Missions & Complexes

Hi all. I'm a PvE player interested in doing missions, but I have a rl disability that affects my motor control. Because of this, I'm nervous about losing ships. Could you guys suggest a possible passive tank route as far as ships go for me? Thanks

I would suggest aiming for a rattlesnake. Don't have a passive fit handy, but it does it really well and has a nice big drone bay so if you loose a few you will have extra's. Not sure how you feel about drones though. Also can fit the high with a RR to rep the sentries.
In the short term till you get your skills and isk up use a gila, also a drone boat.
If you not into drones then maybe a drake then tengu. DPS will be lower than an active tanked ship, but you will survive.

You can also make an active tanked scorpion that is cap stable, and as long as you not doing missions that have neuting/nosing you will be OK.

Unfortunately at work so no fits handy.

So maybe domi > gila > scorp/rattle?

Passive tanks for L4s are kind of rare (at least in my experience), because incoming DPS can be very high. In L3s, I've used a passive Cane extensively. I'm currently running a buffer Typhoon fit, which is kinda sorta passive but doesn't use any shield recharge mods. It just has a pretty massive buffer of 85k EHP (tank: DC2, 2 Invul, 1 LSE, 3 Core Defense Field Extenders). Plus I have near max shield and shield support skills. Also, I use a cruise long range fit and a MWD, so range is key to my defense. I've only gotten into armor once after being an idiot.

As money gets more available I would honestly consider going Tengu... My only activity typically with L4's in Tengu is changing direction and hitting F1 to launch. :) With lower level missions there are more choices of course, but the Tengu has always been an almost AFK boat for me with L4's.

Edit: I also like the SNI (Scorpion Navy Issue) for L4's, but it's more hands-on with drone management and target selection for the Cruise missiles.

edited for clarification, while the wording is slightly different the performance is quite different.
Cage Man knows his stuff, I would follow his recommendation

Not knowing the nature of your disability I wonder if we should look at this question from the tank or the gank side. Maybe it not so important how defend yourself, but how you can apply damage?

I think if you go down the passive tank line, it would steer you towards shield, and probably drones. You would get into a passive shield fit Gila / Myrmidon, than a Rattlesnake. But between the Myrm and the Rattlesnake you would go for a Dominix, which you would armor tank probably, with 2 large armor reps. This is not passive, but the contrary, a constant active rep, suboptimal, and would require you to train armor aswell. The problem with drones is that they require constant attention, you need to deploy them, assign to a target, recall if targeted. I do not know if you can handle that comfortably.

Missiles seem very forgiving in this aspect, and there are also hulls which should enalbe you a more "streamlined" training. By this I mean you could focus on shield and your missile skills, avoiding armor. You could start with a Kestrel for lvl 1, than a Caracal for lvl 2s, than get into a Drake (has a very good passive fit) for lvl 3s.

Once you are at lvl 4s, you will look at battleships, and they are the only hulls that can fit the so called micro jump drive module. This "teleports" you forward 100 km, enabling you to get out of hairy situations (every 3 minutes). Mind you, this only works in PVE since they do not scram you, only disrupt. This way you could even complete missions in a buffer tanked Raven.

Hope this helps.

Another note in the Navy Scorpion's favor is that it isn't functionally rendered immobile by its primary weapon system, and its primary weapon system isn't nearly as vulnerable. So long as you're largely intact and you haven't overheated your launchers into uselessness, the Navy Scorpion can keep firing missiles; if a Rattlesnake loses its sentry drones (unlikely if you're paying close attention, but distractions are always a hazard), then however strong its tank may be, it's effectively useless, because its firepower is gone.

BUT--

That's a long-term goal. A Scorpion Navy Issue, at the moment, costs over 400 million ISK for the hull alone, and fitting and rigging can easily top 50 million for Tech II defenses and decent offensive power. As suggested above, a good intermediate goal would be the Drake, which shares the Navy Scorpion's resist bonuses and can thus mount a passive shield tank like a brick wall. A Drake in Level 3 missions will give you a decent idea of how to manage the hostiles, and you can get practice with using your drones as secondary weapons to take down NPC tacklers. (The Drake can use heavy missiles on tacklers, which won't be as viable an option for battleships, as cruise missiles and especially torpedoes are lousy weapons against frigates due to large explosion radius and slow explosion velocity.)

I found hotkeying attack and recall to bay enough for it not to be too onerous.

@OP I would strongly advise overtanking, either passively or cap stable active. It's something that's always on, always there, never needs action in a timely fashion; it's about as 'safe' as one can be.

Also, make sure you know what you're getting into before warping into a mission. This isn't just about knowing the damage type enemies deal, and the damage type to use, but also about mission "triggers" that cause more ships to spawn when destroyed/fired upon, which groups of ships in pocket will pull full pocket aggro, presence of warp scrambling frigates, jamming, and the like. These things tend to be the main cause of inadvertent ship losses in level 4s, as only a handful of missions have high incoming DPS right at warp-in.

EVE-Survival is a wonderful resource for this.

http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=missionreports