The Nidhoggur is a Minmatar carrier, the Tengu is a Caldari strategic cruiser.
The only similarities between these 2 ships are that they are…spaceships, and that they are overwhelmingly shield tanked. In fact they are so vastly different that I wonde why you’re comparing them.
You can rat in both the nidhoggur and the tengu, but they have very different styles of ratting and the risks/rewards associated with them are vastly different.
You probably ask for skilling reasons, and it sounds like ISK doesn’t matter at all. A dangerous combination.
A Nidhoggur is an investment. It’s not just the hull, not even all its modules and rigs, but like in RL a sole Carrier is rarely seen. For a new player, I reckon at least one year of skilling to be able to handle such a ship including weapon and defence systems. Normally there’s a corp which provides some protection and can help with fitting questions.
A Tengu is a T3 cruiser - also much time to skill, and much experience to handle that expensive ship, and you need many skills at V (and even more are recommended to be fully skilled). Pirates love to shot them.
Both ships are definitely not recommended for new players.
For a start, after about 6 months in the game, I’d rather try a Praxis.
If you enjoy the Worm, your next step is it’s big brother Gila which is well suited to the PVE content you’ll find in highsec. As you explore in more dangerous space the T3 cruisers have a lot to recommend them. You can have a travel fit with covert cloak and interdiction nullification plus a combat fit for running sites and switch back and forth (including rigs) as needed. If you like the combination of missiles + drones, be sure to look at Loki and Legion as well as Tengu.
Carrier and super carrier ratting are effective if you belong to a large group who can defend you. When I lived in Nullsec, most ratting was done in T1 battleships because there were no defensive “umbrellas” - if hunters caught you - you died. I suspect that re-balancing ratting income is one of the issues the ecosystem team will be looking at over the coming year and training a carrier for the sole purpose of ratting may not turn out to be as good an idea as it has been for the past few years. If you want the carrier for fleet PVP with a little ratting on the side - go for it!
You should definitely try a Gila. It’s fun and one of the most popular ships, as even a Gallente guy like me has to admit. Medium Drones V is mandatory.
Leshaks and all the other Triglavian ships are way more effective when in groups, because of remote repping reasons. Group ratting in a Leshak fleet is working perfectly, but you need a cap chain, which means multiple chars (and players, for fun’s sake).
That’s a sensible ship progression “tree”, as you slowly skill up, you fly better and more expensive ships. Jumping into a ship that you paid for with real money before learning about it is a really bad idea.
I’ve been saying combat anoms all along but what I actually meant was combat sigs. I like scanning down the sigs, running the site and hope for the escalation. Sorry, that’s me being a noob! Some might say a knob!
I’m making good isk in my worm, a couple bil a month maybe but I want to run better sites in more dangerous space.
From what I have read the Gila is for ratting?
I figured with a Tengu at least I could jump in and out of wormholes too and try a few of their sites.
Don’t do any WH sites in expensive ships solo. WH corps love that kind of prey for breakfast, because when you are ratting or hacking, you are perfectly visible on D-Scan and grid, while your opponents aren’t until it’s too late.
To fly a bigger ship is an enormously different way of piloting. They are slow, they are inert, their guns are not really suited for small targets, and it takes ages to lock small targets. So if you excel in flying a Worm, a Gila is the logical next step, as already stated by various editors. It has much more DPS, but already less agility, and you can feel the difference. And in your first raids in a Battleship you will feel like your orders take ages to be executed.
A Rattlesnake is a very popular ratting ship, but you should be careful in your advance, because they are popular roaming victims, too - and there’s no way to escape as quickly as you may in a Worm.
Gila has a pair of super powerful drones, A basic T2 fit should produce over 800 dps and close to 50K EHP - this is for a a cruiser that an Alpha character can fly - though an Alpha won’t be able to train the skills to achieve those numbers. You can run any PVE content in highsec although a battleship like the Gila’s big brother Rattlesnake may be able to run it faster.
The advantage of a T3 cruiser is the ability to fit a covert cloak, interdiction nullification plus bonuses for scanning and hacking - all useful when you leave highsec.