Price? Drones?
I don't know. Why would I fly anything else if I could fly a Golem?

I agree. The question rates right up there with why would I fly anything but an Incursus. You fly what you want to fly. A Rattlesnake isn't a Golem, which would be a good enough answer for me.

I'd likely have a Rattlesnake in my hanger right now if I had ever bothered to learn Caldari ships. In 2008 I didn't feel like being from the Space Walmart Empire, I chose Space French instead. My focus has been on Armor and Drones until very recently, but I always liked the idea of Missiles and Drones. The Amarr Dragoon and retooled Prophecy kinda make me feel tingly in the nethers.

To me the Prophecy is now just a sexy beast. I like having options, and that ship is now very flexable. I have run it in many configurations, from 100mn AB kiter to a sluggish space brick with every kind of weapon there is. It looks cool, fits easy, and costs next to nothing.

Not to be picky, but when we consider how to make pirate ships that get one bonus from one existing faction, and one bonus from another existing faction, should we not avoid just making up bonuses out of thin air to assign to one of the known factions?

For instance, missile bonus of any kind assigned to the Gallente side of the equation is stupid.

Bottom line is the Gurristas have nothing that makes them special.

(cough) ECMGǪ?

Which part would be ridiculous? The part that already happened where AI eats drones as it's favorite snack despite laughable rumors that ewar and RR can influence agro? Or the part where the sentries would have near battleship HP?

Honestly, for the trade off of increased vulnerability to ewar I think the massive HP are appropriate. It's not like sentries are hard to hit, though they don't die instantly as is the same way lights and mediums do. Also, while the HP may rival that of a battleship, the resists certainly don't. The Superdrones of the Worm will be a serious contender even compared to a tanked Worm, the same on the Rattlesnake will not be true unless the bonus is much larger or they *finally* add T2 resists to the T2 drones. Supersentries will be good in PvE, I don't think they will fare nearly so well in PvP.

The main thing to consider here is will Ewar be persistant when you pull a drone into the bay. If I can shake an ECM cycle by recall and redeploy that reduces the problem a little, but could still be an issue because drones won't fire unless you lock and command them to, you fire on someone, or they start a new attack on you. When ECM'd drones often become useless these days because they have to be recalled so often, and when redeployed they just sit and stare at the world until you die.