Skill Discussions

Level IV missions are basically the top tier mission sites for hi-sec PvE.
You can kind of expect that you need fairly top tier skills in order to own them.

So what I see is:
You 'have drone skills' but they are not really topped off. Get the easy skills to V and the specialty skill to IV.
Get drone interfacing to V as well. Without going back to eveboard, my guess is that you need another 1.5 million SP (or so) in drones.

Missiles basically need the same treatment.
Cruise Missile spec IV is a huge improvement over what you have now.
That said, I'd train the support skills a little better first.
Again, get the fast ones trained up and alternate a long skill in here and there.

I didn't look to see how far you have Caldari BS trained. V is the goal, IV will work decent. The BS skill adds DPS as well .

Target painters help a lot. Find a fit that uses one.

Maybe post your fit and see if someone can improve it, but honestly, whatever the fit, some of your problems are clearly skill related.
All in all, you have the skills, you just need to commit to some V's.


edit: I'd recommend you pick one or the other ship to focus on at first.
Guns or Missiles are 2 different skill paths, BS V takes a month or more, and what you don't want, is 2 half assed ships.

I've seen flux coil fits before, and I heard they work well. I never fitted one myself, so I can't comment really.
My fit uses power diagnostics with 3 Ballistics.
Neither is what would be considered the "best" way to fit a Raven

If you feel tank is super overkill, start removing/replacing bits of it.
Drop 1 hardener for a target painter (the EM, unless it's rat specific)
Drop a flux coil for another Ballistic Control
Drop the T1 rig for a Rigor rig if you still feel tank is overkill

I'd drop the drone link. You really don't want your drones 'way over there'. You want them close for frigates.
I've fitted NOS there, remote armor reps (for drone damage), tractor beams, etc.

level IV's can kill your ship, because of warp scramble frigates. So yeah, I'd get your drones up to snuff so they can bail you out, asap.

Insure that ship!

Target painter (meta 4) at base benefit gives a 30% bloom to the ship size. There is a second skill that goes with target painters to add % as well. Faction Target Painters do even more.

Target Painted ships are bigger for everyone that shoots them, not just you. It helps your drones and your fleet mates as well.

I wanted to add, instead of medium drones, you might consider keeping 15 lights in your drone bay. Lights work best on frigate rats, and you would then have 2 flights of extras. Use Hobgoblins btw. They are the best 'all around' drone in lights.

There are 3 kinds of "frigates" (small hulls):
* Destroyers - these can be popped with a single volley.
* Frigates - these can be popped with 1-2 volleys.
* Elite Frigates - you'll want to use light drones on these.
All of the above should fall quickly to 5 light T2 drones of the proper damage type.

I carry 5x Hobgoblin II and 5x Warrior II. I don't bother with medium drones [lazy].

I've just swapped out to a navy raven (as in, I'm literally still flying back from jita, lol), and i'll drop the medium drones in favour for 10 more lights.

Tau, my hobgoblin 2's normally take out frigates very quickly, but these elite/dire/loyal etc etc frigates immediately switch to the drones and destroy them, quicker than the drones can kill the frigates.

I can safely say I've already noticed a difference in killing the elite frigates, just by switching to the CNR. The elite frigates are still causing me issues, but my cruise missiles are doing a fair chunk more damage to them now, so if I can't kill them by the time they're close enough, the drones are just about taking them out. They're still taking a pasting from the elites, but they're surviving for now.

I'd normally wait until the room is aggro'd too, but even letting them attack me until the rest of the room is cleared and then launching drones to deal with them doesn't help, they still immediately switch and take out the drones. I'm now attacking them first with cruise missiles at a maximum range so as I do as much damage to them as possible before they get close, then the drones can finish them off. It's worked for the last couple of missions, but I expect the story will be different if I come across a mission where I land right next to them.

Some more FWIW; If you use EW on the NPC rats they are supposed to hate you more than the drones and switch aggro to you. Don't send your drones far out, you need to micro manage them a little. Recall them when they get the aggro and redeploy when the aggro is back on you. Maybe fit a repper on the 8th hi slot of the Raven.

Good evening,

I felt the need to help you in this post because years ago I was in the same boat you currently find yourself in... lv4 missions, transiting to a RNI from a Raven, and using cruise missiles. While I can't remember my specific fit, I did have tech2 cruise missiles launchers, an omni active tank... and I remember it being extremely boring. In fact, while I find myself considering going back to IV's for rep, I can't say I would consider a cruise missile RNI again. Missions just took too long to complete.

Firstly, while there is nothing wrong with the Raven, or RNI for that matter, I would recommend a drone based boat for damage application in IVs... so long as you don't lose any drones, you won't have to front a bill for ammo which is a positive in my eyes. Also, I remember that with missiles, the rats in the mission plexes would often shoot down some of my missiles which inhibited my damage and further delayed mission completion... the battleships are also extremely slow, and fitting a AB/MWD can eat up a lot of CPU/PG/cap.

Looking at your skill sheet, some skills I would highly recommend obtaining:
Drone Durability IV (or, preferably, V if you plan to use drones over other weapon systems in the future)
Drone Interfacing V (a necessity)
Racial Drone Specialization IV (your drones depends on what you will be fighting)
Heavy Drones V (Ogre IIs are beastly... albeit slow)
Sentry Drones IV (V is preferred, but it is a long train... however, sentry drones can output some massive damage. However, if frigs get in close, then you'll have to pull in the sentries and deploy something smaller)

Advanced Weapon Upgrades V
Capacitor Management V
Capacitor Systems Operation V

I won't really hit on guns because it sounds like you are only considering drones/missiles.

Auto-Targeting Missiles V
Cruise Missiles V (again, only if you are going to stick with cruise)
Cruise Missile Specialization IV
Guided Missile Projection V
Missile Bombardment V
Missile Projection V
Rapid Launch V
Target Navigation Prediction V
Warhead Upgrades V

You have really good shield skills... I'd recommend bringing the resists up to V, but I'd do that later. You should focus on other skill areas first.

If you are going to stick with RNI, get Caldari BS V - its a long train, but well worth it.

Advanced Target Management at least IV
Signature Analysis V

If you plan on sticking with level IVs, I'd recommend a ship like the Ishtar... smaller sig radius and more capable of fitting a MWD which make it harder to hit. The Ishtar can also hold a full flight of light, medium, heavy, and sentry drones, and the ship has really good damage projection. Tech III cruisers are also really nice mission runners, but require a ton of training in order to fly them proficiently.

If that doesn't suit your needs, the Dominix is also a really good drone ship that can fit a massive tank. Granted, it is a battleship so it will be really slow, but I've taken the Domi out to rat plexes in null in a fully passive tank and so long as I kept an eye on local, it was deploy drones and forget.