So after my previous thrashing while attempting to transport some goods out of Jita, I took the friendly advice given by some readers here and picked up a blockade runner Viator, fitted for CovOps cloaking.
With these transports, you can choose a type that provide bonuses towards hitpoints (HP) and Warp Strength (ex: Occator) or to fitting a Covops (Viator). Since I am max skilled already for CovOps ability, I went for the Viator.
Although the Occator-style blockade runner transport is meant to increase armor and warp strength for staying power in HighSec (i.e. to outlast the ganker), after seeing the ships being used in the latest gankfests (Uedama, Perimeter, etc.), I am not really all that sure that the improved armor tank would last long enough.
With the Covert Ops Cloaking Device, which allows you to warp while cloaked, you are essentially getting Helios-like gatecamp busting in a Transport.
My trip to market today saw huge gank-camps in the usual keyhole system of Uedama and the main entrypoints to Jita (Urlen, Perimeter). But I was able to skirt past the gankers. I did have to shake a follower by pausing briefly in Haatomo 100km off a station, otherwise the trip was nicely uneventful.
Back to completing some T3 subsystem manufacturing and then likely pulling out of WSpace for a short stint.
Fly Safe!
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The 'blockade runners' have the smallest amount of cargo room of the various industrial types and yet they are extremely handy.
ReplyDeleteMy only word of caution is to players who frequent low sec with these ship. Once you get into 0.0, change how you fly as gate camps in 0.0 involve interdictor 'bubbles' and that can wreck your day.
I assume that the blockade runner has enough stones to punch through the occasional battleship smartbomb camp?
ReplyDeleteWith a Static low sec exit I see these "Covert Transports" as the only way to go.
ReplyDeleteFor WH, most of the stuff (other then fuel and ships) is small. Going out with high end minerals, salvage, "tags", and other small components means still a lot of isk per m3.
I have the prorater now, but am waiting the 5 days left for covert cloak before trying my luck running low sec.
And I agree 100% that the added warp strength transports are not the way to go, as their align times are attrocious and their tanks are not that much better.
Also, could not agree more that the game changes drastically in 0.0 where bubbles become present.
Fly Safe (or cloaked),
Mick
My favourite industrial class ship is the Viator, sure it's got a pathetic cargohold but holy crap, the thing fast as hell.
ReplyDeleteI very rarely leave it now and for low-volume regional hopping it excels, I even raced a thrasher through the Tama pipe yesterday, put that in an Itty V pipe and smoke it!
Star,
ReplyDeleteAlright, so after almost a month of following your blog, and buying all the equipment we would need, some corp mates and I have headed into w-space.
I almost called into work today, simply so I could play around in the hole. We are very excited to start this new venture, and was wondering if you had any advice?
I swear by my Prowler, I do almost ALL my hauling in it these days. Low-sec is almost as safe as High-sec in that wonderful ship.
ReplyDeleteBut I agree with your anonymous friend, 0.0 is a WHOLE different board-game.
OK, this is not intended to start an EFT war, but just thought I would post my basic Viator setup and answer the above question on HP:
ReplyDelete[Viator, Blockade Runner]
Small Armor Repairer II
Expanded Cargohold II
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Medium Cargohold Optimization I
Medium Cargohold Optimization I
The Expanded Cargohold is there in place of a second repper to simply get the cargo bay large enough for two GSC's
Otherwise, the EFT stats are:
- Cap stable at 54% with Repper On
- Effective HP: 10,670 to 12,000 (max skills)
- Defence: 41 to 55 (max skills)
So, as we can see, not the largest tank, but capable of sustaining some amount of damage - still all about the cloak...
jamesk757 - best of luck in your W-space adventures. Only advice is to be sure to observe the site triggers for sleeper spawns and learn that dscan is your friend...
ReplyDeleteFly Safe
SD - Why not use the strength of this ship in its fast align time and go with inertia stab, and nano fiber in low? Really you are looking to get out of dodge before they even target lock you. If they get you locked and scrammed you are still dead.
ReplyDeleteJames757 - feel free to catch me (and some times SD) at "life in the hole" channel ingame. I would be happy to lend any advice there. But for one, learn to sort your D-Scan to show all the item without a distance at the top, keep the overview button unchecked, and watch for probes.
Good Luck,
Mick
Don't fit a tank on a viator, theres no sense in it. Fit either cargo expanders or i-stabs in the lows depending how much you need to carry (3 cargo expander + rigs viator can just barely carry a cruiser) and three i-stabs make runs very quick. And an afterburner or mwd if you can squeeze it on in one of the mid slots.
ReplyDeleteAnytime your out in space your should be cloaked, and if your locked and being shot at your dead anyways. The tiny tank a transport can fit isn't worth the wasted slots
Good advice Bren. I was actually at a loss for what to fit other than the Cloak and expanded cargohold II's for getting cargo up to support 2 GSC's. I will take a look at the inertial stabilizers (for those wondering what an i-stab is) for the remaining low slot.
ReplyDeleteAfter making 200ish jumps in lowsec, and passing through the same gate camp around 15-20ish times, using a viator with 3 Carogo expanders / 10mn MWD just incase you had to get back to the gate, and a cov cloak, is a nice setup, passive EM, and something else in the mid ( cap recharger ) to run the MWD longer may be nice to have as well.
ReplyDeletePoint is to not get caught =)
Hah! I recognize this Anonymous poster from his conquests of travels far and wide in support of his large POS deployment...
ReplyDeleteIf you´ve skilled it a bit, you might want to look into fitting 2 ECM modules. I fly a crane and while it´s still unlikely for me to get caught (align time of about a maximum of 3,3 seconds + CovOps), it´s always possible and since a blockade runner can never tank anything for long, I use jammers to have a (tiny) chance to break the scramblers look and warp out.
ReplyDeleteFrom experience transport with a tank never works. Your better off with a fast warping ship and cloak. The extra tank plus the +2 on warp stab doesn't help when your gank squad is going to have enough points on you to make sure you are not going to warp. Just best to fit for fast align and cloak in high and low sec, and when I work null sec I will use an afterburner to get speed boost if stuck in a bubble.
ReplyDeleteThey way I deal with bubbles to aim at a spot you make them think you will warp to. Start flying in that direction and hit the burn for extra speed boost. Then hit cloak wait a second and change direction for a spot that will not be so obvious for warp out in a bubble. With the extra speed going try not to do a big direction change to kill your momentum but enough that when the first ship gets to the spot where you were cloaked you will be not in that spot and now its harder to decloak you because you have just changed where you were going. If your good enough it would be like looking for a needle in a hay stack once you loose your speed boost but you should have a decent lead on the other ships and you have a fighting chance of getting out of the bubble in one peace. I have had some fun close calls where I had 2 ships on both sides of my ship but still held my cloak and they passed right by me.
I run both style transports depending on how much i need to carry. I prefer the larger ones for the bonused warp strength. And the Impel can get up to 36k m3. sure it takes 20 seconds to align, but i rarely get shot at. most pirates know it's not worth trying to tangle. i try to keep 2 more WCS on my ship to get me +4 strength so even 3 people minimum are needed with +2 scrams to get me.
ReplyDeletemy cloaky prorater i actually lose most often as im lazy and dont cloak most times. plus ive had the unfourtinate chance of running through Rancer. apparently that system is always camped. and both times i went through i came out of the gate within 2000m of some camper so i couldnt even cloak. (i even had 2 wcs but there were about 30 campers)
either style transport was dead there.
Love the Viator. My "business associate" gets about 13K m3 with 3 GSCs, or 10.2K empty--which is ncie for bringing in a few frigs or a cruiser and/or some mods, ammo, or other supplies. I jump that thing through low sec gate camps all the time and have never yet been caught. :) *crosses fingers for continued luck*
ReplyDeleteViator is my primary mode of Transport for emergency POS supplies / running sleeper loot back up high. I agree no need to tank it, if your caught your dead. I use 2 Inertia Stab II's and a Nano Fiber II in lows and low friction nozzle rigs. As soon as Aura says the "Warp" part of "Warp Drive engaged" I hit cloak and the ship is visible for a fleeting second before cloaking again. Survived multiple gate camps so far.
ReplyDeleteYou've got an awesome blog here. I've been reading it for the last couple of weeks and it helped inspire my corp and me to move into W-space ourselves. I even started a blog on our experiences. Thanks for all of your effort. It's helped give us a lot of ideas and tips for running our venture effectively and profitably. www.justanotherwormhole.blogspot.com is where I'm tracking our own adventures if you're ever bored and want to go check it out. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteWhat does D-Scan mean please? Mick thanks a million for your blog, I love reading it :) I discovered wormholes just recently and am working my towards living in one for a few months. For some reason I get a lot of satisfaction from probe scanning and exploring! This has given the game a new lease of life for me ;)
ReplyDeletetentimes - D-Scan is your Directional Scanner. There is a detailed Wiki here:
ReplyDeletehttp://eve.grismar.net/wikka.php?wakka=ScanningGuide
FYI... Mick is not Star Defender ;-P
I am definetly not Star Defender, though I am now proud to know him in game.
ReplyDeleteI do owe him the inspiration to start my blog on w-space and appreciate him letting me answer stuff on his blog.
Fly Safe.
Mick (who is not Star Defender)
Heheheh - well put Mick.
ReplyDeleteTentimes - check out Mick's blog - "Life in the Hole" - it is linked in the BlogPack list (above right) and also here is the URL:
http://eve-lifeinthehole.blogspot.com/
You might want to include an ECM burst. If you are targeted it gives you a chance to survive.
ReplyDelete