Missions & Complexes

I know this has been asked a lot of times before, but after using a maelstrom, with my 12mil SP, to do some level 4 missions (a modified version of this since I don't have the cash for the republic gyros) I feel that the tank isn't nearly strong enough to withstand the damage thrown at it, not even whilst boosting.
Once I lost my maelstrom because my drones couldn't kill the warp scramblers faster than my tank was dropping. Because of this I have been reluctant to do any missions alone lately, in fear of losing another ship.

After looking around the net for a bit it I got the impression that the raven was a "much" better ship than maelstrom and started to train towards it.
As off late I've looked around a bit more and it seems like the raven isn't much better than the maelstrom and when comparing my maelstrom fit with a raven fit in EFT, it looks like the tank for the raven is even worse than my maelstrom.

My question is, should I continue to train for a raven in hope that level 4s won't be as hard, or should I continue with my maelstrom?
I don't mind spending more time on a mission as long as I can decrease the risk of losing my ship.

Of course it's not. It has two invulns that incur stacking penalties instead of two rat-specific hardeners, and no shield boost amplifier.

And if you think this thing has a weak tank, I have some bad news for you: The Ravens tank is even worse. And you'll need to train missile skills, especially cruise missiles, which have few other applications, whereas you can use projectile weapons for basically any task,

tl;dr: Throw out all hardeners in the fit, replace with rat-specific hardeners, fit a shield boost amplifier.

That fit is great except for a couple of things, always carry light drones in a battleship. I've run a variation of that fit (AB instad of one hardener) and it works great, you probably messed up on the triggers. If you're not confident in your tank lock up the scraming frigates (look them up on eve survival) and pop them while they're aproaching most of the time their transversal should be near 0 so you'll be doing full damage. For a lot of missions 3 mission specific hardeners is the best but there are plenty where you need 2x specific and an invuln. You should also train thermodynamics so you can overheat, it comes in handy and shield boosters can overheat for a while.

I'm also curios, what mission was it that you couldn't kill the frigates fast enough?

Oh and if you're missioning in amarr space you might have an easier time in an armor tanked ship.

Trying to permarun an X-L booster is stupid and so is that raven fit, that being said investing in cruise missiles is dumb IMO, the only place where you're going to use them is the raven and the CNR, both of which are platforms that aren't good enough to warrant losing time on cruise missiles just for them. Training projectiles will allow him to fly a machariel which is much better for missions than a CNR, it also has the side benefit of unlocking all T2 weapons up to battleship which allows you to fly a ton of other ships well.

I'd like a raven/CNR fit (since they're the only ones who use cruise missiles) that outperforms a gunship.

Never said it outperforms. In most cases, it will not. My point was to state that the raven/CNR are good birds if fitted and flown correctly. I've been in plenty of sticky situations in both gun and missile boats. Each have their issues, each their strengths.

For my style, I prefer extreme range combat and the ability to lay hurt without receiving any. I can do that on a regular basis in my CNR, not so in pretty much any gun bot I've ever flown.

Using 800 cap boosters and specific hardeners. Can't remember the name of the mission where I lost my ship (Would be good if I did so I could avoid it in the future). Guess I should just try using my maelstrom again and hopefully make enough cash to get a mach or something similar in the future.

with the information you provided, i cannot explain how you could possibly have tank issues. your tank should be in the 700s and last as long as you have cap booster charges left. you must be doing something wrong, either shooting triggers too soon or shooting the wrong ammo or something. how are your gunnery skills and which faction do you fly against?

http://eveboard.com/pilot/Xawiahn_Kabej there you go. Hope that helps in some way.

My Raven was equipped with the following:

HIGH
06 x Cruise Missile Launcher I
01 x SMALL TRACTOR BEAM 1
01 x SALVAGER I

MEDIUM
04 x LARGE SHIELD EXTENDERS
01 x 'HYPHNOS' ECM
01 x MEDIUM SHIELD BOOSTER

LOW
01 x EMERGENCY DAMAGE CONTROL
01 x ARMOR KINETIC HARDENER I
01 x ARMOR THREMIC HARDENER I
02 x WARP CORE STABILIZER I

DRONES
02 x WARRIOR I DRONES
03 x HAMMERHEAD I DRONES

UPGRADES
01 x ROCKET FUEL CACHE PARTINTION I
01 x BAY LOADING ACCELERATOR I