So long story short. My mission runner has been doing Lvl 4 Security missions for Brutor Tribe in a copy-paste Maelstrom from UniWiki, except for T2 guns (all primary/support skills for it at V). It’s not so expensive that I don’t dare undock and as long as I fit suitable resist mods and bring the right ammo (and drones) it does work well, but if I mess up and get swarmed the hungry T2 shield booster quickly eats up my cap. It was especially painful in a few fights on the Minmatar Epic Arc where I had to warp out for recharge/repair a few times.
So I was wondering if it would be worth investing in a Deadspace shield booster? The big ones eat the same but repair much more, one that takes less cap means I could stay in action longer - and also maybe upgrade something else. Or might some other investment bring me the edge I’d like cheaper? A shield or cap implant maybe? I’d like to stay within reason for a T1 BS, after all, don’t want some nasty pirates to hit me just for a chance at the mods!
Faction/deadspace modules are rarely necessary but often desirable. The important thing to remember is that ships are consumables - don’t fly it if you can’t afford to lose it.
If you can accept a loss without too much pain - by all means pimp your ride. It’s a game, you’re supposed to enjoy yourself!
Wrong ship. Unless you realy in love with Maelstrom you are better with Dominix (universal cheap LMJD sniper with sentry drones), Machariel (for mission blitz) or Rattlesnake (full room clear). Next level is a Maradeur, which is the CCP tool invented for mission runners.
Wrong tribe for mission running. You will be running in high sec space with 0.8 or higher security status and that seriosly limit your rewards. Chose other corp, that has mission stations in 0.5 space, like systers of Eve in Lanngisi or Freedom extension
Honestly, a Marauder for level 4 is absolutely overkill, especially now the hulls are 1.5-2b lol. Thoose are for level 5 missions and wormhole farming.
A blinged out t1 battleship is more then enough to do level 4 and if you are smart you wont loose it to people trying to bait you.
Bling if you feel like you have the isk. But you really wanna be cap stable in missions, if you are facetanking stuff, so maybe a new fit would be better?
Remember, there is bling and there is bling. Many faction/deadspace modules are not really that expensive - like in the tens of millions. Adding one or two of those isn’t going to increase the value of your battleship to any noticeable degree - no pirate is going to look differently at your 380M ISK battleship than your 330M ISK battleship. If you can afford it and think it will ease or speed your game significantly, then do so without a thought.
What you don’t want to do is get to the point you have shiny modules that are worth the majority of your loadout (and can drop), or be risking significant ISK for a 1% improvement in your run time. Finding the balance and estimating the risk is a main part of the game, but one you have to figure out for yourself. I would say though that too many people underestimate the risk to them (and/or overestimate their ability to counter that risk), and overestimate the benefit excess bling has on their performance, so if in doubt, go with the cheaper option.
Then about your ship.
Save some money. Then have fun with your ship. I made many L4s and almost never had someone warping to me. The rare occasions it happens is when someone wants to ninja salvage, and I shoot the wrecks.
[Maelstrom]
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II
X-Large Shield Booster II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
EM Ward Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Large Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
100MN Afterburner II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
I built it with the Adaptive Invulnerability Fields but also picked up one each of the T2 specific hardeners to switch out if I know what I’m facing. Oh, seems I also slapped on a T2 Afterburner for some reason. The capacitator is good for 2:53 with all my skills at V and the Genolution implant package. The shield is full at 10491 points and the booster reps 1290 per 5 secs, which is usually enough pulsed. It’s mainly the Epic Arc where some missions worried me, or the times I mess up and blow a trigger ship early and get a new spawn before the other is finished.
Thanks for your upgrade suggestions, the faction cap battery and a Pith type shield booster do seem like reasonable upgrades that won’t blow my bank. A bit more room for error as I blunder about in this ungainly (but pleasantly killy) ship. And they don’t increase the value too much for my sensibilities.
As for getting another ship I’m not looking for one right now but do possess the skills to use a Machariel (and Dominix ofc), the Rattlesnake would require me to train some more into Caldari ships and missile specialist skills but the drones I already know. Maybe I’ll go for a drone boat once I have fully learned how to use this silly tug first. (I’m more used to cruisers/BCs.) Drones seem like fun even if Minmatar ships seldom have that many of them.
And while Brutor isn’t the hottest ISK source it did give me the easiest and safest access to the epic arc. I’ll do some more until I can cash out something worth selling (or using), then maybe look for some other place. The popular hubs would ofc pay more but also hold larger risks…
Marauders are awesome. Compared to the prices on some Deadspace modules, the hulls aren’t that unreasonable now. You could consider them overkill, but when it comes to clearing and salvaging - it’s hard to beat the setup.
Please note I didn’t tell you to go to usual rating hubs. This is a bad idea. Lanngisi eg is really NOT worth it by now, since everybody is doing it the prices have crashed.
PLUS most ratting hubs are good for burners, which you seem not to do by now, and the burners hubs and the standard L4 spots are very different.
Drone battleships are boring and/or too bothersome to use for L4s IMO. You really should look at the Machariel which offers 50 to 80% more dps compared to your current fit for a mere 1,4 billion at current Jita prizes for a complete blingy fit(ship + modules + rigs). It is also has a pretty big drone bay and is fairly fast and thus probably more fun to fly than a slow drone boat.
I usually give myself a 300-500mil budget for bling, that’s pretty easy to do with a few faction damage mods, faction MWD, and a nice booster/rep. The pith c-type xl boosters were cheap but it seems they’ve spiked with the mutaplasmids, although they aren’t too high.
anything over that starts getting into gankbait territory. How much over kinda depends on where you are but imo there isn’t much reason to go much over anyways. If you are under that threshold and get ganked anyways I’d consider it a random act of ganking, either that or you made someone mad.
I like my Leshak. I just wish it had a higher initial damage output because other than structures there are very few targets it will ever apin-up to apply full damage to.
560k EHP tank @800 base DPS is kind of impressive, though.
Well, a 1500 dps rattlesnake can clear everything alot faster then any marauder and can move at the same time aswell. Sentry drone and MJD setup absolutely melts level 4!
Then simply clear it with a salvaging destroyer after wards, if you really want salvage.
And a rattlesnake hull is almost a fourth of the price of a marauder hull now, making marauders an even worse choice for Level 4 atm.
Sure if you want to, go for it, but theres no reason to use 1.7b on a golem, when you can spend 4-500m on a snake and get more DPS overall. You DONT need a Marauder tank for level 4, you simply dont.
I agree with what @Do_Little says and every ship is worth blining if it means it will perform better.
However, when you run L4s for ISKs, which is what most players do, then you really don’t want to invest a lot of ISKs into it, because every bit of extra beyond your average T2 fit means you’ll put increasing amounts of ISKs into something that is supposed to create ISKs.
So if you want to make ISKs with L4s then it may be better to moderate yourself, because even when it’s not gankers who will pop you for you expensive modules can it always be a bad network connection that can suddenly cost you your ship or something in RL can require your attention, which you have to leave your keyboard for.
The question then was if it’s worth investing in a Deadspace shield booster… I’d say first invest into more DPS, because this is what will let you finish missions faster and makes you ISKs faster, too. And finishing missions faster also means taking less damage.
If you don’t have damage implants yet then those are the first things you should get yourself. Those will stay with you even when you lose your ship, unless you get podded on top of it.
Replace your maelstrom with a higher dps battleship. Better modules are more effective on a better ship. Since you’ve already got skills for projectiles and matari hulls, get a machariel; hell with matari BS5 the tempest is a better L4 hull than the maelstrom.
If you are worried about your tank you aren’t killing things fast enough.
Always consider faction and deadspace modules, if your ship is making you isk there is no reason not to.
Thanks for the input. I know there are better ships, but I just happen to like the Maelstrom and the way I need to set things up so I don’t get swarmed. I might get a Machariel later, but since I’m not used to up-close and personal combat it’s probably best that I train a bit in the Cynabal I built after getting the BPC from the Angels Epic Arc. Just jumping in a ship with a very different playstyle would probably cost me a few ships before I get the idea.
