Missions & Complexes

I guess the first thing you need to decide on is missiles, guns or drones as your primary weapon (what you've already trained up may influence this) You mentioned the SoE region, so are you planning on blitzing or clearing missions? If the former there's really only one ship that's geared towards this.

I like missiles so far ( I use a cyclone atm ), but if the other weapon types are better I can just inject and get them.



I was planning on just clearing since I usually mission while watching tv shows/movies/streams so I get distracted way too often for blitzing to be efficient.

That does help narrow it down. If we're sticking primarily with missiles, I would lean towards either the Rattlesnake or Golem. The Rattlesnake needs more skills to be effective (which isn't necessarily an issue) and does more raw damage, but has a harder time applying this because there are no inherent drone or missile application bonuses and missiles are limited to thermal or kinetic damage. The Golem has bar none the best missile application bonuses of any hull platform, an insane tank and the ability to salvage as you go. Both can be easily run with Hyperspacial rigs and Ascendancy implants to cut down on mission time (if I recall, SoE missions often have large AU distances).

You could also look at the Barghest, but even though it does more damage you'll find in practice it ends up doing the same or less applied damage with the lack of application bonuses. The Raven Navy Issue is almost identical to the Golem in terms of damage and application, but lacks any utility highs and tends to consume a lot of ammunition.

Stick with T2 cruise missile launchers and T2 Fury ammunition. Torpedoes lack sufficient range and you'll find whatever small damage and application gains are often offset by extra maneuvering and lost volleys in-transit. Rapid heavy launchers are really a PvP weapon as they have short range, high damage and excellent application - but the 35-second reload ends up placing the overall DPS well behind both torpedoes and cruise missiles.

Finally, we have the Raven, Navy Scorpion, Typhoon and Typhoon Fleet Issue. Most of these again do the same DPS on paper but this achieved through a higher rate of fire - so you'll consume more ammunition (the Typhoon Fleet Issue has the second highest raw DPS after the Barghest). All except the Raven lack any missile velocity bonus so you're looking at significantly longer flight times. The Typhoon does have the same explosion velocity bonus as the Golem, but as an armor setup it's pretty decent.

You're more than welcome.

As you have used skill injectors, I recommend that you do not get a Marauder, as you should get some experience with a T1 battleship before you get the other, as they are quite a expensive loss.

Battleclinic commentor detected

Not to disagree with your point, but a lot of those look to be legitimate war targets as opposed to gank victims (at least within the last week anyway).

Before you drop a huge lot of injectors towards a golem you can always tryout the raven first. At least then you didnt waste to many injectors in a ship that might eventually not fit your taste.

With that INSANLEY LARGE AMMOUNT OF ISK (not shouting, just to make clear what i m talking about) you can max all frigs and do lowsec pvp till you´re 80 years old probably :P

I would start with the golem with cruise missiles. It is in my opinion the bets all round lvvl4 missions ship. It has select able damage and with a not to fancy fit you will be able to 1 shot cruisers and bc without having to switch from fury.
There are other which will do a specific mission faster/better, but all round the golem is best. I have used almost every ship in the game and from my experience, its the way to go.
I tend to switch ships depending on the mission so I know what each of them can do, but as far as choosing just one, go for the golem.

It's a very wrong question to ask. It all depends what ships you like to fly. Personaly I realy like Machariel for PvE, but that's my personal choice and it doesn't mean that it's the best.

Other people like Rattlesnake (personaly I hate it, cause it is a flying brick with drones) or Barghest.

Other people prefer Tengu's for mission running.

So it is realy up to you what to fly !