EVE New Citizens Q&A

It really depends on what you want to do. Figure that out, then find what hull gives you bonuses to said activity.

It also depends on what type of low sec. If you're in faction war zones then a frig/AF or dessi will be optimal but otherwise I would suggest a cruiser. If you plan on gate camping or playing station games then you might want a slightly bigger tank. If you're running with a gang then consider what role you'll be playing and choose a ship to fit it.

You could go on battle clinic and look at what has been dieing in your area of operation and to what. Then figure out a ship/fit/tactics to deal with the most common gang in your particular stomping grounds.

I don't know where you heard that mate, but you couldnt be more wrong!

OP: Start with Frigates. Training up all the skills needed to PVP anywhere near optimally will take a while, so take it one step at a time.

Even with one factions frig trained to 5, you will have hundreds of variations to try out.

You're first step is to get a clean jump clone from 'Estel Ardor', grab an Atron, tank it, stab it (Warp core Stabilizers) and head off into low!

See how long you last. Learn to use Dscan. And learn to get your pod away safely if you lose your ship.

Treat every loss as a valuable lesson in how to avoid it next time.

then how do you explain how the cruiser was able to destroy my merlin frigate in low sec in only a few shots without me ever being able to fire off a shot?

I wasn't I was poking around trying to find anything when it jumped me. Why even waste the missiles.

And no I'm not in a player corp or anything.

so wait, you failed at scouting, got ambushed and you are surprised that you got killed?

He jumped you because he could. If you were in a cruiser he would have jumped you anyway & because of your level of PvP experience he would've stomped you anyway.

That is why you should be using cheap frigs until you figure things out. There is just too much that goes into an engagement to really understand what to do until you've done it 50 or so times, even in a gang.

You WILL make mistakes. You WILL get your sh¡t pushed in. It WILL happen over and over and over. Then one day all the pieces will fall into place. Then move up a ship class or change your fit and tactics and the cycle starts all over again.

Every time you lose it is a valuable lesson that you get to take into your next engagement. The more of these "lessons" you learn the better you will get.

Looking at your avatar, I concur!

In high sec you want the ship that can do what you're doing with the least effort, since it's not like you're likely to lose the ship.

In low sec you want the SMALLEST and CHEAPEST ship that can do what you're doing, because the whole point of low is to get into fights, so you'll probably be replacing it reasonably frequently.

Generally this translates to "cruiser or below", seeing even a battlecruiser in low means you're having an interesting day.

(As always, you don't HAVE to follow this, it's more advice than an actual rule.)

EDIT: While a cruiser can kill any frigate DPS-heavy enough to fire back meaningfully pretty fast most of the time, a frigate is much more able to escape from a cruiser than the other way around. The one that's probably a bad plan for solo is the destroyer, since it's too slow to escape the things that automatically kill it (cruisers). Albeit, Destro will make you feel badass when you run into frigates, and they're cheap enough, so meh.