Missions & Complexes

So this is an alt, my wife's toon that she doesn't play very often.

I originally started it as a "lets try something different", so since my main is heavily invested into gunnery skills i thought i'd try Missiles for this toon. That's how it started, then i tossed in some drone skills as support.. and it sort of evolved from there, and right now i'm dabbling in level 2/3 missions in a gila getting corp factions up to 5. I ran a few level 4's and right now after LP conversion (just blitzing) i'm doing around 40mil isk/hr running level 4 SoE missions in a gila.

I'm a min/max'er, and i'd like to skill this toon into something that can possibly approach 100mil isk/hr doing level 4 missions solo after factoring LP conversion and salvage if not blitzing. I'll probably end up doing SoE or Thukker missions, haven't decided yet. I've heard SoE LP is dropping in value, but that Thukker will ruin my faction with Amarr/Caldari which i'd really like to avoid.

I originally thought a Golem would be the pinnacle of an all around level 4 mission ship since it has damage selection, ewar immunity, built in salvage bonus', and crazy shield tank. Though after researching it a bit more, it seems missile ships in general start at a disadvantage since they have to use rigs for damage application instead of using warp speed rigs to reduce overall site completion times. So then i thought, this gila is pretty amazing, what about a rattlesnake? Even though its still a missile ship, maybe pushing dps high enough will outweigh slower warp speeds if i spend more time in mission sites to kill everything/salvage instead of blitzing. Or would it just be better to skill into a Vargur and blitz?

I read this thread: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=334784

It deals with Vargur blitz vs non blitz isk/hr. Near the end it has this table of information:

First number LP value, 2nd number is blitzing income, 3rd is non-blitzing from previous spreadsheet
0 isk/lp: 42M/hour versus 71M/hour
800 isk/lp: 71M/hour versus 88M/hour
1,000 isk/lp: 78M/hour versus 93M/hour
2,000 isk/lp: 115M/hour versus 115M/hour
3,000 isk/lp: 151M/hour versus 137M/hour

SoE LP is currently sitting around 1,700 isk/lp utilizing buy orders, Thukker is around 2,200, both of which are down from a few months ago (2,000 / 2,500 roughly).

So SoE looks like non blitzing would pay better, and get me up to around 100mil isk/hr. Thukker would obviously pay better and would favor blitzing more.

Thoughts?

Vargur has lower DPS then Machariel, lower warp speed. So I woulnd choose Machariel for Lvl 4 Soe. Also PPL run them in Rattlesnakes, but Rattle is a very slow ship with a slow warp speed. I was doing Lvl 4 soe missions a lot and often you will be sent 1-2 jumps away from main system. With low agility and slow warp speed you will loose a lot of time.

we have different definitions of the word ruin I guess. I never remember which way to read the standings tables, but looks like worst case your amarr goes to -5, and with -2 caldari it is rather easy to fix it. It will take a lot of storylines to get that low in the first place. and a few storylines going the other way will balance it pretty nicely. The same reason I run caldari/amarr/soe missions. Sure my Min/gal standings are pretty low right now, but if I wanted to get them higher I could and reasonably quickly.

I went through all that information, and while a lot of it is very helpful, i didn't see anything about the fitting used for the level 4 missions. I assume it's a mach with T2 800's and faction ammo, but what else?

Would you use a flight of light drones, or would 2x Gecko's work for killing frigates?

How much active tank is enough? If i'm looking at eft, and i set the damage profile for say blood raiders, what sort of EHP/sec should i be aiming for?

They survive OK on my Rattlesnake but the Rattlesnake has uber-geckos not generic ones. Even then its not good to let them wander too far way from home.

I've found the armor tank mach to be superior (for me personally) for blitzing as I have tried and flown both shield and armor extensively and technically prefer shield for PvE in general.

I sometimes swap out the drones for 4 wardens for Berserk for example or 4 Curators for Attack of the Drones. Otherwise I just swap out the two armor hardeners (have 2 enams and one of each hardener in the cargo hold)

Also yes the tank is fine, even does Pirate invasion (Angels) fine.

[Machariel, Blitz]
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Core C-Type Large Armor Repairer
Armor Explosive Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II

Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Core C-Type 500MN Microwarpdrive
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script

800mm Repeating Cannon II, EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, EMP L
800mm Repeating Cannon II, EMP L
Small Tractor Beam II

Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II

Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Warrior II x5

Again depends on what you're doing. Full clear + salvage = Marauder, Blitzing = Macharial. No 'on paper' BS, plain and simple facts. Spent many hours doing both.

pith c-type xl is what, 30m? can always drop to a 10m DG xl, or even a meta4, hell DG/m4 might be better as they save on cpu. rf gyros are pretty cheap, and much cheaper than other faction damage mods. As far as I'm concerned if someone ganks my mach it is purely for lulz, and it was going down with a pure t2/meta fit. *bling* *bling*

and with arty pretty sure the ammo cost is even less than an ac varg. And for how many rounds I use I tend to just use faction when I do roll ACs. Full clearing yea probably not the best of ideas, blitzing, I cba to even try and calculate it I use so few rounds.

Blitzing is a complete different play style and requires a different way of thinking really. If you ever catch yourself thinking 'I can just kill those extra few battleships/BCs/Cruisers' instead of just killing the structure/trigger and warping out then you're doing blitzing wrong. It doesn't matter how fast you can clear Scarlet, it only takes something like 5min from undock to dock and you get 5mill bounty, 8mill implant + 8K+ LP + another 4mill in rewards. That's around 30mill wealth. Doing a full clear means you spent another 15min getting maybe another 15mill or something? So 300% more effort for only 50% more reward.

Granted Scarlet is an extreme example but there are others like recon 1, probably the most broken one. Think I've clocked myself at around 2min for 20 mill undock to dock?

My Mach goes 7.5au/s though so it's pretty zippy. (max is 8.5 I think)