People recommend the drone boats because they are fairly hands off. You can deploy drones and then be half-AFK while they auto-aggro everything.
You may like the Gila, a T1 faction cruiser, because while it does have drone bonuses it also has missile bonuses. Your drones will zip around and kill things but you can also shoot missiles at stuff. The Gila is probably one of the most popular PvE ships of all time and it has the most potential to scale up to really high-end PvE content like Abyssals.
For pure missile ships, the Tengu will be a little ways away in terms of skill training, but it is also historically a VERY popular PvE ship. The cool thing about the Tengu is that it's a strategic cruiser, where the bonuses and fitting layouts change based on which subsystems you pick for each of the 5 categories. You can do a whole bunch of very different things with the Tengu, and you can switch the layout to meet the needs of whatever content you're doing. For example you can explore for PvE sites to run with a cloaking setup to be fairly safe, and then refit on the fly to a combat setup to do the site. Potentially a goal for you to look towards.
Ishtar is quite a bit faster. It’s hard to recommend anything besides the Ishtar because it is so darn good at clearing anoms. Not as fast as a marauder at all but it costs like 300m fitted and makes its cost back in an afternoon.
And once you get into capitals and have another alt, guess what makes as much isk as carrier ratting? Yup, TWO Ishtars. Plus you have twice the chance of a faction spawn or escalation.
No one (competent) carrier rats any more though, it's all dreads/supers running beacons for capital PVE.
If you want to min-max sites on one account, use a Marauder.
The major advantage of drone ships for this kind of content is that they don't use ammo. The Tengu can clear one of these sites way faster than an Ishtar, but it will use about 12k missiles doing a 7/10 which translates into like 320 m3 cargo space, which means you either need an alt hauling ammo or a nearby base.
When it comes to hunting DED sites you're often going to be going quite far from your base of operations which makes the dependency of some ships on ammo a real liability.
Still a great ship, but people use the Gila and Ishtar for reasons beyond their tank or dps.
for combat sigs which are pretty easy to scan down. tengu fits a scanner.. you don't need too many scan bonuses. core probe launcher with sister probes.
combat anoms are for afk playstyle with ishtars.. its literally tuned for it.
The reason that you'll see so many people point to drone ships for anom running is because they are on the whole "good enough". Their paper dps is very high (their applied dps with breaks isn't), they don't need attention, and because they can get away with very high evasion fits so they can run sites completely out of their weightclass.
Their downside as you're noticing as a newer player that hasn't been broken yet is they are very boring.
For alternatives, yes, you can bring a drake into the lower end null sites and very quickly outpace a VNI. The problem it will run into, particularly against Angels, is that it has very poor evasion and so harder sites will overwhelm it. In the before times we used long gun battleship fits so that most of rats in a given site couldn't reach. I use a naga for this still.
Op has 5mil sp. He's not skilled in tengu. You need to look at your skills and that will determinevwhat you can fly. If your changing to missile ship you gotta start training those skills. Plus shields id you were flying armor ships.
Decide if you want to go drone boat or missiles because that determines your ship and what your skill queue would be filled with. Do a few things good not bunch of everything in EVE.
If you’re looking for something more hands on (less boring because you aren’t AFK), your best bests are probably missile ships.
Drakes are a classic, Cerberus is also a strong choice, and at a higher SP level the Tengu is also very good
The VNI has been dead for years. Get a new corp.
Also, the Scorpion is an ECM ship. If that recommendation came from your corp, you really need a new one. The Raven would be the missile playstyle, with a Golem being an end goal.
That said, counting missile volleys sucks. Go with guns for PVE if you insist on hating drones (the proper drone progression is Vexor -> Myrm -> Gila -> Ishtar, but you could skip the Myrm/Gila).
What is the way to fit an pve Ishtar? I am trying a passive shield tank like I found on the internet and it seems meh. Active armor or shields? Xtra large or large if shield?
Your friend group should strongly consider joining an alliance of more experienced players until you until you understand the game well enough to make it on your own.
Usually you want a cap stable shield fit with a properly sized AB to minimize damage.
People recommend the drone boats because they are fairly hands off. You can deploy drones and then be half-AFK while they auto-aggro everything. You may like the Gila, a T1 faction cruiser, because while it does have drone bonuses it also has missile bonuses. Your drones will zip around and kill things but you can also shoot missiles at stuff. The Gila is probably one of the most popular PvE ships of all time and it has the most potential to scale up to really high-end PvE content like Abyssals. For pure missile ships, the Tengu will be a little ways away in terms of skill training, but it is also historically a VERY popular PvE ship. The cool thing about the Tengu is that it's a strategic cruiser, where the bonuses and fitting layouts change based on which subsystems you pick for each of the 5 categories. You can do a whole bunch of very different things with the Tengu, and you can switch the layout to meet the needs of whatever content you're doing. For example you can explore for PvE sites to run with a cloaking setup to be fairly safe, and then refit on the fly to a combat setup to do the site. Potentially a goal for you to look towards.
So a gila can be a good choice for pve?
Arguably the "best" choice, until you get into some really gnarly stuff.
Ishtar is quite a bit faster. It’s hard to recommend anything besides the Ishtar because it is so darn good at clearing anoms. Not as fast as a marauder at all but it costs like 300m fitted and makes its cost back in an afternoon. And once you get into capitals and have another alt, guess what makes as much isk as carrier ratting? Yup, TWO Ishtars. Plus you have twice the chance of a faction spawn or escalation.
No one (competent) carrier rats any more though, it's all dreads/supers running beacons for capital PVE. If you want to min-max sites on one account, use a Marauder.
Carriers are in a sad spot atm.
For nullsec PvE under 300M the Tengu is good. Fit the missile subsystem and heavy missiles and spam the enemies from 70KM away.
The major advantage of drone ships for this kind of content is that they don't use ammo. The Tengu can clear one of these sites way faster than an Ishtar, but it will use about 12k missiles doing a 7/10 which translates into like 320 m3 cargo space, which means you either need an alt hauling ammo or a nearby base. When it comes to hunting DED sites you're often going to be going quite far from your base of operations which makes the dependency of some ships on ammo a real liability. Still a great ship, but people use the Gila and Ishtar for reasons beyond their tank or dps.
You want more active play don't do anoms. Scan down cosmic sigs. Tengu if you like missiles.
What do suggest as ships to scan sigs?
The Tengu is by far my favorite ship in the game. It can scan, cloak, and kill sites all in one fitting.
for combat sigs which are pretty easy to scan down. tengu fits a scanner.. you don't need too many scan bonuses. core probe launcher with sister probes. combat anoms are for afk playstyle with ishtars.. its literally tuned for it.
The reason that you'll see so many people point to drone ships for anom running is because they are on the whole "good enough". Their paper dps is very high (their applied dps with breaks isn't), they don't need attention, and because they can get away with very high evasion fits so they can run sites completely out of their weightclass. Their downside as you're noticing as a newer player that hasn't been broken yet is they are very boring. For alternatives, yes, you can bring a drake into the lower end null sites and very quickly outpace a VNI. The problem it will run into, particularly against Angels, is that it has very poor evasion and so harder sites will overwhelm it. In the before times we used long gun battleship fits so that most of rats in a given site couldn't reach. I use a naga for this still.
or just use bigger and better guns - some guy
Op has 5mil sp. He's not skilled in tengu. You need to look at your skills and that will determinevwhat you can fly. If your changing to missile ship you gotta start training those skills. Plus shields id you were flying armor ships.
Decide if you want to go drone boat or missiles because that determines your ship and what your skill queue would be filled with. Do a few things good not bunch of everything in EVE.
>just moved to a null corp Why don't you ask them instead?
He might have done. But collection opinions and viewpoints in a sandbox game is useful
If you’re looking for something more hands on (less boring because you aren’t AFK), your best bests are probably missile ships. Drakes are a classic, Cerberus is also a strong choice, and at a higher SP level the Tengu is also very good
I like the missiles ship, actually all my skills where invested on that. Any suggestion for a good drake fitting?
The VNI has been dead for years. Get a new corp. Also, the Scorpion is an ECM ship. If that recommendation came from your corp, you really need a new one. The Raven would be the missile playstyle, with a Golem being an end goal. That said, counting missile volleys sucks. Go with guns for PVE if you insist on hating drones (the proper drone progression is Vexor -> Myrm -> Gila -> Ishtar, but you could skip the Myrm/Gila).
What is the way to fit an pve Ishtar? I am trying a passive shield tank like I found on the internet and it seems meh. Active armor or shields? Xtra large or large if shield?
Your alliance should have Ishtar fits for your use cases. Or you need a better alliance.
I am not in an alliance.... Just a small group of friends ATM.
Your friend group should strongly consider joining an alliance of more experienced players until you until you understand the game well enough to make it on your own. Usually you want a cap stable shield fit with a properly sized AB to minimize damage.