So, I’ve decided to raise Caldari standings on my Jita alt.
It’s been AGES since I ran any kind of mission, I want to re-live this experience.
So I will be raising my Caldari standings old fashion way.
The current plan is to train for Guristas ship line and drones.
Worm -> Gila -> Rattlesnake.
And just progress naturally from lvl1 missions all the way to lvl4s.
Does it sound like a good plan?
Your progression just adds unnecessary time and expense. Just fly the rattler and use appropriate drone classes.
cynabal(L1-L2) -> machariel(L3s) -> whatever floats your goat(L4).
golem for L4s if you want to do the epic (+ 2 inties for NS/LS, a drake navy for the mission where you have to kill rats and hack a can)
Run all 3 sets of career missions and the SOE Epic Arc in your Worm. Depending on your current standing and social skills you may be able to run Level 3 missions when you are done - if not the Glamourex booster you got in the birthday gifts will put you over.
For standing there is no reason to go beyond level 3 missions. L3 storylines like Kidnappers Strike award insane amounts of standing!
you can pay someone to raise your standings for you.
Co-Head of the United Standings Improvement Agency [USIA] here. We specialize in both raising standings for others and blitzing missions (we hire and pay mission runners a generous amount to service our clients), so I can provide some insight on this.
Worm and Gila are certainly above-average ships for use in L1-L3s. There are even better options (which are significantly cheaper), but without question they’re good. The Rattlesnake, on the other hand, is categorically one of the worst possible ships you can possibly use in L4s in terms of throughput; whereas it shines brightly in higher end solo PVE (and in fleets), it is horrendously bad in L4s. Actual Damage = Potential Damage * Precision; Rattlesnake is not only one of the least precise ships in existence, but it is even moreso against the specific ships present in L4s, so actual damage is SUBSTANTIALLY less than its potential damage. There are several ships that will run L1-L3s at a fair or respectable pace, but there are very few ships that will run L4s quickly due to range or precision issues (or damage lock issues, a problem the Rattlesnake also has). Even a Sentry Dominix or Cruise Typhoon will outperform the Rattlesnake (and some other faction/T2 ships), and those are T1 Battleships.
The ship we recommend our mission runners to use if they can is the Typhoon Fleet Issue - its insane mission completion rate ensures that those runners make 150m/hr or more (on top of whatever Bounties/LP/MTU Loot they score in missions) since we pay them based on performance. The problem with the TFI is that it requires very advanced piloting skill (and high skill levels), so it’s not for use by newbies.
The Golem suggested above is a good balance between easy to use and high throughput. It is not capable of achieving the same throughput as a TFI (which is also cheaper), but it is definitely an above average ship in terms of performance and is much easier and more multitasking-friendly to use, so you simply cannot go wrong with a Golem. A Cruise Raven or Raven Navy Issue fitted with a capstable MWD and a MJD can also be used to do L4s and the HS epic arc missions (even with minimal skill levels) extremely safely and easily, but slowly - it’s for passive missioning or if you’re multitasking heavily and liable to semi-AFK more than you should (hard to get killed by rats if you’re orbiting and firing at them from 220km).
I’m intrigued 
What are better options to run, let’s say, L3s ?
I told you. go machariel.
Yep, I know.
But like I said, I just want to run missions for fun, while simultaneously raising my standings.
Isn’t Mach a little bit overkill for L3s ?
what you mean by “overkill” ?
I tested several fits and the fastest I got was the mach. next the pan. Also the pan is good for alphas if they put a few implants in, better than mach because they can use RHML T2.
Now things like “overkill” I don’t know what that is supposed to mean.
Dunno, it just feels weird to bring BS hull just to blap some puny pirates.
But you may be right.
I can put hyperspatials into this thing, and just zoom around nonstop.
(almost T2 fit, just RF LSE. total 700M estimated)
(don’t do the guristas extravaganza in it. you can do almost all other missions with ease)
Also you could remove the MJD and use a second TC. the MJD is here for the missions that need to kill a group 100km away or jump on the EM forcefield in that other mission.
how, about getting paid to run missions? and still raise your standings? See post above by archer
If you’re willing to skip a select few “blacklisted” missions that don’t come up often RNG-wise, we’ve developed a Caracal Navy Issue fit that will outperform the Gila (in most missions in L3s specifically)- and is cheaper to boot - since it kills enemy drones, frigates, destroyers, and cruisers much more quickly (and without waiting for drones to slowly zip back and forth between rats, or having their damage dissipate when the enemy outpaces them).
One interesting point of comparison: the Gila is only bonused for medium drones, which, in the absence of webs and paints, aren’t as effective as the light drones used by the CNI against frigs/dessys, and their damage is comparable to lights against cruisers due to how precision mechanics work. The real muscle of the CNI, however, comes from its missiles having high precision (so potential damage translates closely to actual damage), high rate of fire, and high impact (by contrast, Gila missile performance is pretty mediocre - and damage locked, a problem the CNI does not have). So whereas the Gila reigns supreme in higher end solo PVE content that the CNI is incapable of handling well (or at all), the CNI has the edge in the vast majority of L3 missions.
The missions you’d skip with the CNI are those with an unusually high number of battlecruisers compared to most L3 missions; since the CNI is designed to quickly dispatch drones, frigs, dessys, and cruisers specifically (which comprise almost the vast majority of rats in L3 missions), it’s not ideal for killing battlecruisers, and killing too many of them is rather slow. If you’re willing to skip these missions (they don’t come up often), then you’re going to have better throughput with the CNI over the Gila.
@Anderson_Geten 's Mach recommendation is fairly clever. My biggest concern with the recommendation would be the cost and mobility of the ship. I haven’t had time to examine all of options for the best possible ship to use if someone were to take on all L3 missions (mostly because your overall throughput would be less than if you were selective - part of blitzing is knowing which missions to skip)… there’s a lot of damage modeling involved when concluding which ship is better than another (numbers matter, opinions do not).
Cost is irrelevant. In the long run, the mach deals 0.4×700=280DPS@70km and 0.75×700=525 DPS@40km with barrage, 1k DPS IIRC with hail to the BS and structures.
Is faster than anything besides cynabal or T3, align in 5s IIRC.
I use this exact fit in several spots when I want to increase an alt’s standing for a corporation that does not have L4 security agents in HS. I tested a lot of other fits and the other that comes close is the pan.
The most important part to L3 is to know how to blitz missions. One mission requires to shoot the em forcefield then the group on the right. Another one requires to shoot “zor’s pleasure hub” with hail and loot the damsel, then warp off. angel blockade requires to shoot 8 specific targets in a row, while getting out of orange of the mass. deadly arrival, pick your poison can be done in a combat inty with MWD and invul. angel extravaganza requires to shoot specific target in each room to avoid more spawn, then kill 3 targets in last room, the two drones, and the boos (mjd on it). etc.
What do you have in low slots?
it’s on the screen.
Grrrr.
I thought the preview was the whole picture. This forum engine is a mess.
I guess I should use a correct import format to ask it to use full sized preview.
I just made local screen in my game (ctr maj 2, drag around, enter) and it uploads the image to the cloud and copies the links so I paste it directly, I find it tedious to have to fix the link ; I rather the forum did not make a preview at ll. I don’t know if there is a reason to crop the preview. Maybe it’s in our settings ?