Ships & Modules

You need rigors and target painters otherwise that eft dps is going to fall off a cliff quickly.

Tbh, with the new rattlesnake, the skills you need at the levels you need them at to make a TFI work, you're FAR better off in a rattlesnake, because it does comparable damage with a better tank and needs way less faction pimp (TFI has cpu issues).

And as a missile/drone ship, you'll be very hard-pressed to find a place in an incursion fleet unless you run them as a corporation.

TFI is a great nullsec anom killer but it's bad at running level fours, the harder level fours have too much DPS and take too long for a 6-damagemod ship's tank to last. You can't count on only facing two damage types, and also in anoms you can fit two nos and shoot the long-distance rats first while you nos cap from the short-distance ones, L4s won't reliably have battleships within 25km for you to suck cap from.

TFI probably still beats a Rattlesnake in completion times against Angel and Rogue Drone rats because it's not limited by damage type. Just shoot Seraphims first as they're far-orbit and do EM damage. That's two rat types out of four, since you can't use damagemod-stacked, cap-unstable shield tanks against Blood/Sansha anyway. (EM damage and NOS)

Still don't like TFI in level fours, there's way too much random **** in those like random EM damage cruise missile sentries in Gurista missions to risk that.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll study a bit more before I spend any isk!

no.

Just as good as a standard typhoon but instead a waste of isk,

It is actually a goal ship in OIC for armor Incs, similar to other options like Vindi, Mach, NM and a few other hulls. The biggest problem is however to find pilots that can fly it really well since it needs a lot more SP than other hulls. OIC does take missile hulls, since they can be fairly effective, even in contests thx to the 60/40 split between missile dps and turret/drone DPS on the TFI. Then again I think OIC is the only Inc channel that actually really utilize missile ships on grid. Even the armor CNR isn't to shabby since it still puts out 1.2k dps at medium range(50km or even more if you add omnis), got 3 painters and quite good utility with another 3 webs, what makes it a fairly nice utility platform, especially if you run low on blaster platforms and webs in the fleet. It can be used with fury at medium range against big stuff or with precisions against frigs at close, quite similar to a puls NM setup.

As for L4, if you shield tank the RS might be the better choice. However with a armor tank it performs very similar to the RS, by the higher ROF you save time(even with Fury a proper skilled TFI can one volley nearly every BC and Cruiser after painting), free missile damage type selection improves dps on target and the anti frig performance is very good if you compare 2 painters + 2 Omnis, + sentry drones + 2 bonuses Guns vs light drones. However it does need a lot more micromanagement with the movement and rotating the different weapons and painters between targets compared to the RS.

[Typhoon Fleet Issue, armor L4]
Federation Navy Drone Damage Amplifier
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
Caldari Navy Ballistic Control System
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
True Sansha Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Core B-Type Large Armor Repairer

Republic Fleet Target Painter
Republic Fleet Target Painter
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
Federation Navy Omnidirectional Tracking Link, Optimal Range Script
Gist B-Type 100MN Microwarpdrive

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
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Fury Cruise Missile
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, Barrage L

Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Large Warhead Rigor Catalyst II
Large Warhead Flare Catalyst II

Garde II x5
Warrior II x10
Garde II x1

For its speed and looks :) It will get also a slightly larger portion of it's damage from missiles (without damage type restriction) so it can apply more damage when on move than rattle. Drone bay is also slightly more generous but only by a flight of lights and without drone damage bonuses it does not matter that much.

Takes a bit higher skills to put togehter a viable fit for navy phoon that has also some buffer and can still apply damage.

But at the end of a day it is about your running style and which ship suits it better. The decision between rattle and navy phoon is not as no-brainer as you are making it to be.

For me personally the completion times are within few minutes of each other (which comes out on top depends on particular mission) but the navy phoon suits my style with a little more comfort. Do note it's not a solo missionrunning as I multiaccount.

Half a gecko's DPS is against your target's strongest resistances so I don't really see why anyone would bother. Super gecko is more a PVP thing.

There's also the movement thing, I can see using the gecko when you need to get to gate. But once you're there you pull that sucker back and launch your sentries again.

Other heavy drones do more damage and take advantage of resist holes but kind of suck at killing frigates, and if frigates are on the field I certainly won't be telling heavies to be killing cruisers.

Oh, whoops. Praetor and Berserker DPS are very low compared to gecko and only gardes are actually higher. My mistake.