EVE New Citizens Q&A

Battlecruisers.

There is no other class of ship in the game that has the same performance to cost ratio, check any major battle, any sov war, and a gang or fleet of BC's will be involved. A properly piloted small gang of BC's could easily take on any other subcap fleet composition.

Advice to new players? Max out all skills and support skills for medium sized modules and train BC's to V.

Avatar, because it looks like a big 'ol horse peen. And isn't that what every pilot in this game really wants? Even the women?

I have several answers to this one.

let's see. for a new player that wants to do a lot of PvP, I would have to say start with maxing out your frigate skill. Propulsion, electronic warfare, the little support skills needed for fast tackling and quick escapes. Then move up to cruisers. Most of the support skills will apply to both, some will help your cruisers better. Punisher, rifter, kestrel, harbinger, stabber, dominix

for someone wanting to do PvE, I'd have to say find a solid tanked ship, long duration. drake, harbinger, caracal, hurricane, maller, rupture, I fear I am not as experienced with gallente ships so i can't suggest anything there. Train for the ship. Pick one, and max whatever skills you will be using for it.

If you are going for mining and production, get your cruiser and industrial skills highest priority. osprey or the minmittar mining cruiser are a must. Industrial to haul the ores and materials around. Work towards your mining barges, then crystals. after you get your crystals trained, get your exhumers.

Solid advice.

Useless brick, huh? LOL! You obvioulsy never used one for PVE. A blaster Prot will out mission a Tengu any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

As for what ship a new pilot should head for, DEFINITELY a Strategic Crusier! Tanks like a BS, has the DPS of a BS, but moves like a standard cruiser. Yes, it's expensive, but you'll thank yourself after you're sitting in one. Obviously, get your racial cruiser skill to 5, because that opens up a LOT of doors into the PVP world. Frankly, Minmatar T2 cruisers and T1 battlecruisers are the way to go, IMHO. (and I started out GALLENTE, and then cross trained)

For starter If I had to pick one ship, it would be the drake. For PvE the drake wins hands down. Level 3 missions with ease and level 4 missions are possible (although slowly.) Heck you can even do low level sleepers (WH stuff) in drakes. The DPS is low on a drake but the huge tank more than makes up for it. You need ISK in Eve, and the drake allows you to make more, faster.

And best of all, the missile and shield skills will all be useful for the tengu.

I would definatly recommend against specializing in missiles for anything PVE related. Missiles are versatile in damage type but the travel time is an efficiency sink both in travel speed and ammunition consumption. They are good for use while you train lasers and projectiles.

Yes, lasers and projectiles. Top of the ladder for mission runners? Having a properly fit Nightmare for EM/TH weak rats and a properly fitted Machariel for EXP/KN weak rats.


Serpentis extravaganza Level IV in more than 8 minutes using a highly skilled nightmare is too long.

100% agree ... Drake is easiest way to get noobs going on Level 4 missions ... no need to worry about active tank skills, etc., just train shield and missile skills .... (and i don't even fly one myself btw, but can definitely see it's the easiest way to bring new members up to speed).

Tristan, best T1 frigate if only it could get in range.

It depends a lot on what race ships you are starting out with and what you think at an early stage in your eve life you want to do. I have characters that have trained in all four races of ships (each character flying at least two races, which I would suggest as a further goal to avoid dissatisfaction by being stuck in the suck, getting nerfed, or simply finding that you like one weapon or tanking system more than others).

The best frigates for running level 1 mission and probably as well for very cheap lowsec pvp are the Amarr Punisher, Gallente Incursus/Tristan, Caldari Kestral/Merlin, and of course the Minmatar Rifter.

If you are starting as Amarr or Gallente I recommend an immediate goal of flying the Arbitrator or Vexor. No matter what larger ship you eventually come to prefer, BC or BS, you will want a full flight (5) of tech II llight drones, usually hobgoblin IIs or warrior IIs. With this in mind training drones 5 and the specs for light tech II drones, and most likely tech II medium drones, will never be wasted sp and instead sp that will serve you well in any ship with a drone bay (which is every BC and BS). Additionally, the arby and vexor make great level 2 mission boats. With some better skills, and probably a passive shield setup, they are also able to tank a lvl 3 mission and do enough damage for them. Lastly both ship can serve as cheap pvp ships for lowsec if you want to dip your toes in pvp.

That being said the BCs are a better option for level 3s. For amarr the Harby is great against bloods, sanshas, and rogue drones. The Prophesy is lackluster but can be setup with projectile guns to serve somewhat ok against angel, gurista, and serp rats as the laser damage only of the harb will struggle against those rats. For Gallente the Myrm is a very adaptable and serviceable ship in about any level 3 mission. It can be effectively shield tanked against angel rats as well. The brutix will be lackluster in level 3s due to the present sorry state of rails, but has some utility in smaller gang pvp. That may change somewhat with hybrid rebalancing which is coming "soon."

For Minmatar level 2 and 3 I suggest the Bellicose/Rupture as cruisers in level 2 and Cyclone/Hurricance as BC for level 3s. The first in each pair work best as shield tankers, the second in each pair as armor tankers (without getting into the imbalanced overall BC passive shield ability, and you may find yourself having better results with a passive shield cane). The Bellicose can be used for cheap lowsec pvp toe dipping since while it is not the most formidible opponent it will get you fights, and the rupture will put out good damage.

For Caldari you are probably going to want a Caracal or Moa for level 2s and a Drake for level 3s. The tier 1 BCs of every race are rather gimped. So seeing that the passive shiled Drake is so capable in level 3s (and the best BC in general due to the being able to tank level 4s and still have sufficient range and sufficient damage (just barely) for them it probably dictates that you will center on missile skills and thus probably the Caracal is a better option to begin with. WIth the coming "soon" hybrid rebalance the Moa may become more attractive. Stay tuned.

Regardless, delayed damage of missiles and pve op passive shield tanking expectations leave many Caldari pilots unhappy with pvp-ing in these ships. However, the only monoculture BC pvp fleets are drakes. Some try Hurricane alpha fleets but they are not able to toe to toe with similarly sized BS fleets, which the Drake fleets can do. The Drake has been due for a nerf. CCP has hinted that it might come in some alteration to heavy missiles.

EDIT- Another near term goal option to consider if you decide on pvp is training frigate 5. This opens up paths to covert ops, bombers, and interceptors (and possibly even the soon to be buffed assault frigs \o/). Ceptors, bombers, and cov ops frigs can serve as scouts. One of the best learning experiences with fleet fights can be serving as a scout in a cov ops. Especially if you can also master the probing mechanics in the game. You will gold to your fleet commander if you can do it quickly and provide great warp ins on enemy fleets. Regardless, watching gates where a battle ends up taking place can really give you a great overview of fleet or small gang pvp tactics. Sometimes it will be boring if you get assigned the wrong gate. Many people train second characters as scout cov ops alts to have on another window or screen.

Of course all this advice is not geared toward those who enter Industry. While my characters eventually trained things such as exhumers and tech II production skills I feel less confident in my ability to suggest starting paths for those that are inclined these directions. The above pve combat advice can have applicability though to those who don't want to work faction standing for a pos by running endless courrier missions.

Welcome to EVE. It is an MMO game unlike any other. I suggest that you try some lowsec pvp roaming as soon as you can. It is not what I did, but when I eventually got into pvp I wish that I had at least done it after I had access to jump clones. Once you start popping +3 and definitely +4 attribute implants into your main clone you should work your standing to 8.0 with some corporation that allows you to install jump clones so that you can pvp with a cheap pod.