Ships & Modules

This is a good one since there is not right answer. In think in this case it comes down on personal experience and preference. The Confessor can handle Rogue Drone DED 10/10 easy and would even be the best ship in term of weapon system because of the weakness of Rogue Drones.

Some people like the Vexor Navy Issue and sentries, I don't like sentries. I would make use of the heavy drones bonus. Make sure you only use the Vexor Navy Issue on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, which are the New Edens "we don't shoot drones today" days.
The rest of the week you need to be very careful with drones, especially Sundays. My advice is a 100mn afterburner armor rep fit. Pulse one rep every now and then.

The Stratios is an amazing pve boat since you can have both lasers and drones. She isn't cheap but a covert ops cloak, a 100mn afterburner and one local rep should make up for this.

Neither the Stratios or the Vexor Navy Issue can handle DED complexes above 4/10. Stasis tower and neutralizer tower will pin you down and its game over.

A laser Legion can but I am not sure how good this one would be doing in a higher than 6 or 7/10. Then of course the Tengu which can solo all of those but you need to have a ton of ammo.

If time isn't an issue I would lean towards a Stratios with a depot for "hacking" equipment.

VNI does not have a heavy drone bonus, that is the ishtar.

@OP

There are different kinds of ratting in null. I assume you're talking about either belt or anoms since only DED 6/10 and higher spawn in null and they are not doable in T3Ds apart from the aforementioned rogue drone 10/10 (which is actually 5/10 difficulty)

The golden standard for ratting in null is the 100mn Vexor Navy Issue with heavy drones. You set orbit on something in the centre of a haven site (these have mainly battleships) and you take very little damage and 5 heavy drones are enough dps to kill the rats in decent time.

*cough*

VNI SHIP BONUSES
Gallente Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Drone max velocity and tracking speed
10% bonus to Drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield

VS

ISHTAR SHIP BONUSES

Gallente Cruiser bonuses (per skill level):
7.5% bonus to Heavy Drone max velocity and tracking speed
10% bonus to Light, Medium, and Heavy Drone hit points and damage, 5% bonus to Sentry Drone hit points and damage
Heavy Assault Cruisers bonuses (per skill level):
5000m bonus to Drone operation range
5% bonus to Sentry Drone optimal range and tracking speed
Role Bonus:
50% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty

*/cough*

Exactly how I do it. Orbit with Imperial Navy Praetor's deployed.

Nobody said anything about whether or not the ishtar or vni is better. Why are you just creating arguments with yourself?

And no, the VNI is not outright better, 37.5% tracking and velocity on the ishtar make it far outclass the VNI, along with other things.

For an extra 140 mil you get an extra 200 m/s to heavy drone speed and 0.08 more to tracking or whatever it called now. Thats a bargain! Im going to buy 6 ishtars right now. /sarcasm. When you consider cost vs stats, yes the VNI is better except for select situations.There is a reason why one of the first PVE ships brought into an area after a new alliances takes over is VNIs and NOT ishtars. In fact you would be hard pressed to find a ratting ishtar in null but will literally trip over VNIs..why do you think that is?

Dominix

The cheap entry level option to most things.

Did you bother to read my first post?