These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
12Next page
 

Steps for Maximizing your Skill Training

First post
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2011-10-20 19:42:54 UTC  |  Edited by: Habba'al Zebul
The purpose of this guide is to to help familiarize Rookie pilots with the Skill Queue and Certification Planner interfaces and to maximize the learning process, ultimately leading to more pilots with a good set of core skills in the shortest amount of time possible. I've seen too many pilots create new characters to start over because they "messed up" in the learning process. To those pilots, I highly recommend continuing your training because every skill is useful at some point in your future and starting over is a waste of time.

I had to split up the post into multiple replies below. Please skip down to Part 1 to begin the guide.

To provide a context for Mara's reply below, I original spent three hours or so working on this guide only to lose it to a poorly coded timeout handling forum mechanism. I clicked preview and it was all gone, not even firefox could recover it. So a note to potential victims, please copy (Ctrl+C) your message to clipboard before submitting.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Mara Rinn
Cosmic Goo Convertor
#2 - 2011-10-20 19:52:52 UTC
While I agree that the forums have a nasty habit of forgetting what you've written, if you're writing an essay I'd suggest that it pays to write it up in a text editor first, and then take the time to proof-read it once today then once again tomorrow.

Day 0 Advice for New Players
Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2011-10-20 20:05:36 UTC  |  Edited by: Habba'al Zebul
Steps for Maximizing your Skill Training - Part 1

Before I go into details on how to setup your character, it is important that you understand the basics. I will start by defining a few terms that will be used throughout this guide.

What are skills?
A skill is used to determine what a pilot can do in the game. Pilots can do nothing without these skills. Every rookie starts out with a minimal set of skills to allow the pilot to fly a Frigate class ship and walk through the tutorials and entry-level missions. Navigate to Character Sheet -> Skills -> Skills tab to see what skills you already know.

What are core skills?
There is a set of core skills every pilot should train right away. These skills determine how well a pilot can work with various aspects of his or her ship. For example, a ship's power grid, central processing unit, and capacitor or its defensive grids can be pushed to their highest potential if the appropriate skills are maxed out, allowing the pilot to fit more resource-intensive items in the game or simply live longer in a skirmish. I will highlight what skills should have primary focus later in the guide.

What are Skill Levels?
Every skill has five levels which allow a pilot to use an item more efficiently, use more advanced items, or learn more advanced skills. Each higher level takes an exponential amount of time to learn, where level 1 can start at around 15 minutes and level 5 can take days or months depending on the skill.

What is the Skill Queue?
The skill Queue is an in-game interface which allows a pilot to queue up to 24 hours of training. The last skill in the queue can exceed the 24 hour period if at least the first minute of that skill can fit in the queue. For example, let's say you have 23 hours and 59 minutes of skills in the queue and you really want that skill which will take 1 day to learn. You can add the skill, taking the queue to exactly 1 day 23 hours and 59 minutes. Check back in 1 day and you can add another long skill at the end because you have 1 minute available in the queue.

What are skill groups?
Skill groups are sets of related skills. Organizing the skills in this manner helps you more easily work with the massive quantity of skills available to you. As you have seen in the Skill page on your character sheet and in the Skill Queue, skill groups borrow the name of a primary skill in that set. For example, Gunnery includes the gunery skill as well as small hybrid turret if you chose Galente.

What is a skillbook?
Skillbooks, or SBs as veteran pilots call them, are in-game items that can be traded or purchased on the market. They are injected into the pilot's learning center allowing the pilot to begin training those skills.

What is a skill training time multiplier?
This number is used to determine the level of difficulty for each skill. A multiplier of two (2x) will double the amount of time it takes to learn a skill level. Level 1 for a skill with 1x multiplier takes around fifteen minutes to learn. Level 1 for a skill with the 4x multiplier will take around an hour to learn. This value can be seen on the skill's information on the attributes tab.

What are pilot attributes?
This is not to be confused with the attributes tab for in-game items. If you are familiar with any role playing game, characters have a set of attributes on which success tests are based and damage is determined. Eve is a little different in that every pilot only has five attributes which are used to determine the length of time it takes to learn skills. The higher the number of points assigned to an attribute, the shorter the amount of time it takes to learn skills affected by the attribute.

Navigate to the Character Sheet -> Attributes section. If you have looked at a skill's information screen, specifically the Primary and Secondary attributes on the attributes tab, these will probably be familiar to you. They are Intelligence, Perception, Charisma, Willpower, and Memory. Each attribute is bound to specific skill areas. For example, skills which require social interaction, e.g., leadership, social, and trade, are affected by the Charisma attribute and core skills like engineering and electronics are based on Intelligence and Memory, with Intelligence being the more important of the two. As you learn additional skills you will note that the set of skills in each skill group share the same Primary and Secondary attribute.

Please continue Part 1 below.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2011-10-21 04:34:38 UTC  |  Edited by: Habba'al Zebul
Steps for Maximizing your Skill Training - Part 1 Continued

What are Certificates?
Certificates, or certs for short, were introduced a couple of years ago to help pilots better organize their learning queue. Each certificate earned acknowledges a certain level of achievement in the pilots career path. You will have no certificates if you are a new pilot. Certificates can be shown publicly but most people make them private if they know about them. Navigate to Character Sheet -> Certificates and familiarize yourself with this interface. Make a note of the permissions tab. This is where you will make certs private as you obtain them. Certificates are earned after learning the skills outlined therein. Certificates are organized into groups similar to how the skills are organized. Each certificate has four levels of achievement, Basic, Standard, Improved, and Elite.

What is the certification planner?
This is the in-game interface where you can see all of the certificates available to you. Navigate to Character Sheet -> Certificates -> Certificates tab -> Open Certification Planner button. Make the resulting window larger so you can see all of the certificate groups on the left. Expand Core to see the levels of completion. Now expand Basic. You will find six different certs. Core Competency covers the other five core areas. Now highlight Core Integrity and click the blue info icon. This opens up the Prerequisites tab, which outlines what skills and their prerequisites needed to obtain the cert. Familiarize yourself with this because you will see it again when you want to know what skills are required to use in-game items.

Now look at the right side of the main planner window. You will see a description of the cert and a map of the primary skills needed to obtain the cert (represented in the middle of the chart). The cert then becomes a prerequisite for the certs indicated on the bottom of the chart. The chart includes colors and colored icons to help you quickly gauge what you have and have not yet learned. A blue box with a blue icon indicates a certificate has been earned but needs to be claimed. Make note of the Claim All Certificates button on the bottom left of this window.

I believe I have provided enough information to move on the next part of my guide. If you still have questions, please ask and I will consider clarifying this section.

Continue to part 2 below.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2011-10-21 04:36:11 UTC  |  Edited by: Habba'al Zebul
Steps for Maximizing your Skill Training - Part 2

This guide has optional steps for those of you who have access to in-game money or are willing to purchase a game time card and convert it to a pilots license extension to trade for in-game money.

Step 1) Remap your attributes.
The first thing you will want to do is decrease the amount of time it will take to learn the core skills every pilot should have. Every rookie pilot is given two remaps. The first one we will use right away and the second one you will save for later. You will receive an additional remap every year.

The skills you will want to learn first have Intelligence as Primary attribute and Memory as Secondary attribute. Navigate to Character Sheet -> Attributes and click Remap Now. Now click the Minus button next to perception, Charisma, and Willpower until there are no green boxes filled. Now click the Plus button next to Intelligence until it is maxed out. Now add the remaining points to Memory. You should end up with 27 in Intelligence and 21 in Memory. Now click save changes.

Optional Step 2) Consume the Cerebral Accelerator. This is a limited time offer from CCP
If you signed up for your account recently, you may have access to a free gift if you buy game time. You should take advantage of this offer if it is available to you. This free redeemable item (see character selection screen) is called a Cerebral Accelerator. When consumed, it will grant you +3 to all attributes and a boost to your weapon damage and firing speed. This item is only good until day 35 (pilots age). Go. Now. Do it!

Optional Step 3) Add implants for Intelligence and Memory.
Now that you have mapped your attributes, purchase the Cybernetics skillbook (a Science skill), inject it, and train it to level 1 or 4, depending on how much money you are willing to spend on implants. Level 3 implants run around 9 million isk and level 4 implants run around 20 million. You might be able to save money if you have a friend who is willing to spend loyalty points in the LP Store.

The "Cybernetics Subprocessor - Basic" and "Memory Augmentation - Basic" implants give you +3 to Intelligence and Memory respectively. The "Cybernetics Subprocessor - Standard" and "Memory Augmentation - Standard" implants give you +4. Plugin the implants and navigate to Character Sheet -> Augmentations.

You -will- lose these implants if you get podded by a war target, by default someone who appears flashing red or orange to you. You may also be ganked moving around in low security space (0.1 to 0.4) and null security space (-1.0 to 0.0). Watch out for gate camps. Sadly, you may also be ganked If you are found carrying expensive items while in major trade hubs.

Step 4) Plan your core skills (about two months of training)
First download EveMon or EveHQ and install it (I favor EveHQ). These tools will help you plan out your skill training for as far into the future as you wish. People generally plan for one year. The program tells you the best way to map your attributes to maximize training for that year. Remember you only get one free remap a year.

The goal of this step is to help you prioritize core skills which will help you throughout your Eve career. I recommend not deviating from this plan unless you need to learn a skill for a mission or to try out a new ship or some ship equipment. The further you deviate from the plan, the longer it will take to finish the core stuff. My initial plan for new characters always runs around 100 days.

In the program you selected, add your api key (there is already adequate documentation on this topic), create a new plan, add the following skills to the plan to level V and split them by level so you can more easily organize them by training time (level and multiplier).

We will focus on skills which affect the core of the ship without adding any fittings to it. I have grouped them in a way that makes sense to me.

Capacity Skills: Electronics (for CPU), Engineering (for Power Grid), Energy Management* (for Capacitor), Mechanic (for Armor), Hull Upgrades (for Structure), Shield Management*
Recharge Skills: Energy Systems Operation (for Capacitor), Shield Operation
Ancillary Skills: Targeting (increase number of targets), Long Range Targeting (increase targeting range), Signature Analysis (faster targeting)

*Level 5 of Shield Management and Energy Management takes 10.5 days. Without these two, your plan will be around 52 days. I think extending it now to 73 is totally worth it just to get them out of the way, but as a Rookie pilot, you can probably put a lower priority on them.

I personally train Multitasking (req. Targeting 5) to level three for the ability to lock three more targets. Rookies usually will not need this.

Once again, I say it is a good idea to avoid deviating from your plan. People often go months without level 5 of this or that only to regret it later on when they are trying to milk as much out of their ship as possible. If you do deviate, please use your planner tool to ensure you will not lose a lot of time, thus wasting a remap.

Continue Part 2 below

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#6 - 2011-10-21 06:17:26 UTC  |  Edited by: Habba'al Zebul
Steps for Maximizing your Skill Training - Part 2 Continued

Step 4 continued)
If you wish to plan further ahead, I recommend adding the following skills which also use Intelligence and Memory. They will give you higher survivability if you fit the right modules. Training these to level 4 will add 7 (armor) to 9 (shield) days to your plan. As a Rookie you will base your ship's tank on either armor or shields (depending on the ship), but never both. Veteran pilots can usually pilot ships for both situations. As a general rule, Gallente and Amarr ships are armor tanked, but there are exceptions.

Active Tanking Skills: Repair Systems (unlocks armor and hull repairers), Shield Upgrades (Unlocks shield boosters), Shield Compensation (reduces Capacitor for shield boosters)
Armor Hardening Skills (req. Hull Upgrades 4): EM Armor Compensation, Explosive Armor Compensation, Kinetic Armor Compensation, Thermic Armor Compensation
Shield Hardener Skills (req. Shield Operation 4): EM Shield Compensation, Explosive Shield Compensation, Kinetic Shield Compensation, Thermic Shield Compensation

The following skills unlock additional ship modules to increase resources. You will often need to tweak your ship fitting a bit in order to get what you want on it. Training these to level 4 will add 3 days total.

Resource Upgrade Skills: Electronic Upgrades (CPU / Sensors), Energy Grid Upgrades (Capacitor / Powergrid)

Step 5) Purchase and inject the skillbooks.
Head to the market and purchase the skillbooks for the skills you put in your planner. All of the books you can inject right away are pretty cheap. You should already have some of the skills out of the box and some from completing missions. Just verify what you have before you buy them. Now inject them.

Step 6) Add skills to the queue.
Now open up your Skill Queue and add the skills in the same order you have in your planner. Fill the queue completely. Log in every day to check on your queue and add more skills from your plan.

While you have a boost to your Intelligence and Memory, see if there are any other skills you want in Electronics, Engineering, Mechanic, and Science groups. Tip: Look at Cloaking, Electronic Warfare, Remote repairing, Thermodynamics, and Nanite Interfacing.

Step 7) To infinity and beyond!
When your initial plan is completed, you should have a firm grasp of what you are doing, so go ahead and plan for bigger ships, guns, and industrial skills depending on your interests. You might even consider cross training to other racial ships, it only takes a week to set foot in most standard ships for each race.

Now map out a year and a month of skill training. You will most likely shift your focus throughout the year, so if you deviate, I highly recommend using the planning tool to ensure you do not lose time. Use the tool to calculate the best attribute remap for the skills you have selected. Keep recalculating and adding skills to get as close to a year as possible.

Recommended focus:
If you want to move around with greater security, learn to pilot a cloaking ship. There are two options here, Transport ships for industrial focus and Covert Ops ships for everyone else. You will need the following skills to pilot these two ships. I also recommend improving your Navigation skills for this.

Covert Ops Ships: * Frigate 5, Spaceship Command 3, Electronic Upgrades 5, Covert Ops (recommend 4), Engineering 2, Electronics 4, Cloaking 4
Transport Ships: * Industrial 5, * Frigate 3, Spaceship Command 3, Industry 5, Transport Ships (recommend 4), Electronics 4, Cloaking 4

Some other areas of focus are Drone Skills, Gunnery Skills, and Navigation Skills.

Core Gunnery Skills: Gunnery (-2% rate of fire per level), Motion Prediction (5% tracking speed per level), Rapid Firing (-4% rate of fire per level), Sharpshooter (5% optimal range per level), Surgical Strike (3% damage per level), Trajectory Analysis (5% falloff accuracy per level)
Resource Usage Reduction Skills: Controlled Bursts (Capacitor), Weapon Upgrades (CPU), Advanced Weapon Upgrades (Powergrid)
Weapon Types and Specializations: There are many guides on the wiki and other Eve resources. Pick a gun type best suited for your ship of choice (see the ship bonuses) and train it up as far as you are willing to go with it. The Specialization skills unlock the tech 2 variants of those weapons.

Core Navigation Skills: Navigation (5% velocity per level), Acceleration (5% velocity per level), Evasive Maneuvering (-5% agility per level)
Augmented Movement Skills: Afterburner (unlocks afterburners), High Speed Maneuvering (unlocks microwarpdrives)

Core Drone Skills: Drones (+1 drone per level), Scout Drone Operation (+5km control range per level (base control range is 20km))
Drone Augmentation Skills: Combat Drone Operation (+5% damage per level), Drone Durability (+5% to hull, armor, and shield per level), Drone Interfacing (+20% damage and mining yield per level), Drone Navigation (+5% velocity per level), Drone Sharpshooting (+5% optimal range per level (increased orbiting distance))

Drone Specialization Skills: Each empire has its own drones whose tech 2 variants are unlocked with this skill. This also grants another %2 drone damage per level for affected drones.

There is a variety of specialty drones as well, but the only one worth mentioning in this section is Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing because it grants you another 3km to drone control range per level. The other benefits of these and the other specialized drones (Heavy, Sentry, Repair, Mining) can be found elsewhere in the wiki and other Eve resources.


Please feel free to reply if you have any questions regarding this. You may also hit me up in game.

Cheers,

-Ba'al

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2011-10-21 06:19:34 UTC
Mara Rinn wrote:
While I agree that the forums have a nasty habit of forgetting what you've written, if you're writing an essay I'd suggest that it pays to write it up in a text editor first, and then take the time to proof-read it once today then once again tomorrow.


Your idea worked perfectly. Thank you. Indeed I was angry at myself and at the forum software for lack of timeout handling or whatever it is that caused me to lose this guide the first time I tried to preview it. I was not angry enough to give up. So hopefully people will be happy that I did not.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Mara Rinn
Cosmic Goo Convertor
#8 - 2011-10-21 10:28:51 UTC
Note that you can fit +3 implants with Cybernetics 1. The next step is Cybernetics 4 for the +3% hardwirings and +4 attribute implants.

Day 0 Advice for New Players
Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2011-10-21 16:06:04 UTC
Mara Rinn wrote:
Note that you can fit +3 implants with Cybernetics 1. The next step is Cybernetics 4 for the +3% hardwirings and +4 attribute implants.


Good call. I never bothered to use anything less than +4, but that is another 2 days of training. I personally think it is worth it if you plan to stay for the longhaul, but for pilots just checking out the game, it is optional and the +3s get them out on the field faster for the cost of 30 minutes and 20mil isk.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Mecinia Lua
Galactic Express
#10 - 2011-10-21 16:18:12 UTC
Good write up :)
Velicitia
XS Tech
#11 - 2011-10-21 19:25:49 UTC
Good overall guide... but there are a few things I disagree with (or can be done better):

1. the remap right away. Yes, it'll help you learn the core skills faster (which is good), but you will be less able to train "fun" things, like gunnery or new ship skills. The OP's toon is too young to remember the "Train Learning Skills" (I'm assuming this isn't a purpose-built newbie assistance alt) mantra that I started with ... but it's essentially the same idea. Ideally re-mapping helps, but since a new pilot might want to taste a few different things (mining, missioning, PVP, etc) running this first remap within the trial is a waste of a freebie.

2. you don't necessarily need to inject a skill before you train it. I.e. if you buy the Cybernetics skillbook, you can right click it and choose the "Train to Level 1 now" option. Note, that this does push back whatever skill you had training (since cybernetics is now the currently active skill). However, it does help injecting the skill if you have a set plan you want to stick to (e.g. "I want to finish Small Hybrid Turret Level 2 before training Cybernetics")

3. For the core skills, temper what you're doing based on what you fly. If you take Amarr or Gallente, you can straight ignore the shield skills for a little while (you armour tank, get used to the red shield bar). If you fly Caldair, you can straight ignore the armour skills for a little while (you shield tank, if your shields go, armour will melt regardless of skills). If you fly Minmatar you sort of have to do a mix... Keep in mind that real men hull-tank Lol

Note that there are some exceptions to the general "rule" of what race tanks which way (take the Gallentean Myrmidon battlecruiser for example ... it can shield tank exceptionally well). However, these are exceptions to the rule and not every ship will necessarily be able to tank with an un-intended configuration. Also keep in mind that you should not tank a ship in more than one manner (shield, armour, or hull) -- the additional modules you're fitting will take away from your ability to fit other useful modules (e.g. things that increase damage or cap or resistances...)

One of the bitter points of a good bittervet is the realisation that all those SP don't really do much, and that the newbie is having much more fun with what little he has. - Tippia
Asana Keikira
Doomheim
#12 - 2011-10-21 19:39:41 UTC
Pretty good write up. Only one comment that's a bit unnecessary -

Habba'al Zebul wrote:

Step 0) Consider using all 14 or 21 days of your free trial.
Everything outlined below can be done on a trial account. Unless you absolutely must activate your account for some reason, why not make use of the free time.


Activating your account at any time during the trial does not eliminate the days remaining on the trial account...the first 30 days are tacked on to the end. For example, a person on a 14-day trial that activates their account ends up with a total of 44 days from when they started until they have to pay for the next 30 days. Plus, it also permits the new player the ability to inject and learn the racial Industrial skill (they receive this along with the basic Industrial ship for free during the tutorials), which for a fledgling miner or hauler, gives them a few more options to explore all the game has to offer, if they so desire.
Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2011-10-22 00:37:19 UTC
Velicitia wrote:
Good overall guide... but there are a few things I disagree with (or can be done better):


Once again these forums ate my reply to you. The timeout issue is freaking ridiculous and I'm considering just not using them anymore. I hate losing productivity due to bad programming. Here is the short of it.

Velicitia wrote:
1. the remap right away.


I will clarify this section to indicate that while deviating is generally not a good idea, it is okay to inject a skill here and there as needed for missions and to try things out, but too much of that can really slow down the goal, which is to reach a maximum set of core skills in the fastest possible time.

Velicitia wrote:
2. you don't necessarily need to inject a skill before you train it.


I wanted to teach the students to fish first. They can buy the fish at the market after I'm done teaching. ^_^

Velicitia wrote:
3. For the core skills, temper what you're doing based on what you fly.


I agree with your statements. I will look into clarifying this section, but I did mention the shield and armor options twice I believe. I don't agree that one should avoid training up shield operation and management if they intend to armor/hull tank or avoid training up hull upgrades and mechanics if they intend to shield tank. I believe these four core skills provide longevity in a fight, and those precious few seconds more can be enough time for help to arrive.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#14 - 2011-10-22 00:38:48 UTC  |  Edited by: Habba'al Zebul
Asana Keikira wrote:
Pretty good write up. Only one comment that's a bit unnecessary -


Thank you for the clarification. ^_^

If this is true, then I guess I can activate this account now. ^_^

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Asana Keikira
Doomheim
#15 - 2011-10-22 01:01:03 UTC
Habba'al Zebul wrote:
[quote=Asana Keikira]Pretty good write up. Only one comment that's a bit unnecessary -

Thank you for the clarification. ^_^

If this is true, then I guess I can activate this account now. ^_^


Confirmation for you: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=29106#post29106 Big smile
Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#16 - 2011-10-22 01:02:55 UTC  |  Edited by: Habba'al Zebul
I've made some changes to the guide. Hopefully some things will be more clear. Also, thanks for the link.

I also added information about the cerebral accelerator you get when you pay for your account. If I had known about that day one...

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Habba'al Zebul
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#17 - 2011-10-22 03:48:04 UTC
There is some confusion about this booster item I received when I purchased 30 days of game time today. It seems others have not received it. I have asked on the other forum and will share the answer here as soon as I get a good one.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

CCP Spitfire
C C P
C C P Alliance
#18 - 2011-10-22 13:12:11 UTC
Habba'al Zebul, this is a wonderful guide, thank you so much!

May I suggest adding it to EVElopedia? It might be easier to maintain it there.

Regarding the cerebral accelerator question: I've already answered it in another thread but just to reiterate -- this is a limited time offer and while it's going to be available for some time, you might want to reflect it in the guide.

CCP Spitfire | Marketing & Sales Team @ccp_spitfire
Velicitia
XS Tech
#19 - 2011-10-22 14:02:23 UTC
Habba'al Zebul wrote:


Velicitia wrote:
3. For the core skills, temper what you're doing based on what you fly.


I agree with your statements. I will look into clarifying this section, but I did mention the shield and armor options twice I believe. I don't agree that one should avoid training up shield operation and management if they intend to armor/hull tank or avoid training up hull upgrades and mechanics if they intend to shield tank. I believe these four core skills provide longevity in a fight, and those precious few seconds more can be enough time for help to arrive.


Yes, this is correct ... but at the same time, spending 4-5 days to get "Shield Operation" to level 5 on a toon that will primarily only see a red bar in shields is overkill. Now, taking it to 3 (IIRC, what's needed for "Standard" Certificates) will get you that survivability you mentioned in about 4-5 hours. Obviously if you're looking to get all the compensation skills then you'll need L4 in Shield Management.

A key point to mention though, is that the compensation skills are only effective when you have modules fit (or, that's how they used to work anyway) ... so training stuff like armour compensation might not help shield tanks (or vice versa).

One of the bitter points of a good bittervet is the realisation that all those SP don't really do much, and that the newbie is having much more fun with what little he has. - Tippia
Tuggboat
Oneida Inc.
#20 - 2011-10-22 14:02:28 UTC
Habba don't give up. Forum needs more good posters not less. Persevere.
12Next page