EVE New Citizens Q&A

I only started playing Eve for the first time about a week ago and I love it. By far the best MMO I've tried.

I've read up a lot and learned a huge amount, done all the tutorials and I'm currently working through the Sisters of EVE epic mission arc.

I want to start PVP soon and look to joining a corporation I can have fun with.

Maybe I've taken all of the "don't go too fast" advice too far, but I'm actually really happy in my frigate at the moment and was wondering how long I can stay in one.

If I want to keep flying frigates for a long time, what sort of things should I be doing?

Is there any particular path I should take where I can find ISK and success by just keeping it fast and cheap?

Also, which ships should I be flying?

I started in Caldari space so I'm currently flying a Merlin with railguns and shield tanking and it's working great for the easy PVE, but I suspect I will need something a little cleverer for PVP.

Two-three years down the line I still fly T1 frigates often. Just because it is fun to get a small gang together and fly your ships like you stole them. Frigs are ideal for quick 'n dirty PVP because they can enter all plexes in FW space, are cheap to replace... and quite powerfull if you fly them well!

Yep like this, you can find great fights in a frigate, especially in faction warfare, I now spend the majority of my time in frigates, they are awesome.

The pirate mission arcs in null sec are done in t2 frigs. They can reach be done every 3 months and should meet you enough cash to lose t1 frigs in pvp until you can run then again.

Just an idea to work toward.

4 years in, and I like frigates so much I lead a corp centered on them. I once quit a corp because one of the lead FCs said focusing on frigates is wrong as they're useless.

As you play more and more, most PvE activities will stop being doable (or at least, doable effectively) in frigates and you will be required to move up. However, in PvP, frigates are ever-present and involved. Even if it's a heavier fleet in which the frigate's damage is inconsequential, having a fast scout, tackler, or other support role is always useful.




Try a variety out. Frigates are easy and fast to train for. For example, all you need to fly a shield Rifter after flying a shield Merlin is to train Minmatar Frigate and Small Projectile Weapons a few levels -- less than a day of training. All the other skills still apply.

Once you find something you like to fly, fly it a lot. And I mean a lot. Take any fight that seems reasonable, and win or not, try to learn from the outcome. Connect with people and ask them for feedback too.


As provided by in-game mehcanics, I can only think of faction warfare. Using naught but an unfit frigate you can make giant piles of money (which incidentally is why FW is plagued by farming alts).

Other than that, it really depends on the corp you join. Some corps offer opportunities for you to help with others' PvE and get a cut of the ISK. Others offer player-defined missions or bounties. And yet others kill so much stuff that you make a sizable amount of ISK just off of loot.


After the recent balancing pass, all frigates are viable, though some are a little more challenging to master than others. The Merlin is a very good starting point since its function is very straightforward, and the blaster/rail duality gives it a fair bit of flexibility. You could branch out into the Condor/Kestrel if you want to try out the Caldari missile ship line, or jump into a Cormorant destroyer if you want to take frigate railgun games to the next level.

If you want to dip into armor shenanigans, you can cross-train to Gallente ships. The Incursus and Atron still use hybrid weapons (blasters and railguns) as their primary weapon system, and both of them are also very popular frigates.


The rail Merlin is actually just fine for PvP, but it's one of the "hard to master" types of ships I mentioned. To start off with, I would probably recommend going out with blasters. You will obviously also need modify the fit to be PvP specific. Let me know if you need any more advice on all this.

Welcome to Eve!

Forever!



FW is probably fastest and cheapest. Exploration isn't so fast but it does more than enough to support a pvp frigate lifestyle. In the very beginning before you are ready to t2 fit or fly t2 frigates, missioning will be adequate in a frigate, but better to use bigger hulls for missioning.

Greetings! It's great to read you're not following the path of the lemmings. Only good advice I can give you is that if you find a friend or use a second account, having him as logi support will improve your options and chances insanely!

2006 player, the Rifter is still my all time favorite ship that is no competition to it for me. Cheap Thrill FTW!! Oh and I just now trained for BS's earlier this year, been playing off and on for years so I probably had 40mil SP before I trained for a BS. I focused on small ships as they are far more fun.

Between flying a frig into battle or a BS I take the frig any day of the week, it's just so much more fun.

If you want to learn how to PVP you do it in a frig. Lots of good suggestions people make on going about that, my personal preference is to load up a few ships cheaply and insure than, than attack EVERYTHING you see. Doesn't matter if you win or lose what you want is experience, attacking near stations, etc where they have guns that attack you is a big no though. After you get your feet wet doing that I would join a corp that show you the ropes.

Frigs are the ****. Not only do T1 frigates no longer all suck (barring the rifter, punisher, and occasionally merlin/incursus t1 frigs used to be essentially useless) but T2 frigs have received many buffs as well.

Electronic Attack Frigs

-some of the earliest 'force multipliers' you can train, one ship can usually punch well above it's class, often negating 2 or sometimes more enemy ships just by staying on the field

Assault Frigates

-good resilient brawlers, often used in wolf-packs even by hundreds of pilots in nullsec alliances

Interceptors

-what's to say, really? flavour of the month with "they've gone to plaid" warp speeds and interdiction nullification. No better way to travel null, and no surer way to **** off "instalock" gatecamps.

Bombers/Covops

-whether just doing recon, running FW missions, doing exploration, or even bombing hundreds of battleships into space dust, don't underestimate the utility and sheer usefulness of these covert sneaky ships

Faction Frigates

-not resilient like AFs, force multipliers like EAFs, as mobile as inties, nor sneaky like covops, faction frigs are sort of like specialised t1 counterparts. Often these will have a higher "SP Ceiling" meaning more SP that are relevant to a particular ship.

Whatever frig it is, you can't really go wrong.

Did I mention even the most expensive (reasonable) T2 frig fits usually won't even run you 100m isk?

It's been said over and over....it's better to fly something WELL than to barely be able to undock something BIG.

This toon is just shy of 45mil SP and a couple years old, and I still fly Dictors and Ceptors more than any other ship type. I simply enjoy the role of scout/tackle much more than main fleet DPS boat. It means I die a lot, but I don't care as long as I'm having fun. I can fly battleships, I just vastly prefer small, fast hulls and manual piloting.

Many of the low sec pirates I used to run with were highly experienced players that wanted to 'get back to the basics' of PvP with small gang, frigate based combat.

There is so much more to PvP than the ships and fittings. Learn that stuff and you will be lethal regardless of what you fly. The D-Scan, setting up safes, aggression timers, flagging, etc...all apply to any ship you undock.