Skill Discussions

Hi,


I'm a pretty recent pilot here in New Eden (about 1 week). I've been primarily PvPing and free roaming Low and some null sec in T1 Destroyers and a T3 Tactical Destroyer.
I mostly enjoy the Tactical Destroyers.


While reading and looking through the Ship Tree, I noticed Mastery ratings for each ship; I , II, III, IV, V.


For both the Confessor and the Jackdaw, I'm only 1-2 skills from being at a level 1 Mastery rating.

So my question is, exactly how important is this rating? What exactly does this improve on my ship and how, if I already meet the requirements to pilot it with the correct fittings? Does it improve my surviveability and DPS?

Hypothetical:
I'm piloting a T3 Tactical Destroyer with mostly T2 and faction fittings, with a Level 1 Mastery rating.

I encounter a T1 Frigate with equivalent fittings, but with a level 5 Mastery rating.

Who wins, and why?

I was in Null sec yesterday and I lost my Jackdaw (I've lost 3 so far) with about 500 million Isk total worth in about 15 seconds against only 3 other ships, mostly T2 Frigates.
I got 2 shots off with no kills, because it was taking 6 seconds to reload my rockets



This is what I had fitted:

[Rocket Launcher II x5] [Mjolnir Rage Rocket]

[Small Ancillary Current Router II]
[Small Bay Loading Accelerator I]

[Pithium C-Type Medium Shield Booster]
[Caldari Navy Warp Scrambler]
[Small Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I]
[Navy Federation 1MN Afterburner]
[Adaptive Invulnerability Field II]

[Dread Guristes Stasis Webifier]
[Damage Control II]
[Ballistic Control System II]

My total HP was only 3382 and my DPS was between 300-400.
Which for a T3 Destroyer, I'm told is incredibly low.


If the Mastery of my ship isn't that important, then what could improve my ship?

Like most things in EVE: It Depends(tm).

The T3D will win most of the time. Destroyers are excellent Frigate killers, on par with Rapid Light Missile cruisers. The T3D has better tank and damage than the Frigate.

However, if the T3D is fit with long range weapons, like an Artillery Svipul for example, and the Frigate can survive long enough to get in close and establish a tight, fast orbit on the T3D, the T3D will be unable to apply damage very well and the Frigate might snatch a win. This is known as 'getting under their guns' and it's something all Frigate pilots need to learn how to do. An Autocannon Svipul, on the other hand, will tear any frigate a new one if it can get into range. The Frigate's only hope in that instance is to try and kite the T3D from range.

In any case, it's a very tough fight for the Frigate and very few good frigate pilots would be brave enough to willingly take that fight (although there are plenty who are stupid enough to have a crack). One screwup and that frigate goes pop. Even without that one screwup, the frigate is likely to go pop.

It would take a particularly skillful (by which I mean player skill, not SP skill) frigate pilot to regularly take on T3Ds and regularly win. I am by no means such a pilot (eg: I run like the wind from 1v1 engagements with T3Ds. Although I'll happily tackle one if I have support inbound)

Rank 5 is pretty difficult to achieve, the synopsis of being Mastery Rank 5 is basically "I have everything for this ship I'll ever need."

I'd say when you hit Rank 4, you're more than qualified to fly whatever ship you have, assuming you have a good fit as well.

Thanks for all of the replies, this thread helps me understand a bit better.






Sorry, Scotsman Howard, I'll clarify a little bit here.
I'm still pretty new and still call myself a Rookie, as I've said in a few forum post before this.
I started this account in 2014, but just couldn't get my teeth sunk in, both IRL reasons and difficulty of the game tbh.

I recently restarted with the same account, because I still retained the basic needs for combat, navigation, etc and didn't want to redo the long tutorial.

And you're correct on the Skill Injectors. While out on a low sec run in my Venture, I came across my first worm hole. I'm naturally curious, bookmarked it, and became more curious the more I was close by. I discovered a crashed ship with about 6 billion ISK worth of ore's outside of the wormhole, a good 200km away.
It took me quite a few trips back and fourth, but I managed to get all of that ore back to my home station. I had a Sigil, and transported all of it to Amarr space and sold it there.
What I needed most was SP's. So, I bought Skill Injectors with most of the ISK I made. First time I used it, I wasn't sure where all to put those unallocated points, so I researched skills and also posted this thread at about the same time.


From what I've found online/YouTube/this thread, I've decided to priorities these skills to get the Maximum out of my Jackdaw, as well as a bunch of others (Which I have docked most of the time now, so I don't lose anymore of them; very expensive). Not in any specific order, just what I'm focusing on:

Capacitor Management
Capacitor Systems Operation
CPU Management
PG Management
Shield Management
Shield Operation
Tactical Shield Manipulation
Shield Upgrades
Shield Compensation
Hull Upgrades
Mechanics
Electronic Warfare
Rockets
Rocket Specialization
Afterburner
Evasive Maneuvering
Fuel Conservation
High Speed Maneuvering
Target Navigation Prediction
Long Range Targeting
Target Management
Caldari Tactical Destroyer
Jury Rigging
Launcher Rigging




When my skills increase, I take it out and Rat to "feel" the improvements.
I definitely fare much better in managing my Capacitor with these skills. Damage feels roughly the same. Surviveability is a lot higher than what it was.

What I feel like I'm still struggling with my fit:

• Range.

I use rockets, and my rockets only have a 2 second flight time. I sacrificed some DPS to go with Long Ranged rockets instead, but I still have to be at about 15-20km for a hit with Long Range rigs and rockets. With regular fittings and with rockets, I need to be at a close 9km. I feel like that range will be a major issues, especially when going against a Frigate that can travel much faster than my (roughly) 800m/s with Afterburner, that has double my Range.

• Total ship HP

But with good shield management I don't feel like it's a major issues.


But if there's something I can improve on, another skill to focus on, or any suggestions at all, please share. Every day has been a good learning experience for me.
Having a solid work schedule, I'm able to put it a lot of play time.




Edit:
Lost my Jackdaw again, and can't afford to replace it lol
Range confuses me in this game :/
My Maximum Range can be anywhere between 9-20km, where as I'm being targeted and hit from up to 100km away by most other ships.

i guess you lack missile core support skills...

i don't know much about missiles (i honestly don't have any skill related to missile) but ill give you some adivces that i think you badly needed.

1. please, don't fly blingy ships until you know how to fly them properly. T2s and meta 2-4 mods are fine. 260M would have been alot of condors...
2. know your engagement profile, fighting a cruise in a dessie is suicidal.
3. don't go to tama if you want to fly solo
4. don't mine in FW space
5. train your missile support skills