EVE New Citizens Q&A

While broadly true, Core Elite is an excellent beginner certificate to shoot for. That, and T2 salvagers.

For starters, the rifter. Either its PVP, PVE, or anything. the rifter will get the job done. Shield tank, armor tank its your choice. Good guns, good loadouts

Your racial destroyer. Doesnt matter what you choose, you'll be taking on swarms of NPC frigs in a destroyer. plus you can re-equip for salvaging

For cruisers, I would go with the Arbitrator. Its an Ammar drone boat, but you can shield tank that thing like crazy. You will of course need good drone skills if you plan on doing any DPS, but as a beginner cruiser that can sustain heavy damage. Shield tank Arby is the best

Drake/ hurricane battlecruisers FTW. they are expensive, do awesome at basic skills, Godly at advanced T2 skills.

Missiles are OK. Awesome range, good alpha damage. but if you are targeting anything smaller than your size of ship (cruiser to frig) they can lack

Cruiser sized turrets, even the short range ones like blasters and auto-turrets can have more range than anything a frigate can equip, plus more damage as well. Be warned, tracking can be an issue on fast targets. Get a web

Drones will do the work for you. you can sick them on a target, then de-target, and concentrate on something else while the drones still dish out the dps. takes control since drones can draw aggro. that means the enemy will shoot them down.

Projectile guns.. No cap, variable damage, good tracking. Great guns to go by. Autocannons seem to be the staple in most ships

Hybrids.. eeeehhhh the blasters do awesome damage but you'll have to be in stabbing distance, railguns are accurate but not as strong as artillery.

Laser weapons. Talk about fun. Sure they eat cap but with an instant ammo change out you could be going from max range to short range in a short time. Plus no expendable ammo. Course you'll have to deal with the EM/Therm only damage but hey, if the dps is strong enough. the resistance doesn't matter.

It's been a long time since I've had to think about what ship is "next" for me, but the occasional new player I run in to will occasionally ask "so what should I fly?" Ask them what they are interested in, and you can give them a uniform reply:


"I want to try PVP!"


Well my friend, then Minmatar is for you! Minmatar and Amarr ships are the strongest PVP vessels in game, the usual route of progression for them is Rifter -> Stabber -> Rupture -> Hurricane -> Battleships. Thankfully, unlike some other races ships almost all Minmatar vessels basically avoid any sort of skillpoint cap and all of them will be useful to you at 2 million SP all the way up to 30 million SP.

Minmatar weapons systems are some of the most forgiving, damaging and scalable in the game and a big portion of their defenses, speed tanking, is a universal part of every other race's ships. Somewhere in those other lineups are ships that will benefit from speed tankning!

Want to break faces? Get a Rifter now and dream of 425mm Autocannon IIs.


"I think I prefer to stay safe and run missions."


One word: Drake. Okay, second word: Caldari.

Kestrel -> Caracal -> Drake -> Raven is the oldest combination (sans Drake) of safe, defensible, and utterly reliable PvE ships in Eve Online. Many fads have come and gone with PvP ships, but in 8 years this "opinion" has withstood all the tests of time, EFT Warriors, countless patches and re-balances, and the release of new ship lines.

Maximizing your shield tanking will benefit you with Caldari and Minmatar ships, and all races have some limited access to missile launcher hardpoints, so you'll get a bit of use out of those skillpoints wherever you go. Caldari vessels also specialize in electronic warfare, which is a great addition to any gang PvP, if you chose to level up those skills I can't think of a fleet commander who's going to poo-poo a willing Blackbird or Scorpion pilot coated in jammers!


"... Aw, but I made this Gallente character..."


I'm so sorry. Here *hug* let me try and ease the pain.

Gallente ships are functional, powerful, fast-ish, and drone skills are a big part of the "quality of life" skill training that every pilot will eventually do, but, the potential of Gallente vessels really falls flat when compared to the other ships in Eve. You can certainly train up to a Megathron or a Hyperion, and you can take them into PvP or PvE and you can make a mark in those arenas, but, you'd be having a much easier time in any other race's ships.

The Amarr tank harder and hit harder, the Minmatar are faster and hit (way) harder and the Caldari have significantly more reliable weapons systems, bonuses to long range guns and room for drones. You'd just be handicapping yourself in short and long runs.

There are people out there who squeeze every last drop of performance out of their Gallente ship fits, if you can find them and if you're really determined, you can learn. I'd train Gallente ships second.


"*Click character portrait, see True Amarr*


Okay, so you like Amarr, that's okay too. The Amarr ships are fantastic, while not as easy-mode as Minmatar are for PvP or Caldari for PvE, Amarr ships have buckets of merit to go around. Laser weaponry scales extremely well into the very late game and some of the Laser-focused ships in the game like the Imperial Navy Armageddon and Sansha's Nightmare are incredibly powerful in the hands of a character with enough skillpoints to use them effectively.

While you're going to be stuck slogging through missions in a Maller or an Abaddon or PvP in a Punisher or Armageddon, remember: One day you will have access to the Legion, Absolution, Pilgrim, and maybe some day the Paladin and when you do, no segment of gameplay will be obfuscated from you... except maybe becoming a dedicated electronic warfare pilot.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that while in the short-term Amarr ships suck compared only to the ease with which other ships perform in the same areas, in the long run Amarrian engineering is a powerhouse to be reckoned with.

As a newb I trained up the laser catalyst. That got nerfed.

I trained up the 2500 omni dps shieldtank myrm. That got nerfed.

I trained up the nano dominix and nano vexor. Those got nerfed.

I trained up the nosdomi. That got nerfed.

I moved out of lowsec to 0.0 and the predators all flew lowdps fast ships. So i jumped back in the nerfed shield tanked myrm and cruised around solo without a care in the world. Occasionally small crap would tackle me and die. I could then go kill rats with the exact same ogre setup. Real Life nerfed me back to highsec just before ccp could nerf those ogres + myrm.

I trained a good mission running dominix just before the lp store introduction and was making bigtime isk with very few hours/day. That got nerfed with invention bigtime... as well as salvaging becoming more popular.

I started getting into exploration and trading probes from the seeds supplying like 10 major regions. That got nerfed by bpo. So I got bpos and started building tons of probes and i dumped lots of isk into probes. Suddenly that got nerfed and probes were way way cheaper then what I built them at... suddenly I couldnt sell my stock for a profit. I lost loads of isk to that nerf.

Right about the same time I trained for a torpedo raven back when they used to fly 90km or so. That got nerfed.

I started to realize that whatever I do gets nerfed. So time to train everything. Now I can fly all t1 ships except for the mintar and caldari capitals. I can also fly all amarr and gallente ships including titans.

CANT NERF ME CANT NERF ME.

the rifter is the best standard frigate in the game IMO... like a few others have posted pick a ship you like and want to fly and learn it too its fullest.. Rifters are great for learning pvp cause you can fit one out really cheaply and have a great time.

main thing is though get your core skils up early on, it makes a big difference. i.e. engineering, electronics, mechanic, and navigation. and as your flying around in your new ship exploring, trying missions out, maybe out to low or null sec for some pvp you can focus your skills towards your next goal.

pay attention to what bonuses the ships give you, if they give you weapon specific learn that weapon up and specialize.

feel free to contact me in game for any questions i will answer anything to the best of my knowledge

I'd say Abaddon simply because it's relatively inexpensive price and the fact that you can do level 4s with it, turn it into a ghetto logi, or do incursions with it. Kind of opens a lot of doors.

First of all I am preoccupied as a Minmatar pilot. If you fly anything else, drop it, reskill Minmatar. :D

But serious, there's a reason for that. Minmatar ships are fun. I have been in a mission in a Drake recently -the first time in all my three years and a bit of EVE- and I hardly was able to overcome the urge to vomit. It's a very, very, very boring experience. The Drake is no ship. It's a sickness.

So -yes- if you want to mine hulls, fly Drake.

If you want to play EVE do something different. First of all whatever you do, try to do it right. So flying a good frigate is a good start. Take a Rifter, skill it to five, have fun whatever you do. Skill a Thrasher, have fun.

If you do well in frigate class vessels, go to cruisers. Don't go to battlecruisers, because you might think "yay, they are much stronger, larger, better", but you really lack skills in the beginning. And flying L3 in cruisers is much more fun anyway. Many people say that the Rupture is the best Minmatar cruiser and if you fly it with double repairers in a mission, that might be. Some say the Stabber is it.

I have helped a lot of new pilots and many failed in those two ships, even if I love them and prefer to offer them to fly the Rupture. But the Bellicose was much more successful in the end. Because you need a lot of skills that you don't have in the beginning of your career for Stabber and Rupture. So try out the Bellicose. Many say it's a ****-ship but that's wrong. What they do not recognize is, that the Bellicose is a range tank. It's the only Minmatar ship that does decent damage on range due to Artillery, Missiles and best of all a huge drone bay.

A good friend of mine is doing L4 in that cruiser. She tried to use Hurricanes but after losing a lot of them in L4 she always falls back to her beloved Belli to really make money. Yes, it may take a bit more time. But it's hell of a fun and you don't need much money. You don't need much skill. You don't lose much if you pop. All in all that might be not only the best choice it is also the most fun choice.

Fit the Belli with some shields, artillery, missiles and good drones. Keep your afterburner running, remain distance. Together with your low signature and high speed it's almost invulnerable to everything that might come after you. It's easy to skill. Easy to fly. Fun, because you have to use your brains.

Whatever choice you do in EVE. Chose the fun. Not the efficiency. You learn better by this, become a much better pilot. I have sawed through the Drakes of five year old Drake All-5 captains with a Rupture in a halve year old toon with hardly skills on 4 (but Rupture-5! Yay! Win!). Drake is the way of the braindead. Mind that. If you are a crazed little lass like me you'll love to fly L4 in Rifters or Claw Interceptors. Yes, it's possible. Or do it in a gang or Rifters! Yay! Megafun! You will also love to try the near 200 DPS Breacher with rocket setup somewhere. Use your imagination, not your pocket calculator. That's rectal-centered. Try the Stabber Fleet Issue if you have had fun with cruisers. You will have an orgasm. Promise. Better than battlecruiser.

Go for the fun.

Fly Minmatar. Try different. Try the impossible. Be it.

And go kill a Drake a day.

…and go kill a Drake a day…

True word. Never forget if you fly straight T1 ships that there are faction or even pirate faction variants, that are easy to skill, hard to beat.

The evil brother of the Rifter is the Republic Fleet Firetail. You get it from all those TLF mission runners at Rens for an apple and an egg nowadays. Means something about 14 million isk, that's less than a Wolf and it's maybe better. Wolf is fine but not performing so well as the Rifter against frigates (no tracking bonus, which kills so much of the theoretical DPS). The Dramiel is nowadays something between 60 and 80 million isk, but if you get in trouble you pop like a frigate if you are in a L4 with it.

So better try the Stabber Fleet Issue, that I mentioned above, that's to fly with plain cruiser skills, has DPS almost like a battlecruiser, is small, fast and with that efficiently tanking L3 and L4 for about 60 millions ISK investment. That's less than a Dramiel and better than a Dramiel.

With 170 to 200 millions you can go for the Cynabal cruiser, which would really rock. If you fly this in missions you'll have a lot of fun and no problems to get down everything. It will perform better than a badly skilled battleship and outperforms most battlecruisers.

So the advice is if you do something, try to do it right. First fly correct frigates. Means frigate on 5, small guns on t2, the 1x skills on 5 like engineering, electronics, mechanics, drones, rapid firing, which all can be done fast and in a month. With that you are already evil. With Rifter, Firetail, Dramiel (Gallente Frig has to come up to 4 for that) and after that Bellicose (or Stabber/Rupture), Stabber Fleet Issue, Cynabal (need Gallente Cruiser 4).

Then stuff the pockets with money, fill up the gaps in the skill tree. Do what you want, PvE, rock in PvP or Ferengi with trading (industrials is something that you learn "on the fly" in a few hours, so I don't mention it). But keep the fun up.

And go kill a Drake a day. Really, I mean it.

Personally, a Raptor Interceptor. If you're up for joining an alliance and entering null sec these can be really handy as in null there's always scouts and tacklers needed (you'll probably need a few though as they're not exactly tough and tend to be targeted pretty early on, they rely on speed and agility to survive so Micro warp drives or Afterburners are a must).

They're fairly cheap and can work really well as a combat - interceptor, I used them for tackling and combat as they can be very effective against frigates and other interceptors with the right fitting (not necessarily using the correct parts for getting the bonuses so you'll need to cross train different frigate class weapons and find the ones that fit and work best for you).