EVE New Citizens Q&A

So, I'm new to Eve Online and I'm hoping to join a low-sec corp soon. I've been leveling up my skills here and there and like many new players I'm trying to figure it out on my own while taking advice from others. On my own, I thought it might be nice to just start doing the certifications suggested for the ships I plan on spending a good amount of time in. I know they don't mean anything in terms of game code, but I thought the certifications would provide good 'rails' to ride as I level.

I ran into someone today while I was mining waiting for the corp I applied for to make a decision on me and this really nice guy hit me up and offered to fleet with me so I could get his mining foreman bonus. At first, I was really suspicious because I've heard and read enough about Eve Online to know few people do ANYTHING without a vested interest in it. I finally agreed to fleet up as he seemed up on the up and up (turns out he was).

While we were mining, we talked about leveling and he was very adamant that I'd be better off taking certain skills to level 5 before worrying about anything else. Granted, he gave me a list of like 6 skills and then added more as we talked. He told me I was 'wrong' for following certifications and I would be better off pushing skills to 4 or 5 and then grabbing the next.

If it matters, my current 'plan' for myself is to be a cloaked courier, using a small ship under a cloak to safely move small valuable items across eve space for my corp or for others under contract. Also, because the skillset is similar and I enjoy PvP (in every other game I've played), I'm aiming to also become a stealth bomber pilot. And then eventually, I plan on grabbing a blockade runner so I can do the cloaked courier job on a much larger size.

My basic question is: are either of us more right than the other? I understand the miner's theory that capping skills is important, but I also feel I'll be missing out on other needed skills (and thus modules) by spending so much time getting every skill to 4 or 5 before thinking about another skill. I grabbed cloak 2 so I can learn how to use a cloak before I get into a stealth bomber... I'm also getting a few points in propulsion jamming so I can be a tackler in my frigates until I can get my stealth bomber.

TL;DR: what's better: leveling a skill to 4 or 5 and moving on to the next OR gradually building up all the skills you really need to do the role you need/want to do in Eve?

Zoe is right lvl4 skills are mostly good enough. I would also say "gradually building up" is the best plan; no good to max a single weapon if you can't hit (track) with it, have no defense, move slower, etc.

I would have an ideal build you can reach in 2-4 months, & plan to have a few other lower-tied builds that you feel useful as stepping stones. I think you want to do this; research/join RedVsBlue or other "University"/"Academy" PC corp to help with ship-builds, then train towards those. With this tiered-ship approach, you'll see that you'll need to stagger your training. Let t he ship builds be your "certificates"

I would do the NPC Security missions for 2-14 days while training, then join RedVsBlue for a few weeks, to see what you truly like.

If I were to make new char, I wouldn't train even fitting skills to V until I need them or don't have any other usefull skills to train.

If you can afford to buy skillbooks, buy any which seems to give at least small benefit and train 2-3 levels. Then continue training skills which seems to offer most benefit for time trained. I often don't check what level I am training but how much benefit I am getting - e.g. this skill gives 5% bonus for 10 days of training but other gives 2% bonus for 1 day of training, so 2nd one gives more bonus per day.

As for certificates: Core certificates are good to follow. For all other certificates, I sometimes check them to see if there is a skill I have missed and should train. But I never follow other certificates (except for fun, like my trading certificates which I havn't ever fully needed, but still wanted to get.)

EDIT:

TL;DR: Build gradually but don't necessarily follow certificates. Check all skills and train what is usefull to you.

The first thing I did with this character was to train cybernetics to level 5, but I did have a good amount of money to burn on +5 implants and backups if needed. The first thing I got ranked to 5 for my first character was drones 5, but had most of the core skills at standard by then.

I've always thought of it like this:

-Level 3 = You can do it
-Level 4 = You can do it competently
-Level 5 = You're spending a lot of time doing it

As a new player theres so much **** you need to train up to contend I would say get all the core stuff to 4 then start knocking out V's when you know what tech II **** you want to fly. Dont forget there Overhauling all the ships starting with frigates. Theres going to be more tech 1 **** out there thats nasty if you can fly it right.

I can one up you. That same cert asks for Targeting V and Multitasking to some level.

The only ship that ever can or need to lock that many ships at once are logi.

Having 10 targets is also extremely usefull for salvaging level 4 mission in Noctis. But yes, that can easily be skipped until you have real use for so many targets. EDIT: Also Targeting V is needed to get full 7 targets for battleships.

ps. I have over 40 million skillpoints and just recently got Electronics Upgrades V because I now decided to go for covops.