f13.net

I started playing Eve Feb 21st, and took a few turns with my skillpoints, but finally got so I 'could' use Large Railguns and Ogre II's. Using Eve fitting tool, came up with a setup for my Dominix that looked good to me. Off I went to E-7, found a belt, targeted some red + signs, and realized I had no idea what I was shooting at. After about 1 minute, I was out of capacitor and began to pulse my armor repper to stay alive. After what seemed an eternity, the guristas were dead, so I salvaged the wrecks (all small) and headed back to K-3 to refit my ship. Off came the Large railguns, and I fit ONE 250mm railgun I, added a 2nd drone link augmenter, dropped the sensor booster and added another cap recharger. Loaded up 5 ogre 2s, 3 hammerhead 2's and 2 hornet 2's... and back I went.

As I warp into E-7, I pick belt 9 and arrive. I saw 4 BIG + signs, and three were gurista somethings...but one had a name, Vepas Minimala. I had no idea, there were only 4, my drones were on aggressive...I was watching my shield turn red...fast, then my armor...and my cap was 'almost' keeping up. One dead, then Two, finally Three, and that named one was still left, beating on me hard. My cap was failing, my armor was almost all red, and I managed to warp away with 3 white bars of armor left, but had to abandon my 5 ogre 2's.  After about 7 minutes of regening my armor, I head back, and I did ask in chat what this thing was. I heard all the "omg" and "Kill IT FIRST", but it was too late, the others were gone.  I got back, and saw I still had 5 ogres. I had tried to recall them when I left, my drone screen said all were returning... I targeted the 'Vepas Minimala", and poof, a drone was gone, then another, and another...I launched 2 hammerheads and 1 hornet, poked the vepas with my single gun, turned it off, and told my drones to engage target.

In chat..."Is it dead?", not yet, shield only 1/4 down, it is regening faster than I can hurt it. My drones were not doing enough damage, so I pointed my single gun at it, and opened fire. 1/3 shield gone....1/2....3/4.. Finally, it was in armor, and my cap was holding steady, but I had learned to pulse it. 5 minutes...10 minutes.. lost track of time.. the armor was finally gone, into hull, and I have 1/4 cap remaining, and my armor is just over 1/2 red. My heart is pounding, the chat was still asking, and I am replying with a blow by blow, then suddenly...it was gone, poofed, and I looked...and saw the 'Vepas Minimala' wreck, like 59km away. I have NO cap remaining, so I start turtleing my way there at a whopping 144ms (top speed on my domi). I turn off all my armor and damage control, and pulse my mwd to get there a tad faster. I'm 31km out, and the system respawns with 2 more large guristas...they target me, I turn on my armor stuff, and continue to poke along, finally getting within tractor range, suck in the ship, and grab the cargo.

I now have less than 1/4 hull remaining, no cap, and a cargo hold full of stuff, no clue what it was, it didn't show on market, just said 'fit to active ship'..so I warp out and head back to K-3. 3 jumps and I am in the station docked, then the chat comes in... what did you get, so I linked it... and I read "YOU BEAT EVE". Long story short, the loot is worth just over 1,000,000,000 isk, and I was lucky enough to make it thru 3 jumps in 0-0, with NO scout, and get to safety... Did I mention that I do NOT have cloaking capabilities yet?

I'm wondering if today would be a good day to buy a Lotto ticket.

Jeez thats amazing, what the hell did you get?

He left out the best part of the story.

He was heading towards E-7 because I was running up to starbucks to study for awhile and had some decent chains going, he ended up getting the Vespas spawn TWO (2!) belts past where I stopped. :awesome_for_real:

Fuck you, college.

Loot is:
1000 Dread Gurista Iron charge L
1000 Dread Gurista wrath missiles
Dread Gurista balistic control system
Derad Gurista seige missile launcher
Dread Gurista Explosion dampening amplifier
Dread gurista shield boost amplifier
Dread Gurista Photon scattering field
Dread Gurista Large Gravimetric Smartbomb
Vepas' Modified ECM Multispectral Jammer
Vepas' Modified Cloaking Device

 :awesome_for_real:

Congrats, was glad to be online screaming... OMFG DID YOU KILL IT?

OMFG WHAT DROPPED?

DUDE YOU FLEW IT BACK SOLO?

Either way congrats, I remember getting my ass kicked by Thon Eney long ago in a dominix!

Mostly this.  If I had no cloak I'd have made 10 safespots, hung out at one watching local like a hawk, and tried to arrange a scout.

Thats what made it even better, Slay had logged on an alt nearby and was heading over to salvage and help.  I was heading over in a covert ops to either scout or move it, then in chat all of a sudden it's "WHEW, made the 3 jumps safely back to station."  :oh_i_see:  Was a fun night.

Congrats man, thats the best ratting I've ever heard about!

Good job - great story.

That's one hell of a story.

It was pretty funny.  Moki said something about having a hard time with a BS spawn.  I think Daala asked him if it was Dreads, and he says, "Nah a couple of Dires and Vepas Minimala."  WHAT.

After it went down, my alt is sitting in a covops on the gate about three jumps away when I see Moki jump through.  Never once did I consider going Slay on him.  Promise.


The best part was, "Should I even tell Nerf?"

Before he even mentioned one had a name, he just said "4 BS.  One has a 27 million bounty."

 :hulk_rock:

Ok, the excitement is gone, I went back out again earlier today, I waited until the 14 local-3 in station became 3 local, all in station, and undocked. The Northcom chat was saying a fleet was camping nearby, so I headed the other direction, to the C-5 system, one jump. None in local, so, what the heck.. only 4 belts. The first one was empty, on to the next...

found a Dread Gurista Commander...it dropped
Dread Gurista Phase Inversion Battery Blueprint
Dread Gurista invulnerability field
large rudimentary concussion bomb
fleeting progressive warp scrambler
'Malkuth' cruise launcher 1
X-large clarity ward booster 1

should I buy a lotto ticket yet?

Dread Gurista invulnerability field  <--- keep it secret, keep it safe

Definitely lotto. I haven't seen a single faction spawn, ever.

I've seen one, it dropped a 5mil module.

If I rat - which I don't do often - I'll tend to get a faction spawn every 2 or three times I do it for any length of time.  That was true in the shitty space of Aegis Militia and it's true in the -0.9x space in Detorid.  I think that the truesec has no effect on frequency, just on quality.  But it's just guesswork.

Officer spawns seem to be possible anywhere with truesec of about -0.75 or better.  I've never had one, though.

When I was ratting for security status I found a heap of faction spawns in AM space, one was even worth 500m.

If you need safehauling back to empire ask someone from corp don't be afraid to, don't try do it yourself unless you know how to avoid gatecamps easily not worth the risk. The grand total of all that gear from the two spawns is just under 2billion in case you're wondering.

Rat in Venal.

I can honestly say that so far, on average, I've seen much more faction spawns in Providence then I have so far in Venal.  :uhrr:

Well, you fail. Just ask mokianna :)

Well you also have to remember that my True Sansha average in Providence was probably close to one a day, I think my best was 3 faction spawns in one day.  :awesome_for_real:

I've popped two DG battleships and 1 cruiser in Venal, but all the loot was resoundingly "meh".

l2notfail?

Yeah, some of the guys in Deii Feram - that guy that lost the navy battleship and moved to 7th Nation, for instance - used to get tons of them.  I'd see them getting several a day in the corp wallet.  Wagnerous (I kinda miss Wag) had a fair few, too.  Of course, being Providence they were of lower bounty, usually, but like Amarr said, the actual loot could be worth hundreds of millions on occasion.

Domination loot is kinda sparse, though, so the Dread Guristas in Geminate are more attractive.

I never really count on officer or faction spanns, though: it's like planning your life round gambling.  I prefer to have a money-making place where I know I can make stress-free billions in safety, with convenient markets, and then get back to spending it on the stuff I need it for.  Planning around the very occasional "big win" doesn't push my buttons.  But then I don't play the lottery, either, so ymmv

I have had 4 officer spawns in venal...

To me, ratting is more exciting when you have the chance of officers/faction. It gives you that rush, ya know?

I did drone regions ratting for a while and it's good money and all, but lack of those nice faction spawn / officer money boosts annoy me. Lack of sec status annoys me more.

Drone regions have faction spawns but not officer spawns or hauler spawns.

Yeah, queens and what not IIRC. Thoroughly unexciting :)

Yoinked this from an EvE-O thread -

Ranking:

BattleshipRank1: Drone Controller
BattleshipRank2: Swarm Preserver Drone
BattleshipRank3: Spearhead Drone
BattleshipRank4: Domination Drone
BattleshipRank5: Supreme Drone Parasite
BattleshipRank6: Drone Ruler
BattleshipRank7: Drone Creator
BattleshipRank8: Patriarch Drone
BattleshipRank9: Matriarch Drone
BattleshipRank10: Drone Queen

CruiserRank1: Wrecker Drone
CruiserRank2: Destructor Drone
CruiserRank3: Annihilator Drone
CruiserRank4: Devastator Drone
CruiserRank5: Viral Infector Drone
CruiserRank6: Violator Drone
CruiserRank7: Disintegrator Drone
CruiserRank8: Bomber Drone
CruiserRank9: Atomizer Drone
CruiserRank10: Nuker Drone

BattleCruiserRank1: Enforcer Drone
BattleCruiserRank2: Defeater Drone
BattleCruiserRank3: Crippler Drone
BattleCruiserRank4: Striker Drone
BattleCruiserRank5: Siege Drone
BattleCruiserRank6: Exterminator Drone

EliteCruiserRank1: Strain Viral Infector Drone
EliteCruiserRank2: Strain Violator Drone

All drone battleships can drop up to 200m³ in alloys.
The higher the rank the better the chance for a "good" amount of alloys BUT it is not a straight ladder like bounties. Even a Drone Queen can give laughable amounts of alloys and a Drone Controller can give phat loot. So the true sec status is less important for ratting compared to systems with regular bounty rats.
Cruiser/frig sized drones are simply not worth to be looted.
When salvaging drones you can receive all possible salvage loot ... e.g. Alloyed Tritanium Bar or Melted Capacitor Console but very small amounts. The average salvage loot of drones is really bad.

There are neither officer spawns nor hauler spawns but faction/commander spawns called "Sentient..." as already said. These commanders have no regular alloys and if you are lucky you can get some building parts needed for T2 rigs. Since Trinity they drop some stuff for manufacturing the new metadrones.

interesting.

(http://timmey.googlepages.com/roguedronestats.PNG)

for those of you wondering on more details.

They drop right around 200m3, and I've seen some that drop slightly more. I've never seen them drop significantly less though; maybe as low as 180 so "up to" is kind of a misnomer.

I'll be updating the wiki with all this info soon, it's been on my list of 'things to do'.

Awesome, congrats man, plenty of people play EVE for years without having that much fun :) :)

I killed my first Domi spawn the other week. It dropped a reflective plating and a LG Halo Epsilon.  :uhrr:

Good story  :rimshot: