Skill Discussions

Haven't done an incursion for a while now, but missile boats were definitely not in hugely demand from what I remember, and cruise missiles are low dps enough to start with, though this might have changed/I might be wrong. If your going Caldari a Rokh might be a better plan in the short term, and improving your turret skills would lead nicely onto something like a Bhaalgorn or Machariel, which are very much the boys for the job.

If getting into incursion fleets is your goal, Turrets should take priority over Missiles asap (although as you haven't made a huge dent in either yet that shouldn't be a big upheaval )

edit - In terms of fitting, you'll want a huge buffer tank (100K ehp+) and 70+ on every resist, other than that slap on as many damage mods and TEs (tracking comps for armor) then nestle a dcu2 in there somewhere, with webs for ships that get a bonus to them. Not much room for variation in incursion fits really.

Well that widens your options a lot. If your sticking Caldari, I would say make a B-line for the drake, as lvl2 and 3 should be easy as pie in it, and right now it's really the only BC that has a place in lvl4s. And then you have a choice between going BS or Jumping into a Tengu which while more expensive is less skill SP intensive than getting good performance out of a BS.

So I'd aim for T2 launchers, with lvl4 support skills, T2 tank (basically just lvl 4 supports for shield) and remember that T2 drones are pretty much mandatory for lvl4s. Also your fitting and cap skills will need some love before you can even fit for missions.

Engineering 5 and Electronics 5 should be your number 1 priority, as well as energy systems ops 5 (although I don't know how much use this would be on a passive drake) as they're very good and fast skills you'll want maxed - in fact, all of the Standard "core competency" certificate is a good place to get some foundations. Also Weapon upgrades 4, and if possible 5, so you get AWU to 4. will make life much easier.

With all of the above a cheap and cheerful drake should be able to make a good dent into pve, and all the skills will be just as useful in pvp.

Should already note that I am in a Drake as it is and want to take the step up so that I can start level 4 missions once I get more time. I am also in the process of moving systems for my main and will be grinding rep in the new area.

Can you clarify what you mean by level 4 support skills? Can you give me a roadmap on what I should train? I am currently Engineering V as per the instructions in the previous post and I don't know where to go from there.

I doubt you will be able to fly a typical incursion fit in 6-8 months...

I run incursions about 95% of my time in eve. There are many ways to run them, but only a few ways to run them efficient, pushing isk/h ratios way over 100m/h.

There are 5 ships that are viable in high end incursions: Vindicator, Nightmare, Machariel, Basilisk, Scimitar.

Since you want to look into pvp with this toon, you typically don't want to learn logistics, leaving you with the 3 faction battleships to choose from.
You said you want a sniper. That means Vindicators are not an option, 1800+ blaster dps make rails just look crappy.
So Machariel or Nightmare it is. This comes down to personal preference and community preference. Machariels have high alpha damage, Nightmare have a overall much higher applied dps but require a lot more micro management for ammo and capacitor.

Must have skills are T2 guns, good gunnery support, maxed cap skills (extremy important for NM), good navigation skills, good drone skills, good-maxed targeting skills, Shield Management V for max buffer, Cybernetics V for top-notch implants, Thermodynamics and Nanite repair skills

Aside from skills you need isk. A standart ship will cost you 2.5b. A good ship will cost you 6b. A good clone will cost you at least 2b.