EVE New Citizens Q&A

I'm looking forwards to getting into the Minmatar's Tech II Frigates. I tried out a poorly-fitted Rupture, but it was slow, clunky, and took a lot of capacitor to warp anywhere, making it really hard to get around in. I also didn't really have the skills to fly it, and I was fighting small, fast frigates, which wasn't its forte. But I much prefer the way frigates handle, and I'm pretty sure a Tech II Frigate will get me through anything I want to do in the future.

Currently, I'm using a typical Thrasher fit with a shield tank, a rocket launcher, and some 200mm Autocannons. I've got an afterburner and a gyrostabilizer on it as well, but I tend to put those on all of my ships.

So, I have a few questions.

1. What skills do I need to be able to fly a Tech II Minmatar Frigate well, and outfit it with Tech II guns and all that jazz?
2. Are Tech II Frigates useful as tacklers and for anti-tackler work in higher-level missions?
3. What is the highest-level mission that is soloable in a Tech II Frigate?
4. How should I fit a Tech II Frigate? Which one is the better buy for soloing missions?

I'm assuming you mean "what skills will I need to fly T2 Minmitar Frigates optimally"?

"Core skills" are the big answer.
What are these? Well... the biggest ones are:
- Engineering (+5% Powergrid for all ships)
- Electronics (+5% CPU for all ships)
- Weapon Upgrades (-5% CPU need for all weapons)
- Advanced Weapon Upgrades (-2% Powergrid need for all weapons)
- Hull Upgrades (+5% armor) NOTE: even if you are focusing on shield tanking you must learn this skill. Getting it to level 5 will give you access to the single most important module in the game... the Damage Control II... which will boost the resistances of shield, armor, and hull.
- Ships skills (ex. Minmitar Frigate, Assault Ships, Interceptors, etc).
- Jury Rigging and specific jury rigging skills (-10% drawbacks on whatever rig the specific skill affects)

After this you can play around with what is important to you:
- Gunnery support skills (ex. Rapid Firing, Motion Prediction, Trajectory Analysis, Surgical Strike, etc)
- Navigation skills (ex. Evasive Maneuvering, Navagation, etc.)
- Spaceship Command (+2% agility)
- Armor tanking skills (ex. Mechanic, Repair Systems, EM Armor Compensation, Thermic Armor Compensation, etc)
- Shield Tanking skills (ex. Shield Operation, Shield Management, Shield Upgrades,



Sadly, missions are fairly... specific and linear in terms of what you need. Basically you need DPS to perform well in them. If you have a friend, you can act as a "speed tanker" (grab all aggro and lead the NPCs around in circles while you stay at range moving fast) so that the DPS dealer can do the job unhindered.
Honestly though... any frigate can do this.

In PvP though... that's a completely different story.
- Interceptors, while generally frail, are some of the fastest ships around. They can "lock down" almost any enemy and laugh at them as they orbit at range (some interceptors have bonuses that extend warp disruptor range).
- Assault frigates are basically "mini-cruisers" and a small pack of them will give any experienced vet cause for concern. In the right hands they can take apart most ships battlecruiser class and below and/or run away before help arrives.
- Stealth Bombers are the bane of large ships everywhere. They use battleship sized missiles to deal sizable amounts of damage and can be equipped with an Area of Effect "bomb" in null-sec. Several well placed bombs can effectively end hundred man fleets. Did I mention they can use cloaking devices too?
Their pitfall? You can't fit a tank on them and they can't defend themselves against small ships (like Interceptors and Assault Frigates).
- Covert-ops are the ship to call in when you need a scout. They can cloak, probe, and use their agility to get past camps other ships can't. However, they have little direct offensive or defensive ability of any kind.
- Electronic Attack Frigates are... umm... uhhh... moving on...


Well... you can TANK level 4 missions by virtue of being small and fast... but you don't have the DPS to complete [most of] them.
I've heard of people using them for level 3s... but they mostly do it for giggles and not for "ISK-efficiency."



Depends on the ship. But honestly... if you are looking to do missions... I'd go with a Wolf and fit it for range and damage.

You can kill stuff, actualy... at least I didn't have problems when I was running some L4s in wolf (wasn't fast, ofc). Although, I doubt I'd be able to kill battleships with more than 1M bounty, at least without faction ammo, but after playing with orbit a little I was able to kill last EOM battleship (took some time, ofc) - that was before AF/t2 ammo buff too.

Indeed but like said, it's not an effective way to make money

In the time you do 1 mission a decent fitted BC can do multiple and with it earn more money.

T2 ships (not only frigates but all of them) are specialized ships, they excel in 1 thing each (doesn't mean they can't do other things, but they will be less effective in it).

http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/8742/1/Shiptech_1920.jpg

And as nobody mentioned EAS:

They are good in PvP as if you have a couple of them they can really make the enemy fleet crap themself. Specially if you use the Caldari version (ECM) and your E-War is focused on their logi. A fleet with logi that are perma jammed isn't going to last long as the logi can't repair the ships.

First to your response to mxzf. PvP can be done if you are just 2 weeks old. After 2 weeks you can fly a tackle ships in a PvP fleet (aka you keep the enemy on field while others shoot it). Point with that profession in PvP is however you will loose a couple of ships as you are small and easy prey.

As for E-war:a
E-war = Electronic warfare (aka every modules that doesn't kill the enemy directly) Examples are:

- Stasis Webifier = slows the enemy ship down so it's easier to shoot
- Warp Disruption = it prevents the enemy from warping away from the fight
- Warp Scrambling = As warp disruption + it disables Microwarpdrives (but has shorter range).
- ECM = Electric Counter Measures, aka jamming. It jams the targets sensors so it can't lock you and without lock there are only a handfull things that can harm you (Drones, bombs, smartbombs and FoF missiles)
- Tracking disruption = Makes your enemies guns turn slower, so you can outrun the more easily
- Sensor dampening = Makes your targets target range shorter / takes longer to target stuff.
- ... (sure I missed some)

Logistics (referred to as healer in other MMO's) - Ship that is build to repair others. It doesn't have any offensive capabilities but is build so it can repair others in the fleet.

So a fleet usually consists of DPS ships and a couple of logistics. The DPS ships don't rely on own repair modules, they buffer-tank (make them last long enough so the logistics can heal them) while the logistics heal them in case they get shot at.

There are 4 logistics ships in EVE (not counting the T1 cheap versions as they don't do it properly and not counting carriers as they are a totally different type of ship)

Amarr = Guardian, Armor logistics, only works properly in pairs
Gallente = Oneiros, Armor logistics, can work solo
Caldari = Basilisk, Shield logistics, only works properly in pairs
Minmatar = Scimitar, Shield logistics, can work solo

Awesome fit for it's purpose.
Can't say i've made billions out of high-sec exploration, not even hundreds of millions. But, it is waay more fun and exciting than missions and that's what counts in the end.

EDIT: Of course you don't need that expensive fit. I did exploration in Gurista space with a T2-fitted Jaguar and it worked great, even though it wasn't optimal at all.

Thanks very much again!

@J'Poll: I had no idea that E-War covered all of that. I thought it was ships that target painted for other ships or something like that. You learn a new thing every day! Random question: Do target painters work for all friendly ships in the area, or just for the ship it's mounted on?

@mxzf: Wow, thanks for the fit. I'm not sure how to use probe launchers though. I did the tutorial on them, but I never could figure out how to properly triangulate a site. Is there a video or something I should watch? Also, I was using four probes to try to do this, and I've heard you need five. Also, what does the Damage Control module do? Thanks.

8th probe isn't really to enhance the existing probe cluster but rather to be able to form 2 clusters of 4, you make one cluster of 16/32AU and in the same centre a cluster of 2AU. If you have good probing support skills it'll make life a lot easier, this is only really useful if you're looking for multiple targets or if you need to find targets FAST (assuming you have the time to launch 8 probes), the outer cluster picks up a target and without having to resize you simply move that whole cluster of 8 on top of that target and then the smaller size probes go to work.

It's really effective.

If you are missioning, a shield tanker Rupture with ACs and an Afterburner can tear up a L2 mission no problem. The trick with the frigates when using a larger ship is to get range and run away from them (not orbit). Since they come more or less straight at you your guns can track and turn them in to confetti.

Here is an old basic starter fit for what I was talking about. This is actually an artillery fit ship, but the entry point on skills is low and the speed reduces the damage. You keep at range to pop the ships, and use drones and the missile launchers for anything that gets close. Once you support skills get up you can start swapping out for T2 modules (sorry older version of EFT so the names are slightly off).


[Rupture, cheap with rigs]
Tracking Enhancer I
Tracking Enhancer I
Gyrostabilizer I
Gyrostabilizer I
Gyrostabilizer I

Invulnerability Field I
Magnetic Scattering Amplifier I
Small Shield Booster I

650mm Artillery Cannon I, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon I, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon I, EMP M
650mm Artillery Cannon I, EMP M
Standard Missile Launcher I, Sabretooth Light Missile
Standard Missile Launcher I, Sabretooth Light Missile

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I


Acolyte I x5
Acolyte I x1