Missions & Complexes

Not a good idea to spend 3 bil+ on something not much faster than something that costs 500 mil. In Minmatar Space it would be WAY faster against angels than other ship.

I run Mach as my main and RS and TFI as my backups, both RS and TFI are faster than the Mach at non Angel Missions, which is why RS was my first choice. If you don't put RF gyros and expensive shields on the Mach then its even slower. CNR wouldn't be bad either, but again both RS and Domi would beat it. The Nice thing about the CNR and SNI is extra slots for ECCM.

That's why RS is first choice IMHO, both drones and ECCM.

Let me add my two cents.

Best two ships vs Guristas are Raven Navy Issue and Scorpion Navy Issue. Because they have strong sensors (bye-bye both Typhoons). I've tried both and w/ Gravimetric Compensation skill @4 I'm getting jammed for one cycle per 2-3 jamming missions. It's rather acceptable, and also U can fit an auto-targeting system to SNI and grab some FoF missiles to go through. RNI doesn't have a spare high-slot, but as I've told, it doesn't happens really often.

Let me list the pluses and minuses of both ships:

RNI's advantages:

+ The heaviest volley damage - U one-shot anything except battleships and elite frigs (don't forget to target paint plain frigs
and some fast cruisers though);

+ Best pre-Golem damage application bcs of explosion radius bonus (and U don't want a Golem for Guristas due to it has
twice
weakers sensor and will find itself permajammed);

+ It is fast and agile (for a BS class ships ofc), smaller signature radius;

+ Extra 25 m3 in drone bay - grab 3 sentries and a pack of lights or all 3 types of lights for selectable dmg and a pack of
salvaging drones;

+ Best missile range, w/ Signal Amplifier, Sensor Booster and/or Electronic Superiority rig for distance, U can snipe for up to
204 km (I'm going for 130 km w/ one SigAmp, pretty enough for any mission to just sit and shoot);

+ Best missile travel time (11+ km/s missile speed);

RNI's disadvantages:

- A bit squishy on tank - hard to build an omnitanked fit, no prob w/ mission-specific resists though;

- No spare high slot - no ATS, no tractor, no drone link - prepare to equip an AB;

- Eats ammo a lot - the drawback for having best volley damage;

- Very tight on fitting bcs of 8 launchers- to build a decent fit w/o fitting implants U will need at least Ur Launcher Rigging
and Weapon Upgrades @4/5, I'm going for 5/5 even;

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

SNI's advantages:

+ Tough tank - hull resists do its job. Easy and cheap omnitank is real;

+ Spare high slot - fit an ATS/Tractor beam/Drone link/Salvager/NOS or whatever U want;

+ Extra mid slot - 'nuff said;

+ Like 80-100M cheaper than RNI;

+ Even higher sensor strength (+2 points comparing to RNI, so almost no jamming if U've bothered training GSC skill @4);

+ A bit better targeting capabilities (+2 extra targets lockable, slightly farther lock range w/o SeBo/SigAmp/ES rig);

+ Heaps of CPU and PG - U can almost fully T2-fit it;

SNI's disadvantages:

- Notably worse dmg application - two target painters are mandatory, the third won't hurt as well, Signature Focusing skill
becomes very helpfull;

- It's slow and clumsy comparing to Raven-class hulls;

- Notably slower locking;

- Less voley damage (=more volleys);

- Far less speedy missiles (along w/ prev point it means more volley counting);

- Lower missile range (no "true" sniping fits);

- Weaker capacitor comparing to RNI;

- Bigger signature radius means more incoming dmg;


My opinion: if U're good on supports and focused trained for missile boats (good missile supports, target painting skill subgroup, launcher rigging) - go for RNI, it will do the job faster. New players and cross-trainers will choose the SNI - it is basically Drake 2.0, the ship which would reliably allow U to grind Lvl 4s even if U're as low as 1.5-2M SP (Sounds crazy, but some of my newbie friends are doing it good and no wipes so far).

Big alpha (volley) is bad for killing NPCs who're not repping like crazy.

Take 2 ships. Ship 1 oneshots target but overshoots 25% of damage. Ship 2 doing same dps but can deliver 4 volleys in time Ship 1 delivers one. Ship 2 will kill target in 3 volleys and will start on next target 25% earlier (Ship 1 weapon's still cooling down).

Statistically you waste half of your volley damage on each ship.

So stop counting big alpha as plus for PVE.

The fleet phoon in my experience is faster than CNR because of the plain damage advantage and sentries killing jammers. My fit:
3 dda
4 cn bcu
3 rigor (ii/i)

fn omnitrack
drone link
1 sebo < scanres against ecm spawns, kill one and drones on other before jam

2 tank (pithum c invul, gist c booster)

+5 missile implants

If you mean you're doing Gurista missions, I assume you're in Venal running them. A cheap boat for this type of nullsec missioning is a rail talos. 8 425s in the highs, a sensor booster with tracking range script, a MWD, and 2 large shield extenders in the mids. Low are 2 damage mods, 2 tracking mods, and a damage control. Learn which missions are blitzable and enjoy 80-100 mil isk/hr if you do it right, assuming you cash out LP at 2K a pop.