Missions & Complexes

I am working towards getting to L4 missions, but I am unsure which ship to use. I really like the Rokh but I mostly see Ravens. Is there a reason I rarely see Rokhs?

more like railguns, and no damage bonus. not very good dps, locked into kin/therm, and meh tracking. also the rokh has a similar cap to the raven, and rails use cap, so less cap for the shield booster.

good advice overall right here. The Raven is where you want to start for L4's. Once you can fit a FULL T2 tank and launchers, go ahead and upgrade to a CNR. Note that a T2 fit will stress your cap/cpu, so make sure you have fitting skills (engineering, electronics) to V and Weapon Upgrades to at least IV before you upgrade. That will allow you to optimally fit your CNR before taking it out. Failure to do so, as mentioned above, usually ends badly for your ship...and your wallet.

As for railguns, they are just not very good. Common on many drone ships, but only so that you can project damage out further to take advantage of longer drone control range. Other than drone ships, here's a number of caldari vessels found with rail fits:

Ferox (Better with blasters)

Rokh (Just not great overall - use for wormhole mining only. Blasterokh fits can be brutal, but a blaster-fit Megathron will do it better)

Merlin (Sniper fit is not as ganky as the blaster fit, but in 1v1 it can kite and pop shorter range brawlers)

*Cormorant (Pretty much the only caldari vessels that is actually better off with rails. A common sight in caldari-centric PvP and FW, this ship provides a solid, cheap fire-support platform. And if she can dictate engagement range, the cormie can waste pretty much any brawler frig before it gets close enough to do anything)*

All in all, for caldari PvE, just go missiles and don't look back. When you're ready to train into turrets, you will be better served cross-training into Amarr or Winmatar.

Raven it is. After I get all the fanciness on my Raven I was looking to get into another shiptype. Thinking about Minmatar. Projectiles much more preferred than Hybrids, I take it?

Oh, and what about the Scorpion Navy Issue? Is that on par with the Raven Navy Issue?

1. Navy Scorp (SNI) is an excellent ship if you have low skills and lots of cash. However, it will fall behind Navy Raven (CNR) once your skills get decent and you can capitalize on that extra launcher on the birdie.

2. IIshira, I wouldn't look at weapons on the fotm basis. So what if they get nerfed? They'll be suboptimal? If that's all we'd ever look at, we'd all be flying one ship, period. Having fun is often more important than having a bit better performance.

3. @OP: The issues with Rokh in missions are three-fold:
- hybrids used to be crap and the ship would have problems fitting them all due to powergrid use
- it's more of a tanky ship, whereas optimum mission performance comes from as much damage as possible with just enough tank (this is the same reasons why CNR is used more than SNI)
- there's no navy version

Combine all this with most Caldari gunships being suboptimal (Merlin vs. Kestrel, Moa vs. Caracal, Ferox vs. Drake, even rail Tengu vs. missile Tengu) and you have your reason why most Caldari pilots go for missiles, whereas guns are suggested for Gallente.

Depends on the way you play, the Navy Scorpion is the more tanky BS, the Navy Raven is more for dps, but it's not a paperplane either. The most important thing before hopping in your shiny BS and risking it is to get your drone skills up. It doesn't matter what Caldari BS you choose, web/scramble frigs will be a pain in the ass, so better train them (drones V, drone interfacing III-IV at least and if possible T2 drones). Why is that? You use Cruise Missiles and they are intended to hit big targets, like other battleships...

Next thing is to get used to active shield tanking in your BS, there are loads of fits around here and if you want to we can help you find the right fitting for you. And get your dps up with missile/targeting skills... I wouldn't say don't get a CNR because it's too risky to lose. It has better attributes, more dps, etc. so a higher survivability than a standard raven. If you are careful, work with eve-survival and don't trigger room aggro, etc. you'll do just fine. I started with my CNR and poor skills, too. Learned a lot while flying it this way, improving it day by day and feeling what helps and what not - guess what, it never died.

I'll stop you right there. This battle was won by the Merlin years ago.

I saw a slightly over 1 month old pilot in a cnr with 5.0 sec status. it's more about knowing the missions than skill points. the extra launcher is super awesome!

and yes a navy scorp is a fraction of the navy ravens price, 350/418 at jita prices right now. 16% damage boost for 68m probably the best dps boost to isk you can buy in eve! and lol @ needing faction/deadspace stuff to make the cnr work. imo if you are afraid of losing a ship just try the mission in a standard raven and buy some insurance. if you are competent you probably won't lose it. and if you are incompetent you will probably lose even the navy scorp.

I disagree, its bottom is way too fat. I like big butts but daaaaaaamn navy scorp needs a diet. that and the angle on the dangle is just way too sharp to be aesthetically pleasing.