Missions & Complexes

Hello. Been running L4s in high sec for about 2 years (no carebear hate please). All perfect battleship skills except Caldari, and have been completing missions rather quickly in a Vindi, Navy Dominix, Navy Apocalypse, and Nightmare. Almost perfect drone / gunnery skills as well.

Several corp mates suggested I move up to a Kronos, Machariel, or Paladin. But although I still haven't figured out how to use EFT, just basic math seems to suggest a Kronos would have inferior damage compared to a Vindi. A vindi gets a 37.5% damage bonus to turrets on top of the 8 it already has (for a total of 11 turrets worth of damage) while a Kronos gets 4 + 100% (for a total of 8 turrets) worth. Lack of range or tank is rarely of any a problem when running L4's. Not to mention I would think when using a MJD, drones become impractical as you are not going to be sending them 100km towards the enemy.

Can anyone please elaborate as to what would make a marauder "faster" in mission running? With mobile tractor units, I really don't see 2 tractor beams making a difference. I generally like to drop a mobile tractor unit in each pocket while I clear everything really fast, then come back in a noctis and clean up (high sec mission sites tend to be close to the agent's station).

I'm sure I can just skill up Marauders and try, but the 5x multiplier scares me

Thread has been moved to Missions & Complexes.

Besides, MTUs attract the wrong groups of players looking for a shiny kill mail and MTUs are quite easy to scan down.

Marauder can move and loot ,losing little time and, if the feces hits the fan, you can either turtle up with the bastion or warp away without leaving a MTU to get destroyed by the ninjas.

since level 4 loot and salvage became pathetic it's best to just do them as fast as you can to get lp.

Vindi fit's this purpose a bit better, although you will want to run with rails for that.

Blaster Kronos. Anyone using rails on a Kronos is just plain stupid. With null ammo I can hit out to ~70km. Any thing further and it's time to use the MJD and switch to Void.

If you like counting missiles or managing drones, by all means, go with a Golem or Rattlesnake; but turret ships are where the real damage is at.

pve boils down to dps, if you can do more dps in a vindi and survive then you answered your own question. this is of coarse taking everything into account, a paladin can out dps a vindi if shooting sansha rats.

its about the rats resistance profile vs your damage profile.

Haha. Patience and more patience my friend. I'll keep that in mind! I just thought the Machariel was ugly, and I don't like missiles.

Sadly i don't have any experience with the Vindicator, but Kronos looks to me like it's just a way more flexible choice all around, if you stick with missions in Gallente space.

You can put rails on the same general base fitting you would use with blasters(but in general you probably shouldn't) and also enjoy all the advantages of the marauder hulls. Much better range with rails might be of importance, too.
Other than that, Kronos is great to use with MJD, mobile depot and tractor beams(for mission-relevant cans). Even if salvage and loot got nerfed, they are still an additional income and for me just a byproduct of the missioning, as dropping MTU and using 2 salvagers or just drones isn't exactly a demanding activity while i'm blapping things around me. Also, check the prices of Null and Void against faction antimatter.

Marauders let you "shoot and loot". Extra tractor beams can really reduce mission times as they allow you to snag mission objectives independently of a MTU or in situations where you're moving and don't want to go back to retrieve a MTU. In conjunction with a MTU, it allows you to simultaneously bring in up to 4 wrecks. Do keep in-mind that a popular pastime is to scan down and shoot absent MTUs...