EVE New Citizens Q&A

I am a returning player in the sense that I have played this game before, but never for more than a month. I have a good general understanding of the basic mechanics, so I am not starting with no knowledge at all.

The only question I have right now is about missile weapons in pvp (small gang and/or small fleet actions). I can still train any weapon system and any race, but I am partial to Missiles as weapons (fond memories of dieing in one salvo from years ago).

1. Is Missiles a viable weapon system in PvP?
2. What race has missile boats that (if played well) does a stand up job in pvp?
3. Caldari Missile or Minmatar Missile?

I am looking into joining either a lowsec pvp corp, or FW. I will make that decision when I have had time to figure out the lay of the land.

Fair enough, will look into that.

yeah, caldari / amarr.

i love armour tanking so amarr for me.
some notable ones would be the sacrilege, legion and damnation.

ham fit with caldari navy missiles + fed navy web + neuts(the three i named have room for one)
and smaller targets have a real tough time .
i cant speak for the caldari line though, but i hear good things about the tengu.

Missiles are great for PVP. But, as with everything, they have their pros and cons.

Pros:
-Can apply Damage in any situation, as long as the enemy is within range of your missiles.
-Doesnt use Cap.
-Can switch ammo out to deal the most damage by targetting the resistance hole of your enemy.

Cons:
-Damage application takes time, as the missile needs to fly to your enemy.
-Deals a lot less damage to smaller ships if you use larger weapons, and it isnt like Turrets where you can still apply large damage as long as the target ship is stationary.

Some things to bear in mind, Missiles deal more damage depending on what angle they hit the enemy. If they hit head-on, they deal more damage than if they hit from behind the enemy while they are moving.

Not exactly. Each missile does the same amount of damage regardless of angle. The damage only depends on the target speed and signature radius. However, your DPS will increase because of the Doppler Effect, which effectively increases your rate of fire. You can think of it as catching up to your missile slightly as you fly toward it so that when you launch the next one they are closer together - ie fired "faster". This depends on the relative velocity between the ships, not just the target's velocity.

I actually had to use that phenomenon once to break the tank of a DED rat while flying a poorly skilled sniping Caracal that just barely had insufficient DPS to break its tank.

I've seen plenty of missile boat roaming gangs in null so I know that they get used.

I am not a PvPer but my general ship progression advice is that early on you should be focusing on gaining access to various things, then trying them out and specializing once you see what you use more often. It does not take that long to get basic gunnery skills and basic missile skills especially if you stick to small but medium is not so bad. Large weapons avoid early on for sure.

You are going to want the ability to field a full 5 drones very soon no matter what racial line that you decide to follow so work on getting that also. Once you can fly 5 drones basic drone skill beyond that are not long at all.

Once you have some very basic skills meaning just the ability to use stuff then try out the different ones. Don't be waiting around for skills to train higher to try stuff.

You should have been "born" with Minmatar frig 3 I believe. It would not take very long for you to get another race or even all the races to level 3 if you wanted and just try out some different stuff. When you find what you use then specialize.

If you want to PvP everyone on this section of the forum that does PvP says you should not wait or at least there is no need for you to wait. You have access to the breacher right now if you want to fly a missile boat so start looking for a corp that does what you want to do. Fly with them in what ever you can fly and train into what you would like to try, then specialize in what you use.

Minmatar ships use: turrets, missiles and drones so crosstraining into caldar you'll share missiles and shield tank as well as some gun skills. Crosstraining to Amarr you'll share: missile skills and turret skills. But honestly on a day old toon you can be as skilled in any race as the one that your are born as in less than 24 hours.

I see 2 reoccurring scenarios here on the new player Q&A. One is players who have done many trials over the years and are coming back again for another trial and have more game experience then their fresh character allows them to use. The other is new players that have purchased or were given a higher skill point character and have more skill points than they know how to properly use. This indicates to me that CCP has done a decent job at designing the skill progression in this game. It seems to me that if you are a new player starting a new character that your ability to play the game and your skill points seem to go up at a rate that is roughly in balance.

TL;DR
Train stuff, try stuff and you won't be in here asking us what to fly but how you should fly it.

missile speed has no effect on damage

explosion velocity does though

well ok it's indirectly affecting damage if you're hitting something standing still so faster missiles will connect before the ship gets to speed.

Adding something constructive:


- missiles do fine in solo or small gang PVP, they can also do fine in larger fleets but really only if the whole fleet uses them (otherwise the targets could be dead by the time your missiles arrive on target and also because of making sure all ships in fleet have the same characteristics)

- you really need to understand the missile application mechanics, how a target's size/speed and the missile's explosion velocity/radius affect your damage. Most people just "do stuff", they assume things, and that tends to go sour. KNOW how it works and you can KNOW whether or not you will do enough dps in a certain scenario

- if you do want make missiles your focus, rather than a specific race, you'll soon find that each missile capable race has something to offer in different ship sizes and types, it'll be up to you to cherry pick the nice ones from that depending on personal preference and scenario. Which to train for first isn't easy to answer

Impact speed does not affect missile damage, don't mix up missile speed and explosion velocity. The only missile variables that affect damage are exploration radius/velocity and of course base damage.


The only way that Doppler effect would ever happen is if the target would get closer to your ship as you're firing several volleys (either because the target is moving to you or you're moving to the target, or perhaps both at the same time). it will not happen if the distance between you and your target remains the same, so if you're running away and the target is following you at a constant distance the Doppler effect won't apply.

where the hell did you hear this?

it isnt true btw

this + resistances and the doppler effect are all that effects mistle damage.