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My first alt account: What to do?
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hwhiskey
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#1 - 2011-10-13 18:15:35 UTC
Hi all,

I'm a returning player to EVE, and I'm looking to create my first alt account now that I can reliably farm level 4s to earn enough ISK to buy PLEX. I want to use the alt account for PvE purposes (not mining!), but I am unsure of what types of things I can use it for.

Right now my main account very comfortably flies a maelstrom, and I am looking to jump into some new activities besides level 4 missions, such as low / nullsec exploration or ratting like sanctums/havens/whatever, possibly some action in WH space, level 5 missions, or any other sort of PvE activity involving exploration / combat (not mining, science, or manufacturing).

My question is: What types of ships / skills should I aim for to aid my main account in doing some of the PvE activities I listed above? My main inclination was first to train for a Tengu, as my main has almost no caldari related skills, and I've heard great things about the ships PvE capabilities in a variety of scenarios. Should I start by training for covert ops to aid in scouting / scanning if I decide to try out some new things in null sec? (I've never been there before).

Any help / advice is greatly appreciated, thank you!
Ratnose Banker
Pink Sockers
#2 - 2011-10-13 18:33:17 UTC
Tengu is the best imo. Great for pve and you can fit a covert cloak, interdiction nullifier and probing sub to use as a scout/scanner.
Leetha Layne
#3 - 2011-10-13 18:36:39 UTC
Ratnose Banker wrote:
Tengu is the best imo. Great for pve and you can fit a covert cloak, interdiction nullifier and probing sub to use as a scout/scanner.



This. I did this. I love to play with the Tengu, and at some point I can sell the guy.
King Rothgar
Deadly Solutions
#4 - 2011-10-13 18:48:27 UTC
Others may disagree with this but I think my approach to having two accounts is the best route to go. My main (this toon) is an all out combat character. I do pvp and pve with it since, well, gunnery is gunnery. Whether you're shooting at npc's or players doesn't really matter much as far as the SP is concerned.Blink

As such, my second major toon on a separate account has always focused on supporting roles. Initially it was a mining alt that I ran in the background while missioning. Since it was along the same skill tree, I also made him a dedicated hauler alt able to fly freighters and transports. Once I developed an interest in combat probing and exploration, the support toon trained those skills while my combat toon kept training direct combat skills. I've had this setup running for years and the result is this toon is crazy good with just about any minmatar or amarr ship and my alt can do all the support stuff from heavy duty hauling with a JF to providing max skilled ganglink t3's (all four of them) with the probing subsystem.

For your purposes, I suggest a similar approach. I would skip the mining part but probing, ganglinks and even a logi cruiser would be excellent additions. Maxing a noctis wouldn't be a bad idea either along with the mini professions like hacking and analyzing. To compliment your maelstrom specifically, you can't go wrong with a tengu booster alt. A boosted maelstrom can solo many lvl5's as the only ship on grid (makes it easy with all the respawns) or alternatively, you can throw that alt into a basilisk which makes the neuting ones less of a problem. This type of setup allows you to do some of the highest end pve content all on your own with a high level of efficiency.

[u]Fireworks and snowballs are great, but what I really want is a corpse launcher.[/u]
Emperor Salazar
Remote Soviet Industries
Insidious Empire
#5 - 2011-10-13 19:01:34 UTC
King Rothgar wrote:


As such, my second major toon on a separate account has always focused on supporting roles. Initially it was a mining alt that I ran in the background while missioning. Since it was along the same skill tree, I also made him a dedicated hauler alt able to fly freighters and transports. Once I developed an interest in combat probing and exploration, the support toon trained those skills while my combat toon kept training direct combat skills. I've had this setup running for years and the result is this toon is crazy good with just about any minmatar or amarr ship and my alt can do all the support stuff from heavy duty hauling with a JF to providing max skilled ganglink t3's (all four of them) with the probing subsystem.
.


I did exactly this with my alt.

Bought a mining character, trained for more industrial stuff, blockade runner, freighters, more industry, scanning, jump freighter and now carrier.
Substantia Nigra
Polaris Rising
Goonswarm Federation
#6 - 2011-10-13 22:05:05 UTC
Again, this is probably another eve "it depends" situation :-)

A first-alt can be anything you want / need. They can be trained to complement your background and fill-in in areas where you're weak ... e.g. industry, scanning, leadership etc. They can be trained to supplement and augment what you already do ... e.g. DPS if lvl4s are not yet a pushover. They can be trained for a very specific role ... e.g. uber-scanner alt. There are no end of alt-options.

Having said that, I took the opposite approach to the previous two responders. I am a utility character and don’t have a battleship or large weapon skill above lvl1. I do fly small ships pretty well though, including all-fives-tengu, and have above-average skills-for-age in a number of support roles. My main alt started life in salvage-support for mission running but is now my main DPS mission-runner sleeper-killer flying an all-fives rattlesnake for w-space and a nearly all-fives machariel for incursions and hisec missions ... but, except for covops, doesn't know how to find the entry port on a frigate.

Of course, he's male and so is into the big-ships-with-big-guns thing, while I am more interested in actually getting things done.

I guess I am almost a 'vet' by now. Hopefully not too bitter and managing to help more than I hinder. I build and sell many things, including large collections of bookmarks.
MadraRuaa
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2011-10-14 02:25:17 UTC
You can train a Noctis pilot with reasonable skills in just over a day and a half. You can use this alt to follow you through missions clearing up while you then train it in whatever direction you choose. As some have a stated a jack of all trades alt does come in very handy, and at least salvaging missions is something for the said alt to do whilst training up for combat.

The problem with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and putting things in it.

Raiia
Perkone
Caldari State
#8 - 2011-10-14 05:29:18 UTC
being able to fly 2x armor bs with utility highs or 2x shield bs with utility highs is always fun.
Solomar Espersei
Quality Assurance
#9 - 2011-10-14 12:04:25 UTC
Since you mentioned exploration, I think I'd train that Alt to be a Noctis pilot and a Cov/Ops alt with a Virtue set. The Alt can then set cloaked above/below the gate watching for hostiles while you run 4/10s or 6/10s with your main. It's not fool proof and you'll eventually get ganked, but if you like exploring, you'll benefit greatly from having an Exploration Alt.

Quality Assurance Recruiting intrepid explorers and BlOps/Cov Ops combat enthusiasts
TA5E
Fusion Enterprises Ltd
Pandemic Horde
#10 - 2011-10-14 18:49:49 UTC
I've been thinking about this too. Born as a cyno alt when I got my carrier, I forker her to mining, but not feeling it since I almost got her suicide ganked in a highsec ice belt.

So I'm working her towards logistics. She can almost fly a crane (just needs to train the transport ships skills) and I'm about to put her into CovOps frigates to have her support me in 0.0. Also, obviously, putting some SP in PI stuff.

But other than scouting me and hauling PI stuff, and giving me a cyno, I don't know what to do with her. Not too into dual-boxing in PvE/PvP, especially not in 0.0. Maybe as a highsec salvager or as backup logistics so I can load more DPS.
FloppieTheBanjoClown
Arcana Imperii Ltd.
#11 - 2011-10-14 20:24:52 UTC
I never much liked dual boxing two combat ships. I felt like I wasn't doing things that much faster than with one.

My first alt was originally supposed to be a miner, but after about a month I trained it to fly a salvage catalyst (this is before the Noctis came out) and found it to be a lot more useful as a salvager. I took it into wormholes with me to make quick work of sleeper wrecks so I spent less time in one place. If you're doing PVE, a salvage alt can make you quite a bit of cash. Plus if you share rewards with your fleet you can run that alt up to being able to take L4 missions and you can start two missions at a time.

Founding member of the Belligerent Undesirables movement.
Cambarus
The Baros Syndicate
#12 - 2011-10-14 20:50:23 UTC
I've had quite a few alts over the years, abd so far the most useful was the leadership alt. It's not only extremely useful in damn near every situation, but when I did get bored with it and tossed it on the forums I got 6 bil for it (might have been 6.5, not sure), which isn't bad considering it had less than 20mil SP
Tamiya Sarossa
Resistance is Character Forming
#13 - 2011-10-14 23:57:55 UTC
Traditionally a posting alt should be high up on your agenda, but out of all things an alt can do make sure it can move your ships (freighter/carrier), boost you (leadership), and then scout (fly a covops).

Anything after that is gravy, but those three will make your life much much easier on your main.
Anya Ohaya
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#14 - 2011-10-15 07:29:48 UTC
A decent cov-ops is a long train compared to other alt roles, such as a drake/tengu combat pilot, or a noctis alt salvager.