L4 Missions: Which Ship?

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1

This is probably not a usual request, but I’ve been gone for a while and am looking for the advice and suggestions on a mission ship. I used to play a great deal many years ago, but even back then I didn’t do missions much. I did a smattering of solo w-space and lowsec exploration, hidden combat sites, escalations, and pvp.

As far as fitting skills are concerned, I have or can within 24 hours T2 autos and missiles at all sizes, T2 medium blasters, t2 drones, minmatar battleship 5, gallente and caldari battleship 4, and additionally have access to all race’s strategic cruisers, HACs, and minmatar marauders. I can also fit T2 tank in shield or armor. So as you can see I have a lot of options, but minimal mission experience, and my time missioning was a long time ago.

Basically some IRL friends got me back into eve, but they do the whole casual highsec mission stuff, and I’d like to get involved as well. I just want a good all arounder ship, with a sizeable margin for error. Ideally I want to use autocannons, but my second preferred platform is missiles. I tend to lean more towards minmatar for that reason. I’d also like to not be a brick, because I’ve done that before in wspace when I was starting out, where I relied on some heavy tank and 0 mobility. But its not a deal breaker if I wind up having to sit down and dig in like with those bastion modules.

As far as price point, I would ideally not like to go higher than a billion isk, and I don’t much want to be a loot pinata. But I also want to be able to kill rats reasonably well quickly.

So what would be a good all arounder ship that fits those characteristics? Atm I’m actually kind of leaning towards a Machariel, though NOT blitz fit. Essentially take a hit to damagd output for more sustained tank so I can’t screw up. If that’s not a viable option, Vargur, Mael, or Typhoon are all pretty close as well I suppose. Or I could grab a Loki, but they don’t put out the damage levels I’m looking for. I’ve used a Loki extensively in wspace and lowsec doing sleeper sites and scann down complexes, and I want a little more oomph. When I was doing escalations and wspace tank was important. Now I just wanna blow stuff up. Thoughts?

2

machariel without a doubt
if you build 2 machs you dont have to sacrifice damage for tank
you can have armour for em/th resists
and shield for everything else

here are the fits i use
they cost about 750m each

[Machariel, mission brsa]
Centus X-Type Large Armor Repairer
Armor Thermal Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

100MN Afterburner II
Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed Script
Tracking Computer II, Tracking Speed Script
Thukker Large Cap Battery
Thukker Large Cap Battery

800mm Repeating Cannon II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Republic Fleet EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Republic Fleet EMP L
[empty high slot]

Large Nanobot Accelerator II
Large Nanobot Accelerator II
Large Anti-Thermal Pump I

[Machariel, shield]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II

100MN Afterburner II
Pith X-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Domination Shield Boost Amplifier
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery

800mm Repeating Cannon II, Phased Plasma L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Phased Plasma L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Phased Plasma L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Phased Plasma L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Phased Plasma L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Phased Plasma L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Phased Plasma L
[empty high slot]

Large Anti-Explosive Screen Reinforcer II
Large Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer II
Large Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer II

Valkyrie II x5
Warrior II x10
Acolyte II x5

3

Any marauder alone costs over 1 Billion, so if that’s your whole budget, you’ll have to stick with a Machariel. IF you can spend 1 Billion for a fitting alone, then you could take a look at the following Vargur fitting:

[Vargur, MJD + MWD bling]
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Gistum B-Type Adaptive Invulnerability Field
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Large Micro Jump Drive
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Gist X-Type 500MN Microwarpdrive
Pithum B-Type Medium Shield Booster

800mm Repeating Cannon II, Hail L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Hail L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Hail L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Hail L
Bastion Module I
Small Tractor Beam II
Salvager II
Salvager II

Large Projectile Burst Aerator II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hobgoblin II x5
Hobgoblin I x5
Salvage Drone I x5

4

You should use Republic batteries, 11 seconds more cap life for 80mil less. Also no rigs listed. Personally I went with CCC, Aux armor and a polycarb rigs but the DPS ones listed below are good too.

OP, that same Armor fit works with a Gist X-Type MWD, same cap life with the MWD off but you trade Speed for tank (not that you can speed tank much in a BS going 500ms, still something is better than nothing) .

Also fit a DC2 to start with, the 4th Damage mod does not buy you that much more DPS and the extra tank will come in handy when you are starting out. If you are worried fit a MJD as its pretty much a get out of jail free card.

5

yeah i think that was just what i had on eft i probably have the republic ones in game
im not sure why you cant see rigs though theyre on both fits

edit
yeah i just checked turns out im using a republic battery and a heavy cap booster on my armour fit
guess i should switch it for a second battery

6

Derp, must have not copied them in Pyfa .

PS I don’t like the Armor resistance rigs as they slow you down.

7

If you want to plan ahead for some PVP later on skillpoints are better spend on a Machariel than on Marauders IMHO.

8

Good advice so far. I’m liking all the mach fittings. I can go over a bil I just don’t want to cause I have a lot invested in long term trading right now, and it would just be inconvenient to pull some of those buy orders. Also fwiw I have little to no intention of doing battleship pvp, especially in a faction battleship. I love pvp and roam lowsec often these days, but I have a strong love of frigates. I actually started out as a ninja salvager and have really good frig and interceptor skills. Whenever I bother to fleet up in a decent size fleet I always favor small light fits as a result. Largest fit I feel comfortable going for is a cyclone or occasionally a speed typhoon.

Fun unrelated fact. If a typhoon sacrifices some tank(which it has plenty of), it can get its align time lower than many battlecruisers. It usually raises a lot of eyebrows but it’s fun to bring a speedphoon to a BC fleet, if you can convince the FC to let you. Also nice to have a cruise platform and some extra utility midslots. Not ideal, but fun.

9

I’ll give the same general advice I’ve given on the old forums about this:

  • If you plan to Blitz missions, get a Machariel or Barghest. They are very fast and can kill objectives very quickly. However these ships tend to have more trouble tanking than other mission ships so they are best used for speed-clearing.

  • If you plan to full-clear missions, get a Raven NI, Rattlesnake, or Marauder. They have both the longevity and sustained flexible DPS required for clearing sites as quickly and easily as possible.

This is just very general advice. Yes, you can get a Machariel to be a very solid full-clearing ship, or a Rattlesnake to blitz. Those ships are just a little better inclined at doing the aforementioned things.

10

So if I run a Mach while not blitzing am I losing out horribly? Cause I’ll be honest it just looks like a fun ship even if I don’t blitz. A big factor here isn’t just efficiency, but also having a fun time. And Mach looks very fun to fly.

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Oh, don’t get me wrong, it is an incredibly good ship. It’s just a bit more active than missile-boats and the tank requires a bit more attention. However it makes up for that by being quite agile and bringing a lot of DPS to the table.

12

Kk sounds fun to me. Going to run a Mach. TBH I don’t think I’ve used a tank that didn’t require some micromanagement in ages, so having to focus on it isn’t a problem. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

13

One more question for any Mach pilots reading. Do you keep the Afterburner running all the time, or pulse it? Does the mach moving quickly actually bolster its tank at all? Generally with battleships I wouldn’t care, but the Mach is known for speed so…

14

yeah the mach speed tanks very nicely its like the typhoon you mentioned
however it also affects its tracking
you can orbit bses at 20km with no ab and you still mitigate most of the damage
the enemy bses struggle to hit you at all while you apply nice damage with your acs
so for the most part i use ab to control range
but switch it on or off when i want to apply damage better

15

Kiting rat BSs is pretty damn easy; only guristas can apply reasonable damage past 40km. Angels and sanshas usually have the utility highs of their ships fit with missile launchers, so they do a small amount of damage past 40km, though usually not enough to overcome passive shield regen on a BS.
If you can stay 40-60 km from rats you take negligible damage (with the exception of guristas). You can avoid a lot of damage from guristas just by keeping your speed up.

While the mach has got great dps with ACs, keep in mind it only applies full dps within 3.5km or so.

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