isnt the whole point of blitzing being every little counts?

depends on how long you plan on doing this activity

maybe try it out for a bit before committing to the long train?

i have gal, cal, min bs at 5 with amarr being trained currently because what the hell, i love extra bonuses and as you say it benefits other ships (perfect vindi too) and opens up new ones too

Also consider whether you would like to unlock the requirements for a particular marauder.

The time/benefit ratio is definitely a function of the opportunity costs and your goals. I've been blitzing L4s and burners for months now and haven't even contemplated taking my BS skills beyond 3 because there are so many other skills that offer me a greater return on the the training time invested.

If you're following Anize's guide, you'll very quickly reach a point in which you only blitz a small handful of missions with your Mach. I only do 6 of the most efficient L4 missions and only 4 of those use my Mach. Saving a few seconds on those 4 missions is of far less benefit than my burner skills or even social skills.

If your burner and social skills are mostly 5s, then pushing your BS skills up to 5 as well definitely makes sense, but it needs to be way down on the priority list if you're going for time/isk efficiency with L4s and burners.

I am preparing to run LVL4's according to Anize's blitzing guide. This involves using an AC-fit Mach as described in the guide.

Assuming all gunnery support skills are maxed, implants as per stated in that guide, and large AC spec. is at IV, I am wondering if the 2-month train to take Minimater and Gallente BS from IV -> V is worth it. (Mach bonuses: 5% extra damage, 10% falloff.)

Since this is BLITZING, I'm killing as few ships as possible. Am I going to notice enough of a difference that this training time is worth it? (Yep, I get that this also would open up blackops and marauders of those factions, plus give bonuses to many other BS as well. Just curious about value relative to the specitic activity of blitzing via Anize's guide.)

Assuming all gunnery support skills are maxed, implants as per stated in that guide, and large AC spec. is at IV, I am wondering if the 2-month train to take Minimater and Gallente BS from IV -> V is worth it. (Mach bonuses: 5% extra damage, 10% falloff.)

Since this is BLITZING, I'm killing as few ships as possible. Am I going to notice enough of a difference that this training time is worth it? (Yep, I get that this also would open up blackops and marauders of those factions, plus give bonuses to many other BS as well. Just curious about value relative to the specitic activity of blitzing via Anize's guide.)

Since you are looking at a lv V skills > Remap situation my priority list would probably look roughly like this:

Pirate Frigs you're using to V: bonus of unlocking interceptors and AFs you might not have yet for burners
HACs: Vagabond/Onyx unlock with bonus of improving Pirate cruisers like Vigilant or Gila you might be using
Gallente then Minmatar BB if using Mach: Machariel range (very nice) and damage and unlock Vargur/Kronos for Pirate Invasion
Caldari then Minmatar BB if using Barghest: Sizable damage boost because RHML mechanic and unlock of Vargur

It does heavily depend on how advanced your burner skills are. it could potentially be worth it to burn a remap and spend the +-4 months you would on the above rather on improving burner skills. A small improvement in burners can have a very large impact on clear times, larger than normal lv4s, especially missile range and turret/missile damage skills.

Priority should be to unlock the ability to do every viable burner asap before trying to squeeze 20sec out of a lv4 blitz mission.

I am preparing to run LVL4's according to Anize's blitzing guide. This involves using an AC-fit Mach as described in the guide.

Assuming all gunnery support skills are maxed, implants as per stated in that guide, and large AC spec. is at IV, I am wondering if the 2-month train to take Minimater and Gallente BS from IV -> V is worth it. (Mach bonuses: 5% extra damage, 10% falloff.)

Since this is BLITZING, I'm killing as few ships as possible. Am I going to notice enough of a difference that this training time is worth it? (Yep, I get that this also would open up blackops and marauders of those factions, plus give bonuses to many other BS as well. Just curious about value relative to the specitic activity of blitzing via Anize's guide.)

Great to hear from you again! It turns out the skill plan I decided to adopt is almost exactly what you describe, albeit in reverse order. (I won't have a lot of time to play in the next 3 months anyways, so order won't matter a ton.)

By any chance would you bother training Rocket or Light missile spec to V? Doesn't seem like it would affect clear times that much. (Same question for small turrets - take any from IV to V?)

Interestingly lv V weapon skills have a much larger impact in burners than they do in normal lv4s. The reason for that is because of how much active/remote tanking/repping the rat(s) do in burners and very little in lv4s. A 5% increase in dps in normal lv4s is basically just that, 5% increase in dps and so a 5% decrease (roughly) in clear time. But with burners, say a rat tanks at 100dps and you do 110dps. Effectively you are only doing 10dps. Now a 5% increase in dps means you do 115dps or 15dps effectively. This means you're effective dps increased by 50%. The numbers are just examples but that's basically what's happening in burners. It's particularly a big thing with missile ships because of the consistent dps. same thing with application of missile damage if that isn't 'maxed' out through modules and implants. As a bonus rockets, light missiles and small turrets train a lot faster than battleship weapons. In this case a little goes a long way.