EVE New Citizens Q&A

Best advice so far.

I would go minmitar and start with the rifter, there's a good reason so many people suggest it and the Assault Frig Variants are excellent too, then go Thrasher and aim for a Sabre, it's a great ship even in empire as it is exceptional for taking out frigs even the fancy faction boom boxes like Drams and Daredevils, and opens up all sorts of doors for Null Sec too.

Then Go rupture (500dps in a t1 cruiser , lovely!) and start aiming for the Hurricane then Tempest/Maelstrom.

I would go for Minmitar in generel as they are multi discipline meaning the the supporting skills for engineering and electronics can be easily transferred to other races as can the secondary gunnery skills and primary and secondary missile skills can also transfer meaning access times to efficent use of other race vessels is greatly reduced minus the specific recon/ewar based skills. In short they take the longest to master and use well but they are the skeleton key of Eve they focus on transferrable skills and as such ar excellent for opening up new doors as you develop as a player...go minmitar, the options from there are endless.

Plus I would add having been core caldari for pretty much my fist 18months in Eve, you will envy the vesratility and speed of minmitar ships and will hate the training times to cross to them from missile only boats.

And as an experienced falcon pilot I can say I'd rather come up against a falcon than a rapier or a huggin because if they catch up to you, you aint getting away :(

However if you wanna just grind missions the drake is for you Via the Merlin/Kestrel and Caracal route, all good boats but limited imho

fairly new player myself, here is my .02

Don't worry about 'better' ships, worry more about a better character. As mentioned, the Nav and Engineering skill trees are more important than a new hull.

The path of progression for most pilots is similar at first. Usually an expensive PvE fitted ship for missions/mining/COSMOS whatever- then a bevy of cheap, throwaway frigates and cruisers to PvP with. Forget the mountains of 'this is the uber build for this boat' nonsense and fly them cheap. I could care less about 'best named' or tech II modules on a 200k frigate I expect to lose in under a minute- all the modules in the world won't make you a better pilot, so if you are a mission-runner type, outfit throwaway ships with loot where possible. Doesn't matter if it's the best of the type or the most basic.

So that is my advice- pick up skills to fly a couple races' frigates to 5, choose a frig favorite so they are cheap and available- Rifter, Kestrel, etc- and outfit them with loot where possible. Go out and fight- solo, small gang, whatever.

Learn on these throwaways. No, you will not automatically lose without that extra 2% bonus for using a looted module instead of spending isk on the best named or whatever- at least not so much as you can simply say "If I had that 3% more of DPS/range/etc then I'd have won"- take fitting advice and web sites are suggestions, not gospel. Combat in Eve is not won or lost on EFT.
Don't be a spec sheet pilot!!!!!

The tech II frigs are fairly versatile, but beyond that tech II ships quickly become very very focused (usually in support of a fleet) and actually offer less options for play. EW and Logi, for example, see very limited use outside of PvP. While the ships are certainly cool, chances are you won't be needing them until you are experienced and filling specific roles in a fleet.

Not that I claim to have played my toon perfectly- but for what it's worth, here is what the past six months have led me to for ships-
Fly 2 races frigs to level 5, another to 4
Cruisers to 5 for one race, 4 for two others
BC's to 4
Stealth Bombers, Electronic Attack Ships, and Interceptors

Haven't gotten into BS sized ships yet. Can't really afford to buy one, less likely to be able to lose it in PvP, and to be honest I am more useful to any fleet in a smaller ship.

New players may be looking at weeks of grinding low end missions or mining to even afford a single tech II ship, much less be able to afford it's loss. I've owned two SB's and lost them both after killing a single ship with each. Bad luck- 60+mil lost. That's PvP in Eve.

Lastly, let me suggest something I dislike myself-- given the choice between an isk-making ship and a fancy PvP boat- go with isk. For example- right now getting into a Drake is on par with the cost of a Hound when all outfitted. The payout diff between level II and III missions is huge enough that getting the PvE ship and grinding even more PvE is usually worth it so you can get those better PvP hulls faster. Loot is also better so using loot for outfitting is feasible. It may be hard to set up yet another PvE ship (especially early on when you run mostly solo) instead of getting that shiny SB. However, that better PvE ship will likely keep you in PvP ships far longer than that SB.

Instead of getting better ships, get better at flying the ones you can already. Nothing better than a YouTube vid of a Rifter popping some massive ship costing 20 times as much.

I have to say that after two accounts over the last several years, you should start with a racial cruiser, then work your way into a racial battlecruiser. The cruiser skills will be useful later on, and battlecruisers are always useful. You can make ISK or fight, and they will last you more than enough time to get your support skills high enough to take on more specialized ships.

To the contrary, having the "I won't let you die button" leads to you being able to press the "I win" button.

Seems like almost all the ships have been promoted in this thread. Frigates are fun, the Rifter is the best. But in Cruisers, there are different variations. I am assuming a new player is one with under 2 months of skill points. In which case, frigates, cruisers and BC's would work nicely. The thing about BC's is that you can run missions, do pvp, and hold up against incoming fire and not pop immediately.

Now lets quickly think about a new player with low skills who want to live. I would probably say, the cov op ships are great for lo and null sec because you can cloak... but with low skills, I would assume a new player cannot tank anything in either shield or armor very effectively, so I would suggest a FAST speed tank setup. You can get your need for speed simply by using a microwarp or an afterburner on your ship. This would probably work best in tandem with a frigate or a cruiser for the new player.

Assuming you like to go fast, not worry about tank because well, you have no skills, and like to stay alive at little cost, a frigate/cruiser thats speed tanked will be your best bet within say 2 months of starting. Once you can tank with armor or shield a little better, and you have speed tanking under your belt, you can move on.

The best part about learning to speed tank is not that is your best chioce as a new player, but as you get better and buy more ships, you'll understand how to speed tank them too, which is a seriously effective method for the avid pvp player. So its a skill that you will use in the future as well. Nothing learned is unused, ever. Some of the top players speed tank ships like the t2 Vagabond, the Cynabal, and the list can go on....

That's my 2 cents...

Wow, I can't believe I read every single post in this thread. All had good advice. A lot of them said it depends on what the new player want's to do. Only a few said what the new player should do.

I'll also say what I think the new player should do.



Train up the core fitting skills as soon as possible. This will make it much easier to fit up any ship you decide to fly.

Do not rush into larger ship class until you've got good high level skill set pertaining to that ship class. Level 4 or 5 on all skills.

Make sure any fitted ship you fly, including Implants and Medical/Jump clones, can be easily and quickly replaced with ISK or Assets.

Never wait to warp out if things start to go bad. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.

Last but not least, have fun.


Good luck to you all.

Dramiel. It has one of the best survivability in the game and not that hard to train for. Slippery little boat. Choose a cloaky tengu or two for wingmen, go out and hunt for ppl.

As amarr, go for arbitrator, get T2 modules and at least mediocre drone skills, after that you should know whats your future path.

For other races ship ther are smarter people than me here.

My absolute favorite ship is the thrasher and sabre both in look and flying although you cant do really high lvl mission with them or do any pvp outside a huge fleet its my favorite ship to fly spent my first months in it :) my second favorite ship is the hurricane xD