Ships & Modules

Different play styles for each. Each is excellent though. Arbitrator is a drone ship, rupture more of a brawler and the stabber is a hit and run/ kiter. So where do your skills and likes lie?

With the cruiser love patch, they are all highly usable.

Personally, I prefer the stabber for speed, but you have to decide what you want to do (as mentioned by others).

Yeah, I forgot to say what I'm going to use it for. Sorry. :/
I was intending to use it for solo PvP, maybe solo PvE(belt ratting).

They are all 3 pretty good. So it depends alot on your prefered playing style.

The Arbitrator is both a Drone boat and Ewar boat. So if drones is what you prefer it is a solid choice. It has abit low dps compared to many combat/attack cruisers and relies on tracking disruptors for pvp. You could also switch to the vexor, which is more combat focused and can pack a heavy punch (but it requires some crosstraining).

The Rupture is a great brawler (close range combat) but can also be fit for kiting (even though the attack cruisers are better at that). It is very versatile and can both shield and armortank. It has 4 guns, which is one fewer than most other combat/attack cruisers, but the ship bonus makes up for that. The utility high can be used to fend off frigs with a neut or it can be fit with a missile launcher for extra dps.

The Stabber is a attack cruiser and shines at kiting since it is both very fast and has a falloff bonus. Like the rupture it has 4 turrets, but it doesn't have a dmg bonus like the Rupture and it lacks drones as well, so the dmg is quite low, unless you fit the 2 utility highs with missile launchers. Stabbers are mostly shield tanked, but there are some specialized armorfits.

So it all boils down to what playstyle you prefer. Since you seem to be a new player I would recommend you to specialize at one ship so you can fly it really well, and then later start to branch out. The stabber takes a bit more effort to shine and you will need tech 2 guns to kite well. So I would advise you to pick one of the others.

If you intend to solo pvp, you should check out Kil2 and Kovorix's podcast: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=42133&find=unread



Agree. They did a pretty good job balancing them. I rarely see such succesful balancing job in any mmo.

For solo pve belt ratting I had go with stabber for the sake of simplicity and dps. With stabber you get guns and missiles. So, just show up and start shooting.

With rupture you got guns, missiles, drones. Now that rupture lost one high slot. You might just go guns and drones. While drones are perfectly usable, they also require more attention, they have their own separate window, they need to be launched. Makes life slightly more complicated when all you want is just simple belt ratting in low sec.

I don't fly amarr so no opinion on that last boat.

Of the three you mentioned, I'm absolutely in love with Stabber. It's just something magical about having a cruiser fly like a frigate :D Sure, the damage output is lower, but then the speed gives you option that others can't even consider, a true hit and run T1 cruiser, a Minibond.

Training all 4 cruiser skills to 4 doesnt take long at all
find out which 1 you like the fun way, rather than someone else telling you what to fly
then once you know which cruisers you like train the relevant skill to 5

Caracal is king imo


But out of those the arby/rupt are the better choices.. stabber is kinda ****

Just remember, in the Stabber, one of your defenses is SPEED. You don't have a ton of HP or DMG output. Keep that in mind.

My skill plan does not allowe branching out yet. Need to keep things focused. I will eventually branch to Gallente.