Ishtar: The forgotten one

Every time I want to go to a POS bash, I'm always in doubts about what ship to bring.

Thing is, I want to be useful. In the end, useful at a bash means bringing dps, you can't really get enough. The more dps the quicker and safer it will be. But I know from experience that there is a whole bunch of other kind of useful that needs to be carried out on a POS-bash. And I'm of course only talking about w-space here.

Basically, there are five tasks that needs to be done to kill a POS in w-space.

1. Incapping mods (without dreads, this needs to be done first)
2. Reinforcing the tower (that is, shooting it until shields are at 25%)
3. Keeping wormhole/system control (knowing, at all times about the status of WHs)
4. Guarding/fighting defenders (in trying to keep system-control, fighting over WHs can be expected)
5. Killing the tower after it comes out of REO.

If you join a eviction/POS bash, you are going to be told to help doing one or several of this things. The wormhole/system control is something thats need to be upheld throughout the whole operation.

Now, unless you fly some specialist ship, like a heavy interdictor, a dedicated scout/scanner or logistics, you will either need a "POS-bashing ship" or a "pvp ship". A pos-basher is something with as high dps as possible @ 30km and enough tank for logis to keep you alive while incapping mods and the POS are still shooting at you. A pvp ship is something you are comfortable flying and fighting any eventual defenders with.

It's hard to combine theese two without compromising too much. Most people end up bringing a BS or Tier 3 BC for dps, and a second ship for pvp. Others borrow ships already in the target system.

In any case, having the right people in the right ships is a big part of how efficient the OP is going to be.

I often don't want the hassle of bringing several ships, but I still like to feel that I can contribute, no matter which of the above mentioned tasks I'm doing.

If I was to write a specification for the ship I would want, it would be something like this;

• Not overly expensive, around 2-300M max.
• Armor-based
• Able to do at least 600dps @ 30km, and if possible much more at close range
• Be AFK'able, ie, don't need constant reloading
• Have reasonably low ammo/charge use, so you don't need to restock all the time
• Have some tackle for WH guard duty
• Have a good enough tank to have a chance of surviving close range fighting on WHs (high EHP)
• Have a good enough tank to survive POS-defenses with logi-support (low sig res, high resists)
• Have a probe launcher, preferably online
• Have a way of dealing with small ships
• Have a AB for reducing incoming dmg (especially good against mid/large POS guns)
• Have a MWD for burning through bubbles (plenty of those at POS-bashes)
• Have a cloak (for bio-breaks and comfy scanning)
• Have a high scan-resolution for quick tackling

Wanted, but not directly needed;

• Interdiction nullified
• Cloaky warp
• Remote ECCM (for helping guardians out while fighting POS ECM)
• Remote sensor booster (for giving fast tacklers instalock on pods etc..)
• Be ECM resilient (either with high sensor strength or with dps that's not dependant on locks)
• Be a fast traveler (sometimes it's a race in empire to get to a new entry, getting into warp quickly is not totally unimportant)
• Able to taking chances in lowsec (Fast align, cloak and/or MWD)
• Able to enter C1 systems

It don't necessarily need to be doing all of this at the same time, some reconfiguration might be OK. Refitting is quick, having to grab another ship half across the universe is not.

Obviously there are no ship that fully satisfies all that I listed, not even if you are allowed to refit it for different jobs.

But I think the above spec is comming close to describing an Ishtar. That ship is terribly hard to fit if you want it to do everything at the same time, but if you allow refitting, it's incredibly versatile. Thanks to it's drones (AFK'able, lock independant) and the new drone dmg module, the dps output with sentries (+30km range) is pretty good.

It's also capable of hitting big things close range with blasters and heavy drones (quickly incapping POS mods), as well as having some tackle (guard duty) and hunting small ships with warriors.

It have a high-slot left over for a probe launcher, and in most configurations it should be possible to have it online (keeping track of new sigs, finding new statics etc..).

In fact, you could easily find three different fits for the Ishtar, making it preform very nicely in all the roles "incapping", "reinforcing" and "guarding/fighting". The ship almost equals a strategic cruiser in versatility, at least in it's offensive roles. The tank is of course, still just a T2 one, and depending on how heavy you go with dmg mods, it might be the weakest part.

I'm not going to go into specific fits. Dending on how you balance tank and dps, an Ishtar can do 650dps @ 35km while having decent buffer and great resists. If there no longer is any need to tank incoming dmg it can go full dmg and do over 1000dps close range for quick incapping of pos mods.

While in fighting-mode, it can be quite tanky, still do great dmg and tackle. Or it can fit a few projected ECCM to help guardians against ECM. Unlike laser-boats, most of it's own dps will not be lowered by it getting jammed.

Also, being a cruiser, it will never have any difficulties getting anywhere, traveling to, or through, C1s is not a problem. Doing many jumps in empire should be quick, a few lowsec-jumps doable.

I think the Ishtar is often overlooked. If you are going on a w-space POS bash, and happen to have good drone skills, have a look at it. You just might find it to be the most useful single ship you can bring.

And usefulness was what I was aiming for.