Missions & Complexes

I am thinking about getting a marauder for my missioning. I hear a lot of good things about Vargur. I live near Dodoxie. I wanna stay in highsec, so I don't think capitals are an option. What do you guys say?

MinmatarMasterRace Ik. What do you mission with?

Honestly, they're all pretty good. Once you get to this point you really can't go wrong with any of them. And yes, capitals are definitely not an option for high-sec.

if u mission smart u usually dont have insane amount of killing to do ...

i used Paladin in all spaces and it did pretty well. sniper tachyon fit with 2 prop mods (mwd mjd)

It wasnt cap stable cos i never need to perma rep, and it wasnt mission specific fited (selecting hardeners) because i was lasy.
And slowly when i got more and more used to it i started swaping tank for dps.

Never was in danger, and hardly used drones, shooting from 100+km frigates poped just nicely.

What i am saying unless u need to kill all 100% ships and salvage and stuff, difference isnt that BIG, so you can actually choose the one u like.

This is simply a more focused version of the what is the best level 4 ship and the answer to this one is the same it depends on what you want and what you like.

I have flown and still do fly all 4 marauders and they all have advantages, they all have weaknesses. So I will answer the question this way if I had to choose just one to fly it would be the Golem because it has the most consistent killing ability across all of the NPC races. No I did not say and I do not mean fastest killing, I said and meant most consistent.


Why?
I can see this from a cost versus benefit point of view or if you want maximum efficiency when blitzing. For general mission running where you are doing a mixture of both blitz and full or partial clear the marauders are superior to everything else.


I will counter that with these points.
There is only one single mission related situation where the MJD is clearly superior to any other options and that is to escape if you are low on cap and cannot continue to tank the incoming damage for whatever reason. In any and all other situations there is no clear advantage to the MJD.
For those who blitz a MWD is usually superior because the multiple triangulated jumps can take more time than simply using MWD and flying directly towards where you need to be.
For those who prefer to full clear the MJD represents a wasted slot that could be used for more tank or a damage mod or damage application mod. In fact for many that full clear there is simply no need for a prop mod of any kind since you point at the exit and kill while moving along and usually you get there about the same time the last thing in the pocket dies.

If you like the MJD and want to use one, or simply fit it for that rare occasion where it may be useful then by all means put one on your ship.

The Assault and Pirate invasion both feature groups that are also the mission completion trigger ~100km from the warp in. A MJD means I don't have to worry about proximity aggro to any other npcs in the mission and I'm right on top of the only NPCs I need to shoot where I can use all of my 1300 dps as they try to slow boat away from me at 0 transversal.

Because full clear is an inferior way to run missions and either the Mach or the Barghest is faster. That is why I specifically mention full clear or semi AFK as those are the only two situations where a marauder is superior. The Machariel is faster in terms of agility, in pocket speed and warp speed, does not need to go into bastion mode for the increase in range and damage application and has more than enough tank for any lv4. The Barghest has superior damage application while moving at max speed (and has similar in pocket agility and speed as a Mach) meaning it has great damage mitigation and can also be fit for very long range and with the missile speed boost it usually doesn't suffer from the normal missile issue of missed volleys.


I blitz Pirate assault with a Polarized Vargur specifically because of the MJD and Bastion allowing the use of Polarized weapons. But more to the general point of why to fit MJD. With the cooldown bonus, you can reach any gate in a mission pocket in 1-2 jumps or just over a minute for two jumps. That means you are in bastion on the out gate in around 70-80 sec after entering the mission / pocket. From what I can remember, if a gate is around 50-60km away from your starting point, it'd take about as long to get to it using a MWD as it would a MJD. Of course each has their own up and down side to how well you'd be applying damage in that first 70 or so seconds since in the one case you'd be perhaps at longer range form the rats and in the other you'd be moving at too high a speed to hit anything. So combined with the advantage of getting to a gate faster (and generally taking less damage before bastion going up) on gates further than 60km away and the GTFO ability of the MJD, it's very much worth it to fit one. Of course this does not preclude one from having a mobile depo and a MWD to switch out with depending on the pocket or heck, specific missions simply swapping them out in station. I even remember making lists of what missions I'd take a MWD or a MJD or even both.

On a side note, full clear + salvage is best done by getting to your destination (be it mission trigger or gate) as quickly as possible so you can deploy a mobile tractor unit to help with looting and salvaging. So you will need a prop mod of some kind and on a marauder with bastion tank you do not exactly need a lot of tanking modules.

When it comes to marauders i have my skills maxed and flown all four for years in all types of L4 space.

While Golem has the best killing abilities, with missiles you lose salvos and it gets very dull super fast.
Kronos only really shines with blasters(love me some damsel missions), as railguns have a tiny range corridor they work OK in.
Paladin's damage application to everything non-Sansha/Blood/Drone is underwhelming, but that's a laser problem and it has always been one.

So for me it is Vargur hands down because of versatility in damage types, superb tracking and range, capless weapons and agility.

Maybe just get all four and change ships according to mission, if you can fly and afford them.

OT(oh) I changed from full-clear with dual-marauders to cherrypick-blitzing with dual-machs about a year ago, do not miss any income per time (hard to measure tho) and have way more fun than in any of those aforementioned tech2 brick battlesnails.
Really hated the micro-management

I'll create a new post, lay down some guide lines, and let the results speak for themselves. Just how fast can a L4 room be cleared? That's the bottom line isn't it.

I don't want to take away from the OP's post, but that really wouldn't be bad.

Any takers?

-Kirst