Ships & Modules

Heya

I recently returned to the game after being gone for a few years, and am looking for some input/ideas regarding pve/missions.

I have been playing the game on and off since launch, and have 24m sp in a whole mess of skills, but the important support skills are all level V

I never got around to specializing in a weapon type, i have about 1m sp in missiles and 1m sp in lasers/gunnery, and am finding it hard to choose which one to specialize in.
I like the look and feel of both weapon systems, and i suppose visual feedback from the game is more important than efficiency (though efficiency is important too)
I tried autocannons for a bit and was bored out of my skull.

As the topic says, i am trying to choose between missiles or lasers, for missioning (level 4s). I have been reading a bunch of threads on the forum, but none of them really deal with making the choice of weapon system to use.
I have a decent grasp of the basics of eve, but find it hard to evaluate what ships are good for what, and why.

Strategic cruisers did not exist when i played last time, i hear a lot about this Tengu ship, what is it that makes it so great? Its strange to me that heavy missiles works for level 4. Is this the current #1 cookie cutter ship for lvl 4s? (ie the new raven)
Or are ravens still better, but Tengus are easier to train for or something? (to get into a full T2 fit that is). I read that Tengu does BS heavy missions slow, why is that? How much slower than BS for these missions is it? Is it slower because it is using heavy missiles and cruise missiles does more dps against BS, or because it needs to warp out because of incoming damage?

How about laser boats? How do they perform in level 4s? Why does people say to use the Nightmare over the Paladin, and the Apoc over the Abaddon? And why do people fit tachyon beam turrets and use short range crystals? My knowledge of the game says that beam turrets are for long range, so i guess i am missing something here.


Any input on which weapon system to choose is most appreciated! And even what ship to use.
The criterias are lasers or missiles, caldari or amarr ships. Needs to be able to do all level 4s, without having to warp out.

In general all the above is true. I'd like to add that the Tengu is far from being a mission king, it's rather a workaround for those that are heavily skilled into cruiser and don't want to train for bs.
Also: Nightmare beats the Paladin in several ways. First of all, the boni. Paladin has a weird web bonus, which is hardly put to any use in missions, except maybe missions like Vengeance where small ships spawn right next to you. Secondly, it sports a shield tank, which basically means you can go crazy on the low slots for lots of damage mods. And then there is the pathetic sensor strength of marauders...
Anyway, I'd suggest you pick whatever you like most. Raven/CNR + the recent changes to cruise missiles make them even better mission runners as before and are a solid pick in whatever kind of space you are running missions in.
For Amarr Empire, I'd reccommend Tachy Nightmare or Pulse Napoc. Both fare very well, the Napoc having less dps but epic tracking capability due to its new bonus.
last but not least: Why do people use Tachys + short range ammo? Well... it's not that complicated: Fit long range guns and use short range ammo to get the best of both: lots of dps at medium range plus the ability to hit from afar if needed.
Hope that helps ;)

I'm kind of in the same situation after years of random intermittent play has left me with skills all over, i can fly alot of things sub BS and can tank anything to reasonable T2 levels but as i'd been in a drake for years and recently a tengu my only weapon skills are heavy missiles at T2 and having sold my tengu i'd like to move onto battleships (probably not an upgrade in most peoples eyes) and i've been wracking my mind over which i should go for with mostly PVE in mind.

If you are doing missiles, train for a raven and cruise missiles T2. Then work your way to a navy raven. Good luck.

Thanks guys!

This is turning out to be a hard choice

I really like the idea of flying a tengu and zipping around on the battlefield at ~600m/s, but i also enjoy the idea of sitting in the awesome looking Nightmare, shooting pretty beams of laser around.

Looking at EFT, with the [All lvl V] character though, the NM doesn't seem that impressive?

With tachyons and Aurora in EFT the NM shows 532 dps at 131+30km, 931 dps at 18+30 km, whereas a Tengu with HAM's shows 624 dps at 45km and 936 at 25km, and a Tengu with HM's shows 673 dps at 70km and 499 dps at 47km.

Going by EFT alone (which i realize isn't everything), the Tengu with HAMs does comparable dps on big targets, but will have less of a problem against smaller targets. Or is closing to 25 km a big problem for the Tengu? Webs etc? Is it going to get squashed in seconds if it gets webbed?

If we compare the shortest range, where HAM Tengu and NM do the same paper dps, isn't the NM going to have severe problems shooting anything smaller than a BS at those ranges? Or is the ship tracking bonus + tracking enhancer in low and tracking computer in med slot enough to track cruisers? Or even frigs? This is where my lack of knowledge of the game comes in.
Also, how are people getting 1300 dps with the NM?

You're fitting your nm wrong. Should be sufficiently be pimped with faction tachyons and heat sinks

t2 tachs are fine, even better since odyssey lowered the tach cap use. then again with the insurance nerf I suppose you don't have to be as paranoid about fitting faction tachs. although with the fitting reduction I suppose you could do some more interesting cap stable paladin fits with faction tachs now.

personally I much prefer guns, limiting to only lasers well then missiles might be a bit better off overall, but in amarr space lasers are pretty awesome. Tengu is incredibly boring to fly, sure it goes 600m/s but when you are falling asleep waiting for stuff to die the speed doesn't really matter. it might be better with hams now, but I cba to try it.

This is similar to the problem I have: I'm flying a heavy close range dps ship when ratting in Provi. Now, I want my alt to offset the disadvantages of that short range. Since I need an EM weapon, I've narrowed it down to missiles, projectiles, lasers and drones. Now, my alt lacks caldari and gallente ship skills and none of those weapons are T2. To make matters worse, I want to keep it "on budget", i.e. under 1 billion for now, so pirate hulls are out.

I'm currently trying to decide whether to go for T2 projectiles, cruises or lasers. In the mid run, all of those will give me some awesome ship options, but on the other hand, they also have their clear disadvantages. I mean, what happens if I train lasers and then move to Gurista space? At least projectiles and missiles give me options. But then, have you SEEN what lasers do to Sanshas? It's like a hot knife cutting through butter. Damn you CCP, for good balancing! /angryfist