Newcomer / Intro Wing assisination mission solo....oops!

[ArchAngelofDeath]

This is a story not a question. I have a bucket list of things I have yet to try and one of them was assassination missions. I've done pirate lords missions, skimmer kill missions and so on but for some reason always skipped these. Well I need Biotech Conductors and mission reward seems to be the only way to get those. I did a few passenger missions but those are boring.
So I see "kill terrorist leader" mission gives me 5 Biotech Conductors and decide to take it. It's labeled wing assassination mission but hey, I'm in an engineered Corvette! I need no stinking wing! 4100MJ shields and everything maxed out engineered for PvE.

Off I go to the location and fairly quickly mission objective comes along.
I drop in ready for victory. Well, he's in a Cutter and his wingmates are in Anacondas, FDL etc. They're beating on some civilians as I deploy hardpoints and like I always do when I enter a battle I fire the first shot with Dual Huge G5 engineered PAs right into the cutter's belly. 300Pts of damage get's their attention.
Instantly the whole wing is on me. I concentrate only on the Cutter figuring if I can kill him I can highwake out and complete the mission.
Yea,.......I'm wearing the cutter down eventually bringing his shields down but his wingmates are tearing me a new A**hole as ring after ring of my shields disappear. No worries "deploy heatsink, deploy SCB". Ummm...nothing happens! Oh sheet! I forgot I swapped out my SCBs for cargo space 2 sessions ago! :O
Down to last ring on shields, FA off trying to avoid and still fire at the cutter. "Shields offline" "Oh shut up Celeste!" :x Torpedo alert! Boom. [blah] Hull damage. I realize I'm close to toast and fire FSD. "FSD offline" Ummm rut roe raggy! Apparently they nailed my FSD. Soon my thrusters malfunction as I'm boosting away. Another 10 seconds pass and my canopy pops. [knocked out]
"Eject, eject, eject" and I see my very first rebuy screen in my Corvette. UGH! 30mil. credits and mission failure.

So I learned I am not good enough a pilot to take on 4 heavily armed terrorists solo and that my beloved Corvette is not invincible in PvE.

 

[sinisalo]

Too bad about the outcome, but a fun read. Rut Roe Raggy

 

[CMDR Percivus Keenblade]

At this point in the general pve game what matters the most is not the skill but the amount of engineering done.

Needs more shieuldz.

I always mention that, when your shields are bigger than necessary to what you are usually chewing, as such it usually is with all these Corvies or other big shots flying around, you simply start to not bother avoiding any fire and stop trying to maximise efficiency through piloting. It dulls the senses and creates fat lazy pilots. One often needs to practice on much fragile ship against tougher odds to stay sharp. For that Ive taken quiet a liking to occasionally drop by the challenge category in training, at the latter hardest incursion scenarios to shake things up free of charge and see if I progressed further in any of my skills. I highly suggest dropping by there and get into the 'aware' mindset required for those endurance battles, and taking a look at your results to see hows your pilot skills are doing.

 

[Hexcaliber]

There are two ways to approach these solo, which you use is down to preference, and whether you want to collect engineer mats from the high prize boss.

The first involves pulling the escorts and separating them out, cleaning them up one by one before taking the primary. However, be careful not to travel out of range of the boss, having him disappear off sensors and trying to find them again is a pita. This is also the preferred approach if you want those mats, its easier to scoop when you are not taking aggro from every direction.

The second is the approach you tried, just spank and gank the primary and hot tail it out.

Either way, I tend to stay away from weapons like PA, I don't like the heat, and against npc's I prefer builds where I can keep the dps going rather than relying on spike damage. On the conda or vette I opt for cannons or multi's with beam lasers, all engineered for short range. Another very good build uses full double shotted frag canons; using this build, you can spank and gank easily with ships like the fdl, fas or even the chieftain. The damage output on frag cannons is high enough that you can forgo fitting huge mounts in favour of large; just charge into the target and let rip.

I would suggest you ignore the suggestion above that you need to maximise shields. Certainly, if you are of the mindset that you are intent on sitting on the spot go for it, but they are certainly not needed for these missions, I get by using engineered Bi weave.

Finally, carrying fighters in ships that will support them can be useful for distracting targets and helping to spread the damage from the npc's.

 

[ArchAngelofDeath]

At this point in the general pve game what matters the most is not the skill but the amount of engineering done.

Needs more shieuldz.

I always mention that, when your shields are bigger than necessary to what you are usually chewing, as such it usually is with all these Corvies or other big shots flying around, you simply start to not bother avoiding any fire and stop trying to maximise efficiency through piloting. It dulls the senses and creates fat lazy pilots. One often needs to practice on much fragile ship against tougher odds to stay sharp. For that Ive taken quiet a liking to occasionally drop by the challenge category in training, at the latter hardest incursion scenarios to shake things up free of charge and see if I progressed further in any of my skills. I highly suggest dropping by there and get into the 'aware' mindset required for those endurance battles, and taking a look at your results to see hows your pilot skills are doing.

That's true. I have taken out so many wings in PvE previously I was over cocky. Not checking my loadout before I embarked was also a rookie mistake. I underestimated how tough the terrorist wing was going to be. They used railguns, missiles, torpedoes and seemed to be engineered as well. I had no point defense and didn't really try to evade fire in the beginning so to your point - yep, I played it fat and lazy and paid the price.

 

[ArchAngelofDeath]

There are two ways to approach these solo, which you use is down to preference, and whether you want to collect engineer mats from the high prize boss.

The first involves pulling the escorts and separating them out, cleaning them up one by one before taking the boss; however, be careful not to travel out of range of the boss, having him disappear off sensors and trying to find them again is a pita. This is also the preferred approach if you want those mats, its easier to scoop when you are not taking aggro from every direction.

The second is the approach you tried, just spank and gank the primary and hot tail it out.

Either way, I tend to stay away from weapons like PA, I don't like the heat, and against npc's I prefer builds where I can keep the dps going rather than relying on spike damage. On the conda or vette I opt for cannons or multi's with beam lasers, all engineered for short range. Another very good build uses full double shotted frag canons; using this build, you can spank and gank easily with ships like the fdl, fas or even the chieftain. The damage output on frag cannons is high enough that you can forgo fitting huge mounts in favour of large; just charge into the target and let rip.

Finally, carrying fighters in ships that will support them can be useful for distracting targets and helping to spread the damage from the npc's.

Thanks for the advice. Yes not taking a SLF was a mistake in this battle. I do not have heat issues at all. PAs are efficient modded so low heat and all my longrange beams are thermal vent. Ice forms on my canopy in battle. But using beams means I have to keep PIPs on weps more often so I cannot go 4 pips shields except for when I'm repositioning. So I think next time I'm loading my PVP setup with multicannons in place of the beams. I still like the big punch of Huge PAs to bang the hull.

 

[Nero Tacitus]

At this point in the general pve game what matters the most is not the skill but the amount of engineering done.

Whenever I come back after a break, it takes me a good few hours to actually fly right again. Fly poorly and no amount of engineering will save you.

 

[ArchAngelofDeath]

I'd like to thank everyone for the good advice.
I switched to my PvP loadout and flew like a pilot should! Result was MUCH better vs. Cutter and 5 wingmates of the terrorist.

 

[LordJim47]

For that Ive taken quiet a liking to occasionally drop by the challenge category in training, at the latter hardest incursion scenarios to shake things up free of charge and see if I progressed further in any of my skills. I highly suggest dropping by there and get into the 'aware' mindset required for those endurance battles, and taking a look at your results to see hows your pilot skills are doing.

Great sage advice. I've found making this a part of my routine helps improve my combat skills without costing CRs. If FD ever nerfs the high trade mission payouts in Shinrarta Dezhra I might even be able to rank up from Dangerous (30%) and finally get triple elite, but alas, 6-8M payouts and a Cutter that can carry 2-3 missions (720T) and fight too and if not win boost away at 519M/s, well I guess it's going to take awhile. I've also learned using a combination of long range beams and M/C gives the options to boost out of the opponents effective range and maintain contact while my shield repair, which gives me a little space to improve my Combat skills. Took on a wing of two (Anaconda and Viper) today and was able to take down Viper first and Anaconda down to 61% before he H-waked out (had targeted his FSD, but only got it down to 80%). o7 Cmdr, fly safe and keep fighting.