Missions & Complexes

And while dual-tanking might have it's funny things in (small-gang/solo) pvp, for PvE it's sub-optimal at best. I'd rather throw something like an extra TP in there or something like that than shield hardeners, especially since, as you say, your tank is more than adequate (grammarnazi pls?) for the few times you have to tank.

I thought I covered this, but the reason is that at most of the ranges I'm shooting at I take little if any NPC damage. The exception to this is Guristas which hit you with kinetic-based missiles at pretty much any range. On most missions I rarely (if ever) need to run the armor repairer as the shield buffer is sufficient alone (yes, my "crappy" shield fit actually tanks enough without a booster). There are a handful of missions (Assault, Worlds Collide, Enemy) where I will occasionally need to pulse the armor repairer because you spawn or warp-to point-blank range.

Alternately, I guess you could call it a passive shield fit with an armor tank as a backup - but I'm not sure anyone would draw the distinction. I could probably run a DCU almost as effectively as the armor repairer, but I suspect I'd still be informed I was giving up DPS and otherwise 'doing it wrong'.

Are you running a Large Warhead Calefaction Catalysy II in addition to the four BCUs? And what are you running for implants?

Lies.. a Mining laser Mara won't do jack ;)

One web and one TP is what you want. The web decreases the velocity of the frig magnitudes more than the computer increases the explosion velocity. The web helps drones kill elite frigates in several less volleys. Meanwhile you wont need your TP while attacking Battleships with Fury Missiles, so you should have web+TP+drones on the small stuff. Then you can have a MJD and MWD in the mids.

You should know whats going on in each mission by the time you get to the ability to fly a marauder. When in a lesser ship, you'll want to follow the triggers. When in a marauder, you really do want the 2 slot tank for shields or 3 slot tank for armor. This way you trigger everything and maintain your tank while the rats get closer. Splitting your DPS is the only way to go. The Golem is the only exception to the methodology of killing frigs before they get in close. You want them in close so you can web them and kill them faster. You want to be utilizing salvage drones while you are waiting for them to get in range, take them out with light drones, and then re-deploy your salvage drones. You want to be micromanaging your salvaging so that you finish killing and salvaging by the time the last cycle of your bastion module completes.

And that's really the bottom line to armor tanking or split tanking a Golem; utility is critical to faster completion times because it helps apply the DPS faster. Raw DPS is nice on paper but mission completion times are what dictates your ISK per hour.

Pfft, call that an application build? I use two tp's, two mgc's and a flare rig. Now THATS good application. With a two slot shield tank, 4 bcs and a calefaction rig.

Also, some people still seem to underestimate the tp on a golem, and I guess it's cos of lack of understanding about the missile application formula. Excess bonus on the explo radius / sig radius side carries over to the explo velocity / ship velocity side, but not the other way round. Its the same reason why rigor rigs are better than flare rigs, if stacking is not an issue.

How dare you bring science into this discussion.

So what we learn is that MGCs with Precision Scripts lower explosion radius and increase explosion velocity. MGCs don't have optimal ranges, so always work at any range. Target Painters have a optimal range and falloff. So out of optimal won't work as well.

Using Cruise Precision missiles with 3x MGCs (precision scripts) makes the explosion radius 144m, and the explosion velocity 238m/sec. Your average Guristas frigate has a sig radius of 38.7m, and a orbit speed of 220m/sec. The explosion velocity of your missiles are now beating the velocity of the frigate, and your explosion radius is greatly reduced from the normal 223m.

Using a TP to increase the frig's sig radius would make it even better; since it will increase the frig's sig radius (if you have all 5s in Marauders and Signature Focusing) by 75% percent. I'm sure all of us who use a Golem have Marauders at level 5, and Signature Focusing at 5, right? No? Well then let us assume you have at least both at 4, which will make it 60%.

Now for Torps. Javelin Torps have a Explosion radius of 338m, and a Explosion velocity of 140m/sec. Using the same 3x MGCs from above, they will change that to - 219m explosion radius and 204m/sec explosion velocity. Again TP will make the sig radius larger.

Remember, for a average Golem, you use your mids for tank. So the TPs and webs needed to reach the same as 3 MGCs would severely lower your tank as you will need 2 of each....maybe more.

So, which of the above is better at killing frigates? You decide.

P.S. I'm not even including stasis webs as their range is limited to 10km for a T2 version, and we all know there are frigates that just love to orbit you at 11km. If you want a web that reaches further, you really have to pay for that faction web; even then you still wouldn't be hitting the frigate for full damage as the explosion radius will still be rather high for torps.