EVE New Citizens Q&A

[Disclaimer]
This post is based on my own experience and what I wish I had known, when rolling this character.

I am not aware if there already is a such post. If there is I do apologize for double posting.

Being a n00b myself, there is most likely something I have forgotten.

I have defined Basic skills being skills that makes it possible to fly and fit ships and get around in EVE. All these skills is rated as being imperative to train to max level in order to get the most out of your ships and fittings.

What I have not taken into consideration:
- Race chosen
- Career chosen (miner, manufacturing etc.)
- Operating in null, low or hisec

For obvious reasons I have not covered everything as it heavily depends on career choice. If you want to be a miner, well then Mining and all sub skills becomes imperative.

Please should you have any inputs of any kind, let me know.
[/Dislcaimer]

Armor skills
Mechanics
Without this skill trained, you will not be able to use any items listed under Hull and Armor such as:
- Cargo expanders
- Reinforced bulkheads

Hull upgrades
Without this skill, you will not be able to use any items listed under Hull and Armor such as:
- Armor repairs
- Plating (various types)
- Damage controls

Drones
Drones
Without this skill, you will not be able to make use of drones.
1 drone pr. skill level

Electronics
Cloaking
This skill is needed in order to move around unseen in space

Engineering
Power grid Management
This improves the power grid in all ships and therefore imperative to get to max level

CPU Management
This improves the CPU output in all ships and therefore imperative to get to max level

Capacity management
This improves the Capacitor output in all ships and therefore imperative to get to max level

Energy grid upgrades
Without this skill, you will not be able to make use of any items listed under Engineering Equipment such as:
- Capacitor batteries/rechargers
- Power diagnostic systems

Electronics upgrades
Without this skill, you will not be able to make use of any items listed under Electronics and Sensor upgrades such as:
- CPU upgrades

Gunnery
Gunnery
Without this skill, you will not be able to fit any turrets nor shoot any guns. However, again depends on ship types, your career and play style.

There are tons of other skills under Gunnery, which I have not included here, because it entirely depends on ship types, career and play style.

Missiles
Missile launcher operation
Without this skill, you will not be to able fit missile launchers nor launch missiles.

There are tons of other skills under Missiles, which I have not included here, because it entirely depends on ship types, career and play style.

Navigation
Navigation
Without this skill, you will have hard time to move around in space. Prerequisite for other skills as well such as:
- Afterburner
- Warp Drive operation
- Propulsion systems (used in T3 ships)

Neural Enhancement
Cybernetics
This is perhaps one of the most important skills as the implants adds to your attributes and affecting the speed you train all skills with.

Without this skill, you will not be able to use implants at all.

Skill level 1 allows you to use implants that gives +1 to any of your attributes:
Slot 1: Perception
Slot 2: Memory
Slot 3: Willpower
Slot 4: Intelligence
Slot 5: Charisma

There are five more slots, also known as skill slots, which are equally dependent on the skill level.

Rigging
Jury Rigging
Without this skill, you will not be able to add any rigs in any rig slots at all in any ships.

All sub skills then depends on ship types, career and play style.

Science
Science
Prerequisite for many other skills. On its own adds 5% to blueprint speed level

There is many sub skills in Science, but in order to function in EVE, Science is the one to get and go train others, before digging deeper in to any of those.

Shields
Shield operation
Without this skill, you will not be able to fit any shield equipment to any ship.

Shield upgrades
Without this skill, you will not be able to fit any shield rechargers or shield resistance amplifiers.

Social
Social
Increases standing gain with NPC agents and factions. Prerequisite for other skills as well such as:
- Contracting
- Fast talk

Spaceship command
Spaceship command
Without this skill, you will not be able to buy, assemble and fly any spaceships in EVE at all. This is imperative to train to max level fast.

Advanced spaceship command
This skill is used in order to operate more specialized ships such as
- Jump freighters
- Capital ships (dreadnaughts and Titans for example)
- Race based freighters

Adding to this, basing on experience...

When choosing attributes via either new character creation, remaps or what implants to buy, focus on -

1. Perception
2. Intelligence
3. Willpower
4. Memory
5 Charisma

In that order, assuming you want to be a combat pilot. Perception being the primary attribute for the majority of relevant skills, and int/will being primary for most others. Memory is fairly important as well but not as much as others, and Charisma isn't really important, unless you are training Connections type skills.

There's also Louis's epic skill guide and Tippia's newbie skill plan v2.1

Nice list but I don´t think Subsystems belong here; flying a T3 simply is not something you should do within your first three or so months

I'm a newbie myself, and sorry but your list looks bad. I'm 6 months old and only just started skilling for cruisers on my main (he is a pvp char). I'm not even dreaming about t3.

I did however invest heavily into support skills, engineering skills and navigation. I would be under impression they are not so important after reading your post.

Many caldari ships when kiting use their med slots as utility slots since the tank just won't fit. So people who want to pvp (at least when caldari) might want to invest into damps/weapon disruption.

If you want to do something well you need to specialize. I would put emphasis on that. As it comes to pve I'm doing ok when I go drones + missiles. Laseorz got my time wasted on mobs that could TD me, so Balshem had to skill missiles and drones (that all happened in amarr space, where lasorz were supposed to be nice).

So... I would think about my target (pve/pvp/others newbie) and write the guide accordingly. As it is now the list could be a bit misinformative and actually harm someone's experience just a little tiny bit.

Not saying I don't appraciate your work, but you've got a bit over your head imho.

Yeah Thermodynamics is one of the single most important skills in the game.

It decides fights in PVP, and even in PVE it is an absolute lifesaver. Derp and shoot the wrong trigger? Never mind, overheat the tank until you stabilize. Flying a glass cannon and something dangerous is in your face? Never mind, overheat the MWD (for two cycles max due to MWD heat mechanics) and GTFO to a longer distance. Something orbiting at just the wrong distance for your sentry drones? Overheat your Omnidirectionals.

Obviously in PVP it is significantly more important again.

For a new player I would actually recommend remapping to an even split between Perception and Intelligence (combat pilot) or Intelligence and Memory with a few points diverted to Perception (industry pilot).

There is really no situation in which a new player should be mapping any points into Charisma or Willpower, the skills that use those as primaries are not things any non-alt needs to level 5 in the first few months, and your skill list should be broad enough that you essentially shouldn't waste any points on secondary stats if you can help it, the overall returns are too bad.

(I really love that since the nuking of the Learning skills these "what to do with your stats" posts are two sentences long instead of a series of bloody novellas.)

Here's a bit more help for you, adding some levels to your skill list:

Armor skills
Mechanics - IV (medium ships) or V (large ships
Hull upgrades - V (for T2 hardeners/membranes)

Drones
Drones - V (no matter what you're flying you need to be able to run 5 drones at once)

Electronics
Cloaking - I (everything that's not covops) or IV (covops) or V (force recon boats)

Engineering
Power grid Management - V (basic fitting)
CPU Management - V (basic fitting)
Capacity management - V (basic fitting)
Capacitor Systems Operation - V (basic fitting)
Energy grid upgrades - IV (for T2 cap management modules)
Electronics upgrades - III (for hacking) or V (for covops/EAFs)

Gunnery
Gunnery - 0 (if you're using missiles instead) or V (if using turrets or drones w/turret backup)
train gun skill for gun you're actually using to V, train all non-gun-specific skills until you've unlocked them all at minimum

Missiles
Missile launcher operation - 0 (if not using missiles) or V (if using missiles)
same deal as with gunnery above

Navigation
Navigation - V (best skill in the entire game)
Every skill in navigation except jump drive operation - IV (all good for every ship) or V (when you have time)

Neural Enhancement
Cybernetics - III (for +3 implants, best return for the money early game) or V (for high-end combat implants when you have all the moneys)

Rigging
Jury Rigging - IV (prereq for some T2 rigs)
Skill for any rig you're actually equipping - IV

Science
Science - III (prereq for everything)
Astrometrics - IV (probing)
any other skill with "astrometric" in the name - III minimum
Survey - III, Salvaging - III (to salvage wrecks)
Archaeology - III, Hacking - III (basic competence for exploration)

Shields
Shield operation - IV (for compensation skills)
Shield upgrades - V (for T2 resist modules)

Social
Social - III (for connections)
Connections - IV
Diplomacy - IV (make accessing higher-level agents much less of a pain, L2 agents almost automatic)

Spaceship command
Spaceship command - V (prereq for EVERYTHING)
Advanced spaceship command - 0. Seriously. Don't take this until you know exactly why you want it. It's completely useless until level V and everything level V gives you takes YEARS to train into.