EVE New Citizens Q&A

Strat Cruisers, I presume you mean Tengu since you mention missile skills, are perfectly capable of doing L4s, though Battleships tend to be faster at clearing them.

Tengu missioning is ALL about movement, your tank is mainly from speed and low sig, dont try to Passive Tank, go active, run an AB not a MWD, keep moving, webber ships are ALWAYS top priority.

BS missioning is about brick tanking and overwhelming firepower. Movement is sometimes required depending on the ship, but often, just orbiting a static object is all you need to do. BSs are often heavily dependent on drones for clearing Jammer/Scrambler Frigates aswell.

I fly both styles and find the Tengu much more enjoable just because there is more to do, managing range, picking targets, etc. whereas Raven flight is more Warp In, Lock ****, F1 F1 F1 F1... a tad boring imo.

Horses for courses though.

You say you are at the point where you can access level 4’s. Here are some interim options to consider before you start training towards your next ship.

Stick with the Drake for a while longer and focus on the right fittings. I suspect you will get more out of your trained up BC than an entry level battleship.

If you are researching the missions and have a couple of local agents available, you will find that you can comfortably run some missions in your BC whilst declining those you need to avoid. Also adjust your fitting based on the mission.

You can ‘buy’ your way through some of the missions. Navy ammo, your choice of speed, DPS or tank implants, expensive modules etc. What about the Navy Drake. Does that work for PVE?

Longer term should you go Raven or Tengu? I went Raven but there was no Tengu at that time.

If you fly Caldari then your goal is a Navy raven, they're really good right now. If that means you have to get a normal raven first to pay for the navy one then so be it, don't bother with a Tengu.

Paul,

Have you looked at the training requirements for strategic cruisers, and do you understand what happens when (not if) one of them gets destroyed?

Battleships are also not cheap, and they are slow. But in your case I will recommend the Raven as a good entry-level mission-running ship. Train Cruise Missiles to at least 3 and fit meta 4 launchers and as much of a T2 tank as you can. Use a microjump drive over an afterburner or microwarpdrive; it's a big advantage. Do your best to get Tech 2 drones if you don't already have them.

Have fun.

Also, if you want to have a bit of fun, take a look at a Guristas/Serentis pirate faction cruiser called the Gila. You'll need to train Gallente cruisers to fly it but that takes no time. It has an insane missile velocity bonus as well as drone HP and damage bonuses and people use it to run higher level missions. It is as expensive as a battleship though, so if you don't have T2 drones (as well as access to sentries) to take full advantage of this you may want to hold off. They are a blast to fly though!

love my gila .. i dont use it in emp .. but it does well in null sec anomolees. - so i dont see why it wouldnt do well with lv 4s. I get 700-800 dps with 5 sentries .. and the passive tank seems to hold really well. Forsaken Hubs only get me down to 30% shields. Still experimenting with plexes.

Don't know what BC you are using but a drake should be able to tank almost all of the lvl4 missions. It dps is a little low to complete them quickly. For example use the following setup.

[Drake, PvE]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Shield Recharger II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I


Hobgoblin II x5


Now doing lvl4 properly, I would suggest going the BS route, train for cruise missile as now they much better.
Fit you raven something like the following. Switch the meta4 shield repper to a faction one (cost around 50 mill) once you have the isk.

[Raven, Mission T2]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Thermic Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Cruise Missile
Heavy Diminishing Power System Drain I

Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Large Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard II

Don't shoot people who steal your loot, problem solved.

I do but I worry about him stealing a rare faction or officer drop from me. That stuff is very expensive

then where do you get them? Combat sites or null sec ratting