Skill Discussions

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night everybody,

I've been a carebear pretty much throughout my entire year-long EVE playing career. However, now that I have enough cashflow to sustain a PvP lifestyle in null-sec, I just need to train for one. I'm pretty much exclusively trained in Caldari and Missile combat, which from what I understand is pretty much the worst PvP skill set possible. Any idea what Minny ship area / combat style I should look at?

Thanks for the advice. I've been looking up some PvP Minny fits online, and I was thinking of going for a mid-sized ship like a BC or a regular Cruiser. (From what I understand, PvP Battleships are very specialized and not used much in solo and small fleet assignments.) So the general consensus is that T2 guns are a must? That's kind of what I was wanting to avoid because to get to T2 guns is about a month of training on each size, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Caldari ships, in particular the drake and the tengu, are commonly used by some of the large nullsec coalitions. Drakes are cheap and easy to train newer players into, and the tengu is relatively hard to kill. Generally youre' talking strategic fleets of sov-holding groups though, not small ten-man gangs roaming or camping gates. For that sort of thing, you're probably looking at Min or certain Amarr ships.

I disagree that T2 weapons are vital, especially beyond small autocannons. The advanced weapon skills don't give that much DPS inherently, what they give is access to advanced ammo types. Depending on your circumstances and skill level, you may not be using those in any case. So 4 points in gun skill and meta4s is quite sufficient to get you started on a PvP career.

I agree that early on you should try Rifters, maybe thrashers and firetails, before moving up to the standard Hurricane or a Stabber Fleet Issue. Especially in small groups, it's a less expensive way to learn. Of course, if your carebearing days have netted you billions in cash, what's a couple of Hurricanes?

My one definite suggestion is take a hard look at your navigation skills. Put simply, speed is vital for PvP. Need to control range? Better have MWD skills. Need to outrace your opponent orbiting? Better have acceleration control and fuel efficiency trained up. Need to make hard turns? Evasive maneuvering. These are skills that you might have trained to 3 or 4, that you should seriously consider training to 5. It'll make you more effective across the board.

Note that you won't be able to fit 425s on canes for much longer per dev post. That said 'phoons are better for 425 any way.

Two different kinds of 425's there.

The large Dual 425mm AutoCannon - big 'un

And the medium 425mm AutoCannon - 'little 'un' -

Probably you meant the dual 425s can be fit on the Tornado (as well as the typhoon). This conversation was about the single 425mm, i.e. the medium turret size.

Also, both of those weapons have SIGNIFICANTLY different target sizes.

Bear in mind that the sequence could easily go:

• Buy a Hurricane
• Engage three or four frigate/destroyer weight hostiles
• Go home in your pod
• Buy another Hurricane

As an aside, though, training projectile weapons can give you benefits beyond Minmatar vessels - there are a number of ships that have turret slots but no bonuses to any fitted weapon type (such as the Myrmidon, the Arbitrator, and others), and for them, projectile weapons are often the go-to type, since they don't use any cap.

For small scale PVP, Caldari ships aren't as bad as commonly thought. The Merlin is a beast of a frigate, and the Drake can out-tank the Hurricane any day.


As for WinMatar ships, I can personally recommend the Hurricane as a bruiser/dps fit (straight up gank and shield buffer, can also armour buffer), and the Cyclone for a utility active shield tank. The Rifter is still nasty, but will probably lose to a blaster Merlin in a 1v1 frig fight. Having fought the Stabber Fleet issue - it's squishy, but hits hard.

falcon