EVE General Discussion

I need ship advice...

Is there a place to see ships people use in order to get a better idea on how to use/train for a ship. A website that you all prefer over others?

I consulted uniwiki when I was learning about fitting.

Start with the EVE University wiki (uniwiki), and click on each of the links to see broad descriptions of the ship classes, and, at the bottom, a list of the ships, including recommended fittings. Uniwiki fittings are somewhat beginner level, but should give you a basic idea of how to fit a ship.

Then you can look at the zkillboard site linked above, where you'll see the fittings of ships that actually took part in PVP. So for better or worse, the current favorites / flavor of the month, in terms of fittings. Zkillboard, however, doesn't explain or make comments on the fittings.

People who join the various alliances gain access to their alliance doctrines - recommended fittings designed for that alliance's fleet setups. A lot of the guidance and learning happens there. You may want to join one of the newbie-focused alliances, Pandemic Horde, Karma Fleet, Brave Newbies, for more in-depth tutorials and fitting guidance.

In general, though, fitting a ship is relatively simple:

1. Get an idea of the ship's purpose, by reading its info / stats / description, and looking at what bonuses the ship has. Keep in mind the class of the ship (frigate, cruiser, etc.). The class of the ship will determine what survival options you have; frigates rely on speed to survive, bigger ships rely on actual shield or armor with high resistances, "attack" ships like destroyers and some battlecruisers rely on killing the enemy before they do too much damage.

2. Each weapon system (lasers, hybrids, projectiles, missiles) has a short-range version (pulse lasers, blasters, autocannons, rockets, etc) and a long range version (beam lasers, railguns, artillery, cruise missiles etc.), and you unlock both versions when you unlock the weapon. So once you've picked your ship, you can now decide whether you want to fight at long range, or at short range. Long range means you shoot from afar and rely on distance (kiting) for defense, short range means you get very close so you can do much more damage, but have to rely on actual tank (armor or shields) because the enemy can shoot back. So pick a range and fill up the high slots of the ship with the weapons suited for that range. Try to use identical copies of the same weapon.

3. Fit propulsion (afterburner, MWD, MJD). No matter what range you've chosen, you need a propulsion module in the mid slot so you can be faster than the enemy and control the range during the fight. Afterburners give a small speed boost and can be left online for a long time, microwarpdrives give you a large speed boost but will drain your energy dry very fast. Microjumpdrives are for big ships, you can teleport 100km across the battlefield.

4. Install defenses. For defenses, you can pick speed/small size (for frigates), or for bigger ships pick either shields or armor, depending on whether the ship has a lot of mid slots (shield) or a lot of low slots (armor). A good defense is like a wall against a tsunami, one tall wall is better than two small walls. The enemy will hit you with everything they have, so you have to have the best defense available rather than two smaller defenses. So either pick shields or armor.

4a. So for frigates, they don't have many slots, a small shield booster or a small armor repairer, combined with a good afterburner are "defense". For bigger ships, a (shield or armor) tank consists of: a repair module (shield booster or armor repairer), resistance modules (shield hardeners, armor hardeners, shield or armor resistance amplifiers, damage control module), and optionally a hitpoints module (buffer tank) (shield extenders, armor plates). Installing these in your ship will use up most of the slots.

5. Install DPS enhancements. Most weapons have corresponding low slot modules that increase their DPS. Heat Sinks for lasers, Gyrostabilizers for projectile weapons, Magnetic Field Stabilizers for hybrids, Ballistic Control Systems for missiles, etc. Installing these gives you more DPS, which is always a good thing.

5. Install utility. For PVP, you may need a Warp Disruptor to prevent the enemy from running away. Other useful electronic warfare includes Stasis Webifiers, Energy Neutralizers, Target Painters (if you use missiles). Some ewar ships have bonuses for actual jammers: ECM, target disruptors, weapon disruptors, etc. In general, you need to fly a ship that has bonuses for ewar, for the modules to have a decent/measurable effect on the enemy.

6. Install capacitor/energy. If the enemy drains your ship's energy, or if you run out, your guns and defenses will turn off, so you need to worry about enough capacitor juice or recharge rate to survive the fight. PVE fights are long and with multiple waves, so people use Cap Recharger and Capacitor Recharge modules to ensure that their cap can keep up with the energy drains. PVP fights are very short and the players may drain your capacitor, so people use Cap Boosters with Booster Charges, which you can pop like pills to regain energy at critical moments.

For zkillboard, if the fit is fail, you'll often see comments that indicate so, people laughing at the fit. But most PVP deaths happen because the ships are designed to be rock-paper-scissors, and the victim was flying paper with the enemy flying scissors. Basically just caught in the wrong situation. Or, it was a 20 vs. 1 gate camp or other "unfair" unwinnable situation, which you can see on zkillboard by comparing how many attackers vs. how many defenders were present.

Ultimately, the information isn't presented as a tutorial, but if you know the basics from elsewhere, you can learn some things from zkillboard.

EDIT: This game's been played for more than 10 years; we're well past the stage of "I wonder what happens if I move this pawn or fly this rook", and well into advanced techniques such as baiting, goading / psych warfare, traps / hotdrops, espionage for fleet movement intel, etc.

Learning the ships and how to wield them is just the beginning of this game. Much like chess.