Skill Discussions

It takes about a week to train for every T1 turret (all level 3 skill, except level 5 Gunnery). That's what I did. I've since trained the support skills to 4.

Things only get long to train if you go for T2 turrets.

I'm currently trying-out Minmatar, and will go Amarr next, then Gallente. It doesn't take that long to get into even the battleships of each of them. Probably about a week or so per race.

Youre Caldari, train those hybrids! Im pure caldari and trained up to T2 large hybrids. I only have marginal missile skills with only T2 heavy missiles and rockets. I will be training up Minmatar next but not until I am maxed out on hybrids. They Rokh!

in eve, lvl4 is not considered training. training guns is getting large guns spec 4 and all support 5 which takes a few months so it does mean something

for pve, hybrids are good if they are rails. however they can't solo. good as additional damager for BS rats in addition to Tengu which destroys everything smaller.

mach is overrated tbh. i can fly it but prefer tengu. also my alt is maelstrom t2 artillery and dps is pretty ****** so i am training t2 rails now with the intention of replacing maelstrom with naga or vindicator. i could try autocannons but having to fit a mwd or ab and actually approach any of the targets is a show stopper for me, my style is sit at the warp in point or slowly crawl to the next gate while destroying the whole mission which should mean i can warp the next gate by the time i arrive to it.

You're doing it wrong.

Fit 800mm autocannons to that mission mach. In the lows put 4 faction gyros and 2 TE's and with falloff you can hit out to 60+ km. With an AB you're about as fast and as nimble as a tengu. The only drawback to the mach is the tank, but with light drones and standard T1 ammo you should be doing 900+ DPS.

I've used a tengu and a mach for mission running, both highly specialized chars, and I would pick the mach hands down as the ultimate blitzing machine. Its DPS output is simply higher than the tengu, and its range and speed means that you can pretty much hit anything within its targeting range, and can be able to close in the rats quickly.

I would choose a tengu for running 8/10 through 10/10 plexes solo, since its tank is insane, otherwise you'd need a repper with a mach.

Easy. You say you have very little gunnery skills. Start by training a few hybrid turret skills to 2 or 3 so you can actually use them (spend maybe 1-2 days) then work on training all the gunnery support skills to IV. Then when you do figure out which turrets you really want to use, you need only train those turret skills and have very few wasted gunnery skillpoints.

mining lasers! i heard their dps will be nicely buffed in next patch!

Srsly, one difference between missiles and turrets is that there are plenty skills that benefits the 3 types, so investment in those skills is never lost. In general, I would advise to decide first about a role, then a ship that fit that role, and then skill accordingly.

If you plan to go pvp, you might consider the "standard" frigate - battlecruiser route to get the taste of it. Drakes come to mind here with your skills. A more specialized role is the stealth bomber. Finally drones is a nice bonus, if not vital, for most pvp scenarios.

I made a similar choice recently and post-crucible i'm quite glad I stuck with caldari.

Currently the only hybrid weapon system that still performs like absolute crap with no redemption is medium rails and frankly, cruiser sized ships are where missiles shine the most, so I wasn't looking there anyhow.

The merlin, harpy, rokh, and naga are easily now some of my favorite ships. They have unexpected range with blasters, reasonable dps at insane range with rails, that sexy tank we caldari are known for(except the naga ofc), and now they can actually run their guns without capping out \o/.

I admit that I left Citadel Cruise Missiles and Defender Missiles at IV...

Does that make me a bad caldari?

I really pity the caldari pilots who haven't experienced the post-hybrid-buff rokh and the naga yet. Train up those gunnery skills newb!