Ships & Modules

Hi, All

I've just returned to EVE after a long time off. I know a lot has changed and was hoping for some suggestions/help regarding mission boats.

Before I left, I was using a Dominix for missioning. Was able to do most lvl 4 with a solid tank if being careful about triggers and multiple spawns. Most of my skills are in drones (little over 1.5mil) and mechanics (about 1.6mil) for the armor repair. But my gunnery skills are quite low (0.5mil).

This used to be a mining character that I boosted the drones/mechanics so I could run lvl 4 missions on the Domi, so my "combat skills" are quite low. I now want to focus on mission running (Gallente space) and was wondering which direction to take. What ship to go for next.

My goal is to speed up lvl 4 missions a little (some used to take me hours to finish) and to be a little less worried about going afk for a while durring a mission (I know your millage may vary on afk missioning ). I also read that changes were made to mission triggers and hybrid guns? So I'm not sure of the implications for missioning now.

I have Gallente Battleship 4. Should I work on gun skills and go for a Mega or Hyperion? Before I left the game the last time, I tried a mission with the Hype and the armor tank couldn't handle the mission and was melting away. Or should I throw in the towel and skill up from scratch for a Caldari ship?

I read that the Machariel is the way to go but since I just got back into the game, I don't have a lot of ISK to burn and can't afford one.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

If you intend to leave the comfort of Empire for better income, the most natural progression from a Domi is a Thanatos.

If you intend to stay in the kiddie pool the progression from a Domi is likely toward a Rattlesnake, utilizing shared skills.

Then you have various sidegrades which may be better at some things, such as the Ishtar or Proteus (Incursions, Sites).

Do not underestimate the value of a Carrier, and your ability to get into one with Domi-skills, in the breadth of the game.

Keep in mind that L4 in Empire is only a small select portion of the game. There's much more to see.

ed. Train BS 5 on your Domi first though, and yes, Navy Domi.

Machariel's apparently one of the premier mission runners, but it's expensive and time-consuming to train into (especially the projectile gunnery skills).

If you can use T2 sentry drones and heavy drones, you're in great shape; if not, those should be medium-term targets, because with them, the Domi apparently becomes a missioning monster. It's been buffed by the addition of drone damage augmentor mods with Inferno.

The hybrid gun buffs are mostly easing of their fitting requirements and halving of their reload time to 5 seconds instead of 10, plus a damage buff in the 10% range; nice but not spectacular, though they make it possible for some old fits to upgrade their guns.

The domi gets more than half of its DPS from guns, train your gunnery skills, get some shield skills, and rock a 425mm rail shield tanked monster domi.

The idea is you want to go from THIS (or however the hell you fit your domi)

to THIS

(also note that the ogres are a personal preference, as I find I waste more time slowboating than I do actually shooting things in most missions when I use sentries)

thanatos

In short: yes.

You can also pimp your ride with a deadspace repper.

The ishtar isn't even half as good as the domi for PVE...

Good example of how gross generalizations can be false. Depends highly on what aspect of PVE you are talking about.

I don't consider exploration a niche. And the Ishtar beats the pants off the domi in highsec exploration, since i dont think there are any plexes that allow a BS.

The reason you can get away with a single armour rep theses days is that ships now can fit rigs which boost the effectiveness of armour reps.