Ships & Modules

Wait for the rebalance. They are currently ok, but also too close to T1 battleships to be worth flying.

Until then it is like:

Amarr Paladin - good DPS within 40km (Scorch), with great omni tank, strong web bonus
Caldari Golem - great damage projection over 200km with cruise missiles, good tank
Gallente Kronos - great DPS at 5km (blasters) with good projection up to 100km (railguns), good tank, strong web bonus
Minmatar Vargur - great DPS at 3km (ACs with changeable damage type), good speed, good tank

They all have the same drone abilities (75mbit), weakness in sensor strength and low eHP.

Add the Drone missions that list too, most of the drones are weak against EM/Therm(and hence the lasers on the Paladin eat them alive)

Golem for everything else, personally I prefer the Torp Golem over the Cruise Golem, but that is more a personal preference thing.

Marauders are a really really stupid ship class

Were a horrible idea when they were released.

Paladin is sexy though, hope ccp can do something with it.

Golem #1
Vargur #2
Paladin #3
Kronos #4

IMHO. This opinion relies on the damage flexibility of Golem and Vargur plus their tank bonus. This allows them to single-handedly clear high end DED sites (10/10) with decent speed.

The Golem is also excellent at rolling sanctums flat, able to do it with a cheap microjump gank fit. The vargur is akin to mach but lacks severely in the speedy targeting and movement.

Kronos might have gotten an update in the form of drone damage mods, haven't checked.

Do not worry, I know how falloff and alpha works. There are only better ships like the Paladin for stuff at 40km range.

QFT, relevant link included

They just feel..........unfinished.

1. Paladin

It is fairly equal in power to it's faction counterpart(nightmare), does even a bit more dps(since fitting a T2 dps rig on the NM is a slot wast) got a very good omni resist profile, can fit tachs, got a far better cap than other amarr BS hulls and is the premier armor Incursion ship, by combining 90% webs, rr and cap transfers, lasers and a resist profile that allows you to fit 1-2 more damage mods.

2. Vargur

It is a fairly good ship on it's own, the main problem is just that the Machairal does everything the Vargur does a bit better outside of extreme heavy active tanking. If you fit it and use it like a mach(low tank, mwd) the lower speed and bigger sig often make the tank look worse instead of better. For Incursions it is crippled by not being able to fit 1400mm properly, the laughable lock speed compared to a mach(what is one of the most important things for a 1400mm ship in a contest, get the volley on the target before others do) and that shield RR modules take to much CPU.

3. Golem

The main problem is ECM, I would never use it against guristas, since the combination of ultra long lock time and often getting jammed is quite a pita. Outside of this, it lacks speed and another damage application bonus for torps, currently it is mostly a cruise missile platform. The painter bonus combined with the fact that you can fit 3-4 painters on it, on the other hand make it a fairly good one. It is crippled in Incursions because missiles will cost you contests and similar to the vargur it has big issues fitting shield transporters.

4. Kronos

It got only mediocre dps compared to other rail/sentry platforms(because it can only use 3 sentry drones instead of 5), however the 90% web is quite useful for a rail/sentry platform, especially if you mission in minmatar space, where you often have to deal with targets under 18km. For Incursions it is ok, most gangs use light or medium drones anyway and it can often fit a extra damage mod or T2 damage rig for armor gangs, so compared to the Vindicator the actually dps figures are not that much different(having a bit cargo to carry lots of spare fitting, ammo and stuff like ore and having 2 more RR and a spare cap transfer can be very handy, I actually like it more than the Vindi for that reasons). Most crippling thing is the lock speed compared to the vindicator for VGs at least, however it is ok as a rail sniper.

You can place all 4 guns on the turret rack in the middle, it looks very cool that way.

And is far from optimal for overheating purposes - not that you do it a lot on a pve ship, but I'd still prefer better heat distribution over aesthetics (as you might have guessed) - but to each his own.

As for the topic: I have all 4 of them for collecting purposes, but given the fact that the characters they're on have all BS V, I don't see much point in using them over their pirate faction cousins, especially as I don't salvage...

Might take another look after their long overdue rebalance, but considering what CCP did to HACs, I wont hold my breath hoping they become any more desirable than they're now.