Ships & Modules

So i first made this character back in 2006 and have played on and off over the years for short periods of time. What i always really wanted to do was mission running. Back when i played last Drakes were the thing to have for lvl 3s at least, and looking over the past couple years it seems that drakes got some balance changes so they may not be the best any more. hell when i loaded in i had to remove a launcher just to undock lol.

Right now i have 8.8million SPs and in the drake i currently have Using HAM launchers i just seem to kill things so slowly in lvl 3 missions. i am not sure if the agent matters but i am doing security missions for the caldari navy out of .6 system. all of my stuff is for the most part T2 and i have the support skills to IV and V depending on skill. My tank seems fine, in fact i might be over tanked since i seem to not take any damage when i have my shields turned on.

This is what i have right now

[Drake, Falcon]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Limited Thermic Dissipation Field I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
10MN Afterburner II
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Salvager I

Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I


Hobgoblin II x5

Scourge Rage Heavy Assault Missile x3022

any advice would be appreciated

Consider using HMLs, they don't do as much paper DPS, but their range allows you to shoot sooner instead of flying closer to the target to use HAMs, meaning that while your DPS is lower your actual applied damage is a net gain, especially if your prop mod is a an AB not an MWD.

As Ralph mentioned application can also be improved with a target painter, using the precision missile on frigates will also cause them to die faster.

As you mentioned you are overtanked, consider swapping out some or all of the rigs for better missile damage application (rigors and flares)

when fitting a missile ship for missions, always use rigor and flare rigs. there is no excuse, other than maybe one hydraulic bay thruster for some more range. your tank is more than sufficient, in fact i would probably try replacing one shield extender with a target painter. this may also give you enough power grid to fit a microwarpdrive. god knows the drake can use one. if you find yourself warping out with 10% shields, put the extender back on, but the missile rigs are non-negotiable.

Moved to Ships & Modules.

It's taking forever to kill things because you're using HAM's on a Drake. Drakes are no longer the Swiss Army Knife of Eve any more and missiles in general have taken significant hits to their DPS and range.

If you insist on using a Drake to mission.

[Drake, L ASB Drake]
Co-Processor II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 150
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Limited 'Anointed' EM Ward Field

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x5
Mobile Tractor Unit x1

Salvage with an alt or buddy. L3's are barely worth salvaging.

I'm going to at least try and not sound like an arrogant ****; that second fit posted with an ASB and, somehow, shield extender rigs for a lvl 3 drake is so bad that person should be barred from giving people fitting advice. And with that out of the way lets try and be a bit more constructive, I'll explain the how and why so you have some "ammo" when people will, inevitably, tell you you're doing it wrong.



Since the missile changes a while ago missiles have issues applying their full damage even to "even size" targets, so heavy missiles (and HAM as well) lose ~35% applied dps even when firing at a slow boating Caracal, against slow boating frigs they lose about 75% and that all assumes max lvl 5 skills so with lesser skills the problem is even worse. Note that the damage application of HAMS isn't really any different from HML so it's not like HAM struggle more, as such the choice to go HML or HAM depends on the mission; if you can get away with short range HAM for that mission then do it and simply switch back to HML when you're faced with a long range situation.


To solve the massive damage application troubles you have 2 options:

1) fit a painter. It works fine as long as your targets are within optimal range of the painter, outside optimal it becomes RNG so you never really know if that painter is going to work when you hit a target at 60km which means you can't know how many volleys you'll need which in turn means you're wasting a ton of time. It also means that you have to activate that painter on every...single...target... you fire on, that is going to get annoying as hell and on top of that it also means you can't spread your weapon groups onto multiple targets. So painters.... not so much.

2) fit rigor/flare rigs, these give a massive boost in applying damage to targets that aren't "bigger" than your missiles (they won't work against BC or bigger) but then those aren't really a the problem in the first place as the majority of targets in lvl 3 tend to be smaller, and since they passively affect your missile stats you don't have to do anything to make them work. Besides, increasing dps against bigger targets is only really achieved by rather radical solutions like using faction/t2 ammo or actually switching ship so just forget about that for now. However, fitting those rigs means that you can't fit purger rigs, which in turn means you can't fit a shield regen fit which forces you to active tank. Regen fits made good sense before the missile changes but now it's just a tired old meme perpetuated by the uninformed.


So, a high dps lvl 3 fit drake should be active tanked to help and apply more damage to the majority of targets in those lvl 3 missions through missile rigs, thing is that if you tell that to people they'll laugh and call you an idiot because they lack understanding of game mechanics and rely on said tired old, mistaken meme. So simply ignore anyone telling you an active fit is wrong (it's also why I'm giving you the full explanation).

Since you'll do more dps to most targets it also means stuff dies faster and you'll be exposed less to incoming dps, which in turn means you won't need a silly massive tank in the first place. So here's a fit that will increase your applied dps (to anything smaller than a BC) meaning you will complete missions faster, at the "cost" of having to active tank and it not being cap stable (which requires 3 brain cells to operate, so it's out of reach of most people who will keep telling you you're doing it wrong).


Here's a fitting idea:

[Drake, lvl 3 Active Guristas]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Co-Processor II

10MN Afterburner II
Small Shield Booster II
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Small Tractor Beam I

Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Warhead Flare Catalyst I

Hobgoblin II x5


- the small shield booster works just fine given how the Drake gets a resist bonus
- switch to HAM depending on the mission
- adapt resists per mission, the time you "waste" by changing them out (10 seconds) is easily won back by how more focussed your tank is meaning you need less slots to make it work, slots you can use for other stuff resulting in doing the mission a lot faster than those 10 seconds you wasted.

CBC like the drake can also fit MMJD which can be very useful both to get in range of stuff as to get out of trouble. However, actually fitting that thing causes massive issues in regards to PG/CPU and of course the loss of a slot. Because of that I'd only recommend it in a mission where you have to slow boat ~100km while the fight itself isn't really that difficult.


Switching to another BC will have both pros and cons and it all depends on what your SP is focussed on and which faction space you want to be in. For instance a sentry Myrmidon is quite awesome for lvl 3 missions and does heaps of dps, if you have decent drone skills. You could also switch to a bigger ship like a Raven fitted with Rapid Heavies, it actually makes good sense but at the same time you're slow boating around, taking 17 ages to target anything, and it of course requires you to be able to fly a Raven decently well. There's also more funky options but those aren't necessarily as awesome as people will tell you they are, not for lvl 3 missions.


For now you're fine with an optimised Drake (assuming you stay in kinetic bonused space, so not Amarr), it's not like you'll be doing lvl 3 missions for long anyway.

Gregor gives good advice.

The bottom line is that the Drake can no longer effectively do level 4 missions. It was over powered, CCP nerfed it, end of story. "Can" you run a level 4 with a Drake? With pretty good skills, yes, but it is painfully slow and a bit risky.

With HML you don't have the DPS to complete them timely, with HAMs you don't have the range and end up flying around a lot.

The classic cap stable passive Drake will work fine for level 3, use a different ship for Level 4. I would not suggest using any of the ASB or shield boosted fits people have posted. The drake is built for a passive tank and does it quite well, no point in trying something tricky when you can do it the right way.

(sorry for the goofy format, I am just typing this, not copying pasting from a tool)
**Use meta 4 or T2 as your skills allow**
Highs
HML x6
Tractor Beam

Meds
LSE x2
Shield Recharger x1
10 MN Afterburner
Adaptive Invul x2

Low
Ballistic x2 (with good shield skills might be able to run with 3 ballistics)
shield Power Relay x2

Rigs
shield purger x2
shield extender

Well, I'm going to add in my 2 cents.

The bottom line is that there are many different fits that people can use. Sometimes it depends on their style of play: do they want to try and stay in one spot, or chase targets down; do they want to pulse a SB, or passive tank; or does one want to finish the mission as fast as one can.

I used to use a Drake for many years in running L3's. At the start, I had to have a good tank, because my damage output wasn't high. It seemed like I had to have passive shield recharge at about 75hp/s.

Today, If do I run a L3 in a Drake (for some ungodly reason now) this is what I use:

3 X Large purgers (yes, large purgers . . . I've had this boat for a long time)

Highs: 6 X HML II Caldari missiles - 404dps

Mids: 2 X LSE F-S9 (56 hp/s)
2 X Invul. Fld II or mission specific
1 X EM amp II or mission specific
TP II (sometimes) or an AB

Lows: 4 X BCU II

5 X Lt Drones II

The Drake is made to have a passive fit. Because of the heavy missile nerf, the Drake isn't what it use to be. The Navy version isn't much better.

A while ago, I switch to the Ferox, when it got a buff, so for comparisons here is that fit:

2 X Anti-em (This is what's there, as I once used them for an Omni tank, I am thinking of changing them.)
1 X Anti-therm

Highs: 7 X 250 T2 rails (Caldari antimatter and thorium)

Mids: Pith LSB ( I had it, over kill with about 100hp/s)
1 X Kinetic Fld II or mission spec
1 X Kinetic amp II or mission spec
1 X Thermic Amp II or mission spec
Tracking Comp. II (tracking and optimal script)

Lows: 4 X MFS II

5 X Lt Drones II

This thing puts out 602dps! Completes missions much faster than my Drake fitting above.

-Jaz

Remember that thing about old and mistaken memes based on hearsay and lack of knowledge? Don't go for a Tengu if you want to do missions, get a Navy raven or Scorp instead (assuming you want to go missile ships).