requirements for the Gila are far fewer than for an Ishtar, so you can get into it sooner and perform comparably. This is a theme I find with a lot of pirate ship designs: pay a lot more for a ship that’s about the same as some tech2 ship that requires a lot more training.
On the flip side, the Ishtar DOES start to outperform the Gila once your skills (ALL your skills) relevant to the ishtar/gila get good (I tank the Ishtar very similarly to the Gila for sleepers). I think that’s also a theme with the pirate ship designs: a good and effective shortcut that eventually gets (barely) outperformed by the tech2 ship that takes more work to train.
Also, the Ishtar is just a much pretty ship to fly, and tank isn’t everything: to be perfectly honest, the Gila is WILDLY overtanked for the stuff we fight from day to day.
In a few weeks, I’ll be talking about what brought me back to the Ishtar.
Thank you for taking the time to reply so comprehensively. I look forward to seeing your post about the Ishtar.
How do you feel about using the Ishtar as a bit of an army knife? I mainly fly with spider tanking Drakes and I use this fit:
[Ishtar, New Setup 3]
Imperial Navy Medium Armor Repairer
Medium Armor Repairer II
Imperial Navy Armor Explosive Hardener
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
10MN Afterburner II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Small Tractor Beam II
Small Tractor Beam II
Salvager II
Salvager II
Drone Link Augmentor I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Garde II x5
Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x5
Vespa EC-600 x5
This lets us clean up as we go and if we have to bail, we do so with loot and salvage intact. The TP is for anoms, I swap it out for a codebreaker or analyzer where appropriate. The logistics and jamming drones can be useful in a pinch too.
I kind of feel like I am wasting a lot of its potential… what do you think?
I definitely wouldn’t say you’re wasting its potential — I’d say you’re exploring its potential in a different direction.
I’ve actually flown a fit a LOT like that, when I ran level 4s out in the world — one gun to draw aggro, and a lot of utility highs. Worked great. Never thought of using it in Sleeper territory, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen people set up to salvage as they go, and this one would do it well.
Hell, I’m going to save that and try it out sometime. My only concern is that it doesn’t look very cap stable at all. Like… 1.5 minutes with all-5 skills?
EFTs cap readout can be a bit misleading here. You’re not running all the salvagers and beams at the same time. I rarely run the 2nd rep unless I get into trouble. I don’t run the first rep unless my shields are close to coming down, and when the sleepers shift one of the spider drakes in my fleet usually tops me up for a bit of buffer.
I do have core capacitor elite too, which helps!
To add to the above, the fit is REALLY unoptimized. It could use some work, but I have a better fit for a proteus I’m about to jump into 🙂