Ships & Modules

Quite sure the domi outperforms the rattler and the ishtar when it comes to mission speed..

I guess the rattler makes it easier to afk the missions?

The Rattlesnake out preforms the others by miles.

1241 dps is what I pull and it actually lands.

Omni tank and never worry about changing resist again.

MWD for the fast movement to gates.

I prefer the RS over every other ship in game for L4's.

Presuming you are playing actively, I don't think there is much in it, realistically its just about gunnery popping small things instantly, and that's not a major effect. I'd probably personally want to have 2 dominix hulls available (1 shield fit and rigged, 1 armor fit and rigged), where as I'd only ever need 1 RS hull.

ie domi has a lower cost of entry, but fully setup, I'd expect the RS to be similar final price given its current bargain pricing, and the side effect of tieracide making individual domi hulls expensive.

For most of the first 10 years, didn't matter which droneboat you had, you changed over to racial sentries at ~45 - 50km, and that still works fine, I even setup shield domis that way.

Navy Domi? Its a domi... but better...

This thread is about someone trying to compare a rattlesnake to a dominix, which is just not going to work with gunless 750 dps dominix fits. I can see that one running out of cap, simply because stuff is orbiting beyond nos range. ie its a bad compromise to get the MJD on there that in itself causes the need to MJD, a self perpetuating prophecy.

The rattlesnake is likely to have 5 or 6 damage mods on it, and can mount a shield tank with 3 omnis and a prop mod, that works in L4s because of its resist bonuses. ie dominix can compete with a rattlesnake, but that one can't.

The point to the navy domi is there are missions where all NPCs are 50km to 30km, and then it can be setup to deal nearly 1300 dps at about 35km. No matter how big the spawn is, a ball of npc's starting at 40km when being shot by 1300 dps will all die before they reach 30km, nor will the navy domi fail to track anything in its sweet spot (40 to 30). 1300 dps due to the regen on NPCs is actually twice as fast as 750 dps, so you can even absorb a small amount of time moving and still come out way ahead.

The regular domi works the same way, but the sweet spot is closer because you can't really get 6x425s on it, 350s will hit cruisers and bs just fine at 30. The max it will get out of gunnery is nearly 400 dps. People kill themselves over an extra 50 drone dps, I can't see how anyone can ignore 395 extra dps, or even just an extra 275 in a flexible cheap armor 5 gun 99km fit.

The way I've used the navy domi is to own an armor fit regular domi to do the missions that require a regular prop mod and range flexibility, and use the navy domi for anything that can be lined up in the sweet spot.

For ratting anoms the navy domi is actually awesome because I can select warp to 30, the only problem is the pesky fact that people still want killmails for it and will camp it, (which is why I've never bothered to use one out here).

I have pretty much just flown droneboats for my playing career.

Navy domi has 400m3 dronebay (as does the rattlesnake), both of them can deal with angels getting too close by bringing berzerkers without even having to make a difficult choice about lights vs 3 sets of large drones.

As soon as you put zerkers out, you can fly either rattler or navy domi straight to the next gate, when you do that, angel BS fall behind your orbit, and then fly at you or fly alongside you and become trackable with javelin. other races mostly the battleships fly away from you if they start close, which resolves your tracking issue. Splitfire works (ie shooting guns at battleships, shooting drones at light stuff till the tracking issue is resolved, with maybe a salvo or two from drones on the gunnery target to push it over peak regen to avoid wasteful fire. The peculiarities of the navy domi having so much damage in drones, and having no tradeoff access to the battleship scale damage 125 sig res heavies, are massive advantages in maintaining applied dps over something like the hyperion (which is notoriously clumsy if you have the 425+sentry build and you let cruisers get under your guns).

IMO if you are having problems with your navy domi, its because you failed at either target selection, or to bring the right drones.

I almost never, actually need my lights. Its mostly unfortunate rolls of misses on approaching spider drones, or failing to move the domi when the opportunity arises in the last pocket of ae before bonus room (ie you should only go through frigate clean up once, and you should fix your positioning during that process so it doesn't happen to you 3 times).

I had the same decision for Havens in null. I use a simple Geddon now. Five sentries with damage bonus + 5 cruise missile launchers do best DPS - even more that the current Rattlesnake. Dont underestimate the damage projection of missiles. Far better than turrets. With disadvantages: you'll need at least one TP and you'll shoot BSs only with cruises. But thats no problem, sentries are better for smallish stuff anyhow.

But...that Geddon fit does work for anoms at 80-100km only. It has no tank to speak of, range is important with that tactic - but it works like a charm. With MJD it could work for missions too:

[Armageddon, Plexing Sansha Cruises]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Large Armor Repairer II

Omnidirectional Tracking Link II, Optimal Range Script
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II, Optimal Range Script
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II, Optimal Range Script
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
Drone Link Augmentor II
Drone Link Augmentor II

Large Ionic Field Projector I
Large Ionic Field Projector I
Large Processor Overclocking Unit I

Curator II x5

1113 DPS @74+46km (610 DPS from Curators, 502 DPS from cruises)

Speaking of cruise missiles, if the Rattlesnake will be changed with the same idea like the Worm (see https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=324954&find=unread) then the Rattlesnake will be ontop for kin and therm weak mission rats.

So imo: (new) Rattlesnake > Geddon > Dominix > Ishtar. I'm not sure about the Navy Dominix. It has a turret damage bonus but no damage (projection) bonus for sentries. If the damage type of rails fits, it could be on-par with the Rattlesnake or the Geddon. But rails don't project so well like cruise missiles.

The Ishtar is top for fast mission running or blitzing. Fast warp times, nice sig and speed. But damage wise Battleships with additional launcher or turrets are always better.

Ok, have fun using heavies on, say, Guristas and sending them out to different groups, while you're slow boating there. Please do take into account drone travel time when you're fantasizing about dps numbers.

Hobgoblins for the frigates and cruisers
guns and sentry/heavies for bc+

the snake just switches the guns part for cruise missiles (firing cruise missiles at frigates is just a waste of ammo)
the rattlesnake has a tank that makes the dominix cry
both can get 1200+ dps (on paper)

sentries can creep a little, so they are not always an 'instant re-scoop' & MJD
AB + heavies allow for good mobility

400m3 is Garde's, Bouncer's, Ogre's and Hobgoblins
it's a lot of versatility, with the weak spot being the Ogre's due to travel times.