Warfare & Tactics

To answer your questions:

1. Look up the mission beforehand on something like Eve Survival Guide and see what sort of damage you should deal and tank for. Amarr deal EM and Thermal damage and are weak against the same, so you should tank for EM and Thermal.

2. SP will be a limiting factor here, but it depends a lot on how you want to fit your ship. If you fit for long range, you did okay without fitting skills (You'll want to build fitting skills up though so you can have 3 150mm guns. Mixed guns are a PITA). If you want to go close range, you can bring in more DPS with close range blasters but open yourself up to the same, so it's a double edge sword.

3) Difficult to answer not having been there, but I applaud you for coming here asking to learn instead of rageposting about it being too hard :D In lower level missions, it really comes down to trial and error. Risk isn't as prevalent (Frigates are cheap), so you can play with fits and see how they do. Once you find something you like, build on it.

Now that we have those out of the way, here are some handy tips for the new mission runner that will save you frustration in the long run.

1) Missions don't expire for four days after they've been accepted, but cancelling them after accepting them will hurt your standings. If you wait for a while and come back, you might not get as big of a reward, but you will thank yourself later.

2) Unless you don't plan on entering their space or having a need to, don't run missions against empire factions (Amarr, Minmatar, Caldari, Gallente). This mission was against the amarr which will cause your standings with them to drop slightly. Not by much, but it WILL add up. I learned this the hard way and had to spend time digging myself out of "Shoot On Site" status with the Caldari. Be careful which missions you pick.

3) To add to #2, you can decline one mission every four hours without standing loss. If you pull a mission against Amarr, decline it and try again. If you get two in a row, go do something else for a while.

4) Cap stability is overrated. Contrary to common sense, your ship doesn't need to be cap stable to properly mission. Many new pilots (My past self included) make the mistake of trying to get their ships to the point that they can permarun everything. This ends up gimping your ship and costing a lot of pointless isk. Learn to pulse tank early on and you will enjoy the game much more later. *For example, my go-to mission boat's cap lasts 45 seconds without a cap booster.

5) If you can, run missions with someone that knows the ropes already. Experience is golden in Eve.

6) DON'T NEGLECT SUPPORT SKILLS. Things like controlled bursts, targeting, and rapid firing may not seem like much next to raw DPS boosting skills like Gunnery and Racial Turrets, but they are what make your guns shine. Small gun with good support > Big gun with terribad support.


If you have any further questions, you're welcome to ask me ingame. If I'm nearby, I'd be more than happy to come run some missions with you. Just shoot me a message and I'll let you know if I can help out. It's always good to see a new missioner that wants to learn.

Edited: My suggestions about lead charges were totally wrong. Typed this at work without double checking first. Sorry 'bout that.

Try Blasters with Navy Antimatter.

Should give you the dps you need.

1) Against a single foe, fit your Catalyst with an afterburner and a Tracking Disruptor (with Tracking Disruption script) and fit Ion Blasters or Neutron Blasters. Then, Orbit at 500m.

2) Against multiple "light" foes, kiting with a full rack of 125mm Railguns works best. Then, if there is something you can't kill (unlikely in a level 1 mission), go back to base and switch to Blasters.

3) Fit a gun to every high slot you have. If you don't have enough guns, buy more guns.