Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Fit of the Week: Starter Mission Armageddon

The combination of CCP moving Amarr ships in the direction of being "lasers first, drones second" and the fluctuations during December of the price of dead-space armor reppers put me in the mindset of doing an old-school PvE fitting this week.  And it's been a while since I've done a more new player friendly PvE fitting.  So let's go with a starter L4 mission ship.  In my L4 mission guides (off to the right), I specify that it's ideal to have a total "gank plus tank" of 1000 or more but I also mention that it's sometimes tough to do with standard battleships.

That doesn't apply so much to Amarr, who have three good choices.  But for brand new players, particularly ones that eventually want to get into PvP eventually and/or want to start playing around with "lasers plus drones", I like the Geddon:

[Armageddon, Mission Starter]
Damage Control II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Beta Reactor Control: Reaction Control I
Core C-Type Large Armor Repairer
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

100MN Afterburner II
Cap Recharger II
Optical Tracking Computer I, Tracking Speed Script

Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Multifrequency L
Mega Modulated Pulse Energy Beam I, Imperial Navy Multifrequency L
Heavy Diminishing Power System Drain I

Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Large Semiconductor Memory Cell I

Garde I x4
Hobgoblin II x5


It seems pretty clear that the L3 mission ship of choice for Amarr is soon to be the Prophecy (that will be a FOTW when the new Prophecy is actually released) and this is a good step upward from that boat into L4 missions.  However, it has the interesting aspect that flying this sort of ship in missions will be the first baby steps toward thinking about how you should fly in PvP, too.

A single plate, Damage Control, and two EANMs provide the basic buffer that you'll need to survive mission rats.  To this is added the least expensive dead-space armor repper.  As of this writing, that repper has been hovering at a cost of 80-90 million ISK.  That's about equal to the price of the ship itself, making your total starting price for the ship about 170 million ISK.  That probably sounds expensive.  But these days, for new players, this is probably the wisest investment.  You see, an Apocalypse -- or Heaven forbid an Abaddon -- will end up costing you close to that much or that much and then some for the hull alone!  By that standard, a "Geddon" and an expensive repper are a comparative bargain.

The biggest advantage to a dead-space repper in the hands of a newer pilot is the fact that these reppers generate more armor repair for the same amount of cap: 20% more than the best meta repper, or 10% more than a T2 repper.  That means you have to cycle them less often, and that means you have more cap available for your guns.  Auxiliary Nano Pump rigs further increase the amount of reps applied, to about 300 DPS repaired at peak, 370 DPS if you're fighting Sansha or Blood rats.  That's plenty of reps to keep you in the fight.  The Semiconductor rig and Cap Recharger help keep your capacitor up (the "Semi" is superior to the Capacitor Control Circuit for most battleships).

The real trick is fitting a "Nosferatu", an energy-draining high slot module.  Because of the current vagaries of how rats operate, you can activate this module on a rat and will always receive a full allotment of cap from the module.  The long range of the heavy module means you'll probably have a variety of potential targets.  Use your afterburner to burn into laser range (30km or so with Standard crystals, 15 or so with Multifrequency).  Then pick the rat you're going to shoot last and activate the NOS on it.  Then you can open up with the guns on the others.

Always always use faction laser crystals when missioning.  They're quite cheap and much more effective than standard crystals.  Once you're in position, drop your Sentry drones to attack larger targets or swap them to your flight of light drones for smaller targets.  Heat Sinks add additional DPS, totalling between 650 and 850 depending on your skills and attack range.  That puts you over the required 1000 "gank plus tank" fairly handily.  Your Tracking Computer can be used to either increase tracking against cruiser and battle cruiser rats (using a tracking speed script), or it will extend your range a couple of kilometers (using an optimal range script).  The big advantage to the latter is the ability to use the next step closer-range crystals in order to increase damage.  Keep a variety of crystal types in cargo; when I missioned in laser boats, I found it convenient to carry a full set of every type and then write their ranges on a post-it note kept nearby.  If you can't fit the Tracking Computer, fit a second Cap Recharger until your Weapon Upgrades skill increases.

Which brings me to the next topic.  The nice thing about this ship is that it will grow with you as your skills grow.  Over time and as you train your support skills, you'll find that you're able to remove more and more of the crutches that this ship is resting on and improve its capabilities.  If you train energy management skills, you can eventually remove the Reactor Control System in favor of a Power Diagnostic System which will increase cap.  Alternately, you can trade it for a T2 RCS and use that to fit T2 guns.  As you grow more confident in your DPS, take out one of the Auxiliry Nano Pumps and see if you can replace it with an Energy Locus Coordinator.  This will further extend the range of your guns and make using Multifrequency crystals easier and more frequent.  As soon as practicable, trade your T1 Sentries for T2; the T2 versions have significant advantages in DPS, range, and tracking.

As noted above, this style of missioning is also good practice for "the real thing", PvP.  By learning to aggressively close with your targets, use e-war against them, and deploy your drones at the proper time, you're developing good habits that will serve you well in this area.  Trade active tanking for a strong buffer, and this mission fit isn't all that different from this PvP one...

It'll be quite interesting to see how the Geddon changes when CCP gets around to rebalancing battleships, but this ship is such an "in your face" pick that it's hard to imagine that it's going to change that much.  And by working with this ship you'll be in good shape for whatever "lasers plus drones" Amarr strategy the future holds.

Happy missioning!


All Fits of the Week are intended as general guidelines only.  You  may not have the skills needed for this exact fit.  If you do not, feel  free to adjust the fit to suit to meet your skills, including using meta  3 guns and "best named" defenses and e-war.  Ships can also be adjusted  to use faction or dead-space modules depending on the budget of the  pilot flying it.  Each FOTW is intended as a general guide to introduce  you to concepts that will help you fit and to fly that particular type  of ship more aggressively and well.
Source: Fit of the Week: Starter Mission Armageddon