Ships & Modules

Six of one, half dozen of another, all caldari bs are slowboats. Some have incredible dps at laughable range that's hard to apply, ex. golem. Some of them have mediocre dps, great range, and it's not as hard to apply, ex. CNR. Then you have the rattlesnake which is to lvl 4's what an abrams tank is to the daily commute. Yes, it's really safe, no it's not efficient compared to the alternatives.

Hope that helps.

All HM boats will be less effective when HM changes go live as proposed.

On the other side all cruise missile and torp boats will benefit a lot from the TE, TC and t2 missile changes. The Rattlesnake becomes stronger since drone damage mods will be boosted as well. But the NPC AI change could make drones a bit more challenging.

Regarding ships:

Navy Raven: best allrounder imho. Very good damage projection, selectable damage type, enough tank. ASBs are interesting in missions now. TE, TC changes are a big boost for this ship.

Navy Scorp: more tank, less damage. It's a bit newb friendlier or better in hard PvE environments.

Golem: a lot of micromanagement. TP cycles vs. torp cycles...torp ranges...and so on. With TC, TE changes this becomes easier maybe.

Rattlesnake: really a competitor to the CNR because of the drone damage mods now.

Tengu: loses effectivity because of HM changes. Still a very good option if you need a fast, agile ship for PvE...for instance in low/null sec.

Then Navy Raven definitely. But since you have laser skills, consider the Nightmare as well. There is nothing better against EM/Therm weak rats. Downside: you really need to micromanage your cap on this ship.

dont buy raven or cnr unless you willing to shell out for em without ded and faction mods you will either have tank with no dps or dps with no tank

[Raven Navy Issue, Dual ASB]
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Co-Processor II
Co-Processor II

X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 400
Shield Boost Amplifier II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Small Tractor Beam II

Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Large Warhead Flare Catalyst I

- 711 DPS without drones @max lock range (93km) with T2 missiles
- tanks 1521 DPS against Serpentis (change hardeners for other NPCs) using one ASB
- tanks 2981 DPS against Serpentis for 40sec -> should be avoided

Idea is to run one ASB per time. Never both at the same time except you really need to GTFO. Each ASB runs 40sec and reloads 60sec. Those missing 20sec can be managed with some practice. I never really had a problem when I run this fit.

Navy BCS are necessary because of CPU. Everything else is affordable t2 stuff. Except T2 rigs ofc...which can be downgraded. With navy or deadspace shield hardeners you free up CPU. With a more expensive co-pro it's maybe possible to squeeze in a TE which should help your applied missile damage (in case TE changes go live as proposed). Alternatively a sig amp can be useful in missions with more than 90km range. Or a named DC for more tank.

This ship is chill-mode in missions - imho. In my experience it's still very effective. 700+ DPS without drones, at all ranges and perfect damage type isn't really bad. Slowboat to the next gate in your mission while finishing all rats. With 90km lock range you are completely independent in terms of weapon range. So you can navigate according to your mission objective. No MWD or AB needed imo. Tractor is handy if you need to pickup something.

Raven
Navy Scorpion
Navy Raven

A progression from Raven to Navy Scorpion is very natural. I generally encourage people go that way instead of jumping from Raven to Navy Raven.

My suggestion? Don't use ASBs in missions. There is no need for all that extra tank, and it puts a VERY definite end-point on your tank. Cap charges don't regenerate, capacitor does. With even semi-competent capacitor management and shield skills this one will keep you alive perfectly fine and isn't 100% dependent on having cap charges.

Here is a basic T2(ish) fit for low skills that works perfectly fine for level 4 missions. This is a minimum for this hull. If you can't fit this, use a normal Raven until you can, and then wait a week.



Some notes.
1. Always aim to have your shield between 25-40% I would advise turning the LSB on at about 50% until you get used to it's usage, then slowly start leaving it off until lower and lower. I am at the point now where I can keep my shields sitting at peak recharge (30-ish%) for most of a fight. Beware that a Large SB may not be able to keep up with damage at the start of a fight, and may require you to kill off some enemy ships... having said that, I have always used a large (and not an XL) and have never lost a ship to PvE.
2. Similar idea with your capacitor. Peak recharge is around 30%, don't use cap charges unless you go below 15% or so. Pretend those cap charges are your life, because sometimes they will be, hold onto them as long as you can.
3. The utility slot in the lows can be used for several things. If you want more tank, fit a damage control. If you want more gank, fit a drone damage amplifier. If your lock range is too short, fit a signal amplifier. If you're short on powergrid, fit a Power Diagnostic Unit and if you're short on CPU, fit a co-processor. After the winter changes, I would fit a tracking enhancer for MOAR GANK! (Start with a damage control II)
4. Upgrade the Ballistic Control Systems to Caldari Navy as your first upgrade. This ship tanks by killing things. Kill things faster and your tank gets better. If you can afford T2 rigs, get 2x T2 rigors and 1x T1 flare rig. Upgrade to T2 (or Cal Navy) launchers as you can afford or have the skills. T2 is the end goal for launchers. A faction or Deadspace shield booster is nice, but not really required.
5. DO NOT FLY THIS IF YOU DON'T HAVE T2 LIGHT DRONES! A single webbing frigate that you can't kill fast enough will destroy your shiny ship. T2 hobgoblins are the minimum. I would recommend getting drone interfacing to IV, as well as combat drone operation and all the other supports to IV ASAP. Your light drones will save your ship, put some SP into them.

This is the base. If you can't use everything on this fit, don't fly a CNR yet. If you don't have Cruise Missiles IV and all your missile support skills to III at least, don't fly this ship. If you haven't run at least 10-20 missions in a standard Raven previously, don't fly this ship. If you don't have T2 hobgoblins, don't fly this ship. If this doesn't fit (due to lack of CPU/Grid) don't fly this ship.

Let me make this as clear as I can. This is the absolute minimum that I would fit on this ship. I know the missions like the back of my hand, I know this ship like it was my brother... and I consider this fit to be the bare minimum. Don't try to be a hero and end up losing your expensive battleship.



ASBs give the same shield boost no matter what size charge you use. Use the small ones because you can fit more of them into the booster.

The new Ancillary Shield Boosters don't take advantage of bigger cap booster charges. In fact it's vice versa.

Ancillary shield boosters cosume 1 cap booster charge per cycle - no matter what size the cap booster charge has. A x-large ASB has a capacity of 160m3. One 400 cap charge is 16m3 (= 10 charges per shield booster). A 800 cap chare is 32m3 (= 5 charges per shield booster). So you can run the ASB 10 cycles with 400 charges and only 5 cycles with 800s.

Please keep in mind: once an ASB runs out of charges the reload time is 60sec! The shield booster isn't usable in this time. That's why two ASBs. Run one while the other reloads. If things go wrong you can use an ASB without boosters as well (don't hit reload then, switch off auto-reload for that module). But they need much more cap compared to ordinary shield boosters then. So this isn't viable for prolonged use.

As mentioned one ABS runs only 40sec...while the other reloads 60sec. That's why aggro and shield booster management is important here. Don't run the shield boosters non stop. Pulse them only. This way one cap booster lasts more than 40sec...enough time to reload the other. And don't forget to put enough charges in your cargo ^^ Pick only those missiles you really need in your mission. Rest for cap boosters. They are cheap, consider them as ammo.

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BTW: ofc there's a standard shield booster fitting for the CNR. But to make it really work you need deadspace boosters here. Which makes the ship more expensive. I try to aim for a ~800 DPS tank in missions - rat specific. Maybe this can be done with t2 standard shield boosters, I never tried it tbh. With deadspace shield boosters this is possible. But with cheap ASBs as well. Bonus: you're not vulnerable to neuting - in case you do Blood missions.

For now the Tengu is pretty good, but with eventual nerfs to it, I'm not sure.

Future rebalancing of ships may help the raven to become a better mission boat, however, it still can mission, it's just not as effective as many other t1 bs's.

if you don't wanna risk the tengu, then the scorpion navy is a pretty good cruise boat, however, it isn't an effective torp boat due to no range bonuses.

personally, I'm cross training right now for a nightmare.

You really oughtn't answer questions you don't know the answer to.

ASBs work exactly as described. As long as you have charges, they do not use cap and they do not consume more 400s than 800s. As such, you always want to use the smaller boosters as more fit per load.

You've also mucked up the question about cap boosters. A single 800 gives exactly the same amount of cap as two 400s. The difference is that the single 800 is injected all at once whereas the 400s are injected over two cycles. Obviously the downside to 800s is that you have to reload more often (and eat up more cargo space to hold the same number of charges).