EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hey all,

So I'll keep this brief, I've been away from the game for a while, and previously I was running L3 missions in a Drake without issue.

I'm now aiming to get a Raven, and start doing L4 missions as soon as possible. I'm aware that at lower skill levels, these might be slow, but I'm mainly concerned about being able to survive them and not lose the ship. I'm fairly aware of the important factors of mission running, checking eve survival, being aware of triggers etc.

That said, I'd appreciate some tips on what skills I absolutely need to train further before I should even consider attempting the L4s? Current skills are at http://eveboard.com/pilot/Runcible_Arnerette. As I said, I'm not looking for the skills needed for super fast runs, but rather just being able to complete them with good survivability.

Thanks!

How does your drake do? Because some lvl4's are about as easy as the hardest lvl3's. You'd need to raise shield comp though, and best to (have some) specialize in heavy missiles to run a Drake. Some missions, off the top of my head like Recon lvl4, you would probably run faster in a lvl4 drake compared to a standard raven... well at least if you blitz the first pocket of the first mission if your skills are still a bit low.

But as for the raven, yes at least having shield comp will help a bit, at least at 4. If you don't use propulsion (not required) make sure you have shields. This boosting tank build could help, I've run with it in a raven early on and works. Drones need to go up a little too, you will have a hard time with frigs, and being webed makes for poor tanking. Yes, cap up a little more too, but the above raven setup might fit. If it's a close fit, there are skill hardwiring implants that can help.

Speaking of implants, I'd suggest getting like the evemon app (leading planner app), building a long term skill plan, prioritize your training que and optimize for best attributes. Also it will recommend the minimum skills you need for any particular ship, automatically add to your training que. You're running 20 down the line, that can be a bit slow. At least a few months in, I'd suggest tipping the balance in one direction or the other, shave lots of time off of training. When you are at 30+, you notice the difference :D

If you are uncertain once you get into it, run some lvl2's or something, see how you like fighting frigs and cruisers, there will be TONS of them on lvl4's, and far more deadly (elite ewar and such). Or fly with someone, even if they in a frig.

Yeah, the boosting tank is no frills pure shield tank with only a little missile damage boost. Hence the reason to raise drones up. Get some light web drones out there, target painting drones too. Mix them with a few light scouts. As you can handle well without running the booster a lot, swap in more BCS's to add DPS.

Yeah, I never accept plans form anyone else, I already have 15 of my own lol. Nah well I stuck to my first real 1yr plan, and it was very-very valuable, very, yes very. Now I'm just training what I want, kind of got it all down even mathematically how training best works. For me, more about polishing skills I already have in the mapping I have going. No wants for cap, no one can tell me otherwise, my skills and play style is more rogue. Making plans though, quite fun hah. I even make plans for things I'll never train, from characters that don't exist, "plans within plans... wheels within wheels..."
But the planner is quite fun :D
But still it does help for balancing your stats, more than just the skill plan itself, it helps you work around the best layout for training times and how to plan your neural remaps which new players have a very hard time with. Figure out your next neural remap and plan to that, then switch your skill plan to the new remap. See? :) Good stuff :D This is EVE after all, not the emasculated night elf mohawks of WoW hehe.

At the time I'm writing this, OMG Labs is offline so I can't see your EVEboard entry. I'm giving advice somewhat blindly, apologies if I'm telling you to do stuff you've already done.

To get into a Raven quickly, train the skills required for Micro Jump Drive, Cruise Missile Launcher I, Signal Amplifier II and Sensor Booster II. The MJD means you can disappear off into the distance and lob missiles from afar, and you will have plenty of time to warp out if you need to. The signal amplifier and sensor booster will give you the range you need to target the NPCs so you can shoot them

Some missions will give you difficulty. Make sure you read the EVE Survival Mission Reports for hints and tips, and leave your own notes about how well you survived given your low-skills setup. Be prepared to lose a Raven or two while learning the ropes.

You should then work on T2 light drones, Hobgoblin IIs and Warrior IIs specifically. T2 light drones will allow you to focus missile DPS on the bigger ships while the drones clean up the smaller ships (i.e.: more efficient use of your missiles to get through missions faster). Once you have those, boost your missile skills: specifically Warhead Upgrades, Guided Missile Precision, Target Navigation Prediction (these three give you more DPS), then Missile Projection ahead of Missile Bombardment (projection gets missiles to targets faster). Learn to count salvos: there's no point launching three salvos of cruise missiles at a cruiser if two salvos is enough to blow it up.

Once you have those under your belt, work on being able to fit a T2 tank.

My progression advice is (in order), assuming you stick to battleships (if not, replace the BS skills with either Racial Strategic Cruiser 3 and level 4 or 5 subsystem skills, or replace them with Racial Cruiser 5 and Heavy Assault Cruisers 3 or 4, or Racial Battlecruiser 5 and Command Ships 3 or 4):

- Core skills (capacitor and fitting) to 4
- Tech 2 tank prereqs
- Basic drone skills (Drone Interfacing 3)
- Racial Battleship 4
- Tech 2 weapon upgrades requirements (T2 Ballistic Control Unit, etc)
- Core skills to 5 (the 3x capacitor skill can wait a little here) and Advanced Weapons Upgrades 3 or 4
- Racial Battleship 5
- Tech 2 weapon system (T2 launchers)


You can run L4s with a little care once you have the first three of these. Once you have most of them, you can blitz L4s without even bothering to change fit from mission to mission. I only mission for security status, but when I do it, I don't bother with changing my fit based on the mission given, I just use the same one for everything (a speed tanking, locally tanked Ishtar)

I haven't checked how hard fitting is for you now, but your skills look decent to start level 4's. I'd probably get drone interfacing 4 just because frigates are the most dangerous thing for your ship. Anything to make sure they go down is good. For future training, maxing out shield skills is pretty short, and then t2 launchers would be good. You might have to train some fitting skills to actually use t2 launchers, but I think you're pretty solid from there and can work on core skills or other stuff.

hmm? jam, web, scram, dampen and spit you out the other side easy hehe.
Well dampen doesn't matter for a raven.
And those are just the frigs ;)
...which are a pain to hit if you cant hit them.

Btw OP, you find what you needed or was this a FAF thread?

We will get moblie micro jump device soon. So you will be able to microjump in any ship, actually.

Not read the whole thread, but if you bring up the ship chart, each ship has a mastery guide, which you can use as a guide to train the correct skills. I remember when EVE didn't have this so at least it takes some of the guesswork out of what skills to train.

Also checkout build recommendations on places like battleclininc which again can guide you what modules to use.

TBH Battleclinic is horrible.

A reasonable source of fits is the NPC corporation chat - you'll get some good and some bad advice there, but awful advice will usually be counteracted by people saying "No, do NOT do that!".

As a general fit advice though, here's what I would do:


- Tank:
Fit your race's preferred tank (armor for Amarr/Gall, shield otherwise). Don't deviate unless you know what you are doing. Emphasise resist% modules and cap using local repair modules. Use tech 2 resist modules if you can fit them, meta 4 until then (faction/deadspace are too expensive to fit on a newbie's ship). Do not skimp on your local repair module(s) - it's perfectly reasonable to fit one deadspace (C-type) local repair module on a ship that is otherwise only using tech 2 modules.
Consider rigs that improve your local repairs.
Don't use modules that give +HP with no other benefit - these are for PVP encounters against multiple players that all focus fire, and don't help much in PVE except in incursions.
If in doubt, go overboard on tank and fit more defensive modules at the expense of less offensive ones.
Also remember: The second resist% module on the same resist works at 87% effectiveness; the third at 57% and the fourth is almost useless.
Lastly: The Damage Control 2 is a useful tank module. If you screw up really badly, it will buy you a lot more time in structure before you pop, and its shield/armor resists are not stacking penalized at all.


- Damage:
Fit the weapons system(s) your ship has a bonus to, always.
Fit low slot modules that increase damage output (Magnetic Field Stabilizers, Heat Sinks, Drone Damage Amplifiers etc) for your weapon system(s). If you are using split weapons systems (e.g. the Vexor which uses hybrids and drones) use an equal number of each.
Consider mid slot modules that increase accuracy.
Consider rigs that increase your weapons system, although IMO local repair rigs are probably better.
Have all of your guns match. This lets you group them, which will improve your ability to apply damage in practice.
Finally, make sure you have some way to kill a small ship that is orbiting you fast. For most ships, this means Warrior I or Warrior II drones. Alternately, it can mean two Stasis Webifiers (to slow down the orbiting, making the target easier to track) and medium blasters or even large blasters with Void ammunition. Just don't be 'that person' begging in local for help because your Hyperion is being warp disrupted in a mission by a frigate you cannot hurt.



- Utility:
This is really up to you. I like to dictate range, so I fit my Ishtar with a microwarpdrive and two Stasis Webifiers, and a warp scrambler (in case I find myself in unexpected PVP). With low skills, Cap Recharger II is a very useful module to consider.