EVE New Citizens Q&A

Spend about a month in each ship class (#dealwithit) so you can get your support skills in place before going to the next bigger one. Pretty much, if you don't have your core and support skills at L4 (5 where necessary as a prereq) you shouldn't be in a BS.

Well, maybe not a month ... but the "best" solution is to take your trusty frigate (tristan, Rifter, whatever you like to fly) and train all the certificates. Once that's done, train up the support skills for the dessie you want to fly (and the dessie skill, obviously), then the cruiser, battlecruiser, and finally BS ... you can train them in any order, but I find that for making the jump in hull sizes (e.g. dessie to cruiser, and BC to BS) it's easier partially training the certificate skills first (specifically gunnery/missiles) so that I'm not flying a shiny new ship with undersized guns because I can't fit the right size.

yeah, it sucks ... but it's better than jumping into something you can barely afford, much less fly, and then losing it because you're not ready for it.

edit -- missed your second question (and expanding a little bit)
For missions, the "general" (i.e. very rough) progression is

L1 -> frig
L2 -> dessie (Cruiser preferred)
L3 -> Cruiser (BC preferred)

I tend to disagree with the "Stay in a frigate/dessie for your first 3 months" crowd. Not saying they are necessarily wrong though.

For PvE
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Cruisers can be fairly safely flown by noobies, and BCs with a good fit and semi-decent tanking skills.

What you'll want to do is go buy all of the supporting skills for your chosen weapon system, armor/shield depending on your race, Engineering, navigation, and electronics. Train them up fairly evenly to at least lvl 4, and 5 where needed for T2 gear. You'll want strong drone skills too. Most ships in the game have a drone bay, and every battleship does to my knowledge. Drones are NOT optional. You WILL need them for lvl 4s. Train Drones V and Scout Drones to V for T2 lights/mediums quickly, and definitely before you sit in a BS.

Focus on T2 tanking equipment before weapons. It's faster, and being able to survive a screwup is far more important than your ISK/hour for the first few months. Have the respective spaceship command and weapons skills up for a said ship to at least 4 before undocking it.

Do not fall into the trap of "bigger is better". If you are having trouble in lvl 2s in a cruiser, buying a battlecruiser and taking on a lvl 3 will end up with you going back to station in a pod.

This is especially true for battleships. Flying a battleship with bad skills WILL end up with an embarassing lossmail. I lost an Armageddon to a lvl 3 because I just HAD to have a BS as soon as possible. The "I spent every ISK I had on a BS and lost it. I'm quitting EVE" story gets repeated every day.

My recommendations.

Frigates/Dessies : lvl 1 missions. T1 gear acceptable for all slots.

Cruisers : lvl 2 missions. High meta T1 gear acceptable, should really be working towards T2 tanking modules and capacitor skills.

Battlecruisers : LVL 2 and 3 missions. Meta 4 gear acceptable. Tanking mods really need to be T2, as should your cap mods. Should be using T2 drones, or working towards it. If you haven't already, train your jury rigging skills so you can fit any rigs you want.

Battleships : LVL 3s til you figure out the limitations of the BS hulls. You'll notice that you have a LOT of trouble hitting frigates/cruisers with your large guns. They aren't dangerous on their own, but they use Ewar and will warp scramble you in lvl 4s. Do not attempt a lvl 4 without full T2 tanking mods, T2 capacitor mods, all capacitor skills to at least 4, T2 drones, rigs (most likely CCCs), and meta 4 weapons. At this point, be working on T2 large weapons.

Be prepared to replace your mission boat. Everyone derps a mission/ratting ship eventually. You fit the wrong hardeners, you get drunk and pass out, disconnect, etc, etc. If you have spent all of your wealth on your ship, you are doing it wrong.


For PVP
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I've seen people fly (and get kills in... lol) rookie ships. PVP is less about SP, and more about player skill. Join FW or RVB or EVE uni, or find a noob friendly PVP corp.

Fly cheap fit frigates at first. Cause you are going to die. Horribly. A lot. But frigate are always welcome in any fleet because anyone with a MWD and a point can seriously ruin someone's day.

Get comfortable in a frigate, then bring out the bigger stuff.

google newbie skill plan and evemon. Then head to sisters of eve to up your game if you want to fly solo for awhile. Or look to get into one of the bigger corps that welcome newbies. There is a WHOLE lot to learn ahead of you. Patience is a virtue in Eve.

Not really too much today, except I think a lot of people are stating, in their own way, to not fall for the "bigger is better" trap. Ships size in EVE isn't "progression" as ships of all shapes and sizes are used throughout the game.

That being said, if you're looking at Mission Running for income to fund PVP, you'd probably be looking at Level 4s, in which case a really good BC or BS would be used.

Just my two cents: Don't rush training to do things. It will come naturally. Taking the time to get your core certs taken care of, and the skills necessary for a Tech 2 tank will go a long long way.

You can progress to L4's quite quickly by training Connections to L4
You can also fast track your skill training so that you can sit in a rigged & meta-4 fitted BS in a very short amount of time.
It's something I did once to see how it would pan out.

Although I didn't lose the BS in any of the L4 missions I ran, completing them in a timely manner was extremely difficult.
It's possible to do, but I wouldn't recommend that you try it as well.


Use the current Certificate System
Core Competency - Standard
Defence - Active Shield Tanking, Armour Tanking, Passive Shield Tanking (train 1 of these to Standard)
Missile Control or Turret Control - Standard

The above will give you the skills to be able to sit in most ships with a good degree of competence.
You will then only need to pad out your training with some ship specific weapon skills.

PvE is easy
PvP is not, it takes lots of practice and lost ships.

Thanks for the help guys. Ill definately be in touch keno. Im gettin bored on my own anyway :)

Erm, when did i say that? I actually never planned to not play for so long or indeed take a break at all :/

Linky?

Sorry if it's a meme im not aware of :D