What about Typhoon?
Thank you everyone for the feedback so far, some interesting ideas here that made me consider a bunch of options I missed, especially the Rattlesnake with Rapid heavies.
But I keep running into a major issue : either I can have great DPS or I can deal with frigates easily. Can a Gecko with a tracking bonus and with a help of a painter hit frigates somewhat reliably? There are several missions with a bunch of frigs at over 50kms that would turn Rattle into a sitting duck otherwise.
I’ll update the OP with the fittings I consider right now. If someone can offer something better or can comment on the viability of these, please do so.
My issue with all missile plattforms available to Alphas in the next patch is following: missile ships need to utilize at least medium drones to get anywhere near okay-ish dps(700+). To do so, they need to get rid of frigs fast - but then run into issues of bad damage application and mass aggro towards the drones when drones are being sent a bit further away. Rattle could be to some degree an exception with some creative fitting, but I’m a bit at a loss with that currently.
How about you all forget LVL 4 missions and go ratting in Nullsec in a Vexor Navy Issue. It’s around 45mil/h and the VNI is less expensive, if you use it with faction heavy drones.
I shoot small stuff with the rapid heavies and a painter. You can call your drones off the target and let them re-engage from a distance. That way they get some hits in while aproaching. When everything else fails I launch hobbos II (you are not limited to 2!)
Which sites are the best for the VNI?
Editke: forsaken hubs and rally points so far. Maybe havens if you get an escalation or faction spawn.
Fhubs, Forsaken Rally points and havens
This is indeed an option for people in Null corporations, but since I’m a very casual type of a player and play very randomly and solo - and like to be in full control of my time and how i spend it - I usually stick to missions.
TFor a RHML setup I usually go with a pair of T2 hydraulic rigs which gets you close to 100km range with implants and max skills (T1 hyperspacial for the third rig). Max two BCS so use the third slot for a missile guidance enhancer or drone omni enhancer. Auto-targeting missiles are your friend here - they will quickly clear frigates and cruisers with ease.
With a Gecko I’d probably run a pair of navigational computers (which gets you to around 4km/sec velocity). 500MN MWD and that leaves you 4 slots for tank (which should be more than sufficient for most missions).
As long as you don’t give your Gecko too much range to hang itself (60km max) you should always be able to rescue it (a shield or armor repair in the utility high works great).
One advantage with a auto-targeting RHML/Gecko setup is that you don’t need to worry about the number of targets, targeting time or EW. Just deploy your Gecko, wait for NPC aggro and hit fire. If you’re impatient, run a TP for instant aggro.
You have plenty of room for other drones.
The Rattlesnakes tank is pretty overpowered. You just release hobgoblins to kill the frigates (and maybe destroyers), recall them, then release the gecko to kill everything else. While you’re killing the frigates with light drones, your cruise missiles can be targeted on BS (to apply full damage).
The Gecko tracks like a medium drone… slightly better than T2 Gallente and Caldari, slightly worse than T2 Minmatar and Amarr mediums. Any fit that allows your mediums to handle frigates (painters/omni’s) will probably allow your gecko to do the same. If you don’t like switching drones that’s an option.
I personally prefer to clean up the small stuff with light drones and then release the gecko to take care of cruisers and above. But that’s more a preference… you can fit your ship to handle the frigates.
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Join pandemic horde you don’t have to join CTA’s there and can do some ratting if you want and there are some fun people to fly with.
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because I can make 45mil/hr in lv3 missions, and more in lv4s. Sure it’s a bit more SP intensive and the ships cost more, but as they always say, gotta spend money to make money. Also I don’t have to be a nullsec meat shield.
RHML with faction ammo should wreck mission frigates. Also the gecko can hit most npc frigs with a tracking speed script or two. Anyways most frigs will burn straight at you, and settle into a close range orbit where the combo of a gecko and RHML will eat them. Or as someone else said you can just drop unbonused light drones which will wreck them assuming you have a few DDAs fit.
Missile platforms have long been the easy to use jack of all trades. They get damage selection, but lose out on raw damage, and don’t have instant damage like turrets. Just have to take that dps loss for ease of use in other areas. Start shooting your cruise missiles, launch your light drones to clean up frigs, then drop meds to add dps.
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Hello, I just want to precise I do 80M/h in a vni (without commander or escalation), using Jita BO prices and after removing a corp 10%tax (on bounties) and buyback 10%tax (on modules and salvage materials). Sometimes the tax is lower, especially buyback is 5% but It’s easier to compute with 10%.
Sure I lose a vni from time to time, or a salvager, but I also get dank loot from time to time and escalations which I can sell 100+M. And I also get killmails 
My VNI is paid in one hour and a half, my noctis in less than one hour.
In the VNI I have the added benefit of discussing with fleet and we have visitors who loooooove our space, they can’t have a day without us.
I’m not advertising for Hord, just saying null sec is not the place you get over-farmed that many people from high sec believe it is.
Of course, OP can as well stay in HS and enjoy the game at his pace.
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that’s a more interesting number and should compete with lv4 running with alpha skills vs the normal mission pool. Looking forward to figuring out what burners can be run with alpha skills, that could swing it. Also wondering what skills you have, vs what vni skills will an alpha have and what will be the difference in income?
According to the monthly econ blog 92% of bounties were earned in nullsec last month, there is clearly a ton of isk making activity going on in null. A lot of people like to say that null is safer than highsec because you know people are out to get you, where in highsec there are so many neutrals you don’t know what anyone’s intentions are.
1- I have perfect VNI skills.
2- as I said I consider not only bounties but also selling stuff to Jita. That is a very important part, as only doing bounties would net less than 60M/h(22M/tick average before tax)
3- basically the net/h can be split in a. doing the sites and b.salvaging it.
Doing the site returns a fixed amount of bounties. To get this amount you need to kill the rats. Any player in a cap-stable 100mn VNI can do the site ; The time to complete it however increases as the effective DPS of the VNI decreases. Killing destroyers and bigger is only a matter of your dps minus their rep (=0 for non-bs)vs their ehp, but for frig you have to factor in the miss chances. From experience, with low-skill you can have 15M ticks (I do now 22 average without commanders). Considering alpha can only have medium T1 drones, I would say 11M ticks so ~one hour or less to complete a site.
Considering salvaging, I use a noctis and it takes me <5min to warp and salvage a site. Then I come back in fast indus to loot the mtus, I do this in <1min/site
Since alphas can’t fly noctis, they have to use rigged catalyst, with lower salvage speed, but the difference isn’t that huge. I think 6 min per site would be correct.
salvage cata
[Catalyst, cheap salvager]
Signal Amplifier I
Expanded Cargohold I
Expanded Cargohold I
Medium Cap Battery I
Cap Recharger I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I
(maybe use compact pb-acid )
in the end, in one hour an alpha could do a site and salvage it, leading to 31M in bounties and 18M in loot worth, so around 40M/h after taxes.
Of course the investment is bigger than just “one VNI, one salvager catalyst” because you will make mistakes at first. I think 500M is the minimum to start and be confident. 150M is the price of the bundle VNI+cata+4mtus+indus.
This gain scales a bit so if you are two players - or two alts tou can jump in the same site with low skills, or two sites if you have higher skils, and get almos tthe same ticks.
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Macharial with T1 guns will do just fine in lvl4’s even as an alpha. 800ac, 100mn ab, xlarge SB, invuld and a race specific hardner. I run mine cap stable with ab on and just boost shields occasionally, keep moving and keep angular velocity up and its easy as… oh gyro’s and Te’s in low and cap rigs. Not sure how cap will be impacted as an alpha, but inplants and switch out a low or 2 and you should be good to go.
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If you’re running a Machariel it means you’re blitzing at which point capacitor is a moot point (you should have enough to complete the mission and no more). There are plenty of high-sec Citadels, Engineering Complexes (etc.) for free recharge and repairs if need be.
I think Burners are going to be extremely challenging (if not outright impossible), but we might be pleasantly surprised. It’s going to be a field day for gankers if that happens, though…
tested 3 burners a few days ago on the testserver. succubus vs angel dram worked very well. polarized garmur vs teamburners was a bit meh, because you have 50 dps less compared with omega and have a hard time to reach 24 km range with faction.
vs the first navitas it took nearly 2 clips to kill him. with javalin vs jaguar it was impossible. maybe the ecm version will do better.
cant tested it out yet, but a succubus should work fine also with some.
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No… it doesn’t mean I am blitzing. Not even sure how you get to that opinion by anything I posted. Cap is never a moot point. Without it you die and make the missions very challenging. Your methods save at best a few minutes per mission and really is not worth risking ships.
Machariels are designed for blitzing - not full clears, hence why if you’re configuring it as such you’ve chosen the wrong tool for the job. If you absolutely have your heart set on using a Machariel there’s nothing stopping you - just that something like a Rattlesnake will get you a lot further.