Navy Megathron - the bread earner

I've never been too keen a mission runner, but since I returned to Empire from 0.0 I had to find a way to supplement my income and pass the time between research and manufacturing jobs. So, since I'm not too keen on mining (atleast not in Empire), after listening in for a few days on a mission runners' channel to get the feel of level 4 missions, I started "the grind" for Sisters of Eve standings.

Progression was fast, did lvl1 and lvl2 missions in an Ishkur, lvl3's in a Dominix and never hit a snag. Pay wasn't great and I had to move around a lot from agent to agent, until I gathered 6 standing and was able to use a level 4 agent (quality 0, but still...). By now, I was thinking of upgrading from the Domi (it wasn't rigged, so it wouldn't have been much of a loss trading it in for something bigger) - for a while I pondered between a Mega (gank) and a Hyperion (godly tank). I had also thought of the Navy Mega, and in the end I decided the extra low slot and the increased armor and hull hitpoints were well worth the roughly 200 million over the price of a regular Mega.


I was glad to have a new toy (even more so when it was an expensive one) - and proceded to outfit it as best my skills and finances permitted. My setup (largely unchanged today) was as follows:

• 7 x 425mm Compressed Coil Gun I (hi)
  
• 4 x Cap Recharger II (mid)
• 1 x LAR II (low)
• 1 x Damage Control Unit II (low)
• 4 x Armor Hardener II, mission specific (low)
• 2 x Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
• 2 x CCC I (rig)
• 1 x Aux. Nano Pump I (rig)

This was a tight fit, especially CPU-wise, as there was 1 point left unused in the end. The downside to this loadout was that there was one empty high slot (the 8th utility slot), there was no Afterburner, so my speed is only 120m/s and as I gathered experience running missions I noticed that the tank was overkill on most missions, as long as I didn't screw up the triggers.
On the other hand, the setup was cap stable (repper on, shooting Antimatter), so on missions I knew, I could be semi-afk.

So, attempting to speed up mission running, I dropped the DCU II for a third MFS II. As I said, this setup can tank reasonably well in most Serpentis and Guristas missions, and the added DPS is noticeable.

One aspect I've neglected and that can definitely use some improvement are the guns - I've been a cheapskate and only bought meta 3 guns, as the meta 4 ones are 11-12 million a pop, but I plan on rectifying this situation at the earliest convenience. Other improvements I could make without going over the budget - An Amarr Navy Armor Repairer (90-ish million on contracts), which should free up powergrid so I could fit an AB, and True Sansha Armor Hardeners, as they use less CPU than the T2 version and yet have the same qualities.

In the drone department, things are pretty clear. The Megathron has a 125 cubic metre drone bay, which means you either bring a flight of heavy drones, or a flight of meds, a flight of lights and have some room left over for spares or 1-2 sentries. I would advise against the heavy drones, as you will need the light and medium drones for killing pesky ewar frigates. I usually bring along 5 hammerhead II's, 5 hobgoblin II's and that leaves me with 50 cubic metres free - either 2 sentries or a flight of medium ewar drones - Webifier drones are my personal favorite on Angel missions. The tracking on the Mega is good enough to hit their pesky close-range battleships, however if you apply webbing drones (or a combination of them and damage drones), it's all that easier to make them meet their maker.

I hope I've managed to wake your interest in the Gallente Navy's Megathron. It's a versatile ship, worthy of respect, both in PVP and in PVE (and it's not THAT expensive after all).

This post has been brought to you by the "No Moar Caldari Navy Ravens, K THNX BAI" foundation.