Missions & Complexes

There is to be NO ewar resist in bastion going forward. This is how bastion intended to be and now fixed.

Based on absolutely nothing. Don't feed the troll.

And that was a troll. Make a point to note the troll.

It really comes down to what region of space you operate out of, the skillset that maximizes your ship potential and last but not least - personal preference. From what I'm finding Marauders really don't offer anything that you can't get in a Pirate or Navy Faction hull - except a bit more cargo space, salvage capability, active tank and EW immunity.

Aside from a few missions, looting in general is in the toilet - so the benefit of active salvage component is debatable. They are prohibitively expensive (both in terms of ISk and training), and have very weak EHP. You can tank almost all missions with a few select modules on most battleship hulls - so the extra active tank on Marauders is overkill.

The only real benefit with Marauders is that the operational cost (ammunition) is typically 25-50% less (unless you opt for lasers, as crystals are dirt cheap). The thing I probably hate most (yes, there is a short list) with Marauders is Bastion. Having that 60-second timer root you in-place is just poor game mechanics.

Other than sensor strength I wouldn't necessarily say damage application is better. On par, perhaps - but not better. I could cite examples like the Navy Raven, Nightmare, Vindicator...


Well, I've been doing this for quite a while - so I have a pretty good idea what it brings in and which missions are worth salvaging (and for what) and which aren't. You can argue the "one man's junk is another man's treasure" adage, but the reality is that one man's junk is usually just one man's junk. It's been proven that in the vast majority of instances it's more profitable to simply run another mission for the bounties, reward and LP.

I'm not going to recommend that one play style is for everyone - that's what makes the game interesting. If you want to salvage missions for a pittance who am I to suggest otherwise.


It's a billion+ ISK hull with less raw EHP than most T1 battleships. Pirate Faction hulls are super cheap now so the cost comparison isn't a valid argument anymore. I could also add that because of this Marauders are typically a gank magnet, but I digress.


Yes, I do realize it's a trade-off. That doesn't mean that having to anchor your ship still doesn't royally suck. Maybe you like being stationary in most of your missions. I prefer fluid movement.


There's no damage application bonus - there's a range bonus. Entering Bastion increases your range and your potential damage (excluding the Golem). It doesn't improve tracking, it doesn't improve target painting and it doesn't reduce target speed or signature radius.

The Vindicator has a 90% web which allows it to hit any most short-range targets with rails. The extra mid slot gives it roughly the same range as a Kronos when not in Bastion. Damage (not including a full complement of sentry drones) far exceeds the Kronos. As for ganking, Marauders are routinely shot just to pad killboards (bling or not).

The Machariel is far superior to the Vargur in every respect - not too mention that it has 4x the drone capacity and can mitigate a large percentage of damage just by moving. I won't even touch on the superior war speed and maneuverability. Every PvE activity you can do in a Vargur I can do better in my Machariel.

The Rattlesnake can deal almost twice the effective DPS of a Golem. I could go on with more examples but what would be the point? When Pirate hulls were a billion ISK it wasn't even a consideration, but you can get most for less than a Faction Navy hull now...

With a 90% web you can even hit frigates with rails and sentry drones, so there is that. My point is that it's a single module which still leaves you with the same number of mid slots as the Kronos. Yes, the Kronos does have the extra falloff - which is typically overkill if you're running rails. What I don't like about the Vindicator is the lack of utility highs so you need to utilize rigs to augment your drones.

I just think that the for the required skill training and cost Marauders are no longer the end-all be-all for mission running. Especially when they got hit with the refit nerf while in Bastion

I have to semi agree with this. There are few instances where Vargur is better (Sansha L4 Blockade due to targets spawning at 90km and 70km diagonally from entry position - so positioning at one spawn point puts the other one at +130km and final Caldari epic arc mission with 100% jamm chance from 2 elite cruiser).

However, I must admit, after a year of Bastion Vargur I was having way to much fun in Machariel. A bit less range, but pulse MWD and drop sentry when standing still beats Vargurs damage and because you can move more easily you don't care that much about those few km range from Vargurs bastion. And yea, Mach has this nice niche that you can outrun frigates / webbers. Only thing is - if you don't know how to use Machariel and how gun tracking works, stick to AB instead of MWD because wrong direction of MWD will make your own speed outtrack your guns :D

And one other plus is if you want to push your ship - you don't go cap stable and having crappy connection and getting socket closed on Vargur in bastion which is not currently running booster is fun to say at least.

Everything you posted on your previous post. Why bother with high priced marauder when faction BS can do it the same or even better.

Yeah? And how many of each you lose a month when running missions?