EVE New Citizens Q&A

Kind of a longer post, but I'd really appreciate any advice I can receive. I've always enjoyed playing the healer and I'd like to get started in logistics. could use help

I'm intending to start simple. PvE stuff, missions plexes, etc. then eventually move more to PvP once I kind of learn the ropes

I guess the first question I have is which ship should I work toward first? I know that this is completely subjective and everything in EVE can be situational. But getting myself into a T2 logi ship will require a large investment of training time and ISK so I want to have a plan

most of my command skills are in Gallente ships so I was thinking start at Exequror and working toward Oneiros.

But then I thought of my 2nd concern: armor vs shields? if a ship is an armor repper, then when your pals are taking damage to shields you are unable to "heal" them am I right? Doesn't this basically mean I'm waiting for shields to go down before I can really even help? If you are supporting your teams shields instead, you are useful from the start, and even when damage gets down to armor you are still mitigating overall damage that is incoming. These are just assumptions I've made. Are they accurate?

Ultimately I hope to be able to fly several of the ships and fit many roles but right now I'm just looking for a starting point. So I guess what I'm looking for is a starting plan. What should I work towards and why? What advice can you give for a newbie trying to do this? I will really appreciate any/all opinions and input I receive. Getting in to this role is a bit daunting and I want to do it well.

Here are some thing to keep in mind when you are planning for logistics.

First of all to your point that if you are an armour logistics and your friends start to take shield damage:

Logistics are always based on the fleet they are flying with, this means you bring a shield logi to a shield tanking fleet and an armour logistics to an armour tanking fleet.

If an armour tanking fleet takes shield damage that is no problem as they trust on their armour tank / armour logi to keep them alive, shields are just a slight delay until the tank kicks in.

Yes, a shield logi in a shield fleet can still keep someone alive when he is already in his armour but it will be harder as the ships are usually build to tank in shield not in armour. This means their shield EHP is better then their armour EHP (usually when a shield tanking ship is in armour it goes down really quick, but it is possible to keep alive. In my corp we saved a Machariel who was into structure damage with shield logistics.)

All in all it's better to be the type of logistics that the fleet is running as it makes your fleet survivability a lot higher. Shield tanking pilots usually don't want to rely on their armour and the other way around.

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As for the logistics ships:

1.) Basilisk (Caldari) - Shield logistics. One of the better logistics in EVE but with one downside, it always needs a buddy (or even more). This is because the logistics need capacitor to be useful and the only way to be cap stable with a basi is by using a "cap-chain". For some reason unknown to most CCP decided that energy transfers (giving cap to others) give more cap to the target then they use cap to run, this means if you chain these energy transfers between 2 (or more) basi's it means they get more cap from the other then they give away (aka endless capacitor).

2.) Guardian (Amarr) - Armour logistics. To most the best armour logistics mainly because beside the bonus to remote armour repair it also gets the bonus to energy transfer. This means like the above Basilisk it's also great to give other ships capacitor when they need it, means they always need a buddy for the cap chain.

3.) Scimitar (Minmatar) - Shield logistics. As for effectiveness it comes behind the basilisk in terms of how good it can repair it's fleet. The only advantage over the basilisk is that is able to run solo without a cap chain, means the logistics itself is less dependant on others in the fleet (a basilisk without cap-chain is useless in seconds).

4.) Oneiros (Gallente) - Armour logistics. In general the least used Logistics in EVE, don't know why though. But in my time so far (including 1 year of null-sec battles all over the place) never saw any Oneiros in our or our enemy fleet.

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Training wise:

Only 1 major tip, don't think that having the bare minimum skills for the ship will mean you can use it. Until you have at least Logistics skill at 4 you won't be able to provide logistics services. Also keep in mind that logistics are the first to be shot down by enemy fleets most of the time and as you are defenceless on yourself you should have tanking skills almost maxed out to give your fleet members time to save you (aka fellow logistics to rep you and fellow DPS to kill the enemy shooting you).

The type of logistics you will be flying the most is mainly based on what your friends (aka corp/alliance members) will be using. If your corp/alliance uses armour fleets, you will need either the Guardian or Oneiros. If your corp/alliance is using shield fleets, you will need the Basilisk or Scimitar.

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As for skills until you get into logistics. That is a bit hard to give advice, mainly as most people don't know what you like to do until you get into logistics. I know people who only do trading while they trained for logistics (or any other special ship), while other did run missions to get ISK to buy logistics. It's up to the player itself to spent the time he has left till he can fly what he eventually wants to fly.

But as you said you like to do PvE and eventually PvP, I suggest beside Logistics also train some skills towards ships that shoot other stuff. Mainly cause lower levels (up to level 4) missions hardly need logistics. And sometimes you don't need to be in your logi ship, good to have a spare ship at hand to fulfil other jobs (tackle, scout, DPS, E-war, what ever suits you and your fleet).

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My tip for a new player who wants to get into logistics. Have fun playing EVE, training to logistics takes a while. Might as well try other things out in EVE while you train for it. But most of all do the things you like to do, it's a game you pay money for, so play it the way YOU like it.

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p.s. As you are planning to go into logistics. Might as well take a quick look at carriers for your long term skill planning. They are a long way for a new player but as you are going to get into logistics you might take a look at them. Carriers are capitals that use fighters/drones for their offensive ability but also are heavily used as major logistics (Triage carriers rep like there is no tomorrow).

sh*t forgot the second most important thing:

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Logistics_piloting

Though a Guardian and a Basilisk need a cap transfer buddy, it doesn't have to be another Logi. I regularly use a battleship with a large energy transporter as a cap buddy with a Basilisk (Logistics 5). The disadvantage is range.

Logistics 5 is well worth training, as with Logistics 4 you need two energy transfers.

Logistics flying is one of the best things to do in EVE in my view. I went the route you did in that when I started I decided I wanted to play a support role for other pilots in EVE since I'm typically a social player.

The first role that popped up in my mind was logistics! So, I built up a skill plan for logistics. Me being me I figured I'd need every skill at 5 and was a little dismayed (not much though) at how long it would take to get -everything- I wanted to 5.

Then, I figured out that to have fun in EVE you don't need skills at 5.

How did I start:

First, I met someone in the game and he convinced me (my character being a total of a week old and having just finished the newbie tutorial missions) to come to 0.0. I said sure! And off to Providence I went.

Why? Because with a corp that was active and had online players I always had people to play with and interact with. They were established and experienced players so I figured out how I could augment their play time. I became a vacuum as my skills did their merry thing.

I was The salvager of the corp. I fit a hurricane (battleship) with tractor beams and salvagers and joined in on anomalies. What did I learn? How to watch local, how to scan, and how to manage multiple targets with multiple actions. Sure, my targets were all wrecks, but I worked at maximizing my efficiency at vacuuming.

I would sell all the stuff for the player I vacuumed for and we would split the amount 50/50.

I made a lot of ISK for a two week old character (the skills to be a salvager are fairly minimal to get into - battleships 3, salvaging 3, and support skills for expanded cargo etc).

I was providing value to very experienced EVE pilots (bitter vets) and making friends. All the while, in the background, my skills were training up for logistics and electronic warfare.

When I got to logi 3 I started flying the tech 1 logi cruiser the Osprey. Was this that useful? Not really to be honest but it was helpful from time to time since by then we were becoming a little more experimental and risk happy. The little bit of shield transfer helped and once the initial wave of damage passed I'd switch over to my vacuum.

I learned how to do basic logistics and continued to generate ISK in a support role. Plus, I was learning how to PvP on the market. I quickly discovered that some of the most brutal PvP in terms of ISK happens in the market and not in space. It was really neat. I wound up starting a second account just for the purposes of trading. I finished up to being able to fly a freighter and moved that character over to my main account - this also became my posting account.

Anyway, all the while my skills for logi continued. I went the scimitar route since at the time I was in 0.0 and a scimitar was a valuable addition to small fleets. Things happened, I wound up in high sec (before Provi exploded and settled down again), and I found out that having a logi is still useful there for running missions with others who aren't fully skilled up for soloing level 4s.

So, again, I was providing logistics support with my osprey and then vacuuming. Once I got to logi 4 I fit my scimitar.

We ran level 5s which were interesting. I took the time to get to logi 5. I brought up my other support skills to 5 and now I sometimes do incursions with my main as a scimitar.

My scimitar build is fully cap stable with a 'solid' tank (~32k effective hit points) with 2 tracking links. I believe that if you are going to go the route of a logistics ship (no matter which one you do) you should try to bring all your bonuses to the table. And please spend the time to get your drones to tech 2 drones - it makes a difference! Tracking links shouldn't be discounted: I have 2 (shadow serpentis) on my 'normal' build and can fit 3 if I want. With my skills each one provides +12km to optimal range, +24% to falloff, and +26.25% to tracking.

Back to how to start: Figure out what type of fleet you'll be flying with. Shield or armour. From there decide which logi ship you wish to fly - energy transfer variant or not. I would suggest energy transfer variant since it is easier to get into incursion fleets with one if that's where you want to go. You can start flying incursions with logi 4 easily with the energy transfer type logi ship. And, at that level, you can 'realistically' make 50 - 80 million ISK / hour. That includes all delays including "5" minute breaks every hour or so.

If you get into a "shiny" fleet (basically pirate ships only) you can make more ISK per hour but they will typically only allow for logi 5s

Do not be afraid to try out logistics with the tech 1 ship before you can fly a logistics ship.

Find a corp or some buddies who are online when you are. Join up with them. I would strongly recommend doing the salvage thing since it is fun as a support role. :)

thanks a bunch everybody, very helpful information here. exactly what i was looking for

That video is really great, thank you for citing that. very informative.