EVE New Citizens Q&A

So, I played this game briefly about 6 years ago, have come back on a new account and am trying to re-learn things.

I am splitting time between missions and a little high sec mining until I decide where I want to go. I have a destroyer and am finishing up the last of the skills for level two mastery. I have the standing to start level 2 missions, but back in the dim mists of time when I played last the conventional wisdom was you needed a cruiser for level 2. Is this still the case? I saw a Q&A that said to do level 2 in a destroyer or a cruiser. Can a destroyer with newbie skills survive level 2 security missions?

Also a newbie here so can only comment on my experience. I took my destroyer into L2 missions, and I got my behind handed to me. Lost it almost instantly. I am sure better and more experienced players has no problem doing them in a destroyer or even frigate, but at my, and possibly your, level of skill and experience I would recommend sticking to Level 1 missions.

Level 2s can be done in a dessie or frigate, if you have good skills and knownwhat you are doing. If those are not the case, stick with a cruiser.

Basically its like this, where first answer is the easier way and the second the harder way.

Level 1: Destroyers / Frigates.
Level 2: Cruisers / Destroyers.
Level 3: Battlecruisers / Cruisers.
Level 4: Battleships, Tech 3s / Battlecruisers.
Level 5: Fleet or a capital ship ***ALWAYS LOWSEC***

Of course there are many other options with T2 ships and using smaller ships for higher level missions.
I lersonally run L3 and some L4 missions in an Assault Frigate. Not for income (it sucks in terms of efficiency) but more for fun, because of the choice of ships it's a little harder to do the missions and thus they challange me a bit more.

If you understand how to kite ships a destroyer makes L2 missions pretty easy. You can absolutely get murdered in one if you aren't paying attention though.

Same counts for many of the NCQA topics.

If I would get 1 ISK for every "double post" topic in NCQA in lat year, I would be richer then SOMER.

Its what I did the last time I had rescue that stupid brad again.

Got way more gratification from shooting her then the mission would give me ISK.

just leave her in a cargo container out in deep space somewhere

You can def do Level 2 missions in a destroyer but as mentioned above, you gotta keep your wits about you and it's more of a pain. Expect to jump in and out of the area a few times, depending on the mission, you probably won't be able to clear the field in one shot.

The whole Level 1 = Destroyer, Level 2 = Cruiser, Level 3 = Battlecruiser and Level 4 = Battleship is not newb correct advice.

Things to consider:

1) You'll gain faction to be able to do Level 2 (and 3 and 4) missions LONG (emphasis on LONG) before you have the skills to move up to the next ship class. So you'll be able to do level 2 missions before you're even close to having skilled up one particular ship type.

2) The whole mission/ship progression outline above is based on grinding ISK. In other words, get in a mission, kill everything fast, cash in. Often times avoiding killing everything and focusing on killing only what you need in order to cash in.

Grinding ISK by doing missions is not fun. It's grinding. The whole point is to get a ship size that makes it all "too easy" and farm away.

It's bad advice for a newb because they never learn to fit, they don't learn about the different gun options, different ammo options, and they end up perpetually training new things before getting good at something first.

That being said, here is my experience. I am now a 6+ million SP player that has been playing for a few months.

- I started (and am still) Gallente. I moved almost right away into a Catalyst (destroyer) because I got one doing the tutorials.
- I spent some time trying out different kind of gameplay, but I decided I'd make my ISK by missioning. So I started doing so, moving into Level 2's almost right away. I did all level 2's with my Catalyst. I wasn't doing much fitting. I put the biggest railguns I could which took too much grid, so one weapon turret was a salvager. I didn't know better.
- I lost my first Catalyst in a level 3 after doing many without much issue. I wasn't 100% paying attention and I died so fast that I felt I was pushing things and HAD TO move up to Cruisers (because I didn't know better). So I bought a Thorax.
- I did finish that level 3 with the Thorax, but BARELY. The problem was the Thorax uses MEDIUM sized weapons, so I had to train my medium gun skills from zero. On my destroyer, I had level 4 destroyer and level 4 small hybrid guns. Then I moved to level 1 cruiser with level 1 medium hybrid guns and my damage was not any better than my Catalyst.

What allowed me to finish that level 3 mission with my Thorax was the increase in RANGE I could engage at. I started to kite more. Having known what I know now, I could have finished that level 3 in my Catalyst (destroyer) by SWITCHING AMMO TYPES. I was using the biggest small guns (with bad tracking) paired with Antimatter ammo (very close range). I died in my level 3 trying to get in close just to be able to engage when there was a big ball of tightly packed enemies. Had I switched out my ammo to maybe LEAD, or TUNGSTEN, I could probably have finished with my Catalyst just fine.

I now do level 4's with my Thorax. For ONE mission, I bought a Talos for very long range sniping because the mission just had too much sensor damping. But other than that one mission, my Thorax suits me just fine.

Is it fast? No, it's not. I don't feel the need to maximize my ISK income. Generally, I have more ISK than I can spend, because I'm not constantly trying to ship up.


Note above that I said I do level 4's in a T1 cruiser. Mostly with components at Meta 4. "Conventional Wisdom" says I should be training up to a Battleship before doing level 4's. Let me say, that if I followed conventional wisdom, I would have waited way too long to be able to do something, and I would have quit EVE.

My "core skills" are STILL not maxed out. I am working on that now and feel no need to ship up to a battleship.

I don't know if I could do a Level 4 in a Destroyer, because some of the battleships have hefty tanks, but the most you need is a Cruiser.

Challenge is fun. Don't fly what you can't afford to lose.

If you are in a destroyer, you can do nearly all level 2 missions with ease.

One to avoid in a destroyer is Mission of Mercy. It is do-able, but only by those with a lot of time and little sanity (extremely challenging in my experience).

In contrast, I do all but one level 3 mission in an Assault Frigate.