EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I am looking for a combat style to train for in eve. I was wondering what seem to be the most common styles. I normally play rogue type classes in MMOs. Now I know eve is nothing like other MMOs but I still believe burst damage is king for PVP. Right now I am training in gallante frigates and destroyers with armor tanking and drones in there as well.

Stealth Bombers are the first tier in the EvE 'Rogue' class career path.

Very accessible to low SP players. Don't overlook all the Missile support skills.

And look up 'Bombers Bar' and hang out in their channel for fitting and general advise.

They're not a corp, and anyone is welcome to fleet up. - And check out some of their youtube vids to see bomb 'Burst Damage' in all it's glory.

Edit: And for those of us who haven't done the MMO rounds, would you care to elaborate on you're burst damage experience? How do you see it relating to Eve?

The basic common combat styles, with examples of each that you might see mentioned around the place, are ...

- close range brawler (AHACs)

- range-controlling kiting (Cynable)

- snipe and warpout (Tornado/Naga)

- pet classes (Slowcat/Boot carrier)

- neuting (Curse, Welpcanes)

- Ewar (Celestis, Blackbird).

As far as being a rogue, have a look at a ship like the Arazu, and think about the combination of being able to prevent a ship from warping from, say, 108km *and* be able to make a portal for a Black Ops Battleship to port torpedo bombers through. Remember, this is a team game, and while there are targets that lone ships can take down, there arent very many of them.

I like the idea of a close in brawler and sniper. Ilike to work with at least 2 combat styles. i would figure a sniper would be great for your weaker frigates while the brawler style is better for the tanks.

I do the eve version of drunken boxing

I get drunk, then I multibox!

"Burst damage" isn't really a concept that applies all that well in EVE. The closest analogue is "alpha". Since the first shot is "free" (doesn't need to wait for any cycle time), a weapon with low ROF and high damage will do more effective DPS than another weapon with high ROF and low damage. The primary weapon system where "alpha" damage is high enough to be useful is artillery, a minmatar weapon.

Blasters still do a ton of damage. The Gallente blasterboat style of play is "get in his face, melt it off and hope you don't die in the process". The main problem with blasters is absolute **** range - whereas all other weapon systems have a fair amount of projection to longer ranges, blasters almost always require you to be in their face.



It seems like you're trying to apply concepts from other MMOs to EVE. Stop that. It doesn't work. For example: High-damage ships are not very good at escaping. When you get in someone's face with a blasterboat your only method of escape is to murder the hell out of the other guy. Secondly, there isn't really any "burst" to speak of - if you only come in at the end of the fight, then someone with a significantly lower-damage weapon will still end up having outdamaged you significantly.

A. EVE isnt like other MMOs.

B. If your goal is to be a Killmail whore. Then dont expect to be in a group.for a long period of time. People want you to risk as much as they do, whoring on kills will likely get you negative responses from the group you play with

Multi-purpose ships aren't common in EVE; the rule of thumb is that a ship that's built around two different combat styles is going to be lousy at both of them. The only real exceptions are drone boats that mount credible secondary weapon systems, such as the Vexor, Prophecy, or Dominix. A Dominix, for example, will be able to choose on the fly between long-range sentry drones and point-blank heavy drones, and (for the time being) has bonuses to hybrids that allow you to choose railguns or blasters (the rule still is that if you're mounting a turret or missile system, make all your mounted weapons of the same type so you can maximize your alpha damage).

Drone boats can also use capacitor neutralizing or other electronic warfare as their alternate weapon system; the Dominix is often used as a neut boat, and Amarr drone boats often get bonuses to e-war.

As a Gallente, if you're looking for versatility, then the drone boats are probably your best option: the Tristan, the Vexor, the Myrmidon, the Dominix.