Merlin Setup

[Zar]

Hey,

I'm going to be flying my Merlin for a little while longer while I train up my cruiser skills, and I was looking for some comments on its setup.  I just use it for PVE, doing level 1 and some level 2 missions, and ratting in anywhere up to .4 space.  Here's what I have now:

Highs:
2x125mm Rails
2xStandard Missile Launchers

Meds:
1xSmall Shield Booster I
1xNamed 1MN Afterburner
2xSmall Shield Extenders

Lows:
1xReactor Control Unit
1xPower Diagnostic System

Mainly, I'm wondering about that second shield extender.  Would it be better to put a cap recharger/booster there, to keep my shield booster going longer, or maybe one of these Invuln Shields I've been hearing about?  Or something else entirely?  Basically I'm looking for an ideal PVE setup given my limited skills and funds.  Thanks.

EDIT: While I'm asking questions, I'll ask this.  I'm not really sure which sort of ammo I should be using for my rails.  I see that, basically, it's a tradeoff between damage (antimatter) and range (iron), with lots of levels in between.  Which should I really be going for in a setup like this?  Right now I'm using Thorium, which seems to split the difference, but I was wondering if something else would be more efficient.

[gimpyone]

I'm not really sure how to do caladari but the offical eve forums has a great ship thread under the ships and modules section.
http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=290709

[5150]

Basically you need to decide 2 things in order to set your Merlin up

Do you want to active or passive shield tank? - the factors here is how much cap do your weapons use and is this a PvP or PvE setup (passive setups are good for both but active setups suffer in PvP when your opponent uses a Nos _unless_ you also fit a Nos)

What are your primary weapons your rails or your missiles? - Your missile range (unless you have any of the supplementary missile skills) will be ~20km so you either need to get your rails to that range (or greater) or open with missiles at 20km and close the rail range (this will also be influenced by your target - obviously this assumes you are able to dictate range).

What you can do is use EM missiles in your launchers and then close and orbit very tightly (definately do this against cruisers or bigger), this would allow you to use antimatter ammo but if you are that close you might want to consider using blasters instead for even more damage.

As an aside if you are going in that close you could always swap out the missiles for rockets for a higher DPS (again unless you have the supplementary skills rockets have something like a 4km range though!) - if you have trouble with things kiting you (I get this when flying my Kestrel against Guritas Griffins or Herons) you'll need a stasis web to slow them down so you can get in range (web has 10km range)

The Merlin has a 10% bonus to hybrid optimal range per level so you can afford to use the shorter ranged ammo even if you wanted to engage at greater distances