Ships & Modules

Caracal is good and a bit more dynamic than Drake, both are overkill for lvl2s anyway but keep them for higher level missions of pvp, those are always good for pvp.

Caracal's a lot better than a Drake for L2 missions. Put rapid light missiles on there and melt faces.

The Caracal can probably also do fine in L3 missions if you switch to HAMs (or hell, just keep the RLMLs).

So the choice is between a ship that can do either L2 or L3 missions, or a ship that can do L3 missions but not L2s.

Not really that difficult of a decision.

I use a cerberus fitted with RLM's to do 3/10 and 4/10's in high sec, and refit HAM's to do higher ones. Caracal is just a less pretty and less awesome version of the cerberus so it's a matter of versatility versus brick tanking.

There is no such thing as overkill..
Pretty sure a drake with rapid lights does more dps than a caracal.. no fitting tool at the moment. It is less agile, but its about how quickly you kill things.. also carries more drones.. don't even have to put rigs in the drake to use it for level 2's and 3's.
something like 3x BCS, nano in the lows, rapid lights in the highs, 10mn mwd in the mids, LSE and some passive tanking mods and you good to go. If you tried you could probably make it cap stable with the mwd on, but doubt it is even needed. Split the launchers to smaller groups to make sure you don't waste missile's.

That's what I would do anyway.

Nope.

Drake doesn't get bonuses to RLML, never has, so you're shooting 6 unbonused launchers. Caracal Navy has 6 25% ROF bonused launchers, base Caracal has 5 25% ROF bonused launchers. Both will out-do the drake. Drake Navy, with 8 unbonused launchers, matches the Caracal Navy.

But yeah, if you want the missions to take 25% longer, use that RLML drake idea of yours.

read this thread https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=275920

edit - Oh, and don't be that guy . .

edit2 - Also, you may see lots of Drake complaints. It really is not as bad as may be said in some posts. Those are the postings of people who got addicted to it being easy mode for just about any pve or pvp activity in the game. It and heavy missiles got "rebalanced." Some people just can't find balance due to their former addiction.

Personally I would sell the Navy and bank the profit or use it to buy a bunch of cheap T1 ships for other stuff.

I use a standard Caracal with rapid light missile launchers for L2's, and most other pve and pvp stuff for that matter. The bonuses on it are better for them than either the NCara or the Drake. The NCara only really pulls away from the standard version when you have really high skills or are using heavy or heavy assault missiles as the NCara's hull bonus lowers their explosion radius a bit making them hit smaller stuff a bit harder versus the standard version. For PVE, and even some PVP tactics, the extra range you get with the standard version is more useful with RLML's than the explosion radius bonus on the NCara that doesn't get applied to them.

This is the basic PVE fit I start with, add rigs and drones to suit. Honestly though, I've found them to be optional for L2's as they just aren't that difficult, I don't even bother grouping the launchers for them. I've even run it in L4's as fit below to help people out and can easily speed/range tank with it. You do want to spend the time to train for the T2 launchers, they are definitely worth it.


[Caracal, T2 RLML]

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
10MN Afterburner II

Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II

navy caracal is much more agile and faster than a drake too, in some missions that helps speed it up a ton.