Hashu Blog: Smartbomb Ratting Part 3:Duet

While ratting alone can be simple and relaxing, its not nearly as efficient as working with another character, either a buddy or an alt.  A smartbomb battleship in unison with a turret battleship can earn twice the ISK as a lone smartbomb battleship.  When looking for the right anomalies to work, your looking for similar characteristics that a solo SB battleship will be looking for, specifically ones with spawns that are close to the warp in and where the spawns do not move from wave to wave.  Unlike when solo however your also looking for large numbers of battleships as your turret friend is very good at blapping those away.

In Providence two types of anomalies that you will find in any fully upgraded system are Sansha's Forsaken Rally Points and Sansha Ports.  The system where the image on the left was taken has a security status of -0.07, one of the worst in Providence (Only 13 other systems have worse (higher) security status).  When fully upgraded, this system will have two forsaken rally points which is generally what your looking for.

Forsaken Rally Points are ideal for the smartbomb form of ratting.  The spawn is roughly 10 km from the inital warp in.  It never moves, and although the area that ships spawn in is slightly larger than other anomalies, the range of your faction smartbombs means its generally not an issue.  It also routinely has 3-4 battleships per wave which means your turrent battleship is going to be busy.  Ports are also fairly good but not quite as ideal because their spawn is 20km away from the warp in and they have fewer waves and less battleshps per wave.  While some people might consider trying to run Hubs I would generally suggest against it, because of the higher dps in the inital spawn and the significantly longer travel time from your warp in they take longer to run and generally are more dangerous, even though they provide a better reward per anomaly run because of higher battleship counts per wave.

Sansha Forsaken Rally Points

The warp in will generally put you 9-11 km from the spawn point which is in the center of the wrecks in the gas field.  The initial spawn consists of 1-2 battleships and 1-2 cruisers, in this case it was 2 battleships and a cruiser.

This image shows a top down view from the smartbombing battleships pov.  Notice the placement between all the wrecks and the Armageddon Navy issue's placement 10ish KM away.  I can normally get away without moving the ANI but sometimes on the warp in its in the inside, in that case you normally want to move away a few kilometers to place yourself in a better position, optimal wise.  You normally want to be at LEAST 9km away from the SB battleship so you can safely deploy sentry's for each wave.  The final spawns for FRP's are easy to identify as they will be a full wave of battleships, either three or four.  Just a notice FRPs escalate into 8/10s, which while they drop a higher overseer loot, generally produce lesser quality loot drops than 6/10s which you can get from Sansha's Rally Points that you run solo.

Sansha Port

Ports have three initial spawn types.  The first type will have a mass of frigates and cruisers centered around a control tower.  The control Tower is your spawn point.  This one can be a bit tricky as the turret bs can have a hard time hitting the frigates and if they get under its tracking.  The best way to handle this is quickly get the smartbomb battleship to the spawn and actively smartbomb, if your lucky you'll clear the frigates before they are able to disperse in their orbit around you.  The cruisers are generally easier to handle.  If the frigates do get outside of smartbomb range and your having problems hitting them, this is the time to use those drones you've brought along.  The Typhoon Fleet issue can easily carry several flights of lights and mediums.  Lights in particular are good as they can return quicker allowing you to restart your smartbombs (which you turned off to let your drones out).  Be very careful not to smartbomb your drones.  Once they are back light them up and blap the battleships.

The second type of initial spawn involves three cruisers about twenty kilometers from your warp in between you and the sentry towers.  The initial spot of those cruisers is your spawn point, your going to have to judge this a bit and readjust after the first wave is done.  I generally quickly try to kill the crusiers with the turret battleship and use the first wreck as a rough guide for the SB battleship.  The third type of spawn is just like the second only it will have four battlecrusiers instead of three.  You handle it exactly the same way.

Ports finish must fast assuming you don't take too long on the inital wave.  They lack the number of waves and the heavyness of the waves that Forsaken Rally Points put off but still work fairly well producing 15-20 mil ticks generally for both pilots.

Several things to keep in mind when running with Armageddon Navy Issues.  Watch your sentries!  It is very easy to lose several, either because you place them too close to the smartbombing battleship or because they are targeted by a new wave.  Rule of thumb is to pull your sentries after each wave than put them back out after you put the first battleship into armor with your turret battleship.  You also need to watch your smartbombing battleship if your duel boxing this setup, its very easy for it to wander off the spawn if your not paying attention or hit the wrong button, this can seriously mess up your efficiency and cost valuable time that you could be making isk in.  If both characters are paying attention and on the ball, you can easily be making 25-30 mil a ticks, which equates to 75-90 mil an hour, or 150-180 mil an hour if your duel boxing.  This is one of the simplest ways to run anomalies well that doesn't involve massively pimped ships (apart from the smarties) and is potentially doable in every system in Providence.  In theory any system in Providence could be supporting up to 6 characters making 45-90 mil isk an hour using these setups these techniques. (Two people running Sansha and Sansha's Rally Points as solo smartbombing battleships and two teams of SB BS and Turrent BS running Ports and Forsaken Rally Points).