One of the best cruiser class ships, the '''Ishtar''' can deal some serious damage with drones with a good tank. The Ishtar has the bandwidth to field a full flight of heavy or sentry drones, and it has a 375m3 drone bay, allowing it to carry several different drone flights. Without refitting the Ishtar can deploy sentry drones and snipe, or heavy drones and brawl up close, while carrying light and medium drones to deal with smaller ships. The Ishtar has no bonuses to weapons, so its highs are free to use drone link augmentors, cap warfare, or guns to add DPS.
The '''Ishtar''' can deal some serious drone damage and maintain a good tank. Though only cruiser-sized, the Ishtar has the bandwidth to field a full flight of heavy or sentry drones, and it has a 375m3 drone bay, allowing it to carry several different drone flights for tactical flexibility.
The Ishtar is currently one of the most popular kiting ships due to good speed and tank combined with the excellent damage projection native to Sentry Drones. It is widely used in small - medium sized gangs with great success - the kiting fit below is quite standard. The ability to deal damage at good range without using high slots allows you to fit Neuts to combat tacklers that manage to get a grip on you.
Pilot should note that the Ishtar is not exactly a straight upgrade from its base hull, the Vexor. The Ishtar has more bonuses, but ''all'' of those bonuses apply to drones of one kind or another, while the Vexor has one bonus to drones and one bonus to hybrid turrets. The Vexor's damage ceiling in a blaster brawling fit is very high. What the Ishtar offers beyond the Vexor's capabilities is the capacity to use full flights of heavy or sentry drones.
The Aegis release in July 2015 has substantially changed the slot layout of the Ishtar: While previously it had 5 mid and 5 low slots, after the Aegis release these were changed to 4 mid and 6 low slots. This means that previously popular shield fits cannot be used anymore while armor fits gained a buff. Note that any pre-Aegis fits posted below have to be adapted.
With no turret bonuses, the high slots on the Ishter can be used for [[Capacitor warfare|capacitor warfare]] or salvaging, or fitted with projectile turrets for additional (unbonused but capacitor-free) DPS.
==Skills==
==Skills==
The Ishtar is primarily a drone boat. Since most of its DPS comes from drones, [[Drones#Skills|decent drone skills]] are required to fly the ship to its full potential. Decent drone skills might look like so:
The Ishtar is primarily a drone boat. It deserves T2 drones, and since most of its DPS comes from drones, [[Drones#Skills|decent drone skills]] are required to fly the ship to its full potential. Like other HACs, the Ishtar has tight fitting requirements, and pilots should brush up their [[Fitting skills|fitting skills]]; like other HACs, it should also be given a T2 tank.
*{{sk|Drones|V|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - Required to unlock most of the following skills; allows control of 5 drones.
*{{sk|Light Drone Operation|V|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - Required for Tech II light drones; 5% bonus to light drone damage per level.
*{{sk|Medium Drone Operation|V|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - Required for Tech II medium drones; 5% bonus to medium drone damage per level.
*{{sk|Heavy Drone Operation|V|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - Required for Tech II heavy drones; 5% bonus to heavy drone damage per level.
*{{sk|Sentry Drone Interfacing|V|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - Required for Tech II sentry drones; 5% bonus to sentry drone damage per level.
*{{sk|Gallente Drone Specialization|IV|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - Or other racial drone specialization skill. Required for racial Tech II light, medium, heavy, and sentry drones; 2% bonus per level to racial drones requiring this skill.
*{{sk|Drone Interfacing|IV|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - 10% bonus per level to drone damage; a very important skill for maximizing DPS.
*{{sk|Drone Navigation|IV|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - 5% bonus per level to drone max velocity; drone reach targets and return faster.
*{{sk|Drone Sharpshooting|IV|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - 5% bonus per level to drone optimal range; especially important for sentry drones.
*{{sk|Drone Durability|IV|icon=yes|mult=yes}} - 5% bonus per level to drone shield, armor, and hull hit points; drones last longer.
The Ishtar is difficult to fit without the proper fitting skills. Consider having the following [[Support_Skills#Fitting|fitting skills]] trained:
Finally, the Ishtar is a Tech II ship and should be fitted with a Tech II tank. Depending on your preferred fit, you can use a [[Tanking#Shield_Tanking_Basic_Skill_Summary|Tech II shield tank]] or a [[Tanking#Armor_Tanking_Basic_Skill_Summary|Tech II armor tank]].
While not endowed with as much pure firepower as other ships of its category, the Ishtar is more than able to hold its own by virtue of its tremendous capacity for drones and its unique hard-coded drone-control subroutines.
Developer: CreoDron Touted as "the Ishkur's big brother," the Ishtar design is the furthest CreoDron have ever gone towards creating a completely dedicated drone carrier. At various stages in its development process plans were made to strengthen the vessel in other areas, but ultimately the CreoDron engineers' fascination with pushing the drone carrier envelope overrode all other concerns.
SHIP BONUSES
Gallente Cruiser bonuses (per skill level): 7.5% bonus to Heavy Drone max velocity and tracking speed 10% bonus to Light, Medium, and Heavy Drone hit points and damage 5% bonus to Sentry Drone hit points and damage Heavy Assault Cruisers bonuses (per skill level): 5000m bonus to Drone operation range 5% bonus to Sentry Drone optimal range and tracking speed Role Bonus: • Can fit Assault Damage Controls
Base Time to Warp is essentially the time needed for this ship to align and accelerate until it reaches 75% of its top speed and goes to warp. The time displayed here is the base calculated time with no account for any warp related skills, modules or any other effects.
Drones
Drone Capacity
375 m³
Drone Bandwidth
125 Mbit/sec
Targeting
Max Tgt. Range
80.00 km
Max Locked Targets
7
Magnetometric Sensor
23 points
Sig. Radius
145 m
Scan Res.
294 mm
Structure
Structure Hitpoints
2,300 HP
Mass
10,600,000 kg
Volume
115,000 m³
Cargo Capacity
560 m³
Armor
Armor Hitpoints
1,600 HP
Armor Resistances
EM
50
THR
67.5
KIN
83.75
EXP
10
Shields
Shield Capacity
1,400 HP
Shield Resistances
EM
0
THR
60
KIN
85
EXP
50
Summary
The Ishtar can deal some serious drone damage and maintain a good tank. Though only cruiser-sized, the Ishtar has the bandwidth to field a full flight of heavy or sentry drones, and it has a 375m3 drone bay, allowing it to carry several different drone flights for tactical flexibility.
Pilot should note that the Ishtar is not exactly a straight upgrade from its base hull, the Vexor. The Ishtar has more bonuses, but all of those bonuses apply to drones of one kind or another, while the Vexor has one bonus to drones and one bonus to hybrid turrets. The Vexor's damage ceiling in a blaster brawling fit is very high. What the Ishtar offers beyond the Vexor's capabilities is the capacity to use full flights of heavy or sentry drones.
With no turret bonuses, the high slots on the Ishter can be used for capacitor warfare or salvaging, or fitted with projectile turrets for additional (unbonused but capacitor-free) DPS.
Skills
The Ishtar is primarily a drone boat. It deserves T2 drones, and since most of its DPS comes from drones, decent drone skills are required to fly the ship to its full potential. Like other HACs, the Ishtar has tight fitting requirements, and pilots should brush up their fitting skills; like other HACs, it should also be given a T2 tank.
Tactics
No sub-article about Ishtar roles or piloting tactics. You can write them here.
Notes
In Mesopotamian mythology, Ishtar was the goddess of love and war. Also known as Astarte.
