Ships & Modules

I've never flown a Maelstrom but this looks fine to me.

[Maelstrom, Mission]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II

X-Large Shield Booster II
EM Ward Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
100MN Afterburner II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L

Large Projectile Ambit Extension I
Large Projectile Ambit Extension I
Large Projectile Ambit Extension I

It's only 219 million ISK.

Switch to T1 guns then and the cap boosters are for cap control. You can switch them for anything you want if you don't like them.

Yeah well, I looked at the tracking computer at first but that seemed like a waste of a slot with a range script too tbh.

Djego's fit is a pretty good one to go for, but CCC rigs (even T1) will give you better sustained tank than the Cap Safeguards. I'm guessing the Target Painter is to help prevent the smaller ships from getting under your guns so that you can use the sentries, but I'm not sure it's going to be enough, especially if your skills aren't up to scratch. I'd personally swap it for a Shield Boost Amp, at least until you're comfortable with the fit. And I'd stick with small and medium drones to deal with the small stuff that gets in close.

As you've found, T1 ACs are difficult to use on a non-range-bonused ship. You can get around it somewhat with T2 guns and Barrage. But otherwise, yeah, unless you're dealing with Angels, artillery will probably be the better choice.

Nope. I'd pick a Phoon over a Tempest... possibly for anything.

Mael is really the best T1 Minmatar mission ship. And I would caution against using an AC Maelstrom until you can field T2 guns. It just doesn't work well without being able to use Barrage ammunition. Stick to arties before then, like Djego's fit.

Yeah I saw a MJD sniping rocket typoon fit that looked cool. The problem is I have most my time invested in projectile turrets.

How would mael with t2 guns compare to the typhoon?

The Invus are omni hardeners that provide about 55% against everything, what can be better against npcs that deal more than 2 damage types(like angels) but are mostly useful if you don't want to swap them each time. They do need more cap than specific hardeners.

A target painter gives you technically a extra 30% tracking for your guns and drones(even more with skills) at medium range on the target that you are shooting, it doesn't stack with other tracking mods and you just have to activate it on the target. While a web would be better at close, you will not hit with artillery at sub 20km anyway and at medium range the main bottleneck for applied dps is tracking with artillery(even a 1200mm setup with enough tracking can be surprisingly effective since it will out damage T1 auto cannons at around 26km and provides good damage at 50km ranges).

Well you can use CCCs but for artillery I would try to get as much tracking as possible, since it is the major problem in pve with them, at least on hulls that can't control range and transversal to the target easy(like a nano cane, tornado or macharial).

Garde II are sentry drones, different to other drones they don't move to the target. Once launched they will sit next to you and fire from that position. The big advantage is that they deal instant damage(no flight time), do more than smalls and mediums, can take some hits(with good skills they can tank a hole wave on the shield while your ship takes no damage) and can be scooped instantly, meaning they are not prone to destruction like webed light or medium drones at range. The main point of sentry drones, especially on long range setups like beams, rails or artillery is that if your ship is in a position to hit the targets well you drones will also be able to hit well from there and the immensely help to improve the applied dps at medium range and with a bit of practise they are very good to snipe frigs at range(what is hard with artillery) and help to finish off targets in structure(since they have a much higher ROF and can finish the job while you put the main guns on the next target) what overall helps to get targets down before they come to close and get under artillery tracking.

The tempest can work with good skills and piloting(I flown a lot of plexes and L4 stuff in Low sec with a normal pvp fitted nano pest -> no active tank). However it is not particular good as new player ship.

Why core defense cap safeguards over CCC?

Forget the cap safeguards, get semiconductor memory cells. They're relatively expensive, but provide a stronger capacitor over time.

And as for the debate between arty vs autos, in my experience autos work just fine mostly due to better tracking. Biggest downside I've seen is they use a lot of ammo. Never tried atry though and I will be giving it a shot soon.

They actually do by virtue of the fact that time to reach full capacitor remains the same when using SMCs, which effectively buffs your peak cap regen rate.

I swapped from a CCC rig to an SMC rig after I looked at the stats and realized that the CCC only gave me 0.5 more peak cap/s. For a cap unstable setup, it's a very small tradeoff for 15% more cap to run a MWD plus shield booster longer at the start of the mission.