It can use the MJD to get 100km distance so doesn’t need a strong tank. Has decent dps with 425mm railguns, and tracking comps + optimal range scripts x2.
And 5 light drones for backup. I don’t see any content or threads where people use the Talos for PvE, generally its a gank blaster boat but having experience with sniping BB fits I don’t see a reason why the Talos wouldn’t work, for a fraction of the cost. Am I missing something?
Naga is usually used for sniping instead of talos.
Naga does snipe better to longer ranges, like 150km or greater.
Talos can get good dps & tracking to around the 100km mark of the MJD, and its got 5x Light Drones 2 for support vs elite frigs.
If you avoid Gurista missions it could work, but will be slow I bet. So why would you do it then?
Its super cheap (total ~103M) for L4 runner, with decent long range dps, with guns only at targets ~100-110km away, ~550dps with cheap URA ammo. DPS rises as targets get closer can switch to PLU or AM. No application issues vs small targets.
[Talos, L4 Sniper]
3x Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Reactive Armor Hardener
Medium Armor Repairer II
Medium Micro Jump Drive
F-90 Compact Sensor Booster, Targeting Range Script
2x Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
8x 425mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Uranium Charge L
2x Medium Hybrid Locus Coordinator II
Medium Semiconductor Memory Cell I
5x Hobgoblin II
Could be a good stepping stone into other BB and then the Kronos with Railguns.
And yes only Guristas with their long range missiles can really hit you.
Edit: Although Naga does better gun dps at long range, giving up the drones. Naga with ~700 DPS at 86-130km is really nice for a t1 fitted BC for cheap. I think that answers my OP, Talos is vastly overshadowed by Naga in a sniping role.
The Naga’s bonus also works great with blasters. With only one tracking enhancer II, using NULL L, your blasters will have some 45-55km falloff if I recall correctly.
Just be careful not to get sneezed at by a frigate.
yeah but it has more dps at 2.5× the range with 425 and CN AM 
425 CNAM 69km 99.5DPS
NBCII nullL 27.5km 99.4DPS
(distance is average of tooltip’s opti and falloff, at this distance you deal 84% of your weapon max DPS : 0.5^(0.5²) =0.8409)
Yeah I really never saw the benefit of blasters for PvE. Mission spawns generally come in at mid to long range, wasting time waiting or MWD into close range negates so much paper extra DPS of blasters.
425 railguns pew pew immediate application has higher real dps in pve.
425mm or 350mm railguns are the ticket (especially when combined with a Kronos).
The Serpentis and the Angel Cartel would like to talk to you. They like to cuddle.
You will want a microwarp in addition to the jump drive for PVE, unless you want to spend 3/4 of the mission burning towards a jump gate at a snail’s pace.
Also, the cost of T2 guns are almost as much as the ship. You can use a Praxis that could both deal more damage AND tank the site in relatively close range for an extra 60 million isk. The use of missiles to select the correct resistance to maximize damage helps a lot.
The Attack Battlecruisers across the board are in kind of a poor state currently, across the board in all aspects of the game except for suicide ganking.
They all need a bit of a rework imho. A vedmak will do nearly everything that a short range gun ABC can do, except suicide ganking, better and at a similar price. The long range guns on an ABC generally require too many fitting mods to make them work outside of very niche situations.
Yeah, the only good thing is their DPS/cost ratio.
Also, their agility is not bad IIRC.
My suggestion is to make the ABC, like all T1 ships, the max range ships.
So they have less DPS than the T2 combat variations, but still more range