Go with the raven...tracking disruptors will kill you in L4s....

While i agree to go with the Raven. Trackin disruption is only used by Sansha and sometimes Bloodraiders.

When (if ever) CCP gets balancing right, it wont be, as it is 2 notches lower on the totem pole.

Thinking of going for Scorpion Navy Issue instead, more dps, more tank and probably better applied dps with the extra mids being used for target painters.

3 warhead rigor rigs, 4 ballistics (at least 2 faction). Start from here.

Or you can invest in a navy space potato, drop drones, afk, turn in mission. Rinse repeat. In terms of speed the Naga actually does more DPS than the Rokh which is sad and funny. Depending on the rats you're fighting if they're not serpentis or guristas you can 425mm rail fit a naga, load it with your ammo type of prefered range, and snipe them as they burn towards you.

What totem pole?

I think he was referring to the old tier system that was used in Eve. The Rokh was the tier 3 battleship while the Raven was tier 1.

Raven was never tier 1. Scorpion was tier 1, along with the Dominix, Armageddon, and Typhoon.

Regardless, we're supposed to be moving away from that system in the first place, so it rather makes no sense to say that the Rokh will be two notches better than the Raven when balancing is done. Quite the opposite; when balancing is done all ships are supposed to be more or less equally viable.

The Rokh might be better than it is now after some buff but right now it kind of sucks for missions.

I think they're trying to make it where different ships do different things so one might be better for a specific purpose like missions but they will all be viable for their purpose. The Rokh was/ is a nice long range PVP sniper ship but it seems overshadowed by the attack battlecruiser class.

Rokh doesn't have a damage bonus.

I prefer Raven Navy Issue as it has higher DPS than a Raven. I've never understood the attraction of a Scorpion Navy issue: same gank as a plain Raven, but with more tank... tank that you don't need for missions.

The SNI has its uses. Its gank is slightly better than a standard Raven as you can fit four BCUs without sacrificing tank, and it can better apply it's damage to small targets as you can put two rigors and a flare in the rig slots instead of capacitor control circuits. It can also lock at greater ranges even without using a sensor booster.

Its tank is great for a lower SP mission runner. Even with middling skills it can run every L4 without issue, and you don't need to panic if you accidentally aggro an entire room.

I'll be upgrading to an RNI at some point, but right now the SNI fits my needs perfectly.

The SNI has its uses. Its gank is slightly better than a standard Raven as you can fit four BCUs without sacrificing tank, and it can better apply it's damage to small targets as you can put two rigors and a flare in the rig slots instead of capacitor control circuits. It can also lock at greater ranges even without using a sensor booster.

Its tank is great for a lower SP mission runner. Even with middling skills it can run every L4 without issue, and you don't need to panic if you accidentally aggro an entire room.

I'll be upgrading to an RNI at some point, but right now the SNI fits my needs perfectly.

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Why would you be fitting CCC rigs or using low slots for anything to do with tank?
You can fit 80% of your tank in one slot. Put an MJD in, jump, kill them before they get in range. MJD means you can do angel bonus room while forgetting shield boosters exist.

I also don't see any need for a Scorpion. Obviously RNI has more DPS than a normal Raven but Normal Raven vs SNI you are giving up range for unneeded tank.

I sometimes overtank my RNI so if I'm super lazyfk I can sit in the middle of everything and just click fire occasionally. When actively missioning, a 3-4 slot tank is fine. MJD, 1 Invuln, 1 shield booster, and you can put a boost amp or a second hardener if it's something like raider/sansha hitting your EM weakness.

While I agree with you on overtanking/using a SNI because of the tank:

MJD doesn't do any good for you either - you can't use drones, you can't use tp's and you can't use precision missiles upwards of 111 KM.. yes, you won't need tank if you use it, but the difference between a 4 slot and a 5 slot tank isn't that huge, especially if you can't make use of the mid-slot you gained from using only 4 slots.