Basilisk Logistics 101

Editors note: This article was originally written and submitted by Tavarus Excavar.

Hello, I am Tavarus Excavar and I’m going to talk about Basilisk logistics ships in Incursions.

I have split this article into 2 sections. The first section is a brief explanation for Fleet Commanders and the 2nd section is for those who wish to become basilisk pilots.

This first section primarily focuses towards Fleet Commanders

Logistics are the backbone of any incursion fleet, armor or shield, it does not matter; if your logistics die the fleet dies with them. That has to be ingrained into your skulls. They are the most important ships in your fleet. It does not matter if you are some elite CEO of a mega alliance or if you are flying your 5-7 billion ISK Vindicator or
Nightmare; Logis are literally playing God. The Logi has the power to determine who lives and who dies.

For this reason, you need to choose your logis wisely. If you bring in a logi you are not familiar with, make sure to check their fitting. It does not have to be a rock your socks off tech 2 and faction fitted ship but at a minimum in needs 2 meta 4 energy transfer arrays and 4 meta 4 large shield transporters. If this is a logis first time in an incursion and/or fleet operations it is wise to recruit another logi to provide backup in case in case the new guy fucks up.

Take note that Scimitars are a different animal. Since they are built to be cap stable, they operate independently of the cap chains. Because of this when you’re forming a fleet if you have 1 Basilisk you have to get another since they can only exist in a fleet in a pair or
greater.

This second section primarily focuses on Basilisk pilots

First, make sure your overview is set up like this. I will be going over repair calls in a later section.

So you want to run Logistics?  Your most basic requirement to be able to run in an incursion fleet is to have Logistics to level 4 and use tech 2 shield extenders and hardeners. With logistics at this level, the bonuses on the Basilisk really starts to shine. You become cap stable with all your high slots active while receiving 2 large meta 4 energy transfer arrays. At logi 5 you will be cap stable with just a single large meta 4 energy transfer array on you. However, I must stress this: you fit to support your fleet. This is only a rough estimate, but in BTL Pub (the largest shield incursion channel) 85% of the basilisk pilots have Logistics to only level 4. This means most of the time you will be dedicating both of your energy transfer arrays to your logistics partner(s) and to no one else.

Fitting

Ideally you will be training for this fit:

[Basilisk, Incursion Support]
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
10MN Afterburner II
Photon Scattering Field II

Large ‘Regard’ I Power Projector
Large ‘Regard’ I Power Projector
Large Shield Transporter II
Large Shield Transporter II
Large Shield Transporter II
Large Shield Transporter II

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

Light Shield Maintenance Bot I x5

This is a very CPU tight fit and will require some time to train into but is 100% cap stable when you receive 2 Large Meta 4 Energy Transfer Arrays at logistics level 4.

There is only 1 LSE since any more you’re not gaining anymore EHP because of the signature radius penalty. This is because your main tank is how small and hard to hit you are along with the speed from the afterburner. Some people like to, especially for mom sites, drop the afterburner for ECCM Gravimetric II.  Lows are pretty self explanatory: DCU saves lives and the PDS adds cap and energy grid and shields.

For a beginners fit you can consider:

[Basilisk, Incursion Support Beginner]
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Invulnerability Field II
10MN Afterburner II
Photon Scattering Field II

Large ‘Regard’ I Power Projector
Large ‘Regard’ I Power Projector
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter
Large S95a Partial Shield Transporter

Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Semiconductor Memory Cell I

Light Shield Maintenance Bot I x5

Techniques

First and foremost is watch list discipline. The top spots in the watch list are
reserved for your cap chain partner(s) then below that are your fellow logistics and then bellow them you put your assigned anchor. If you still have free slots available feel free to fill them up with weaker ships.

The exception here is if you running in a vanguard fleet. A vanguard usually has 10 or 11, pilots counting yourself. In this case just make sure you have cap chain partners partner(s) at the top, your anchor following and fill the rest with the remainder of the fleet.

Next is calling for reps. To signal you need reps you broadcast “Need Shield”. When you are no longer in need of reps make sure you broadcast “In Position”. This lets you and your fellow Logis know they can move on to someone else. By broadcast I do not mean yell it over voice comms or chat. I mean use the fleet broadcast system. See the link for details on broadcasts.

Logistics chain/channel

Some sites require more than 3 basilisks so for these you will make a group
chat for all the basilisks in the fleet. This will determine who transfer energy to whom. In this chat you will find your name and you then do what is called “1 up 1 down”. Your” 1 up” is the person immediately above you in chat and your “1 down” is the person immediately below you. This requires the chat participants to be sorted alphabetically. In addition, if you have shield drones trained you typically tell your drones to rep your “1 down”.

Vanguards have been dubbed the most profitable type of site to run and there is rarely a case where great demands are made of logi pilots. This makes it an excellent atmosphere to train newer logi pilots what it means and how to run incursions. Since you will likely have everyone on the watch list in a Vanguard it is often unnecessary to use broadcasts as damage notifications are flashed to the watch list allowing you to get reps on a fleet mate nearly instantly. In a Vanguard you will want to orbit your anchor at around
5km with your afterburner on. In a Vanguard you will not have more than 3 logistics ships so setting up a cap chain/channel is not necessary.

Assault, Headquarters and Mothership sites will require more than 3 basilisks so here a cap chain will be necessary. In any of these fleets there are a lot more than 10 members so broadcasts become critical and you must pay attention to them.

In the Headquarters/Mom you will may have over a dozen logistics ships Because of the amount of people and the puppeteering of the site for this it necessary to appoint a logi commander. This done to help keep the FC concentrated on coordinating his combat ships. This person is responsible for the coordination and actions of all logistics ships. The logi commander is usually the most experienced logi in that group. In these sites unless it is urgent enough for a “check check” (say “check check” to instantly take comms – use only for important info) your logi commander will be your primary voice to the FC and in turn the FC will coordinate with your logi commander.

Handling Cap Requests

Face it: those combat ships are capacitor whores and they often assume, wrongly, that the logis can provide all their cap requirements should the need arise. There are only 2 situations where logis can provide cap to those outside the chain.

The first is certain sites where there is a large break mid site so the logis can top everyone off For example, between gates in the True Power Provisional Headquarters.

The second involves the presence of a person at Logistics Level 5. Remember when I said those with logistics 5 only need 1 large meta 4 energy transfer array on them? Here is what happens to that 2nd array they would normally get. First, you determine who has logi 5 in the cap chain. Then you determine who will be able to take 1 of their energy transfers off the logi 5 pilot without disrupting the cap chain. The person who can take 1 energy transfer off the logi 5 pilot will keep both on the logi 5 pilot until a cap request is made. Then that person will take 1 and only 1 Energy transfer array off the logi 5 pilot and put it on the requestor. The requestor will use “In Position” to end the transfer. Following that, the energy transfer array goes straight back onto the level 5 logi and the chain continues as before.

Skills

Besides those already mentioned, here is a few supplementary skills you should get:

• Multi Tasking: Get this to the point where you can target 10 ships. Really helps if shit hits the fan
• Evasive Maneuvering 3: GTFO Dodge faster what more is there to say?
• Thermodynamics 3-5: This is for when things Get FUBARed. And no I do not mean fubar27. FUBAR is an acronym for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. You do this to overload your high slots in order to get increased repair capability for a short time, typically in order to save someone on the edge of exploding. You can overload for longer with higher levels of thermodynamics.
• Cybernetics 5: Apart from getting you through your queue faster, it will allow you to use some high-grade logi implants.

I have uploaded EFT fittings for the 2 basilisk set ups here as well as a skill plan for EVEMon covering the bare minimum needed for the non beginner fit in this article. You can find both of them here.

This concludes Basilisk Logistics 101.

Fly safe and good hunting my rivals,

Tavarus