Ships & Modules

Yeah, 150 DPS is really low. There are even frigates that can kill things a lot better than your drake so don't rush into such a big ship. You don't need it.

Research how missiles work. Look it up on google and learn the mechanics, then focus on building a ship that can push out good DPS and apply it well. A Corax might be an option. It's an amazing and highly underrated ship.

with all concerning skills to lvl3 that drake should be doing 177 DPS with missiles alone, if its doing 150 dps with drones out, then you are missing skills. so lets list them all.

Direct DPS boosts:
Heavy missiles: 5% damage per level.
Missile launcher operation: 2% faster ROF
Rapid launch: 3% faster ROF
Warhead upgrades: 2% extra damage

Skills that increase Application on anything smaller than a battleship.
guided missile precision: -5% radius.
Target Navigation Prediction: 10% exp velocity

and there's Missile bombardment/Proyection, both increase range.

then you have Caldari Battlecruiser which gives you 10% kinetic damage per level. this is important, because it means that using anything but "scourge" missiles is a BAD idea.


there's also "shield management", and "shield operation", both to IV should be all you need to boost your passive tank.

this would be a rough training plan, if you already have something on the list just skip to the next.

1st- train all the direct DPS skills to III and the application skills to III, then get Cald BC to IV. this will bring your DPS to 177. should be a day of training for the support skills, a bit more for Cald BC IV. but get it, it gives you more tank not just extra damage. (just don't train it to level V...)

2nd- get Weapon upgrades to IV. that will let you use T2 BCUs, that will give you 198 dps with missiles alone.

3rd- get both Projection and bombardment to III, and get all the DPS skills to IV starting with "Heavy missiles", at this point your missile DPS should be 222. and your next objective is Heavy missiles V. long train, but worth it. once you get T2 launchers, a new support skill open up: "Heavy missile operation". its a quick train to lvl III. at this point your DPS will be 246 and you should start to consider adding a third BCU, that will bring your damage to 277 dps.

at this point you also have access to T2 fury Missiles, but only use them against the Battleship, they will give you 374 dps.

if you want to use them against the cruisers or BCs, then you will need to train the application skills to IV at least, and fit a Target painter (generation extron) , using them on frigates and destroyers is a waste of ammunition.

at this point, any extra training will net you a marginal increase, and doing some training on your tank skills or other ships/weapon systems will be a better a idea.

also, i would recommend switching from a pure passive fit to a buffer fit and carrying around some Faction ammo.

the idea is to drop those purgers for Extenders, they will also give you shield regen, just not as much as a purger does. but they will give you about 40 extra seconds of staying power. the idea is to get on the belt, with faction missiles loaded and kill tackle first (if any), then look for the meanest rat and kill it fast. then switch to regular ammo and slowly grind the others down.

WoW this helped me so much mate :) Thank you rly. Will train as you written it to increase dps.

The faction ammo is really expensive here, I fear it will overcost the reward :D Yep I use scourge
So you recommend switching those rigs to extenders.
And switching some shield module to shield booster? Which one? To use with cap boosters?


Thank you again for the skill description u have no idea how much did this help :)

EDIT: I fight serpentis, and some high admirals.

Serps you definitely want Scourge. Not only is the Battlecruiser bonus significant but it plays well with their resist profile.

swiching to extenders will give more time to make decisions on kill orders and such and will give you time to setup your ship properly with alignments, Dscan, etc. not having that time because in 30 seconds you are on 25% shield and getting ready to warp out is whats ruining your ratting. the extenders will give you time to kill rats thus lowering the incoming DPS. still, in the end its up to personal preference really.

one of the most common rookie mistakes is wanting to tank a ship to the point where they cant die, its a similar error to the "cap stable" myth. you don't need to tank forever, you need to tank the peak damage long enough to shoot it down to more manageable levels.

now, if you want to switch to an active tank, you have to go all the way. that means dropping all shield extenders and shield rigs, everything but the hardeners. and replacing most of it for cap. again, no need to be cap stable, but you will need to use your cap in the most efficient way possible. that means fitting a large shield booster with a boost amplifier, and turning off the auto-repeat on the shield module. "pulsing" it as you need shield, instead of letting it cycle all the time. the larger the shield module the more expensive it is to fit and to "pulse", but the more efficient it is. (you get more shield per capacitor spent, and the boost amplifier increases the effect even more)

i would recommend you to stay on a passive tank, most of the skills that you need for a proper active setup like "Shield Compensation", will be kinda useless later on. and since you are in null, if you get dropped on by a interceptor he can cap you out and kill you, while a passive tank will give enough time to get help.

another problem on your fit is the Invul. if you are facing Serp rats, then you are receiving therm and kin damage as main types, so the invul is wasted. replace both shield resist amplifiers for two tech two Thermic and one kinetic active fields, if you don't have the cap or the skills, replace them for the "limited" variants. that should give you enough resists. still, as you train up try to do the belts with one thermic hardener tuned off just to see if you can handle it.

once you have Cald bc IV and your shield support to IV, you can safely tank with two hardeners only and free up a slot for a target painter.

for a passive fit something like this will be fine:

[Drake, boost]
Damage Control II
Beta Reactor Control: Shield Power Relay I
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I
Medium Core Defense Field Purger I

or active:

[Drake, boostnewb copy 1]
Damage Control II
Photonic CPU Enhancer I
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

Kinetic Deflection Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Thermic Dissipation Field II
Shield Boost Amplifier I
Medium Shield Booster II
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

once you have enough skills, you can switch the medium booster for a large one and drop a thermic hardener for a painter. + with enough CPU skills you can drop the lowslot CPU module and fit a nanofiber. training Shield Compensation to IV will be nice too.

if you have cap problems, train "fuel Conservation" and "afterburners" besides your cap skills "Capacitor system op" and "cap management". that will help a lot. you can also plug the Zor navigation link implant. there's two versions one gives extra speed (expensive) and the other one gives longer Cycle time on the ab. get the last one, its extremely cheap and will give you even more cap.

Thank you again :) I will try change those modules and yeah I will stick with passive tank for now a lot of interceptor scum running around xD

I've lost enough of them to tell you simply it's a POS and many fits require all 3 rig slots to be devoted to fittings. It's a great idea but terribly executed and was quickly forgotten in favour of sniper cormorant fleets.

Easy system to use for any ship - get it to Mastery III before you buy it, get it to Mastery IV for whatever area of eye popping numbers you want out of it. Your Drake is about 1/3 the amount of total dmg it should be doing.

HM and/or HAM to V
HM and/or HAM Specialization to IV
All missile support skills to IV, minimum
Weapon Upgrades to V (for BC IIs)
All the drone skills to IV or V for effective use of T2 drones
Faction ammo minimum
And a bunch of the Core Fitting (engineering, nav) skills to IV, minimum.

With gimped ammo (too cheap to go crazy for EZ sauce L3 farming), my Drake is at 389 DPS. If I cared about eye popping DPS, tweaked it a bit and used Fury ammo or whatever, It could be a good bit higher.

You...need...more....skills.

PS - some folks get down on the Mastery system because some of the reqs are overkill, but as general guides go they do work pretty well, at least at III and IV.

^^ Nice recruitment post!!

One thing that might be worth considering is dropping your Afterburner. Here's the tradeoff:

W/ AB on, you increase speed, which can help you move faster than Serp Rats can track w/ their guns. You also spend cap and have one extra button to manage (or more, depending on how you approach/orbit etc.

W/ no AB, you lose speed, but can still keep moving to mitigate a bit of the turret damage. The upside is you get another Mid-Slot to help your tank as well as freeing up a bit of cap to run that Tank. You might try something like this:

Heavy Launchers on Highs (best Meta level you can afford/find) loaded w/ Scourge Missiles

Mids:
1 medium shield booster,
1 shield boost amplifier (best meta),
1 kinetic hardener,
1 thermic hardener (both best meta, hopefully T2)
2 capacitor Rechargers (best Meta, look at the info and get the one w/ the best cap regen bonus)

Lows:
3 Ballistic Control Units (best meta, I have fit Multiphasic bolt array I's for this example)
1 Power Diagnostic Unit (best meta, look for shield HP bonus, cap recharge bonus and shield recharge bonus)

As far as Tank goes, based on "Limited" hardeners and minimum skills versus the Serpentis Damage type:
w/ the Large C5-L, you can max at 326 dps tank for 2.5 minutes
w/ the Medium C5-L, you can perma run the booster at 185 dps tank

with arbalest launchers, will net you 192 DPS without drones.
Skills:
Level 3 in the following - Caldari BC, missile Launcher operation, HEavy Missiles, and Warhead Upgrades.
Level 4 with those skills gives 232 dps (no drones, same mods)
Level 5 with those skills gives 278 dps (no drones, same mods)

Putting drones into the mix will help a TON: For Hobgoblin I's
3 drones at the bare minimum skills adds 28 dps (the difference between going from 3 to 4 in almost 4 other skills)
4 drones at the bare minimum adds 37 dps , 5 adds 46 dps (T1)

Increasing the drones skill to 5, and light drone operation to 4 and still using 5 T1 Hobgobs will add 55 dps


A fit like this should (as you train your skills and get good at the belts) give you a nice mix of DPS and Tank.
Adding the drones should help a good bit w/ any scram rats as well.

The above posters are right though. W/ an active tank, the goal is not to constantly have your shield level at 100% forever, its to be able to run your shield booster long enough that you don't get into armor while still being able to apply enough dps to kill the bad guys.

And for some perspective, with my skills and a full T2 setup based on the above scheme: 410 DPS and 304 dps Perma Tank w/ medium T2 shield booster, including 5 T2 hobgobs


Hope this helps!