Lv4 Mission ships? (Non battleships)

PvE Gameplay Center PvE Ships & Modules
#1

Hi I’m aware both missiles and battleships are the easiest/efficient way to do lv4s.

I can fly both the Kronos and the vargur . I do missions in caldari space . I don’t have any missile skills to speak of and I’m looking for a smaller ship to do these in a HAC or a Command ship as I’d like something faster(in space) and something that can hit cruisers reliably.

I can currently fly the Vulture and Astarte/Eos and the demios with full t2 (I’m heavy in guns not so much in drones I can use t2 Hobgoblins and that’s about it)

Any advice? Also been looking in to geting missile training for a Cerberus if that’s a better route though I’m about 7months our on that one.

Ps. I’m posting on an alt as I lost my vargur to a gank yesterday.

#2

I’ve not tried Lvl 4’s in a Command ship, but can fairly easily run them with a Sacrilege running Heavy II’s and Hammerhead II’s. I will add that an MWD comes in mighty handy too, as sometimes the best tank is a speed tank.

#3

I have not flown them myself but I have read that the T3 cruisers are somewhat popular as an alternative to flying a BS. There is also the Gila but it can be a little slow DPS wise compared to a higher class ship.

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#4

I have been running level 4’s in a Vedmak although the ammo is expensive for t2:

[Vedmak, Phosphor Serpenta]

Entropic Radiation Sink II
Entropic Radiation Sink II
Entropic Radiation Sink II
Multispectrum Energized Membrane II
Multispectrum Energized Membrane II
Corpum C-Type Medium Armor Repairer

10MN Afterburner II
Large Cap Battery II
Tracking Computer II
Tracking Computer II

Heavy Entropic Disintegrator II
Small Remote Armor Repairer II
Small Remote Armor Repairer II

Medium Ancillary Current Router II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hobgoblin II x5

Baryon Exotic Plasma M x4464
Occult M x1478
Optimal Range Script x2

You can change the fit a bit, I was using 2 T2 armor rep’s for a while until I learned to speed tank with the AB. The Tracking computers just give you extra range to make the kiting easier.

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#5

Yeah I’ve been playing around with the Loki and galantee t3 in pyfa and they don’t look great although I know they should apply there damage better

#6

I’ve used t3cs for some missions when I’m not trying to grind isk/hr or LP.

I messed around with a blinged Ikitursa for a while too that was a fun ship.

#7

If you are going to train towards Cerberus I would actually advise to just train towards Tengu Heavy Missile boat. Its more versatile and just better at running missions.

#8

Once you can use T2 heavy missiles you can just fly a missile battleship with T2 RHMLs. Travel time isn’t a major issue if you’re full clearing every mission the agent gives you, and battleships with RHMLs definitely outdps any medium ships with HMLs or HAMLs.
http://www.unitedstandings.org/careers/usia-grinder-fittings This site is created by some professional mission runners. The optimal fit is a Typhoon FI using RHMLs which you should be able to fly well since you can also fly Vargur.

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#9

I’ll have to agree with this one. I have a RHML fit 'Geddon, and it’s absolutely one of the highest DPS ships I have. I haven’t tried doing similar with a Typhoon. I imagine it would, indeed, work as well or better.

#10

might want to try the machariel, sure it’s a bs but it feels like a cruiser. If you can fly a kronos and vargur you should already have good mach skills.

the stuff you listed should work, it’s pretty easy to fit lv4 tank on hacs/command ships, but the damage will be either poor, or low range,

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#11

That is some impressive DPS.

#12

Thanks for the input I’m going to put some missile training in and try a Mach later as that’s what I can try now .

The main reason for this whole smaller ship request is because i have been having damage application issues.

#13

The missiles from RHMLs on battleships are the same from HMLs from cruisers and battlecruisers, which has good application against smaller ships. That’s exactly the reason why USIA favors RHMLs while Typhoon FI is the second best platform for it. The best is Barghest but the margin is very small while Barghest has double price and lower drone damage against battleships.

#14

Wouldn’t it be better to get guidance on how to solve this rather than completely change your play style ?

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#15

The Deimos used to be my favorite HAC for PvE, but now it’s the Ikitursa. It really shines when dual boxing spider tanked ships, but it’s still good for solo players. It gets really good damage application against smaller ships, and the DPS ramp up helps it take out larger ships with ease. And since it’s a HAC, you can fit an ADCU, which goes a long way towards deterring gankers if you’re fitting some bling. The biggest downside is the price tag, as an ikitursa is like 3 times the price of other HAC’s.

Missions /AB /Cheap
I don’t fly missions any more, but I would start with something like this. If you’re willing to spend more, consider the following upgrades:

  • T2 AB + Decayed/Gravid Mutaplasmid (CPU and PG can be treated as dump stats, which keeps costs to a minimum. If you have any questions, ask).
  • T2 Medium Armor Rep + Decayed/Gravid Mutaplasmid (Once again, CPU + PG can be treated as dump stats)
  • T2 Entropic Radiation Sinks + Decayed/Gravid Mutaplasmids (Entropic Rad sinks and mutaplasmids are more expensive than their empire equivalents, but they’re still affordable, and certainly cheaper than buying faction sinks)
  • Faction Webs will allow you to web things further out into your optimal. Webs with 15k optimals are kind of pricey, however, so you might consider something like Caldari Navy webs (13k optimal, 55% web strength, 50mil).
  • If you have crappy cap skills, you can beef up the large cap battery by making Meta Large Compact Battery + Decayed Mutaplasmid. It’s so cheap to do with Jita buy orders, it might as well be free.
  • Repair Systems, Navigation, or Warp Speed Implant (slot 6)
  • Motion Prediction Implant (slot 7)
  • Gunnery Implant (slot 9)- note that an increased ROF will help you spool faster, thus this implant is better than Surgical Strike. Also note that the Sharpshooter implant would be nice, but it uses the same slot as the gunnery implant, so I’d rather use that, and try to control my range.
Summary

[Ikitursa, Missions /AB /Cheap]

Assault Damage Control II
Entropic Radiation Sink II
Entropic Radiation Sink II
Multispectrum Energized Membrane II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Medium Armor Repairer II

10MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Large Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery

Heavy Entropic Disintegrator II, Occult M
[Empty High slot]
[Empty High slot]
Auto Targeting System I

Medium Kinetic Armor Reinforcer II
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing II

Hammerhead II x5

Mystic M x2000
Occult M x2500

Oh, and do note that the autotargeter is used to help reduce drone agro. You’ll also have room to fit a tractor and salvager, if that’s your thing. You can beef up tank by slapping on specific resist hardeners. You can also make a MWD fit, but might have cap stability issues. You can mitigate this by (1) training cap skills, (2) managing your MWD and armor rep, (3) prioritizing cap usage when making abyssals, (4) using cap implants (slots 6 and 8), and/or (5) switching the polycrapon rig for a cap rig.

#16

Where do I start?

Gila, Stratios
Assault cruisers with range,
Legion with beam.

Medium craft is faster, hits easier, and can survive better, closer.

Especially dual rep afterburner assault cruisers.

All of these are no match for marauders, pirate battleships.

Right now I am having fun with heavy drone/missile rhm praxis.

Any ship with 400 dps, can work, then depends what the mission is.

I avoid the ones that cannot be blitzed, where low dps equals low performance.

#17

The only medium drone ship that can beat Dominix is Eos, and probably Gila.
Heavy drones on Ishtar, Eos or Stratios are the same as Dominix, but they really sucks for lv4 missions because you’ll constantly get drone aggro and you lose a lot of dps by pulling them back, plus they have some serious application problems. As for sentry drones, Stratios can only field 4 and Ishtar has less damage bonus.
Gila’s paper damage is probably higher than 7.5 sentry drones. The travel speed for medium drones is still a thing, but by using mobile drones Gila can save some other time by reaching the gate to next pocket before all rats are dead.

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#18

Machariel is a battleship but it is pretty fast. You can rig it to be faster and with ACs and some manual flying it does not have much trouble hitting smaller things. Going lower than Battleships is possible but makes you slow.

You should not be having many damage application issues if you do it right.

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#19

Before I had the skills up to fly a Marauder I used the Machariel. Here is the fit
[Machariel, PvE AC T2]

Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Power Diagnostic System II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Heavy Capacitor Booster II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Gist A-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Tracking Computer II
[Empty Med slot]

800mm Repeating Cannon II
800mm Repeating Cannon II
800mm Repeating Cannon II
800mm Repeating Cannon II
800mm Repeating Cannon II
800mm Repeating Cannon II
800mm Repeating Cannon II
[Empty High slot]

Large EM Shield Reinforcer II
Large Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard II
Large Projectile Collision Accelerator I

Hail L x840
Cap Booster 400 x10
Optimal Range Script x1

It works nearly as good as the Vargur with the only difference that I had to use a cap booster in the machariel setup but not the Vargur setup. So I needed a bit more of attention in the Machariel. However, I remember that I had a lot of fun with the setup and never lost one. As for cruisers I tried the Tengu, but didn’t like it that much. However it is a working for lvl 4 as well.

#20

Best cruiser for mission running is, probably, Gila. It have respectable DPS and tank and don’t have problems with damage application.

But you always will do missions slower than decent pirate battleship or marauder, just because DPS difference is too huge to compensate with better travel times.