Tools of the Trade: Caldari Battleships

Of the four major Empires, I personally consider the Caldari battleship lineup to be the best option for people wanting to start running level 4 missions. And this is despite them having one battleship that is completely useless in level 4 missions and another that is middling at best. But let's go through them in detail.

 The Scorpion

 

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Caldari Battleship Bonuses per Skill Level:

15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer and ECM Burst Jammer strength

25% bonus to ECM Target Jammer and ECM Burst Jammer optimal range and falloff

 

Slots: 5H/8M/5L

Hardpoints: 4L/4T

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It does not take a genius to realize that the Scorpion is not made for level 4 missions, or for any frontline combat at all. With only 4 launcher / turret hardpoints and no bonuses to either damage output or tank (even though 8 midslots allow it to mount a very decent shield-tank nonetheless) it should not be taken into a level 4 mission under any circumstance.

 

The Raven

 

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Caldari Battleship Bonuses per Skill Level:
5% bonus to Rapid Heavy Missile, Cruise Missile and Torpedo launcher rate of fire
10% bonus to Cruise Missile and Torpedo max velocity

Slots: 7H/7M/5L

Hardpoints: 6L/4T

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The Raven has been one of the main mission running battleships since the game was launched and has remained so through various balance changes. It is of course eclipsed by more expensive ships when it comes to high-level mission running, but often it was the Raven that gave the veteran planets the funds to replace itself.

At first glance its damage potential might seem a little disappointingas even at Caldari Battleship V it "only" has the equivalent of 8 launcher hardpoints. Compare that to several turret battleships that start at 8 turrets and then get a damage bonus on top of that. However, as turret weapons always dish out a mix of damage types they can never fully exploit an NPC's resistance hole. Missiles, which always deal pure damage of one of the four damage types do not face the same problem.

If fit with torpedoes, the Raven becomes a fearsomely potent damage dealer, even without T2 torpedoes being easily able to project 700 DPS of pure damage out to 40 kilometers. If fit with cruise missiles on the other hand it gains essentially infinite range while focusing fully on damage application and using a MJD to keep enemies away. A Cruise Raven with good skills can even fly L5 missions.

The Rokh

 

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Caldari Battleship Bonuses per Skill Level:
10% bonus the Large Hybrid Turret optimal range
4% bonus to all shield resistances

Slots: 8H/6M/5L
Hardpoints: 8T/4L
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Rounding out the trio of standard Caldari battleships is the Rokh, a ship that is often overlooked for L4 missions. And unfortunately for good reason. While its bonuses aren't terrible per se, the Rokh really suffers from being a ship that makes use of Large Hybrid Weapons. Large Railguns are rather horrible as they offer only a 6% damage increase over Medium Railguns (Large Beam Lasers do 15% more damage than Medium Beams, Large Artillery gets a 30% damage increase over Medium Artillery). This means that any battleship-sized Hybrid platform really needs a significant damage bonus to not completely falter (and believe me, I will talk more about this once I get to Gallente battleships), and unfortunately the Rokh does not get a damage bonus. And while Blasters neatly fix the damage issue, even with 50% extra range they have outright terrible damage projection.

And sadly, while back in the days the Rokh was a mainstay of fleet PvP and a decent starter ship for shield incursions, it has fallen out of favor there as well. Why must such a beautiful hull suffer as much?

The Scorpion Navy Issue

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Caldari Battleship Bonuses per Skill Level:
5% bonus the Rapid Heavy Missile, Cruise Missile and Torpedo launcher rate of fire
4% bonus to all shield resistances

Slots: 7H/8M/5L
Hardpoints: 6L/4T
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It is best to not consider the Scorpion Navy Issue (or SNI for short) not as a variant of the standard Scorpion, but rather as a modified Raven. It exchanges the Raven's 10% missile velocity bonus for a 4% resistance bonus and gains an extra mid-slot as well as additional fitting space. However it faces stiff competition from the last Caldari battleship, and I will discuss the reasons to fly either of them further below.

The Raven Navy Issue

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Caldari Battleship Bonuses per Skill Level:
10% bonus to Cruise Missile and Torpedo max velocity
5% bonus to Cruise Missile and Torpedo explosion radius

Slots: 8H/7M/5L
Hardpoints: 8L
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Much like the SNI, the Raven Navy Issue (CNR for short - Caldari Navy Raven) is an upgrade to the standard Raven. It loses the 5% rate of fire bonus in exchange for a 5% bonus to explosion radius, instead featuring 8 launcher hardpoints which give it the damage output of a BS V Raven no matter what the Caldari Battleship skill is trained to. It is an offensive monster that is nearly outmatched as far as Caldari subcapital ships go - only the Golem and the special edition Raven State Issue beat it as far as dishing out damage is concerned. Like the standard Raven, it can go either max damage with Torpedoes, or go for Cruise Missiles and apply well to most targets across an entire mission grid.

However, this power does not come without downsides. It loses the Raven's (and SNI's) utility highslot, which means it can't tractor beam in mission items from afar. And compared to its sister navy battleship, it also is considerably tighter to fit - with the same CPU and only 1k PG more it has to somehow squeeze in two additional launchers. In contrast to the SNI, it also does not really have the option to go with Rapid Heavy Missiles (though I personally would never do so in missions anyway). And while the application and range bonuses are great, the additional midslot and resistance bonus on the SNI (meaning less hardeners) means that it can run additional Missile Guidance Computers to close the gap. Oh, and it would be remiss to not mention the significant pricetag both navy battleships command - at the time of writing this post, both ships cost a buyer just under 600m ISK.

So if I had to chose between the CNR and SNI, which would I pick? The CNR, but just barely. It's damage is independent from the time-intensive battleship skill and it is less reliant on juggling Guidance Computer scripts. But I would not look funny at anyone chosing the SNI instead.