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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Back to the game after 5 years away! Questions about Raven, Drake, & Cerberus?
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General Zaroff
Venom Pointe Industries
#1 - 2013-01-01 12:13:22 UTC
Hey everyone! I am just getting back into EVE after a long 5 years away. Man is it nice to be back and yes I do regret not continuing my subscription during all this time!

First off, I have about 2 mil in skill points that I can allocate but I was waiting to see where I want to go in the game before using them up but we can factor this into discussion in order to speed up the amount of time it would take me to get involved with new technologies. This account has about 13 mil SP not including the extra two mil, it seems well spread out but a large variety of it is in industry/mining. I have a second account but it's main job was hauling, given my time playing I may dust that off again as well.

When I last played I was happily roaming in low sec with a Raven and having quite the time ratting to my heart's desires. The game seems to have changed quite significantly and so I wanted to get involved with the forums to figure out what my best approach would be at this point.

As of right now, I would say mission running and low sec ratting would be my primary goals to generate ISKies. I've found several builds using Ravens with Tech 2 so I will be working on skilling into more Tech 2 gear. Cruise missiles still worth a damn? Seems to be discussions about heavy assault missiles versus heavy missiles, cliff notes?

Overall I have been doing a variety of talking in various local chats and several helpful players suggested the Drake as a quality ship. I could be flying it within a few days of skills so that is very reasonable to me. Are they worthy for PVE? What about PVP?

The last time I was playing I remember the Cerberus being quite common and a useful ship to pvp in. I skilled up to fly it and if I dig around my assets I may still have one. Uses? Thoughts?

Of the 3 which should I have and how should I be using them?

I'm trying my best to catch up on the game and figure out where the money is at. I enjoy most aspects of the game but also enjoy being able to be self sufficient when it comes to mission running and ratting.

Any thoughts you guys could share or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Merouk Baas
#2 - 2013-01-01 13:51:04 UTC
Cliffnotes:
Heavy Assault Missiles are the sort-range version of Heavy Missiles (much like rockets vs. light missiles, and cruise vs. torpedoes).

Ships:
Raven - battleship (can handle L4 missions), good for PVE.
Drake - battlecruiser (technically for L3 missions), can have an impressive tank, good for a lot of things.
Cerberus - HAC, has built-in resists and small cruiser size (reduced incoming damage), and can do serious DPS with missiles.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the finer points of Caldari ships, but if they're similar to their Gallente equivalents (Dominix, Myrmidon, Ishtar), the first two can tank and survive, and the HAC gains enough damage reduction from speed that it can also survive up to L4 missions. It's just your kill order is different; with the battleship you want to kill the big ships first as they do most damage to your tank, whereas with the HAC you want the small ships first as they can actually hit your small/fast size (and also webify you, which is death).

Do consider ship costs when picking out a ship, because you may lose the ship.

What's changed with the NPC's is that they'll switch targets to drones (based on drone size), and also they apply ewar and tackling perhaps more than before. So it'll be critical for you to take out the tackler frigates, and if you're using drones they may die.

You're also saying you're going to mission in lowsec; be aware that the ship probing interface is a bit nicer now (we can control the probes better), and with the changes to scan strength and probing, it's probably easier for PVP'ers to find you in your mission pocket.
Kitty Bear
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#3 - 2013-01-01 15:32:31 UTC
Due to the recent missile changes in retribution the Cerberus no longer has a 170km sniping distance

the devpost stated that Heavy missiles would recieve a 25-30% range reduction and a 20% dps reduction, however the change scaled to approximately -60% for the cerberus on range, the only accurate part in the post was the dps reduction

the ship balancing process hasn't reached T2 hulls yet, so I have parked my cerberus until i see how ccp are going to change it's role
Andres Talas
The Industrial Supremacy
The Rejected.
#4 - 2013-01-01 16:15:31 UTC
General Zaroff wrote:
Hey everyone! I am just getting back into EVE after a long 5 years away. Man is it nice to be back and yes I do regret not continuing my subscription during all this time!

First off, I have about 2 mil in skill points that I can allocate but I was waiting to see where I want to go in the game before using them up but we can factor this into discussion in order to speed up the amount of time it would take me to get involved with new technologies. This account has about 13 mil SP not including the extra two mil, it seems well spread out but a large variety of it is in industry/mining. I have a second account but it's main job was hauling, given my time playing I may dust that off again as well.

When I last played I was happily roaming in low sec with a Raven and having quite the time ratting to my heart's desires. The game seems to have changed quite significantly and so I wanted to get involved with the forums to figure out what my best approach would be at this point.

As of right now, I would say mission running and low sec ratting would be my primary goals to generate ISKies. I've found several builds using Ravens with Tech 2 so I will be working on skilling into more Tech 2 gear. Cruise missiles still worth a damn? Seems to be discussions about heavy assault missiles versus heavy missiles, cliff notes?

Overall I have been doing a variety of talking in various local chats and several helpful players suggested the Drake as a quality ship. I could be flying it within a few days of skills so that is very reasonable to me. Are they worthy for PVE? What about PVP?

The last time I was playing I remember the Cerberus being quite common and a useful ship to pvp in. I skilled up to fly it and if I dig around my assets I may still have one. Uses? Thoughts?

Of the 3 which should I have and how should I be using them?

I'm trying my best to catch up on the game and figure out where the money is at. I enjoy most aspects of the game but also enjoy being able to be self sufficient when it comes to mission running and ratting.

Any thoughts you guys could share or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.


The Drake is still a very solid ship, especially with T2 shields. Its a useful PvE ship, and dominated many nullsec fleet fights over the last few years when used in blobs of hundreds (a hundred insured drakes doesnt cost an alliance very much, and many many pilots can get in them. Think of them as the AK47). Its not much of a solo pwnmobile though.

The cruise missile Raven is a standard mission running ship - bring small drones to cope with jamming frigates.

I cant comment about the Cerberus.

You might also have a look at the Loki and the Tengu.

I'd be very cautious about trying to rat in losec, as the player pirates are a lot more dangerous than the rats, although they drop very nice bounties these days and can drop shiny loot too.

As far as the money, stick to missions in hisec till you find your feet.
Vilnius Zar
SDC Multi Ten
#5 - 2013-01-01 20:08:21 UTC
Kitty Bear wrote:
Due to the recent missile changes in retribution the Cerberus no longer has a 170km sniping distance

the devpost stated that Heavy missiles would recieve a 25-30% range reduction and a 20% dps reduction, however the change scaled to approximately -60% for the cerberus on range, the only accurate part in the post was the dps reduction

the ship balancing process hasn't reached T2 hulls yet, so I have parked my cerberus until i see how ccp are going to change it's role



It's not like it's a good ship atm anyway, and hasn't been for a looooong time. There is zero logical reason to ever fly a Cerberus, so it can only get better.
General Zaroff
Venom Pointe Industries
#6 - 2013-01-01 23:15:14 UTC
Shame to know about the Cerberus, maybe it will come back into style at some point. So it sounds like getting more Tech 2 stuff on the Raven and maybe Drake flying wouldn't be a terrible idea.
Vilnius Zar
SDC Multi Ten
#7 - 2013-01-02 14:17:44 UTC
Ships are tools nothing more and as such you try to use the right tool for the job at hand. So if you don't tell us what you want to be doing, or you don't even know yourself as you're effectively a newbie allover again it's thus impossible to say "train this". Perhaps you decide to go and do solo pvp or perhaps you'll join a 0.0 alliance that wants you to train for a Maelstrom, and 3 months later they want you to train for Zealots. So you never know and all we can give you is pointers but that's about it.

Figure out what kind of play style the different ships have and see if that matches your goals or liking, and don't just stick to one race unless you have some RP reasoning for it. It might be that the ship you're actually looking for is Gallente., or perhaps Amarr or Minnie. And that somewhere down the line another ship you'll want to use is a different race again.

Do realise that many people are quite clueless on EVE even though they may have played for a long while and may be quite verbal spouting their "knowledge". The easiest way to figure out if someone has an actual clue or is just a parroting clown is the answers you get. Simple yes/no answers like "go Tengu, it's awesome" is a good indication that said poster doesn't really have a clue. Instead an answer should look like "well, that depends what you want to do and where, it has good sides and down sides you need to be aware of".

Due to the rebalancing going on atm (frigates got changed dramatically, and cruisers got their buffs as well) it's kinda difficult to state how things will pan out for the T2 and T3 ships in the near future but lets just say that I fully expect the Cerberus to become viable at the very least. Expect these changes in the next 3-6 months or so. Thus if you like Caldari missile spammers, really like them, then sure train for them as long as you know their capabilities fit your plans. But if you choose to fly them because "that's the race I chose so I kinda choose to fly caldari as well because uhm.... just because", then rethink your choices.


p.s: Roaming in low sec in a BS (per your OP) is very much a bad idea most of the time.
Fractal Muse
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2013-01-02 14:37:00 UTC
General Zaroff wrote:

The last time I was playing I remember the Cerberus being quite common and a useful ship to pvp in. I skilled up to fly it and if I dig around my assets I may still have one. Uses? Thoughts?

Of the 3 which should I have and how should I be using them?

I'm trying my best to catch up on the game and figure out where the money is at. I enjoy most aspects of the game but also enjoy being able to be self sufficient when it comes to mission running and ratting.

Any thoughts you guys could share or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Welcome back!

I think the easiest for you to do is two fold, if you haven't already done it since I'm a few days late - go back to a starter system and do the tutorial missions. They'll take a few hours to do all told but it is definitely worth while. You'll get a feel some of the changes made to EVE and there are some remarkably helpful hints on how to use the interface better.

Now, that standard advice being tossed up, some bits that may interest you specifically.

First grab EveMon and EFT (eve fitting tool). Follow the directions on how to set up an API that they can use. Import your character information and now you have better tools than what are provided by CCP (that's a gentle rib towards CCP to provide us with this functionality within the game).

Take a look at what your skills allow you to fly and poke at the Cerberus. It may be that you have a gem on your hands for what you can fly. It seems like it is a very fine ship still.

As to cruise missiles - they are still a healthy and viable choice for pilots.

Since you mentioned three different ship classes that will wind up being a personal choice I think. Some people like flying larger ships (battleships) while others prefer smaller ships. Battleships have a greater DPS potential but, as before, may have difficulties hitting smaller targets. So, in this, it'll be a matter of where you wind up blowing stuff up.

Next up, ISK income. You may find that exploration will net you more ISK than missions for your skill points and ship classes but that's just a possibility and could be totally wrong. Since you last played: Faction Warfare is also profitable now and wormhole space has become comparatively popular. Of course there is still 0.0.

Again, welcome back to EVE, and I hope you enjoy the return. Try out a bunch of different stuff before settling in. Who knows what might prove to be really enjoyable for you.
General Zaroff
Venom Pointe Industries
#9 - 2013-01-05 00:36:02 UTC
Thank you so much for the replies guys! Very good responses, just got EVEMON set up and will work on the ship fitting tool. It sounds like I need to find my place in game and then figure out how I want to roll.