A rigged one at 11 million isk would cross the distance in 18 seconds and tank 400 dps.

[Vigil, recon fit]

2x Medium Ancillary Shield Booster (Navy Cap Booster 100)
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
1MN Microwarpdrive I

Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II

3x Small Ancillary Current Router I

At work, so no fit tool. But it doesn't look like it will manage the 3k hit from the cloud. It may need some buffer.

is there no way to get enough buffer on, say, a merlin?

My go-to for Recon 3/3 was always a dual-medium-armor-rep Myrmidon with a MWD. It's got the speed and the tank to get through the danger zone quickly without too much damage - it might even be able to handle the entire run with a single MAR.

i have no issues in 3/3 with this one

[Slasher, Recon]
Damage Control II
Overdrive Injector System II

Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Small Auxiliary Thrusters I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

Just looking at eve hq I am not sure this will make it, but you do say you use it.
The challenge is a T1 frig doesn't get a high enough HP on either the shields or armor. eg, on HQ for this fit I get 7,9 EHP, but only 2,1k on the shields, rest is in the armor and hull. I tried it on a medium asb and medium shield extender merlin and the first wave went all the way through the shields, which had a slightly higher shield HP than this. It did go 1km\s slower than the slasher, so maybe that is the trick. it could also be I am a bad pilot

Uuuuh, not really "on topic", but the only thing I changed on my Navy Scorp from the 2/3 part of that mission was to add a 100mn MWD ... got to the gate before the big wave, shields didn't go below 85% ...

I have not been able to log into the game for the last two weeks, but did they change this mission recently? Because just before I I was able to run all 3 parts with my trusty Caracal (10mn MWD) and frankly, never have the shields ever dipped below 80%.


B.

doing it in a mwd cruiser is not an issue, i have a nano mwd stabber for it too. the thing is, the min/maxer in me wonders if you could do them even faster in a frigate hull (3000m/s+ instead of only 1000m/s in a cruiser).

Jeebus, guys. You're thinking way too hard about this. Just fit a MWD to whatever ship you normally run level 4's in and run straight through. The damage is so small, you won't even have thought about it by the time you're finished. I run level 4's in a Machariel with 2 invuls(I run all of my level 4 missions with 2 invuls) and never drop below 95% with a shield booster before I hit the gate.

please read before posting.

I did read it, and it's a stupid discussion. Why would you even want to do it in a frigate? It's not any more exciting or engaging, and you're just wasting time trying to figure it out.

I'll tell you the same thing I told all of the noobs in World of Tanks as soon as the new physics engine was released and everybody was jumping off of cliffs for no reason: just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Waste of bandwidth.