EVE New Citizens Q&A

The age old question I am sure....

I am able to fly Caldari ships such as Frigs, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, and battleships and I am curious what I should cross train, or should I stick with Caldari and start training the ability to fly a few of their specialty ships such as Logistics or HAC's or Heavy Interdictors?

Or should I start training a different race with different weapons? I initially started the game trying to be armor tanked, then joined a corp that was shield tanked. So I have the ability to fly both. I however lack any sort of offense with turrets.

I was tossing up the idea to train Amarr or Minmatar and wasn't sure what to do. Or is Gallente a good option? I am just at a loss on what to cross train to be effective.

I was told many players use Minmatar for PVP while I had heard Caldari was good for PVE. What about Amarr and the Gallente?

Okay... here's the thing...

cross-training is a matter of taste. And by that I mean that certain people train to a different race because...

- that other race has common features with one's primary race and so there won't be too many extra skills to train
- they want to train into ships/weapons that their corp/alliance can better utilize in Ops
- they want to train over to gain more tactical flexibility (each race has a "thing" they are good at)
- they want to fly FOTM
- they want to gain access to some of the "bi-racial" (see: "Pirate") ships


I generally train based on what common skills I have with the race in question. Since you are primarily trained in Caldari ships and you state that you have lackluster gunnery skills then in my eyes you should consider the following...

- if you train up Gallente ships...
-- you have a reason to put some effort into improving your gunnery skills (as the Gallente's primary specialty is hybrid weapons) which will also benefit many of the Caldari ships you already have access to.
-- you will have to put some effort into your drone skills (as the Gallente's secondary specialty is using drones) which will help ALL ships cruiser and above that you think of training for in the future.
-- you will find that some Gallente ships can utilize shield or armor tanks (though, not as well as Caldari ships can).
-- you will gain access to Gurista pirate ships which focus on drone and missile use.

- if you train up for Minmitar ships...
-- you will find that some of the ships can be shield tanked, some can be armor tanked, and some either-or.
-- you will find that quite a few of the ships can utilize missile skills quite effectively, but you'll still have to train up gunnery skills to get good DPS performance out of them.
-- you will have to train up your Navagation skills a bit to get good usage out of their "specialty" (skirmishing).

- if you train up for Amarr ships...
-- you will have to train up gunnery skills as this is the primary method of damage dealing for Amarr ships until you get access to T2 cruisers.
- you will have to train up your armor skills as this is the primary method of tanking for Amarr ships.

I am a pretty avid fan of the Gallente and boast their superiority... however, it comes at a price.

In so far as weaponry, you have to train gunnery and drones for maximum effectiveness. The primary time issue is that Gallente are "The Drone People" and our ships prove it. You must really put your skills to the fires of training time when it comes to drones which can eat up as much time as turrets. Turrets, well, once trained you have just knocked out the essentials for the other races so you have covered minnie, amarr, and gallente.

One of the main reasons that "Gallente sucks at pvp" that you hear is that ours is a mix of drones and guns, without good skills both ways we truely do suck compared to many of the others. It takes considerable more time to get a gallente pilot on par with some of the other racial class ships at least IMO. We truly do have some heavy hitters, although most folks call it the Diemost the truth is that the Diemos puts down more firepower than every other HAC, it's problem is catching the opposition usually since the FOTM is Minmatar. Myrms and their 3x rep pvp fits are true beasts to punch through, etc.

I do believe that well skilled PVP Gallente players can stomp the bejiggers out of our opponents when we can get them tackled and cut the speed benefits. The problems for gallente really rotate around speed. We have super nerfed range blasters that are only good up close and personal yet have some of the slowest ships in the game.

However, despite these drawbacks, there is alot of player pressure being applied and even CCP has said they will look at ship rebalancing (the gallente should get a good looking at). If you train them now, and CCP should do something to buff them you'll be a step ahead when gallente turn FOTM. At any rate, the turrets can't go wrong, you even need them for your own caldari ships.

I suggest you train your Turret support skills while you decide which direction to go because no matter which race you choose they all will have turrets.

Enjoy your game, Ilkahn.

What to train? Obviously …

Indeed. But all those turret classes all utilize the same gunnery support skills. Train up those support skills and cross-training different turret systems is a breeze.



Gallente armor tank too. So so Minmitar. And both of those races have ships that you can shield tank as well... increasing your options.



Gallente are still able to use drones to a degree that the other races can't. That 10% drone damage/HP buff per ship level is quite nasty.



For the time being. But you can always come back in the future and crosstrain to something else.

Cross train into amarr.

While it's not strictly cross-training, you might want to look at the Orca.

Not for mining, but highsec logistics/movement of supplies, ships and high value assets securely.

My order of training was minmatar, amarr, gallente, caldari, and I started pretty early on (within a month or so i reckon).

If you want to crosstrain, I suggest you pick gallente. They are definately the race I fly the most, I find their ships quite adaptable.

Crosstraining is a double edged sword. There is much value in being able to always bring the correct tool for the job, but if someone who didn't cross train and instead specialised also brings the right tool, you'll lose every time.

The best advice I can give you is that if you do crosstrain, invest in drone skills early. They are the only skills that transfer well across every ship.

Thanks, I think that is what I am going to do right now - I am looking at all the Advanced Cruiser ships and am going to start training into them.

My question is, why would I pick a Heavy Assault Ship over a Drake? What are the pros and cons between the two? it seems the drake has a better tank while the HAC has a better DPS, correct? So which one?