Ships & Modules

Battlecruisers can selectively do level 4's, but painfully. Drake is the current king due to great tanking capabilities, even though the missiles are weak for level 4 damage. Drakes are rumored to be changing with an upcoming revamp, doing more damage and having less tank, so you probably don't want to put a ton of training into them solely for long-term level 4's.

You can sure use the drake for wormholes or anomalies, though.

Some of the pirate cruisers can do pretty well in 4's such as the Gila, but that requires training not only the missiles and shields, but Caldari/Gallente cruisers and drones, making them much more time-consuming than a focused battleship. But the skills will carry over later into a lot of different paths such as Drake/Tengu/Proteus/Ishtar/Rattlesnake, so it's a good long-term goal to focus on for a very flexible cruiser-hulled ship.

Really, for level 4's you need to be prepared to spend at least a few weeks training into battleships, or look longer term for T3's or HACs. They don't require a lot of time to do slowly (Look into low-skilled, AFK Dominix for slow but safe level 4's if you only invest in T2 hobs/hammers + t1 ogres and dual LAR), but they pay off in the long run since you can always fall back on the battleships when you need easy and safe income while funding other endeavors.

0.0 ratting can be done in most ships but the speed with which you rat will vary greatly. Given your requirements, try a Retribution.

Level 4 missions work best in battleships, field command ships or a Tengu/Drake. You can do them in other ships but none of them are particularly fast at them. (Perhaps the Ishtar counts aswell)

Buthurt amarr mistakes falloff for optimal.

The harbinger could do certain level 4's - but realistically you want to get a nice legion, fit it for stinky-EHP and then las0r dem missions.

You can't fly a HAC or a T3? Train for it. Simple. Short term you're best just raping level 3's in a harbinger. The harder and faster you can clear them, the more LP you get - LP is where the bling is at.

I don't really get the lumbering part ?

You warp to mission pocket. Lock targets and blow them up. Warp back to base and deliver.

Very rarely do you fly around (at least I seldom do) as you either have an alt for picking up the loot and salvage, or you do that after you finished the missions.

Some missions require you to fly a distance to get to an acceleration gate, but most often you will know this beforehand by reading up the mission on EVE Mission reports where they are pretty decent with adding in tips such as "Bring an AB, there's a bit of flying around."

So overall... not alot of lumbering around in Battleships. Plus they are hands down the most efficient L4 mission runners compared to the training time and ISK required to fly them.

Then again, I've done L4's in a Retribution just because I was bored. It's doable as well, but exceedingly slow compared to just warping in with a Battleship and popping everything within gun/missile range.

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the responses. It's sounding like I'm just going to have to suck it up and use a BS for a while until I get the skills for a legion, which is about what I expected, but I figured I'd ask.

I've heard the apocalypse is a great starter BS (although hideous >.<). If I have the cash, should I go straight for a navy apoc?

navy apoc is the way to go - pulse lazors with the extra range - hit hard at 30-50, which is where in my experience you need to be able to deliver , active tanking - no need to go for the passive plates setups, might need to exchange hardeners to fit the rats.

Geddon even though it looks better on paper is not that great due to limited range..

Also not sure if legion is a mission running ship , although I hear it's great at incursions.

Zealots and Omen Navy Issue are not ships to make jokes about, those are pesky stuff to deal with, fast excellent dmg projection and dps, tank. More than it's needed to rat.

Because if he needs to run lvl4 missions he most likely has enough money for an X-type LAR? =P

that being said, just go with a regular Apoc if youre low on skills, its reasonably cheap and the cap reduction helps. Then just swap to a more fun ship whenever you get the training/funds in.

Mach. It's faster than majority of cruisers. So what's the beef with BS again?

I knew someone would have posted this by now. Silly fast with excellent DPS.