Missions & Complexes

If this is a long-term goal, keep in mind that Marauders are somewhere fairly high on the list of T2 classes to get a rework, so the ship you're planning on right now may not be the ship you end up getting. Hopefully Marauders will maintain their status as high-end solo missioners, but we don't have any specific information yet on what's in store for them.

More directly to your question, people generally seem to favor pirate battleships (Machariel especially) over Marauders, though if you prefer to loot/salvage as you go rather than following in a Noctis, Marauders in their current form are the right ships. The Vargur is the only one I have experience with. It's an excellent missioner. I've heard good things about Kronos and Paladins as well, and mixed reviews about Golems due to the necessity of micromanaging TPs. Can't speak specifically toward rails.

Which is really ****** on CCP's part IMHO. @ $209 (for your sub, give or take) per year you would think they would give you information on something that takes a year or more to plan.

I would only get a Kronos if planning to mission for Gallante corps. It would be a poor choice for the other 3 empires IMHO.

Oh my, the Kronos(with rails) without the web bonus would be pretty bad at L4, since it allows it to use sentry drones and rails at close range, what is quite a nifty feature as long as you are in angel space with it, the better damage application actually makes it hitting everything for peak dps at nearly any range, what even makes it very competitive against hulls with higher raw dps. While you next to never use a web on the Paladin for L4, it is one of the best bonuses on the hull once you look into incursions, especially in gangs full of paladins that archive hilarious levels of damage application(they kill frigs faster than Legions because they sport twice the dps and even with tachs with 90% webs you don't even notice you fly a sniper setup, because you hit just as hard as other close range ships).

As for relative Marauder balance:

- Golem is a lot better now with the CM buff, utilizing super fast missiles that makes volley counting a thing of the past and hits super hard at any range, instead just up to 60km as before, I'm still waiting for a torp update
- Vargur, it is a good ship, speed, tank, range, dps everything is good, the only downside is that it got a faction ship that does exactly the same just a bit better(quicker lock speed, faster, less sig, higher dps)
- Paladin, in my personal opinion the best marauder, it isn't just a slight upgrade but provides stuff you find nowhere on the other hulls in that combination, since it can field Tachs, is super easy to manage with the cap(compared the the abaddon) and the very best armor tanked incursion ship, it hits super hard at any range(up to 150km with a gank fitting), got a awesome damage application up to 30km(overloaded web range with gang bonuses) and saves 1-2 slots for resistances since it got the T2 resists where it matters the most
- Kronos, the biggest thing about the Kronos back in the days was that you could actually fit it without tons of faction stuff compared to the navy mega or vindi, however the hybrid and BS rebalance made this meaningless, it needs another 2 sentrys and a bit more tracking on rails. It is a bit short on DPS, however it got a very good damage application, hitting out to full lock range not only with guns but also sentry's. The perfect Kronos would have 275m³ drone bay(full wings of short range and long range sentry's), 125m³ band wide and should have the drone optimal + tracking bonus of the domi instead of the active rep bonus. With this it would be a very well rounded sentry/rail platform and while a bit behind in raw dps, making it up with extreme good damage application at any range.

Overall the Kronos is at the bottom, it tanks a bit to good and deals not enough damage. The performance difference is not that big as the numbers might suggest since it got a very good damage application. It will probably see a upgrade till you can fly it, it is even at the bottom of the pile, still a solid ship for L4.

Edit: Since it really interests me, why is the NM better than the Pala(I own multiple palas and nightmares)? Both ships(if you accept the shortcomings of marauders like lock speed and sensor strength) are very good balanced against each other, the paladin does more raw dps(5-6 damage mods for L4 -> T2 rig + 4-5 heat sinks) with the very powerful web, extreme good resist profile for amarr space and only using one slot for a cap mod(right you don't need a cap booster like on the NM) while the NM got the bit better range and quite a bit more tracking(after rigging) appealing dps a bit better at medium range and tanks a bit better with faction shield mods(not a important point for a both, since you rarely need tank if you can pump out extreme dps at any range).

im not gonna get into arguments with others as really, its all personal preference at this level but here's my 2 cents:

I fly all 4 marauders and currently I like the golem with cruise missiles the most. if you have good marauder skill it gets around 3 59% painters at around 1000 dps with 150km range and pretty efficient ammo usage for using faction/T2 ammo (imo one of the biggest advantages of marauders is ammo efficiency). this usually means fully applied damage on BC's and up and usually 1 volley cruisers and 2-3 volley elite cruisers. very often you will 2 volley- BS as well.

I try to only take heavy BS missions and I fly in caldari space. I don't take missions with a lot of frigates/cruisers as yes they are pretty bad for cruise missiles but guess what; they are also mostly horrible missions anyways so no loss there. who wants to spend 10 minutes shooting at 10k isk bounty frigates? and for those missions with a splattering of frigates/cruisers, just have good drone management; i almost never wait for my drones to finish up frigates.

as for the turret marauders, it really depends on your space. if you're in amarr space the paladin will be the best. if you're in caldari/gallente space, the kronos will probably be better than the vargur. if you're in minmatar space the vagur might be the best (ive never flown in minmatar space).

the reason the vargur is not always the best is because AC falloff is very significant in applied damage. kronos will outdps the vargur almost always in caldari/gallente as the BS ships will try to maintain 40-50km orbits. same with the paladin in amarr space. some of this may be made up with killing cruisers faster but really, the vargur is not a mach. it can't MWD and close distance like it. so it suffers a lot more from the falloff penalty.

all 4 ships are fine for running any lvl 4 mission you want with proper fittings and flying. the golem and vargur also have the best tanks being capless and shield tanked so that also helps if you're into being lazy (i am).

i fly marauders because i do faction missions and can't be bothered to bring the noctis to pull the BS tags. fit an ECCM if you expect jamming.

for kronos vs vindi (which i have a lot of experience with) the vindi can do about 30 dps more than the kronos with a similar tank (vindi needs to fit 3 tank rigs while kronos can fit burst aerator II + ccc). if you rig the vindi for dps then you will have paper tank (you can't do missions like "the assault" or AE with that kind of tank). vindi has higher sensor strength but less targeting range. so for guristas you fit sebo on vindi and eccm on kronos, they end up pretty much the same except the kronos still tanks way better and has tractors and salvagers, i havn't had many missions where the extra dps from the vindi was relevant (maybe in gone berserk?).

TLDR:

overall owning all 4 marauders all with full V skills and implants this is how much i use each one in my space; golem>>>paladin>kronos>vargur. i dont use the kronos much because the golem often obsoletes the kronos, but the paladin has some missions where it is good. i nearly never use the vargur.

Good news, OP. Since no two people agree, there's really no way for you to make the wrong decision. ;)

It is hard to say what will happen to the marauder class.
But this much is certain.

CCP has hired a bunch of devs and game designers who ONLY view the game through the lens of PvP, and with null sec income generation as a second important function. fozzie came from Pandemic Legion, who focus solely on PvP, particualrly cap warfare recently. rise was a null sec "neutral" who specialized in solo / small gang battles, who made videos of his battles.
soundwave was the goons' intelligence director.

High sec income generation however, in their eyes, is something that is considered an unworthy part of the game, and if possible, something that must be wiped out.

So to expect that any ship will be buffed with high sec income generation in mind is pure fantasy.
Yes, some ship changes have turned out well for PvE (Navy Raven). But to expect the marauder class to generate more mission income after fozzie and rise have had their way with it, well, good luck to that.

No it isn't. What you do with a blaster boat is charge NPC packs.

You go under the optimals of the NPCs and they split away from you. 90% web helps to hold more NPCs at short range ammo range, and reduces the number of times you'll have to traverse the sphere of escaping NPCs if you can't hold them all reducing the amount of longrange ammo you need to use and the amount of cap to run the mwd, and reducing or avoiding times where the NPCs are uselessly deep into falloff.

ie even if you never actually shoot the webbed target, the 90% web is a net benefit to applied dps on a blaster battleship because your real enemy is falloff.

You could make a strong argument that Gallente BS is the best one to have at 5 if you only get one. It is linked to the best bonus on all 3 pirate ships it is required for(IMO). Also, from my experience, drone boats need level 5 a little more than turret boats. I don't think anyone who has trained the skills to unlock a Kronos wishes they hadn't.