Missions & Complexes

As you stated that you sometimes open with 2000+ and sometimes with 700, it probably has nothing to do with different resistances on shield & armor. So my guess would be defender missiles and a huge portion of badluck. Check your missile flightpath. If there are flashes, they are hit by defenders.

This is wrong. Or rather, it's already accounted for in explosion velocity.

OP is looking at a combination of explosion velocity versus target speed reduction, resists playing differently on shields and armor, and defenders.

Would help to get the rest of the story. What's your setup, what kind of missiles are you using, and what NPCs are you firing at?

Fury, navy, Precision, or normal missiles? The differences you describe could be attributed mostly to Angels beginning to move after the first volley, especially if you're using Fury.

On the Serpentis side you're most likely seeing the effect of defenders. They have the highest defender rate of all mission NPCs except Elite Drone Parasites. Rear Admirals (543,750 bounty) have a whopping 24% defender chance (compare to the 12% chance from Gist Warlords with the same bounty).

Painter cycles could also have something to do with it, but you'd know better about that.

That could be a problem. I punched a basic setup for a Raven into EFT with my skills (including perfect missile supports and cruise spec 4). The fit looked like this (note the triple rigors, which are actually helping my results compared to yours; see below):

[Raven, standard]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Co-Processor II

X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Shield Boost Amplifier II

Cruise Missile Launcher II, Nova Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Nova Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Nova Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Nova Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Nova Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Nova Fury Cruise Missile
Drone Link Augmentor I
Small Tractor Beam II

Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst I

I then plugged in a Gist Warlord (from here: http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/npc_ships.php?supergroup=7) into my missile damage spreadsheet. The results weren't pretty.

Basically, my 567 EFT DPS was reduced to 264 with the painter landing and only 198 without the painter. Oh, that's before resists.

Swapping from Fury to CN bumps me down to 509 EFT DPS but up to 364 without the painter and 483 with the painter.

So first lesson: Fury on Angel BSs is usually the wrong thing to use. The damn things are too small and too fast. Now if you can hit them before they're up to speed none of that matters, but they start moving as soon as the first shot lands.

Second lesson is about rigors. If I run my numbers on the same fit without rigors my CN missile numbers drop to 237 unpainted and 314 painted. Fury numbers are 127 unpainted and 170 painted. That's ******* pathetic. You need at least a few rigors to do reasonable damage to Angel BSs.

So basically, that's what's going on. As soon as you agro a group all the ships start to move. As soon as they're moving, they're reducing damage from your missiles (down to something quite piddly, I might add). You're better off shooting T1 missiles than Fury once combat has started, but CN is your best option.

Spreadsheet in question can be found here if you want to take a look at it:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhzdGHNl5YBQdEJkRWxSVzg2bzA1RXlpOXptMjc3S0E

Edit: re-ran numbers for a Core Rear Admiral. Fury with the full fit I posted (that is, with rigors) hits for 567 base EFT, 270 applied unpainted, and 360 applied painted. CN hits for 509 base EFT, 492 applied unpainted, and the full 509 painted.

Without rigors, CN hits for 509 base EFT, 320 applied unpainted, and 424 applied painted. So rigors still make a significant difference against Serpentis. For Furies (ugh; the more I run these numbers the more I think these things are gimmicks) you're looking at 567 base EFT, 156 applied unpainted, and 208 applied painted.

Edit: for the sake of completeness if anyone else should read this, the assumptions in the above post are max missile support skills (including TNP 5 and GMP 5), max painter skills (Target Painting 5 and Signature Focusing 5), and no implants. A quick look suggests that a GP-805 (slot 8) implant would negate the need for a painter on Core Rear Admirals and basically do **** all for Furies. All speeds quoted were max speeds not orbit speeds. Orbit speeds are slower and will increase damage but not enough to really help Furies.

Yup. That and get some rigors on that Raven as soon as humanly possible.

Hi
I flew a CNR for a long time and it had 2 * T2 Rigors + a T2 flare rig.
Only use navy missiles + have a TP fittet (as you have).

For shield boosting i used a GIST a-type large + 1 boost amp. (cap for 5-6 mins if i remember correct)
+ mission specific resist.

Drones : 5* Hobgoblins T2 (takes care of the frigs)


i used this strategy inallmost all missions :

a) paint and hammer all cruisers.
b) deploy drones and make them eat frigs while you shoot the battleships.

The setup worked very good.

just my 2 cents

The trouble with using max speeds is that NPCs use a pseudo-MWD to get max speed which increases their sig bloom, which improves missile damage against them.

IME, using orbit speed works well, where IME = checking speadsheet numbers against damage in the log file.

Zhilia is spot on..... however I wouldn't use faction ammo unless you are seriously going for LP speed completions. It's just to damned expensive.