What are Anomic Missions?

Anomic missions, (also known as Burner Missions), are a type of Level 4 security mission designed to provide an extra level of difficulty than the standard level missions.
Burner missions come in one of three varieties;
Anomic Agent,
Anomic Team,
Anomic Base.
The NPC’s you face in each of these missions possess much more advanced AI and often ‘human-like’ behaviour, such as distance management, effective ewar, logistics backup, kiting, speed tanking etc, traits you do not find with most NPC’s in EVE Online. Consequently, to overcome such missions, usually requires expensive ships and modules as well as advanced techniques, such as manual piloting and overheating, which many pilots may be unfamiliar with.

What are Anomic Team Missions?

Anomic Team missions are one of the variations of Anomic (Burner) missions. These missions require the capsuleer to use a frigate class ship to take on an Assault Frigate NPC supported by two logistics ships. The two logi ships do not provide a threat to the capsuleer directly, however, their remote repair capabilities mean that it is near impossible to break the tank of the assault frigate without killing at least one of the logi ships first.

Requirements to run Anomic Team Missions

First of all, as with any mission, in order to run burner missions, you will require a positive standing above 5.0 with the desired agent, corporation or faction, for whom you wish to run missions for. While it is not a necessity, it is widely recommended that if you plan to run any level 4 missions, but especially Burners, that you have the ‘Security Connections’ and ‘Negotiation’ skills at level 4 or 5 to maximise the returns.

Ship and Fitting

The ship I use for all variations of the Anomic Team missions is a Garmur. This is because the fit remains the same for each variation. The only amendment required is the ammo types that are carried. This makes the Anomic Teams one of the easiest missions to prepare for as you do not need multiple ships or additional modules to run them as you usually do with the Anomic Agents and Bases.

[Garmur, All Team Burners]

Low Slots
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System

Mid Slots
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Phased Scoped Target Painter
Missile Guidance Computer II
Missile Guidance Computer II

High Slots
Polarized Rocket Launcher
Polarized Rocket Launcher
Polarized Rocket Launcher

Rigs
Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition II
Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters II
Small Warhead Flare Catalyst I

Cargo Bay
Caldari Navy Scourge Rocket x2000
Missile Range Script x2
Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket x2000
Caldari Navy Mjolnir Rocket x2000
Scourge Javelin Rocket x2000
Caldari Navy Nova Rocket x2000

This fit, including the hull and all modules and ammo listed above, costs around 400m-450m ISK. That is a lot of ISK for a Frigate, but it is necessary for running these missions. The Polarized Launchers are required, not only for fitting limitations, but to apply enough DPS to kill the logi, as are the Caldari Navy Ballistic Controls. Attempting these missions with the T2 Launchers or BCS’s will likely result in sacrificing other modules due to their increased CPU usage.

The skill requirements for this fit are quite high. You will need ‘Rockets’ trained to Level 5 as well as ‘Rocket Specialization’ to at least 4 ideally. If you have most of your ‘Magic 14’ to level 5, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue with the fitting, however, ‘Launcher Rigging’ will help with CPU so get it to at least level 3 or 4 if possible.

There are also a bunch of other skills, outside of the ‘Magic 14’ that are necessary for this fit to work, though may not be immediately obvious. Check over them below and make sure they are trained at their minimum level before considering taking on these missions.

Minimum Level 4
Long Range Targeting
Guided Missile Precision
Missile Projection
Target Navigation Prediction
Warhead Upgrades
Acceleration Control
High Speed Maneuvering
Target Painting

Minimum Level 5
Missile Launcher Operation
Rapid Launch
Missile Bombardment

Mission Approach and Tactics

What makes the Team Burners so accessible is the way that you enter the mission area. Once you land on the initial acceleration gate for the mission, you are put into the mission pocket at approximately 40km from the Burner and his logi. This gives you a few seconds to establish a long-range orbit (on the Burner, not his Logi) with your Microwarpdrive on and build your speed up. Once you are up to speed, you can not be caught by the Burner and are therefore outside of his scram range. In most instances, you are outside of their weapon range too, however, we will cover more on this later. Once you have established an orbit on the burner that is within range of your rockets, you start by killing the first Logi. Don’t forget the target painter here. If you are looking to complete the mission in the shortest time possible, consider overheating your rocket launchers after the first few hits to apply even more dps. Beware of burning out your launchers though, as if you do burn them out, the mission is effectively over. Warping out of an Anomic Team mission should be considered an admission of defeat and you should return to the mission agent and fail the mission. Trying to warp out to repair, then warping back in, usually ends up with you landing within 10km of the Burner, who will scram, web and kill you in a matter of seconds. Failing a mission is better than losing a 400m ship.

Once the first logi ship is killed, either move onto the next logi, or go straight for the Burner. If you choose to go straight on to the Burner, be aware he will take longer to kill.

Tailor your ammo type to the ship you are killing, not just the Burner. Sometimes, the logi support ships are weakest to a different damage type than the Burner frigate. Therefore, you should choose the ammo type that is going to deal the most damage to that ship. For example, a Burner Vengeance, with two Burst support ships, means you need to shoot the Bursts with EM missiles, then swap to Thermal missiles for the Burner.

Everything you need to know about what you will face in the mission, is detailed in the mission description. Always check what Burner and what Logi you will be up against before undocking and be sure you have plenty of each ammo type.

Cheat Sheet

This is a very basic, but valuable little table created to quickly check what ammo is needed for each burner and logi. It is also useful for checking orbit distances until you are familiar with each Burner.

The orbit ranges dictate your starting orbit and the minimum orbit you should use, for example, for the Hawk, your initial orbit would be 25km. During the mission, you can reduce your orbit to 22km but do not go any lower than that. Doing so could result in you taking damage, which in a polarized ship, would not end well.

If you experience a problem with your orbit range still resulting in the target ships being outside of your rocket range, increase your orbit range gradually, then begin lowering the range again gradually. Doing this should amend your orbit so that the targets are within launcher ranges. You may need to do this more than once. Just be sure not to go below the minimum orbit range specified in the table above.

The Jaguar and Worst Case Scenario

Finally, the Jaguar. The Jaguar Burner is the toughest to deal with. He has the ability to one-shot kill you if you stray too close and his ability to do this means you must keep further away than with the others. This will likely result in your orbit range being too far for your missiles to start with so manage your orbit with caution. Start at 30km and reduce your orbit in small amounts, no more than 500m at a time, until you are within range of your target ship. But do not get closer than a 25km orbit. This can sometimes be a pain because the logi ships are often not at the same distance away as the burner so while you are orbiting the Burner at 30km, the logi ships may appear up to 34km away from you. At this range, you will be lucky if you can lock them, nevermind hit them. All you can do is keep increasing and decreasing your orbit until eventually you get them within range of your missiles but are not too close to the Jaguar.

The Jaguar can hit you out to 25km, maybe slightly further, with a rare ‘Wrecking’ shot. It is rare for him to land this, but the closer you are, the more chance you have of being hit, so always try to maintain the furthest orbit possible on him, even when the two logi ships are dead. With most of your ‘magic 14’ at level 5, you should survive one hit, most likely sending you deep into armour. But receiving a second hit will be fatal.

One option is to carry some Javelin ammo. This is T2 ammo that sacrifices dps for range. This only really works for the Jaguar though if both logi are already dead. Trying to kill the first logi with Javelin ammo will not break their repping capabilities, or if it does, it will be painfully slow. However, once both Logi ships are dead, increase your orbit and shoot the Jaguar with Javelin ammo. He will die pretty quickly and you get to stay at a much safer distance than you can with the faction ammo.