EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I am picking EVE back up after a few years off and was looking to do some mission running as a change from the mining I was doing in the past. But having never really done much except mining I was looking for some help on which ships to use at what levels and what skills are most useful. This would be in the High Sec areas for now while i am still trying to get the hang of the game again. I have been reading what I can find on this stuff but still haven't been able to make much since of it yet. I was leaning towards working for something like a Dominix. Given this little information I guess the questions I really have are as follows:

• Is one faction better to run missions for over another?
• Can someone maybe point me to a good list of skills and ships to use as i work my way up the ladder?
• Is the Dominix a good ship to eventually use for running missions and is it somewhat forgiving for a newbie such as myself?

I would like to say thanks in advance for any help you all can provide for me.

Imo, Dominix is a very forgiving ship if you go for maximum tank if you start out (all kind of mission specific armor hardeners and 2 large armor repairers in the lows, a couple of cap rechargers/cap rigs to power them in the mids) relying mostly on drones to do damage.
You should be aware that drones now get targeted, though.

Eventually, as you get accustomed to L4 missions/improve your skills you might want to replace your tank with more gank.
The best here is a shield Domi, but that one requires a fair bit of expertise, imo.

Manticore's a stealth bomber, that's not a mission-running ship. It's an eggshell with weapons. Now, if you're planning on using that manticore against an unsuspecting mission runner in lowsec, that's a whole nother story.

It's usually better just to decline missions that take you to lowsec, the rewards aren't particularly good.

The above is generally accepted as the path to follow.
There is some slight variation on skills needed between the various factions, but it's largely
Shield or Armour Tanking
Missiles or Gunnery or Drones
Core Fitting Skills

All the standard Tech 1 ship hulls have a [recommended] tab, which is easily found on the 'show info' panel.
This tab lists Certificates that enhance the performance of that particular ship
By training the skills listed for each certificate you will achieve a basic degree of competence with that ship.

Certificates offer guidelines on training goals, by the time you have achieved a 'standard' level of certification you shouldn't need the information given in those guidelines that much anymore.

All factions are able to run missions; missions are designed to be "doable" / easy. All you have to do is know a little bit about NPC behavior, pick and fit your ships properly for combat, and train the appropriate combat skills.

NPC's:
- with increasing mission level they increase in size and firepower, but you always get groups of bigger ships and smaller frigates/destroyers, mixed together
- they always MWD to you, and then turn it off and start orbitting you
- they are usually slow - afterburner will outrange a similarly-sized NPC ship
- the type of damage they do and the type of resistances they have is known

Fitting ships:
- long or short range guns, and if short range you better have an afterburner, and possibly webifier
- afterburner, maybe webifier or other ewar, lots of capacitor recharge modules
- tank: either armor or shields, usually one repair module + the two resistances that the NPCs will have (fit before the mission).

Training Skills:
- you want support skills (Engineering, Electronics, Mechanics, Navigation, etc) to let you install T2 defensive modules
- you want gunnery/missile/drone skills to let you shoot better and eventually (takes a long time) use T2 weapons
- you want ship skills to progress along the line of frigate-destroyer-cruiser-battlecruiser-battleship, with increasing support and guns as you progress

Faction warfare missions are a wildly different beast from standard missions; they're generally a long way away from the issuing agent, they're generally in hostile territory, and they're visible on overview to anyone in the target system. On the other hand, there are generally only a half-dozen or so ships that need to be killed in a standard FW level 4 mission, so a speed-fit torpedo bomber is potentially capable of killing them while evading fire from their escorts.

But no, it's not trivial to do. You need to constantly check your flight path to keep at right angles to the enemy, Minmatar target painters can blow up your signature until you're a sitting duck, Caldari ECMcan have you tearing out your hair as you lose your target locks, and Gallente sensor dampers can force you to close to within knife-fighting range to hold lock on your targets.

And torpedo bombers are generally worthless against anything smaller than a battlecruiser.