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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Most newbie friendly PvP frigate?
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Mona Dahlia
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2013-12-04 06:31:23 UTC
I'm being steered towards the Merlin, and honestly it sounds like a very fun ship, though I have always loved the look and feel of Minmatar. What little I know of PvP is no longer relevant it seems with the recent ship rebalance.

My primary question is in the subject line, but more broadly which race would you recommend? Which race is most forgiving of pilot error?

Greygal
Redemption Road
Affirmative.
#2 - 2013-12-04 07:02:19 UTC  |  Edited by: Greygal
The Merlin is fun to fly, it's very flexible and has a wonderful slot layout. I routinely fly it when I'm FC'ing gangs, as I can fit it out uber-tanky, keeping me alive another 30 or 45 seconds when primaried (that can be a very long time in a fight). I've also fit and flown the Merlin for "chaser tackle" in a gang, scram/web/afterburner, providing additional on-grid tackling support during fights. I also have a Merlin that I fit out for ninja salvaging ... but haven't used that in a long time...

Ultimately, all of the Frigates are "newbie friendly" - in that they all can be remarkably effective even without perfect skills. The question shouldn't be "which race" but "which ROLE" is most interesting to YOU.

And by "role" I am referring to fleet/small gang roles. New pilots can be quite effective in a variety of fleet roles, all using frigates. Some of the roles that can be a ton of fun to fly in a gang/fleet while low skilled and in cheap-fit frigates include tackling (if you can't catch them, you can't kill them!), scouting, skirmishing, Ewar (Griffin FTW!), logistics (logi frigs are awesome fun!), etc.

(Side note: When I first got into PVP, I had horrible gunnery skills and felt really useless, and just really didn't enjoy tackling much. Then I discovered the Griffin and the joys of jamming people... it brings out the sadist in me, I must admit! To this day, I still love flying the Griffin above and beyond all other ships, it is the most giggle-worthy ship of all in my opinion. I've lost more than 50 of them so far, but the difference those jams made in fights is immeasurable.)

I would suggest instead of concentrating on a particular race, that you train for the ROLES that are most interesting to you, and find the frigate that best suits the role(s) you are interested in. I would recommend, of course, exploring all of the roles Big smile Fortunately, it doesn't take much isk or skill points to explore any of these roles and be effective in a gang/fleet. Once you've got a better idea of what role you find the most enjoyable to fly, then concentrate on training into the larger ships and higher level skills that apply to that role.

And, of course, train core fitting skills ;)

Hope this helps a bit!

GG

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Terry Qon
Perkone
Caldari State
#3 - 2013-12-04 08:42:58 UTC
I love merlins.

I trained up rockets and light missiles to level 2 thinking thats what caldari is suppose to do, but I joined a FW alliance and they taught me to fly a merlin. I still can't equip t2 weapons but I still do my part in fights.

Although I probably don't know how to fly it right, All I do is spam approach or keep at range 500 and do damage, if I start getting hit I usually just die lol, but I'm sure thats just cause I'm a noob and don't know how to burn away or w/e.
Mr Veda
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2013-12-04 11:04:16 UTC
o7

I started with and I'm still flying the incursus

Why? Because the bonus to armor repping makes it quite forgiving

I don't die as quickly which means I get a chance to think about what to do

But as the others have said, fly what's fun for you. Half the fun is learning and getting to know a particular ship and it's fits

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Johnathan Coffey
Niforce Triggers
#5 - 2013-12-04 11:09:23 UTC
The Merlin is a nice straightforward ship. It has a good buffer and good DPS (with blasters) but has pretty short range. if you prefer always doing damage to doing either a lot or no damage, you can pick the kestrel instead. Rockets have enough range for all targets except the dedicated kiting ships (the ones who orbit at 20km and grind you down over several minutes).

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Kahega Amielden
Rifterlings
#6 - 2013-12-04 14:40:24 UTC
Mona Dahlia wrote:
I'm being steered towards the Merlin, and honestly it sounds like a very fun ship, though I have always loved the look and feel of Minmatar. What little I know of PvP is no longer relevant it seems with the recent ship rebalance.

My primary question is in the subject line, but more broadly which race would you recommend? Which race is most forgiving of pilot error?



Racial balance is a lot more complicated than that; I don't know that I could confidently say that one race is easier than others. If you like Minmatar, fly Minmatar. The Rifter and Slasher require some finesse to fly properly, but not so much that a newbie could never be successful with them
J'Poll
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#7 - 2013-12-04 15:49:43 UTC
Kahega Amielden wrote:
Mona Dahlia wrote:
I'm being steered towards the Merlin, and honestly it sounds like a very fun ship, though I have always loved the look and feel of Minmatar. What little I know of PvP is no longer relevant it seems with the recent ship rebalance.

My primary question is in the subject line, but more broadly which race would you recommend? Which race is most forgiving of pilot error?



Racial balance is a lot more complicated than that; I don't know that I could confidently say that one race is easier than others. If you like Minmatar, fly Minmatar. The Rifter and Slasher require some finesse to fly properly, but not so much that a newbie could never be successful with them


This.

Basically all the frigates are viable...well, you can only exclude the Logi-frigates.

But beside those, each and every single one of them has their uses and their weaknesses.
The main idea, use the ships strengths and evade others from exploiting your weakness.

So, specially after the rebalance of last year, they all became viable in their own way.

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Kahega Amielden
Rifterlings
#8 - 2013-12-04 15:58:52 UTC
J'Poll wrote:
Kahega Amielden wrote:
Mona Dahlia wrote:
I'm being steered towards the Merlin, and honestly it sounds like a very fun ship, though I have always loved the look and feel of Minmatar. What little I know of PvP is no longer relevant it seems with the recent ship rebalance.

My primary question is in the subject line, but more broadly which race would you recommend? Which race is most forgiving of pilot error?



Racial balance is a lot more complicated than that; I don't know that I could confidently say that one race is easier than others. If you like Minmatar, fly Minmatar. The Rifter and Slasher require some finesse to fly properly, but not so much that a newbie could never be successful with them


This.

Basically all the frigates are viable...well, you can only exclude the Logi-frigates.

But beside those, each and every single one of them has their uses and their weaknesses.
The main idea, use the ships strengths and evade others from exploiting your weakness.

So, specially after the rebalance of last year, they all became viable in their own way.


We've actually had good success with logi frigates in frig gangs