Question about combat missions and threat levels.

[CmdrLordValcar]

So I stacked massacre and assasination missions all in one system against these pirates in Aulis. Now I'm only Novice rank and have no rep so the missions at max payout where between 1-3mil.
I'm in my lightly engineered Chieftain.

I'm traveling to the mission signal sources and all seems fine with no issues even on threat 3 I'm just killing a Vulture. Fine I think. I see a signal with threat 6 and figure let's go take it down! Upon entering the signal I was obliterated within or under 10 secs! Like what lol. I was even told my Chieftain should have no probs handling these missions.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

Question why does it go from super easy to dead in 10 seconds? Also how tf do I beat that?

 

[here_it_comes]

Threat >5 requires being skilled in combat, having a nice ship won't help you. That, and you need some strong anti-shield game. 3 C1 Pulses are not gonna cut it in the slightest.

Simply put, you are not at all ready for Threat 6. At this point in your combat career, you should be hanging out in HazRes and seeing what you can take on, along with Missions. There are some targets/wings in HazRes you will not be able to defeat yet, and nothing in HazRes exceeds what you can expect in Threat 5, for reference.

You really should be using some PA/Pacifiers in your Chieftain's C3 hardpoints and at least one Feedback Rail elsewhere. You will need the DPS for more dangerous targets, you'll need Feedback to deal with SCBs, and playing with autoaim (gimbals) isn't going to improve your combat skills. If you aren't comfortable using PAs/Rails, you will hit a glass ceiling that prevents you from taking on higher Threats or Wing Assassination Missions. If you want to stick with gimbals, you're gonna need a Large ship to stand a chance at Threat >=5.

As for why you died so quickly, your shields are virtually made out of paper machete and your hull is modest. You'll be fine tackling targets that are suitable for your skill level, but bigger challenges are going to demand a tougher build.

ED combat has a very high skill ceiling. Expect this to take some serious time. Fortunately, it's fun!

 

[Mr T]

Q. Are any of the missions you're taking Wing missions by any chance? If they are they'll have a blue coloured symbol next to them when you pick them (and contain the word wing). Obviously, they are designed to be taken by a wing rather than an individual.

 

[here_it_comes]

Q. Are any of the missions you're taking Wing missions by any chance? If they are they'll have a blue coloured symbol next to them when you pick them (and contain the word wing). Obviously, they are designed to be taken by a wing rather than an individual.

Wing Missions are no issue for a single CMDR of adequate skill, OP just isn't ready for them.

 

[Mr T]

Wing Missions are no issue for a single CMDR of adequate skill, OP just isn't ready for them.

Perhaps. Just saying that this will indicate they are harder.

 

[d8veh]

Rather than do the misions, do Zachary Hudson or ALD level 2 powerplay (deliver 100t of fortification supplies0, fit a KWS . Those to things will give you about 75% more bounty money. Go to a Haz ReS and fill your boots with bounty money. You should be able to get 30 mil per hour or more. Only take pirate massacre missions if you find the pirates in the haz RES, then you get even more money.

 

[CmdrLordValcar]

Rather than do the misions, do Zachary Hudson or ALD level 2 powerplay (deliver 100t of fortification supplies0, fit a KWS . Those to things will give you about 75% more bounty money. Go to a Haz ReS and fill your boots with bounty money. You should be able to get 30 mil per hour or more. Only take pirate massacre missions if you find the pirates in the haz RES, then you get even more money.

Ok thanks for the intel. Ive switched to a mainly rail gun setup and man its hard but fun!

 

[ADAMtheWELSHMANz]

Hip 20277>Fabian City is ALD territory and only spawns targets for 1 location.

Calennero, target system, has haz rez's at planets 4 and 5.

Much better ones out there but a great place to find your feet and make bank in the meantime.

Nowadays I prefer grabbing some mission cargo and using a CNB, very fast and easy way to do MM's.

Big bonus is you're not always jumping in and out of SC so it's easy for wingmates to join in the fun too.

 

[Jmanis]

So I stacked massacre and assasination missions all in one system against these pirates in Aulis. Now I'm only Novice rank and have no rep so the missions at max payout where between 1-3mil.
I'm in my lightly engineered Chieftain.

I'm traveling to the mission signal sources and all seems fine with no issues even on threat 3 I'm just killing a Vulture. Fine I think. I see a signal with threat 6 and figure let's go take it down! Upon entering the signal I was obliterated within or under 10 secs! Like what lol. I was even told my Chieftain should have no probs handling these missions.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

Question why does it go from super easy to dead in 10 seconds? Also how tf do I beat that?

Threat 6? If it was a mission (blue) USS, you took a wing assassination. They're no-go except for the most powerful ships.

Wing missions don't scale well to individual rank, because they're meant to be done as a wing.

The hardest (human) NPC fights are found in:

• wing assassinations
• threat 5&6 pirate activity sites (when a controlling faction is in lockdown or civil unrest)
• medium/high intensity conflict zones when spec ops spawn

All these consistently spawn engineered ships and are dangerous unless you're prepared or skilled. Wing massacres are fine, as this just scales quantity of kills for completing the mission... but Wing Assassinations will spawn 3-5 fully engineered ships of vulture up to anaconda size.

As a contrast, an Elite rank (nonwing) Assassination will spawn an unengineered Corvette/Anaconda... these are far less of a risk.

EDIT: Also note, I think you might be referring to this comment I made WRT being told your ship being able to handle it. At that point you'd clarified you wanted best paid, which means you shouldn't have been doing Wing Assassinations, as I'd noted beforehand that those aren't well paid for the effort involved.

In other words, your chieftain would be able to handle any challenge if you're mission stacking, which includes normal assassinations, and normal/wing massacres, but not wing assassinations.

 

[Jacobis9000]

I can’t handle Threat 2 man. I get massacred or forced to run away quick. I can only kill things which don’t fight back lol.

 

[ObsidianKing]

Threat >5 requires being skilled in combat, having a nice ship won't help you. That, and you need some strong anti-shield game. 3 C1 Pulses are not gonna cut it in the slightest.

Simply put, you are not at all ready for Threat 6. At this point in your combat career, you should be hanging out in HazRes and seeing what you can take on, along with Missions. There are some targets/wings in HazRes you will not be able to defeat yet, and nothing in HazRes exceeds what you can expect in Threat 5, for reference.

You really should be using some PA/Pacifiers in your Chieftain's C3 hardpoints and at least one Feedback Rail elsewhere. You will need the DPS for more dangerous targets, you'll need Feedback to deal with SCBs, and playing with autoaim (gimbals) isn't going to improve your combat skills. If you aren't comfortable using PAs/Rails, you will hit a glass ceiling that prevents you from taking on higher Threats or Wing Assassination Missions. If you want to stick with gimbals, you're gonna need a Large ship to stand a chance at Threat >=5.

As for why you died so quickly, your shields are virtually made out of paper machete and your hull is modest. You'll be fine tackling targets that are suitable for your skill level, but bigger challenges are going to demand a tougher build.

ED combat has a very high skill ceiling. Expect this to take some serious time. Fortunately, it's fun!

I know this is an old post. But after reading this garbage of explanation of threat levels I had to comment.

Instead of telling someone what they are not capable of how about you go into detail on what to expect from each threat level?!!!!!

 

[MVBanks]

I just tried one such mission, wing assassination, pirate lord threat 6, and I found it much easier than before because the target's teammates (3 vultures) don't react until their leader (FdL) is destroyed.
After that I killed one Vulture and the other two escaped, which doesn't matter, because the mission is solved as soon as the leader is killed.
And I noticed the same behavior in the current CG (protect deliveries), in HazRes in Senlu, that teammates do not react until the leader is destroyed.

Is this something that has been officially introduced and described in some patch notes, or is it a bug?

 

[Jmanis]

I just tried one such mission, wing assassination, pirate lord threat 6, and I found it much easier than before because the target's teammates (3 vultures) don't react until their leader (FdL) is destroyed.
After that I killed one Vulture and the other two escaped, which doesn't matter, because the mission is solved as soon as the leader is killed.
And I noticed the same behavior in the current CG (protect deliveries), in HazRes in Senlu, that teammates do not react until the leader is destroyed.

Is this something that has been officially introduced and described in some patch notes, or is it a bug?

Might check that out later.

 

[Jack Winter]

Personally I kind of hate those missions where they just line up to be killed one by one instead of fighting back.

 

[Kira Goto]

Personally I kind of hate those missions where they just line up to be killed one by one instead of fighting back.

I used to enjoy the chaos of jumping into a group of pirates in one of the threat 3/4 signals and just going to town as all of them opened up on my Corvette - great way to put those shields to the test.

Then someone at Frontier flicked a switch, whether on purpose or accidentally. so they ignore you blasting their buddies into the void. It also ruins that scenario with a lone Anaconda waiting and a supposed ‘ambush’ of pirates… that scan you and off when you attack the big ship.

 

[Walter2]

I just tried one such mission, wing assassination, pirate lord threat 6, and I found it much easier than before because the target's teammates (3 vultures) don't react until their leader (FdL) is destroyed.
After that I killed one Vulture and the other two escaped, which doesn't matter, because the mission is solved as soon as the leader is killed.
And I noticed the same behavior in the current CG (protect deliveries), in HazRes in Senlu, that teammates do not react until the leader is destroyed.

Is this something that has been officially introduced and described in some patch notes, or is it a bug?

It's part of a much more subtle strategy programmed into NPC behaviour.
If you're a rising dog in the organisation, with an eye on the main prize, it's much safer to get someone else take out the top dog before making your move to become leader of the pack.

 

[aRJay]

I just tried one such mission, wing assassination, pirate lord threat 6, and I found it much easier than before because the target's teammates (3 vultures) don't react until their leader (FdL) is destroyed.
After that I killed one Vulture and the other two escaped, which doesn't matter, because the mission is solved as soon as the leader is killed.
And I noticed the same behavior in the current CG (protect deliveries), in HazRes in Senlu, that teammates do not react until the leader is destroyed.

Is this something that has been officially introduced and described in some patch notes, or is it a bug?

I have noticed this recently and it is definitely not tied in to missions or CGs and I don’t recall seeing it in the patch notes but that doesn’t rule it out as being official as the notes don’t always tell the whole story.
I did wonder if it was because they had been demoted from being in a wing to being in a team like a groundpounder.

 

[ObsidianKing]

I just tried one such mission, wing assassination, pirate lord threat 6, and I found it much easier than before because the target's teammates (3 vultures) don't react until their leader (FdL) is destroyed.
After that I killed one Vulture and the other two escaped, which doesn't matter, because the mission is solved as soon as the leader is killed.
And I noticed the same behavior in the current CG (protect deliveries), in HazRes in Senlu, that teammates do not react until the leader is destroyed.

Is this something that has been officially introduced and described in some patch notes, or is it a bug?

I have noticed this behavior in massacre missions and high level assassinations but not in the current CG. Being in an unengineered Anaconda and only a drone as my wingman, i dont mind the “bug” at all. Dealing with high mobility ships all at once is nuisance.

On another note, i was wondering if it were normal for pirate ships in mission threat level 4-6 drop zones to all be equipped with rail guns? The only way I have a chance at defeating 6 rail gun-toting pirates is to evade them until a security team comes.

 

[ObsidianKing]

It's part of a much more subtle strategy programmed into NPC behaviour.
If you're a rising dog in the organisation, with an eye on the main prize, it's much safer to get someone else take out the top dog before making your move to become leader of the pack.

So you are saying the NPC's have evolved to plot on their wing leader?

 

[ObsidianKing]

Personally I kind of hate those missions where they just line up to be killed one by one instead of fighting back.

I agree, but at the moment it’s good for me because I’m grinding my FC