I have my eye on the Raven as the first battleship I want to fly in the future, and could use advice on different pve fits so I have an idea of the skills I’ll need to make sure are prioritized
https://www.eveworkbench.com/fitting/search is a good starting place for fitting any new ship - if you look for Ravens you’ll get a lot of variants for different scenarios.
Personally I have this as a general purpose PvE fit, and tailor the shield resist to the type of damage the rats prefer. It’s not the most efficient build out there, but it gets the job done well enough for me! The EM rig closes up the most glaring resist hole nicely. I have been known to swap the MWD for a jump drive but either option has pros and cons.
[Raven, PvE Raven MkII]
Signal Amplifier II
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Booster II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Large Cap Battery II
500MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Large EM Shield Reinforcer II
Scourge Cruise Missile x138
Scourge Fury Cruise Missile x189
Have fun when you get it!
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I know anyone can post a fit on eve workbench though and since I’m not that experienced, I don’t know which ones are actually good and which suck
Even though it wasn’t mean for that purpose alone, we have a test server where you can go and find out.
Everything you “buy” costs 100 isk, so you needn’t worry about that and can go ahead and try different fits and ways of flying a Raven.
If one exploded, just get another one and try again. Most test systems are empty anyways and the agent are all the same. Once you find a fit you like, use that and familiarize yourself with it, improve it, change it to your needs.
My advise, train cruise missiles for pve.
Yeah I am led to understand cruise missiles are the goto for PVE for a Raven
Cruise Missiles are nice for PvE if you prefer a relaxed playstyle. Their range allows you to move into a safe place and spit missiles into distant groups.
Personally, I wouldn’t use a Raven for Cruise Missiles in PvE. The extreme range is rarely ever needed. You might be better off using a Praxis with Cruise Missiles. Its additional 50% bonus to drone damage helps a lot against these pesky Elite Frigates. Or the Typhoon, also very nice for Cruise Missiles and somewhat agile (for a battleship). Can be armor tanked if you need to fight against EM damage like in the Epic Arc “Right to Rule”.
Using Torpedos on the Raven would be my choice. This is where the missile range bonus really shines. It requires a more active playstyle, less relaxed. You need to fly into range and try to avoid being webbed. Your tank will be stressed more. But on the other hand you can wipe out enemy battleships faster. And once you can fit T2 launchers, you’ll get the option to use Javelin for longer range or Rage for insane damage against battleships.
Just try out both playstyles and see which one you like more. This may even differ from mission to mission.
Don’t torpedoes suck on anything smaller than a Battlecruiser? Do I just send my drones against any frigates and destroyers?
Yes, the explosion radius is bigger with Torpedos while the explosion velocity is slightly better with Torpedos. The higher damage will compensate some of it but not all. Application support is always nice if you have room to fit it: Rigor+Flare rigs, Missile Guidance Computer with Precision Script, Target Painter. If possible you should leave everything smaller than Cruisers to your drones. But be careful with Elite Frigs, they can eat drones very fast.
Torpedos also don’t have a variant with better application, while T2 Cruise Missile Launcher can use Precision missiles. If the mission has a lot of small stuff (like Buzz Kill) you might be better off using Cruise Missiles or even Rapid Heavies. Or something like a HAM Tengu.
Once you can pilot a Golem it doesn’t matter much anymore. With Target Painters it will also apply good enough to delete elite frigs quickly.
Fighting mixed spawns of small and bigger ships is where turret boats can shine. With some experience you can position yourself good enough to snipe all the small ships before they can get under your guns.
No target painter or comps?
Also, the fitting has plenty of CPU and PG left, so you can flip the compact microwarp for a restrained quad-lif, which has 5% less capacitor penalty and 50% less signature bloom penalty than the compact one.
They don’t properly apply even on battleships. No missile ever applies at ships that aren’t larger then the platform they primarily go on. Rapid Precision Heavies are just Heavies and supposed to go on cruisers, which they won’t fully apply on. In fact, a cruisers doesn’t even need prop mods to outrun the precision heavies.
Depends on playstyle. I prefer High Damage Weapons and nuking whatever gets into range. At least when I’m single accounting. The Cruises or other Long Range Weapons are my prefered choice when I’m flying a dozen alts, too, and don’t want to bother with target painters and webs but just field enough DPS for application to become secondary
It also depends on the NPCs you’re fighting. Guristas are chubby and slow and can easily be pummeled with cruises… on the other hand, most angel belt battleships can perma-tank a single cruise missile raven, especially if it doesn’t have damage amplifiers, by which I’m refering to signature amplifiers and movement inhibitors.
I’d go with
[Raven, XLASB]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Co-Processor II
Co-Processor II
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster
100MN Afterburner II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Target Painter II
Heavy Stasis Grappler II
Torpedo Launcher II, Scourge Rage Torpedo
Torpedo Launcher II, Scourge Rage Torpedo
Torpedo Launcher II, Scourge Rage Torpedo
Torpedo Launcher II, Scourge Rage Torpedo
Torpedo Launcher II, Scourge Rage Torpedo
Torpedo Launcher II, Scourge Rage Torpedo
Core Probe Launcher II, Sisters Core Scanner Probe
Large Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Large Warhead Flare Catalyst I
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
which can easily eat up the belt rats of any faction, including officers and clones of any flavor, any lvl4 security mission, any C3 wormhole combat anom, and I wouldn’t bother with null anoms or lvl5 securities, but until it’s out of ASB charges it can run those, too. C3 anoms finish faster and pay more then null anoms. I’d prefer my Tengu for any of those jobs nevertheless though.
Removing one of the XLASBs frees alot of fitting providing for some options, but it makes ratting in C3 space significantly more dangerous.
Farming loot out of belt angels
Deadspace and Mission Angel BS
With a Missile BS we want Gurista and Serpentis missions though, Gurista and Serpentis deadspace NPCs are large and slow
Deadspace cruisers:
The PVE Raven is using Furies in all charts, but for anything smaller then a BS, or the BS too if it’s angels, it should use Caldari Navy or Precision instead of Fury.
Javelins and Caldari Navy
- The primary limiting factor for missiles efficiency is always explosion velocity
- The other issue limiting missile efficiency is always explosion size
- Webs and Painters are the missile boat’s best friends
- A Grappler is better then a Web
- Grappler and Web is better then Grappler or Web
- A Painter is better then a Guidance Computer
- Fill spare Mids with Target Painters and Guidance Computers
- When in Doubt load Javelin Torpedoes
- When in Doubt load Caldari Navy Cruises
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Really nice charts! Took me a while to understand, because it factors in the effects of the Grappler and Target Painter.
I must admit, I wasn’t thinking about belt rats at all. Looks like they are chasing really fast. In Level 4 missions, most battleships are not much faster than the explosion velocity. Which can be seen in your charts too.
Regarding application: My statement about the missing application variant is true if you use the normal Tech 1 Torpedo as the baseline. If you use the Rage Torpedo as baseline, all other types are application variants.
In fact, the Tech 1, Caldari Navy and Javelin all have the same base application stats:
Explosion Velocity 78 m/s
Explosion Radius 405 m
Rage has much worse application:
Explosion Velocity 67 m/s
Explosion Radius 697 m
To sum it up:
Caldari Navy: Same application and range as T1 but roughly +15% damage
Javelin: Same application as T1, -10% damage, +50% range
Rage: Worse application as all others but roughly +55% damage, -16.67% range
Therefore, the CN Torpedo is the best application variant if the extra range of Javelin is not needed.
Rage, as already said, is meant against big and slow targets like battlecruisers and battleships.
Not sure about Ravens but OP definitely likes Firebats. 
Are you trying to get invited to my next BBQ?
Ok, that’s a bit confusing, because both statements use the term “always”, which is not true.
The signature radius and the speed of the enemy ship are the only factors which can reduce your damage. But none of them is always the primary one. And even both together might not reduce your damage at all. Perfect application is totally possible, even if it may require a smaller missile system sometimes.
If you shoot big missiles like Cruise Missiles or Torpedos to very small ships like frigates, it’s very likely that both factors reduce your damage significantly. But luckily, in PvE missions, most frigates are not that fast as they would be in PvP.
First example: You are fighting a mission elite frigate (Arch Gistii Raider) orbiting your Raven. You have perfect skills but no application modules and you are shooting normal (or CN) torpedos:
Orbit speed: 225 m/s
Signature: 50 m
Your missile application stats:
Explosion radius: 303 m
Explosion velocity: 117 m/s
The radius alone will reduce your damage to 50/303 (roughly 16.5%), because only that part of the explosion can hit the ship. The Velocity will further decrease your damage, because the frig is flying out of the explosion while it happens. The effect of velocity is messy to calculate, because the formula contains a missile-dependent damage reduction factor.
The full formula looks like that:
[(Ship Signature / Explosion radius) x (Explosion velocity / Ship speed)] ^drf
The damage reduction factor (drf) for a Tech 1 (or CN) Torpedo is 0.944.
[(50 / 303) x (117 / 225)] ^0.944 = 0.0984
Meaning your damage is reduced to roughly 9.8%.
If the enemy ship wouldn’t move at all, only the signature part would be calculated, reducing the damage to roughly 16.5%. In this scenario, the small radius is the primary factor of damage reduction.
Let’s calculate the Angel Belt Rat from your first chart while it chases you at max speed:
Max Speed: 1,400 m/s
Signature: 350 m
Missile stats same as before.
[(350 / 303) x (117 / 1,400)] ^0.944 = 0.11
The damage is reduced to roughly 11% but in this case the speed is the primary limiting factor. Standing still, the missile would apply with a perfect 100%.
But even when the signature is bigger than the explosion radius, it still plays a role together with speed, as you can see when calculating this with +37.5% signature due to a target painter applied:
[(481.25 / 303) x (117 / 1,400)] ^0.944 = 0.1486
Damage application with a Target Painter raises to 14.86%.
But what really makes the difference in this scenario is slowing the ship down. With a 60% web applied:
[(350 / 303) x (117 / 560)] ^0.944 = 0.261
Damage application raises to roughly 26%.
Let’s wait for the rat to slow down to its orbit velocity and use a Rapid Heavy Launcher with Fury Heavy Missiles (no application mods):
Orbit Velocity: 175 m/s
Signature: 350 m
Explosion Velocity: 106.5 m/s
Explosion Radius: 180 m
Damage reduction factor: 0.882
[(350 / 180) x (106.5 / 175)] ^0.882 = 1.16
Naturally, the damage application is limited to 100%, which is the case here. Please note that the ship is even faster than the explosion velocity but still cannot mitigate any damage.
Sorry for all the math, but as you can see, missile damage application is very situational. But sure, as a general rule of thumb it’s good for application to slow down fast enemies and increase the signature of small enemies. Or both together if you can.
[Raven, **Simulated Raven gurista]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
X-Large Shield Booster II
Dread Guristas Thermal Shield Hardener
Dread Guristas Kinetic Shield Hardener
Pithum C-Type Kinetic Shield Amplifier
Missile Guidance Computer II
Large Cap Battery II
100MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Small Tractor Beam I
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Scourge Precision Cruise Missile x162
Scourge Fury Cruise Missile x162
Scourge Cruise Missile x162
Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile x162
Missile Precision Script x1
burst tank version with kinetic resists for guristas mission .
Your first msitake was making a Caldari toon, and the second flying a caldari Ship.
You should repent for your sins as a heretic and head to the nearest Amarrian Holy site.
Afterwords you should fly a Proper Battleship with Cruise Missiles and Drones likes the Navy Armageddon cause i highly suspect you have 0 laser skills.
When your mission is complete I offer you 1 isk and you will be promoted from heretic to believer.
should you decline this mission a bounty will be placed on your head for being a heretic to the amarr empire…and if we see rust dust on you… you don’t want to know what happens.
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Gallante toon, and Caldari ships are cool. So is sparkle gold laser DEUS VULT ships and so are rustbuckets, and drone spam space potatoes.
The heresy is coming for you… muwahhahahhaaha!
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