Ships & Modules

I don't have a fit offhand but will say that with low sp, autos can have the same problem in lvl II. It doesn't sound like you want to get all that in depth in regards to hit mechanics so here's a quick guideline without getting into the actual mechanics:

Kill stuff before it gets into orbit.

If it gets into orbit, aside from drones, you could:
* if ur faster that the rat u can try to burn away, causing it to chase you.
* you can try burning toward it, forcing it to run away
* you can try to match its speed and direction while it is in orbit.

There are other things you can do like use webifiers but its kind of a waste in mission running. The main thing is u want to down them before they get into orbit.

Consider adding the angular velocity column to your overview. The above suggestions will lower angular velocity. You want low angular to help ensure a hit

With low sp's range is your friend. Having said that for artillery Rupture > Stabber. AC's require more sp into tanking skills (wether it be shields or speed) and know how about what you can tank and how (basically a better feel for your ship/knowledge of the game than you basically admitted you had).

The advice given above is very solid: put on your overview the rads/sec speed and keep that number below the tracking of your guns (show info on the gun itself on your fitting screen). If you're going to use AC's and go straight at the rat just remember you're making it just as easy for him to hit you. With artillery find out your optimal range and use the "keep at x distance" option with that range (you can stray into falloff, but with the slow rate of fire of artillery you'll prolong your completion time). You'll find that button right beside "orbit" option.

For artillery sniping train up sharpshooting and rapid firing. Also use a rupture I believe it gets a bonus to optimal range (and tracking) for every level of Matar cruiser you train, so train that. An afterburner will allow you to control range much easier than going without a propulsion mod. Tech 2 artillery also gives you access to tremor ammo which has a much extended optimal range (at low damage however), this can give you better tanking in that it allows you to stay out of range of more rats (with better tanking sp and ability I'd drop the low dmg ammo in favor of higher dmg with less range). A rupture generally Armor tanks so train up some Armor tanking skills (which is admittingly a pain cause most Matar ships shield tank - but the sp invested in Armor will always help you down the road anyways). Armor tanking will free up a mid slot or two so that you can fit active tracking enhancers to improve both your range and tracking. A couple lvls of cap skills are now becoming benificial to run all these active mods (hurray for cap less weaponry though!!). Also artillery are power grid hogs so train up your power grid a little too. That may seem like a lot of training but an AC stabber is going to be even more skill intensive.

Short range. This is, to me anyways, more damage, harder tanking, more free flying and MORE FUN!! (Well as fun as pve gets). You have to be able to tank well. For a stabber that means good shield skills (the stabber has a shield booster bonus): shield management and shield compensation skills (shield upgrades to ease the pwr grid needs) Shield tanking can be a capacitor hog so cap management and cap operations. A big part of short range tanking is removing rats from the field asap; so gunnery dmg skills are even more important than damage with long range fits + trajectory analysis and motion prediction.

With ac's the range you want to pay attention to is falloff accuracy; I personally like to keep it about my optimal + half my falloff away (or closer, so 5km opt and 10km falloff I'd be between 5-10km, missing with ac's isn't so much an issue due to high rate of fire, but you have to find your sweet spot too close, tracking is an issue, too far range will cause misses). Since AC tanking relies heavily on popping rats quickly to reduce incoming dps training up navigation skills is also key (agility, overall speed, afterburner speed, and afterburner cap use) as it'll not only allow you to get in quicker and pop rats quicker, but also get out faster if the incoming dmg is too heavy to out of range the rats weapons and give yourself a breather (also the faster you go the less missile dmg you'll take). Yes use a web if you have tracking issues with short range weaponry, it's much easier than simply trying to manage angular velocity, but learning to manually fly your ship and manage those rads/sec is a valuable skill to short range pve.

Another tidbits (just incase); always fit rat appropriate resists and use appropriate dmg types to deal to your rats for that particular mission (ie guristas deal mostly kinetic with a side of thermal dmg and are weakest to kinetic dmg)

So in summation. Using long range fits and staying at long range is generally easiest, less active playing/micromanaging, and doesn't require as much skill training or as much playing skill. It also takes longer, and to me, lotsa boring. Zzzzzzz. Ac's are lotsa skills (sp and playing), smaller margin of error but it is higher dps (and this faster!) and personally I find it more fun/challenging (as much as pve can be).

Fly safe!

Almost forgot. Fit 220's first, then everything else you want, if you have power grid left over then upsize to 425's. The damage increase is marginal and not worth sacrificing tank or a propulsion module for.

Not sure if you can even fit both decent tank and arties into stabber, the grid just cant handle it especially at lower SP chars.

You can do something like this:
[Stabber, PvE T2 Shield]
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I
Prototype 'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I

10MN Afterburner II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Explosive Deflection Field II
Large Shield Extender II

Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II

Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I


Fusion M x1
Nova Heavy Assault Missile x1

You can replace the assault launchers with lights or rapid lights, use metaitems instead t2 etc
Its grossly overtanked so its pretty hard to die in it. You can add tracking enhancers or even webs if want.
Some T2 items are also "worse" than their meta4 equivalents, like the shield relays.
But as said arty ruppy is tankier, has longer range so you can shoot earlier, resulting higher effective dps in many cases.