EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hi folks,

Just started playing recently. I've read TONS of guides and watched at least twice as many videos, and I've learned a lot. One thing I've learned is that you shouldn't rush into ships your not ready for. I think I MIGHT have done that, but I'm not sure, looking for some advice.

I recently trained for a Vexor. I was going to wait til I had Drones V, but my standing went up fast enough with the corp I'm working for to start doing lvl 2 missions. I found a fit online that looked pretty good, so I copied and trained whatever skills I needed to in order to fit it out. So I find a station with 2 lvl 2 agents, get a mission called Mission of Mercy, and end up warping away 8 drones down and 7% hull!!

This could have been disastrous because I spent all my money on the ship and fittings and didn't even have enough to insure it! Level 1 missions just melted away like nothing, they were super easy. Now level 2 missions are a whole new ballgame. I'm concerned that I am not ready for them skill/equipment wise, though it could be just my lack of actual playing skill that's the biggest factor.

If there's a way to link my skills and ship, please let me know, so you can see what I'm working with. I did read something about fitting long-range ammo and trying to beat them from a distance. Thus far I've only really used antimatter charges on my Dual 150mm railguns. I'll try Iron and see how it goes. In the meantime, any advice you can give me with respect to something I should train up asap, or some technique to fighting these tougher missions would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!
~Dade

Hello there and welcome to EVE!

Now, the most important piece of advice you can get, and possibly the most repeated one: don't ever fly anything that can't afford to lose. As you just experienced yourself, even mission rats can be dangerous and cost you your ship.

From your post I figure that you haven't done the Sisters of EVE epic arc yet? If so I would strongly recommend doing that, it would give you something to do while you improve your skills and also earn you a decent amount of ISK.

As for linking character / skill details, eveboard is quite handy for that.

The vexor is a great cruiser for running level 2s in... but, when trying out a new ship class for the first time I would advise that you stay in the same rating of missions until you are comfortable with the ship so in your situation do another few level 1 missions first.

Going from frigate to cruiser is a leap in terms of how the ship performs and how it reacts. Even going from a destroyer to a cruiser is a new experience. Heck even going from one cruiser to another cruiser can lead to surprising results with maxxed skills. So always try out a new ship and fitting in an easy testing environment.

I would try out a few level 1s in your vexor so you understand the ship a little better plus you can figure out if the fittings you put in it work for your playstyle.

A vexor can become a very strong ship when all your skills get to 5.. but you don't have to be waiting until 5s to move up in a ship class in my view. Get all of your core skills to at -least- three (preferably four) and then decide what skills you want to bring to five.

Ideally you'll want all your core competency skills to 5 at some point but your priority should be getting all of them to 3 and then to 4.

Check what skills are being used by your fitting (I'm going to guess you're probably going with something like blasters and armor tanked) and get those up to 4.

In my view the idea about EVE is to play the game and not to wait for the game. So, if you feel like trying something out then try it out. Getting skills to level 3 does not take long and at level 3 most things are passable in terms of useability. Over time you can get your core skills up to 5.

Well I'm a n00b, and I don't have almost any combat skills, but I can do lvl2s without a problem. I'm doing them in a destroyer, your vexor is a cruiser, which is one category higher (and should be able to handle lvl3s). if you can't really do lvl2s in it, I suspect it is more because of your fittings.

If you have the proper skills, and a very good ship/fittings in theory you should be able to do lvl2s in a frigate even.

-

My advice:
01. Post your vexor fitting here.
02. Use a destroyer for lvl2s
03. Use Eve survival and check out each mission before you accept it. If you think it might be to hard, decline the mission. Never ever decline a mission once accepted, you should either wait one week and the mission gets removed from your logbook, or you should ask someone to help you out.
04. Use defensive modules according to the enemy you are fighting.

Here is a picture that explains it:
http://www.alcyonecodesmith.com/eve/graphics/damage_types2.gif

You know which faction you are fighting from the mission description.

I made a little bit of research, you started a week ago, you absolutely can't have the proper skills to fly a cruiser.

You should fly a destroyer. I would suggest the catalyst.
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Catalyst

I guess the fitting posted there is a good one. I have no clue about gallente ships. :-D

If you don't have the money to buy a catalyst, sell your vexor, a vexor should be around 10m, a catalyst is around 1m.

Once you have some skills to fly your catalyst, and have a decent fitting (the link has a suggestion for upgrades too), you should try the sisters epic arc, as already suggested above.

if you don't want to sell your vexor, I think by doing the tutorial missions in gallente space you get a catalyst as the reward for the advanced military quest arc.

Mission of Mercy is a very nasty L2 mission. I've done that with a BC and struggled a little. Personally I just decline that one if ever offered.

Vexor with a week of training is probably too soon. L1 missions are boring, yes, but don't rush. There's a big difference between how a frigate handles and how a cruiser handles.

Have you done the Sisters of Eve epic arc? If not, grab a destroyer (Catalyst) and run that. It'll probably take a few days to run the whole arc.

Oh, and don't fly a ship that you do not have the ISK or resources to replace.

This is wrong.

In a week's play you can definitely fly a cruiser with all supporting skills at or above level 3 and that is plenty to get started with.

This belief that you have to have your skills at 5 is silly.

Yes, level 5 skills definitely help and getting your core skills to 5 is definitely an asset but it isn't needed. Flying around with skills at level 3 is doable and works just fine.

To get a gallente character into a vexor with -all- support skills at 3 (including medium energy turrets) takes a total of just over 5 days without optimizing attributes or using the cerebral accelerator.

Adding a few choice skills to 4 and you'll be at a week played and have no difficulties.

You can even have tech 2 drones at a week's played if you wanted to with all the other skills at 3 or better.

Very true. We have a training doctrine that can get a brand new toon into a fleet max 2 days. It can be done

From the looks...

Yes you likely rushed up to that cruiser way to fast (you were able to sit in it, but couldn't fly it properly due to lack of support skills).

Now some advice.


1.) Register yourself on EVEboard.com and link your site. This way we can see your exact skills and where the problem might be.

2.) Link your exact fit you were using. This way we can see if it might be your fit that need some tweaking.


But most importantly you totally ignored EVE rule 1:

Don't fly what you can't afford to loose.

If you used all your ISK that you had into fitting that ship. You shouldn't be flying it. As loosing it would have made you take a very hard punch in the face.

How can you POSSIBLY give advice without knowing what his goals are? Is he looking to PVP? PVE? Some of each?