Missions & Complexes

The near universal advice is to NOT use smart bombs in highsec. It's not just other player ships you need to worry about - hitting a wide variety of structures will result in a Concord response as well. Even hitting a cloaked ship will get you Concorded. That said, it's certainly possible if you're careful, but I certainly wouldn't do it in an expensive ship.

Conventional wisdom is that a full flight of light drones are faster (and safer) on anything you'll face in most missions.

I'm not really sure when I'd ever use a smartbomb for a mission, most of the ships I use are super effective at killing frigs before they get into orbit range. as for the ones that aren't, well that's what drones are for.

also with smartbombs you have to set your safety red, which is just asking for a woopise.

1 don't use smartbombs
2 I cant use drones to murder frigates because my frigate rats seem to have GRRR syndrome "oh squirrel", most of my battleships now all have a MJD attached for the purpose of pulling range and murdering frigates in pursuit. (before anyone tells me to watch which drones are being shot at, its hard when they get wiped off the field in 1 hit)

Thank you aggro switch mechanics with no real aggro magnet, yes im aware of things like ew scrams and such increase aggro and I have made ships with so much aggro magnets when the mechanics were introduced you still cannot keep them focused on you like other mmo games with mechanics. its a poor system from ccp all because players wanted a system that switch targets when I used to tank the hell out of a complex for new players.

This.

Now that you mention it, I'm halfway tempted to go skim killboards for smartbombing mission runners.

Hmmmm....