Ships & Modules

I am thinking of levelling up my L4 mission Raven to a something better like the Rattlesnake, Scorpion Navy Issue, Machariel or even a Nightmare. The hard point is that I was away from EVE for over a year and now too many changes have taken place. The common sense fittings I know may not apply anymore.

So can anyone recommend a ship for fast grinding L4 security missions and if possible cosmic anomalies. It would be great if you can provide a cheap fit L4 mission ship and one's under 1billion isk. Thank you in advance for all your help!

this thread seems familiar...

pick a faction, any faction

a BS from that faction will do L4 missions just fine



choose based on the aesthetics, tank or weapon type you prefer


to fit follow this handy generic multipurpose mini-guide on module types to use
* - choose one, not both

high slot:- weapons
medium slot:- prop mod, damage application, tank*
low slot:- damage application, tank*
rigs:- tank or damage application
drone bay:- drones
cargo bay:- ammo, scripts

......

I tried rattler for few days and my god that was excruciating experience. Don't get me wrong, that ship is probably excellent as L4s grinder but I just couldn't stand missiles travel times. It's not my skills, I have pretty much maxed out all weapon systems and supports for them so no fault here. It was just that fire... wait... wait... snoooooze... boom!

Nightmare is nice but of course it's lazorz so not efficient against all rats. It can tank nicely both with shields and by speed so if you like to move it works fine.

Now I'm using Vargur and I feel like home again. I don't blitz, I clear up everything so it's ideal for me. Reasonable omni tank which with bastion let's me tank every hisec L4 + circa 1000+ dps + damage flexibility = take mission, fly there, drop MTU, kill everything, scoop loot, complete mission. Can't get easier than that in my books.

I was using machariel for almost a year 2 years ago and it was great as long as you don't stop moving. Stationary mach is dead mach. Mach has that nice warp speed advantage so it might be good if you are like me dying a little inside every time you need to warp anything larger than cruiser. And it's now king of blitzing L3s which apparently can get you income comparable to L4s if done right.

And last but not least: ishtar. That's like vargur but with drones and cruiser signature. Again, I have reasonable omni tank with booster so I can just sit next to my sentries and tank almost everything. If incoming dps gets too high I just start to orbit one of my drones with pulsing AB if needed. Sentries push ridiculous dps at all required ranges + they are not affected by rats' e-war so that's nice.

One more thing: all my ships are not cheapest fits that can do the job. They are not all green/blue/purple but they are not cheap. I know you set bar at < 1bil and that's fine for starters but some reasonable bling is needed here and there. And what is reasonable depends on you, my varg had price tag at almost 3bil but amount of fun/hr I get from it made it totally worth investment. My ishtar was 1.3 or 1.5bil and didn't regret buying it even for a moment. Rattler was the only disappointment but it's not the ship or fit, I just have that weird stuff with missiles.

I use a Gila.... its only a cruiser but i seem to run them just as fast as my rattlesnake...

if you blitz missions I believe it! Otherwise how do you fit your rattlesnake?

A standard L4 Rattlesnake with proper skills can do 1.600dps on paper, where a lot of that dps can be applied quite well. If you are below that figure and have nearly all skills except Weapon System Spec. V for example, you have not a proper L4 Rattlesnake fitting.

Ninjaedit: @poster above: If you have the Gila, forget the Ishtar :) Not worth to train HAC really for just Level 4 Missions. And Gila is a Cruiser, not a Battlecruiser!

Gila is pretty tanky and it uses mediums not sentries. I actually think its tankier than a typical battlecruiser. Might be the sig radius. I should clarify its a cruiser that tanks like a battlecruiser

Medium drones eat battleships for breakfast. Doubly so with a Gila.

@Freya Sartan - I thought light drones vs Frigs, Destroyers, medium drones vs Cruisers, BC's, heavy drones vs BS's and sentries vs everything...it's good to know that it's not so fixed.

@Schmata Bastanold Lol, yeah work kills us all but we have to do it :) I play for fun as well - due to RL and everything get only a few hours game time so want to enjoy it rather than grind. Blowing things up is a good stress relief - better to do it in game rather than reality :P I am not that worried about ISK/hr or such just how much fun/stress relief I can get.

Any Fittings you can send would be really helpful - I am making baselines for various ships and more input I get - the better my baseline is.

Seems like Ishtar lives upto it's big reputation. I am going to add it to my future goals. Seems like fun.