Focused character is focused on staying focused.

the time it would take me to train perfect shield skills, I could spend taking the remainder of my invention skills to 5's, all of them.

P.S.
the Pally has more DPS, versatility and doesn't have the capacitor handycap of the nightmare, they are both good choices, its all a matter of what resources are available and personal preference, is all it comes down to really.

the nightmare has better tracking, less dps, less cap

find it on battleclinic

I'll also reiterate as an experienced amarr pilot: Paladin is quite possibly the worst Marauder of them all. A pulse napoc has better damage projection and plenty of tank for L4s. Ships to use in Amarr space in order:

1) Tach Nightmare
2) Pulse Navy Apoc
3) Paladin

And yes you can still solo if you are careful; but with TDs its just annoying as hell.

LOL.. sure...

I missed the joke.

P.S.
head over to battleclinic to work on your fitting skills, I meant that in a good way.

How exactly is a Navy apoc at 600M isk, with less slots and worse bonuses better then a pally?

At 600M isk? seriously, no, way to costly for the slots and bonuses you get at the cost of SIX HUNDRED MILLION INTERSTELLER CREDITS

Thank you, for your post but please don't hijack my threads to advertise manipulated items.

Get your facts straight: I have all 3 of those ships
For arguments sake: 1 extra low + rig. if you put tanking modules in those your base tank is the same as the pally. with the exact same number of slots left. So whats left:
Pally: Extra highs
vs
Napoc: 7.5% bonus to Large Energy Turret optimal range per level (ie 37.5% better.). That means Multifreq range with pulses without any mods is ~24km.

Now fit it up and that range goes to +32km. I'll let you extrapolate other crystals. Thats called damage projection => rats dead before you have to tank. Now suppose you say I'll tach fit the pally; I'll say good luck with that abysmal powergrid.

If you want to run around in an overtanked brick then be my guest.

This overtanked brick, deals 1200 DPS at 50KM, 1480 at 20km
This overtanked brick doesnt cap out with just guns shooting.
This overtanked brick doesnt doesnt have trouble with capacitor.

This thread is starting to turn into another one of those NM vs Paladin discussions. I've posted in many of these threads and have used both ships for hundreds of L4 missions. I can say without a doubt the only difference between a NM and paladin is the tracking which isn't an issue for most L4 missions.

It also seems to be turning into a pulse vs tach thread also and again I can say without a doubt tachs have no problem what so ever in missions. In fact you can fit a tachy nightmare to have the tracking of pulse lasers with scorch. With good skills and a good fit there is almost no difference between the two ships.

Im abandoning this thread