EVE New Citizens Q&A

Thank you all so much for such great advice. Here is a link to my evepages character info:

http://eveboard.com/pilot/Dade_Dromidus

I don't see where you can look at my current ship, so I'll list what I got here, hopefully that's somewhat helpful

HIGH
3x Dual 150mm Prototype Gause Gun
1x Drone Link Augmentor

MEDIUM
2x Cap Recharger II
1x Experemental 10mn Afterburner

LOW
1x Medium 'Acomodation' Vestment (armor repair)
1x Drone Damage Amplifier I
1x Magenetic Field Stabilizer I
2x Armor Hardener I (type depends on mission)

RIGS
3x Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I

DRONES
7x Hobgoblin I
8x Hammerhead I

(I can fire 4 drones at one time)

Some more info: I did finish the epic arc. I thought I could kill the last boss with the vexor but I wasn't doing enough damage. I could, however, tank him all day long, unfortunately he could tank me all day long too :D

I did end up finishing that mission. I realized if I took out the frigates first, then I wasn't taking nearly as much damage and could tank the rest of the cruisers. It was still kind of tough, and I probably spent as much, if not more, in repairs and drone replacement than I made off the rewards, but I did it and I was proud lol.

As for my goals, honestly I would like to do some PvP at some point, but I also want to do some deadspace dungeons (I forget what they're called, sorry) and some exploration. Basically all combat. I've tried to do some mining and it just bores me to pieces, so I will stick to combat.

Thank you all again for being so helpful, I really do appreciate it very much.

Take care,
~Dade

Obviously you can't POSSIBLY have read the OP's first post where he CLEARLY stated he was using a Vexor in a level 2 MISSION and almost got killed and asked questions related to that incident.

So stop ****-posting as usual and start reading.

So after looking at your fit/skills I see one big and one minor issues first you Need armor resistance skills this will reduce the amount of damage taken second because of the limited gunnery skills I would replace the mag stabs in your lows with an energized adaptive nano and either a 400 plate later changeing to an 800 or a damage control. But that's my oppinion till your skills are better then switch to more gank.

why woud you need a plate on a pve ship? a damage control i can see instead of the hardeners because it gives you cheap resistances as well as buffer but a plate is a wasted slot at this point.

Well I'll admit haven't fit a mission ship in a while but still don't see the point of putting damage mods on a ship if it isn't your primary form of damage, especially when the ship gives no bonuses for it.

Hi Dake,

I went over your skills and here are my suggestions for the short term (next week or so) on what to train up:

Hull Upgrades IV - 1 day, 17 hours (to be able to fit damage control II)
Repair Systems IV - gain of 3 omni tank; +cap time; 21 hours
Energy Management IV - gain of minutes of cap time; 2 days, 14 hours
Drone Interfacing lvl 3 - +20 dps; 18 hours
Medium Hybrid lvl 3 - +4 dps; 11 hours
Rapid Firing 3 - +4 dps; 7 hours
Controlled Bursts 3 - +minutes to cap; 9 hours
Gunnery IV - +2 dps; 21 hours
Surgical Strike III - +8 dps; 16.5 hours
Trajectory Analysis III - 22 hours
Motion Prediction III - 7 hours (you can hit stuff better)
Gallente Cruiser III - +9 dps, 18 hours

This will increase your current DPS and your cap so you'll be able to fight longer and more effectively.

With a similarly fit ship (although I swapped your hybrid turrets to be 200mm Prototype Gauss Guns and put 4 in the high slots) your DPS would be 164. That should be plenty to do this mission if it comes up again if you are careful. Happily, your optimal range would now be 24km so that's great news. See below.

Your DPS can be an effective way to lower incoming DPS since if you can kill stuff fast enough then you won't have to tank as much damage.

The mission that you had difficulties with is extremely hard for a level 2 mission. A lot of people skip it. I did some digging and research and came up with the following:

If you were to not kill any of the ships as they spawn (every 30 seconds) and you are in range of 15km this is the DPS that will be incoming - remember this is if you don't kill a single ship and allow them to all build up:

Incoming DPS - 189 + 48 + 129
Total: 366 DPS.

366 DPS is a -ton- for a level 2 mission. There are even some level 3 missions that don't do that much DPS.

Now, the good news: If you stay outside of 15km that DPS will be greatly diminished. With your new range being around 24km you'll be outside of the 15km optimal of the NPCs. That'll help.. a lot.

Next, that DPS is a split between EM and Thermal so you can specifically tank for those two types. Unfortunately, with your skills below 4s you'll still have a problem tanking it so.. the solution? MORE DPS! You can get significant DPS gains faster than tanking gains with your current skillset. As such, use that to your advantage.

What I would suggest that you do at the moment is just focus on getting your skills to 4s so you can start using tech 2 items. Tech 2 items will make a world of difference in your ship. Tech 2 drones and tech 2 weapons are huge increases in DPS.

To use tech 2 railguns you need medium hybrid weapons IV and then hybrid weapon specialization. It is totally worth doing.

I would also suggest looking into skilling up blasters. Blasters can be incredibly powerful when used correctly.

But, before you get to blasters I would shore up your defensive / tanking skills. That means more time in mechanics and engineering.

Just as an aside this is the vexor I wound up basing these numbers off of:

[Vexor, dake copy 1]
Medium 'Accommodation' Vestment Reconstructer I
Magnetic Field Stabilizer I
Prototype Armor EM Hardener I
Prototype Armor Thermic Hardener I
Damage Control II

Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II

200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Antimatter Charge M
200mm Prototype Gauss Gun, Antimatter Charge M

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I


Hobgoblin I x7
Hammerhead I x8

Tank vs EM = 134
Tank vs Thermal = 103

Very close to being cap stable (cap runs out in 8 minutes)
DPS = 164

Velocity = 509 m/s - just a note about velocity at 509 m/s you will be able to outrun the elite cruisers in the mission.


Good luck!

Mission of Mercy is probably the hardest level 2 mission. It is NOT typical for a level 2 mission. It has a lot more cruisers than most level 2 missions, AND they are all aggro'd at the same time.

If it makes you feel any better, I lost a autoCannon fit Rupture to it. When I refit for long range artillery, it was a breeze. I use artillery in all missions now.

Warp in at range. Use sentries. Or use tech 1 drones and expect to lose them. It doesn't have a gate, so you can use a battlecruiser or even a battleship.

Drones 5 should be a very, very high priority.

It's not so much the fifth drone (although that helps). It's that Drones 5 is the prerequisite for Drone Interfacing, which is quick to train to level 3 and will add 20% drone DPS per level.

So you go from 4 drones doing 100% base DPS to 5 drones each doing 160%, doubling your total output.


The other thing to note is that Drone Interfacing will never feel like a wasted skill, as almost every ship you will fly has a dronebay.

Rule 1 of Eve: Don't undock if you're not prepared to die.

Rule 2 of Eve: If it works, it works. There is no "cheating" or "prerequisites" outside of literal skill prereqs to use modules.


To expand on rule 2, if you're flying a Vexor and you're accomplishing your objectives with it, then you are sufficiently skilled to use the Vexor for whatever you're using it for (missions, I guess, in this case). If you're flying a Vexor and losing three ships for every mission you complete, then you aren't sufficiently skilled, and should either practice flying the thing or put more SP into its operation.

Essentially, there's no "too fast", there's only "too fast for me". I was running L4s in a Dominix within my second month with barely any relevant skills above 2 or 3 (I finished battleships 5... three days ago). It was pretty fun, and I could do it successfully, so I by definition wasn't 'rushing' anything even though my skill sheet (even then optimized for frigates) would have made a veteran wince and then go into a corner to rock back and forth and weep for my doomed soul. I lost ships, sure, but not more than I could replace.

(Albeit, how terribly shite my skills were two months in may not be entirely clear to a modern rookie, since you don't have a month and a half of learning skills to train on every new character).

Absolutely, the best I can do with my Thrasher is to kill one or two enemies and arrive systematically to station with the ship in flames... I'm specializing on that...

I've been facing the same question the OP mentions, and not feeling as wanting to change already for cruisers. I like the way frigates fly fast and the kind of combat it can proportionate so I'm training more skills (planning advanced certificates in gunnery, shields, etc), visiting low sec (very much just for the thrill, can't see how to win ISK there...) and probably will start engaging in PVP.

Maybe I'll turn into a frigateer...