Missions & Complexes

I feel the Vargur is a bit faster, I dont know about 10-20 mil faster. The Macherial/Noctis used to be faster IMHO, haven't run a Mach since the latest 'updates'. The reason being I run an MJD, MWD, and nanofibers. Its quick at moving and killing.

I top out at about 95 mil an hour in total asset gain on the best missions for total completion, Gone Berserk and Dread Pirate (not counting anti-empire missions). Get about 50 mil an hour for missions like Serpentis Extravaganza and Vengeance.

I don't think there is a best ship. Just best ship for playstyle. The reason I say this is because each type of weapon has it's drawbacks, and certain ships/weapon systems are best against certain NPC rats.

Turret Ships
Turret damage is instant. Hybrid ships can get the highest DPS, but you sacrifice range because you have to use blasters to get that high-end DPS. They also consume cap. Projectiles also don't use cap, but since most of the time you will be engaging in falloff, you won't get best DPS. Projectiles can also partially choose for a specific damage type. Lasers get very good range, but use cap and their tracking sucks; however, their damage is only against EM and Thermal. Lasers can also switch ammo types instantly. Turret ships require some manual piloting to be very effective.

Missile Ships
Rattlesnake can get high DPS too, but your DPS is almost evenly split between missiles and drones; so you have to manage both. Missile ships can get consistent damage, but their method of application means speed and sig radius lowers DPS. They can also select damage against specific resists, have good range, and don't use cap. Missiles don't apply damage instantly, you have to wait for the missiles to reach their target.

EWAR pretty much affects all ships now, unless you are in a Marauder using a bastion mod. Missile and turret range can now both be reduced by tracking/missile disruption, which means even FoF missiles will have their range reduced if you are affected by them. Sensor Damps and ECM equally suck in my opinion. Neuts will pretty much kill any active tank ship without a cap booster, even Marauders.

If I had to select a best ship, I'd go with the Paladin.

Depending on how much you're making at the moment, blitzing + burners should net you 2 to 3 TIMES as much. You can even choose between a Mach or a Barghest.

Check out the link in my sig for more info and builds. It's frigs and cruisers. if your missile skills are good then the team burners should be a good place to start.

Warp speed mach is great. High dps, reasonable damage selection, alright projection, super fast and agile.

cherry picking + blitzing seems to be the highest consistent return available.

the golem is pretty nice, but I don't really like missile mechanics. I've been playing around with a barghest a bit lately and that is pretty fun. Missile velocity bonus helps out with my biggest annoyance with missiles of launching another volley while the current volley is the kill volley.

If you are going to full clear I don't know that there will be a huge difference between the golem and mach. A few +/- for each and I have no idea where they net. For blitzing I'd take the mach almost every single time, although there are a few cases where the MJD cooldown is very nice to have on marauders.

moving on to incursions is one way to up income, or train into smaller ships and get into burner missions.

This is a great question, and the answer really depends on your playing style. There are a few methods to running Lv4s:

1. Shoot everything, minimal salvage. This is where you're primarily going after the bounties and LP and salvage as a secondary consideration. You'll loot the implants from Scarlet, Zazz, Damsel and Angels.
2. Shoot and loot everything. This is somewhat self-explanatory, although there are a number of missions where salvaging is actually counter-productive (anything with Guristas, for example). This is where your Marauder comes in.
3. Blitz. This is where you run Lv4s with the intention of completing the mission objectives only - with the focus on LP. An enhanced version of this that focuses on Burners is what most players now do (see the guide from Anize Oramara).

If your play style focuses on non-Burner missions, you'll probably find that all three methods are reasonably close in terms of ISK/hour. You can improve your overall ISK potential by adopting all three play styles when applicable (as opposed to just focusing on one):

• You blitz the missions that you can to basically crank through missions to earn towards Storyline missions. Anything that needs Kernite is an instant 20m ISK payday, and anything against one of the opposing Empire Factions is easily a 50-75m bonus with salvage and tags.
• You shoot everything where you can get excellent bounties and typically don't loot (these are missions like Assault or the Extravaganzas). You loot implants (Scarlet, Zazmatazz, Damsel) and missions where there's good salvage (Beserk).
• You run the occasional Burner mission that gives you a quick ISK/LP payout. I like the Team Burner ones because you can run these with a universal Garmur, so your investment is <100m ISK.
• You run the missions that tank your standings with opposing Empires (Enemies), because these can easily make you 200-250m ISK by completing the whole series.

With respect to your question about the Golem, I've found that it's the best all-around Marauder. Some players prefer the Vargur but honestly you can't go wrong either way. If you're running in Amarr space the Paladin is probably your best bet. Last on the list is the Kronos. The Rattlesnake has a lot of potential DPS (emphasis on potential). Without the right fit and close to V skills, you'll be lucky to get half that. You can run it with torpedoes and Geckos and get 1800 DPS on paper, but you'll spend half the mission just trying to get within range of targets. Once you drop down to Sentries and cruise missiles, you'll be just over 1300-1400 DPS - and to get decent damage application you're going to sacrifice a lot of things like how quickly you can get between and around missions.

angels are nice because you can effectively use hail in a mach. but I find the mach to be good vs most other npcs with phased plasma (thermal) or EMP (EM). when you do 1300 dps it doesn't really matter that you are hitting slightly off on damage type.

You're a couple months behind. I actually do have 3h of recorded footage where I get my normal 250mill/h but I just can't afford to upload it unfortunately (3rd world internet yey). That said here is the original thread: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=451140&find=unread . I can provide you the how in the guide and the figures as proof in that thread but weather or not people believe me is no longer important as it's now accepted as fact and the basis for many nerf hi-sec threads..

What implants you're talking about in Zazzmatazz and Damsel. The ones I've found are usually worthless so I just skip them. And the bounties in Angels Extrava aren't worth the trouble due to the time it takes you to complete the missions.

Friend of mine still smokes that op in about 20-22 minutes in a Varg. Not the best, but it's nearly 30M in about a third of an hour. That's not bad.

One thing to note too is that neither she nor I get missions from agents that are much better (maybe Enemies Abound, Gone Berzerk, Scarlet). I've said it before and I'll repeat it here, there are tons of L4's I've never in my nearly six years in Eve ever seen offered even once, but I could run each mission in Enemies Abound from start to finish step by literal step while blind folded by now. Ask the Gallente Navy, they and the Minmatar have hated my -10 standing guts for half a decade now.