Ishtar (Guide)

The Ishtar, a Gallente heavy assault ship that makes an amazingly good pirate hunting (ratting) platform for 0.0. When many people think about killing the dangerous pirate battleships for profit, they think of the Caldari Raven or Drake. At least, they think of using a battlecruiser or battleship. The Ishtar, however, is the perfect example of how a heavy assault ship can make an excellent ratting platform. The two things that distinguish this ship from the rest is it's ability to tank an amazing amount of damage, as well as it's ability to maintain a good amount of dps while doing it.

The Ishtar is a teir-2 ship, and so, requires a little higher skill investment to be able to fly it. ( Gallente Frigate IV and Gallente Cruiser V ) However, this investment isn't exceptionally large, since you would need Cruisers to level 4 in order to fly Battleships. In addition, it can be said that the Ishtar is a better ratting platform than many Battleships, and Battlecruisers out there.

The best news is, if you fit your Ishtar well, you can out-tank and out-damage a Drake, and give the Raven a run for it's money. The only downside to the Ishtar is it's cargohold size. with a cargohold of only 460m3, you will be limited to the amount you can loot at once. However, this is a good 100m3 larger than the Drake's cargohold.

Tactics

The basic tactic of Rifter combat is to settle into a comfortable orbit around your .

Relevant Skills

Basic Skills

To fit the buffer tanked version of the Rifter you will need the following skills:

• Minmatar Frigate III
• Hull Upgrades IV
• Energy Management IV
• High Speed Maneuvering I
• Propulsion Jamming I
• Small Projectile Turrent IV
• Gunnery II
• Small Autocannon Specialization I
• Missile Launcher Operation I
• Rockets I
• Engineering IV
• Electronics V
• Weapons Upgrades III

The active tanking version also requires:

• Repair Systems III
• Mechanic III

Advanced Skills

There are two main groups of skills that will improve your effectiveness in the Rifter. These are the gunnery and navigation skills. If you want to fly the active tanked version then capacitor skills will also prove to be important. I would recommend that you make it your aim to train the following skills up to at least level three, preferably level four. I didn't start to fly cruisers until I'd got all my gunnery skills to four and most of my navigation skills at least to three.

• Gunnery - increases the rate of fire 2% per level and needed for bigger guns
• Motion Prediction - 5% more tracking per level
• Rapid Firing - 4% increase to rate of fire
• Sharpshooter - 5% increase to optimal range
• Surgical Strike - 3% bonus to damage
• Trajectory Analysis - 5% bonus to falloff (see above)
• Minmatar Frigate - 5% bonus to damage and 7.5% tracking bonus
• Acceleration Control - 5% bonus to mircrowarp drive speed
• Evasive Maneuvering - 5% agility bonus, lets you maintain a faster, tighter orbit
• Navigation - 5% ship velocity bonus

If you want to use an active tank then the following will all help too:

• Energy Management - 5% more capacitor
• Energy Systems Operation - 5% reduction in capacitor recharge time
• Propulsion Jamming - 5% less capacitor need for scramblers and webs
• Repair Systems - 5% reduction in repair time, so you can repair faster but also need more capacitor
• High Speed Maneuvering - 5% microwarp drive capacitor use, so you can use it for longer