Ships & Modules

Command ships or Marauder for PVE (Nighthawk of Golem)

First of let me just start with my simple question can a Nighthawk be around as good as a Tengu in L4's? And is the Golem exponentially better then the Nighthawk at running L4's. Also is the Nighthawk fun to fly?

Ok so about me.

So I am well on my way to fully skilling out my Tengu. I have HAMs and HMs as well as all other gear at T2 and all my missile skills and shield skills are at least l4 and most of the big ones are now at L5 most of my important engendering skills are also at L5 so my base skills are almost were they should be. But now I have a dilemma. I love my Tengu dearly but I need a new thing to strive for and I am torn as to what to train to next.

So here is the run down. Again I love my Tengu and just to let you know what sort of player I am even though I realize HAMs are far superior in DMG I fly HMs on my Tengu as I prefer the range and versatility. I also fly exclusively shield tank and the bulk of my weapon skills are in missiles with a dabbling in Projectiles and Hybrid. I also fly in High sec running l4 missions as they give the best challenge that can be had in my limited play time. (I wish I could fly in nul and low sec but I don't have the time right now although over the summer I intent to get out there) So that's me in a nutshell

Here is my dilemma should I go for a Nighthawk (I love its look, I love its slot layout, I love its bonuses and its potential to be useful in PVP as well as PVE) or the Golem (everyone says it's the best). Now I know the Golem is king and I don't mind being a little less effective or even significantly less effective but I don't want to be crucifying myself just for style points. but the crux of my question is can the Nighthawk be an effective L4 mission runner compared to the Tengu and is the Golem just exponentially better?

Any firsthand accounts and fitting advice would also be appreciated. Thanks for helping out a noob!

the nighthawk is plenty fun I'm sure, but its also piece of junk (usually). As a battlecruiser, its slow and big-sigged. It has nice resistances. It has overly-good damage application on small targets. Its lack of range bonus and slow battlecrusier hull make hams unsuitable for most pve. It has a bigger reliance on kinetic damage bonus than the tengu (the golem has full selectability). It has only 5 launchers, meaning that despite its double damage bonus, it gets slightly worse damage on big targets than the tengu with fury HML, and even worse if you have command ship 5. It relies on using a flight of light drones to help makeup the damage difference. Its 5 low 5 mid layout makes it suited to passive shield tanking, which is still usually junk in most PVE. It has two rigs and 5 mids, meaning the tengu can catch up on the nighthawks application advantage, and the nighthawk is less versatile in how much gank/tank it can go. And with fury HMLs, it has about 47km range compared to the tengus 70km, which is a big deal on the slower ship.

Tengu is awesome, and has a dozen good configurations, does everything, best ship, etc. Noticeably less effective vs sansha/bloods, but the NH is even worse vs them.

Golem is awesome, with cruise missiles. Kills everything, gives no fucks. Torps are only good in certain kinds of anomaly running.


The Golem is certainly exponentially better. The 5/5/7 layout on the NH is terrible, and the tengu is way better and more versatile for missions (and EVERYTHING else), given basic subsystem skills at 5.

Claymore is better than the Nighthawk in just about every way imaginable, other than when shooting kinetic weak rats. Better DPS against everything that isn't weak to kinetic, better active tank, better passive tank, better slots, faster, better maneuverability.

Edit: And spider-tanking. If you have more than one, the Nighthawk is better than the Claymore for spidertanking purposes, both for its bonus which is more conducive to repping and its higher fitting overhead.

Yeah, Claymore just doesn't any sort of decent dps, at all, ever and nor does have it any meaningful range. Minor details though...

Claymore is ugly though....

The best choice would be a Nighthawk Navy Issue... *hint* *hint* *wink* *wink* /drool

I really wish we had some Tech 2 navy ships :(

Or even Navy Issue Tech 2 ships would work for me.

Oh yeah, in that case you're absolutely right. Doesn't get much better than battleships for L4s.

Nighthawk doesn't get a missile speed bonus, so its missile range is severely gimped for level 4s, i.e. damage projection is important in level 4s.

Tengu is better than Nighthawk. Cruise Golem is "exponentially" better for high-sec level 4s.