WH Ratting Guide [Brave Collective]

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===== WH Ratting Guide ====
==== Introduction and Motivation====
Much like ratting in K-space, ratting in WH space is the primary method of income for people living in WH space. However, it represents some unique threats, and the mechanics for WH space ratting is fundamentally different from K-space. In this guide, we will cover the differences between WH ratting and k-space ratting, how to solo WH rat in low-class WH space, as well as how to rat in fleets in both low and high class WH space. 

This guide will assume that the reader is "day-tripping", living in K-space and only going on brief visits to WH space, and isn't willing to (or can't) use tools like rolling ships to find a suitable hole through repeated collapsing of WH statics. 

=== Why WH Ratting? ===
  - WH ratting can be extremely lucrative. A C3 WH site drops, on average, 40 million ISK and (depending on Bob's will) can give salvage valuing another 10-15 million ISK. A well fit ship can run a site in 10 minutes, and pairs of pilots can easily solo most low-class sites.  
    - C5/C6 sites can contain more than 700-800 million ISK in blue loot and salvage if the drifter escalation is run. 
  - If suitable care is taken, WH ratting can offer a safer location to rat in than the sites surrounding HQ. 
  - WH ratting is a change of pace, and offers needed opportunities for group PvE money making fleets. 
  - WH ratting let's pilots use ships they typically would not use otherwise. 
    - A C1 or C2 can be cleared by most cruisers. 
    - C3's can be done in battlecruisers or specialized cruisers. 
    - C4-C6 require teams of ships working together. 
  - Group Ratting Fleets in C5/C6 space can make good isk, and can also give new players a chance to make substantial impacts on PvE fleets by tackling drifters/picketing. 
  
=== What are the difficulties of WH ratting? ===
  - **You will get ganked, often, and at the worst possible times.** 
    - This makes WH ratting essentially a race to make a profit of a hull and fitting before you get ganked. 
    - Daytripping solo is riskier than living in WH space, because you lack other people in the chain reporting movements on D-scan. 
  - **WH sites are non-infinite, and WH connections might not be available.**
    - WH connections close to Brave HQ might not exist. 
    - Even if WH's of a proper class are found, the WH may not have any sites available, or it may be too dangerous to run sites in. 
    - Even if a WH connection is found with sites available, it is impossible to force a WH site to spawn in the same way that is possible in K-space. Once you finish running the sites in that WH, it is not useful for further ratting until the sites naturally respawn. You get what Bob gives you!
  - WH rats have high HP, and can do high DPS. 
  - WH income does not come in "ticks" paid out by CONCORD to the player's wallet. Instead, the NPC's in sites (called "Sleepers") drop loot (called "Blue Loot") with a known, specific value. This loot is then collected by the player and sold to NPC buy orders at a set value. In this way, WH ratting has an additional step before the player receives ISK for their work. Although blue loot is small in size, this step adds both logistical challenges and risks.

==== Sleeper Ratting Overview ==== 
WH rats (called "Sleepers") are fundamentally different from K-space rats, requiring a paradigm shift in how players rat. In any given site, you can expect to see a plethora of EWAR including neuts, webs, and scrams. Additionally, WH rats are extremely fast, kite effectively, deal and tank omni damage, remote repair damaged sleepers, and focus fire. All of these factors, when combined with the sleeper's high individual DPS, means that ship fits must be adapted before they can be used to rat in WH space effectively. We will be covering fits in a later section, but first we must discuss how to discuss and prepare for ratting in WH sites. 

Much like in K-space, WH ratting in anomalies comes in waves, with a series of rats spawning instantly in the site after a "trigger" is killed. An indispensable tool in WH ratting is a guide that lists the incoming DPS, EWAR, and EHP of the ships that are in each wave. Critically, the guide should also list the "trigger" for each wave. **When the last of the "trigger" ships die, the next wave will spawn. This makes it very important to not kill trigger ships unless necessary, as spawning multiple waves can easily make a site impossible to easily clear. **

In Spoopy, our go to guide is [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSbMMEBlM5BAFXldnnX3GDGfUp02OAuMznRljKkbpH4Ff3SyNTrkyEjHSJGkNJsDPqypSZw3sQmQ1Ta/pubhtml#|The WH PvE Bible]]. Make sure to have this open at all times while you are ratting, and refer to it often! The triggers are the ships labeled in red for each site. Remember that killing the trigger will lead to a new wave spawning!

If we look at this guide in more detail, we can see that the site DPS (and reward) rapidly increase as you move to higher class WH space. In general, we can also notice that a WH Data or Relic site is about as hard as the next class up's anomalies. This means that a C2 relic site will be roughly as hard as a C3!

==== WH Ratting Fits ====
If we look at the WH PvE bible, it becomes obvious that speed tanking the rat's will not work like in K-space! The rat's are too fast, and the presence of neuts and webs means that you will get quickly tackled and blapped. **We need to change our fits before we can rat in WH space.**

=== The Paradigms of WH Ratting ===
Because speed tanking does not work, we have to change how we will actively tank the incoming damage. This can be divided into a few different methods.     - 
  - Passive Shield Regen
     -   Uses shield extenders and shield power relays to boost the amount that the shield regenerates over time. If the maximum shield regen is larger than the incoming DPS, the ship will be able to tank indefinitely. 
     -      Advantages: Essentially no capacitor use makes the player immune to the neuting effects of the rats (and other players)
     -     Disadvantages: Tanking this method uses expensive rigs, and typically leaves few mods open for damage boosting, lowering ticks. 
   - Active Shield Tank
     - Much like a roaming solo ship, this fit uses a local shield booster to keep the ship alive during ratting. 
     - Can tank using fewer mods, allowing for more mobility, application, or damage mods. Doesn't require expensive shield purger rigs
     - If you get neuted out you will not be able to tank a site. Additionally, the relatively high prevalence of neuts in WH space makes ganking active tanks easy
   - Spider-Tank
     - Multiple ships fit remote reps and remote capacitor transfers. Then, they all rep the target being primaried by the rats. This is very commonly done by Rattlesnakes and Dominixes to clear high class WHs.
     - Small groups of players can clear high class WHs quickly. If Domis are used, the ships can go isk-positive in 1-2 sites, making them very efficient.
     - If you overestimate your abilities and lose 1 ship, you will quickly lose all the others as the ships tank best when they are all alive.
   - Fleet Logi:
     - Just like in PvP, bring along some logistics ships to rep the damage done. 
     - Very safe, and can even turn ganks around with good piloting.
     - Additional pilots reduce the payout for each pilot participating.

=== The Fits And How To Fly Them ===
An excellent discussion of fits with a good variety of fits can be found at [[https://forums.bravecollective.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&p=27313&t=2632&sid=41d6411c5eb7448276e4f1f8bf01019b|The Brave Forums]]

In general, daytripping and fleet doctrines can be generated easily by finding the maximum applied DPS and Alpha, setting the tank to hold this, and then adding DPS/logi as needed. For daytripping fits, the use of a mobile depot to switch lows from tank to more damage can usually lead to quicker clear times on waves where the incoming DPS is less. 

==== Preparing a WH for Ratting Safely ==== 
=== Daytripping alone or with a small number of friends===
If you are interested in ratting in a WH, it is usually a good idea to begin by scanning for WHs using a scanning ship. You may need to travel through many systems or scan many holes before you find a suitable WH system, and the bonuses, cost, and speed of a scanning frigate make it a much better choice than trying to scan on your ratting ship. 

Once you have found a WH that you might be interested in running, you should move around the system checking D-scan. Critically, you are looking for citadels, or active control towers (that have a forcefield). These items mean that someone lives in the WH, and might try to gank you while you are running your site. Although these being present increase the chance of you getting ganked, it is not immediately disqualifying. Importantly, you can check to see how many people are docked inside a citadel by clicking on the citadel and reading the number in the square brackets. Additionally, a hole with only a few (1-2) combat anomalies in it is likely active, and is probably not worth the risk of ratting in. It is usually a good idea to check the system killboard, which can quickly show you if an active group is living in the hole. 

After you are reasonably certain that the hole is not currently active, you should start scanning inside the WH. Every signature should be scanned down until it's type is visible. Unwanted sites can be discarded, but you should always know how many WHs are connected to your system, as well as where they go. It is a good idea to check these WHs for active gangs before you start ratting. Every additional WH connection is an additional route that a ganker can use to get to you, so the risk obviously increases as the number of WHs increase. 

Once you have found a WH that you believe is safe to rat in, it's time to bring in your ratting ship. Double check and make sure that you have probes, a mobile depot, and a mobile tractor unit before you leave. Get back to the hole, and jump in. Open up the [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/17cNu8hxqJKqkkPnhDlIuJY-IT6ps7kTNCd3BEz0Bvqs/pubhtml#|The WH PvE Bible]], and find a site that fits your needs. When you are beginning ratting, you may want to choose a site that has low incoming DPS or neuts. You should have an idea how much your ship will tank before you warp to the site. As you get more experienced, you will begin to prefer the sites with a maximum ISK/HP. 

Once you have chosen a site, warp into the site, drop a Mobile Tractor Unit, and bookmark it. If you are in a ship with long enough range to strike the rats, you can begin ratting like normal (remain orbiting the MTU if possible). In general, you will want to remove remote rep ships first, and then clear off DPS, webs, or neuts as your fit requires. Unfortuantely, CCP has often made remote rep ships the trigger. In this case, remove all of them except for 1, and then move on to the others. 

Make sure that you leave at least 1 of the triggers up for each wave, and then kill that one last to trigger the last wave. When you have finished the site, let the MTU scoop up the loot, and then pull it into your cargohold. Congratulations! You have just finished ratting in a WH. You now have a series of decisions. You can take the loot back to a safe point, go on to another site, or grab a salvaging ship and salvage the wrecks. 

During the entire time, you should be spamming D-Scan so that you can see people coming in before they gank you. It will be difficult to defend yourself against roaming stratios, but you should have a good chance at making it out if you are alert and they try to warp non-cloaky tackle onto you. In the event that you do get ganked, make sure that you die on your MTU (so that any loot that you have gets scooped into the MTU and has to go through the loot fairy twice.)

**DO NOT GO BACK FOR YOUR WRECK**.

=== Ratting with a group ===
Ratting with a group is significantly safer than ratting alone. The primary reason for this is the ability to have 'pickets' on the holes. 

== Pickets and You, safely ratting in a group ==
Pickets are alts or new players who are along on the WH fleet. To be a picket, all you need is to have a ship parked on grid with the WH, zoomed in on the ship, and then having the "Jump Activation" sound turned up to max. When a character jumps through the hole, the picket will hear a loud "WUB-WUB-WUB-WUB", and knows that someone else has entered the hole. In this way, pickets can rat on an alt, or they can watch Netflix. The presence of pickets makes ganking a ratting fleet much more unlikely, but it is not very difficult, and isn't really an active part of the fleet. For this reason, most people pay out the pickets at a reduced rate, but it will be up to the FC of the ratting fleet to announce how the payouts will go BEFORE the fleet goes out. 

If every hole is picketed, the only source of people entering your hole unobserved is who were already in the hole when the pickets are established, or from people who roll into the hole while you are ratting. To minimize the chances of this occurring, several players should be constantly watching D-scan in the hole. Additionally, several players should be watching the list of anomalies and signatures. The best way to watch for this is by having these players ignore all the signatures in the hole so that their signature list is empty. Then, any new signatures that spawn will show up alone on their list of signatures, and can be scanned down while the fleet aligns to safety. 

== Running C5/C6 escalations ==
C5/C6 sites have the opportunity to spawn an optional "boss". This boss has 2 Million HP and deals 1.5-2K dps, but it also drops roughly 350M in blue loot, and can have very good salvage (requires salvage V). If you are clearing a C5/C6 site, you may want to consider running the escalations for more money. 

Towards the end of a C5/C6 site, an "Uncloaked Transmission Relay" will spawn into the site (as well as have a message in local channel appear). Doing any damage to these structures will spawn a "Drifter Response Battleship". This drifter battleship will burn towards the person that spanwed it at excess of 6km/s, and can do upwards of 1.5-2K EHP/s. It also has several million EHP. It webs, scrams, and paints, but it does not have a "doomsday weapon". Although it used to neut extremely heavily, this appears to have been removed without being mentioned in a recent patch (2/8/17). 

It must be tackled by players, with at least 3 points (1 warp disruptor and 1 warp scrambler works), or it will warp off when it's shield is removed. Additionally, it is usually wise to web the drifter battleship so that your DPS can apply better. Finally, due to the internal resist profile of the ship, it is better to do thermal damage while clearing the shield, and EM damage while shooting the Armor/Hull. Other resists are extremely high, making grinding the drifter take much longer if not optimized. 

It appears that (after a brief delay), the drifter will overwhelmingly target the ship with the largest sig-radius in the site. We have been using T1 tackle frigates to tackle the drifter, which gives new players an opportunity to contribute to the fleet. These tackle frigates have never been targeted while we are running. 

If the drifter warps off, it will wait for a few minutes on planets and POCOs before going to camp WHs in the hole, and also dropping in on people as they are ratting other sites. This makes it possible to accidentally spawn many drifters, making a hole unusable. If a drifter warps off, it does appear on D-scan, and it can be combat scanned. It does not immediately repair when it warps off the hole, so if you can retackle it, you will be able to finish running the site.