EVE New Citizens Q&A

Main advice, don't rush. Don't go for larger ships to the exclusion of everything else, don't expect to be flying a battleship in 4 months (you may be able to, but your support skills will be severely lacking)

Thanks for the replies .

I feel I didn't elaborate enough in my initial post . I have no intention of rushing through mission levels ; in fact I haven't even done a single mission yet . I am mining in my Venture until I feel comfortable to start lvl.1's and will continue with that
philosophy :) . I am also training up Dessie V / BC V before the change , so no rush .

I plan on shield tanking all ships and tried to choose accordingly . I could be mistaken on the Bellicose's ability to shield tank effectively but have seen a number of posts arguing that the Navy version of the Dominix can do so .

The railguns reduced effectiveness against Angels is something I have not taken into consideration , thanks for that .

The choice of Battlecruisers and Battleships are obviously not of immediate concern - could I have some comment on the Bellicose as a viable lvl. mission ship ?

Thanks again .

I drink far too much coffee to be either drunk or half asleep so I would probably not be able to then :)

What they're trying to say is not about rushing through the missions, but the fact that you can skip level1 missions entirely and about half of the level 2 missions, by just training the Connections skill. It's a standings grind, standings towards your Matari Matari corp are what prevents you from jumping straight to level 4 missions. Most people do level 1 - 3 missions for the faction standings as fast as possible, and then they settle on level 4 missions for ISK, LP, and the high-end faction standings.

In addition, you're making a thing out of a profession that is not all that developed - it's just missions, and you'll find less subtlety than the PVE content of other MMO's, which all have a wider variety of mission/quest types, better NPC AI, a clear progression designed to keep you entertained for a few months, lore, etc.

Each race has ships that can be successful in missions; it's not the pinnacle of playing skill.

Missions are about being able to take the damage of a large number of small ship NPCs for a long time. The staple ships are frigate, cruiser, battlecruiser, battleship. Destroyers have a lot of guns, but they also are "attack" ships that don't have a lot of defenses; compared to frigates they can kill 1-5 enemies FAST, but can be overwhelmed by 10+ - you just don't have the small size or number of defensive slots to fit a proper tank.

Personally I would just follow the Minmatar ship line, including their projectile weapon and armor defense skills for the ships that need it. You'd be training projectiles, missiles, drones, shield, and armor, and while it's a little bit longer to train, you'll end up being able to fly a line of ships (Minmatar) that are quite popular (and good) for anything from PVP to missions to Exploration to suicide ganking to transport to anything. For when you get bored of missions and want to do something else.

Hmm , I saw a Dev post stating the split will happen with the summer expansion (April) .

Thank you Merouk Baas and Vilnius Zar . I will be taking that into consideration and choose to concentrate on a single race , most likely Minmatar :)

The Cyclone is being turned in to more of a missile ship like the Drake in less than two weeks with the next patch. The Typhoon is slated for a remodel because it is too much or a split personality ship and if I recall correctly will be a missile platform. In addition, all the cruiser were just rebalanced, so any fitting information you read about them that is more than a few months old is our of date.

The destroyer/battlecruier skill split isn't until Summer.

If you could do the basic military tutorial, you can do level 1 combat missions. but yes, you can skip them with Connections skill.

Missile/Drone -> Gurista Ships.

Then make the choice Missiles first (caldari) Drone first (Galente)

Here is the thing, it isn't whether you can or can't do it. If you have T1 Drones, T1 Weapons and understand how Tanking works, you can run Level 4s as soon as you get a Battleship.

That said, EVE is not about (and hopefully will never be about) how soon you can do something - it is about how efficiently you do something. That is the point I think is lost here, running Level 4 Missions is not something anyone should be concerned about. If you train toward a Battleship, by the time you can run Level 4s, you will be able to. The question will be, is it worthwhile given your efficiency?

EVE Missions serve one purpose, to generate ISK. By not rushing and prepping your skills you are setting yourself up for greater success from an ISK/hr standpoint (which is the only way to judge how successful you are at L4s).

That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at Eve is a game of discovering creative ways to make things go "boom" in space. Getting efficiently paid for it is a different consideration.