In trying to recover my ISK last week, I spent a lot of
time running Incursions as a Guardian
Armour Logi. And in that time I noticed a
lot of hopeful Guardian pilots
not getting into fleets for what I thought were obvious reasons, namely their
fit. So I started to have the idea of a fitting guide for Guardian pilots in Incursions. But there’s already lots of fits out
there on the internet that people can find and use, so to make my guide helpful
beyond the whole “fit this you derp”, I thought I’d go into some more detail
about what logis have to do in fleets beyond simply repping things, little tips
I’ve found that make things easier and in general, a more fleshed out guide
than a simple “fitting guide”.
So I’m going to split this guide into several parts, both
for ease of reading (for you guys)
and ease of writing for me. This first part will mainly focus on why you should
fly a Guardian (or any logi ship in incursions)
and outline the skills you’ll need/want for a decent fit. I’m aiming to keep it
concise but fairly detailed. Furthermore, this will mostly be based on armour
Vanguard/Assault sites, as I’ve only ever run two HQ sites and don’t want to
offer advice on them incase I get it seriously wrong. I don’t want my bad
advice getting you guys killed after all!
On with the mini guide!
Ew, why logistics?
So why should you logi? I can think of three main reasons:
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| Sexayyyyy! |
Training time
Honestly, training for a logistics ship isn’t actually that
skill intensive at all when you look at what you absolutely require. Time spent skilling for a Logi ship is much shorter than a comparable DPS or Sniper-fit battleship. However additional skills that
are useful for fitting, or just make your life easier can add a few
months to your plans.
There is a relative lack of Logistics
pilots
Logi pilots are often in high demand when it comes to Incursion fleets. DPS and snipers are a dime a dozen, but a decently fit and
flown logi ship is always in demand.
This makes it much easier for you (and
much more likely) to get into fleets and start making dat cash.
Logistics ships are relatively cheap
Your average Incursion fit Armour Mach is going to cost
between 1.3 - 1.8bil if not more,
depending on level of pimpage/implants etc. An Incursion Bhaalgorn can break
2bil if you splash out on X-Type Nosferatus, and people often do. By
comparison, even a “pimp-fit” Logi boat is going to cost you around half a
billion on the high end. This makes them much easier on the wallet to lose, and
much more cost effective.
So logistics are cheap, quick to train for and in high
demand. Why aren't there more of them?
It’s probably because a logi ship can’t really be applied to
many other situations. With a blingy Mach lying around, you can fit it to do
other things, like missions or ratting to make money. A logi ship can only be used for PvP,
or Incursions, and neither of these activities you can do solo in that ship.
Also, while the skill training isn't that long compared to
T2 guns on battleships and such, it still requires racial cruiser V, which is
over two weeks of training. That alone probably puts most people off. I can
tell you from experience (after doing it
on three characters) it’s not that bad. Plus, it opens up other T2
cruisers, and the T3 strategic cruiser for your race. Which rock.
Since we’re already talking about skill training, this is
probably a good time to talk about the skills you need to fly a Logistics ship.
Skills for flying a Logistic ship
Main skills
As I've already mentioned, you’ll need racial cruiser V (So Amarr
Cruiser V for the Guardian)
and obviously the Logistics
skillbook along with its pre-requisites. Now some of you are probably looking
at the Logistics V training time (almost a month) and wincing. Yeah it’s
bad. It’s also worth it, and you can still fly in fleets with Logistics IV,
you’re just sort of a second class citizen in the Logi world. Logistics IV is bearable in fleets, but
honestly, Logistics V makes everyone’s lives easier. Especially your’s.
Train it as soon as you can, but it’s not absolutely required. Also I’d like to point out that anything less than Logistics IV will not
get you into fleets. There simply won’t be enough cap transfers to keep you
stable. Logistics IV is the absolute minimum. Don't be lazy.
You’ll also need the skills for a T2 Tank of your racial
type. So Caldari/Minmatar will require T2 shield skills, while the Guardian and Oneiros will need T2 armour skills e.g, Hull Upgrades V. For your
reppers, you’ll want the same remote skill as your tanking type, i.e Remote
Armour Repair Systems for a Guardian,
or Shield Emission Systems for a Basilisk.
Training these to IV is enough, although I’ve got them to V because I’m
training for a Carrier. :Smug:
You’ll also need Energy Emissions Systems to IV in order to
operate Cap transfers for the cap chain. Of course, this is only required if you’re flying a Basilisk or Guardian, since Scimitars
and Oneiroses don’t use cap chains.
Even so, it’s still a useful skill to train up for PvP, since it also affects
energy neuts.
Secondary skills (but
still important)
You’ll want some decent Navigation skills, i.e the ability
to fit T2 Afterburners and supports to IV. This sounds boring, but it’s
important for your tank. Logis survive on the basis of high speed and tiny sig
combined with massive resists, so these skills will save your bacon! You might
also want to look into the Armour
Compensation skills, as these help raise your resists if you’re using
passive hardeners (which some fits use).
I’d only train these to III personally, IV is a little long train for what you
get at almost a day and half long train, and V is only worth it for
supercapital pilots in my opinion. Of course, if you’ve got the training time
spare, then getting them to IV is great, but frankly there are other skills you
could train in that time that would increase your effective tank more (like the aforementioned navigation skills).
Advanced Target Management III
is also a very helpful skill, as it lets you lock ten targets, which is your
entire fleet in a Vanguard site. This is extremely helpful because it means
people don’t have to broadcast, since you can monitor who’s taking damage
pretty easily. As a result people don’t tend to broadcast in Vanguard sites
unless they’re new, or think you’ve missed the fact they’re getting hammered.
Getting "ATM" higher than III
is a waste of time, since Logistics ships can’t lock more than 10 targets on
their base stats anyway.
Another useful skill is Sensor
Linking IV, since it allows you to fit both T2 Tracking Links and T2 Remote
Sensor Boosters. On Guardians and Oneiroses, these are frequently fitted
in the midslots to allow their fleet to apply DPS more effectively and decrease
run times, which means faster ISK. Fitting these is obviously in your best
interests if possible!
Other good skills are obviously the two main capacitor
skills, Capacitor Systems Operation and
Capacitor Management, since capacitor is life for logis. I recommend
these at V and IV respectively, though V for both is obviously preferable.
Also, you can train for logistics drones, but frankly they’re not as useful as
you might first think. Plus, every extra flight of light drones is a bonus in
terms of the fleet’s overall DPS, so in the vast majority of situations, a
flight of Hobgoblin IIs or Warrior IIs is a better choice. That’s
not to say that a flight of light rep drones won’t make a difference on a fast
falling ship of course, but in my opinion, you’ll be better off with damage
drones in 90% of cases. And finally, an excellent skill to have is Thermodynamics, incase you need to
overheat your reps for a few cycles to pull someone through a rough patch. And
make sure you keep some nanite paste in your cargo to repair damaged reppers so you don't have to hold up the fleet while you dock and repair.
Anyway, now you've got your skills, you're going to need a ship, and some things to fit it with. We'll look at that in Part 2 - Fitting and Flying.
Good luck out there guys ;D
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