These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Ships & Modules

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

L4's gunboat
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Maethilar
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2012-09-28 01:13:32 UTC
I've been running level 4 missions for a while, and I have used missile boats and drone boats, now I want something different. I'm tired of drone management and also to stay still while the sentry drones do the job and I'm tired too of waiting missiles to hit, so now I want to try gunboats. I already have good gunnery skills, so it's a matter of training the BSes skill and training specific turret specializations.

So I don't want overpimped Machs and NM. Which should be a good gunboat that you don't need to spend your entire wallet to by the ship/modules? My play style is to clear all the rooms/pockets since I usually use an alt to salvage the mission.

At the moment I'm running missions on Amarr space, but I don't know if i'll stay there or change to another region.
Zyella Stormborn
Green Seekers
#2 - 2012-09-28 01:24:37 UTC
Maethilar wrote:
I've been running level 4 missions for a while, and I have used missile boats and drone boats, now I want something different. I'm tired of drone management and also to stay still while the sentry drones do the job and I'm tired too of waiting missiles to hit, so now I want to try gunboats. I already have good gunnery skills, so it's a matter of training the BSes skill and training specific turret specializations.

So I don't want overpimped Machs and NM. Which should be a good gunboat that you don't need to spend your entire wallet to by the ship/modules? My play style is to clear all the rooms/pockets since I usually use an alt to salvage the mission.

At the moment I'm running missions on Amarr space, but I don't know if i'll stay there or change to another region.



All Amarr BS's are considered top of the food chain for the class. Due to your skills, Gallente may be a nice idea as well (dominix for guns + drones + wondertank = pure L4 win). Ship prices are not too bad since you are not forced to get navy versions (although N will always be helpful of course).

I am assuming you already know the pros / cons on hybrids and lasers so I'll not jump into them.

There is a special Hell for people like that, Right next to child molestors, and people that talk in the theater. ~Firefly
Klymer
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#3 - 2012-09-28 01:26:35 UTC
Maelstrom
gulftobay
Mesotopia
#4 - 2012-09-28 01:29:24 UTC
Klymer wrote:
Maelstrom


This.
Paikis
Vapour Holdings
#5 - 2012-09-28 01:37:04 UTC
Nightmare
Shereza
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#6 - 2012-09-28 02:18:52 UTC  |  Edited by: Shereza
Um, off the top of my head:
Great:
Nightmare
Machariel
Vindicator
Vargur

Good:
Paladin
(Navy) Megathron
Navy Apocalypse
(Fleet) Tempest
(Fleet) Typhoon (though admittedly it's a missile/gun/drone boat in just about any configuration for PvE)
Sleipnir
(Navy) Armageddon
Maelstrom
Kronos

Decent:
Apocalypse
Abaddon
Hyperion
Rokh
Deimos
Astarte
Proteus
Bhaalgorn
Panther
Redeemer
Talos

Adequate:
Eos (this one is kind of pushing the "gunboat" thing, but given its only damage bonus is for guns I'm giving it a pass)
Hurricane
Absolution
Legion (this one might warrant Decent, but the lack of drones in gunboat mode makes me hesitant and I can't give it a solid testing just yet)
Phobos
Eagle

Please note that this is merely a list of ships based on actual performance for me, EFT performance based on my experiences with other ships, and in some cases hearsay from the forums. Not in any order. I also don't care to make a distinction between practical and possible here. The redeemer, for example, is not very practical for running L4s but with its rate of fire and tracking bonuses and large drone bay/bandwidth it has a very nasty offensive punch, nasty enough to make it quite usable for all its impracticality.

As for doing things in Amarr space, pretty much anything with an armor tank, the vargur, and the sleipnir would be worth considering from a tanking perspective. From a DPS perspective the aforementioned vargur and sleipnir along with the paladin, armageddon/apocalypse variants, and/or a gun-oriented navy typhoon would do well enough.

Personally, I'm at the point where I pick ships to suit the mission, rather than builds to suit the mission, and for fun when I'm not just blowing through them with multiple accounts. I mean when you're at the point where you can, and do, run missions with a machariel, nightmare, and navy apocalyplse at the same time the only reason to really use much of anything else is to have fun. That's where ships like the eos, deimos, hyperion, proteus, and others come in for me.

Edit (2): Rearranged some ordering.
Onictus
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2012-09-28 08:38:44 UTC  |  Edited by: Onictus
In Ammar space, I'd say Navy Geddon or Navy Pulsepoc, followed by maelstrom/domi ect.

The two amarr ships are north of 800 DPS with "enough" tank, if the two I would rock the geddon, mainly because it has the best drone bay so elite frigs getting under your guns isn't an issue, and 450 DPS from garde IIs is nothing to sneeze at.
Mission Domis are bricks, if you have the skills a dual repper with 4 guns just parks and pews, if you are at the keys it's actually pretty hard to loose it. X-large booster Mael is a bit better, but its resist profile doesn't like sanshas and tracking disruptors **** it over.
Daniel Plain
Doomheim
#8 - 2012-09-28 09:31:25 UTC
there is no need to overpimp a nightmare. it shreds everything even in full T2.

I should buy an Ishtar.
Marc Callan
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2012-09-28 11:43:09 UTC
With a decent skill set, you can pick up a Maelstrom, rigs, and fittings (with alternates and spares to cover almost all L4 missions) for under 300 million. I know that sounds like a lot, but that's about a quarter of what a bare Machariel hull goes for.

What I got for my initial Maelstrom purchase was a pair of shield boosters (one T2 and one M4, depending on CPU and powergrid), one shield boost amp, three of every type of active shield hardener, one Damage Control II, three Gyrostabilizer II's, two Tracking Enhancer II's, one 100MN afterburner, and full racks of both 800mm autocannons and 1200mm artillery (meta 4, because I didn't have T2 projectile skills). I also picked up three Large Capacitor Control Circuit rigs. As my skills improved, I was able to upgrade the artillery to 1400's, and fit in a heavy cap booster as well for heavy-incoming-DPS missions.

There are very few missions that the Mael can't tank solo - Enemies Abound 5 and the bonus room of Angels Extravaganza are the only ones I've had to bail on so far.

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegurt
Shereza
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2012-09-28 15:11:39 UTC
Updated my first post to include the eagle (or rather beagle) and phobos as "adequate" ships for L4 missions. I considered adding the devoter, but it's not suitable for L4s in my opinion. It's quite comparable to the phobos in most areas, but at only 280 rDPS with 3 damage modules it doesn't have enough punch to guarantee it'll handle all the missions as some NPCs giggle at sub-300 rDPS ships. It's just decent enough to rate this mention and critique, but not decent enough to be put in the adequate list.
Zhilia Mann
Tide Way Out Productions
#11 - 2012-09-28 15:28:34 UTC
Shereza wrote:
Updated my first post to include the eagle (or rather beagle) and phobos as "adequate" ships for L4 missions. I considered adding the devoter, but it's not suitable for L4s in my opinion. It's quite comparable to the phobos in most areas, but at only 280 rDPS with 3 damage modules it doesn't have enough punch to guarantee it'll handle all the missions as some NPCs giggle at sub-300 rDPS ships. It's just decent enough to rate this mention and critique, but not decent enough to be put in the adequate list.


I'd add the Naga somewhere on that list. It can actually range tank quite well. Dies if tackled though.
Kosetzu
The Black Crow Bandits
Northern Coalition.
#12 - 2012-09-28 15:46:55 UTC
Shereza wrote:
Um, text


Where's the Maelstrom =/ Should definitely be on your list under at least decent.
Shereza
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2012-09-28 17:26:12 UTC
Kosetzu wrote:
Shereza wrote:
Um, text


Where's the Maelstrom =/ Should definitely be on your list under at least decent.


I did say off the top of my head. Blink Good point though, and it actually makes for a good ship with the damage variability of ACs. A well-skilled player could even make a build that tanks 700-1.4k while dishing out upwards of 1k DPS (though admittedly something like 20% of that would be drone DPS) so it's definitely a good one.
Exploited Engineer
Creatively Applied Violence Inc.
#14 - 2012-09-28 17:31:54 UTC  |  Edited by: Exploited Engineer
Shereza wrote:
I did say off the top of my head. Blink Good point though, and it actually makes for a good ship with the damage variability of ACs.


It lacks range, though.

I'm a bit puzzled at why the Vindicator is "great", but the Kronos is only "decent". The former does about 10% more damage (1.375/1.25) and is less skill-intensive, while the latter gets T2 resists, a rep bonus, and doesn't have to work around a lock range of only 50km.
Shereza
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#15 - 2012-09-28 18:37:37 UTC  |  Edited by: Shereza
Going by the raw numbers I have via EFT it's closer to 17.3% more DPS by the vindicator, not 10%, even with a 75mb Gallente drone setup on the kronos. 1375 versus 1172 with 3 T2 MagStabs on both. Alongside that the vindicator does more drone-based DPS which means it's better equipped to handle NPCs that take more damage from non-kinetic elements than the kronos is.

The armor rep. bonus and the T2 shield resistances on the kronos are nice as well, but the vindicator is 5% faster, has a 20% lower signature radius, turns better, and averages around 28% more raw HP per type. For anti-Sansha work this means that while the vindicator might have a weaker tank it's tank would still be more than sufficient to handle most if not all missions and it does it with 46% more EHP than the kronos. Further negating the tanking bonus(es if you count the resistances) of the kronos is the extra mid-slot the vindicator gets. Unless you use it for a CR2 it won't help tanking directly, but you can use it for a TC2 (or hey, a webber, whatever) to replace the TE2 you might have used on a kronos. It's not a 1:1 trade, but it's better than a kick in the ass.

Frankly though the list is my opinion, I'm not espousing it as fact and if it came out that way I do apologize. I like the vindicator more because it's it's faster, has more EHP, does more raw damage, and in my mind "feels" a lot nicer than the kronos does. I never did like the kronos TBH, but in all fairness though it is, at least in my opinion, inferior to the vindicator the tank/gank mix it offers does put it on par with the "good" other ships.