Skill Discussions

Thanks for the input! Got a quick side-situation with an alt. The goal of my alt is to be in a cloaky combat boosting T3. This toon so far is strictly used for scanning with combat probes. I currently have Astrometrics 5, rangefinding 4, acquisition 4, and pinpointing 4. Is having even t1 boosts from a proteus a better use of my time, rather than spending 20+ days a piece to get my last 3 scanning skills to 5? 5s are always good, but in this case is it going to hurt me to stick with 4s in those 3 skills while I get T1/T2 proteus boosts?

Meh, I think there's more to it than that. Like right now my skills aren't all at 5. I'm going to be pulling 516 DPS instead of 656. My tank is also 586 instead of 612 dps tank at level 5 skills. The question is, do the majority of people consider these differences a large enough deterrent to stop them from flying it?

I'm thinking that it's probably not a huge deal to go ahead and fly it. I just get all hung up on having near-perfect skills because anytime anyone talks about a ship or fit, they always link something displaying "All level V".

Think of it more as-- what role do I play in a fleet, what skills does that require, do I have those skills?

Role is more important than ship. It largely determines the ships you choose, the modules you fit, and the tactics you employ. Even having all V's in a given field won't make you effective at actually doing it. Tackle, for example is more than warp jamming and webbing skills- it often requires manual piloting of a ship to not bounce out of scram/distruptor/web range. It often goes along with scouting duty, sometimes probing for targets. etc.

So while you might have great skills to fly that shiny Dramiel- do you know what to do other than Orbit/Fire? Can you scout ahead of a fleet and survive a tackle while your main fleet rushes to the fight? Do you know how to keep up transversal or when your hull can't survive another volley and you need to GTFO?

When it comes to expensive ships- these largely focus very specifically at single roles in a fleet, and are best flown when you have a deeper understanding of that role. Until then, flying something cheaper is often going to be a better option. Logi is a good example of this. Again, skill training alone won't teach you the broadcast system, hotkeys, making cap chaining second nature, staying behind your main fleet but within rep range at all times.......you can learn some hard lessons in shiny T2's, or make your SRP guy happy and fly T1's to learn the ropes.

IMO, you are ready to fly a ship once you know how to use it properly- not just when you hit a certain number of IV's and V's. That said, it's also important to be able to properly fit any ship. There is little sense in flying an expensive hull only to slap a bunch of meta 2 modules on it. If you need half your slots for fitting mods- chances are the ship you fly will be sub-par for it's given role anyway.

This comes down to personal preference, i know some people that won't touch a ship until all their relevant skills are 5 And i know some who are perfectly fine flying ships with lvl2 skills.

I personally don't like waiting for months to fly a ship so i evemon/eft whore a lot to see where my training would be most effective and then hop in it when i feel like my numbers won't be a total embarrassment compared to all 5 same ship, i also sometimes use cheap 2-3% implants to narrow that gap.


but in the end its all up to you