Howdy All!
I’ve just returned after a significant absence, and am not current with the changes to ships.
Currently I’m flying a sentry dom for ratting and missions, but am unsure of where to go to upgrade. From what I’ve gathered, it seems to be a t3 cruiser, but I see a lot of cheering for the rattlesnake too.
Can anyone suggest what the right next move would be, and/or what would be the most efficient?
Thanks!
For ratting, the Rattlesnake takes a lot of extra training (see missile skills) over the Dominix, but it’s a no-brainer as far as the next step, the raw damage output you can get with it is what you’re after, and T3Cs can’t match it.
As far as missions, I think T3Cs are better, because a lot of the time spent is actually spend moving around, warping, and burning to gates.
Sub is the next step after Dom…
For ratting you want as much gank as you can get, a rattlesnake is pretty good for a BS option, beyond that you probably want to start looking at carriers. Nidhoggur seems to be the current favorite with drone damage and speed bonuses. If you are in null ratting I’m sure your alliance has some better advice than I can give here.
Missions, Machariel all day. Great speed and agility, with high BS dps and decent projection. Might be worth saving your domi too as there are a few missions where you don’t really mind the damage drop to get the range, although the mach can do those with arty too. From there start training the frigate skills to run the burner missions, check some guides/videos as going in unprepared is a good way to lose ships.
You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. That question is moot.
Nobody says you need to “upgrade” when you are perfectly fine with what you have.
@Chainsaw_Plankton and @elitatwo pretty much have it covered.
There is no real “next step” cuz the domi is a great ship on its own–navy domi, I guess? However if you just want to do missions quicker I’d recommend the Rattlesnake, Machariel, or the lesser used Nightmare and Vindicator. Missions aren’t hard to tank so you aught to focus on damage.
No real way up from domi, carrier aside.
How about heavy drones/blaster navy domi? Same DPS as rattle, though ofc far less range on blasters.
Or just stay where you’re at, “don’t break what works” is one of golden rules of eve, i missioned in Raven for years, never changing my 1100dps fit ever.
With respect to missions, I would just add that the next step is typically ships to specialize and maximize mission completion times. Marauders for full clears/salvage, Pirate hulls for blitzing and mission-specific aspects and of course ships tailored for Burners.
Gila, Rattlesnake, Tengu / Loki. I assume you have your drone skills up, so now work on missles. You want Rapid Lights, Heavy Assault, rapid Heavies and Cruise. Rockets if you will be doing burners, and forget torpedoes.
Gila can do any L4 mission, even the hardest ones like the bonus extravaganza rooms but that does get challenging and you may lose 1 or 2 until you get the hang of it. You won’t be breaking any speed records in it. The easier missions you will do much faster then a battleship would, because of the mobility.
I also assume your armor tank skills are up there, work on shields. Once you have your missle and shield skills up, then train Tengu or Loki. Loki has a sick tank, no holes, Tengu will outdo it but only vs rat types that are vulnreable vs kinetic damage, in all-around Loki is better. Should also point out that IMHO Tengu is better if you are in LS / NS /WH because of the ECM sub system. Lets you break point and GTFO whereas in a Loki, you’ll need to outmanuver and / or kill the pointer.
You can stick with the standard domi for a very long time, getting better as you improve your skills and fit. If you want to move beyond that while sticking with drones, you need to train shield and missiles and get a rattlesnake, or train shields and guns and drop a ton of money on a shield navy dominix. It’s a pretty significant jump in skills and isk to effectively use those ships. Personally I went to a Vargur and was very happy with blapping frigs with autocannon cycle times and not needing to manage sertries. The rattlesnake is great but the dual weapon system is a bit funky to manage. I prefer it for nullsec ratting and plexes.
To be fair, there are 3 other more needed subs to keep in the sub hold. The time it takes even if you already have a depot out, to swap to ecm and sacrifice your tank… You’re dead. Its a ‘A’ for hypothetical effort, smart thinking. The reality of it, dps is on grid within 20 seconds of being pointed in WH. I’ve been the hunter and the hunted in this story.
No.
you don’t swap anything. you go with the subsystem from the get go. you still have plenty of tank and utility slots left.
fly whatever you feel comfortable to try. if you like your current drone potato, you could always jump to the navy drone potato (Navy Dominix), it doesnt get the tracking bonus in favour of a hibrid turret bonus to complement the drones along with higher stats than the regular potato
or if you’re a fan of armor and dont want to mess around learning missiles, you could invest in a Nestor (allthought you could become a gank magnet) since SoE ships are drone + armor focus compared to the heavy shields + drones of the Guristas doctrine.
T3C are an interesting alternative but i think only the Proteus and Legion pull drones (but i barely know about T3 ships so not sure the downsides of those subsystems).
as for T2, Ishtar perhaps? i dont know if there’s a T2 battleship that could serve as upgrade from the Dominix taking in account the Sin is a Black Ops and thus is not designed for that PvE role.
Gila is a step down, rattle is same with different weapons, tengu and loki is step aside. None of these will offer any real advantage over domi. Ishtar could work if you want to fly faster but damage wise it is subpar.
The Legion only gets a drone bay with the HAM and logi subsystem. The laser configuration doesn’t have a drone bay.
I extremely disagree.
Gila is a step towards rattle and has of course greater mobility and flexibility over domi and can do all the same content just as effectively. Situationally Gila is slower then domi, for example bonus rooms on extravaganza missions, but overall is much faster.
Rattle is no where near the same. It has better range, application and control options. It is a far superior ship. It outperforms domi on DPS, tank, utility. Tengu and Loki are sidesteps, that is correct. They are of course better suited for various situations, but they also open up more options, for example, later on you can go explo, if you get bored of combat in a tengu or loki, whereas in a domi, not so much, or ECM fit for Tengu is pretty nice too.
+1 for the snake. It is an absolutely ridiculous ship.
Which probably means a nerf is inbound…
I’d be ok with that
It’s kinda too bad there’s nothing beyond the Domi for drones. Sure, you can get into a Nestor or Rattlesnake - but this doesn’t really enhance the drone aspect (you actually lose tracking and optimal). That and you need to train into a second set of skills in the form of lasers or missiles.
I know the reason for this is anything more powerful would become the new AFK ratter of choice, but still…