Ships & Modules

the real question is why aren't you using warhead rigor catalyst rigs and arbalest missile launchers? both would improve your kill speed and reduce the need for tank, not to mention the isk/hour.

granted the drake is not a dps monster, but even then, a four slot shield tank should be more than enough for almost all lvl3s. try this:

[Drake]

[High Slots]
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Scourge Heavy Missile
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Scourge Heavy Missile
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Scourge Heavy Missile
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Scourge Heavy Missile
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Scourge Heavy Missile
'Arbalest' Heavy Missile Launcher, Scourge Heavy Missile

[Med Slots]
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

[Low Slots]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

[Rigs]
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I
Medium Warhead Rigor Catalyst I



for harder missions, you should be able to squeeze in a third shield extender for the afterburner.

edit: don't forget drones.

delete please

I don't remember the numbers, and drake has been rebalanced twice(?) now. But... the extenders vs purgers is a balancing act.
Extenders give you bigger buffer, but they also make your sig bigger so you are faster to lock (pvp), easier to hit (pvp and pve), take more damage (pvp and pve).

Purgers don't increase your buffer, but they also keep your signature smaller. And having faster/greater recharge your shield does not go down as fast.

Also one of the standards on purger rigged drake is to use spr (shield power relay) modules in low slots which also greatly increase shield recharge so that number of 28 hp/s is actually the minimum because you don't have any spr in low slots. Super tanky purger drake has 3 purger rigs and 3 spr in low slots, try it in eft and see what kind of shield recharge number you get.

I think back in the day someone crunched the numbers and came up with purgers being overall better than extenders. And it has been taken as the "standard". However, that was what? 6 years ago? 8 years ago? It may or it may not be valid any longer.

Up to you. If you need dps, use hobs (then just deploy mtu and fit that salvager in high slot). If you don't need dps, then use salvage drones. You could go 4 hobs and 1 salvage drone, or 3 hobs and 2 salvage drones.

don't worry about the capacitor. as long as you can run it for ~4-5 minutes with afterburner, you're going to be fine. CPU problems are harder to fix. iirc the XR-3200 launchers use less CPU than the arbalest, and you *can* replace one rigor rig with a shield extender or purger to save some more.

edit: also consider the cheaper CPU management implants.

the drake is not exactly known for its slender figure and nimble advance. in other words, it's a slow fat blob that will get hit by anything anyway. the afterburner is mainly meant for those missions where you have to travel from one gate to the next, other than that it will probably only be useful against battleship sized weapons if at all.

if you insist on flying this overtanked fit, i would advise you to at least keep an eye on how far your shields drop in missions. if you never drop below 40%, you are overtanked. if you *sometimes* drop below 30%, you're about right and if you drop below 10%, you should consider adding more tank (and warping out).

staying outside of the optimal range of rats may indeed be possible, as your heavy missiles can fly up to 60km and beyond. it will rarely be necessary though. aside from 'The Blockade' and the bonus last room of the various Extravaganza missions, there is nothing that will stress your tank enough, as long as you watch what you're shooting.

missions may indeed be flown with buffer tanks, IF you have very high dps. for instance, all my marauder pilots, including the kronos and paladin can often finish lvl4s without activating reps or dropping into armor. same with my lvl3 brutix navy.

in any case, there is always a turn over point at which the buffer tank performs equal or better to a recharge tank. this point depends on the precise numbers and incoming dps, but it is generally in the minutes or tens of minutes for lvl3 dps.

TL;DR: buffer tanked drake is fine for lvls.

As a rule of thumb for PVE passive shield ships, you're aiming to increase the passive shield regen over increasing your buffer. Thus purger rigs and SPR.

The idea behind that is that not only will the higher regen compensate in the long run (PvE engagements usually last longer than PvP), once your peak regen at 25% is not enough you are in trouble, since if your shield drops below that value, it will not regenerate at all (or as good as, anyway).

However, since increasing the buffer will ALSO increase regen, it's sometimes advisable to pick a buffer item over a pure regen item, since the regen might still be higher. That's usually the case with large shield extender vs. shield recharger in med slots.

The same principle applies to resists btw., so in some cases it can be a better idea to fit a large shield extender than fitting an invulnerability field. (CAN because the extender adds an absolute bonus, while the invul applies a relative)

That said, a DCII is a resist module and the same principle applies, which usually makes a SPR the better choice for that tanky low slot. (Freeing up 14-18 CPU in the process)

(As a sidenote: other than availability there is NO reason whatsoever to fit a SPRII. Even less so when CPU is an issue.)


You're flying a 50M battlecruiser. The arbalest is clearly the best T1 launcher - in addition to giving you more DPS, it also uses less CPU, thus easing fitting requirements for other slots. We used those things back in the days when they cost about 10M, before the HM nerf. 2M is actually a bargain for what the module offers.



And lastly:
If you post fittings, try to do so in EFT format. That will make things easier for people trying to help. ("Copy to clipboard" in EFT

(I'm not sure if that empty med slot in your fitting is due to an omission or if you really left a slot empty?)