Ships & Modules

I assume when you say PvE that you are reffering to level 4 missions? If so remember that certain NPC ships will now target drones almost the instant you deploy them. (Don't get me wrong, I love drone boats! And am working on my carrier skills, but the missions chew through drones just way to fast)

I would go ahead and drop the extra money on navy mega. In missions your are going to have to deal with targets ranging from frigate to battleship. (as well warp disruption, webs, sensor dampening, and jamming) So you are going to need to be able to deal damage at a fair distance as well as track frigates at only a couple Km away. So going with something that can track well, use webs efficiently and has plenty tank to last the tougher battles.

Although I am a Gallente pilot I actually choose to go with Caldari ships for PvE (personal preference of missiles and shield tanking for PvE). I find that even with good resist (60-75% across the board) you need to be able to rep about 175-200/sec cap stable to be able to run the tougher level 4s without having to worry about warping out.. then warping back, burning 100km to the first gate, then 50km or so to the next gate, just to get back in battle and have to warp out again.. (Worlds Collide level 4 has some pretty heavy incoming DPS.. I had to warp out twice in a Scorpion Navy Issue,once at about half armor, when my reps were only around 150/sec) I currently rep about 265/sec cap stable just because its a really nice feeling to know i can stand in one spot at 0.0m/s and tank any lvl4

But back to the choices. I would think that the Navy Mega would be best choice. I don't have the number in front of me at the moment but if memory serves me right.. It has the most powergrid, cpu, and tank of of the non-pirate T1 ships.

Dominix has the choice of damage types. Vs serpentis the others can be better, but on all the other pirate factions Dominix is really good.

Namely: Gardes do 800-820 all thermal dps on regular Dominix setups at a good range, complemented by frigate blapping guns. Thermal just happens to be rather overpowered: it's a highly effective damage type vs. Serpentis, guristas, sansha, blood raiders, drones and most small mission factions. On top of this you have 700-717 dps bouncers to deal with angels, where hybrids suck.

This is partially true. The problem is not tracking or the overkill damage, but the lock delay of sentries.

For example lets say you have 5 frigates to kill. For a gun group the time it takes is lock time on first frigate and 5 cycles as you have all of them locked. For sentries, which lock each target after you tell them to engage, its your lock time plus sentry lock time for each frigate plus volley times. Sentry lock is roughly the time of 1 volley, so in practise it takes approx 10 volleys time to kill them. To be most efficient you would have to individually engage one drone per frigate in very fast succession to minimize the impact of sentry lock delay.

Maybe you already now but: Sentrys keep old targets locked. You can tell them to attack a number of targets and if you change between them again they will instantly shoot (if their cycle is completed).

You can tell them to engage and after half a second tell them to engage a different frig and they will keep locking the first. So after having them locking 4-5 ships they can instantly attack the one you first told them to engage.

Good feedback, a lot of options, thanks!

I Personally use a Hyperion for soloing level 4's

I have mission specific hardeners, a tech 2 armour repairer, and a reactive hardener.

Using tech 1 425mm rails, the prototype (meta 4) versions, I can hit for roughly 800 dps when engaging rats at 40km.

I do also have a MJD on the Hyperion, and this lets me jump about, repair, and engage the rats at over 100km.

Little frigs might be fast, but hybrid charges are faster.

I snipe, my corp mate used to blast, but now he snipes too.

I can't speak for the Megathron, as I've never used one, but I intend too soon.

In the end it's all up to you and your play style, and you said it in your first post, that the Hyperion appeared to be better on to go for.

Fly safe, and good hunting.

T.

lol wut?

.......domi doesn't have an issue whth drones getting killed unless you are doing something sillly like sending lights 60km away.

Like a lot of other Capsulers confirmed before me, AI aims and shoots at drones ans also kills them and not only heavy drones also light scout drones. I used a tanking navy- Domi in lvl 4 missions to destroy fast all ew- frigates fast before warping in with a DD to kill off the rest. It worked well for a while, welll till they were also shooting at drones. And no, I let my drones only operate within 10km. Only way they are not shooting on your drones is when they are already shooting at you.

Yeah try it. If you aren't at the wide end of the bell curve you'll notice this is easily dealt with.

Not to mention, learn to sentry, with the bonuses a sentry can tank pretty much a full pocket of mission rats. I do null anomalies with a simple single repper domi with out losing drones. However frigates shouldn't be an issue when you have 800dps with medium auto cannon tracking, if you do its not the ship's issue.

Yes if you are letting your drones MWD all over the place they are going to get blapped, don't do that.

Limited drone range without the hull bonus and jamming in DDAs and mag stabs requires a shield tank due to the required use of guns.