Tangling with the Tengu: Missiles Are the Best Medicine

Tengus: Spewing missiles with style since 2009

There are times when I know I should be doing something constructive, but the last few days have been challenging at Fort Freebooted, with an ill wife and baby both requiring my frequent attention (not to mention the endless laundry as a result of countless biological explosions).

The demands of providing this temporary 24-7 care cover meant that my attempts at establishing any kind of meaningful workflow were in vain. Instead, my bedside vigil was powered by coffee and EVE. Of course, given that I was  repeatedly required to step away from the keyboard at a moment’s notice, I didn’t want to get drawn into any gameplay which would end in catastrophe as a result.

Instead, I needed to set myself a new, suitably casual and achievable solo goal.

Choosing An Achievable Goal

An Astero looking cool

I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one of those fancy new Sisters of EVE exploration ships, but just buying one would be a bit of an empty experience and would blow a big whole in my funds. Besides, earning my shiny new prize the old-fashioned way would be exactly the pick-up-and-play entertainment which would suit my circumstances.

This would mean earning Loyalty Points (30,000 for the Astero frigate or 120,000 for the Stratios cruiser) by undertaking missions from Sisters of EVE agents. A quick look at the state of my current standings showed that I was not particularly well-liked by the Servant Sisters of EVE faction. In fact, the only reason any of their agents above entry level would deal with me at all was because at some point in the past I’d been forced to learn the standings-boosting Connections skill in order to avoid getting chased out of Gallente and Minmatar space by the faction police. I can’t even remember what I did to make them all hate me.

So it looked like I was going to be grinding through level 2 and 3 missions in order to get to the more lucrative level 4s which would yield LPs at a much higher rate. Some quick research on the Agent Finder tool showed me that the star systems containing agents of the appropriate calibre were scarce, scattered and distant. I was going to need to take something which was adaptable and capable enough to deal with varying mission levels, target types and was durable enough to cope if I suddenly disappeared to deal with another exploding baby emergency.

Sounds like a job for a Strategic Cruiser.

Bring Me the Holy Capacitor of Antioch

I dusted off my Tengu, the SSS Blackrun (named after my first and last skiing holiday in 2009) did a quick review of my various saved loadouts on the Fitting Management screen and gathered up all the modules and sub-systems I might need. Despite the Tengu’s versatility, I’d never really used it for intermediate level missions before and realised there was an opportunity for some idle loadout-tweaking, especially with the new Rapid Light Missile Launchers, which could be perfect for blatting the frigate- and cruiser-sized targets I would be encountering in the level 2 and 3 missions.

Arriving in the Genesis region, where the Sisters of EVE enclaves live so they might bask in the divine glow of the EVE Gate in the nearby system of New Eden, I set about churning through the necessary missions whilst experimenting with a variety of low-maintenance PvE loadouts for my Tengu.

Unstable stability

This took my on an interesting and mildly embarrassing journey which saw me eating humble pie after insisting both on Twitter and the EVE-O forums that the capacitor management section of the Fitting screen was lying about my fit being cap stable. Eventually I realised by rookie error: offlining a Microwarp Drive in order to see if the remainder of the loadout was cap stable /also/ offlines the negative impact of MWD has on total capacitor penalty.

Rest assured, palm has been applied to face.

The Swiss Army Spaceship

Minor capacitor-based brainfarts aside, I settled on a basic sub-system and loadout arrangement which would offer durable and forgiving platform and also allow for some ongoing tweaks. It looked something like this:

The module arrangement I opted for included five launcher high-slots accommodate Heavy, Heavy Assault or Light Rapid Launchers and one utility slot which, for purposes of being an incredibly lazy PvE-er, will contain an Auto Targeting System II – a wonderful device I’d never bothered with before, but automatically acquires all targets in range, saving me the bother.

Tengu is Japanese for ‘too expensive for PvP’. Maybe.

Thanks to the three Capacitor Control Circuit rigs (and, depending on variant, occasional help from a Cap Recharger II and/or Power Diagnostic System II) I was able to use a permanently-running large shield booster. This complemented the outrageously high damage resistances provided by combining the Adaptive Shielding subsystem, a Damage Control II and an Adaptive Invulnerability Field II (there’s a bit of an EM hole, but these are just dumb NPCs I’m dealing with so I’m counting on them not noticing). To give me some margin for error, I included a Large Shield Extender to buy me some reaction time if something unexpected happens (which it did on a couple of occasions before I had my capacitor stability epiphany).

Along with the ubiquitous DCII, the low slots were filled with three Ballistic Control System IIs to increase damage output and speed mission completion along. The final low slot would vary according to other needs.

With this basic missioning platform, I took the opportunity to conduct a quick study comparing the utility of the different launcher types available. This was the result:

The ‘LazyBoy’ Heavy Missile Tengu

Heavy Missile Launcher Profile

The poor explosion velocity and large explosion radius of heavy missiles made fitting a Target Painter a necessity, especially given that I was dealing with frigate- and cruiser-heavy missions. Standard heavy missiles did the trick admirably, the Tech II variants either caused range issues slowing the process down in the case of High Precision, or just being ill-suited for small targets in the case of the High Damage type. I’m cheap anyway, so I didn’t bother with the Faction ammo option, which would probably be optimal.

This fit was the safest pair of hands I could find, but sometimes it was just a little slow, both in damage application and flight speed, so I looked at other options…

The ‘Vomit Monsoon’ Heavy Assault Missile Tengu

When you absolutely, positively need to smash things really hard in the face, heavy assault missiles are the go-to option for the aggressive Tengu pilot. It was satisfying to see most things melt much more quickly, but first I had to get there. No problem with targets who obligingly close you down, but those irritating Guristas and their like have a habit of hanging around just outside maximum range. The Microwarpdrive was a necessity, but soon undermines the safety net afforded by the permaboost tank.

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher Profile

Despite Heavy Assault Missiles performing better against smaller and faster targets, a Target Painter still helped speed up the destruction of enemy frigates. Unlike the fire-and-forget nature of the Heavy Missile loadout above, the restrictive range of the HAMs made piloting a much more hands-on experience and with a slightly less reliable tank-capacitor relationship, being suddenly called away resulted in a couple of near misses.

The ‘Captain Capped-Out’ Rapid Light Missile Tengu

Named for my ridiculous earlier capacitor woes, the preferred ordnance of Rapid Light Missile Launchers meant using a Target Painter was fairly redundant, freeing up a mid-slot. The addition of a Cap Recharger II put paid to any further concerns about running out of juice without compromising on the rest of the fit.

Rapid Light Missile Launcher Profile

I kept the Microwarpdrive for the utility of closing down distant targets quickly because, although Rapid Light Missiles provide a bit of an increase to range without too much loss of damage, often some mobility was still required. The real advantage of RLMLs is in the assurance that damage is almost certainly applied to a far more effective degree than with their larger cousins. They offer great balance and no need to fear frigates. On the down side, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the 35 second reload time. It just leaves you feeling mute and naked.

Missile Performance and You

I wanted to be able to look at my options depending on the performance I needed and so arranged the above DPS and range stats in on list for reference.

MISSILE TYPES BY DAMAGE

TYPE                     /   DPS (all/kin)   /    Range

HA Adv. Anti-Ship        545/681          25,212
HA Faction (DG)          484/605          30,361
LM High Damage          480/600          31,640
HA Faction (CN)          464/580          30,361
HA Faction (G)             444/555          30,361
LM Faction (DG)          410/512          42,187
HA Standard                 404/505          30,361
LM Faction (CN)           393/492          42,187
HM High Damage           392/490          70,748
LM Faction (G)             373/466          42,187
HA Adv. Long-Range  363/454          45,562
HM Faction (DG)           349/436          94,331
LM High Precision        344/430          21,093
LM Standard                 344/430          42,187
HM Faction (CN)           334/417          94,331
HM Faction (G)              321/401          94,331
HM Standard                   91/363           94,331
HM High Precision         291/363          47,165

     
MISSILE TYPES BY RANGE

TYPE                      /   DPS (all/kin)   /     Range

HM Faction (DG)            349/436             94,331
HM Faction (CN)            334/417             94,331
HM Faction (G)               321/401             94,331
HM Standard                   291/363             94,331
HM High Damage            392/490             70,748
HM High Precision           291/363             47,165
HA Adv. Long-Range    363/454             45,562
LM Faction (DG)           410/512             42,187
LM Faction (CN)           393/492             42,187
LM Faction (G)              373/466             42,187
LM Standard                  344/430            42,187
LM High Damage           480/600             31,640
HA Faction (DG)           484/605             30,361
HA Faction (CN)           464/580             30,361
HA Faction (G)              444/555             30,361
HA Standard                  404/505             30,361
HA Adv. Anti-Ship         545/681             25,212
LM High Precision         344/430             21,093

Doing it For the Sisters

To wrap up, whilst continuing to tinker and juggle with the vomit monsoon at home, I managed to all but reach my target standing of 5.0 with Sisters of EVE, meaning I was nearly set to get in touch with one of the three high-sec level 4 agents. As a bonus, I’d already earned enough Loyalty Points to spring for an Astero. However, a brief comparison to existing Tech II Covert Ops ships led me to realise it didn’t really offer much that was new. It was the Stratios that I coveted and that was going to need a whole lot more LPs.

It was perhaps fortuitous then that in the Old Pond Pub chat channel a familiar name appeared with a timely warning. Merinne, a long-time chat channel buddy, told tale of the endless shenanigans which are constantly taking place in the areas around these SoE missioning systems. She had experienced it herself and alerted me to the mission invading, baiting, suicide-ganking activities of the local colour.

This final part of my self-set goal should be far more interesting.

Although, given that I’ve just announced my destination and probable fits, perhaps it’d be wise not to take anything as expensive as the Tengu, especially one fitting with an Auto Targeting System, or I’ll never get into a Stratios.