EVE New Citizens Q&A

All ships with selectable damage weapons (drones, missiles, projectile) are fine for missions. For example I did lvl1 and lvl2 missions with a Corax, then lvl3 using a Drake and finally lvl4 with a Raven (Navy Issue). For belt ratting in Low and Highsec, Cruisers, Assault frigs and T3 Destroyers are nice.

All ships can be used to rat.
Don't rush into big ships, that rarely ends well, take your time training and understanding your ships/weapons.

Here are some possible paths for mission running:

Catalyst>Thorax>Brutix>Proteus/Tengu>Megathron/Navy Domi/Machariel

Corax>Caracal/Vexor>Gila>Raven/Rattlesnake

Every race has a lineup of ships that are designed for combat, and whether you use them for PVE or for PVP often depends on modules that you fit into the ship, rather than the ship itself.

If you look through the menu on the left side of the screen in-game, you should find something called the ISIS Ship Database, that has lineups of ships, and their progressions and variants.

You're basically training a combat pilot, and you're not restricted to Caldari; you can train for Gallente, Amarr, or Minmatar ships at will, if they're more to your fancy. Just keep in mind that you also have to train weapon systems for said ships, and they differ from race to race (Caldari use missiles and hybrid guns, Amarr use lasers and some drones, for example). You also have to train "support" skills so that your shields, armor, targeting, energy, and capacitor are up to snuff in combat.

To give an example from the Caldari lineup:

- Typically you can start with a combat frigate: Merlin uses rails and missiles, Kestrel is a missiles-only ship, both of them follow the Caldari philosophy of shooting from afar (16-20 km) and using shields for defense. So you need to train the skills under Gunnery that let you use small hybrid weapons, and the skills under Missiles that let you install rockets and light missiles. You also need to train some skills in the Shields category, Engineering, Navigation, Targeting, and maybe even Armor just to boost your defenses overall. For a frigate, it's sufficient to only train these skills to 2 or 3, just to unlock the capability to install some basic defenses on your frigate.

- Once you're comfortable with the easy missions given by Level 1 agents, and have enough standings to increase difficulty to Level 2 (the skills in the Social category can help with this), then you're looking at switching to a cruiser. The Caldari continue their lineup with the Moa (railguns cruiser) and the Caracal (missiles). You have to train Medium Hybrid Turrets and / or the medium missiles (Heavy Missiles, Heavy Assault Missiles). You also need to progress the support skills (Shields, Navigation, Armor, Engineering, etc.) to level 3-4, just to make sure your more expensive cruiser ship is defended properly.

- The Caldari line progresses to Battlecruisers (Ferox for railguns, Drake for missiles), and they use the Medium weaponry so you're good with that but should again increase the support skills some more, as the Level 3 agent missions are more difficult than the Level 2 ones.

- And finally you can get to battleships, Rokh and Raven (respectively), which end the line. You have to train large hybrid turrets and the battleship-sized missile systems (cruise missiles and torpedoes), along with getting most of your support skills to 4 or even maxed out at 5. Battleships can do level 4 agent missions.

In addition to this progression line, the Caldari have other ships, for specialized roles or more suited for PVP. The Caldari are big on electronic jamming (ECM), so you have a line of ships from the Griffin frigate to the Scorpion battleship. Jamming is more of a PVP activity, but you're training to fly frigates, cruisers, and battleships anyway, so you might as well train the 1 or 2 extra skills that let you jam opponents should the PVP need arise.

The "tech 2" specialized ships such as the heavy assault cruisers (Cerberus and Eagle) have the size and shape of a cruiser but the damage resistances of a battleship, and can also put out battleship-level DPS provided that you've taken the time to train up to Tech 2 weaponry, so they are a more agile alternative to using the big slow battleships for high level missions. Other tech 2 ships may be specialized for PVP roles such as cloaked scouting, warp drive interdiction, long range jamming, and the like.

Become familiar with damage types and resistances. Each faction has damage types it's good at dishing out and ones that it is not and each faction also has damage types that it has high resists to and also low. Also tank type matters. For example it's hard to get a good tank versus EM damage shield tanking and it is also hard to get a good armor tank versus explosive damage.

If you are belt ratting or running anoms you should pretty much always know which rat type you are going up against and therefore which damage types you should be dealing most and which damage types you need to fit resists for. Missions can be more varied but you can also have multiple mission boats for various factions or some ships are more flexible with tank than others.

You should be able to rat in high sec in a frig or destroyer and in null sec you can rat in a cruiser but a faction cruiser, tech 2 cruiser or battlecruiser will make it much easier however less exciting.

For missions level 1's are typically meant to be done in frigs or maybe cruisers, level 2 typically in cruisers or battlecruisers and level 3s in battlecruisers mostly with level 4 being mostly battleships with some higher tech medium sized ships. Keep in mind that many level 4 missions have been soloed in a tech 1 frig. Mind you not on the first try and not easily but it's been done. So these are just guidelines.

This does matter for low SP ratting/missioning. Later not as much, but it still has benefits.

The rats you fight have strengths and weaknesses, what type of damage they inflict and what damage types they are more susceptible to. The bulk of security mission and ratting in say for example the Caldari empire space are going to be gurista pirates specifically. As a low SP combat pilot you would benefit the most by using Caldari ships against them as the resistance and bonus damage type are typically matched best against those pirate rats. So you may inflict the most damage while taking the least damage while not needing to make any serious modifications to your ship, providing you have the skills to make such modifications.

So, regions of space can have different rats, but generally the same type in a given region in regards to pirates. Later it matters less as you have the skill to plug the resistance holes in your ships, but still to get max resistance and damage without sacrificing too much fitting doing so it's always best to use the right ships against the right rats.

Webvan makes a good point that you are usually best off flying the racial ship line up of the local "main 4" faction. Meaning fly caldari in caldari space and Amarr in Amarr space etc. That is not to say other races won't work just that if you are looking to optimize that is often a good way to go.

When ratting in high sec you don't really have to worry much about other players. Sure you could get ganked but most gankers are looking for miners or transports. Even if you were to loose a ratting ship to a ganker it would not be with any frequency that the costs would add up to something that you need to worry about. If you are under a war dec or running missions in a very expensively fit ship that is a different story but if you are ratting in a T1 ship that is at best T2 fit then it's not likely that you will be ganked.

Ratting in low sec you should always be PvP fit and expect to be engaged by other players often, even in your own mission's deadspace pocket. As a matter of fact if you were looking for some PvP just ratting in a busy low sec system would likely bring you some fights.

Null sec is a very different and varied thing. In much of sov null there are intel channels to warn you of reds coming from several systems away. In most cases in well held sov null you are much better off having a ship focus fit for ratting and another for PvP and when you read that reds are coming your way switch out ships or just wait them out depending on your PvP preference.

NPC null is again a different story. Much like low sec but sometimes locals try and claim ownership. Far enough away from high sec usually that you don't need to worry about a constant stream of "causuals". Most of the people you see in NPC null will be regulars. Weather they are regular friends or regular enemies IDK but you'll get to know most of them one way or another.

Wormhole space you pretty much have to be PvP fit regardless just due to sleepers omni tanking and doing omni damage. Still it is worth noting that the lack of people showing up in local means you have to not only always be ready for PvP but pretty much always be expecting it.

Caracal. Caracal. Caracal.