EVE New Citizens Q&A

I keep hearing "Don't fly what you can't afford to lose". Given that in a combat role, I seem incapable of actually earning money, that seems to mean fly a Reaper, especially considering more expensive ships are always insured for 10-30% of their actual value.

e.g. Accept part 2 of the mission, agent says "This has to be done quickly before reinforcements arrive". Bring in a long range ship, go through the gate, and get dropped 8 bloody km from 5 ships with webifiers on them, along with their 15 friends, several of whom are in much bigger ships. Webbed for 85-90% velocity, can't move, can't shoot back, screwed, dead.

Bring back a fast ship packed with overdrives and an MWD. Still get webbed for 85%-90% velocity, at farther range than any web available can reach, still getting hit going 800 m/s, still screwed, still dead.

Mark the location of the wrecks just to try to recover some small measure of the money that I lost. Can't get to them, have to take the gate and get dropped into the middle of the same mess rather than warp directly to my wreck, still get webbed at some stupid range, still get sniped by big guns, still screwed, still dead.

So my question is, unless I can somehow figure out a way to make money off blowing up my own ships, how am I ever supposed to fly something I CAN afford to lose? This happens in about 30 - 50% of the missions out there. Add in the ships with 95% resist to everything that can hit you at virtually any transverse velocity, and you're pooched on a lot of the others too.

Am I honestly expected to pay a monthly subscription for 2 years to do nothing but mine and build up skill points until I can use and afford something that hopefully has a 70% survival rate?

So much depends on what level mission your doing, your fitting and your support skills.
Getting your support skills up to level 3 or so wont take you very long, and its skills you will never regret. Get some tank on your ship. Start with overtanking it if your worried, then switch some of the tank for DPS mods when you feel you have an idea of how much damage you can take.

Other things that can make it easier for you.. If you land right on top of the rats, fit guns with shorter range that has a chance of hitting them (use drones to get the frigs that are webbing you). Use the correct ammo type and switch your hardeners depending on what rats your fighting.

If your in doubt about how the mission works, what ammo to use and what to tank for use this site, and as Thomas mentioned, make sure you have the appropriate ship for what level mission your doing (some will be able to use other ships with no problems because of their skills, but if your very new and have no support skills his guidelines should be good for you).

K, well that pretty much covers it. May have misphrased the original question because I was a little irked. The short answer appears to be combat missions are never particularly profitable. Tank build takes forever to complete a mission with because it's so light on damage. Damage build will get torn up by the masses. Either way I'd be better off AFK mining. It's fine, just makes me wish I'd focused more on PVP from the start, maybe not picked the race that's toted as speed tankers.

Missions are about gank. DPS=faster completion=riches beyond imagination.

As a colleague already wrote in this thread, EVE-Survival is your best friend. Never start a mission without first reading about it on this great website. http://eve-survival.org/wikka.php?wakka=missionreports
Missioning is about managing agro, range, relative velocity and transversal, etc.... If you can't yet survive regulary in missions, i doubt you will do better in pvp, for the basics of fights are the same : it's also about managing agro, range, relative velocity and transversal, etc...
But missions are easier (especially with EVE-Survival) because you always know what you will meet, so you can prepare the right ship, fitting and tactic. In pvp you don't have this luxury.

Have you maybe bought a older character ? That would explain your problem.
Maybe an helpful and active corpo could be your solution.

Heh, we should point all of those "nerf hisec missions" people to this thread, apparently they are not profitable at all.

As others already said, read mission reports, get right ship with right mods and if you still can't beat mission it means either you are way above your level or you are doing something very very wrong.

I lost a ship in a mission once, remember, you cannot salvage what is not yet destroyed.
On the other note, missions are decently profitable...

please tell us what ship your using and what equipment you have fitted on it, somthing is wrong with your fit or the way your flying it if you cant at least turn a profit between ship losses in missions by now.

The become profitable more when you get to Level 4s. Additionally, salvaging those missions can bring in more money.

Also, why just mine? Low sec exploration can bring in decent money, skills can be trained in a couple days, and teaches you a lot about surviving in lower security space for future pvp.

Sounds like a really nasty mission - you may have just had horrible luck of the draw in that regard.

In missions, the only really reliable way to defeat a stasis webifier is to destroy the ship (or sometimes the structure) that is mounting it. If you're up against a stasis tower, that means maximum firepower against the tower. If it's a ship, you'll need either missiles or fast-traversing frigate-class guns (most of the time, webbers will be frigates). Larger ships (battlecruisers, battleships) will generally rely on drones to scrape off the tackling frigates (unless they're using drones as primary weapons).

You shouldn't really be facing anything bigger than frigates in Level 1 missions, at any rate. If you're starting out as a Minmatar, that'll mean you'll be best off flying the Slasher (light fast gunship), Breacher (missile boat), or Rifter (brawler gunship). The Breacher might be a good fit, because light missiles and rockets have the reach and punch to take out tacklers without generally having to worry too much about whether you're within engagement range.