EVE New Citizens Q&A

Silly question, I know. But you know what they say: "Noobs are gonna noob"

The short of it is to qualify for T2 covert ops ships, I only need to finish up Electronics Upgrades 5. -- 8 more days of training.

Or... I could spend that time starting to train cruisers.

My original plan was "master frigates". But I'm waffling a little due to training time, and what else I could do in that time.

Thoughts? Pros-Cons of finishing T2 frigates before even training cruisers?

Depending on what you're doing, a covops frigate might be a frightfully useful investment. If you need to get from Point A to Point B, or do some probing, or you're crossing hostile territory or you're under a war-dec, a covert-ops frigate with a covops cloak moves faster than practically any other ship out there, with the bonus of being nearly impossible to catch anywhere outside null-sec.

Cruisers take less time to train the hulls, but cruiser-sized weapons will be another investment in time. If you've already got Cloaking IV, then I'd say go for EU V. Otherwise, you might be better off starting to learn cruisers; bear in mind that you've got to pour more time into weapons as well, and depending on what race you're using, heavier active-defense modules (shield boosters, armor repairers) may need more training time as well.

If you spend a lot of time travelling around in null or wormhole space, do a lot of exploration, or ninja looting, it is worth going for the covops first, especially since you are pretty close. If you do PvP or run missions then go for the cruisers. Cruisers are cheaper and easier to fit than T2 frigates for early PvP boats, and take less SP to really use effectively in fleet situations.

depends on where you are at in the game.


T2 frigs are fun in faction war. But, for the cov ops like the stealth bombers I am not sure would be as useful becuase you can not use thier signature weapon - the bomb - in low sec. Plex timers also stop if you are cloaked in plex. But frigs are aguably THE way to go in FW and most at home here.

Inties and Assault frigs are very popular. A bit expensive, but I know some folks that swear by them.

if you have Electronic Upgrades V, you can also get into electronic attack frigates which may not solo well but can ruin people's plans.

Cruisers are needed for larger plexes particularly if you are part of a fleet that does faction war and even if you get frigs, you will eventually have to get decent cruisers, too. Many of the FCs in faction war at least Amarr side want you to have a frig, dessie, and cruiser on standby and be able to reship quickly to counter any threat.

Regardless, even if you do decide to go whole hog on frigs, you will eventually need cruisers. If you EVER want to go to wormhole and do something besides scan or salvage you will need to get into at least a battlecruiser.

Also, for null, while you will be able to do more than tackle or scan or scout in a cov ops T2 or inty, you really need a BC or better to rat from what I have heard from a friend out there to support yourself.

For high sec missions, the bigger, the better.

Yeah...

Now, I have forgone cruiser for the time being to get really good at frigs.

But, I do faction war where frigs are very viable and encouraged unless you are a member of the larger FW corps/ alliances that require all three hulls.

If I was having to mission, do WHs, or lord forbid go to null sec, I would have to get Cruisers then BC ASAP.

However... a Cov Ops is nothing to sneeze at. It would make skulking past gate camps much easier and is always a good skill to have for overall mobility. I personally want the Pilgrim eventually.

Do you actually _need_ a covops as soon as possible? Like, have a specific thing you really, really want to try out that absolutely requires a stealth bomber? (You can do most anything the covops scanner can do in the T1 variant, it's just a bit harder.)

Assuming the answer is "no", then... no. Grab racial cruiser 3 and (insert racial medium weapon here) 3, that'll take you on the order of a day, tops, and give you enough skill points to mess around in said cruisers and see if you like them well enough to invest more time in them.

After that, I'd probably finish unlocking SBs, though, those ships are rad, and no other ship will ever be as cool as them.