Returning after 4 years, need some ship advice

PvE Gameplay Center Missions
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Hello everyone, I’ve just returned after a 4 year break. So much, so very much has changed. I’m wanting to focus on doing level 4 missions for the time being so I can slide back into the game while making some isk. Well I’m looking for a nicer level 4 mission runner. I currently have Gallante and Caldari BS at level 5 and I’m working on my Minmitar BS level 5 as we speak.

My question is this. If I have very good Drone, Shield, Missiles, and Large Turret skills. Which should I go with? The rattlesnake or the Mach? For mission running so far I’ve ground through it with a Dominix and a Raven so it’s similar playstyles I"m guessing. Though the Mach would be more active and whatnot so my question is which should I move toward?

Also I’ve heard a term called “blitzing” and I have no clue what that really means other than people refer to that when they talk about the Mach.

Thanks for your help in advance!!!

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Blitzing is when you run through specific L4 missions where you can “pop” the objective(s) and ignore killing everything else. The reward is primarily the mission LP. You typically do this in the fastest (warp) ship possible as travel time comes into play. Examples:

• Cargo: MWD to the objective, snag the Quafe and return.
• Recon 1-3: Just race through all the gates and return.
• Dread Scarlet: Race through the first two rooms, pop Scarlet, tractor the implant and return.
• Stop the Thief: Shoot the first battleship, then Shadow, then return.
• Pirate Invasion: MJD to the carrier, wait for the spawn around it, kill it and return.
• Assault: MJD to the objective spawn, kill it and return.

The Machariel is well-suited to this method of play as it has an inherent warp bonus that gives it an edge over all other battleships. Ships like the Hecate are also good for missions like Recon and Cargo.

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Is that worth more money than clearing them out? also I’m quite fuzzy on what LP is and what it does as I don’t remember that from before.

Thank you for the quick response.

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Yes and no. You get less bounties but the LP is often worth more. LP = loyalty points. This is what you redeem in the Loyalty Point Store for goodies. Many players blitz Sisters of Eve missions as their LP offers on of the highest LP/ISK ratio.

So you lose out on bounties and salvage (unless you do those missions) but gain more in accumulating more LP at a faster rate. Some don’t like the Faction standing hits for these, but they are very lucrative.

There are missions which are worth completing (Informant, Rogue Drone) for the Elite Drone AI components and the Faction ones (Enemy, etc.) for tags.

In terms of ships, the Rattlesnake is very popular for mission clears because it can put out close to 1800 DPS. It’s also insanely tanky when fit correctly. Marauders are another choice (my favorite) for missions where you want to “shoot and loot”. While not being able to deliver quite as much damage as the Rattlesnake, they can usually apply it better. And they have an insane tank.

I don’t recommend the Triglavian Leshak for PvE at this time (new Precursor skillset).

Based on your skillset you could go Machariel, Rattlesnake, Dominix, Golem or Kronos quite easily.

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okay thanks for the information, It looks like I have to study up on this LP blitzing then.

So as per my question, what is the low down on the rattlesnake vs the mach. I know they are different play styles and eventually I’ll want to get both but I’m kind of wondering about which would be better for me.

Also what ever happen to that web page that had community ship fits?

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It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to simply destroy everything - go Rattlesnake. If you want some degree of shoot/loot - definitely go Marauder (they’re all good). Blitzing - go Machariel and a Hecate for the fast cargo or point-to-point missions.

I’m not sure what happened to the community page for fits. If you search for Rattlesnake you’ll find a few excellent fits by numerous players. Ditto for Machariel or any of the Marauders.

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Yeah I seriously looked into Marauders and I would love to get a Golem but why are their Hulls so costly now? I mean 1.5 billion is kind of crazy.

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They’ve always been expensive, but the changes to moon goo a while back did increase the cost of a lot of things (including Marauder hulls). The Kronos (what I run) is around 1.6 billion ISK at present and I snagged mine just below 1.1 billion ISK when I got it, so yeah - they’ve gone up a bit in price. But Pirate hulls have also increased (you used to be able to get Machariels and Rattlesnakes for under 300 million ISK).

Fly what you like and don’t worry too much about the price. It’s easy to recoup the cost after a few sessions anyway. Compared to the increase in Deadspace and Faction modules, ship hulls are the least of your worries.

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ah true, I remember when I left the mach and rattler were somewhere between 400-550. But they are similar to that in Dodixi so that’s not too bad. Though regular BS prices have went up noticeably as well.

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The nice thing about Marauders is you can get away with a T2 fit. No exaggeration. And the operating cost is half that of other ships.

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o.smium.org depend on Eve API, but API is replaces with ESI so osium become unfunctional, one can download all osium fits from:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XUmXIXWF9Pl3QNvz-tq5qJW3wLBQ9Xo2/view

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I was doing some reading on marauders a couple days ago and it was saying that the Kronos was a no go though. Whats your thoughts on that?

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The Kronos runs fine for me. 75km range with blasters, thermal and kinetic (which is good enough for the majority of missions). You can get from 1300-1800 DPS with implants and most of the NPCs fall within a prime killing range of 20-40km.

All Marauders are good. So are the majority of Pirate battleships. Anything beyond a battlecruiser or strategic cruiser is a substantial upgrade.

Once you’ve run enough L4s you pretty much have a strategy down, so it becomes less about doing the absolute maximum amount of damage and more about consistency.

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[Rattlesnake, L4 whole room clean up]

Drone Damage Amplifier II
Imperial Navy Drone Damage Amplifier
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
C3-X ‘Hivaa Saitsuo’ Ballistic Control System
C3-X ‘Hivaa Saitsuo’ Ballistic Control System

Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Dread Guristas Thermal Dissipation Field
Dread Guristas Large Shield Booster
Missile Guidance Computer II, Missile Range Script
Missile Guidance Computer II, Missile Range Script
500MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Dread Guristas Kinetic Deflection Field

Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Drone Link Augmentor II

Large Drone Scope Chip I
Large Drone Control Range Augmentor II
Large Hydraulic Bay Thrusters II

Bouncer II x2
Curator II x2
Garde II x2
Acolyte II x5
Warden II x2
Ogre II x2

Operating range from 70-100 km, where you have up to 1800 DPS. Implants can help you get rid of navy damage modules, significantly lowering price and a bit of DPS.
Hardeners are mission specific, drones also.

[Machariel, Mission blitz]

Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Corpus X-Type Large Armor Repairer
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
500MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Large Micro Jump Drive

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
Small Tractor Beam II

Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I

Hobgoblin II x5
Wasp II x4

Those two ships offer very different gameplay, so you will not get bored with missions that quick :wink:

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If you are using eve-survival.org for reviewing missions, most of them will have information for blitzing missions:

https://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=MissionReports

Note that not all missions can be blitzed, and as @Arthur_Aihaken says, some are worth doing completely, but this will help out figuring out what to do for each.

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These days the LP isn’t that great because so many people run the missions. It still beats the navy stores, but won’t beat most of the 5 run BPC stores. The main reason people still run it is that the lanngisi constellation layout means you have to go a max 2 jumps for almost every mission, and the system sec is one of the lowest with a lv4 agent in highsec so you can make more LP per hour than any other agent in highsec. For example 100k LP at 1500 beats 70k LP at 2000 (numbers slightly made up but should be about proportional). That said there are some LP stores spiking up to 3k+ but I don’t know how long they can stay there. Either tag prices will spike, prices will fall as competition moves in, or a little bit of both.

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With that Rattlesnake fit, is it a common thing to run a pvp style cap booster setup with PVE? I figured the common thing would be a standard active or passive tank. I’m just curious as I’ve never run a cap booster reliant setup.

Thanks!

PS. Thank you everyone for the awesome replies!

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most of my pve ships use one. Cap booster with 800s can supply all the cap you will need for a mission, meaning you can add on a ton of damage and application mods, which is better than using 3 cccs, a cap battery, and a few rechargers/relays/flux imo. I used to bring ~15 cap booster 800s in cargo which usually left plenty of room for ammo, now most BS can hold even more thanks to the cargo hold buff a while back.

cap stable setups have a use if you have a bad internet connection or need to go afk often it’s worth it to keep your ship alive. Also I’ve converted most of the common burner mission setups to cap stable setups with only minor efficiency losses,

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Weird, I tried putting that rattlesnake fitting into the simulation and it’s about 57 CPU over. and from what I can tell I have max skills for fittings.

I really like the fit though, as with my skills I got like 1790 something DPS.

Thanks guys!!!

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Drone rigs also? They eat tons of cap and fit uses 2 of them.