Kronos in 42 days or any other Marauder in 88

[Bla5to_Frigate]

As title states. I can fly a Kronos in approx 42 days, in which I’ll probably inject some of the way there. Especially as I continue to rat away. Is Kronos a good ship for lvl 4 SOE missions or should I invest the time into any of the other Marauders? I don’t have any experience in Marauders, but I currently run missions in a cruise missile/gecko/sentry’s Rattlesnake. Weapon systems aren’t a concern, mostly if one or the other is considered a dud, beast, etc…

Thanks for your valued opinions!

Bla5to

[Nolak_Ataru]

MJD PulseDin. All the DPS and tracking you need, and then you can load Scorch and turn it into a sniping beast.

Kronos is eh unless you fit it with 3 Tracking Comps to deal with the range issue, though you do have more DPS than the Paladin.

[Anize_Oramara]

Kronos is the most… niche of the 4 Marauders. It’s not the worst choice per se, all marauders are decent but the range issue on the blaster fit is going to be a minor annoyance throughout and you’re going to have tracking issues with the rail fit. That said switching out between the two fits depending on the mission will net you decent performance.

The paladin is best used in sansha/blood space (Amarr for the most part) and struggles a little bit in angel space, where one of the SOE hubs are, but it does make up for it in instant ammo switch and great pulse lasers.

Golem is decent all round and can adapt easily to any space but uses missiles and not everyone is a fan of missiles.

Vargur does well in angel space and decent in all other space, has the best mix of range and tracking and is probably the best overall although I might be a little biased as it is my favorite.

[Chainsaw_Plankton]

if you are in apanake the paladin is great, as the local rats are blood raiders and you get a lot of missions where the paladin is good. in lanngisi it’s pretty bad as those missions end up with angels which are pretty much the worst case for lasers.

For angels Kronos is pretty good, they come up close and you can do very high DPS with blasters. Kinetic is their second lowest resist and thermal is third so the damage types are alright. Need to spend some time figuring out how to use the mwd and mjd to control range.

The vargur will be a very decent mission ship and is pretty good overall. In general I’d probably just rather use a machariel though. That said I’m playing around with some cap stable setups right now, and the vargur is looking a lot better than the mach with that constraint.

golem, I just can’t recommend a missile ship. every time I end up flying one I just load auto-targeting missiles and alt tab. I’ve found a few setups that make the barghest look good,

[Boudacca_Sangrere]

Why Marauder? I think that a Rattlesnake will net you more dps and faster completion times… The only benefit, IMHO of Marauders is that they cater to a more “lazy” game play, hit bastion and just kill stuff, no drrone management etc. I have flown the Golem quite a bit, and it is a good over all choice. Torps for missions where rats come close, cruse missels for the rest. BUT, a decently fitted Rattlesnake will vastly outperform any Marauder. (by about 400 dps). Your mileage may vary…

[Huffepuf_Kaundur]

that rattle sounds interesting. But what if you could bring 2 accounts to blow up ships…would you run 2 rattles or does that open up an entire different approach?

[Muffinmixer]

You’d run 2 rattles, in separate sites. Double the isk/hr.

[Raudur_Froskur]

Kronos is an absolute monster.

3x FedNavy MagStabs + 2x TEs + 2 SS TCs

With Blasters you get face-melting 1.4k DPS @10+17 w/Void), 1.2k DPS @6+34 w/FedNavy AM and 1k DPS @ 19+48 w/Null. Plus the drones.

Rails are just a Mobile Depot away (that thing has 1275 cubic meters of cargospace).

Trust me, it’s a bloody beast. And the two-slot tank is plenty with the Bastion cycling. Nothing gets close enough to able to lay down some hurt.

Go to SiSi, try it out (even with T2 stuff it will blow your mind).

[Buoytender_Bob]

I fly three Marauders on a regular basis: Paladin,Kronos, and Golem. THE golem is able to change ammo to fit any npc, but missiles take time to arrive and ammo can be wasted4delayed damage. The Paladin has a great tank and if you are being extra frugal can still do good damage with plain crystals (although I use faction/special crystals for rapid completetion). It is also limited to em/therm damage, making it use in certain regions less than ideal. The Kronos remains my workhorse due it’s incredible dps (1450+) and that I can fabricate my own faction ammo quite easily.

While some people recommend the Rattlesnake for mission running, I find it suffers from 2 main problems with the style of how I run my missions. The first problem is that it’s nice dps is based on 2 weapon systems: drones and missiles. This causes an instant damage dealer (sentries) to be combined with a delayed damage source (missiles). You can run either a Gecko or a pair of heavies instead, but the difference of when the damage is applied can still cause a waste of ammo/time. The second problem is the relatively small cargobay of the Rattlesnake. If you are using a Marauder, salvage/looting should be a large part of your mission plan. The Marauder has the 48km tractor beam bonus, you should be using it. Many missions will supply enough loot/salvage to nearly fill the Kronos’ Bay and this adds up quickly. The 'snake just doesn’the have the room to take all your loot and I hate leaving valuables on the field after battle. If blitzing, just get a nicely fit Mach; it is cheaper and clears a room fast.

The bottom line is any Marauder will work fine, base yours on the area you plan to operate/npcs faced. Your ability to manufacture faction/special ammo is also a consideration. Finally, decide if you are going to full clear/loot or just blitz the missions. Marauders are great,but have some serious weaknesses/changes in how you have been running missions. Keep doing your research before you decide and buy! Good luck.

[Chainsaw_Plankton]

rattlers have meh agility, warp speed, and prop speed, sure they can put out a ton of dps but that’s only so useful. Also with the split weapon systems I have trouble applying dps well. If I flew it more I’d probably get used to firing 1 or 2 volleys and letting drones finish the target off, but it doesn’t seem worth it to me. sitting around and focusing on counting volleys is why I moved away from missile ships in general. would be interesting to check the logs to see how much damage actually gets applied. I think for anoms or WHs they make a lot of sense, but I don’t like them for missions.

Also I blitz so many of the missions I fly have around 1m combat time, going from 1400->1700 dps doesn’t really change much. the 1300-1400 dps with selectable damage of the mach is the standard there as it saves a ton of time with warp speed and agility. And I like the kronos for a few missions as it does ~1500 kin/therm dps point blank.

[Inir_Ishtori]

All Marauders are at their best in their respective niche(= vs specific npc types and in specific mission areas). AFAIK when flying SOE missions you won’t find agents sending you mostly vs Serpentis, which makes Kronos not the “optimal” choice for OP.

Now when you aren’t sticking exclusively to SoE agents, Kronos is a pretty great choice - in fact my personal favourite among the three turret Marauders, all of which I posess. Fitting both MJD and MWD together, with a permatank in form of a single medium repper and two EANMs, you’ll get a very mobile damage plattform that can actually apply its amazing EFT dps in a good number of missions. Currently I find it very satisfying to fly.
Vargur can be fit almost exactly in the same line of thought and behaves very similar, but feels like a bit of a let down sometimes because of lower DPS - pays off with higher flexibility, though.

[Arthur_Aihaken]

Kronos is still the best.

[Quor_Dresden]

you’re going to have tracking issues with the rail fit.

I use a rail fit for missions and at long range ( as most battleships should be on missions ) I have no issues hitting any target. Frigs, boom one shot, cruisers, boom one or two depending. If targets are travelling directly at you as all mission ships do when you are far away the only weapon system that struggles are missles.

[Arthur_Aihaken]

Railguns have tracking issues with anything smaller than battlecruisers at ranges under 25km.

[Quor_Dresden]

Well this is about a ship that really is meant for range, and about doing level 4 missions. Sure some level 4 missions can be done up close with a battleship, but most are done from range.

Most missions in my Kronos start with a MJD to put me 100km away or more from all targets. Once I got aggro on the ships tracking is no issue. Why would you use railguns at close range anyway?

[Arthur_Aihaken]

The Kronos is fairly effective in a blaster vit as well (it depends on the mission). So yes, if you MJD out 100km and then begin sniping away you don’t necessarily have issues (except for loss of DPS). Then again, you can use a tracking-scripted computer to enable you to hit most targets under 25km, too.

[Buoytender_Bob]

Running rails on a Kronos is suboptimal. I’ve done both rails and blasters and thought I would never leave rails which I had spent most of my EVE career using; after running a blaster Kronos and seeing the results over a dozen missions, I never looked back. I full clear and once you bastion up the Kronos, deploy your MTU and salvage drones, because the NPC wrecks will be created super fast. I guess if you are under level 5 skills on your guns,ships, and tank, perhaps MJDing out to 100km gives you a measure of comfort, but I’ve never felt my Kronos was in any danger outside of an Epic arc mission or two. Closer you kill and create wrecks, the less travel time it takes your MTU and tractor beam to transport your wrecks for loot and salvage processing to you. Brings in 16+M salvage alone in some missions.
If I’m speed running, I’ll just pull out a Mach to use.

[Arthur_Aihaken]

I’m on the fence between blasters and rails. Under 40km, blasters outperform rails. Beyond 40km, rails outperform blasters. In fact, you’re still getting around 700 DPS with a single range-scripted tracking computer out to 100km. Blasters drop to around 600 DPS just over 60km with a pair of range-scripted tracking computers and pretty much top out @70km.

Rails net you around 950 DPS @50km.
Blasters net you around 1150 DPS @20km.

And yes, you can get a lot more with Void and targets under 25km with blasters (although again, that’s heavily mission-dependent). The reality is that it’s probably pretty close between either, but it feels faster with blasters.

[Anderson_Geten]

the rats don’t go in a straight line towards you. The missing tracking may mean missing applied DPS with rails.

[Arthur_Aihaken]

This is true. As I said, I’m on the fence which is more effective: rails with the tracking hit or blasters requiring more maneuvering.