Ships & Modules

So I started the game a while back, really enjoyed it but I was pretty busy with school/work/other games at the time to commit. Now the load has lightened a bit and I'm returning to this great game.

Upon my return I have noticed that the Merlin has been changed up a bit and looking for builds that a newb like myself can make and be successful.

So currently I'm chilling in high sec running missions and building up my ISK (Have 5.5mil thanks to a good friend who got me started way back when).

I just got the Merlin when I stopped playing and was halfway through my build. Now with it changed the builds have probably changed as well. Kinda bummed no more Launcher hard points as I had bought a ton of missiles. Also, is there a chart for what rounds (Iron, Uranium, etc etc) work best against what or is it simply the higher costing round = better results?

Here is what I have so far on her, looking for what to get next, what to change, and just general advice on piloting this ship. I'm currently doing just PvE but will eventually test the PvP waters.

High Slots:
3x 125mm Carbide Railgun I

Medium Slots:
I MN Afterburner I
Small Shield Extender I
Civilian Kinetic Deflector Field
One Empty slot

Low Slots:
Overdrive Injector System I
Small Armor Repairer I
Micro Auxillary Power Core I

Rig Slots:
All Empty


Any and all advice welcome.

Alright:

-Empty slots are a bad idea. Sometimes you'll have a utility hislot and have to put an offlined salvager or something in there, but empty mids and lows are a nono.

-Small shield extenders are bad. They give you an extremely minute difference in hitpoints while still eating up a bunch of CPU and a slot. Medium shield extenders, though consuming a ton of PG, are much better.

-Civilian anything is bad. Even just the flat t1 equivalent is way better for about the same price.

-You're dual-tanking. The benefit of having a dedicated tank (either shield or armor) is that different tank modules synergize with each other. Adding a shield resist mod and a shield hitpoint mod give you more effective hitpoints than the sum of either combined. The Merlin, like most Caldari ships, are generally shield-tanked due to the plentiful midslots and the high base shield hitpoints. Use the lowslot for a damage control or magnetic field stabilizers.

-In PVP, you're going to need a way to keep range if you plan on using railguns - anything that gets close will just orbit you and you will be unable to track them. This means you'll need at least a stasis web and a warp scrambler.

-In PVE, you generally want to focus on active shield repping instead of high buffer, so shield boosters + capacitor mods are generally preferable to extenders. The one exception is if you plan on passive shield tanking (relying on the base shield regen) which only a few ships, notably the Drake, can get away with.




from antimatter to iron, you gain range and lose damage. In general you want the closest range ammo you can get away with and still have the optimal range you want.

depends on what you want to do with the ship. if your capacitor isn't holding up long enough, there are capactor control circuits. if you want more speed or agility, there's various navigation rigs. if you want more resists, there's also rigs for that. also notice that some rigs are pretty expensive, so it may not be a good idea to put them into a ship you're going to lose in PvP anyway.