Missions & Complexes

barghest has has the damage advantage for a while, it just got ever so slightly better
Old barghest 7 launchers * 1.25 damage bonus = 8.75 Effective launchers
Now barghest 6 launchers *1.5 damage bonus = 9 effective launchers
golem 4 launchers * 2 = 8 effective launchers.

also with the mordus bonus you don't have to volley count ever (unless you go crazy range sniping with sensor boosters and stuff)

On efficiency: sure the golem uses less ammo, but if more dps clears missions faster then income rises. ammo is cheap and surprisingly small increases in income easily out weigh more ammo use. A little more input for a bunch more output, now that's the kind of efficiency I like.

Arty vargur: I'd keep the guns ungrouped all the time. so much overkill. I'd also consider a t2 rate of fire rig, because damn arty is slow.

One extra effective launcher with no application bonuses will leave the Barghest performing worse than the Golem against small targets, especially with Explosion velocity bonus from the Golem making up for the worst stat on Cruise missiles.

Rapid heavies would be better on the Barghest of course, but Cruise would still probably work better on the Golem, unless you need mobility in which case Barghest all the way. Of course to me that is still a cardinal sin as I believe the Golem should only ever have Torps which are considerably better on the Golem than anything else and with the addition of the MGC they just got even better. Faction torps and Rage torps can get some more application or range and Jav torps can reach out to about 90km with the range script, and that was before they just buffed them.

I will second that ammo is actually fairly cheap all things considered, the difference in cost would be negligible even over hundreds of missions. The Navy Raven (Still call it the CNR) used to have the 8.75 effective launchers before they traded rate of fire for application and yet it still was the preferred Cruise platform before the Bastion module became a thing.

Of course what you should fly for missions is entirely up to what you enjoy. I started flying the Golem forever ago because I liked the old Torp explosions and wanted to use them in missions but my Raven wasn't cut out for that. At the time the Golem was pretty much the only ship that could actually use torps in a mission and perform quite well. I've stuck with it since and continued to improve and enhance my fitting and skills for it.

While I can fly many other good missions ships I just enjoy the Golem too much to really use them.

Is there a hot key you can use for grouping and ungrouping your guns? Like a hot key for ungrouped 4 guns, and another for a pair of double grouped guns etc....?

We've kind of had this discussion and most are opposed to it because the TP bonus is used in fleet actions (particularly in wormholes). Strangely enough, with the addition of the MGC the TP bonus actually gives the Golem insane damage application.

Agreed, plus, with the active tanking bonus on the Vargur and bastion, it would be better suited with a shield boost amp over an extender.

If I had a nickel for every time I'd read that...

I'd worry about ganking if I actually sat on the warp-in, didn't watch d-scan, and didn't have a couple more of the exact same fit sitting in the hanger. I fly what I can afford to lose.

Besides, where is the fun of having billions in isk, if you don't use it to fly expensive toys?

the t2 burst aerator shaves about a second off of the rate of fire. Would be interesting to see how that interacts with server ticks. probably worth activating and firing and then deactivating and repeating for a whole clip to see how long it takes to fire all 20 rounds.

yea probably not worth using 4x faction gyros, but running 3 faction and then a t2 seems alright.

to defend vs ganks I'd consider swapping one of the mids for an xl asb. and on that note probably not worth using a deadspace invlun, although their prices have come down so much I wouldn't be too worried either. Although ganks seem pretty dang rare these days.

On the barghest vs golem I don't know which one runs faster overall, but my warp speed rigged, 2x mgc 1x mge barghest has pretty good application, add a painter or maybe two and it volleys cruisers. and hell at MJD range it hits before the next volley fires. Would be interested in trying out the torp golem, haven't flow that in years. with bastion mode giving a velocity bonus and MGCs might be a bit more interesting to fly.

Torps on even a Bastion Golem are still insanely slow.
At MJD range, my fit can take out just about anything with 1k DPS long before they're within the 1200 DPS range a rage torps, and will even take down several targets before they're within Javelin range which is only about 800-900 DPS.

Point being, you're going to be waiting for targets to get in range while cruise will have half the room cleared already.

Avoid blue, try to avoid green as much as possible - and be wary of SoE hubs.
And never (never, never, ever) fit purple.