Last night, the first phase of the Ishtar Project ended — I flew my Ishtar out of Amarr, where I’d bought a contract on one for 130m ISK last week. I could have MADE one, but the Ishtar blueprints just SELL TOO FAST and for too much for me to waste one by turning it into a ship. They are selling so fast that I think it would probably not break the market if I started buying the datacores I need to invent them instead of waiting the week it takes for my research agents to come up with enough.
(I really need to work some more on my R&D agent standings; I’m earning three Gallentean Starship cores a day, but just one Mechanical Engineering).
Most of the Ishtar builds on BattleClinic are focused on their roles in PvP. Others fit them out for mission running. The Ishtar is going to be great for these things, but I don’t have the training yet to fit Tech II weapons or the large amounts of ISK required for all the faction fittings they seem to love. At some point, the Ishtar would just be too valuable to actually fly, I’m thinking. I just can’t see putting 300m ISK of fittings on a ship and sending it into PvP to get blown up. That kind of loss would entirely wipe me out; I’d be back to flying frigates after that.
That’s likely why I haven’t moved into 0.0; there’s absolutely no way I could afford to have all my ships blown up. Sitting in highsec, doing invention, killing rats and clearing plexes and not blowing up — these things are fun for me.
This is how I’m fitting my Ishtar. I’m fitting it as a solo plex finder and clearer. Right now, I have my Amarr Magnate fitted out for probing, but if I discover a plex that needs clearing, I have to run back and get my Exequror or Myrmidon, depending on the ship restrictions, to clear it. This ties me to within five jumps or so of my base in Aunia. An Ishtar that can both FIND the plexes and then clear them gives me near unlimited range — I could even (carefully) dip into lowsec occasionally.
The Ishtar blueprint trade is profitable, and I’ll keep making them, but it’s time to move on to the next phase of my invention op. I started with Hammerhead II drones, moved on to Helios and then Ishtar, but now I am going to be moving on to the Gallente stealth bomber in what I call The Nemesis Initiative.
Stealth bombers are designed to help break gate camps. They jump in to a contested system, cloak, and move a fair distance from the gate camp — from forty to over a hundred kilometers away. They decloak and start hurling torpedoes and bombs which do AE damage to everything at the gate. They’ll likely kill any drones, frigates and interdictors outright. Thus softened, the rest of the fleet jumps in and clears up the larger ships who have lost their support.
Flying a stealth bomber is a risky endeavor. I’m imagining there’s a huge need for replacements, and so I’m going to try making some Nemesis blueprints and see how they sell. There’s not as much profit margin on them — so little that I can’t spare a decryptor to make them — but they take far fewer datacores as well. If I can purchase the datacores for Ishtar blueprints, I can use the ones I get from R&D for Nemesis and Helios blueprints, maybe start making some of the money back I’ve spent on the invention trade.
3 thoughts on “EVE Online: The End of the Ishtar Project”
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I think you will do fine without T2 weapons. T1 and some Faction gear mixed in should do the trick.
I do not know if the Ishtar has enough storage to carry all the loot. Last time I played Tractor Beams were just introduced and I still used a nano-rigged Sigil to collect loot after I cleared the plex.
Do some PvE-plexes to become acquainted to your new Ishtar, and ask some pvp experienced buddies for a training fight. I must admit the best tricks I got taught were “how not to get caught” and “how to run away”. 😉
I’d like to hear more about your experience flying Gallente vs Amarr since you’re doing both. IIRC, when you were re-subbing some time ago you were deciding between those two races for your character. How’s the crosstraining working out in general vs. going with a single line of ships? Do you ever regret going Gallente? What do you like about each of the four racial lines of ships? How’s the faction grind, if any, to get what you need to pursue multiple ship lines like that? Since you’ve been playing for a while, I’d like to hear how that early decision has developed and your thoughts.
Congrats on the Ishtar. I would have to be a lot wealthier to run an Ishtar in 0.0, it’s true. Just the other night someone came into our space and popped someones T3 Proteus by neuting it. The poor sod, it took the rest of the evening just to calm him down. However, the ratting and/or the mining is fabulous.
Stealth bombers are a lot more flexible than you mention. I have a friend who rats with them in 0.0. And he wormhole dives with them, hacking and salvaging in C5’s if I’m not mistaken. He is full of fun little tricks.