Skill Discussions

First off, here's my eveboard:

http://eveboard.com/pilot/Hauer_Outamon

So anyways, I feel like doing a different thing every week or so, which left my skills pretty spread out and unfocused. Fortunately, I did manage to stay away from gunnery and missile skills.

I'm planning on applying to a null-sec corp soon and moving out of high-sec, but I'm concerned my skills will hinder my efforts. Before I apply, what specific skills should I train as a miner preparing for a null-sec environment? Did I mess up my skill tree so badly that I'm likely to run into problems?

Thanks so much for your responses and help!

Thanks for the response, Perramas.

I'll get right on to training those core skills. Also - why only level 2? I don't want the 100% damage cloud avoidance?

Damn. Makes me wonder what else I'm missing...

Thanks for the info though, will stop training promptly!

If you move to null, even in a carebear role, you won't avoid combat. Whether it is thrust upon you, or simply that an alliance is going to expect you to pew in it's defense in exchange for all that mining money you want to make.......outside of high sec you need to know how to fight.

Isk ain't free and if you want to carebear in upgraded space, you'll be expected to pull your weight in PvP as well. It doesn't have to become your focus, but it's unrealistic to think you're going to be accepted to simply make a bunch of money in space other people work to gain/defend.

Get a jump on simple survival by learning the 'hidden' parts of PvP. By that I mean the stuff that no PvE teaches. Like the D-Scan, using map recon before moving, knowing your Gates Of Doom, and things like not warping gate to gate in null. CCP does nothing to teach people any of this. You should know every timer Eve runs, not just the ones with timers displayed on the screen.

Nav skill tree is your friend, whether you stand and fight or run away, there is no bad investment in training Nav obsessively.

For a serious non-PvPer, perhaps drones are a good investment over traditional turret/launchers because drones also open up salvage, logistics, and EWAR to the user. You can fly inexpensive drone boats or logistics in combat fleets, but still get use from drones for raping roids. There are really good T1 drone boats so you can fly solid ships on the cheap- I am a fan of the Arbitrator and it holds it's own among a fleet of shinier ships.

I would suggest though, that you train up some gun skills and work towards interceptors or assault frigates. Virtually any fleet will welcome fast tackle, T2 frigates take almost nothing to train into. Likewise, the only gun skills you really need to V if you aren't PvP focused is to get T2 guns (10 days or so without any implants) and a couple more for the specialization skill.

Lastly, consider alternative roles in your new null corp. Running plexes from the system scanner is extremely lucrative by itself, but many people will happily fleet with you and let you run a Noctis around hoovering up the wrecks. Split the loot, or get into rig production....if industry is your thing....

TL DR-- leave high sec and you WILL fight. Embrace this, learn to love the Kill Mail.

Avoiding traditional weapons leaves options like Logistics or EWAR....However, these are themselves weapon systems in their own rights and come with the same bevy of support skills (usually 2x or 3x) to use them effectively. So you will still have to invest some time in them. However, Logi and EWAR do not scale for the size of the module like guns/turrets.

This means that once you train for say, ECM, you can use any 'size' ECM without training a new skill (technically there is no size to EWAR modules, I mean the size of the ship you can mount them on doesn't require a new skill). With guns, you need to train new skills for each size, small, med, large, etc. You can essentially train up EWAR or Logi skills ONCE and it follows all ship sizes. So like drones, EWAR/Logi is an excellent 'bang for the buck' in terms of training time investment.

For logi, there is the obvious shield/armor reps and cap xfer, but it's so cap intensive that the core engineering skills are essentially the support skills for it. Nav also is important because you must stay anchored but also be able to GTFO.

EWAR also happens to be strong on drone ships, which makes for a nice synergy. Amarr love putting EWAR on their drone ships rather than guns as a secondary weapon.

Drones, like turrets/launchers do require a new skill for each size, then each race even! But the sheer variety of uses that drones offer is immense for the number of support skills needed. Drones essentially offer every other type of 'weapon' type in one package- DPS, EWAR, Logi, even salvage. You have to train each individually and they aren't as strong as the true ship-sized systems...but they all share common support skills in the drone tree.

In null the MWD is preferred to escape bubbles- again in the Nav tree, but also cap intensive, so back to Engineering too.

Cloaking works well for industry types as well in the form of the Blockade Runner. A massively useful ship to be able to fly. Both for your own purposes, but to contribute to your corp's logistical efforts as well. You will be thanked for being able to fly one and most likely your corp/alliance will happily buy one on their dime.

CovOps is my main toon's primary job. It's awesome and having the ability to fly at near-normal speed cloaked then warp....makes null sec almost.....safe.....
But the stealth bomber side of CovOps is very skill intensive- missile support skills then missiles all the way to torps. And no other ship uses torps until you are months into training for larger ships.Then there is an entire skill for bombs...I love them, but they aren't good for 'dabbling' in PvP.
If you can probe well, fleets will again adore you for scanning down targets for pew, anomalies in upgraded sov, or finding WH's to poke around in. You just will likely not be in on the KMs. The sacrifice of the silent scout....

I agree with Sunshyn. Go with EWAR or Logi to contribute to Pvp Fleets.

These are not skill intensive and do not require gunnery skills. It will take a while for you to bring significant DPS to a fight but, not much time (week or too) to be skilled up in EWAR or logi. If you are reasonably good with this you would be pulling your weight in any fleet.

I'm going to agree with a number of posts here and say that t1 ewar boats and t1 logi cruisers are fantastic ships to use as a new player.
PvP might not be your thing, but you'll be able to contribute nicely with those ships.
Also, consider PvE a bit more in null. It's better than mining.