Ships & Modules

I've had my account for a few months, but I really just started playing in the last week and I must say I love this game! That said, I am having difficulty deciding which race to train for the ships that are going to suit my playstyle best. I have done a ton of research, and I still have not come to a conclusion, so I decided to post here to ask for opinions.

I began training Gallente ships because I had read tremendous things about the rebalanced Incursus. I decked it out with Light Neutron Blasters, duel Armor Repairs and a Cap Booster as recommended by Nyphur. I found that this ship is an absolute beast, but I'm not sure I like this brawler playstyle. I don't necessarily like to be right up in the face of my target for max effectiveness. Also, I don't know how comfortable I am with drones being heavily incorporated into my play. One or two sounds ok, but I really don't know if I want to move to far beyond that point.



For the past few days I have been flying a long range Caldari Condor. I have it equipped with a Warp Drive and Light Missles. I tend to fight between 15-18 km and I think I enjoy the playstyle more than brawling. I'm practicing manual control to optimize my kiting techniques, and I find it quite enjoyable yet very challenging. That said, I really am not happy with the Missile mechanic. I'm not a fan of the travel time, and it is a bit overly simplistic. I do like the idea of shield tanking, but I have read that most PvP fleets are armor heavy at this point, and it may be difficult to receive repairs in a ship with shield based defenses.


I have not tried Amarr or Minmitar at this time. I think Lasers may be my favorite weapon type in the game, but there really aren't any Amarr T1 Frigates that are as apealing as those in the other races. I have read that the Punisher is simply not up to snuff with the other elite T1 Frigates such as the Incursus or the Merlin. I know this perspective is short sighted, but T1 frigates are all that are in my cross hairs for the time being, so this makes a difference!


As far as Minimitar is concerned, I really don't find any appeal to their ships at all. I may be doing myself a disservice by being closed minded, but so far I have not been compelled to investigate this race.



My plan at this point in time is to embark on a military/pvp oriented career. I'm a bit of a loner, so I will likely be flying solo a lot of the time. I want to find a race that has capable ships for both long range and closer range combat. I want a race that is considered viable in PvP. I seem to be drawn to Caldari at this point, but I'm afraid the Missile mechanic and Shield defenses will make me undesirable as a larger scale PvP pilot. I would like to explore Amarr, but I'm not happy with the fact that they are slow, and their T1 Frigates seem underwhelming. Gallente seems like a solid choice, but from what I have read it seems like their most effective ships require very close range for significant damage, and again the drones seem to be a big part of their appeal which I'm not really attracted to.

I would greatly appreciate any advice others could provide me when it comes to choosing a race. I don't have a lot of time to play these days, so I want to be sure I am using it effectively! I have done a lot of research, but most of the material I find seems to be pre-rebalance, so I question it's relevance in todays environment. If I have any misconceptions about the racial ships, please point this out! I am all about constructive criticism.



THanks in advance!

I guess some of what I'm gonna be saying is opinion, so don't take it as correct, if you disagree with me, power to you.

So, first, I would say don't design your entire EVE characters career on what the flavor of the month/patch/expansion ships are. Stuff like that changes about as much as the seasons do.

But aim for what the general playstyle of that race is, that tends to never change.

You say you dislike the brawler attitude as well as drones. From what I would say, that's pretty much what Gallente are.

You say you dislike missiles, and are worried about not being able to fit in with the majority of armor tanking fleets. Alright, I wouldn't go Caldari.

You didn't really say why you like Amarr other than laser, but for some reason I feel like they are not for you.

All in all I would go minmatar. You said you liked zooming around, minmatar are known for their zoomies. You also have the choice of a couple missile using ships, and the fact that minmatars have shield tanking AND armor tanking ships.

Minmatar ships have nice long range artillery for when you don't want to be a brawler, and they have an added bonus of ammo that can cause different damage types.

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TL:DR

I'd go Minmatar, even if you dislike their aesthetic.

Remember, you aren't locking yourself down a path, even jumping between factions like you are is fine, you will just progress slower.

Choose the race you like. Then cross train from day 1 to Winmatar.

Try each of the races before you rule any of them out tbh. It only take a few days of training to get the basic skills for each racial frig and weapon system. You will eventually train most of if not all the races anyways.

For me.

Gallente: Excellent solo/small gang ships. Lose out on bigger fleet warfare. Great brawlers as blasters do insane dps but their range is very limited (which is why they struggle in bigger fleets). You can quite easily fit out an incurusu or atron for kiting and get decent ability for a T1 frig. and their T2 versions are beasts! Their faction navy frigate is also very versitile being able to go kitey or brawl fit. Yes drones are a 'racial' weapon but you'll want basic drone skills for every race so just get the basics and rely on your turrets for the main damage dealing.

Amarr: Excellent fleet ships. Danage resist bonuses aid in fleet reps and make them nice and tough. Laser have arguably the best damage projection but they are cap dependant and are limited damage types. The punisher is a good brawler. Tormentor can be both brawler and kiter and executioner is a nice frigate. The slicer (navy faction) is famour for being fast and hitting hard! Armour ships are generally slow but he new armour tanking changes wil allow you to max you speed if you are active repping.

Caldari: Shield tanks like a boss. Missiles have excellent damage projection and they also use hybrids (blasters/rails) have very strong line up for bothe weapons systems. Their ships are quite agile but don't carry much top speed. TBH these were my favourite race foe a long time....no so much now mainly cos I like flying amarr/gallente.

Minmatar: These guys are no longer 'winmatar' IMO. With the recent ship balances the other races have been brought up to speed with the minnies and often out perform them for specific tasks. Minnies are still the fast hit and run types though. Their ship line up uses all the weapons systems (turrets, missiles & drones) and have a mix of armour or shield tanks. These guys are the Jack of all trades master of none.


Really just pick a race you like the looks of tbh and learn how to use them. Once you have a 'feel' for each race you'll find yourself flying one over the others then specialise in that one.

i would like to state that i appreciate the way you set up your original post. it has all the info we need to give you sound advice without being too long. whenever people make a new thread like: "Hai guise, so what's a good ship to fly?" i desperately wish for an invention that lets me punch the guy in the face over the internet.

as to your question: if you prefer turret-based combat, you should avoid caldari. they do have some rail setups but they are in general less effective than their gallente counterparts. as for the other three races, they all have their ups and downs with minmatar having slightly more ups than the others but not overwhelmingly so.

Also if you are a kitey fighter Sensor damps can be a total PITA for brawlers or kiters alike.

If you want to kite, caldari is a good ship line. Either with missiles or rails (even blasters) caldari are great kiters. Not as fast as the minmatar, but the damage projection of the misiles is good.

And some ships (caracal f.e) allow you to kite with close range weapons. 27 km HAM anyone?

Since you are already training hybrids for gallente, you can choose between brawling and kiting just changing hulls and using the same weapon system.

And yes, TD frigates with MWD are a PitA. I love my little crow A LOT.

Try something like this out and see if it fits the style you are describing:

[Executioner, Executioner]
Heat Sink II
Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Faint Warp Disruptor I
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script

Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Small Focused Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
[empty high slot]

Small Energy Locus Coordinator I
Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Low Friction Nozzle Joints I

I trained for whatever race I thought had the best looking stuff. The rest I just dealt with as I got older as a player.

Yes my stuff may not have been optimal for a large portion of what I did, but in the meantime I got to look at my shmexy shmexy ships flying around.

Eventually you will water everything down to a simple numbers game. For now, enjoy being new, and enjoy whatever it is you pick up to fly. Even if you later change to something else, there is immense value in knowing how something works by having been on the other side of the coin. If you started as gallente, I would suggest you stick with it for a while. If you later decide you want something else, you will at least have experience in gallente ships to inform your decisions on how best to fight them when you come across them later on.

The main selling point of Minmatar long range weaponry (artillery) is their superior alpha. High alpha means that each shot deals more damage, while the cycle times are longer. This makes for mostly lousy DPS, but insane volleys of short-term damage. For small ships this can mean killing them in one single shot.

You say that Amarr might be your favourite race, then I can strongly recommend trying the navy frigate, the Slicer. It does the speedy, long range kiting thing extremely well and is very commonly used in solo PVP for this reason. Shouldn't be much more expensive to get one than a cruiser. The Executioner is the Slicers little brother and does the same thing slightly worse but still decent.