Missions & Complexes

I'm sure it's been discussed a billion times and I've been reading around but I'm having issues with executing my Maelstrom build and I was hoping to leverage some advice from here to regain my sanity.

To start, I just started playing again but I've never played EVE for a great expanse of time when I did play in the past. I'm sitting on ~3.3 million SP and my budget's ~150 mil ISK to fix my situation.

I sold my Tempest FI for a Mael, with the intent of putting together a L4 grinder to save up for a Mach, because I've seen a lot of people around on forums/sites saying that AC/Arty Maels can solo L4s with "ease". Here are the two builds I put together.

Mael Arty Build

8x 1200mm Heavy Scout Artillery 1

Dread Guristas Large Shield Booster
Prototype 100MN Microwarpdrive 1
Tech 2 mission specific Shield resist
Adaptive Invuln Field II
Heavy Electrochemical Capacitor Booster 1
TC 2

2x TE 2
3x Gyro 2

3x CDC


Mael AC Builds

8x 800mm Heavy 'Scout' Repeating Canon 1

Pith A-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Experimental 100MN Afterburner 1
Tech 2 mission specific Shield resist
Adaptive Invuln Field II
Heavy Electrochemical Capacitor Booster 1
TC 2

2x TE 2
3x Gyro 2

3x CCC


I crushed my first L4 Sec with the Arty build, but I got Mordu's Folly 1/2 and 2/2 as my next 2 missions and I hit a brick wall with 2/2. Here's are the issues I've had. In either build, I'm burning through caps to keep my shield up, which doesn't concern me cost wise as much as it does that I have a finite supply and thus limits how long I can spend in a pocket dealing with enemies. If that's just inevitable to a degree, then my problem is I'm not doing enough dps to clear the pocket before I need to resupply, but I do feel like I'm taking a **** load of damage even when I had a 55% Therm/Kin resists on for the Caldari ships.

Regardless, I feel like it's also taking too long for me to burn the ships down. Especially in Mordu's Folly 2/2, at the end against the Bishamon/Shogun/Nagashin Battleships, each one is taking entirely too long to kill. I was using Phased Plasma and Carbonized Lead standard ammo; I've heard faction ammo really helps boost dps but it's a pretty regularly heavy investment and I was hoping to avoid it as long as I could. I'm training Drones V as we speak so I'm still using 4x Medium Scouts.

Is my issue all playstyle? I've been staying at Optimal ranges, managing my shield/caps efficiently, not letting anything in too close, using drones at 30km. Is there something glaringly obvious that I'm fitting wrong? I'm almost ready to just try and speed clear L3s till I get a Mach but I see soo many people talking about farming L4s with Mael AC builds that I'd really like to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've heard it's best to go AC for Machs so I was really looking to make my AC Tank build work, but I've gotten a lot of people saying to go back to Arties.

TL;DR - Shame this noob's Mael into shape for L4 grinding.

Thomas : Yeah, I've seen that build and I'm 1 skill short of being able to use a MJD. It feels less robust than the AC build so I've been shying away from it but it's basically where I was going with in my Arty build using the MWD. I'd heavy burn out into sniping range and that was that. Then in my first L4 there were battleships that had 130 km missile ranges against my lowly 86km targetting range and it spurred greater interest in the AC build for me.

[Maelstrom, Mission]

8x 1400mm Howitzer Artillery II (EMP L)

Large Micro Jump Drive
Gist C-Type Large Shield Booster
EM Ward Amplifier II
Thermic Dissipation Amplifier II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II (Optimal Range Script)
Tracking Computer II (Optimal Range Script)

3x Gyrostabilizer II
2x Drone Damage Amplifier II

Large Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II
Large Drone Scope Chip II
Large Ancillary Current Router I

4x Garde II

This is a mission fit i would try for a mael, its tanked against the worst kind of enemy sansha and still holds 7m43s caps and 275dps tank. The range of the gardes is your max dronecontrol range with skills so u can shoot the fast moving small stuff using gardes and concentrate your 1400's on bc and bs's. Like some other fits i havent tried them specifically but they r close stat wise to the mission boat i currently use.

Arty vs AC:
Range is tank. You sit at 100km and only gurista stupid missiles can touch you. Get it?

Faction Ammo:
I am cheap, I use t1 ammo. You? Do whatever you want.

I got ac fits and arti fits. I use both. Not at the same time :)

One more time. I don't use faction ammo because it reduces my income.

Because of stacking penalties, it is very rarely worth it to fit more than 3 modules affecting the same stat, as the 4th module will have very little effect. So, if you have 2x TE and 1x TC, that's already 3 modules affecting range, so more won't help much.

OTOH, you should always carry both scripts for your tracking computer. They can be changed in space instantly and take up almost no space, so you should always carry them and switch depending on the situation.

As for ammo, of course you rotate between EMP, Plasma and Fusion, depending on the mission. Also, personally I use faction ammo - especially with 1400mm canons, I don't use that much ammo and 15% more dps is not to be spit at. Don't forget that, while you spend more, you also earn more because you complete missions faster. (Oh, and forget that "shield damage" stat - there is no such thing as "shield damage", the stat is just a guideline. What counts is the damage type. "Shield damage" is the damage the ammo would do against basic T1 shield resists, but most rats have very different resists, rendering the stat meaningless.)

As for ACs : As the Maelstrom has no range bonus, the range is really short. Because you need to sit in the middle of them, you need a better tank. And sometimes you lose time because you have to wait for them to come into range. OTOH, ACs work better with drones, which are often quite useless in an Arty+MJD setup, wasting a lot of potential damage.

The skill tree isn't all that different in the long run. Your long train is Large Projectiles 5 in either case. For your purposes right now, artillery is probably a better bet since it's a bit more forgiving to be able to work at range with lower skills.

If/when you do move into a Mach/Varg, sure, you want ACs. But there were times (it's been awhile since I've run a mission, so were, not are) when I'd throw on arties even on a Mach. Fit to your purpose and all that. Smash the Supplier, for instance, is much easier to blitz with artillery. Scarlet is easier to blap that way too.



You'd want to use faction-specific. EMP is the default in EFT so generic fits get pasted over with that loaded all the time. You'd want to use PP for Serpentis/Gurista/mercs/EoM, Fusion for Angels, and EMP for drones/ BR/Sansha.

As for faction versus normal ammo.... Eh. On AC fits I used normal mainly due to the pain in the ass it is to keep up a good supply of faction when you're running around. Artillery I really don't see a problem using faction; 1400s use almost no ammo.

If I were u Id sink a lil bit of training into missiles (should be fast) and go typhoon+MJD (range will never again be an issue after using MJD out so safe range). Handling cruiser+ with missiles and bouncers on frigs. After that Id train for a Vargur asap (very forgiving ship, no need to be that well trained past being able to fly it. Ull never have to use arties again which means a big dps boost).

Just shy of 700dps on an arty mael tells me that u used a super pimp fit+skills+quake on a Mael, all 5 skills+quake or u are including drones... Arty anything will never be effective in missions.

With that tank u really wont be able to fight at garde optimals even with the scope chip and omni and past that into sniping ranges u will lose alot of your 600 gun dps. Also the gun dps is with all lvl5. Interesting way of giving a 3.3mil character fittingsuggestions. With the skills your fit needs he might just aswell fly a varg and never having to bother with arties gain.