EVE General Discussion

Hi, fairly new player here, started about a month ago.

I joined a PVP corp, and have been very happy with it, they're a fairly hardcore bunch and their focus is on fleet PVP, currently small-mid scale (10-30 ships) .

The corp has a great CEO that's been playing the game since launch and knows pretty much everything about the game. He knows I want to do fleet PVP, and he wants to move the corp in the direction of being more organized, and taking on bigger challenges. The rub is that I'm Gallente and drone specialized, currently flying Vexors (both vanilla and Navy), and he does not put much weight in the use of drones for large scale PVP.

He doesn't care that I'm using Vexors afaict, but he does want me to train for a Stabber Fleet Issue. He's told me that the skills he'd want me to have would take me about a week to get. I get the impression that in general he'd prefer if I moved away from drones, because he sees smartbombs as so powerful a counter to drones, that having the fleet rely on significant drone damage presents a significant weakness to our composition.

My long term goal is to be a Thanny pilot. The idea of using carriers just really appeals to me, and while I know its a fair ways off, I've been pretty dedicated in pursing it as a goal. I've got a trader alt, and am trying to really learn and understand the market such that I can make enough isk to one day not only buy a Thanny, but be able to support it financially (read, lose them from time to time). I spend my time split about 70/30 trading and PVPing. Trading to learn to earn the kind of isk needed to be an effective capital ships pilot, PVPing so that if I ever actually succeed as a trader, I'll be able to competently fly a multi-billion isk ship often enough to be valuable to the corp (being a Thanny pilot that can never field his carrier isn't that useful =\).

I don't mind training to fly a Stabber for a week for the good of the Corp's fleet composition. My worry is that it won't just be a week training for a stabber. I'm worried that if I start letting others dictate what I train (even well meaning, highly experienced others), when it comes time to switch to Battlecruisers Tornado's will start to look really nice, since the Myrmidon is a drone boat and the other Gallente BattleCruisers suffer on either range or alpha (also, I've already got Minmatar IV cruiser skills, it won't take that long). Then when it comes time for Battleships I'll be looking at training for a Geddon or Rohk. I feel like compromising my long term plan for a stabber or even for the corp is really a slippery slope, and what starts as a lost week's training will turn into a lost year as I grow and my corp needs me to fill new roles.

So I guess my quesitons are:

1. Is Vexor -> Myrm -> Dominix -> Thanatos really that bad for fleet ops before Thanatos? I think my corp leader knows what he's talking about, but at the same time I'm hoping that perhaps he's overlooked something, some obscure ewar build, some new R&K strategy, I'm hoping that there is some way to be fairly valuable to a fleet while taking this path. Are drones really completely gimped for organized professional fleet work?

2. Is the goal of being a Thanny pilot silly for a one month old player? I feel like due to the strong incentives in the game for specialization, I should start working towards this sooner rather than later if I'm serious about doing it.

3. Am I just being a stubborn sob that should just take advice from more experienced people?

If the corp does mostly small gang warfare, I would suggest you listen to him. I don't know what your fleet doctrine is but versatility seems to rule in small gang pvp.

There are a few gallente ships that are popular in pvp but not as much as other races(Enyo, Arazu, Brutix comes to mind) and the thorax is supposed to be good soon.

So my suggestion would be to take a bit of direction at first and then as you get more experience, you will be more sure of what your goals are as far as training.

The Gallente Cruisers are being buffed so you could ask if a new Duel Prop (Armor) or Shield Vexor will fit in with the gang. New Vexor is faster, hardier, easier to fit and has more Dmg potential. Thorax is plain out faster then before, very fast with better tracking. You could also ask if the new Exequror is acceptable as a Logistics Cruiser for the gang, it is cheap to lose for your first times out, Navatas too if you want to practice first.

Stat changes can be found in Features and Idea's, see if he is fine with you still training Gallente if you can bring one of those.

Stick with Gallente and tell your great leader to lick your *******. Talos and Lach are great in nano gangs and for armor gangs you can bring a Thorax, Deimos, Arazu, Proteus, or Mega depending on ship sizes for fleet. Then you have ships like the Incursus, Enyo, Ishkur, Vexor, Ishtar, Brutix, Myrm, Astarte, Domi, and Hype that are fun to try and solo in or do small gang stuffs. Your ceo probably isn't fond of you using drone ships for fleet action because it takes time for your dps to get to the target and start chewing it up as opposed to say a talos doing sick instant damage out to 60km with null or something and like you said your drones could get blown up by smartbombs or something leaving you without most or all of your deeps. So vexor, myrm, and domi aren't bad at all or anything there are just some other gallente ships that might be a little better for what you are trying to do with them.

A Vex can carry EC 600s and repair bots as well as combat drones.

IMO, drone boats are indispensable for small fleet warfare. Tell your corp leader to watch some Alliance Tournament footage and pull his head out of his ass.

Mr Epeen

Going to go ahead and situationally say this is true.

Situationally.

Some Gallente ships that shine:

Talos
Dominix (Sidenote it has to be in a gang that would support it well)
Ishkur/Enyo
Ares/Taranis
Thanatos
Moros

Ships that require gallente skills that really shine:

Dramiel (Even post nerf it's a good ship)
Daredevil
Cynabal
Mach

Some people are starting to get use out of Vindicators as PVP ships which is wild.

Crap how did I forget the Arazu? Honestly an Arazu paired with a buddy in a Daredevil or a rapier is a gate camp FC's wet dream.

In the big fleets there is generally a comedy Mega or two. Some joker has been bringing a comedy apoc lately too.

This person is stuck in 2010, do not listen to them. However your CEO is right about drones in large fleet fights, but in small roaming gangs they are fine and it would probably be best if you dont fly a Stabber Fleet Issue when you don't have enough skills to fly it well (unless he's willing to pay for them, in that case, go crazy). As for other Gallente ships, the Thorax is getting rebalanced on December 4th and for a small drone package the Tristan will be the only t1 frigate that can use 5 light drones at once.

Also don't forget the new Gallente and Amarr drone destoryers

The first two years of playing I was focussed in drones. Take it from me when I say that unless your ultimate goal is to run missions, then you don't need drone skills past T2 lights. In fleets, the only thing drones are used for is for protection against tacklers (5 x warriors). They are a pain in the butt to manage, it takes time to actually apply damage, and they are lost easily. And if you lose your drones in a drone boat, you are useless to your gang.

You can still train drones and use them for carriers in the future, but get out of drone boats for gang warfare. They are ok for solo work, but that's about it.

The problem is, you're foolishly thinking that I, as a troll, care?