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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Gallente vs Caldari
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Thorton Adoudel
Doomheim
#1 - 2014-07-05 05:04:46 UTC
I plan on doing both pve and pvp probably mor pve early on to make money and was wondering which ships would be bast
i only want to focus on one race and work for t2 and t3 ships and maybe capital ships so im asking which race should i put all my sp into
Mr Epeen
It's All About Me
#2 - 2014-07-05 05:12:41 UTC
Gallente.

Mr Epeen Cool
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#3 - 2014-07-05 11:49:19 UTC
I'm Caldari. I can pilot all races of ships equally.

Gallente is better for PvP than Caldari. Caldari is easier (not better) than Gallente for PvE.

Guristas pirate ships require both Gallente and Caldari ship skills.
Gully Alex Foyle
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2014-07-05 12:33:07 UTC
If you train only one race you'll miss out on a lot of fun stuff, especially in PVP.

My advice would be to get into PVP as soon as possible (before really committing to a long-term skill plan) and then decide for yourself, based on your own experience.

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Ethikos
Doomheim
#5 - 2014-07-05 15:48:35 UTC  |  Edited by: Ethikos
Personally, I would go Caldari if your only going to focus on one race for PvP and PvE. That being said, your going to miss a huge amount of flexibility and in game knowledge if you do that. I would not rush to get T2 or T3 cruisers as soon as possible. If your working on PvE, its less of an issue. For PvP, take your time and work up slowly. Your going to explode a lot. Try out different concepts and tactics in cheap hulls (ie T1 / T2 Frigates, Destroyers, T1 Cruisers). Then, once you have a good idea of what you like to fly, start working for T2 and T2 Cruisers.

On the capital front, if you want to get into a capital thats great. Just be aware if your planning on using it in PvP, a capital is not a "I Win" button. Enough T1 cruises can rip a capital apart. Also, if you start dropping capitals in PvP alone; groups with lots of capitals will take notice and come after you. I would really not rush into a capital, if your interested in cap fights find a good PvP group to join before you use them.

Caldari PvE, PvP Suggestions:
Condor: Great for Kiting PvP

Merlin: Great for both.

Crow: Great for Kiting PvP

Harpy, Hawk: Good for both.

Caracal: Great for fleet fight PvP.

Rail Moa: Great for fleet fight PvP.

Rail Eagle: Great for fleet fight PvP.

Missile Tengu: Great for PvE. Have seen used in solo PvP.

Rail Tengu: Great for fleet fight PvP. Can be set up for solo PvP.

Chimera: Good shield carrier. Be advised most groups are running armor carriers right now.

Phoenix: Dreadnaught most people laugh at. Honestly your probably going to want a Moros.

Sniggwaffe (Waffles)
Netan MalDoran
Hail To The King
The Silent Syndicate
#6 - 2014-07-05 16:38:38 UTC
Tau Cabalander wrote:
I'm Caldari. I can pilot all races of ships equally.

Gallente is better for PvP than Caldari. Caldari is easier (not better) than Gallente for PvE.

Guristas pirate ships require both Gallente and Caldari ship skills.


This -----------/\

Gallente is better for PvP because you usually armor tank giving you a shield HP buffer.

Caldari is good for PvE because you can shield tank and have armor as a buffer in case your tank breaks and you need to get out, also Caldari use missiles a lot which may be nice for PvE but are horrible to use for PvP (Most of the time).

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Cara Forelli
State War Academy
Caldari State
#7 - 2014-07-05 17:01:52 UTC
Netan MalDoran wrote:
Gallente is better for PvP because you usually armor tank giving you a shield HP buffer.

Caldari is good for PvE because you can shield tank and have armor as a buffer in case your tank breaks and you need to get out, also Caldari use missiles a lot which may be nice for PvE but are horrible to use for PvP (Most of the time).


Meh.

Armor tanks are sometimes considered preferable for PvP because they provide more effective hitpoints, allowing friendly logistics to land reps. They also leave slots open for ewar modules crucial for range control and damage application. Shield buffer has nothing to do with it.

Caldari ships are generally good at PVE because they can passive shield tank (cap stability) and have selectable damage type with missiles. This makes them some of the EASIEST PVE ships to fly, though not necessarily the BEST.

In my opinion, just pick a race that appeals to you and a specific ship that appeals to you and train into it. Gallente vs. Caldari will make very little difference at the beginning of your career anyway. The strengths and weaknesses of a specific ship are much more important than its race. Once you've learned them in-and-out you'll have a much better grasp of what you want to train for.

It's also worth noting that both Gallente and Caldari have ships bonused for hybrid turrets. Cross-training to level 4 of the spaceship command skills will unlock a lot more t1 ships for you and doesn't take much time. You'll also want shield and armor skills, but those are pretty quick as well. Variety keeps things interesting.

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Jessica Duranin
Doomheim
#8 - 2014-07-05 23:05:52 UTC  |  Edited by: Jessica Duranin
You sound a lot like me when I first started.
I couldn't really decide which race I would want to fly so I ended up trying almost all of them.

First I flew Galente because that was the race I started with. Relatively quickly I tried Caldari because I liked the idea of missiles. Later I joined a corporation that had an armor doctrine for PvP and since I wanted to become a logistics pilot I switched again to Amarr. (logi as in: remote repair - basically the equivalent to a healer in other games)

If I would start EvE again, the only thing I would do different would be to NOT train for caldari and those missile skills. Not necessarily because Caldari ships aren't good, but because the skills I trained during that time didn't really help me later for flying ships of other races:
-The drone skills from galente can still be used for pretty much every other race, because almost all ships have a drone bay.
-The gunnery support skills apply to 3 different weapon systems (hybrid, laz0rs and projectile), where as the missile support skills only apply to one weapon system. Meaning if you have trained e.g. for hybrid weapons it's relatively easy to switch to lasers or projectiles - if you have trained missiles, well ... you start from square one if you train for a different system.

-> If it's between Caldari and Galente for you, I would pick Galente. It's the more flexible choice.


Also: forget about capitals for now. They are... different.
You will know when it's time to train for a capital - because then you will have a use for one.
Praxis Ginimic
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2014-07-06 01:18:29 UTC
If you want to pvp then start with that right away. Train all the frig skills to at least 4 ( 5 is an eaay train for frigs... go to 5) and light weapon skills 5 for t2. This will give you a good idea of what the different ships are like and always gives you a set of frigs to fall back on.

This is also important because it gives you an idea of what the enemy is capable of and what their weaknesses are.

Get into a faction war corp that gives out free frigs and make a bit isk of by plexing.

The other option is to join a low sec pirate corp like the rifterlings. I mention them in particular because they also give out free frigs. You can make isk by rattings for clone tags.

Welcome and good luck.
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#10 - 2014-07-06 01:41:56 UTC
If you can't decide...

Without implants, and without a remap (i.e. the following can take much less time):

* Time to train all races of frigate / destroyer / cruiser / battlecruiser / battleship to level 3: 17d 20h 52s
* Time to train small / medium / large / hybrid / laser / projectile turrets & support skills to level 3: 13d 11h 39m 30s
* Time to train rockets / heavy assault / torpedoes / light / heavy / cruise missiles & support skills to level 3: 12d 23h 6m 40s

Of course you'll want other skills to fit rigs, defences, drones, and such.
Kitty Bear
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#11 - 2014-07-06 01:49:47 UTC
Quick cross-training list of advantages (from a G/C viewpoint)

Gallente & Caldari - Hybrid Turrets, Pirate Ship
Gallente & Amarr - Armour Tank, Pirate Ship
Gallente & Minmatar - 2x Pirate Ship's (only 1 uses Hybrid Turrets)
Caldari & Amarr - Pirate Ship


The downsides are -
needing to train both Shield & Armour tanking skills
can require training both Gunnery & Missile skills




Capital Ships ... I'm not an expert, but afaik the 2 most frequently piloted Carriers are Gallente or Amarr. The last opinion I heard on dreadnaughts was the Caldari one isn't very good, because missiles.


I'd suggest focus initially on Gallente
Then add either Caldari or Amarr once you have a better idea of where your going.
Marcus Alvin Tivianne
#12 - 2014-07-06 04:08:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Marcus Alvin Tivianne
At the moment the gallente are really strong in a lot of meta roles. Mostly due to the fact that the ishtar is an outstanding heavy assault cruiser and they're in use everywhere from wormhole roams to nullsec ratting and everything in between.

Correcting for that, I think there's plenty of wiggle room between the two. Both have good general pve ships (caracal/vexor, drake/myrmidon, raven/dominix), both have strong solo/small gang ships (hawk/ishkur, crow/ranis, condor/atron), both have decent fleet battleships and popular ewar platforms, etc. etc.

Armor vs Shield is a fickle meta to talk about. PvE has traditionally been a shield thing, even true with the ishtar itself in a lot of setups, but armor rr is the name of the game in (arguably) the most lucrative pve of all (high class wormhole sites) so while you could be slightly behind in the short-run mission or rat grind going into armor first, you'd be perfectly equipped to digging into bigger and better things later on. My main began life as an armor tanker and hasn't yet gotten around to perfecting his shield skills because frankly, I don't fly many shield-tanked ships where those skills matter in pvp or pve content.

Personally, I find caldari a bit one-dimensional and easy to play-out. Perhaps that has to do with my main having started life as a missile-chucker. These days, again, without counting the ishtar, I still fly more gallente ships than caldari. Make of that what you will.