Upgrade from Caldari Raven for missions lv 3 > 4

The only alternate suggestions I have with @stefnia_Freir’s fit would be:

  • T2 auto-targeting system
  • Faction signal amplifier if you can’t fit a T2
  • 6x of the cheaper Faction cruise launchers (have more ammo capacity)

The Rattlesnake may be a better choice than a Navy Raven on the way to a Golem - as long as you have halfway decent drone skills.

Recommending a very expensive ship to someone who just returned, who struggled with L3 previously, is irresponsible.

The Golem is going to be a huge target for gankers, and a very expensive loss for someone who only has a fraction of the funds to afford one.

OP: A standard Raven is very capable L4 runner. Use cruise missiles, a Micro Jump Drive, get to 100km+ range and salvo NPCs from safety. Pack some drones for frigate NPCs.

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There’s not a huge price difference between a Navy Raven and a Rattlesnake, and not a big price difference between a Rattlesnake and Golem. The Golem will have the best return on investment - the Rattlesnake will be the most forgiving. You can run both as mostly (entirely) T2 fits and you’ll do just fine.

Get those skills up. A Raven should be a powerhouse and make Level 4 missions super easy. Should have at least 800dps with 1600+ alpha. Seven mid slots allows you to put on a nice tank and that should easily be over 70k ehp or a lot higher.

Lots of great advice above. Have fun with it and go for Golem if you can afford it as its an upgrade to most of what makes the Raven great. And don’t forget to use your drones when anything gets close.

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Firstly, welcome back to the game.

Before considering any of the expensive marauders, I would suggest you train and develop your skills because there are a few problems I have noticed just from looking at your screenshot of your current raven fit.

At your current level you should be aiming for something like the following setup. Depending on the missions you switch out the hardeners and usually run 3-4 hardeners depending on which mission which makes your tank pretty good in handling it unless you pull more agro than you can handle.

Highs
6x Cruise Missile Launcher II
1x Small Tractor Beam I
Meds
1x X-Large Shield Booster II
1x 100MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
2x Kinetic Shield Hardener II
2x Thermal Shield Hardener II
1x Sensor Booster II
Lows
3x Ballistic Control System II
2x Power Diagnostic System II
Rigs
1x Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
2x Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Drones
5x Hobgoblin II
5x Hammerhead II or switch out for salvage drones.

To do that fit you’ll need the magic 14… who came up with that name… makes me think of magic mike and 14 other strippers running around.

Anyway…

  • Spaceship Command - Improves the agility of all ships
  • CPU Management - Increases the Central Processing Unit (CPU) output of all ships
  • Power Grid Management - Increases the power grid output of all ships
  • Capacitor Management - Increases the capacitor capacity of all ships
  • Capacitor Systems Operation - Improves the recharge speed of your capacitor
  • Mechanics - Increases structure hit points
  • Hull Upgrades - Increases armor hit points
  • Shield Management - Increases shield capacity
  • Shield Operation - Improves the recharge rate of your shield
  • Long Range Targeting - Increases the maximum range at which you can lock a target
  • Signature Analysis - Improves locking speed against targets
  • Navigation - Increases the velocity of all ships
  • Evasive Maneuvering - An even larger bonus to ship agility
  • Warp Drive Operation - Reduces the capacitor need to begin warping

On top of that you need to sort out your shield skills
EM Shield Compensation lvl 4 for the em shield amp when you switch it in for the missions
Shield Compensation - lvl 4 but 5 is much better to save on cap
Shield Management - need level 5
Shield Operation lvl 4
Tactical Shield Manipulation lvl 4

Weapon Upgrades and Advanced Weapon Upgrades to level 5 on both are a must from the engineering section of the skill table.

Missile skills, take these all to lvl 4 at least…

Auto-Targeting Missiles leave at lvl 4 to counter ewar
Guided Missile Precision
Missile Bombardment
Missile Launcher Operation
Missile Projection
Rapid Launch
Target Navigation Prediction
Warhead Upgrades

Don’t upgrade to a golem till you can run 20 lvl 4 missions without freaking out from pulling more agro than you can handle. I gave you this advice so that you don’t waste your isk on a soon to be wreck due to lack of experience.

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These are all good suggestions, but I would probably place the following skills as a lower priority for Caldari-based ships:

  • CPU Management - Increases the Central Processing Unit (CPU) output of all ships
  • Power Grid Management - Increases the power grid output of all ships
  • Mechanics - Increases structure hit points
  • Hull Upgrades - Increases armor hit points
  • Warp Drive Operation

Unless you’re short on CPU/powergrid, just go for the bare minimum needed to fit out your ship. The same for mechanics and hull upgrades. Warp drive operation won’t have a significant impact unless you’re always running out of capacitor - and even then won’t have a huge impact.

The other skills listed are a higher priority (IMHO).

Neither a Raven nor a Raven Fleet Issue can decently active tank. You need a golem for that :wink:

In the screenshot, your raven has 305s shield booster cycling before the capacitor is depleted. If that’s a Multispectrum Shield Hardener II in the screenshot, the Raven will generate 44ehp/s passively and another 232ehp/s using the shield booster, for 305s. After that time is over, you have to warp out, or to have finshed the NPCs. In 305s, you generated 305s * (44ehp/s + 232ehp/s) = 84k ehp. The Raven also has 37k ehp buffer, yielding 120k ehp.

If you fit shield exenders and hardeners instead, a Raven can easily surpass the ability to tank 120k ehp for 5 minutes, especially as the passive shield regeneration increases as the buffer does. To a Passive Tanked fit, capacitor is less of a problem, too, allowing the fitting to be focused on damage application and amplification rather then capacitor pressure.

Currently, the Fit completely lacks damage application modules. If your strategy revolves around Microjump Driving and then sniping the NPCs while manouvering around, you might want to install a Target Painter on the Raven. If you prefer fighting in the intermediate or even close distance range, you should put a Stasis Grappler or a Stasis Webifier or even better, both, on the Raven.

The Low Slot Capacitor Generators can be swapped with Missile Guidance Enhancers for marginally better application, a Damage Control and a Power Diagnostic for Tank, or Nanofiber Internal Structure for manouverability… well if you want to manouver it though, most raven just sit around or move in a straight line.

Rigs, too, can be selected from the Missile Launcher Rigs category to improve your damage output quality, or from the Shield Rigs category to improve your tank.

For the Microwarp Drivers, the Quad Lif Restrained variant has less negative capacitor modifier then the other Meta Microwarps, which is important when capacitor is a problem, and it also has less signature modifier, which is always good.

That all said,

[Raven, Buffer]

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Power Diagnostic System II

500MN Quad LiF Restrained Microwarpdrive
Large Micro Jump Drive
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Phased Scoped Target Painter

'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I, Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile
'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I, Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile
'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I, Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile
'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I, Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile
'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I, Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile
'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I, Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile
[Empty High slot]

Large Core Defense Field Extender I
Large Core Defense Field Extender I
Large Core Defense Field Extender I

has the same launchers and therefore same damage as the active tanked Raven, but is capacitor stable and has 169k ehp buffer and 200ehp/s passive shield regeneration. The Launchers should become T2 if possible, as Fury Missiles are less expensive then Faction ones, and the target painter compensates for the fury’s poorer application, while the higher raw damage means more damage on Battlecruiser and Battleship types. Upgrading the Target Painter to a T2 one increases the application.

Also, a Raven will naturally have a harder time with EM spamming foes like Blood or Sansha. It can be fit with specific tank modules to mitigate the EM weakness, but you can also be picky and prefer running missions that ask you to wreck Angel or Gurista or Serpentis instead.

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Skill Injectors give you skill points to use in training. Small and large are available on market. And there is daily injector for alpha. Small is 200mil or less and large is around 900mil or less

Checkem out. They help when you need a little extra SP to finish a training and you dont want to wait.

GL!

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But you also have drawbacks to injectors… after 5 mil sp, they start losing how much they give you. after you reach 80 mil sp you get the lowest that the injectors will give you, while still paying the price as if you could get the full amount.

like a large skill injector gives you 500,000 SP… after you have 5 mil sp, then an injector only gives you 400,000… another mile stone, and it reduces further until after 80 mil sp, you only get 150,000 sp per injector… making it not really worth it.

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If you have >80m SP, Cerebral Accelerators available via public contracts are more efficient then SP injectors. However, if you have 80mil SP w/o having skilled Weapon Upgrades to level 4 (in order to fit Missile Guidance Computer II), you’re not a combat oriented capsuleer.

When you struggle with level 4 security regulars/grinders, ISK is better spent investing into ships/fits then into skill injectors.

At low effort and low risk, for example, you can put a Scanner Probe Launcher on a spare high slot of the Raven, scan 5 signatures, then run a lvl2 distribution mission with just that Raven, which will reward some LP, thereby clearing 2 of the daily opportunities, and be rewarded with 10k SP once per day, as well as 150k SP on the 12th day, while cashing out the login rewards for 12 days in a row will also provide some SP, on top of the SP the toon generates passively by being subscribed. If you manage to find a Combat Signature while scanning - they’re not that rare - you can run it, and maybe get some interesting loot or an escalation…

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