EVE New Citizens Q&A

Hello guys :-)

So even if im not that new citizen, i still feel like i dont know 95% of content. And now i stand before big decision wich i want to consult with you.

I much appreciate your help, so thanks a lot for your answers!

First of all i rly love this game. I feel like when i was kid and played Ultima Online. Its just true sandbox! And i love probably every aspect of this game.

To explain what i want to do.

PVP - with corp
PVE - solo and with friends. But i would say its going to be 50/50 solo/fleet

Not sure if u can see my skills so long story short:
1) I have t2 drone skills (execpt medium drones)
2) Most of t2 fit skills (like adaptive shields, damage boosters, shield extenders, armor repairers)..
3) gallente tech1 ships and caldari tech 1 ships..
4) Some missiles, scanning, cloaking etc.

My question is. Where to aim, for that PvE part.

Fact is that ATM i have 10mil SP and almost 5M unallocated (bought few skill injectors)

I am looking for afordable ship so i can fly some l4 missions, null sec rats, wormhole C sites, etc.. just to enjoy some of theese PVE solo options.

I do rly enjoy drones! But as much i see there is no more options then Rattlesnake wich i rly dont like cause i rly rly rly hate that gamestlyle WARP IN, JUMP OUT, SNIPE, MOVE 100m/s, etc..

I rly want some agile ship that can farm endgame pve BUT budget friendly, so i can replace that easily.

Only ship i can see right now is Tengu. Looks nice, fun, but not using drones :( But yeah, looks cool and i problably going for that if im not here.

And thats it. Is there any other ships u would recommend? Dont need long answers, just simply why u would choose something else. :-)

THANKS A LOT!

Cya

I can't speak on the PvP part but I can to the PvE ship planning.

First off there really is no end game in Eve. It is a true sandbox.

Next I feel ship selection has more to do with rat type than anything else. Damage types and damage holes are a huge deal that is difficult to over come with fittings.

Meaning if you are going to be going up against Sansha or Blood Raiders then you want to fly something that does EM as primary damage and armor tanks well. If you are going up against Angels you will want to fly something that does Explosive damage and shield tanks well etc...

That being said you mentioned liking drones and that does allow you the ability to choose damage types. Also the Gallente ship line up can be somewhat flexible in tank type.

I run Sansha anoms in a Dominix and I love that ship. I am one of the weirdos that liked it better when it looked like a potato but I still love that ship. It works great for me but the Curators have great range and I can warp in at a distance and snipe most stuff.

I definitely am a firm believer in the theory that you are better off with more options than specializing in this game. With the exponential increase in training time with each level of skill that seems to be pretty much a no brainer to me. But really you can make pretty much anything work in this game so I would not believe in any hard rules about anything in this game.

Of course the best ship in this game is friendship so be more concerned about who you are flying with than what you are flying.

Most importantly have fun. It's a game and a sandbox at that. There is no one in this game that has all best in slot gear and there is no arena champion in this game. It's just about having fun.

In other games you have a best this and best that. Eve is a game about counters and match ups. There is no one ship that is better than any other. Each ship has it's use, it's strengths and it's weaknesses.

Missiles can select damage type. That is something unique in this game. Projectiles have a choice of damage type but every ammo has split damage with another type and the highest dps ammo type is not available in primarily Kinetic damage. Drones can select damage type but there is trade offs with each one. Only missiles can you select pure damage type and have only damage type be the difference. Further missiles don't have the tracking mechanics that gunnery does so they are easier to use. So a lot of people like missiles.

CCP decides what to nerf based on what is getting flown the most. As a result missiles and missile based ships have been nerfed a few times over the years to put there use more even when compared to other ships. So in theory missile based ships should be at a slight disadvantage to other ships.

Shields typically start out with zero EM resist and armor typically has very low explosive resist. Shields tend to be weaker on therm and stronger on kinetic but it's not as much of a stark contrast as the EM explosive is.

Lazors have great damage and excellent damage projection. With lazors you have the option to switch ammo with no reload time and you never have to reload with T1 crystals and even T2 and faction crystals go a long time before they break. Lazors are very susceptible to cap warfare. They consume a lot of cap and if you drain their cap the damage output stops.

Projectiles use no cap so they are unaffected by cap warfare. They generally have lower dps numbers on paper than the other gun types and lower optimal but they have huge falloffs which opens their engagement profile up, of course at the cost of dps.

Hybrids are the most extreme difference between the long and short range versions. Blasters are highest dps but you have to pretty much be within kissing distance and rails have great range but of course at reduced dps. Hybrids do use cap but much less lazors. You can shut them down with cap warfare but it takes more to do so.

Modules that help with shield tanking typically blow up your signature radius and modules that help with armor tanking tend to slow your ship down.

T3 cruisers are very versatile due to the use of sub systems and very easy to get into skills wise. However you can loose subsystem skills if you get blown up in one and they are not cheap to replace.

Everything in this game has tradeoffs. This is a game about having to make choices. If you know the faction of NPC that you will be going up against you can pick a ship specific to that race. So if you are living in Sansha null sec and are always going to fight Sansha NPCs you can pick a ship with good EM resists and that puts out good EM damage so essentially an Amarrian ship or Gallente with lazors and EM drones. If you are in Angel space then fly a Minmatar ship or Caldari that is not limited to kinetic missiles.

Sleepers and Incursion rats are omni damage and omni tank so the racial background of your ship matters less. In wormholes the type of wormhole that you live in will determine which ship types that you will learn towards but you will always need other ships to go into neighboring holes. If you are a day tripper you will just need to have options. This often means carrying a mobile depot and some different modules.

If you are high sec mission running and getting different NPC types with each mission you will eventually want to have different ships set up for the different rat types. Also when you get into level 4's and start doing burner missions you will definitely want to have a variety of bling fit faction and T2 frigates around. Especially if you want to run them solo.

There is not ship or racial ship line up in this game that is the best ship for anything. It comes down to preferences, playstyles and situational factors. They thing that I recommend to new players is to stay general with your training until you know what you like and then focus more on ships that help you do what you like.

If you already have most of the T2 tank and prop mods available to you then you are already looking good at staying general. Getting all four races small and medium ships and associated weapons skilled up to level 3 would not take long. That would give you the opportunity to try out a lot of different ships and piloting styles.

Also a huge part of PvP in this game is knowing what your opponent's ship is capable of and what it's strengths and weaknesses are and figuring out a way to make the most of your strengths and the least of your weaknesses while doing the opposite with your opponents. Having experience flying a lot of different ships is the only way that you can truly know that.

So no matter which way you slice it you are better off just trying different stuff out and finding your own style and preferences.

If you're committed to drones, the Vexor Navy Issue is hard to beat as a low skill PVE drone boat. But the Ishtar (a T2 heavy assault cruiser) is widely regarded as the best drone ratting ship in the game. It's probably as close to an "end game" drone boat as you're going to find short of a carrier. Having said that, I wouldn't PVP with it.