EVE New Citizens Q&A

hehe, welcome to EVE s0n!

As a *general rule* most characters will train up Drones V. Drones are used on a wide range of ships. T2 Light drones are certainly worth the train, T2 heavies can wait a while. A T2 tank (armour or shield, eventually probably both) is, imho, more important than T2 guns at this stage.

Have a look at the skills that will improve every hull you fly. Mostly found under the Engineering and Navigation tabs.

I've not run a mission since I was two days into EVE, so I'm not 100% sure what a Level 2 mission involves, however some basic advice is to tank for the rats main damage type and dish out damage through their resist holes. So tank Thermal and Kinetic for Guristas rats and dish out Kinetic damage. Drones can be selected for their damage type making drone boats like the Vexor line of ships very popular for PvE activities.

L2 missions can be done in a destroyer or cruiser with proper fit. Your cruiser should not have equipped small guns or anything small , as it is a medium sized ship.

There are two reasons why people generally don't perform okay in missions; bot stemming from habits from other games:

1) Don't rush into large ships.
Bigger is not always better, EVE is extremely well balanced (no matter what bittervets keep saying) and frigates and / or destroyers are as useful as huuuuge battleships. Train into fittings (t2 fit on a T1 cruiser + high core skills are much better than T1 fit with small guns / tank modules and no skills on a BC) and basic skills.

If you still don't have the skills to fit (NOT just to fly) your cruiser, use a destroyer.

2) Fit your ship properly.

I assume you fly gallente ships: your combat ships have bonuses either into hybrid weapons or into drones. These bonuses are VERY important and you should fit your ships accordingly (unless you have a very good reason to ignore bonuses). You can find ship bonuses via right click => show info => traits , or you can find the ship chart via EVE menu (above your portrait icon) => Ship Tree.

If you're flying droneboat, you absolutely NEED Drones V and as high other drone skills as possible. You would fly 5x medium drones (in a cruiser) and use them as your primary weapon.
Your high slots would be drone-related modules.
Your medium slots would have afterburner of the proper size for your ship with additional utility modules OR with shield tank modules of the proper size if you're using shield tank.
Your low slots would have armor tank modules of the proper size if you're using armor tank and as many drone damage modules as you can fit (up to 4). You can add damage control to raise your resists.

If you're flying a gunboat, you need to fit the proper size of your guns: small on destroyer, medium on cruiser. All guns have to be the of same type - this means they will have the same optimal range, which you can maintain with your properly sized afterburner, and therefore you can apply all your firepower. High slots should be weapons only. If you have some "utility" slot not usable for guns, you can fit missiles or salvager or energy neutralisers if in PVP, and so on - ships with a mix of guns hardpoints and missile hardpoints are mostly in Minmatar so you'll probably not see them for some time.
Your medium slots would have aforementioned AB and either utility modules or shield tank modules if you are shield tanked.
Low slots would have armor tan modules if you're using armor tank and / or magnetic field stabilizers which are weapon upgrades for hybrid weapons. Potential damage control to raise your resists.

Never ever fit both shield and armor tank. That way you completely mess up CPU/PG of your ship, you wouldn't be able to fit utility slots or weapon upgrades properly and your ship will massively suffer (and other reasons). Pick up the tank you have bonuses for, if there are any, or if you don't see any bonuses pick up shield tank if your ship has more medium slots (as shield tank modules are mostly in mid) or pick up armor tank if your ship has more low slots (armor tank modules are mostly in low).

What I wrote here is massive and horrible simplification, but it should point you towards some basic knowledge about how to (better) fit your ship. When you think you understand the principle, try to simulate the fit of your ship via "ship simulation" in your fittings window and when done AND NOT BEFORE, go to the internet and google the fit for the ship you want to use. I am not pasting here any fits on purpose, and I am not naming any ships on purpose.


To reiterate: yes both destroyers and cruisers (with combat bonuses, not every cruiser has it) are viable for lvl 2 missions, if you're fitted properly you'll die of boredom when flying cruisers in l2 missions.

Important links:
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Fitting_Guidelines
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Gallente_Basic_Ship_and_Skill_Guide
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Missions

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Basic_Skills <<< this may be heavily obsoleted but still sort of usable

Hope this helps. If you want to ask something related to fitting or EVE gameplay, you may want to try to contact me ingame, as I don't visit forums that much often.

Most of the Level 2 missions are easy, so get the MEDIUM weapon skills appropriate for your ship trained to about 3, and your support skills (engineering, armor, shields, targeting, navigation) also to about 3, and you should be ok.

If you're trying to fly the Gallente ships, the Vexor is a very versatile cruiser that uses drones, and the Thorax is a gunship.

For the Vexor, you want to train the Drones skill to 5, the drone upgrades skills to 3, and Medium combat drones to 3-4. Load up with a full set (5) medium drones and a couple sets of backup light scout drones. Support the drones with some Drone Damage Augmentors in the low slots, and a Drone Link Augmentor in a high slot (for range). The damage augs will consume your low slots, so use a shield tank (oversized shield booster, 2 hardeners). You may need a medium capacitor booster to replenish your cap with charges for when you run your shield booster. Guns are optional, you can either put in some of the smaller medium rails so you can pull from a distance, or skip the guns and use the power grid they'd otherwise consume to install oversized (large) shield extender.

For Thorax, for best damage, and given the behavior of NPCs in missions (they swarm you at close range), you can go with a blaster Thorax, 5 medium Ion blasters with antimatter, supported by a 10mn (medium) afterburner and a stasis webifier (to catch and hold the target close to you), and a couple magnetic field stabilizer modules in the low slots for damage. This will eat up some of the slots, but you still have enough low slots to put in a damage control, medium armor repairer, and an armor hardener. Medium slots you'll need capacitor recharge, so either cap booster with charges or cap rechargers (and rigs).

Posting your fit would help us determine what might have happened.
A reasonably fit T1 cruiser should be able to handle level 2 missions with relative ease, one with a poor fit would have a hard time.

If I had one, I could. That's the problem, I'm new here and don't really have a fit, just a ship, Vexor, desire to use drones and not a single idea of how to make it work. That's why I ask.

Welcome to Eve.

I suspect part of your problem is piloting skill. In addition to your shields and armor you have 2 other ways to minimize incoming damage.

Speed: if you are going fast, weapons will have a hard time tracking you and will miss more often than they hit. In missions, keep moving! Orbit a wreck or acceleration gate at top speed. The rats will come to you!

Signature: Small ships are harder to hit. Shield tanks will make your ship appear bigger and easier to hit. As Gallente your ships are designed for armor tank - which will minimize your signature.

High speed and small signature working together will make you very difficult to hit.

Before spending too much time on agent missions I recommend running the SOE Epic Arc if you haven't already done so. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/The_Blood-Stained_Stars

Most of the missions are quite easy and can be completed in an Algos with 5 light drones. With low skill, you'll want a Vexor for the final mission but the Arc will pay enough so you can buy and fit one.

Algos or Vexor will work for level 2 missions. You'll want an afterburner for speed and an armor tank for minimum signature. I like the reactive armor hardener and an armor repair module. Both use capacitor which tends to be in short supply as a new character. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Armor_Tanking_101#Reactive_Armor_Hardener
http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Capacitor_Management_101

You'll want to be able to run your afterburner and hardener long enough to clear a room which may require some cap recharger modules/rigs. If you're in trouble you can always warp out and repair.

Good luck.

Edit: One of the best resources for new players is http://www.eveuniversity.org/ There wiki will give a lot of information on your ship and how to fit it http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Vexor

The user manual for Eve is experienced players - consider joining a player corporation that offers training and support for new players.

This fit will get your started but it is not the only way this ship could be fit.

[Vexor, L2 Vex]

IFFA Compact Damage Control
Medium 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
'Refuge' Adaptive Nano Plating I
Drone Damage Amplifier I
Drone Damage Amplifier I

Eutectic Compact Cap Recharger
Eutectic Compact Cap Recharger
Tracking Computer I
Tracking Computer I

220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Nanobot Accelerator I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

Hobgoblin II x5
Hammerhead I x5

A few comments about this fit.
Since the Vex does not get a damage bonus to guns I prefer auto canon because no capacitor use and it hardly matters since your drones are the big damage dealers. I left ammo out o fthis fit since it will change depending on the NPC you are facing, or you can simply run phased plasma for everything since thermal is a secondary damage hole for most NPC. EvE survival can help with ammo type since it will give you the best damage type to shoot at the rats.

There is no afterburner on this because one is not really needed. Cruisers are fast enough to cover most distance in a reasonable amount of time and I prefer to over tank ships for a new player. They never leave the game because a ship is slow they have seen them leave because of a ship loss. If you want an after burner you can drop one of the tracking computers to get it.

The nano plating should be changed for a armor hardener better suited to the primary damage dealt by the NPC you are facing. You can use the link provided above to the EvE Survival web site to determine what that damage type is for each mission.

You will not have enough capacitor to run everything constantly, you will have to turn on the armor rep when needed and then turn it off to allow for capacitor to recharge.

Learning how all the various pieces can be fit together to alter a ships stats to suit a particular need is a required skill and something you should study a bit. Choosing a fit tool to use is a part of this, I cannot speak to the fit tool in game since I have not used the new one since I have others I like and will continue to use.
EvE Fitting Tool is the most often mentioned around these forums.
EvE HQ is another and my personal favorite.
PYFA is another tool many people prefer.
I know there are tools for i-Phone and Android as well, I do not use them so I will not comment on them.
There are web sites as well that offer this, again I do not use them so I will not comment on them.

I didn't ask him to train for ishtar before he undocks. Drones are the main weapon for Vexor, if he doesn't have skills to fly his main weapon he can always switch back to Algos, which can very easily beat most of L2 missions.

Newbros tend to underestimate small ships and then they train into huuge battleship abominations with 3 drones , T1 modules and zero core skills flying Dominix.

You can complete your missions with the T1 drones just fine. However, if you want to increase the speed at which you complete the missions, T2 drones are a good way to increase DPS. Also Medium Drone Operation V will also increase the base damage of your T1 drones anyways, so its a good thing to train.

I also recommend you get the following two skills up
- Armor tanking skills high enough for T2 armor mods.
- Drone Navigation to level 3 or 4, to increase the speed at which your drones travel.

Both are very important for survivability. Armor tanking skills to reduce the number of times you need to warp off, and Drone Navigation to reduce the time needed for your drones to be recalled so that you can warp-off faster without leaving drones behind (or switch drone types if you have a fast frigate webbing your ship, thus preventing you from moving fast/warping).

For Gallente I recommend some frigate for level one and an Ishkur for level two and three. No muss, no fuss.

Then train supports and weapons while grinding up the status for level fours(if they even still require it). By the time you are proficient with drones and guns with decent supports, you'll be ready to take your pick of which ship you want to start L4s with.

Mr Epeen