Missions & Complexes

I have been an Ishtar guy for years and years for L4's.
I have had success with the Ishtar for low sec/null sec plexing and ratting, and have loved the drones for semi-afk missions.

But, the amount of time I can play the game has been scaled back, some as a protest against CCP, some by RL.
I have shut down the rest of my accounts, so semi-afk missioning with drones is no longer useful, since I have no other accounts to flip to.

So, I have been kicking around the concept of getting into a BS for L4's.
That is, of course, until soundwave hammers L4's, like he did Incursions. (yeah folks, it is coming, his null sec buddies are screaming for it)

Anyway, here are the 4 boats I am debating:

Navy Domi (armour or shield based): This would be a pure DPS play, no looting capabilities.
Vargur (shield boost). Excellent DPS, excellent looting capabilities (but since looting / salvaging is hammered, is that worth it?)
Mach: Insane DPS, somewhat iffy tank, no salvage.
Rattlesnake (shield boost leaving lows free for drone damage units): Decent, but not great DPS, but awesome tank.

Opinions?

I fly both an Amarr and a Minnie agent, who happen to be 3 jumps away from each other, but both based in Amarr space, so see a lot of EM/Therm, which scares me a bit with regard to the Mach. BTW, I had a look at the Paladin, and was stunned to see how relatively poor the tank of the Pally was against EM / Therm.

firstly, if i had to go down to one account and only run missions, i would either quit or go insane (or both). secondly, the mach's tank is more than sufficient for any lvl4, even if you decide against throwin some money into it. thirdly, the question whether salvaging is worth it is obviously not about the money (it's free extra income that you acquire while you're shooting) but about whether or not you're willing to bother with it. with the kill speed of a vargur/mach, you have enough on your plate just locking new ship and cycling your guns, if you don't mind having the extra hassle to loot and salvage, go for it.

can kill and salvage at the same time. I usually just grab the most convenient largest wrecks and ignore the rest.

and I too like the ishtar, although can still rock that and read a book or whatnot.

Train caldari BS to 4 and use a NM. This beats a mach hands down for em/thermal week rats. If you can use T2 sentry's, use a RS. Can get 700dps from the drones alone. Active tank it so you can fit 3 drone damage mods, fit 1 sentry damage rig and 2 omni directional. The RS can easily be omni tanked, not needed, but I have bothering about switching hardeners. If you use these 2 ships, you can share a decent xl booster and be able to cover all damage types. I still however use a tengu for kinetik damage.
mach' s tank is speed and is fine btw, just make sure you cap stable with a 100mn after burner. pulse booster when needed. Lots of space for drones to deal with webbing scramming frigs. I have a heavy nos to help out when under pressure and turning off ab will give cap boosting a few extra cycles.

Navy Domi - 1330 dps with implants (EO-603, EM-803, SS-903, LH-1003) and reasonable price tag, I think ~1.2bil. So with shinies below similar price to Mach hull.

[Dominix Navy Issue, L4]
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Power Diagnostic System II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Pith A-Type Large Shield Booster
Pith A-Type Kinetic Deflection Field
Pith A-Type Kinetic Deflection Field
Pith A-Type Thermic Dissipation Field
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II
Omnidirectional Tracking Link II

425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
425mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L

Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I

Garde II x5
Warden II x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Ogre II x5

In my order of preference:

1. Mach: Stupid DPS...very nice tank. If you want to blitz, she's your girl. Nobody does it better.
2. Vargur: Kill, loot and salvage...at the same motherfuckin' time. How is this not a good plan.
3. Navy Domi: "Solid" deeps and tank. You can certainly do better, but not at this price.
4. AFKsnake: If you watch a lot of TV, this is your ship of choice.

OP asked about 4 particular ships. But if we're tanking best mission runners in all of EvE, the Tengu is second only to the Mach. The Vargur is a close third, with a bunch of ships easily making a case for rounding out the top-5. I love the Golem's "paper DPS", but with the state of Torps, I probably wouldn't bother with one.

You, sir, are doing it wrong.

I'm surprised. I found the Mach to be the best ship for the job to the point that it made already boring missions downright painful. There were only a small handful of missions where I'd break out another ship for some sort of marginal advantage.

Probably because with a Mach, orbiting stuff then target + F1 isn't the only thing you have to do in PVE.