Skill Discussions

Good Morning-ish Folks.

I've pretty much put most of my focus in my on again / off again eve career towards mining and industry pursuits with a VERY little PVE / PVP experience. I'm thinking I need to boost my PVE skills up and do some missions.

I'd welcome any advice on holes in my skills to put some focus into.

http://eveboard.com/pilot/Emicarn_Lothlorn

This should show my current skills for anyone to see.

Thanks for any help to a returning player.

Rich

I think the first thing is, to establish what area you live in and want to mission in.
Then pick a race of ships you want to excel in and start working your way up.

Missile platforms have long been the recommended choice for missions, but that's not *mandatory*.
I didn't look at your eveboard, but I think you need to pick a race or ship line before anyone could give specific advice anyway.

As a Caldari mission pilot, you will want to train your missile skills and ship skills.
Most likely you will be shield tanked, so shield skills are also in line for you. T2 hardeners is the goal.
Drones are good for any race, so do them up as well. T2 lights is the goal, and Gallente drones are what you should get first. Hobgoblin II's.

2 points on skills. (for now)
First:
Skills are like grades on a report card, with level V being an 'A', level IV being a 'B', level III being a 'C' or 'average' grade. Level I gets a sort of, E for Effort in my opinion I see that you have a lot of skills to I, which is good at this stage in your career, but don't assume that is a good place to stop. Sometimes in EVE, you find yourself at a point where you don't need MORE skills, you need BETTER skills. You are sort of at that place right now.

Second:
Skills have a 'rank' or 'modifier' for training time. In many, many catagories, you want those rank 1 skills to go to level V right away, then the rank 2's, and so on. Use the rankings as a guide line to help you plan.


Implants and remaps:
For the first several months, you want a balanced training program. Some of this, some of that. There are other forum posts about what's best. Search them out for some really useful info. The main point is, don't do a hardline remap for your first year if this is your only account/main character.
Implants, get +3's asap. When you can afford to upgrade to +4's, make a jump clone and put the new implants in the new clone.

Skills sidenote:
In Missile and Gunnery skills, there are a whole slew of 'support' skills. Those skills are just as important as the weapon itself, so do them along the way. Generally, get every support skill to IV, then the T2 weapon, then do the supports to V.
Same goes for Drones.
With all the skills, READ the description, then train the next level. If you're actively missioning, you should be able to feel the improvement as each skill completes. Drones go faster, missiles hit harder, ships tank better, etc. etc.