Ships & Modules

I think it's the ugly lokking bird one for PVE

Nah the minnie have one too, It looks like big bird on crack.

I like having one weapon system so for me the Maelstrom is the clear choice. Only need one damage type, and no flight time management... Plus the Maelstrom tanks like a beast. With max skills you can something like 2000 shield per X-L booster cycle which is 20% of your total shield! EHP isn't very important for PvE... There's very few ships that need to fit a buffer to do PvE, and they generally do it to passive tank with shield.

Typhoon Fleet Issue does have a nice dronebay though... with 200Mbit and being able to use a full flight of heavy/sentry drones as well. I personally don't like the slot layout it has for shield tanking, as I like having an AB to get around a bit quicker and maintain range from those pesky battleships that are so quick.

Maelstrom no question. Typhoon is a nice cheap versitile BS for pvp and fleet version doesnt require the fustrating fitting gymnastics, but the mael is the best for mission running by a long way, a ways above the tempest as well. TBH for lvl4s it's pretty much equal to the fleet pest for <1/3 the price.

8x 800mm ACs

1x Large shield booster
1x Shield boost amplifier
3x Rat specific hardeners
1x AB (the thing is slow and no one likes wasting time gate to gate)

3x Gyros
2x TEs

2x CCCs
1x Ambit extension

5x Warriors
5x Hammerheads

Plus any shinys you stick on it will fit nicely on your mach once the mael has earned its keep. T2 fit and with a bit of cap management this thing goes through lvl4s very nicely.

If you're ratting or predominantly missioning against angels, the fleet phoon melts through them in the blink of an eye, but for most PVE a mael is by far the better choice.

But it(mael) is probably the ugliest ship in game. The only reason I or really anybody else doesn't complain about it, is cause we are flying that ugliass tempest.

I'm partial to the Fleet Phoon. However, to really get the most out of it, you need to have all 3 weapons systems at tech II. For me that meant getting cruise and torp launcher IIs, large AC and Arty IIs, and heavy and sentry drone IIs.

The fleet phoon will do better against rats that do mostly em and therm damage. The Mael against angels. The kinetic rats are sorta a tossup, but for them I prefer the fleet phoon.

The reason the fleet phoon sorta sucks against angels is the necessity to use too many lows for your explo and kinetic tank. It thus eats into your damage ability against the angels. For em rats though the Maels shield tank sucks and the fleet phoon armor tank is much better. It needs fewer slots and thus more damage mods can be fit. Also, cruise launchers, at least at this time, laugh at sansha tracking disruption.

And in the end that is how eve is supposed to be anyway. There should never be one ship that is best against all rats and in all situations. So you should not be relying on one ship anyway to do all level 4s. Some can adapt easier than other ships, and some ships are very specialized and excel in a narrow niche.

For your needs one would have to know what types of missions you are typically getting. So if lots of angels then Mael. If lots of other rats then maybe fleet phoon.

Oh and about the skills. The Mael is easier to skill into. Just guns and drones (and probably not sentrys). With the Phoon, you can get by with large arty and cruise and heavy drones at tech II. But you will want the other missile, gun, and drone types at tech II as well.

When I was starting off, I asked around.

I was told to get a Maelstrom, while others would tell me to get a Regular Typhoon.

I eventually met some one who played the game since 2003 and he explained to me, why a newbie should start from the Typhoon hull over the Maelstrom.

The 2 key factors he described where:

The typhoon is a very versitile ship, after you play around with it for a month or 2, you will get a feel for what missile damage is, and how artillery/autocannon weapons handle, the typhoon also has a large drone bay, this will also allow me to get a feel for drones without any limits.
With throwing skills around like newbies usually do, and benefit right away, compared to long long skills for the Maelstrom, mainly because its just unrealistic for a new player to throw together a viable Maelstrom fitting that will actually do lvl 4's safelly.

The Typhoon handles better and is more resilient, forgiving, not to mention cheaper.

You should chose the realistic ship, the Typhoon, in this ship you will really get a good sense and feel for the bastard brother of the other 3 races, in this ship you should learn and then focus your skills once you figure out what you want.

I wouldn't bother with the faction TEs unless you hate isk, also you'll generally always get better results using mission specific hardeners.

But really if you can slap that much shiny on a mael you should be buying a mach.

I do L4s in a standard T2 fitted mael (large ACs, XLSB, AB, DC, 2xgyro, 2xTE, hardeners according to mission, no faction mods, only faction is ammo) but from very beginning I had my eye on typhoon because oh boy, it looks nasty and mean. Somebody on those forums referred to it as a space narwhal or giant syringe :) Mael looks to me like pickaxe used by mount climbers. Of course you can use it for splitting skulls but still phoon gives more morbid impression

Mael was easier to train for me since it was natural progression of minnie training from rifter -> thrasher -> ruppie -> cane. T2 light drones came along with ruppie.

Phoon is of course all that plus missiles/torps and MOAR drones. And it is armor tanked (at least according to most popular fits) so my shield skills are useless. But I will switch to it some day when I will be able to use T2 launchers, just for lulz and thrills :)

A lot of feedback on typhoon states it shines in PVP but it gets only "ok" in PVE and while it may be true I don't play for ISK/hour efficiency I play for fun. Even in this thread somebody said phoon requires a lot of micromanaging of its weapon systems. So if I have to scramble between guns, torps and drones to kill those pesky rats it means I won't die from boredom, ergo: have fun.

Regarding OP: I would go for whatever is along your current skills OR whatever is along your way of having fun in EVE. I know most people do missions only when they need money/standings because peeveepee is what cool kidz do but it is not a ban offense to play the way you like :)