EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi, I've just started playing in a trial account and I have some questions for the EvE veterans out there..

I've been told that choosing your ships/race is one of the most important cost/time saving decisions a player can make (I asked this in the noob corp and the usual silence was broken, ugly technical debates, etc. ugh.) I tried joining a level 4 security mission with this helpful guy ingame (If you're reading this then, thank you again!) and it seems an okay route to earn my way to better equipment. He says that the cost/time of entry can be low enough and I can progress on my own pace.

So with that in mind, what ship is best for Missioning/Incursions? And if I want to do Incursions ASAP?

My personal preference for missioning ships and habits are using Minmatar ships and using active shield tanking with some speed tanking. What this means is that I use guns, shield boosters, and afterburners to fly around and blow stuff up. I like guns becuase I have damage options, range options, and no cap issues.

For level 1 missions I use the Rifter or a Thrasher. Both use small projectile weapons and can be fit with an afterburner and a shield booster to allow me to orbit targets at speed and blow them up while still moving fast enough to reduce the amount of damage I take.

For level 2 missions I tend to use a Rupture Cruiser until I can get a Battlecruiser (usually a Cyclone for the shield boost bonus) while I work up some base missile skills as well as get my drone skill up to 5 and a few of the drone support skills.

I then take the BC to do level 3s until I have good shield skills built up and t2 light drones. Preferably I would want to get T2 large gun skills built up as I approach level 4 missions (this is a long train time (50 days? has been a while).

Once I can use T2 large guns I go to the battleships (Maelstrom) and start doing level 4s.

There is an alternate training path. Once you have decent shield and gun skills (T2 medium) you could look in to using a Loki (they are a bit pricey though) which can tank missions nicely, but the damage from a T3 in a L4 is slightly disappointing and getting webbed can hurt a lot as the tank is fairy speed dependent.

It will however boil down to your tastes for blowing stuff up. For me the missile route is the easiest, but also one of the most limiting (in terms of ships) and ultimately boring (orbit, F1, wait for target to pop) paths to follow.

Actually, your choice of race is quite possibly the least important decision in the game. You as a pilot are able to train to fly every race ship and their respective weapons if you choose. You're not restricted to flying one race of ships if you don't want to be. My main character can fly ALL non capital ships and all of their respective weapons. It's rather nice.

Your choice of ship really depends on what appeals to you, aesthetic wise. If you like this or that race of ships because you find they look cooler or whatever, then that's your choice and a valid one. I like the gold color of Amarr ships, but my personal favorite is Minmatar ships because I like autocannons. One is not superior to another, it's just a matter of personal taste.
Missions *can* be profitable, but not many people like them because they're oh so very boring and repetitive. You basically fly in, turn on weapons, make the bad guys explode, fly back and collect reward. They can pay well but money isn't everything in this game and if you're not having fun then you should try something else.

Incursions are a whole different monster. They're mainly intended for groups of players working together to complete them. They're tough, really tough and remote repair ships are often a necessity. I highly doubt new players will do very well when participating in Incursion fleets unless you really focus your training skills for it.

Also no one will let you fly with them if your ship is anything less than a faction BS with officer and faction fits

So go for DPS, missiles, and something like the Raven or Drake.. got it. Oh, maybe some drone skills? I've heard that incursions are like level10 missions the way some people describe it.. save enough for very expensive ships, looks like my tasklist is done!

Thankies for the links, what other useful websites do I have to know of? Someone recommended to me the EVE Survival - MissionReports, battleclinic and incursions.nexsoft.de already..