Missions & Complexes

Rattlesnake or Mach? Hmm, answer seems to be VINDICATOR.

If the way a ship looks is a determining factor, well it's your lose, Vindi is pure magic for serp and guristas havens and forsaken hubs.

Rattlesnake, Machariel, Fleet Typhoon and Navy Raven are all good, but not in the same league as the WINdicator for Guristas. Of the 2, I'd pick the Rattlesnake because it's easier to do the escalations that come from the anomalies with the 'Snake. But mach is no slouch either and is almost equal in practice (not on paper) with the 'Snake.

You can also 'lazy boat' a 'Snake, can't do that with a Mach. Lazy boat fit to follow at the end of this post.

TL;DR if the choice is Rattlesnake or Mach, given equal skills Rattlesnake wins.


[Rattlesnake, LazyBoat]
Damage Control II
Shield Power Relay II
Shield Power Relay II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Dread Guristas Ballistic Control System

Large Micro Jump Drive
'Cetus' ECM Shockwave I
Caldari Navy Thermic Dissipation Field
Caldari Navy Kinetic Deflection Field
Caldari Navy Kinetic Deflection Field
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Auto-Targeting Cruise Missile I
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Auto-Targeting Cruise Missile I
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Auto-Targeting Cruise Missile I
Cruise Missile Launcher II, Scourge Auto-Targeting Cruise Missile I
Drone Link Augmentor II
Improved Cloaking Device II

Large Core Defense Field Purger II
Large Core Defense Field Purger II
Large Core Defense Field Purger II

Gecko x1
Gecko x1
Hornet EC-300 x9
Hobgoblin II x6
Scourge Fury Cruise Missile x2500
Caldari Navy Scourge Cruise Missile x4000
Scourge Precision Cruise Missile x3000

(at all Vs) Cap Stable, 1000 dps, tanks 875 guristas DPS (ie you can sit in a sanctum without a care), MJD for extra GTFO power, cloak so you can warp to a safe and cloak rather than docking in a station (so no dying to a bubble on station if neuts come in). ECM burst keeps aggro off your Gecko (2x WASP heavy drones work 2, i just like Geckos).

All you have to do is watch local/d-scan form time to time and restart the FoF missiles after each reload. It's almost sinful to make so much isk while doing not much lol.

So cruise missiles will be better than torps?.

What sites will you be running .. When I was in guristas null I use a HAM Tengu.. 1k dps, its small and can be refit for jumping around.
But of the 2.. a RS will be the better option a mach sadly doesn't do so well.

gurista ew will drive you nuts. the easiest way to deal with it is launch drones, get agro, turn on fof missiles. which means battle rattle. leave mach to deal with angels.

I have run Guristas anoms in a range of ships, most recently carriers and ishtars. Here's my thoughts.
Carrier - fast, hassle free (using drones rather than fighters), but you are a high-value target and will attract attention if not careful. EWAR resistant (if you run those sites) because of drone auto-aggro.
Ishtar - hassle free, but slower to complete sites. EWAR resistant (if you run those sites) because of drone auto-aggro.
Vindi - Relatively high effort but pretty good isk-ticks. You are a high value target and will attract attention if not careful.
Machariel - Relatively high effort and not nearly as good isk-ticks as a vindi. Decent alternative for those without skills for vindi. I used machs while I was trainign up blaster skills for the vindi.
Tengu - Not sure how they rate now with HML nerfs, but they used to be superb for running most anythign PvEish.
Rattlesnake - I like snakes, used them a lot on w-space before I had worked up decent tengu skills, and some people do use them for guristas anoms (possibly because they're relatively easy to come by ion those regions because of their BPC drops).

We're talking PVE (where every bit of EHP counts, especially in DED plexes and anoms with triggered spawns like the 'cloud' Haven), not pvp. The only place one wouldn't use a DC on a passive tanked pve ship is Blood Raiders space (where heavy neuting from NPCs regularly happens), the OP is talking Guristas.

What afk idea, who said anything about afk lol. I've never and will never afk a pirate battleship in null. "lazy" fits are for being lazy, not afk, so i can sit this thing in a sanctum and start the missiles/drone to working and all I have to do is watch local/d-scan while i do something on another screen (usually another ship in the same system).

I have used active tanked cap stable versions of this and it's good for squeezing out maybe a little more dps but also more expensive. To get the same level of tank from an active fit either requires using up a lot fo slots for cap or having more expensive (faction, deadsspace) active tanking mods.

Ther eis nothing wrong with your fit, but I posted a 'lazyboat'. What you say about the ECM burst proves you don't understand what we are talking about here.

Since the NPC AI upgrade, NPCs in k space have the same abilty to switch aggro as sleepers/incursion rats do. EWAY, logistics, and DPS generate 'threat' that the NPCs pay attention to. The point of an EC burst on a sub cap (or atting carrier) is to generate threat that minimizes (almost eliminates) NPC switcing on to drones which is annoying, time consuming and in the casse of Geckso, expensive.

And again, the DC helps in a number of ways in null PVE, especially if you get tackled it gives you more armor and hull HP to give your ecm drones time to work (or you time to putnout a mobile depot). It bumps up your shiled resists that tiny t so that if you shoot the wrong trigger in an anom or plex that has triggers, you get that little bit of extra time to kill off the dps (rather then MJDing out, which while it works can cost time and thus isk).

Still it's a choice, but one that is reasonable given the pve (and off chance of pvp) circumstances. That Lazyboat fit never died to either npcs or people the entire time I lived in tribute (pre-mjd of course, and still I lived).