Ships & Modules

Hey guys,

I'm starting back after a very long break, doing a fresh char, just curious what your opinions are on the best AF for PVE(Lvl1-3 missions, low sec sites etc).
I should note that I'm aware Cruisers/BC's are more effective, I'm using AF's as they are simply more fun, I just want to know which is the current standout as I know there was a rebalance change a while back.

My current contenders are Ishkur, Jaguar, Retribution.

Cheers

All of them are good to some degree, but it depends on what type of rats you're facing. If you're against Sansha/BR then a Retribution is really good, the optimal range bonus on small lasers means you can push the optimal out quite far with Scorch while maintaining solid close range dps with Conflag. If you're going to go with a Minmatar AF then I'd choose the Wolf over the Jag, the falloff bonus is more useful and you can get more dps out of it, you really won't be using arties since you need the close range dps to break the bigger stuff in L3s so the Jags optimal bonus is wasted. Ishkur is nice because it can choose between Therm/Explosive/Kinetic damage through drones, however drone aggro means that you will be pulling your drones in and out alot which will really cut into your dps so I wouldn't recommend it. If you're going to go with missiles you should definitely go with Vengeance over the Hawk because the Hawk is pigeon holed into the kinetic bonus, however if you're missioning against Guristas/Serpentis Hawk will be better because of the range bonuses. Finally theres the blaster boats, Enyo and Harpy, they both can have the best dps but their range is far more limited, which can become a very serious issue when facing webs, you can use railguns but once again, the dps will be pretty bad and it will take you ages to complete sites.

My personal favourites would be the Wolf and Retribution.

I mainly use a hawk for L3 and L4s, its very fun to fly. I've also had very good results with a retri..C:

LM Hawk.