The Svipol might look way cooler then the Jaguar / Wolf , but the later are the more powerful platforms in my opinion.
The Assault Frigates get damage, damage application and tank bonuses from the Assault Frigate skill and the Minmatar Frigate skill, providing you with bonuses comparable to those provided by the Svipol’s tactical modes, just that all bonuses are permanently and concurently effective, unlike the tactical mode bonuses of the Svipol’s tactical mode where only some bonuses can be activated at a given time.
Assault Frigates also can fit Assault Damage Controls, which grants effective immortality for a short time i.e. provides you with the ability to get out of any mission site, except burners, if things go wrong. Talking about burners, Assault Frigates can be blinged to the point they can run the level 4 burner missions, too.
Minmatar’s Loki is the Jack of all Trades, but at the price of being “best at” pretty much nothing. For mission running, a Loki is inferior to a Vagabond, which has insignificantly less DPS on paper but a significant range bonus, that, given Autocannons basically always are used out of optimal range, combines to more effective damage, while the Vagabond moves significantly faster and can be just as tanky, too… at a fraction of the price. A Vagabond can run the LVL4 Talos burner mission, too, while a Loki cannot pass the acceleration gate.
For exploration, a cheetah will clean pirate data/relic sites faster then a Loki as it moves faster between the boxes, aligns faster in case you warp to some bookmark and bounce back instead of moving between the boxes, and locks the boxes faster, too… while, again, at a fraction of the price. Cheetahs also have better scanning bonuses then Lokis, resulting in less time needed to scan sites.
The combined ratting/exploration sites, namely lowsec guarded Gas Sites, C3 wormhole relics and if you bling it a lot, C4 wormhole relics, are the only sites the Loki will be better then competing ships.
