Escalation Diversification
Who wishes to fight must first count the cost
- The Art of War (Sun Tzu)
In the real world, the last few weeks have been spent travelling and recovering from illness contracted whilst travelling. Ho hum. That, and lousy internet connections, have necessitated a change of pace. Consequently Bjorn has not got out much - but one of his shadowy supporters made a foray into fund-raising.
One of the most profitable activities for an Alpha is running escalations. Combat anomalies spawn randomly around New Eden, and some have a five percent chance to escalate to another engagement which has a possibility of dropping valuable loot. There is a comprehensive table on the Eve University website. My favoured anomalies are Serpentis Corporation and Sansha's Nation Hideaway's and Refuges. If you hit an unlucky streak it can get a bit monotonous, but eventually one will escalate to a DED rated 3/10 site. This can be easily run in a destroyer. I have completed the Serpentis Narcotics Warehouse in an Incursus - it's a lot more fun but it takes longer. I avoid the Guristas sites. They are highly contested due to the general overcrowding of Caldari space, they seem to have a lower probability to escalate, and they also have the most annoying EW ships of any of the factions.
As my alt was Amarr, I span up a Dragoon and went hunting around Tash-Murkon. Surprisingly the very first Hideaway spawned a high-sec escalation, but it dropped the minimum loot possible. Running several more gave me a second opportunity which proved to be more satisfactory.
At 4.3M ISK the Dragoon fit is cheap, but it is very forgiving for running the Sansha's Command Relay. It's also probably the best looking T1 destroyer. The main damage comes from its drones - just 100 dps with my skills. Loaded with Radio crystals the three Small Focused Modulated Energy Beams have an optimal range of 25km and add an additional 30 dps. Not much for a destroyer, but plenty enough for the site. I set my orbit and keep at range to 24km. The target painter is there to help aggro the targets and keep the drones safe. Initially I was not entirely successful with this, losing three across the two sites! Fortunately they're cheap as chips and cycling the injured ones back is possible with better management. The rigs cover the primary Sansha's damage types, and are probably overkill. The probe launcher allows me to scan down Combat Site signatures.
The loot came in the form of two Centii A-Type modules (a multispectrum coating and a remote armour repairer). I sold these to buy orders back in Amarr for 163M ISK (after tax). I could have made more by raising my own sell orders, but I've had mixed results with this. Sometimes I get lucky and get the whole amount, other times I've been forced to relist them and ended up losing the difference in broker's fees. For higher volume items you can usually wait out the market - eventually everything sells - but with higher-value, lower-volume goods it can be a bit trickier. Still, 163M is not too shabby for two hours work and will go nicely into Bjorn's slush fund for faction frigates...
The biggest reflection of the night, however, is just how dull running escalations with a Drone boat is compared to the rush of hunting other players. I fear my brief experiment may have ruined me for EvE, unless I can find a way to get more time in the game.
Drone Damage Amplifier I
Drone Damage Amplifier I
Damage Control II
Small I-a Enduring Armor Repairer
1MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Parallel Enduring Target Painter
Small Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
Small Focused Modulated Energy Beam I
Small Focused Modulated Energy Beam I
Small Focused Modulated Energy Beam I
Core Probe Launcher I
Small Thermal Armor Reinforcer I
Small EM Armor Reinforcer I
Acolyte I x15
Core Scanner Probe I x8
Radio S x3
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