EVE New Citizens Q&A

So i moved onto lvl 2 missions. i did one was no problem then i did the next one called " MIssion of Mercy" and got owned. I lost 2 ships to it which sucks!

Am flhying a throax just now with the following fit

high
5 200mm Carbide Railgun I

mid
2 Cap Recharger II
1 10mn AB

low
Armor Explosive Hardener I
Armor Kinetic Hardener I
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I
Medium Armor Repairer I
Capacitor Flux Coil I

I tried changhing the hardners for the mission i still got owned

What skills should i be trainning for armor tanking etc

I see the ships i lost where using blasters, my current ship has railguns what sort of ammo should I use?

I don't remember exactly, but I think I was using antimatter charges, railguns (meta 3 or 4) and Catalyst. IIRC I was flying on AB whenever possible, orbiting close to the cruisers (5-8km). You have to kill each cruiser as quickly as possible, don't mind frigates if you can. Try not to warp out. If you do, you will face hell when you come back. If you have to warp out, drag enemy ships somwhere far from beacon or you will warp on furious cruisers. Keep moving, don't ever stop. Drone can help you, but take Warrior, not Hobgoblin and keep sending her on frigates. When more cruisers spawn than you can handle and you don't have aggro from them, order your drone to attack them. You will gain few or more seconds when cruisers will be busy attacking your fast drone instead of you. She most probably won't make it, so watch out when you lose her.
You can also try something else, but this may not work and you may lose a ship. I did not try it! When you warp on location, kite first wave away from beacon. Do not fly in a straight line. Wait until all waves spawn and let them follow you. When all waves are far from beacon, align and warp out. Repair your ship (if needed) and come back. You should have all ships away. Flank and try to separate them into smaller groups, eliminatng each one at a time. Bait and kite. This way you will have as much time as you need to kill them all. That's what I would try if nothing else works.

If you stay at range the npc will do less damage, that's one of the reasons why using long range weapons works for PVE, even though on paper their dps is lower. The other reason is that you're not wasting time having to get into blaster range.

On an entirely different note; difficult missions like this force a player to rethink what he's doing, learning from it and thus become a better pilot. So if you want to keep advancing as an eve player, force yourself into unknown territory a bit, that way you simply learn more. It's also the reason why I personally dislike easy afk mission fits; they allow for lazy type game play where you learn zilch. apart from the fact that afk fits are low dps and thus slow.

One thing that can help is to grab the mission name, then google the name with "eve" before it. i.e. for this one you would google: eve mission of mercy

There is info on the web about what you will encounter in various missions. One bit that is very helpful is what type of damage the enemy will throw at you, and what you need to be firing back.

If the data is accurate, and if the missions are not specific to region, Mission of Mercy is against mercenaries which deal primarily kinetic and thermal damage, and it is recommended that you hit them with thermal and kinetic.

Rail guns are good for this as they deal kinetic damage nicely when using the ammo types that previous responses have mentioned.

Additionally, while it may not make a difference on your immediate situation, make sure your drone bay is packed, and that you use them. Even if you pop them out right at the start in order to try and split the aggro of the cruisers for a short bit. The Thorax has a 50m3 drone bay, and Hobgoblin I's are only 5m3 in size. Depending on your drone skill, that will let you throw in as many as 5 at a time to either take aggro or deal damage while you are kiting the cruisers.

Don't forget to keep yourself aligned with something for a quick warp out.