Ships & Modules

I am in the middle of training for a mission Rattlesnake, and in the meantime I was playing around on EFT trying to get a fit that I like, when suddenly a million questions started popping out, mainly cost/benefit of bling deadspace modules and the chance of them making you get ganked, hopefully you guys can help me out here.

I want an active tank so I can save slots for damage mods and what not, so I am playing around with a 4 slot tank setup that was looking pretty solid until I started giving it more thought(2x specific hardeners/booster/boost amp). I am trying to stay away from the really bling bling modules as much as possible, A/B types, ESPECIALLY the booster.

So the first question is:
Is it better to fit 2x specific deadspace hardeners or it is better to sacrifice some mission tank and fit 2x C type invuls for safety against possible ganks? The reason behind the question is that a proper tanked bs is gonna take some effort and cordination to take down, so say I am in caldari space, If I would gank someone I would first try to exploit the resist hole, in this case its almost always EM, specific hardeners leave me with 25% resists on EM and that doesn't look good on an expensive ship.

Second question:
If I ever want to survive a suicide gank, do I really need some kind of buffer tank? or really high resists are enough?

Third question:
I am getting really good numbers with 1 X-large ASB instead of a shiny booster, but the mechanics of the module are unclear to me and the more I read about the more confused I get because people say different things each time.
Can you pulse that damn thing? Some say you can, some say it enters on that 60sec cooldown when you turn it off, as long you have charges on your cargo hold.
Charge sizes change anything? At least on EFT, changing between 400/800 charges didn't change anything that I could see.

Fourth question:
I am used to doing missions on a fleet issue typhoon and my tank values are pretty low but I still do pretty well when you mix up ab speed/sig radius vs missiles and etc. I don't know what kind of numbers I should be aiming at because the rattlesnake would basicly sit still with sentries out and would take full damage from missiles and evade less turret hits cause of lower transversal. Consider that I would do just it normally, killing one group, or a couple at a time, not killing every trigger and tank the full spawn.


If you could awnser one or all the questions it would be very much appreciated.
Pardon my third world broken engrish.

Invulns are much pricier than specific hardeners and make you more likely to be ganked.

ASBs are meh for PvE. Charge size (400 vs. 800) does not matter.

Don't try to tank a suicide gank, try to be cheap enough so that no one wants to suicide gank you. You want high EHP to resist a gank should you be targeted (active tank is basically irrelevant).

On the subject of tank, unless you're doing AE bonus room, high level complexes, or pulling full room aggro like an idiot, anything more than 700 dps sustained for ~1-3 minutes is overkill.

Don't active tank a Rattlesnake. You can run a passive tank without sacrificing DPS too much. Three DDAs are plenty.
You can then use the mids for drone upgrades and hardeners.

I'll disagree about XL-ASBs for missions. I run one, and it works great. Just pay attention to when you run out of charges, and make sure you can handle the incoming DPS while it's reloading. Don't forget about it and let it run without charges, it will DESTROY your capacitor. Long story short, pay attention to the ASB and it works great.

As long as you're not fitting anything to shiny (deadspace/officer) you'll be fine. Again, be smart and pay attention you'll do great.

I don't disagree with active tanking, I wanted to point out that you can still have plenty of damage mods without needing an active tank.

That has to be worst Rattlesnake fit ever.

With 6 billion in mods you will get ganked.

Just fit all t2. A rattlesnake doesn't need faction or deadspace mods to do missions. And by not using what you don't need, you won't be worth suicide-ganking.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/62539-Rattlesnake-Efficient-L4-Mission-Boat.html

This fit can do every level 4 mission and is cheap to fit, too. High tank, nice DPS, lots of versatility.

Active tank works much better, and it doesn't need to be blinged to work.. Can't remeber my fit exactly, I have 2 DL in the high, with a medium s95 (tr rep sentries) and cruise missiles. Mid has x-large asb, 2x invuln, 2 drone omni's, heavy cap boost, not sure what I have in the last mid, lows are 3 x drone damage, 2 x ballistic controls, last low.. not sure.. ut not a damage control.... rigs.. also can't remember. but I ever put the sentry rig think, will have to check.. but it is omni tanked.. so think I used 1 rig for that ... sorry not that much help.. but above should be enough to get you started... and it works like a charm