Ships & Modules

Guristas are weakest to Kinetic, and then Thermal.

This suggests either Hybrids, or missiles. Projectiles will do if you have absolutely nothing else, and avoid lasers.

Since you have already tried the Drake with Heavy Assault Missiles, basically as good as you're going to get in the battlecruiser class, I'm going to go ahead and say you need to train some more skills. Based on this:



You should train until you can use 5x Hobgoblin or Hornet IIs. Then pick a weapon system and train it to at least IV, preferably T2. make sure your support skills for that weapon are all at IV, and get a full T2 tank and IVs in fitting and capacitor skills.

EVE is all about skills. You don't have them. Get them.

If you're going to be using HAMs then you want to use the T2 Launchers and T2 ammo.

The Drake is a superb ship, but as others have alluded, you need good skills to get the most from it.

Belt rats can be killed very efficiently for modest ticks in a naga. I assume Talos as well but not sure.

For anoms you'll want something with a bigger tank (assuming F-hubs) so move up to tengu or rokh/mega. The ultimate for gurista red plus kills is arguably the vindi. With the bonused webs, ideal damage type, and sentrys it can push obscene ticks from anoms.

From direct experience a rokh+naga team can approach 40-60 m/hr in bounty. With loot and salv it is in the 100m/hr range but needs a dedicated salvager to keep up as sites are a 15 min clear.

On rereading the OP none of my advice is really relevant for someone of low to nil support and core skills.

Are you talking about mission rats?

Someone without the requisite skill levels to fly a BC optimally should (likely) not be flying them in low/nul to get rats of any significant size. If that is the case get a friend or two and run them in T1 cruisers so that WHEN you get banked the loss won't be as bad.

If it is missions however any number of websites are around to tell you the ideal ships for each mission and how to run them risk free.

I'd personally use a Caracal, but if you're struggling with a Drake, I guess that might not be a great idea. You should probably just put some more tank on your Drake. Post your current fit.

Your drake should have 3 T2 ballistic control units and, ideally, 6 T2 launchers; Arbalests will do until you can use T2.

You should note that the drake gets +10% kinetic damage/level, so there's a fair difference between, say battlecruisers 2 and battlecruisers 4. Make sure your ship skill is at least 4

EDIT: The go to ratting fit should look ideally something like this

6x T2/Meta 4 launchers
10mn AB, 2x large shield extenders, T2 Kinetic hardener, T2 Invuln
3x T2 ballistic controls, T2/Meta 3/4 Damage control

5x Hobgoblin II Drones

3x Core Defence Field Extender Rigs

With all V skills that should put out easily enough DPS to swiftly slaughter any belt rat. All those "5%s" you disparage really add up.

EDIT: I have Battlecruiser V.

I'm pretty far away from any of these T2 modules like launchers and what not. My preference is not to waste too many skill points in launchers that I may not use much later as I'll probably be into guns (drake and missles was a side-shoot for me specifically for ratting). In truth, I was strictly Amarr and lasers before getting this Caldari ship. Having said that, I'll do what you guys recommend if possible.

I won't post the exact fit, but I'll give you the general gist of what I've been running.

HIGHS:

I have 2 sets of launchers I've used in the highs. Initially it was 6 heavy missle launchers. Later I switched to Arbalest heavy assault missle launchers.

Also, because I had trouble with rats repairing shields as I knocked them down, I have tried both a medium neut in the utility high, and a nosferatu unit. The one kill against a Conquistador I was able to achieve was with the neut.

MIDS:

Have tried various combos of shield extenders, and two types of resist units. One type gave across the board resists. Other type was kinetic resist at 50% or thereabouts. Also tried running a shield repair/restore unit, and a shield boost amplifier. Also, I use a mwd because the rats spawn very far away and I have to get to them quickly before they take down all of my shield.

LOWS:

Damage control I, Ballistic control II, plus 2 reactor control units.

RIGS:

Medium core defense field purger, Medium hydraulic bay thrusters I

I know I could just keep training for upgrades and launchers, but if 'big guns' will do the trick (and I plan to be in those anyway sooner or later) should I just try to jump into those?

EDIT:

I did try running 4 drones also, but they seemed to target and kill the drones quickly, so I stopped doing that.

If you have BC V I would suggest a talos. It will kill any group of belt rats very quickly. As you have discovered: drakes are a bit low on damage but they make up with their awesome tank.

However you need to train large hybrids for this to work.

Once you get tech 2 launchers and start using fury missiles drake might be worth looking at again.

As far as I know, the rat BS have infinite cap, at least the ones where I am do so I'm not sure if neuts will help. Rats rep themselves based on chance... It's like a 10% chance to rep or something, I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, I'd lose the neut. If you're having trouble breaking their tank then you do have a serious DPS problem. Looking at what you posted, I'd say you need to make some sacrifices, specifically the MWD. Get rid of those Power Core things, they're useless.

Basically, you want as many BCUs in the lows as you can get, take an AB, Medium Shield Booster, Thermal Hardener and a Kinetic Hardener. Try and get as close to cap stable as you can. It will be slow and painful, especially with HAMs. That's why I couldn't stand my old Drake. It's just crap with low skills.

Have you tried ratting with other ships? You said you primarily trained into Amarr ships, so if your skills are decent, you might be better off using an Amarr ship or possibly cross training into Hybrids.

Here is a fit that should do reasonably well;

[Drake, New Setup 1]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Medium Shield Booster II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
Kinetic Deflection Field II
10MN Afterburner II
Cap Recharger II

Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Scourge Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Scourge Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Scourge Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Scourge Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Scourge Heavy Assault Missile
Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I, Scourge Heavy Assault Missile
Medium Diminishing Power System Drain I

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

This is a pretty low skilled fit and should manage belts comfortably. The nos is optional but will help with your cap seeing as you'll be in range to use it anyway, there's no reason not to. Use light drones to take care of Frigates and switch up to faction ammo if you still want more DPS on BSes.

Thanks for all the advice. I will try a few different fits posted here, and if that doesn't work, may try some of the other ships suggested (naga, rokh, etc.)

I only had 1 ballistic control unit, so buying a few more now.

To the poster who advised that the neuts would be useless, I figured that out already and was using an energy vampire instead.

To the poster who told me to get rid of the reactor control units, I needed them to fit a few things. I'll play around and see if I can drop them.

Finally, I have a friend with a bunch of different ships. If nothing else works I may ask him to temporarily 'give' me some of these ships just so I can see how well I can fit and fly them, and what dps I can get out of them. If I get anything to work I will report back here, but it will be a few days before anything happens.

I don't ask for the world, I just want to be able to kill some belt rats at this juncture :) I'm playing for the long term, of course, so will keep skilling up.

Try this which is what I used to tank any spawn in Gurista space:

Highs:
(6) heavy missile launchers (scourge missiles...you have been using scourge?)

Mids:
(3) Large shield extenders
(2) Kinetic shield hardners (powered)
(1) Thermic shield hardner (powered)

Lows
(3) Ballistic controls
(1) Damage control

Rigs (3) Core defense field extenders

Other than rigs get best mods your skills can handle