EVE General Discussion

As I have stated a few times, I mostly started an EVE account "early" to do some skill training. I have things I am doing, and EVE is not a primary thing (shock/horror) as I really really wanted to get some SP under my belt sorta thing, and just run odd missions for isk stock piles.

I'm sort of reaching the base I wanted to get to, with some slowdown from skilling up for the big changes due, but I am still a little foggy on some things.

Ok, so, killboards and killmails isn't really what I am interested in, I always plays support classes in other games, I wanted to do the same here once I'm allowed into a corp, I just wanted some feedback if possible:

Is the best short term thing to do getting into Interceptors? I keep hearing that since most people like combat ships, they really like someone to hold targets down for them. If so, whats the next step up the scale in skill/ships?

Logistics seem to be a very specialized and long train, and ECM ships seem situational in fleets. Getting into covops to act as scout/cyno is one option, and one combat option is specific combat ships like Oracle Tier 3 BC's just to sit there and pummel called targets.

Just swallow the bitter pill and train logistics if support is the gameplay you love the most. In eve there are too many whiney bytchies that don't want to sacrifice the chance of kill mail to support their fellow pilots.

Fleets are always crying out for logi's so as someone who doesn't care for kill mails you would be every combatants best friend. I'm sure training for Logistics rather than ceptors would widen the scope of corps/alliances you wish to apply for and your chances of getting in, specially the big guns in null sec.

From what you have said, I'd sack the short term goal, go logistics and then look at the other support roles once you have trained logi's to a good degree.

Logistics has changed recently while previously Logistics were dominated by long skill T2 Ships, there are several new low skill ships designed around the role.

For T1 Frigates the Bantam / Burst (Shield) and the Inquisitor / Navatas (Armor) now suit this role. For Cruiser there is the Scythe (Shield) and the Exequror (Armor) for Solo Logistics and the Osprey (Shield) and Augoror (Armor) for group capacitor chain Logistics. These ships provide a low skill in for the role.

In support you have Electronic Warfare each with a racial EWAR for supporting gangs. Frigates = Cruicifier, Griffon, Maulus and Vigil. Cruisers = Arbitrator, Blackbird, Celestis, Bellicose. There is also the Scorpion an Ewar Battleship.

For Tackling there are the T1 Ceptors later T2 Ceptors, Interdictors and Heavy Interdictors. Heavier Frigates also fit this role for a slower but more Dmg resistant tackle.

I would say poke around these ships take a look at their modules and play styles then decide what road you want to travel down. All of them take minimal skilling to be useful to a gang but longer to perfect so you can get your feet wet. Good core skills lets you move from one to the other. Most of these ships are effective with cheap fits so they won't kill your wallet.

the only real support comes from both logistics and recon ships.

and recon ships are not situational... they are rare since most fleets don't have someone flying a recon, people like to pew pew on cheap ships... but with the new t1 ecm boats there really is no need to field 250m isk on every roam.

Recons always bring something to a fleet, unless you fly a rook which can only act as number multiplier by being annoying with Jams ... huginns are always nice, lachesis are great, and can be awesome if the fleet is built around them. and curses, well... no tank can survive a curse, and with the nerf to active shield hardeners, they are killers.

the problem is people being incredibly narrow minded and refusing to drop local point, local webs, local neut, or local ewar when there's a faster, more agile ship in fleet that can do it at 50km... and yeah, i know there are exceptions and free slots for ewar, but in most cases people do all sorts of crazy stuff to fit ALL those things locally, from downgrading guns, to meta, being cheap on tank, etc. im looking at you cane pilots. stop crying and gimping tank and guns. time to make friends, specially ones that can fly a curse.

if a gang has a recon it needs to refit, if it has a t1 ecm boat then it can continue as usual. so if you plan on starting soon, start with a t1 ecm, you wont find a roam saying no to a t1 ecm boat... unless you fly a blackbird.

the celestis can do 4 damps at 70KM with crap training and 30k ehp, you can disable one target completely, or force 2 to burn all the time or lose web/point or disable 4 sniping ships. all for 25m isk. whats not to like?

and logistics is a long train if you plan on flying t2 all the time, which needs logiV, recons take the same time if trained to reconV. and yeah, i know some people think that with recons there's more leeway than with logis... but in reality a recon IV pilot is giving up a LOT.

but either way, you wont be flying t2 all the time.

Train for a Rorqual and fuel POSes all day and night.

Playing EVE in a support role is fun.

Logistics is always welcome in any fleet, and as others said theres now a full route to achieve it through tech 1 hulls.

EW wise, our corp loves Damps and Tracking Disuptors, not so much ECM cos it doesn't fit well with our doctrines and normally means you are in a paper thin ship, will always be primaried and as such have a very frustrating PVP experience.

Always open to a chat about stuff like this if you want to drop me a mail or convo.

I can only really talk about experience in a large alliance (TEST) so depending on where you're aiming for, mileage may vary.

Short Term
Tech 1 logi frigs and cruisers are always welcome on fleets. The cruisers are particularly good and compliment their tech 2 brethren well.

If you'd like a more combat role, getting interceptors trained is is certainly not a bad idea.


Medium Term

Training for the tech 2 logi cruisers is a great idea and you'll always be welcome on fleets.

Getting your cloaking and probing skills up is another option. In TEST we are always in need of new cloaky probers. You'd be useful before big fights, setting up perches in good places and making sure we know where hostile POSes etc are. You're also a massive help during an op - providing warp ins for the main fleet or making sure FCs know what's happening in systems nearby.

Recon ships are frequently used, particularly the Rapier and Huggin which can web from great distances, making fast or small targets much easier to track for the bigger ships in fleet.

Finally, you might want to look at interdictors, particularly if you enjoy the interceptor role. Again, pretty much every fleet will need dictors so you're always useful!


Long Term

You might want to look at command ships and mid link training for a longer term goal. People with Wing Command 5 who can use mind links and tech 2 links are really important for fleets to provide boosts to other fleet members.


Much Longer Term

Carriers are often used in large engagements as support for the main fleet. They can fit repairers to keep each other alive and rep the main fleet and can still pump out great damage with drones and fighters.

One thing I tend to come across often is that there are "preferred" racial ships in every category, but it's hard at this stage to spread out skills that far.

Is Caldari/Gallente a decent combination to cover a range of hulls for this sort of thing? As far as logis that will cover Basi/Oneiros which are popular, Falcon/Lachesis, and Taranis ... ? for inties - I keep reading that Caldari Inties have more issues then the other racial ones.

If there was a reason to just skill into specific hulls - whatever they might be - I might do it, after all I wanted to stick to a handful of sub-battleship hulls now; it took long enough to get balanced enough to grind missions for isk, so those should work fine in null plexes without more tweaking (I hope), otherwise I'll just JC back in HS in quite periods and run L4's.

Again, the intention is to run all T1 versions for practice first. The reason I was asking all this is that I can now fit most T1's options fine, and have to specialize more, and wanted to make optimal use of skill points whenever possible.

That's quite helpful actually. Every corp has different needs, but if I can throw some numbers in EVEMon, I can get a better idea what crosses with what, and make better use of time. If there is one thing in this game you can royally screw up (short term anyway) is training time, especially with so many changes that have happened recently.

That's not a bad option but when it comes to logi you may run into problems if you can't fly all four. I can fly 3/4, and the fact that I can't get into an Exequeror/Oneiros sometimes leaves me hanging in the dust.