Missions & Complexes

I believe rewards from L4s are automatically adjusted according to the average time it takes for players to finish them, so it really isn't in my interest (or anyones) to help people with "as fast as possible".

If you're looking for something that will tank the entire room indefinitely, when you're webbed and scrammed, I don't think such ship exists. Not for the biggest rooms.

There are plenty of ships, including my Cormorant, that will do the rest. If "flown".

The grey drudgers otherwise seem to prefer Macharel and CNR.

Maelstrom is pretty good. And cheap.

IMHO:
Fastest mission completion (but requires brain to be engaged) - machariel (possibly nightmare also) and vargur.
Safest AFK mission runner (not necessarily needing the engagement of brain) - rattlesnake.
Very safe (but needs some brain engaged) - golem.
Most versatile all-rounder (can be used with brain engaged or without much brain engaged) - tengu.
Most interesting (needs a lot of brain engaged) - Any assault frigate, or pirate frigate.

That question is very hard to answer. For one, it depends on your skillset or your willingness to invest time in new skills. For another, it depends on the mission, your enemies there and what you want to get out of it.

Since you obviously have to decide on your own what to do about your skills i'll look at the missions now. I prefer a kronos myself, but any marauder would do. Marauders are specifically designed for missionrunners. You safe ammo because you will get 4 damage highslots with 100% marauder damage bonus instead of 7 or 8. That leaves another 3 utility highslots to use for drone range extender, tractor beams and/or salvager.

Other than the marauders, there are the faction and pirate faction bs. Some of those are really nice to fly in missions. The machariel or the nightmare are well known for their effectiveness with a decent skillset. But you will get good dps out of most other as well.

Remember: First increase your tank until you are comfortable with it. For Armor Tanks like the Kronos that could mean a Core or Centus X-Type Repper with three X-Type Hardener. Depending on the mission you can exchange a hardener for a damage mod and vice versa. But a dualrepper setup of t2 modules will do as well, just with less space for damage mods. Second, increase your dps as much as you can. That can be done with faction modules, faction ammo, skills or even hardwirings. Every percent more means a bit less time used for a mission.

The "ultimate solo level 4 mission ship" would have to be something like the Tengu for the simple reason that it is viable in low or null sec.

For high-sec missions, I would have to say that the Vargur is probably the "ultimate solo level 4 mission ship" because it can essentially match damage to NPC, has a very easy tank, has lots o' gank, and is pretty stress free to fly. (Stress free = minimal maneuvering required, good tank, and NPCs die easily.) If you don't care about stress, then the MWD Mach is probably the ultimate ship due to it's agility and speed: travel time is significant, the ability to close rapidly means minimizing DPS loss to falloff, you can use just one ship (no need to switch to a fast ship for things like recon 1-3,) and it makes blitzing that much faster.

I think you're mistaking me taking a well-meaning pot-shot at someone suggesting a full x-type ship is a good idea for ravenous griefer braggadocio. It takes serious time and, more importantly, effort to gank players in highsec, i'll stick to hazing by other methods.

I think that the ultimate level 4 ship is the good ship Friendship.

talos with blasters ^^

The venerable Paladin of Cat is a shining example to us all.



In EVE, these are one in the same.

To quote one Shawn Spencer, "I've heard it both ways." And that's as close to a typo admission as you'll get from me.

Anyway, yes flying with others is more fun, but the observation being made was that most players opt for the safty of alts rather than the companionship of friends who might backstab them and will almost certainly cut into their profits to the point where "bring friends," is almost synonymous with "sub more accounts."