Stealth Bombing - From a Beginner's PoV

From the perspective of one who hasn't bothered with PvP at all yet, Stealth Bombing looks like a lot of fun and a great way to get into PvP.

I've been flying Cov Ops for a while now using them as transports for my high value item trading business and they sure make running gate camps a lot simpler. I've found it really doesn't matter what I fly (Buzzard or Manticore) or how I fit it, the important thing is if it can warp while cloaked doing pickups in low/null becomes much easier... So much easier it's funny.

Bombing sounds like a great way to get revenge on those lowlife gate campers who occasionally nailed me at permanent (or near permanent) gate camps in places like EC-P8R, Aunenen, Rancer and Amamake. Sneak into their own backyards and see how they like having their miners, transports and other soft targets picked off. See how they like having afk cloaked bombers sitting in their core systems for a day or three and never knowing just when they might come out of stealth to pop something. Grief the griefers for a change. Make them start thinking a least a little about keeping their own home systems secure instead of griefing honest traders and poor noobs who don't know any better yet. Oh yeah, now that's my kind of fun!

The last month or so my main focus has been on training up skills for bombing. So far that's mostly been getting missile skills to all IVs (done) and Cov Ops to V (only 4-1/2 more days to go!). Once I have Cov Ops V I'll start working on getting missile skills to V and getting T2 launchers (torpedo launchers first naturally).

I found a channel Bombers Bar that organizes and runs daily regular scheduled bombing ops. They seem like a cool bunch who should be fun to run with. I intended to start doing bombing runs with them long before now but the timing of their runs hasn't meshed very well with my work schedule lately. That'll change eventually though and when it does I plan on joining a lot of their runs. I'm definitely up for roaming deep into null territory and blowing up anything. I'd certainly be up for blowing the crap out of a gate camp anywhere too. Gate camping I'll pass on though, unless it's in a spot where the targets will mostly be members of  the very same alliances manning the usual camps at chokepoints between hi and null.


Here's the Manticore fit I plan on using

[Manticore fit]

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

1MN Afterburner II
Phased Muon Sensor Disruptor I, Scan Resolution Dampening Script
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
Prototype 'Arbalest' Torpedo Launcher, Caldari Navy Scourge Torpedo
Bomb Launcher I, Scorch Bomb
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I

With my current skills (all IVs in missile skills, Cov Ops IV) I do 467 total dps (415 from torpedoes alone). My bombs hit for 7680.

When I get T2 launchers (in another month or two) I'll switch to them and maybe T2 ammo too. I'll need to do something about the increased CPU requirements to fit T2 launchers though. Most pilots seem to solve that problem by dropping one of the BCS for a Co-Processor II.

That's all for now, I'll follow up with more about my experiences as a new bomber as I get experience. Look for the first update after I finally go on my first bombing run.