Missions & Complexes

Just my thoughts but I am sure there are others that would disagree.

I have not flown a Nestor so I will not speculate on the ship itself.

Domi or Rattle my drones load outs for missions are usually the same and it is based on my current full clear and loot / salvage mission style. No salvage drones are used for this because alt characters or I am giving the stuff to new players and they are handling that part of the deal.

Garde II are always in the bay along with either Warden, Bouncer or Curator chosen for mission specific damage or the Warden for max range depending on the mission.
5 Hammerhead and 5 Hobgoblins round out the drones load for the Rattle.
In the Domi I carry 4 medium armor bots as well, no other use for the bay space so why not.

I always use Gallente for the medium and lights, I have never been able to determine any difference in the killing speed so why bother. The Garde on the other hand have such a short effective range it makes no sense to try and run with them only. And with the BC and BS ships there s a noticeable difference in killing speed.

I hate drones.
It's a coin toss between the Rattlesnake and Nestor.

The Nestor has speed, inertia, warp speed and cargo space going for it. Using Wardens and lasers you can effectively put out omni damage, and with pulse lasers/Scorch you can pretty much hit anything out to 60km. Without the need for ammunition you have insane cargo capacity (even more than most of the Marauders). Drone damage bonuses apply to all types of drones.

The Rattlesnake has more raw damage but you're restricted to thermal/kinetic missile damage, and missiles are hamstrung by velocity (sentries instablap while you have to wait for missiles to take their sweet time). On the other hand, it has a really solid tank and a high passive recharge - so you have lots of mid utility slots for both missile and drone damage application.

Frankly, I don't even see this as a choice, rs wins every time between that and nestor.

Both have same base drone damage, but rs can fit more damage mods due to being shield tanked.

Then, rs puts out a lot more dps from its highs than the nestor. Again, with damage mods, and this is also damage selectable (kin and therm covering all bases).

Nestor can fit more application mods, but thats a minimal advantage at that point.

And if you want a pure drone boat, it's a domi or ishtar (domi being better for missions). Or go home.

As far as drones themselves go, sentries is gardes and racials, the others is caldari most of the time, minnie vs angels, and gallente vs blood/sansha. I used to use hobgoblins all the time, but I switched to hornets for most npc's and found that their improved speed and shields meant I had to replace them less.

Edit: also, you've been playing 4 years. This a troll thread, or you just bought this toon?

You CAN shield tank a Nestor, but that does not render the point moot. At all.

Nestor has an armor tank bonus. Only time in missions you would shield tank a ship with an armor tank bonus would be against angels. At which point you just made your lasers painfully useless.

Rattlesnake is a much better mission ship than a Nestor. That is, frankly, non-debatable.



Speed and inertia are only situationally useful in missions, a situation not suited to the Nestor. Warp speed only makes much of a difference when blitzing, a situation not suited to the Nestor.
Wardens and lasers is not the same as omni damage. Drones allow you to do omni damage, lasers are tied to the least useful of the damage types, particularly if using long range ammo.
And marauders have nearly double the cargo capacity of the Nestor (if you're using more than 100m3 of space for ammo in your marauder, please do it better).

Not sure I quite understand what you're getting at here. The Nestor has a much bigger drone bay, but thats cos you need to field all 5 drones at a time, RS does the same thing with only two heavies or sentries, so it needs less space. Variability of drones doesn't get lost, but you also gain variability in missile damage. And the poor tracking of sentries (indeed the limitation of any of the drone types) affects both hulls equally, unless you're fielding lights and mediums, in which case, I urge you to reconsider...

And again, if it's a purely drone focused build, domi does it much better, and much cheaper.

Seriously though, if you just prefer flying the Nestor for some other reason, that's fine and commendable, but the figures don't add up in its favour.


To answer you're actual question then, I personally do believe it's always worth it to use mission specific drones.

Do not forget about crazy drone called Gecko!

Besides I do not understand your idea to fit Rattle as a pure drone boat! That's fully against its strong bonuses towards missiles. Each and every viable Rattle's fit maximizes fifty-fifty damage split between drones and missiles.

If you have missile skills (even just HM skills for RHML) the Rattler can put out substantial DPS but you do need to work to ge that DPS applying well.

If you are using sentries the drone type is generally based on range and tracking considerations rather than RAT resists.

Wardens are the worst, but two tracking-scripted omnidirectional tracking links make a huge difference. Bouncers and Curators are probably the best for most scenarios - especially if you range boost the omni tracking links.

If your primary focus is drones, my advice would be to use 4x RLMLs with Inferno FoF missiles on the Rattlesnake. That will take care of any pesky frigates that get inside a 25km radius. You don't need any damage or damage application modules for the missiles, and light missiles take up a pittance of space (you'll be fine with just thermal damage).

Here's what I ran on my drone-specific Rattlesnake (or Nestor).
• 3x Large Hyperspacial Velocity Optimizer II
• 2x Nanofiber Structure II (alternately, a pair of Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancers)
• 4x Drone Damage Amplifier II
• 2x Omnidirectional Tracking Link

With high-grade Ascendancy implants this gives you a batsh*t insane align time and warp speed (particularly on the Nestor). What you lose in "easy mode" is made up for in fast mission transit times.

Rapid all the way. Regular lights won't do enough damage quickly enough to rid yourself of frigates. I'm going off memory, but I think you'll get about 150-200 "pest" DPS with rapid lights. The other reason to use rapid lights is so that you can get away with 4 launchers and allow for a pair of drone link augmentors. Inferno is the second most effective damage type (on average), and I find that there's almost no difference against kinetic weak targets.