EVE New Citizens Q&A

Im trying to choose a race to focus on for small fleet pvp (mostly 2 man ganking).

I am mainly interested in the smaller ships(frigs, cruisers) but certainly T1 and T2.

My partner is minmatar, so i would like to go with a different race.

When flying caldari and gallente i seem to have a hard time dictating range enough to use blasters effectively.
With amarr, i dont need to dictate range since pulse has great optimal, but I just cant seem to put out the necessary dmg, and ships are getting under my guns with better tracking.

What are the main highlight ships of each race in these sizes, and the strength and weaknesses of those ships?

CCP is in the process of rebalancing all ships, starting with frigates. Some of the frigates have already been hit with the rebalance bat, the others are slated to be soon.

Any information we told you would likely be outdated in a month or so.

Bottom line is that cross-training between the various races' ships is relatively painless, for frigates, cruisers, and battlecruisers. It's only when you get to battleships (and T2 large guns) that the crosstraining becomes really painful.

You're flying alongside someone who can easily fit a web. Apply damage to what he webs.

An advantage of Caldari and Gallente over Amarr is that they have halfway decent T1 cruisers. With Amarr the only recommended cruiser will require you to train drones for over a month, when nearly every other Amarr ship that you'll want to fly will benefit more from gunnery skills.

Amarr T1 frigs worth flying: Punisher, Tormentor, Executioner (after the next rounds of buffs), Coercer, Imperial Navy Slicer, Crucifier (situationally).

Amarr T2 frigs worth flying in a duo with a Minmatar boat: Retribution, Vengeance (rockets), Purifier (torps+bombs), Sentinel (drones+neuts+TD).

The new Executioner will easily be able to dictate range and will do as much damage as a Punisher. The Tormentor's something you should be looking at right now. A Slicer scales neatly from 100dps (overheated Scorch S at ~20km) in the hands of a total rookie to 200dps in the hands of a God, and kites extremely well - but it's expensive. A Slicer might also be a good companion to an arty Wolf, when you get into T2 frigs. A Coercer will effortlessly do 200 DPS right off the bat, and tank better than a Punisher. The Coercer's chief disadvantage - that is has one midslot - is mitigated by your having a wingmate.

Retributions are beasts, with both range (same bonus as Slicer and Coercer) and tracking bonuses. And getting Assault Frigates only requires Amarr Frigave V (which you want anyway for other ship bonuses), Engineering V (which you absolutely want for Thermodynamics, and fitting), and Mechanics V (which is also a requirement to use nanite repair paste). It's almost a 'free' class of ship, quite unlike the Purifier and Sentinel, which require the awful skill Electronics Upgrades.

If you are willing to train drones for a month, you can fly an Arbitrator, TD enemies to death, and bring a lot of utility to the duo. If you'd rather bring a lot of damage, then you'd rather fly a Vexor.

If you train Gallente and he trains Minmatar, then you can cross-train enough to fly each other's ships (which may come in handy) and thereby also get access to Angel Cartel and Serpentis ships: Dramiel, Daredevil, Cynabal, Vigilant. Which you may appreciate in the future.

Alright, stupid question time. I'm sure there is a really easy answer to this but I need to see it. When it comes to amarr and cruisers, why is the Arbitrator always recommanded over the Omen?

Though the navy omen is awesome though pricey