Missions & Complexes

maybe your flying is rusty and you're not getting good hits on the ships.

If you're seeing a lot of grazes and barely hits then you're not getting your angular velocity down enough for 1400s to track them.

Other reasons could be: you're using the wrong ammo like EMP vs angels or trying to use short range ammo and rats are out of range.

There's no way a maelstrom should be taking 7-10 volleys per BS, comparably in a tornado I can mostly volley a BS into low armour and I have very poor large projectile skills.

I have never found arty's and /or MJD's to be efficient in missions. Just stick with AC's.

mwd till you in range and kill them... then move to gate.. no fancy triangulation necessary.. but each to his own.
And you should at least try it as you don't seem that happy with your current fit..
If you can, get a mach, they cheap these days

Test server is a good place to play if you worried about loosing ships or want to test fits without the costs.

ACs in the blockade just sound like they would be awful. For some missions AC are passable on a mael, but for the most part you want a mach, added mobility and falloff bonus really help, vargur also works.

This is pretty much how I would fit a mael, a bit sp intensive. if you need ideas to scale it back a bit I'd be happy to help. I'd also suggest buying a machariel, they are pretty cheap right now. Also I would get some at least 3% implants, probably focus on gunnery and large projectiles first, the other slots are a bit more open. I think tracking/falloff are in the same slot, if you plan on sticking with arty I'd get tracking, if you plan to try and use ACs more then the falloff one is probably better.
[Maelstrom, 1400mm arty pve]
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Tracking Enhancer II
Reactor Control Unit II

Pith B-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script

1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L
1400mm Howitzer Artillery II, Republic Fleet Fusion L

Large Projectile Burst Aerator II
Large Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard I
Large Core Defense Capacitor Safeguard I

Warrior II x5
Bouncer II x3

I'm used to flying with standard boosters, and with a cap booster you can keep a booster going for a long time. Additionally I'm wary of using something with 9x uses (and that is with navy 400s, 7x with standard 400s) before needing a minute to reload in a mission. granted in most missions that is probably adequate, but I'd rather stick with the normal shield booster. additionally pith boosters are really cheap right now.

And I like sentry drones as they don't have travel time. with 1400s I tend to not need to move too much, and I can drop sentries and have them attacking the same things my guns are shooting increasing dps on target. also very nice when your guns leave something in low structure, the drones will usually finish it off before you can fire the guns again.

With 1400s I usually script my tracking comps to tracking speed as that is what arty usually needs. better hits are good! but of course for some missions you will want the extra range/falloff as that will let you hit things sooner.

lastly with 1400s I usually don't group them at all. the damage they do is just too high, and the cycle time too long, to have wasted damage. I do group them in the Dread pirate scarlett mission though, as you only get one chance to shoot her the first time you see her so I want as much volley as possible. nice to get that extra 5mil bounty.

Thanks for the responses all.

I think what I will try next is a combination of 3 things -

1) Add a Tracking Computer with tracking speed script. I did not have issues with small ships and transversal but maybe it will help on bigger targets more than I expected. Will also pay more attention to large ship transversal

2) use faction ammo

3) use medium or heavy drones on main targets

And who knows, if the targets still take too long to destroy, maybe will try autocannons.

Thanks.

In blockade I prefer to be able to hit them as soon as they spawn. luckily angels have a habit of chasing you so that helps a bit, shooting the triggers as soon as you can, and letting the new spawns get in range while you kill the old spawns is probably a pretty good strategy. However I'm not familiar enough with the Angel version of blockade to know, but have a feeling due to the variable ranges of the other versions that I'd prefer arty.

every ship is better with as many damage mods and application mods as possible

luckily cap booster 800 bpos are cheap and quick to research/produce. As for their size, with a bpo each run of ten 800s takes 22.1m3 of minerals and that is without research. Even so, for how many you use a hauler full bought somewhere else will last a pretty long time. and you can always get some sucker to move a stack via a courier contract.

3 ccc's is just a lazy waste of rig slots, and you say a reactor control is sub optimal. Although arty fits need a fitting mod as not much else fits on a malestrom after a rack of 1400s . And I don't think I could ever fly a 1400 boat without a tech 2 burst aerator, cycle time on 1400s is incredibly long, I'll take anything to reduce that. the effect on DPS isn't too bad either.

Manual piloting to reduce transversial is a good thing to be able to do.

I like my gank

and didn't realize you could fit that much stuff on a maelstrom with only a pg implant