Until recently, I was using an Arbitrator to run lowsec radar and magnometric sites. The drones gave me plenty of range, and moderate damage, which was about the best I could do.
However, the Arbitrator has some serious shortcomings, at least with my skill investment. The damage is not great - I have only T1 drones and Amarr Cruiser III - and the tank is not great if you make any concessions to pvp. The Arbitrator also takes a real pounding from anything larger than a frigate, thanks to it's size.
Even with resistance plates and an active tank, though, the Arbitrator is far from nimble, and it has problems with gate camps. I've lost an Arbitrator with several tens of millions of cargo on board to a gate camp, and it's not an experience I care to repeat.
So about a week ago I went out and bought myself a Vengeance. My gunnery skills are now good enough that I am in the same dps range as my Arbitrator's drones, but the smaller size of the Vengeance means that I am taking far less damage. Equally, the Vengeance comes with far higher resists, which makes the active tank very efficient, and gate camps should now also have a much harder time locking me and hitting me. More time to burn back to the gate.
I only have Assault Ships II, but I have already successfully run several magnometric and radar sites in lowsec. I'm loving the survivability as well as the fantastic asthetics. Hopefully, we do some good business together, this ship and I.
Looking forward to seeing how you decide to fit this. I recently got the Vengeance too and with a T1 Rocket fit it easily held its own agains belt rats in 0.0, although killing BS rats was *very* slow.
ReplyDeleteWhat fit are you using ?
ReplyDeleteAs you gain levels in AF, you'll notice a world of improvement.
ReplyDeleteSo you went with the Khanid set of ships after all? Or is this simply for the mid-slots that the Retribution doesn't offer?
ReplyDelete