Dealing with a pirate intrusion
4th September 2009 – 5.32 pmI'm warping to rendezvous with my corporation friend, sitting on an acceleration gate that leads in to a level four encounter mission for Lai Dai. 'There may be four battleships in there', she informs me, as I impetuously activate the gate before she can steal all the aggro from the rats for herself. We both run Drakes and it's fun to see just how much damage our passive shield tanks can withstand. As my warp engines begin to shut off and bring me to sub-warp speeds it looks like our intelligence is a little weak, multiple groups of battleships huddled at various points glaring red at me on my overview, along with plenty of cruisers and some frigates for good measure.
I have yet to run a level four mission alone in my Drake, Non-sentient Ship, mostly because the progression through levels one to three effectively required a new class of ship to be piloted to have a good chance of success, so I assume that I really ought not to send a battlecruiser in to a situation meant for a battleship. Warping in to this rat battleship-infested deadspace is a little worrying in respect of my lack of experience. But we pick off the groups one-by-one, a couple of times intentionally aggroing a second group for efficiency's sake, our shields never in any trouble. By the end, I am thinking that I could easily handle level four missions with only my Drake.
There is a Caldari agent who offers level four missions near to my current Lai Dai mission base. Flush with victory, I move Non-sentient Ship over, along with salvaging Cormorant Marquis of Granby, and request a mission. The agent is keen to deal with a Pirate Intrusion, and I am happy to oblige. Warping in to deadspace reveals a large handful of groups of battleships, cruisers and frigates, much like before, leading me to think this will be most straightforward. However, my shield tank isn't quite as impressive as on my friend's Drake, and there is only one of me. A couple of times I even manage to light up the whole deadspace area with blinking red, necessitating my warping out to recover.
Running Pirate Intrusion reminds me of The Blockade, which I got as my first level three mission. The Blockade presented a large number of ships larger than anything I had faced before, taking me many attempts warping in and out and a couple of hours to complete. I prefer Pirate Intrusion, though, as all the rats are present to begin with, whereas The Blockade has 'triggers' that spawn new waves of rats. All ships are always attacking in The Blockade, therefore, whereas the unconnected groups of rats in Pirate Intrusion can be attacked separately, if careful, making it more manageable and less dangerous, particularly if the triggers are not known.
I finally manage to destroy all the ships in the deadspace area, although it takes me a long while. I steer my Drake away from the bulk of the groups to make it clearer which rats are actively attacking and which aren't looking at their scanner or viewscreen to see the violent space battle happening, happily kicking back and enjoying a Quafe instead. It is only at the end that I wonder exactly why I am out here in the first place. I don't need to gain standing with the Caldari Navy, nor am I here directly for the ISK rewards. Maybe it is because of the quality and quantity of salvage, but it hardly seems worth pushing to my limits when I can get comparable loot more easily and quickly in level three missions.
I come to the conclusion that I just wanted to see if I could manage a level four mission, which I just about can. The ISK, loot and salvage are neat benefits, as are the extra loyalty points. Mind you, I have just spent a bunch of loyalty points on upgraded implants, to help speed along my skill training towards flying a Damnation, so perhaps I was hoping to get a few more and buy another implant. I'll go with that explanation, to give more meaning to my being here, and buy another upgraded implant.
Whatever the reason, I manage to complete my first solo level four mission, which gives me confidence to try more when necessary, or opportunity arises. Knowing that I can handle level four missions should also make the last leg of gaining standings for corporations swifter. It is probably better not to rely on an omni-tank for such missions, though, and take time to fit the proper resistances for the hostile forces to be encountered.
2 Responses to “Dealing with a pirate intrusion”
+1 - good summary, review and overview
Got to watch out for that intelligence. To often it just "isn't".
Finally, there's no problem with running level fours with a corporation that you already have high standings with. The benefits are the same and you might be able to help a fellow corporate capsuleer out with some reciprocal standings improvements.
Any time you need Navy standings I am free to throw myself in to more level four missions.