EVE New Citizens Q&A

Well a good starting place is just to simply look into the masteries of the ships you wanna fly. Getting mastery to 2 or 3 is a pretty decent start.

For a while the core skills for things like cap, PG, CPU, speed, armor, shield, etc will be things you should focus on first.

Getting the ability to use T2 tanking modules should be a priority if not the the core skills. Then move to T2 weapons. Make sure the fittings you're aiming to use will work and you can experiment with skill in EFT too. Maybe you can only use 650s until you get advanced weapon upgrades to 5, and then can use 720s, that sorta thing.

And here's EFT: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=24359&find=unread

There are a few newbie fitting guides that have been linked here repeatedly but also can be found with a google search. I'll let you find your way to the one that you like best on your own.

I just wanted to point out that what you should train is very subjective based on your goals and you'll have to play a bit before you can even really figure out what those are.

In the mean time just know that a lot of the skills are common amongst many or all the races. Like other's have said you want to avoid level 5 skills as much as possible and for sure in the beginning only train them when you need it to unlock something else.

Once you can fit T2 tanking mods there is not a whole bunch of reason to train up tank any longer until you can fit T2 weapons and even after that you are probably better off increasing your ship piloting options rather than increasing tank.

Also I would like to tell you read up on gunnery and tracking. The better that you understand that the better that you will understand what skills you need to train. You'll learn how speed and angular velocities matter. You'll learn how to pilot your ship better to both apply and avoid damage. You'll know when training for more speed will help more than training for more tank or damage.

Don't play the skill queue. It's not a good idea in this game especially for the first year. The only thing that maximizing your training helps with in your first year is in calming the OCD voices in your head. Train what you need now to get access to what you want to use / fly now. Don't worry about skill points per hour. Focus on experimenting and having fun and don't worry.

I'm speaking from experience here. I played the skill queue on my first toon and wound up having to make an alt because I had a toon training at max skill points per hour but was totally useless until after 60 million skill points. The alt that I trained could do pretty much anything I wanted her to at around 20 million skill points.

Level 1, 2, and 3 train fast. 4 takes a little longer. 5 is a huge waste until you absolutely have to or have nothing else to train. So stick to the lower level skills that apply to what your are doing now or want to do tomorrow and you'll be fine.

That is a very good point. Be silent, demons! Mama's trying to burn down rats!

You can read this as need to train everything to fly minmatar. However you are going to need to train it all eventually anyway and more likely sooner rather than later.

Markus makes some really good points here especially with regards to training into more stuff and giving your self more options is better than focusing on one thing. You will want to try a bit of everything to find your piloting style. So again like Markus said try everything then focus on what you like or use most.

Take a look at this for a good overview of the skill system, as well as a nice well rounded plan for your first couple months. It's combat focused, and gets you where you can try things at a decent level. You won't be as efficient as someone more specialized, but when you're new, it's best o be able to try out lot's of different things. Personally, I followed it more or less as is, with deviations here and there as I saw fit. In my case I didn't even touch cruiser and above until around 5 or 6 months in and am in fact still sitting mostly in cruisers down (don't be in a rush to get into the 'big' ships).

http://blog.beyondreality.se/Newbie-skill-plan-2

I like to link this for newbies because it doesn't just spit out a list and expect you to just train it. The writer explains the reasoning behind why to train x skill at that stage. Again, do what you want, but it's a good guide to keep in mind; don't neglect to read the introductory wall o' text either.

Welcome to New Eden.

o7

As someone who flies Minmatar more than the other three "races" combined, here's my take. I'm not going to try to cover every single skill, I'm just giving a general overview.

There is a core set of skills that apply to every ship you fly. Every ship has a capacitor, a powergrid, a cpu, a shield, armour and a hull. These items are not race specific. There is no "Amarr cpu", there is no "Gallente armour", etc. There is just capacitor, powergrid, cpu, shield, armour and a hull, on every ship you will be able to fly.

For now, the skills which improve these features of your ship should be fairly high priority. These skills automatically apply to every ship for every race, no matter what race your character is. These skills will benefit every ship in the game you can possibly fly, no matter which race that ship is from and no matter what size the ship is.

The primary weapon system of Minmatar ships is "projectile turrets". They shoot bullets, just like real world guns do, really really big bullets. Most Minmatar ships have built in bonuses to make projectile turrets more powerful. Some projectile turrets specialise in keeping locked on their target against small fast moving ships and do a lot of damage with every hit they score, with the disadvantage that they can only hit a ship that is fairly close to you. These turrets are called "autocannon", high damage but short range. Some projectile turrets specialise at hitting ships at long range, with the disadvantages that they do less damage per hit, and they cannot stay locked onto fast ships that are close to you. These turrets are called "artillery", low damage but long range.

The secondary weapon system for Minmatar ships is missiles. Some Minmatar ships have bonuses for missiles instead of projectile turrets. Missiles have their own separate set of skills, projectile turret skills do not help you use missiles. While most Minmatar ships have projectile turret bonuses, don't ignore missiles. Missiles don't have the same issues with range and tracking that projectile turrets have (missiles have their own separate set of advantages and disadvantages). Also, while no other race has bonuses for projectile turrets, you can find some ships with bonuses for missiles in all four races, Caldari, Gallente, Minmatar and Amarr. Training up some missile skills will make it easier to move across to ships from other races in the future.

The third weapon system for Minmatar ships is drones, tiny remote controlled spaceships you launch from your ship and control them to do things for you. While each race has their own unique types of drones, drones can do more than just shoot things. Different types of drones do different tasks. There is a limit on how many drones you can use at the same time.

Projectile turrets and missile launchers use ammunition, you'll need to keep buying projectile ammunition for the turrets or more missiles for the missile launchers, or if you want to try your hand at manufacturing things, train the manufacturing skill, buy a blueprint for projectile ammunition or missiles, mine or buy the minerals needed and make it for yourself. Combat drones (the ones that shoot things for you) do not need to be supplied with ammunition, so they basically shoot stuff for free compared to projectile turrets and missiles.

Frigates and Destroyers use "small turrets" and "small ammunition". Cruisers and Battlecruisers use "medium turrets" and "medium ammunition". Battleships use "large turrets" and "large ammunition". Dreadnaughts use "extra large turrets" and "extra large ammunition".

If you are going to concentrate on Minmatar ships, for the time being ignore skills for "energy turrets" and "hybrid turrets". Minmatar ships do not have bonuses for these weapons. Energy turrets are an Amarr speciality, hybrid turrets are a Gallente speciality. It is possible to use energy turrets or hybrid turrets on Minmatar ships, but you're always better off using the type of turrets the ship has bonuses for. Minmatar ships do not have bonuses for energy or hybrid turrets.

Don't be in a rush to train into bigger ships as fast as possible. Flying a big ship when you have weak skills makes you an easy target for both NPC pirates and other players who may decide you are too much of a vulnerable target to ignore. I'd suggest reaching a minimum of Mastery level 2 before training into the next size up in ships, eg train to Frigate mastery 2 before starting on destroyers, train to Destroyers mastery 2 before starting on cruisers, etc.

Some players may say you don't need to train that much before going up to a bigger ship. Once you have more experience that's true, but for a new player who's still learning the basics of Eve, a bit more time making yourself stronger with each basic type of ship will help you far more than it will hinder you.

So many awesome replies in here, thank you all for the information! Getting a better feel for what I want to do and how I'm going to do it... space awaits!

Repeatedly.

Don't forget to train Duct Taping to V before undocking, otherwise you'll be liable to fall apart...