Missions & Complexes

Race doesn't matter that much, Caldari and Gallente are preferred by many because the relative easy to fit and effective drone and missile ships. Amarr is probably the race where you have to invest the most SP in cap, gunnery, tanking and navigation skills to run comfortable but they are very quick and efficent in the long run(if you are mostly run in amarr space). Minmatar are easier on the fitting and cap but also a bit more limited because autocannons lack the range on T1 hulls, artillery has a hard time tracking cruisers and frigs at close range. The mobile Swiss army knife style hulls like the tempest or typhoon are very skill intensive to run them well(split weapon systems or low dps that require high navigation, BS5 and gunnery skills get up to speed).

I'm quite new myself so take this advice with a pinch of salt.

You got the ship progressions correct. It is possible to do it slightly differently but that requires more knowledge/good skills. So from a newbie perspective then you should follow the ship progression you gave.

As for which faction to go for, that really is dependant on which faction you will be missioning for. Generally the best way to go is to stick with the same faction ships for which you are missioning for.

This is because each faction has 2 different pirate factions which they most commonly mission against. These pirate factions are weaker to the damage the corresponding faction mainly deals. And the pirates deal damage of which the corresponding faction is strongest against.

There are exceptions to this rule and you won't always have missions that are against these pirate factions. However it appears to be the best general rule to follow.

Then you you probably should pick drones with Tristan -> Vexor -> Myrmidon -> Domi or missiles with Kestrel -> Caracal, -> Drake -> Raven as you skill goals. If you look for the absolute fastest way, you can fly the Domi just with light and sentry drones and can add a few medium weapons to increase the damage, same for the raven or drake, where you can kill frigs with the missiles to, but ideally you want to spend at least some SP in drones to, to use light drones against them and add a bit dps once you are done with the frigs.

Gallente can be fairly skill heavy to if you max out the navigations, gunnery, cap and drone skills to utilize a sentry + rail setup on the gunships(like on a Hype, navy domi, navy Mega, Kronos or Vindicator). This setups can do fairly good dps at medium range. A bit less than Amarr but the huge amount of sentry dps allows you to be more flexible with the damage types and thermal/kin damage of the rails doesn't have NPCs with super high resits against you, like it is with lasers vs Angels and Guristas.



The Kronos(rails/blaster + sentry dps), Paladin(puls/tachyon + light drones, -sigh- CCP) and Golem(CMs + light drones) work just as well. The Vargur only appears a bit more flexible because got a very smooth tank, the massive range without adjusting ammo types and can switch damage types, but the Kronos and Paladin have more raw dps to compensate for that, so it is fairly comparable in the endgame(even if the Paladin and Kronos where better before the changes, sporting 90% webs and a more room for extra sentry dps).

Gallente. Train drone skills. Cheaper cuz you only have to replace a drone every now and then, versus having to continually go out and buy ammo.

every race has at least one battleship capable of outputting the correct damage type to whatever rats you may face. Amarr and gallente however primarily rely on drones to fulfill this need, as their primary gun systems do not offer variable damage types.

Look into Gurrista ships. (( My preferred choice ))

Gila's can do L2 and L3's with no issue. Worm for L1's if you like but any T1 destroyer will do.

RS will run L4's like a champ. (( They are cheaper than most and do some amazing things with L5 and wh's ))

The big issue with gurrista ships is they take the most sp of any ship choice to fly well.

If going with T1 only I'd run gallente because you get the option of cross training for 3 different pirate faction ships as your main income maker using combat. (( RS, Mach, Vindi ))

Although knowing which you are interested in early can really help you not put sp in places you won't need it.
If you know you want Gurrista in the end caldari would be a better starting point.
If you know you want the Mach Minmitar would be the best starting point.
Vindi would be best to go gallente.

One option is hard to gank with easy mode, One for mad DPS, Last is for incursions.
Best part is you will have a long time to decide and test what works best for you.

Never been sold on the Amarr line due to EM/therm only damage and you will waste some sp if you go for the nightmare no matter how you tried to get to it. (( Unless you plan on being in a shield arby forever. Before you even attempt L3's and up. ))

there was some good advice in here.

just something to think about not sure if it is faster tristan->Vexor Navy->Ishtar.

Ishtar should be able to do all missions, with the same damage as a Domi. But i only did some 5/10 6/10 plexxes with them where they worked fine.

Minmatar ships are the SP heaviest i can think of. Amarr are pretty good against everything but angel (as therm is the 2nd weakspot for every other pirate i can think of). Caldari are great mission ships (with mjd and cruise) if u count your salvos.

If u want to loot and salvage, i would drop a mtu inside, bm site and do 2 or 3 missions the same way. come back with a 3 salvage tackle fitted noctis, scoop the mtu and start work with my 8 salvagers + 5 salvage drones. The risk which lies in that modus operandi is that some ninja is scanning down your mtu and shoots it.

I did the same on my first pilot. It's a shame the Drake was neutered a while back

Good to know. Before the nerf, I soloed every L4 in the game with a trusty T2-fit Drake (even the AE Bonus Room), and now that I'm back from a break, I'd like to try again, just to see how much is different.

For L4s, my backup always was the Navy Scorp, followed by the Tengu. I did a few L4s in Ravens (regular as well as Navy), but the SNI did better for me. Plus the darn thing is like crazy indestructible.

A friend of mine who's a diehard droneboat fan swears by his Domi. He says he makes more ISK blitzing L3s instead of L4s, but I've never done a thorough test of that on my own. I can fly any racial T1 and most T2s, so I just need to get off my backside and try a few things out.

train for amarr, your cap and gunnery skills will always be useful.