User:Olly Wakwako/sandbox/Incursion Upgrades and Progression: Difference between revisions

{{Incursions links}}

{{important note box|The [[EVE University Incursion Community]] doesn't require '''unistas''' to use fancy hulls and modules or put expensive implants into your head. If you wish, you may use our loaner battleships indefinitely. However, we encourage those that enjoy the content and have the means to upgrade their ships, as it opens the possibility to take part in other communities, and allows us to run Vanguards more effectively}}

* Following buying and fitting a Marauder, you should finish by completing your implant set following the Implants Guide.

Progression varies a little between the roles of [[Roles in Incursions#Logistics|logistics]] and [[Roles in Incursions#Damage dealers|damage dealers]], but is somewhat straight forward with easily identified high-end ships to aim for.

The Oneiros is the optimal logistics ship for Vanguard sites. There is little in terms of hull progression in this regard - the best progression opportunity is skill-based, and comes in the training of {{sk|Logistics Cruisers|V}}, which affords a significant improvement in capacitor stability as compared to Logistics Cruisers IV.

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=== Pirate faction battleships ===

The '''Nightmare''' and '''Vindicator''' are the preferred ''intermediate hulls''for incursions due to a combination of higher base stats, better bonuses and better slot layouts as compared to T1 battleships and the Praxis. The '''Machariel''' is also acceptable, but armour Machariels struggle with a lack of lowslots, and are not accepted in headquarters fleets.

==== Nightmare ====

{| style="padding:0px;"

| nowrap style="padding:0px;" valign="top" | <div style="border:1px solid #525252; position:relative;"><div style="border:0px; position:absolute; top:0px; left:0px">[[File:Icon_faction.png|24px|link=]]</div><div style="border:0px; position:absolute; top:80px; left:80px;">{{icon|sansha's nation|48}}</div>[[File:Nightmare.jpg|128px|link=]]</div>

==== Machariel ====

{{important note box|The Machariel struggles a little bit as an armour ship. With its resists and lack of low slots, it can only fit two damage modules. You should only choose this ship if you already have one, or if you desparately want to progress into the Vargur and don't want to cross-train into a different ship (the Vinidcator has shared Battleship skills so might be a good choice instead).}}

=== Marauders ===

These ships are the apex of Incursions. Owing to their ability to equip the Bastion Module I, they possess a tremendous amount of stopping power. It is not unheard of to have Paladins doing over 3000 DPS, and Kronoses doing over 4000 DPS. Not only this, but they are able to tank the incoming DPS of any site alone (though not always indefinitely). Each of the pirate hulls naturally leads to one of the Marauders - the Nightmare to the Paladin, the Machariel to the Vargur, and the Vindicator to the Kronos.

==== Paladin ====

{| style="padding:0px;"

| nowrap style="padding:0px;" valign="top" | <div style="border:1px solid #525252; position:relative;"><div style="border:0px; position:absolute; top:0px; left:0px">[[File:Icon_faction.png|24px|link=]]</div><div style="border:0px; position:absolute; top:80px; left:80px;">{{icon|amarr empire|48}}</div>[[File:Paladin.jpg|128px|link=]]</div>

{{icon|large pulse laser|28}}{{sk|Large Energy Turret}} Increases damage

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==== Kronos  ====

{| style="padding:0px;"

| nowrap style="padding:0px;" valign="top" | <div style="border:1px solid #525252; position:relative;"><div style="border:0px; position:absolute; top:0px; left:0px">[[File:Icon_faction.png|24px|link=]]</div><div style="border:0px; position:absolute; top:80px; left:80px;">{{icon|gallente federation|48}}</div>[[File:Kronos.jpg|128px|link=]]</div>

==== Vargur ====

{{note box|Armour tanked Varugrs are not very good. However, as the Marauders mostly rely on local reps, we tend to allow shield-tanked Vargurs at FCs discretion.}}

=== Summary ===

In almost all cases, upgrading your hull should be your first goal if you're looking to invest more ISK. Generally speaking for hisec, while faction and deadspace modules are great, pirate faction hulls often give superior bonuses without inflating the value of droppable modules fit to your ship. In the case of Incursions specifically, the matter comes down to the pirate faction battleships having two damage bonuses and powerful role bonuses (instead of having an offensive and a defensive bonus), plus much better overall ship stats such as align time.

<small><references/></small>

For the most part, fit progression is really only relevant for high-end ships like the three pirate faction battleships and marauders mentioned above. Logistics ships use pretty much the same rigs, changing only a few modules based on their desired fit. Remember that upgrading from a regular battleship to a pirate faction battleship alone is a big upgrade and the best use of your ISK for the initial upgrade.

The decision that has the most influence on the shape of your fit is your choice of rigs. That choice also heavily influences the amount of ISK you need to front to make the fit work. The examples below will follow our fitting principle of using rigs that are compatible with headquarters groups, and we suggest you strongly consider this when you fit your own ships. However, these are not the only way to make fits work, and if you only ever plan on running with the EVE University Incursion Community, you could consider a more aggressive choice of rigs (e.g. swapping a tank rig with a DPS rig).

For a cheap initial fit, we will limit ourselves to Tech 1 rigs and Tech 2 tank modules, avoid faction and deadspace entirely. Here is how a Nightmare fit might look before adding any utility modules.

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By upgrading our tank modules to the faction variants and upgrading our turrets and rigs to Tech 2, we gain a nice bump in damage and can forego the inclusion of a plate, freeing up a lowslot for a damage module. Here is a Vindicator fit demonstrating this:

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By using deadspace modules and faction damage controls, as well as Tech 2 rigs and turrets, we arrive at the optimal fit. These fits can sometimes be slightly undertanked as compared to a strict reading of our fitting principles. Though the tank is still perfectly within reason (the fit below meets 69% in all except thermal, where it only gets to 63.5%), we can get away with this through "DPS tank", as well as with a pilot broadcasting early and letting logi know over comms so that they can get on top of the incoming damage.

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First of all, remember that getting a pirate faction hull is always going to give you better applied damage (and often many other advantages) compared to spending ISK on faction and deadspace modules. With the exception of the '''Federation Navy''' or '''Serpentis Stasis Webifier''' and '''tech two weapons''', it is recommended that you get a better hull long before you look into upgrading modules.

There are plenty of hardwiring implants that are useful for incursion runners, with effects ranging from damage projection (tracking, damage or rate of fire) to fitting/support related effects (increased capacitor, powergrid or CPU) and warp speed. The bonuses from implants do not suffer stacking penalties, thus even the +3% variants are quite potent and cheap enough to use even while at war due to the low risk of actually losing your pod.

For the most part skill progression is as simple as just topping off the '''minimum''' skills you needed to get ready and perhaps train a couple of new skills to be able to use a different set of drones or a situational module. There are however some differences between skill progression for logistics and damage dealers.

== Logistics ==

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Unless you are already heavily invested into a certain race or weapon system, it might be a good idea to think of which logistics ship, strategic cruiser or pirate faction battleship you'll want in the end, rather than what your first incursion ship should be. Don't worry too much about it though, as the race specific ship and weapon skills you train for the minimum skills only amount to a little over five days worth of training. So changing your mind along the way wouldn't be much of a detour.