Missions & Complexes

I think we're all trying to talk him down from flying a Drake and trying a Cruiser appropriate to do L2s. With Rapid Light Missile Launchers, he'll have no need for a TP or Rigors.

This game takes ALOT of research to do well at it.

I was in the same boat in that lvl 2 combat missions were taking a stupid amount of time in my catalyst....there are so many little things that have major impacts.

Once I researched the fit, -> went to this site ; http://eve.battleclinic.com and picked a fit that was recommended. I realized that just keeping close to cap stable for 2-3 minutes was more than enough.

Just making a general fit for damage resist (30-40 for all armor), and runnning a Dam Control mod and armor repair was enough for almost anything. For Dagan, I had to swap to 8 blasters and toast him at close range though...I usually mount 6 small rails and 2 salv.

Sounds like you've spread your SP too thin. 1.6 million, and your already flying different races cruisers/BCs with different weapon systems. You're going to be bad in all of them.

Pick a ship (the RLML caracal mentioned earlier should be a beast in frig heavy lvl2s), train the related weapon/ship/tank skills and supports up - 4 is a good aim but 3 should be fine for lvl2s and should take very little time - and you'll fly through them.

Check the certificates for your weapon of choice's related support skills as well, if you can afford a drake you can afford all of them no problem, and the early lvls take so little time in the long run that they're almost free.

Specialize, and be patient.

I do more damage against Sanshas with Mjolnir than bonused Scourges.

^ This. EVE is not noob friendly. You need to be around people you can use as a knowledge resource. The forums will get you good info most of the time, but they're also filled with trolls. My best suggestion is to use the People and Places function under your character portrait to search for "Eve University". They'll get you sorted. Alternatively, add me in-game and I can answer any Caldari mission running questions you have.

I agree that you're almost certainly struggling with low skills. Also, if you have 1.6 mil AND you can fly both Drakes and Ruptures, you're probably so weak in support areas that you're really suffering for it.

What you should do is pick ONE ship, ONE fit, ONE weapon system type, and focus on building your support skills for that until all the relevant skills for tanking, fitting, and using the weapon system are at 4 and you've trained to 4 for the tech 2 version of the weapon. This may take you a couple months. In the meantime, I'd keep flying L1s in a frigate or maybe a destroyer, because you don't want to be at risk of losing an expensive ship (and believe me, if you warp out in structure three times in a mission, you ARE at risk of losing your ship long before you've paid for it.)

If you upload your skills to eveboard.com, we can take a look and make suggestions.

Finally, when properly skilled, you should be able to use a fit not too far off from that one to run L4s without having too many problems. I point that out only to emphasize how much skills make a difference. Sounds like attempting an L4 where you are right now would end very badly.