I just noticed today that I'm no longer making headway ISK-wise. I put it down to the expense of my fits, and realised I had fallen for the trap of loading up my suits with modules to max out PG and CPU, but weapons are more expensive, and I've wondered whether I'm heading in the right direction.

I have Caldari state (APEX) suits for Assault, Scout and Commando, all of which come with the State Rail Rifle. I know that the adv and proto versions are better, but they are also a hell of a lot more expensive compared with, well, nothing, the State Rail Rifle being part of the APEX blueprints. Instead of putting better guns on my suits, I've beefed up the tank, scan profile and scan precision.

It's cheaper but I don't know that it's the right direction. Would I be better off to run weapons which are lower standard than the rest of the suit, higher than the rest of the suit, or about the same? I've used rifles like the State Kaalakiota Specialist Rail Rifle, and I was pretty impressed by it, but the rest of my suit isn't up to that standard, and I tend to die a lot if I use a rifle like that because I have to compromise on the PG and CPU for the rest of the suit.

Should I use a Kaala or Ishukone rifle on my suits without the necessary tank to back it up? That would be a lot more expensive, but would my K/D improve enough to make it worthwhile, or would I just be wasting ISK? I know a lot depends on the person concerned, but is there any general rule I can follow? I love the Kaala and the Ishukone and I'd love for someone to say "minimal tank, maximal DPS" but I suspect that's not the most efficient and productive way to do it...

I also have access to State Scout ck.0 and State Assault ck.0 but I've been avoiding them as well because I only have about lvl 3 skills to fit them with. Is the best approach to just try them and see, or wait until I have lvl 5 skills before using them? (Sort of like not going near the pool until I know how to swim?... :) )

I wouldn't quite say that. Again, I run a 40k ISK suit. If I'm having a bad game I might make 1000 WP, and only get 10 kills. I probably make anywhere from 700k-1 million ISK everyday I play. That's if I play 2-3 matches a each day. I'll give you a few tips to easily make ISK.

Run Uplinks. These things are basically WP farms. I easily make half of my WP every game off of people spawning on them. WP = ISK.

Set your sensitivity to max. This means you have faster tracking speed, and turning speed. It can take some getting used to, but it helps in engagements. Especially, ones where you get ambushed.

Finally, pick your battles. The most important thing in Dust is choosing when to engage. If you engage an enemy on your terms chances are you will melt them. I run ADV 90% of the time, and absolutely merc proto stompers. It's not because I'm good. It's because I know when I'm able to make the kill, and when I shouldn't bother attacking.

Honestly, if you learn how to manipulate the battles so you always engage on your terms EHP stacking becomes irrelevant. I think I have exactly one suit that has more than around 600 EHP that isn't a heavy suit.

Proto weapons don't have that much more damage than standard variants. Since I'm gallente I used assault rifles on all suits. The trick is to play to whatever weapon you have's advantage. Rail rifles?long range

I just took my time,and aimed at the heads of enemies in my optimal range. Ded. And the state rasetsu doesn't need much editing. I owned one and only switched the rail rifle for an assault rifle,the damage mod for a mlt sheild extender,and added a kincat to move little faster and upgraded a sheild regulator to complex. Probably under 15k. Mlt bpos though,fraking handy.

Had a super cheap "fat" assult. Just a milita caldari heavy frame. All mlt sheild extender bpos,except for like a energizer/recharger,a complex regulator,and two mlt weapon bpos. The assult rifle and scrambler pistol.

6k isk at most. 700 sheilds at 40hp/s (numbers are rounded down due to me forgetting the exact ones)
Almost defeated the point of getting a full caldari assult suit.

The hawk scout sucks. Saw the layout,the HP is just screaming "oneshotable". Actually I've had an assult scrambler pistol one hit with a headshot on one of those before.400% headshot multiplier......

You have the state sentinel apex right? Just keep all the modules and swap out anything that isn't sheild related. Put in mlt sheild bpos and grab a good recharger/energizer. Get a hmg and just take cover when the sheild is down.

Proto weapons don't have that much more damage than standard variants.

I made a killing in the initial trading rush. Used that wealth to assemble full MLT bpo mod collection.

Add in my exile and toxin, and assorted quafe. Put those on any number of c-l bpo.

Profit.


My goto fit has 400/200 with 75 sps in 2 d 1.5 dd with rail and mag.

Costs 3825......



And when you force yourself to stay that gimped all the time, you tend to stay rust-free.

I have a few MLT BPOs. Shield extender, shield regulator, range amplifier (why???) and myofib. I'd like a few more, perhaps shield recharger/energizers, and maybe a weapon or two, but I don't know where to get them other than buy them with AUR and I don't want to spend anymore real money on AUR....

I think the real only way you can be isk positive is to cheat somehow like the super isk-rich guys do or PC or whatever

or learn to slay in frontline suits. There is a thread talking about proto stompers being scrubs or whatever and if you can learn to kick ass in frontline gear, you'll stay isk positive!

I paid aur for the shield ones back in the day. Rest of em I got for 5-8m a pop in trade channels. (I collect bpo of all kinds) I'm in two very legit channels, msg me after noon central us and I'll invite you.

Thanks Devadander. Yes I would like to get a few more MLT BPOs, for instance some of the weapons. I could use them on frontline and APEX suits to upgrade their blueprints. I knew they could be bought for ISK but had no idea where. Yes, I'm interested in the trade channels.