I officially re-subscribed my EVE accounts yesterday after their 1-week free “come back” offer, which also included a one month discount rate of $10. During my Free Week, I pretty much got back into mining and trying to figure out viable training paths for my toons. Here’s the plan, for now, it’ll probably be different after another night of gaming, such is the universe of EVE:

Character: Markosias

Minmatar Sebiestor. This is my oldest character and he’s pretty much a “jack of all trades.”  But mainly he’s a mining foreman/booster, and fighter pilot. When mining, he pretty much hangs out in his Hurricane with his mining links running and blasting any rats that show up. Someday he’ll get into a real command ship, like the Claymore.  When running missions, if it’s a LVL 1, he currently flies a Hound stealth bomber, but I’d like to eventually get him into a Broadsword. Otherwise he’s out toodling around in his Maelstrom.  Back-story: Markosias’ family was once enslaved by the Amarr empire. He takes great delight in having blackmailed/forced into submission Orobas Goetia, a member of the family that once enslaved Markosias’ ancestors. Through the marvels of modern science and torture, Marko and Oro have a “love childe” between them named Naberius Goetia.

Character: Orobas Goetia

Amarr Ni-Kunni. This is my second oldest character and my main miner/refiner.  He pilots a Hulk while mining. There’s not much else to do in hulk besides mine, so that’s what he does.  As a mission runner, he pilots a Caracal for LVL 1’s and a Raven for missions that allow battleships.  I don’t really have many future plans for this character – just maximizing mining and missile sniper skills. When I try out the “bait, rabbit, sniper” multi-box mission running tactics, Oro will probably end up piloting the “bait” ship, Nab will be the “rabbit,” and Marko will snipe.  

Character: Naberius Goetia

Minmatar Sebiestor. This is my youngest character and he’s mainly a hauler. When I’m out doing mining ops, he pilots a Mammoth, hauling ore back to the nearest station where Orobas will eventually refine it. When running missions he currently pilots a Bellicose, but later this week he should be in a Blackbird, since he is training to be an EWAR specialist. Eventually I’d like to get him into a Scorpion.

The mining set-up works awesome, but I haven’t yet found any awesomeness in multiboxing missions.  I do OK, and haven’t lost any ships, but it’s kind of a pain.  The biggest drawback is not being able to warp into the mission stealthed.  I was hoping to use the hound for some cov-ops intell. and then bring in the other birds, but it doesn’t work that way.  You can’t warp while stealthed (not in a Hound anyway), and you can’t stealth near mission structures, like warp-gates. Hence my decision to try and get into a Broadsword for missions that don’t allow battleships.

For running missions, I may take the advice of another multi-boxer who uses a bait-rabbit-sniper approach.  Running a sacrificial bait ship into the mission to grab up all the aggro, then throwing in a very-fast rabbit ship that attacks the congregated aggro, so it will all aggro the rabbit after the bait ship dies.  The rabbit orbits something at some distance, full speed.  Basically “speed tanking” the mission.  Then the long range sniper warps in at range to plink off targets at its leisure.  

It seems like a sound tactic, so I may give it a try. Not sure what I’d use for the bait and rabbit ships, but for the sniper I’d probably go with my Hound, Raven, or Maelstrom.  The bait ship would need to have enough tank to aggro the room, or at least the  first grouping/wave, maybe something like a Punisher.  Good Rabbits might be the Vagabond or a fast frigate like the Rifter.  I’ll have to run some tests with various bait and rabbit ships to see if I can get the hang of it…