Ships & Modules

I've been wondering how best to make use of the Rattlesnakes 4 missile slots.

Ok, so it gets a missile velocity bonus on torps and cruises, but sentry or heavy drones are easily the biggest part of the dps output.

So, what I've been thinking while running missions is this; I don't want to swap out my sentry drones for lights. When I've got non-scrambling frigates in close I tend to leave them till last. When everything else is dead, I pull the sentries in and put out the lights to kill off the last frigates. At that point I'm not using the cruise missiles at all. I'm starting to wonder if its even worth fitting cruise missiles.

My thought is this; if I fit rapid light missile launchers I can use them to pull aggro and also against frigates, while the drones deal with the larger stuff. I'm just wondering if 4 unbonused rapid light missile launchers are going to be effective against elite frigates in missions? Is this just a dumb idea to start with? What use do other people get out of their 4 missile slots on a Rattlesnake?

I'm not sure. The Frigates that web/scramble you are generally classified as "Elite Frigates" which means they have Assault Frigate level of tank.

Sentrys work fine against frigs burning towards you. The only time you should have to drop light drones is if the enemy frigs spawn in spitting distance of your ship. Otherwise, throw out sentries before the frigs begin to orbit and one volley them.

I'm at work so I can't post fittings or exact rig names, but here goes:

Using light missiles is wasting the full DPS potential of a Rattler.

I have two fits: a buffer tank for Ops with a repper/logi, and active shield tanking for solo work.

GANK=TANK : 4X T2 torp launchers, sentries or heavies, dual target painters, dual omni's, rigs to accommodate torp DPS (RoF, range, velocity), and 3X BCU (I have Caldari on one ship and T2 on the others), dual drone link extenders.

With faction specific drones and torps, you will burn down NPC BS's from 5km to 43km. With dual omni's+skillz, the Gardes hit frigates at 11km - if closer than that, you have to switch to lights or actually heavies will take out frigs too. With T2 torps (I think Javelin - the long range ones) you can hit out to 50Km. Somewhere beyond 45km you want to switch to Wardens which will hit well out to 102km (skillz+dual drone link extenders).

This set up works so well that I usually (not always) aggro the entire theater of operations by eliminating all frigates first, then burn down all cruisers next. By then, the BS's are in range of torps, and it's like popping soap bubbles: three volleys of torps and they are usually wrecks. When I have an array of NPCs in near field, I use heavies+torp to take out the BS's frst, then whack anything scramming/jamming while I effortlessly tank the remainder. Worlds is a tougher mission due to severe drone aggro, but is still very doable in your Rattler, like using torps to take the initial sentry guns.

Ligth missile is a misuse of your launcher hard points, IMO.

I'll try to post my exact fitting once I get home tonight.

Start of Edit:
And here is my fitting. This is NOT one of those "AFK Mission Snake" builds:
LOWS
Damage Control
BCU II X3 (can be Caldari)
PDU II X2

MIDS
Gen Nex Target Painters X2 (can be T2)
Omni's II X2
Shield Hardener II's, faction specific X2
Large Shield Booster II

HIGHS
Torp Launcher II's X4 (can be Arbalest if you don't use T2 ammo)
Drone Link Augmentor II's X2

RIGS
Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I X2
Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I X1

Drones and torpedoes are faction specific and/or picked for range/tracking as appropriate.
LSB runs for 9 mins (I think) - pulse as needed - I almost never need to.

Note how i said when theres nothing else left (ie recall drones, which you have to do to release lights anyway...)

Ugh high sec rubbish!

cruise are a breeze to fit on your snake. The extra dps does help with battleships regardless of your fit. Sometimes I leave them empty if i want to use the highslots for something else.

Smartbombs

Actually I've done exactly that and have been pleased with the results. Yet what the previous posters have been saying is very true. The reason RLMLs work for me is that generally the alt I have my Rattler on is doing missions AFK style while I'm at work or concentrating on this toon. Because of that I'll aggro the room and let my Sentries do the work. Because of laziness/inattentiveness frigs will get inside a shootable distance. So I'll target all the frigs and every so often look up and hit my fire button. But notice that my play styles has taken a 30 minute mission and made it an hour. The RLMLs drop that back down maybe 5 minutes.
But if you are actively running a mission, then go with the previous posters and add DPS to your Sentries via Torps or Cruises and then swap to lights. Or just run the whole room using heavies plus your cruise/torps. That way you'll turn your half-hour mission into 25 minutes.

True dat.