Sisters marauder

Here comes a long-awaited ISK-making post, aiming to give highsec missioning a boost.

Have you heard of the Sisters of EVE? They are not just here for roleplaying, they have a lvl4 mission agent in the Osmon system. What makes Sisters special? That their LP conversion is not 1000 ISK/LP, like the rest of the Empire factions, but over 2K, like pirate factions. (for example 10x Sisters core scanner probe: 5.3M Jita, need 1.2M cash, 10x normal probe for 0.1M, 1800 LP, 2200ISK/LP) Then why would anyone not mission for them and work for other factions for much less?

Because of this. And this. And this. Not to mention this, this, this, this, this and many-many more. Osmon, Inaya, Korsiki and Olo are paradise for missioner gankers. So after losing a 1.5B Tengu to a single Tornado, most missioners decide it's not for them.

I simply couldn't let this opportunity to pass by. So I did what I swore I won't do in EVE, security missions. Great thanks to my girlfriend as I don't have a combat pilot while she can fly battleships well and also T2 hybrids. Still, 2 months of training needed to create this post. Please note that none of the following is EFT-brainfart, everything was tested and re-modified again and again to create you an 1500DPS, 1000 DPS omni-tank, auto-salvaging, perma-MWD-capstable- without-perfect-skills monster that drops about 1/3 as much loot as the pricetag of the Tornadoes needed to gank.


No multiboxing skills or software is needed to fly them. You just fleetwarp to the gate, warp the Kronos in first and start moving it to break invulnerability. Warp in the logi, lock the Kronos, start orbiting, start remote sensor booster and local tank. Alt-tab back to Kronos, lock the logi and the first set of NPCs, start energy transfer, shoot one or two rats. Alt-tab back to logi, start all remote modules and the MWD, launch drones and start salvaging. From this point, unless something goes wrong, you don't have to bother the logi ship until you finish with the packet.

The Kronos has impressive 1100 DPS without drones with Null ammo, shooting up to 45km with 4 seconds cycle time. Even without level 5 skills, you can get 0.08 rad/sec tracking, which translates to 800m/s transversal at 10km. Little comparison: a Cormorant with small railguns have worse tracking and similar optimal. So you can pop frigates like you'd be in a destroyer. With a little practice you never need to summon your scout drones to handle orbiting frigrats. Cruiser rats die in two volleys usually. After you cleared up the trash, you turn MWD on and while shooting one, get close to another rat battleship, typically to the named one. Switch to Void ammo, and finish it with the staggering 1500DPS that the blasters can provide. If you are lucky and the rats are flying those Machariel-looking battleships, they do you the favor of gathering to your optimal (which is their optimal too). Here are some from the Record Cleansing storyline mission which is calls for "extreme tank":
Unless you mess up something, you use nothing but salvage drones on both ships, which constantly collect a little side income for you, while creating little cans that your two tractor beams pull in. Since the limiting factor in the missions is not killing the rats, having Science 5 for the T2 tractors and Salvage drone operation 5 for faster drone salvage has priority over T2 guns and practically anything besides basic ship-flying skills.

The marauder has 400M fitting while having 100K EHP omni-tank on gates, 85K without shields and missing one repper cycle worth of armor. With 600 EHP/sec tank coming from the logi, the Marauder never was below 95% armor during the 50-something missions I made. Tanking the logi is a trickier issue, since the Marauder can't run remote reps as giving up a tractor beam is out of question. So it got a 60M faction hardener and a 60M storyline local repper, providing 170 EHP/second rep on EFT, which is rather 200 in reality as the reactive armor hardener will adapt to rat damage. As a Guardian has high resist by default, the rat-specific resists are often over 85%: If this tank wouldn't be enough, you can always stop, switch of the MWD so the signature of the logi falls to 70m and unleash 5 medium repper drones from the Kronos, providing another 200 DPS tank. You might think it's overkill and the logi can give up rig slots and maybe a low for faster drones or more utility. I thought that too, but then I was convinced by the Sleeper AI, that max-tank + rep drones on standby is needed:
What about mission gankers? There are two kinds, one is ganking on gates, you are totally safe of those, no one ganks a 100K EHP ship for 400M fitting (or a 60K EHP, 70m sig one for 120M). The real mission ganker follows you into your mission, kill trigger rats so you get swarmed by NPCs. Once you get to low armor, his single ship can finish you. One of them visited in Drones Attack, unleashing all waves. Then he waited, waited, the Kronos armor remained over 95% while 10 battleships were shooting it, because the frigs and cruisers were primaried. I mean if those could get close, the Hobgoblins had to be sent out, which would slow down salvaging. He didn't come back again. Nor any other who shown up once in my pocket looking for a DCU-less, 9K armor, resist holed, half-armor-damaged 2B marauder. Meet one of the gankers who expected crazy damage but saw nothing but a full HP Kronos casually locking up containers for tractoring while keeping salvage drones:
Of course the above is only true if you resist the urge to bling your ship. Officer or even deadspace modules would give a few % DPS, speed or tank at the cost of becoming profitably gankable.

Since missioning is about ISK, let's see the results. Spending 2:45, the following missions were run: The bounties and rewards were copy-pasted from the Journal, the loot and salvage value was calculated by the in-game approximation, the LP was converted to Virtue implants and Sisters probes and sold on Jita Well, clearly not trading income, neither supercarrier ratting or even incursion. But 66.6M/hour in highsec, practically safely from any PvP isn't bad at all. Especially if we add that the skills were far from perfect (Security connection 5 would increase LP significantly) and missions still had to be looked up. As you can see, rewards and LP are just half of the income, so I advise against Blitzing. Blitzing was developed when salvaging and looting meant docking up and undocking a Noctis, while in this setup 10 Salvage drones and 2 bonused tractor beams do it while you are killing the next pack.

Tips and tricks:

• Create an item filter that filters out your ammo, gatekeys and other items you want to keep. Then you can select all the loot and remove from your ship.
• Empty your hold after every mission
• You can rearrange your locked targets by grabbing and moving one. Move your logi always to the same place.
• Your logi should not be in the same corp as you, because corpmates can shoot each other. A misclick and you killed your own logi. Obviously set your safety to green.
• If the rats are in far places, loot and salvage the first group before moving to the next. You can try pulling them by shooting them.
• If you left a wreck 100km away, don't go back for it
• When the mission is finished and only a few wrecks left, the Marauder can return with the quest, while the logi finishes salvaging.
• When the logi finished salvaging, warp it to the station, but don't dock. The undocking Marauder can fleetwarp it
• When you are about to log out, request one more mission, so you can reject it without standing loss
• Don't turn on the MWD of the logi at the start, only when you start moving after clearing up the nearby rats.
• Check your journal for storyline mission while returning, if you got one offered, don't complete the current mission, go and pick up the storyline, complete and then complete the normal
• Storyline missions give lot of standing which translates to lot of rejectable missions. Don't skip the storyline, even if it's harder than the normals.
• Dread Pirate Scarlet mission has several pockets and jamming rats. Skip.
• Watch out for webbing drones. They can web your logi and you can leave it behind.
• Cargo Delivery can be blitzed in a shuttle, just loot the warehouse and warp out.
• Recon is a 3-step mission, can be blitzed without shooting. You have to reach the gates, in the first 2 do it in a shuttle, in the third use the marauder alone to fly trough the toxic field. Put on a local rep and a cap booster.
• If you already anchored up with the logi, don't blitz, kill them all
• You can guarantee that the Marauder arrives first to the mission: initiate warp to the mission, stop ship when the speed is around 60%, squadwarp
• You don't have to click on the big icons to switch active target, you can do it on the overview, so you can always shoot the closest

What about second account costs? An account can easily pay for itself by training and selling characters or running 3 blueprint research characters on it. However one legitimate question can arise: if you start a second logi account now, it will be able to fly the above Guardian in like 4-5 months and even then you'll have to make compromises with the fitting. Here is the solution: replace the T2 magstab with a strong local rep on the Kronos and on the second account fly this, literally on the second day:

[Augoror, energy only]
'Meditation' Medium Armor Repairer I
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Prototype Armor Explosive Hardener I
Prototype Armor Kinetic Hardener I
Prototype Armor Thermic Hardener I

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Phase Switching Targeting Nexus, Optimal Range Script
Linked Sensor Network, Targeting Range Script

Medium 'Regard' Power Projector
'Regard' Power Projector
'Regard' Power Projector
'Regard' Power Projector
'Regard' Power Projector

Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Salvage Drone I x4

The Auguror remote reps are bonused only at high Amarr Cruiser skill, but the energy transfers are bonused as role bonus, so it can easily keep the Marauder at full cap while it's running MWD and local faction rep constantly. Of course you can't go in head-long with this as it only has afterburner, so slower than the Marauder and you can't leave it behind so have to play with speed. Also, its tank is much weaker than of the Guardian, so you'll need to send out those medium repping bots more often. But still, this ship can follow and support your Marauder with energy, remote sebo and even with a tracking link to make up for the larger engagement distance. Later, when you can fly the Guardian but with bad skills, you can use deadspace remote reppers. They are 10-20M as no one uses them.


PS: I've designed and tested a theoretically better setup:
Replace 2 tracking computers with sensor booster and heavy cap booster. Replace the energy transfer with remote armor rep. The logi setup is:

[Oneiros, for Kronos]
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Capacitor Power Relay II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Damage Control II

10MN Afterburner II
Shadow Serpentis Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Link II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Link II, Tracking Speed Script

Medium Remote Armor Repair System II
Large 'Solace' Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Large 'Solace' Remote Bulwark Reconstruction
Drone Link Augmentor I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Salvage Drone I x5

This setup has stronger tank (700+600), better range and tracking (62km falloff, 0.13!!! rad/sec with tracking script on marauder), longer salvage drone radius. Yet I chose the Guardian setup, because this needs very high multi-tasking ability, while the Guardian is extremely tolerant to mistakes. With the Oneiros setup, you always have to keep in mind the range of the logi from you, presence of webbing drones and its tank status as you lose it if it's out of the 9km remote rep range while aggressed. It's slower than the Kronos, you have to play with speed if it needs rep. Also, you can't just perma-MWD or perma-remote rep or you run out of cap boosters. Which can happen too if you leave your cap booster needlessly running. If you are a full-time mission runner, learning the management of this setup might worth it. If you just run some missions to get X ISK every week to support other activities, stick to the Guardian, it keeps you from tearing off your hair. Also, the "T1 Oneiros" is practically useless, needing good skills on the second pilot just to start.