EVE New Citizens Q&A

Do you like missiles because they sound awesome?
Do you like missiles because others told you they're the best?
Do you like missiles because they sound easy to use?

"Best" is very subjective. For one person it means "doing the most dps", for others it means "completing missions the fastest" and for again others it means "requiring almost no thought or input so I can be as brain dead and afk as much as I want to be". So you'll hear different people tell you different things, depending on which logic they're following, so it really is up to you to figure out what you're really looking for.

Still depends :(

You will find that missiles are "easier", just fire until things are dead
Guns are "faster", one shot kills on small fast stuff, faster cycle times ( non-arty )

That generally said, you will still find exceptions abound for both. Sometimes it's easier to hit npcs from one spot with missiles and faster without having to change ammo or get in range of the high damage stuff and sometimes guns just plain clear rooms faster and with less effort.

Gun skills apply to three of the weapon systems in game, so keep that in mind.
I believe that the current min/max ISK/hour mission setups tend to be turret based as well.

Which one do you enjoy shooting more?

like em or loath em, drones are really important.
you dont have to focus on them but almost all the ships in eve use them in some capacity so training them is in your intrest.

Sad to hear drones will always be needed. :(

As for long term goals. Some group-related PvE (incursions) and some PvP on the side with some exploring maybe.
This being said, I think Ill choose Minmatar.

You guys seems to be saying cannons fit more roles than Missiles, is this true?

I played for five years before I ever trained missiles on a character. It turned out that they ended up being pretty useful in a lot of situations. Especially as I was cross training Gallente and Caldari.

Those pirate faction ships (Worm, Gila, Rattlesnake) are pretty outstanding platforms for PVE and are easily trained into exceptional PVP characters when you are ready.

Though you will need substantial drone skills to take full advantage. As Ralph said, you can't really get along well without drone skills in this game.

Mr Epeen

yeah, thers a thing about support skills.
turret support skills are relevant for hybrids, projectiles and LAZORZ
i.e. rapid firing will effect the dps for 3 weapons systems whereas the missile equivalent will only effect missiles

For group PVE, yes, gun ships are preferred over missiles because of the flight delay. However, for solo PVE the Raven is quite common. You can either tank it out or snipe with it quite comfortably, and missiles have selectable damage types.

I don't do a lot of PVE though. From a PVP perspective, it still depends. For cruiser and batlteship class weapons, guns have the edge because missiles have naturally lower dps, apply poorly to smaller targets, and have delayed damage. Medium and Large guns have tracking to deal with, but they still have the potential to get a huge amount of damage if they get a good hit and there are ways to deal with tracking (webs, scrams, neuts, target painters, range control). So for cruiser and up people tend to prefer gun ships for PvP.

Small missiles (light missiles and rockets) are excellent though. Light missiles are great for kiting ships because you don't have to worry about tracking and damage falloff. Rockets deal very consistent damage at close range and generally have the flexibility to perform anywhere within scram range. I wouldn't say the small missile systems are flat out better than their turret counterparts, but they are definitely competitive.

In the end...it doesn't matter that much. Train what appeals to you. You can find a niche for it. If you don't like it, you can always train something else. As long as you aren't desperately trying to maximize isk/hour, either turrets or missiles will work just fine for solo PVE.

And as others have said, you will need drones. I'm not a huge fan either, but a flight of light drones is a very nice thing to have when your mission battleship is warp scrambled by an elite frigate npc and your guns can't track it. In PvP as well, drones are your protection against smaller targets which you can't hit. There are just a few large ships without any drone bay, like the attack battlecruisers (oracle, tornado, naga). A lone frigate that gets in close will spell death for any of these ships, as their large weapons have no hope of hitting a small ship in a tight orbit.

within the past few years CCP has done some ship balancing. It used to be the case that Caldari was the superior PvE race and Minmatar was the top PvP race. That stuff is largely untrue now and it's really all about flying what you like. Play around with guns and missiles and see which you like better and go with that one.

The above being said in most cases guns are preferred over missiles in PvP due in large part to the fact that gun damage is instant and missiles have flight time meaning if you and your opponent are both very deep into structure the missile flinger could have more than enough damage in flight to kill the gun user but since the gun damage is instant he gets the kill and as soon as the missile user is de-shipped his missiles no longer can do damage.

However guns take more understanding of game mechanics to get good dps out of where as missiles are less variable and therefore more noob friendly .

There is a flash based gunnery tutorial floating around out there that's years old but very good for introducing noobs to the basics of gunnery. Do a google search for "eve tracking guide" also "eve gunnery" and you'll find a lot of useful information. This should also help give you some idea of which is more fun for your play style.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Minmatar is kind of famous for mixed weapon systems meaning they have lots of ships that mix guns with missiles so you'll still have to learn both. Also most ships in game use drones so you'll most likely still needs some drone skills as well. There are exceptions to this of course but you can see for yourself which ships use what just by looking through the market in game and looking at attributes.

Bottom line is you'll have to try different stuff and see what works best for you or what you have more fun doing. Also the eve uni site dos a pretty good job of giving a brief and concise intro as to how to fly each ship effectively.

a few missile skills to lv 2 or 3 will be overkill for lv1s. personally I can't stand missiles, I have an alt with 19m in missiles, and 5% hardwires, and still, just don't like em. Guns all the way! just feels super nice to press a button and see something go boom, and not have to worry about wasting shots like with missiles.