Ships & Modules

I'm back after few weeks/months of break from eve.

now for some reason drake prices dropped around 20 mil isk from what I remembered...

there was a reason for this? drake was nerfed or changed in anyway?

at any rate I'm looking for L3 mission ship while I finish training my battleship support skills and I thought to use the drake again still viable?

Jita price 42 mil. It has never gotten as high as 60 average or even 50. It seems about par for the course.

Hurricane Jita 40 mil
Harbinger and Myrmidon Jita 43 mil

That seems par for the course average for the Tier 2's. Myrm and Harby have always cost a tiny bit more and the Cane a tiny bit less. I don't know what kind of price difference you are seeing but it isn't just the Drake, it is still keeping its long held spot in the Tier 2 Hierarchy of second cheapest average despite the nerfs.

You want to talk weird Battlecruiser pricing though, Ferox is going for 35 mil, Cyclone for 32 mil, the other 2 Tier 1's are going for 40-41 mil in line with the Tier 2's.

I woulda figured costs would be even across the board, I know the Ferox and Cyclone aren't loved all that much but is it that bad or is there another reason?

Well the Drake is still a good ship. It just isn't the OP easy mode boat that it used to be.

I would say that all of the BCs are reasonably good ships depending on your skills and what you are looking to do.

A lot of people -- myself included -- overproduced tier 1s before tiericide. And for some reason we thought the Cyclone would be popular. It's not. There is a lot of back stock. I'm lucky to be sitting on a mere 8 bil in Cyclones right now; I know others have it worse.

L3 in a drake will be totally doable. You can even do L4s still but very slowly. It lost a tiny bit of tank, but quite a bit of DPS. So it's still quite tanky, but does somewhere around 300-400dps depending on how you fit it and your skills. L3s should be no problem.

For level 3's.

Cyclone's main advantage is that it's bonus works for Dmg of all types while the Drake has become more dependent on Kinetic. It can also field a spare set of light drones, or mediums but between killing Frigates and the drone changes that do not favor mediums 2 flights of lights is a more likely choice. It is also a bit faster for booting around.

It's disadvantages however is that it has one less launcher and the DPS bonus is smaller. This means less Dmg to Kin weak rats and maybe still less Dmg to other Rats because the Drake's Kin bonus is very high +10% Kin Dmg +1 Launcher. The six mids to tank with lets you focus some or all your rigs to accuracy or range or whatever as well.

They can both tank level 3's easily... Very easily.

Well the Drake hits a bit harder, is mostly locked to kinetic damage, and can do a nice passive tank. The Cyclone is faster, can change damage types without penalty, and lends itself to more potent active tanking. The Cyclone has more lows but less mids and two utility highs to the Drake's one. So in conclusion they are... different. It depends on what you are doing and how you want to fly them.

Don't use cyclone. It is useless, as it is using HMLs / HAM's with no projection or application bonus. Its really bad. Grab a cerb / cruise phoon instead- you will be much more satisfied.

In case you aren't skilled enough for a BS or HAC this should run any L3 just fine:

[Cyclone, New Setup 1]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II
Tracking Enhancer II

10MN Afterburner II
Large Shield Booster II
EM Ward Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, EMP M

Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I

Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x5
Cap Booster 800 x10
Nova Heavy Assault Missile x2000
Scourge Heavy Assault Missile x2000
Mjolnir Heavy Assault Missile x2000
Fusion M x1000
Phased Plasma M x1000
EMP M x1000

Its probably not the best fit but whatever. It will earn ISK until you can get something better.

Well I blitz lv4 FW missions in a caracal.... so you can do level 3 missions in pretty much any ship you want. They are a joke. I was speaking about PvP for the most part. Drake / cyclone will work for missions, but they can be done more optimally than using a missile BC.

If your idea is to be a mission runner (I am not sure if you are willing to enter low sec) but assuming you are a high sec bear, then getting in a mach ASAP is my advice. Machs have the best lv4 blitz times, netting you the most isk.

For level 3s.... Hell you can do them in a caracal / nomen / oracle / tornado. no need to full clear them, blitzing is always the way to go.