Skill Discussions

About 4 years.

Just looking at the ranks and SP involved, it could have been a fifth-and-a-half of the time to all V (which takes just under 20 years), but since you need a bunch of V:s to get access to all the skills, it's a bit longer than that.

In fact, if it weren't for the prerequisites, it would only require 76M SP to get all IV, and you can polish that off in 3.3 years.

That's pretty much what I did: go for all-IV for the things I have an interest in (and you'd be surprised what a wide range of activities you can cover with a relatively small amount of SP) and then I got the V:s for things I really intended to do a lot.

It provides a solid and wide basis and immediate access to specialisation.

I'm currently only focusing on sub-capital ships and skills as well, so that should shave off quite a bit of time.

Jeicam, I understand that certain skills need to be trained to level 5 to unlock further skills. There are also certain skills, like Electronics, Engineering and Energy Management, in fact anything that affects CPU, Powergrid and Capacitor that I consider "must have" level 5 skills.

There are also many skills that I have no intention of training to level 4 at all for the time being, like Corporation Management skills for example. I'd agree that my original question was a bit naive, but I think Tippia got my intent.

It's easy for someone to say that EVE is all about specialising, but you need to generalise and try everything out before you can specialise in what you enjoy. And even something you find fun today could become worn out after a while, and something you never thought you'd enjoy could surprise you in the future.

In that particular case, I would actually rather argue for taking both to V due to the ships they unlock and the differences between the ship. Perhaps not in the short-term perspective, but in the long run, the differences between the Caldari and Minmatar freighters, blockade runners (and even DSTs) make it worth getting both: the Caldari for carrying capacity, the Minmatar for speed and agility.

But that's kind of what I mean by having prerequisites “wreck” the idea of going all-IV: for some stuff, you want that fifth level due to what it opens up.

Thanks for that link, Mashie. I noticed that Tripoli has a lot of skills at level 3, I wonder why he stopped there on them?

Irya, I love being able to jump into different ships in the same class. I currently fly a Viator when running courier missions and I can't wait until I can train into a Prorator. Even after that I will still use the two ships under different circumstances. Both require Racial Industrials to 5.

Since remapping into Int/Mem I've been busy going through all the related skills. Just by doing this I've picked up on quite a few skills I overlooked when I first started playing. I can't wait to train up Astrometrics and it's related skills and try a little exploration.

Looking at all the skills spread throughout Electronics, Engineering, Mechanics and Science seemed daunting at first but the average time to learn a level 4 skill was from between 1 to just under 3 days. That felt a lot better than those weekly level 5 skills I've just completed. Of course, as Tippia pointed out, there are going to be some level 5's required to open up further skills, but thankfully they are few and far between.

Thanks, Lukriss, that makes perfect sense. I feel a little silly not having thought my question through before asking, since I've also been buying all the skill books I can get my hands on.

Does anyone have a list of Int/Mem skills that ONLY affect capital ships? So far I know about:
Capital Energy Emission Systems
Capital Shield Emission Systems
Capital Shield Operation
Capital Remote Armor Repair Systems
Capital Remote Hull Repair Systems
Capital Repair Systems
Tactical Logistics Reconfiguration
Doomsday Operation

I really dislike people who run around talking about aaaalll the things you should train to 5 *right away*. As you've discovered, most of the benefit comes from the small fraction of time it takes to get to 4. Just for fun, on my DPS alt I decided to see how far I could get without getting any skill to V that I could possibly avoid.

Ended up with an alliance-standard-fit fleet battleship, running about 80% of max DPS (using faction ammo). Total # of skills taken to 5: Two. Both in Gunnery, I believe... Gunnery 5 being a prereq for large guns. After that I started getting more stuff skilled to 5, but it was amusing to see what is possible with just a handful of prereq skills to 5.

Almost got caught out by Infomorph Psychology. A Cha/Wil skill in Science? Does anybody know of any Int/Mem skills that are found outside of: Electronics, Engineering, Mechanics, Science, & Subsytems?

Planet Management comes to mind. Industry is Mem/Int.

Thanks RavenPaine, I currently had Electronic Warfare 5 in the queue to unlock Projected Electronic Counter Measures. I've replaced it now with something else so you've saved me a few days.