So I got abit bored with exploration and wanted to do some L4 mission farming for maybe slow but steady income (I know its not optimal and most efficient way but for now I wanna do it).
I was thinking about Marauders but plenty of people are saying they are overkill on L4 and something like Rattlesnake is good enough. Hovewer Im not blitzing missions, I like to clear whole rooms, pick loot and salvage everything so Marauders kinda look good for that specific playstyle with their tractor bonus.
I must also mention I will use this ship for different nations so having option to use different damage type is nice (thats why I think Amarr ships are not for me).
So what would be best pick for me for this?
What would be good “ship progression” from basic battleship to more advanced options while waiting for a marauder?
Do you have one account or more? I just used two cheap Logis with remote tracking and cap chain + Vindicator, or Machariel fully fitted for damage, it’s fun and undectructable for all L4. Logis are using salvage drones, so i have 0 downtime, just set MTU, put salvage drones out and enjoy pewpew.
If you plan on clearing whole missions you need some potent damage dealer. I’d look into Vindicator or Machariel for this purposes. Marauders work too, and you can save on bling fittings because they have nice tanking bonuses and bastion module. In other hand, skillpoints spent on Marauders is just dead weight generally.
Why skill points used on Marauders are dead weight? I have around 57 mln SP and I was doing various things so I dont need that much training except for Battleship lvl 5.
Marauders almost never used outside of mission running, because hull price is too high, but if you don’t need that skillpoints for anything else - why not.
I’ve used a Raven for the longest time, and recently as a former member of USIA, used the Raven Navy as seen in the link above. I use one char, and after clearing rooms (unlike with USIA) I’d go back and grab my noctis (which I’d drop an MTU while killing) and use the noctis to salvage and scoop. Rinse and repeat.
Would something like this be a good starting point?
[Raven, Rayven]
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Signal Amplifier II
Gist C-Type Large Shield Booster
Multispectrum Shield hardener II
Cap Recharger II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Multispectrum Shield hardener II
Cap Recharger II
Target Painter II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Cruise Missile Launcher II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Not sure if I want invest into Rattlesnake if my goal would be a Golem anyway.
nope. You use one or two or more ship(s) per base of operation. If you change agent, you buy another fit for that agent. You move from agent to agent in a hyperspatial sunesis that will go faster than a shuttle while boasting alot more tank( 10-20k depending on the fit) and having more cargo (600 instead of 10)
raven → rattle → golem for most. Only rattle is kine/thermal locked, which is good enough. add a mach or a barghest to blitz some, an inty for recon and cargo delivery. golem with painter bonus is a beast with torps.
If you don’t mind going armor, go phoon → barghest.
What about Maelstrom - Vargur route? Some people told me it can be better choice (mostly I dont have to worry about explosion radius and hitting smaller targets with cruise missiles).
maelstrom is bad, use machariel instead. You will also have issues with small targets, but vargur can reposition and shoot barrage at 100km which is definitely enough to kill 20 frigates going towards you.
thats actually my ship that i used for the longest time (still use occasionally) … it works if you don’t mind having a shield fitted raven and accidentally aggro the entire room.
Ok so to sums it up for lazy mission mode (warp to pocket, kill everything red, loot, salvage, move to another pocket, repeat) my best bet would be just get Rattlesnake and skill up more for Golem, right?
As I said Im not talking about efficiency and isk/h but just about farming L4s is some “relaxing mood”.
The Rattlesnake is a great ship, but it’s cargo hold is just too small for anyone wanting to full kill/clean missions. If you can limit your loot/salvage as you traverze all the mission rooms, picking and taking only the best items, the the RS is great. Me, OCD or not, I like to leave nothing behind so I use any one of my Marauders, an MTU, and T2 salvage drones to kill everything and have it nearly cleaned up by the time the last enemy has fallen. Most of the loot gets recycled to meet my own industrial needs (mostly ammo and such) every 100 million or so.
So, one account go Raven, RS, and then Golem if you want to full kill/clean missions in one go around.
Rattlesnake isn’t for blitzing. Rattlesnake is for sitting there and killing things which is what you want. Machariel is for blitzing because if the mission is actually difficult, it’s tank lasts just long enough to go in, do what’s needed, and get out. Salvaging, while definitely an option, is relatively unlucrative and you should really look into how much ISK you get from salvaging a site vs how much ISK you’d get from just running another mission.
The rattlesnake is also as good as any other missile boat despite it’s missiles being thermal and kinetic restricted as every pirate faction has one of those as either primary or secondary resist hole.
Hitting the secondary hole is NOT “as good as” hitting the first one. On the angels going from explosive to kinetic is a reduction of damage by ±15%
Of course, but would you rather do 100 EM damage or 150 Thermal in a sansha mission?
Edit: To clarify, my point is that no rat besides “Caldari (Edencom)” and “Gallente (Edencom)” according to this page has a primary or secondary weakness that the rattle can’t hit with bonused missiles.