Missions & Complexes

Odyssey's tiericide, navy ship overhaul, and cruise missile buff have normalized Caldari missile battleships with eight effective launchers each. (The CNR has eight launchers, whereas the SNI and Raven have a rate of fire bonus that effectively grants them eight launchers.)

Much of the number crunching has centered around "All Skills V", 5% implants, 200+ million isk missile rigs, etc.. So for the edification of the "casual", predominately Skill IV missile lobbing level 4 mission runner, I have crunched some numbers to display the Raven, CNR, and SNI's effectiveness against various NPC mission targets.

Executive Summary:
* CNR has "best" applied missile DPS but has CPU and powergrid fitting issues that require additional V skills, low-cpu faction hardeners and/or downgrading the cap booster. It's tank took second place, but it's essentially equivalent to the Raven's tank.
* SNI has second best applied missile DPS and has the best tank.
* Raven is third in applied missile DPS with third best tank.

Even so, all three perform equivalently against battleship targets, but the CNR often pulls ahead against cruiser and BC sized targets by a volley.

Details:
This Odyssey - Casual IV - CNR v SNI v Raven PDF report displays the TTK (time to kill) against big slow NPCs (Guristas) and small fast NPCs (Angels, Mercenary Commander). The 4th column is a "perfect" CNR with T2 rigs, etc., as a comparison. The first row is with all TPs on a target, the second row is with just one TP.

Pay attention to the TTK (time to kill) and the Fractional Volleys to Kill (fVTK). The fVTK gives you an idea of how close you are to saving a volley (or of requiring an extra volley.)


Extras:
Dropping a shield hardener to fit an AB or MJD is easy to do on the SNI hull. The Raven hull doesn't have the powergrid for a MJD. The CNR doesn't have the CPU or powergrid for either.


Fitting Notes:
* T1 missile rigs were used due to T2 rigs costing 200+ million isk.
* Three CN BCUs are standard plus one BCUII. The difference between the BCU II and a 4th CN BCU is minimal and not worth 90 million isk. 3% rof and damage implants were used because 5% implants are expensive.
* The only meaningful difference between the fittings is that the SNI carries one more TP, and the Raven and SNI can carry a Tractor Beam.
* No sentry guns. The assumption is that the casual Skill IV mission runner uses light drones to kill NPC frigates and doesn't/can't maximize DPS via sentry guns.

Tank: (versus EM/Therm:)
CNR: 460 tank for ~12 minutes
SNI: 552 tank for ~9 minutes
Raven: 455 tank for almost 10 minutes.

Skills:
All missile and fitting skills are at IV (including Caldari BS IV,) except for:
* Cruise Missile V - prereq for Tech II launchers
* Missile Launcher Operation V - prereq for Tech II launchers
* Electronics V - prereq for Signature Focusing (which increases TP effectiveness.)


Conclusion:
The CNR has the "best" TTK numbers, but it requires extra skills, faction fittings, or downgrades to make it work. You don't want to use a CPU implant because it shares a slot with the Cruise Missile damage implant. Fitting problems can be solved with a various combination of Weapon Upgrades V, Launcher Rigging V, low CPU CN hardeners, and/or downgrading the cap booster to a T1/meta/faction version.

The SNI may be second best in terms of TTK numbers, but is significantly easier to fit and has the option to mount an AB or MJD. The third TP (which is stacking penalized) helps the SNI compete against the CNR's built in rigor hull bonus. The SNI also has a significantly stronger tank.

The Raven, while not being a navy hull, still only falls behind against BCs and cruisers by a volley. At a price of ~150M isk versus nearly ~600M isk for the CNR and ~350M isk for the SNI, there's no rush to upgrade.

loads a blank page for me.

Doesn't a mission take forever without probmod?

nice ! thanks for the work !

also , do you have any idea how the cruise missile buff will affect the rattlesnake ?
one of my favorite ships, but often left behind.

I must say stoicfaux , reading your threads over the years has always been enjoyable. I suspect many non posters follow your threads for the analysis you put forth. I look forward too many more stoicfaux threads :-)

Good work!

Just a question: Launcher Rigging IV?

Very useful info as always stoicfaux. Dropping by to say your work is appreciated. Only you can make spreadsheets entertaining :p

Edit also just wanted to say that it would be nice to have Typhoons in the data, probably one with missiles only + armor tank, missiles + drones + armor tank, and optimized setup with pimp shield tank drones + missiles (and whatever guns fit as a secondary).

Let's not forget, the SNI is also numero uno in sex appeal!

[NEW Armageddon, L4]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Large Armor Repairer II

Target Painter II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II

NEW Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Cruise Missile
NEW Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Cruise Missile
NEW Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Cruise Missile
NEW Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Cruise Missile
NEW Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Cruise Missile
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

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


Garde II x5


If you got the drone skills...

Casual mission running in a battleship seems a bit dated to me. Maybe I have become too cynical over the years, but the ease with which one can train into a tengu, combined with how much more flexibility it allows for, makes me feel like the great BS of old is a waste of sp.

I've got a hoard of character who can fly everything from faction bs to marauders, but all any of them ever take out are tengus. They're trivially easy to control with no drone managment. HML fits can speed and range tank anything you throw at them. HAM fits with a minor amount of bling can melt at nearly the speed of a good BS. Then you get to continue from A to B in a ship that smokes all but the mighty (soon to be nerfed) mach.

My advice to mission runners of any sort, casual or not, has been the same for years: train for the tengu or buy up a character specifically trained for one. And i'm not simply saying that because I sell tengu alts like hot-cakes in the bazaar. I'm saying it because CCP has designed the pve game such that everything which isn't an incursion or a wormhole capital escalation is best done with one ship.

So you can encourage people to check out the new and improve battleships if you want, but chances are anyone who has a goal to their mission running aside from OCD hoovering the whole node is already flying a tengu and will continue to do so.