EVE General Discussion

Yes, they are great.

Yeah its not like I'm gonna stick to T1 forever, just until I learn how to not die all the time.

This man... looks like he got hit in the face by a train... Seriously your avatar... ouch

But the facially crippled man does offer good advice, the new destroyers make rockets much more viable than in the past.

I think OP means missiles in general when he says "rockets". Rockets on a Drake would be...well.. an exotic way to fit it.
FYI, OP, "rockets" are only the small short range missiles.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend to focus on missiles if you intend to do lots of pvp. The delayed damage of missiles (the travel time until they reach their target) lets often enough go a large part of your dps to waste. If the target is destroyed before your missiles hit, your missiles will simply disappear. And even in small gang fights ships die a lot.

Not saying that missiles are not viable at all, but I would focus on turrets if I were you and maybe acquire some missile skills later as a secondary weapon system.

edit: just checked your killboard.. so you can already use t2 rockets and t2 heavies at least.
And you can fly Caldari t2 frigates.
Seriously, if you are a dedicated Caldari pilot, train hybrid weapons now. The tiericide made many Caldari ships great pvp-killing-machines, there is no excuse at all not to train up the required skills to use all of them.
Especially the Merlin and the Cormorant are deadly ships in the hands of a skilled pilot (skilled = gunnery sklills).

For cruisers, you can fly the caracal or bellicose. Neither are overly tanky. Still both can act as snipers with heavy missiles or clise combat with HAMs. You can also make nice frig killers with rapid light launchers.

Also, the condor makes a nice fast tackle frig.

Later for t2 the malidiction is a very nice fleet intercepter.

I use 'em. That may not be the greatest endorsement ever, but I find they do what I want, reliably and violently.



This^

Thanks cue ball.

The Vengeance, It hits like a girl but has the staying power of an ex-wife.

I put autocannons on my Malediction...

Like everyone said. Missiles are useful for PVP if you don't treat them like turrets. And they like their t2 ammo and their support skills a LOT more than turrets. Their uses also vary more according to the ships they are used in than the rest.

Anyway,I try to keep the following in mind when fitting ships with missiles. People have repeated things such as delayed dmg, sig/speed so here's a more in-deptch personal view on those.

-Constant range of missiles.All missiles have a natural tendecy to range/speed dictate because most will put you at the edge of an equivalent turret's working range (unless it's a specialised ship). Even t1 rockets put you near to the limit of a t1 web/and most small close range turrets,easily extendable with rigs /skills to put your out of range of your opponet's weaponry while still dishing out max theoretical dmg. You realy have no reason to be on 0 when fighting with any missile system and shields and you should plan for that and avoid that.

-You don't have to track your opponent. Only their sig/speed is relevant. Meaning you can dish out your full dmg while going maxed out,overheating the hamsters that run the mwd on,let's say,a talwar (ever tried to track with turrets while having ab/mwd on against a same-size opponent? ). If you have mids free a Tracking disruptor on a kiting missile ship will ruin most turret pilot's moods.

-They don't use cap.Nuff said really. But if that's not enough for you there are some armor-focused ships that use missiles and make excellent tacklers/brawlers for that reason. Those ships have a reason to fight at 0 (or near 0 ranges) and you should fit them accordingly. Like the girly vengance everyone is shouting about. I prefer the dualproped/asb/rocket hawk personally if I have a gang i'm tackling for. That bugger will latch on to you like a litch,nosferatu to keep it's web/ab/scram running if neuted (always) and ab-speedtank it's ass out until the heavy tackler gets the target or the asb cycles run out. If tackling is not needed it can mwd outside of harm range (15+km usually )with javelins t2 rockets and still provide the fleet with some girly dps as well :P

-Missile Spam. Useless in alpha turret fleets. Awsome for skirmishes vs larger targets/fleets, where you just spam missiles while trying to dictate range/speed and get a foothold on the grid. I found it gives you more time to plot your trajectory or just fly like a lunatic while your volleys cycle on someone's poor ship and always hit and dmg. You could care less where or what they'r doing as long as they are within your missile range and you'r not in theirs damage range. It's not much, but people constantly underestimate the power of 12+ ships, spamming you with missiles while you trying to catch em,wearing down them down and forcing them to react or start losing ships to the missile spam.

TLDR;
All weapon systems are useful in pvp, but not all PVP situations favor the same weapon system. Learn what tactics your weapons favor.