Missions & Complexes

I have never done incursions or even fleet ops, but have become very serious about incursions as my next eve-career. My intent is to follow orders well, not clutter comms, be friendly, be responsible, and be able to fill the various DPS and Logi roles dependably.

I have studied every up-to-date web page I can get my hands on (and a few out of date ones - holy bajesus is it annoying to have to figure out how module names have changed over the years.) I have read a couple of blogs, and the eve university pages on skills, preparing, and ship fittings.

In spite of all of this, I have a few random questions and opinions to seek out from experienced incursion runners. Emphasis on random.

I'm going to link the Eveboard sheet I just created, but please take note of the following first:

• I am currently mapped Int/Mem, and finishing off a few Level IV / V skills there. I acknowledge that I am sorely lacking in the gunnery and spaceship command skills needed.
• I will soon remap to Perc / Wil and start banging out the necessary battleship, logi, and gunnery skills to levels IV and some to V.
• I believe you will find most of my navigation, fitting, cap, and shield skills in great shape. Notable holes are cap emissions and shield emissions, both of which I'm taking to V soon.
• I have great training implants

Okay, here goes... first my char sheet: The Larold

Is taking Acceleration Control from IV to V worth it? 5% boost to AB and MWD speeds. 13 days.

Is taking High Speed Maneuv. from IV to V worth it? 5% less cap for MWD, 16+ days. (I will soon go from III to IV)

Shield Upgrades IV to V - 6 days. Worth it? (My Golem has plenty of grid to spare, but I haven't played around with Vindi / Nightmare / Mach fits.)

Sensor-linking skill: how high should I train it? Is this used when I fly a Scimitar and want to help boost a mate's tracking on their turrets? I've been confused because many sites, and I think even some Eve skill descriptions, use out-dated module names.

Is it worth it to hook up with a few public Eve University fleet-ops classes to learn the basics of maneuvering with a fleet?

Assuming all relevant skills are sufficient, what's a reasonable starting role for an incursion noob? The main ones I've seen are Vindi for web and DPS on small stuff, nightmare / mach for bigger stuff, and basilisk / scimitar for logis. I stumbled into owning a Vindicator, but the Vindi roles sound a little complex - going after the small stuff, webbing, taking a lot of aggro, etc. I've heard that as long as you know your crystals, properly-fitted and properly-skilled nightmares don't have a lot of movement or complexity - just set the crystal and apply a lot of DPS with decent range.

Do my drone skills have any nasty holes? I really don't want to burn a remap on Mem / Per.

How long does it take someone, generally, to get into a fleet. If I have a maximum playing window of 2.5 to 3 hours, will it be often that I have to burn an hour getting accepted into a fleet?

If I am only interested in High Sec, is that a serious impediment for me to be able to do incursions regularly?

Based on my char sheet, I'm probably not ready for another couple of months, correct? (Gunnery / BS / Logi ship skills.)

Any other advice that you have time to offer? It would be much appreciated. I want to be an asset to my fleet-mates, not a liability. I am doing everything I can ahead of time to prepare and make sure the noob-factor is as minimal as possible.

Thank you so much!!

Acceleration control to V? I did incursions just fine on my incursion char with it at IV. Same with high speed maneuvering. I'd move those to the end of the training list. They're useful for logi or if you fly a nightmare but other than that, definitely not required.

Shield Upgrades to V? Look at the fits for different communities that you're looking to fly with. If you can fit them without going to V, don't worry about it.

Machs and Nightmares are definitely the easiest roles of any incursion fleet. Logi isn't all that hard either but if you're nervous about just starting out I'd stick with Machs and Nightmares. They're just dps ships. Keep range on your AAA (anchor) and shoot the tags appropriately.

Drones are mostly used as supplemental DPS, however the shinier communities like ISN do require T2 sentries if I remember correctly (might be wrong on that one).

As for wait times, it depends. If there's a lot of people online and only one fleet for a community running, you could be in for a long wait. Couple that with if the incursion has moved and you have to travel to the new incursion, you could end up wasting a lot of your play time. I used to only do incursions when I had a large block of time to play that way I wouldn't get screwed into just sitting around waiting and doing nothing.

Most regular incursions are only done in High-sec so no worries there.

Only advice I can give is be up front with the FC that you are new to incursions and follow directions explicitly. Most FCs will give basic rundowns for new players without snide comments.