EVE New Citizens Q&A

Ships are tools. They are best fit for specific purposes. If you try to fit them to do a lot of things all at once, they will do them all poorly.

For example the Tengu can be fit for PVP, PVE, or hacking/scanning (explorer fit), but if you try to fit for all three you will end up with a ship that doesn't do anything well. There are fundamental differences in what is needed. PVE generally requires you to tank low amounts of damage for an extended period (cap stable tank) whereas in PVP it's much more useful to tank large amounts of damage for a short period (burst tank). Exploration/hacking requires valuable mid slots to be wasted on hacking modules, crippling the ship for combat by reducing it's tank.

You wouldn't try to drive a nail with a swiss army knife, you'd get the biggest baddest hammer you can find. It's the same way with ships in EVE. That said, the Tengu is flexible in that it can do all the things you describe - you just need to make some important decisions on which is the most important while fitting it.

Now the standard warning - t3 cruisers are expensive ships. I highly advise against trying to learn any sort of PVP in them and would recommend you not use them for PVE unless you are easily able to replace the loss. There are much cheaper solutions for all the situations you describe. It would be better to have three cheap ships sitting in your hangar (one for PVP, one for PVE, one for exploration) than to fly one expensive poorly-fit loot pinata.

Start with a Caracal (or Blackbird if EWAR is your goal) for PVP. Keep in mind that EWAR ships have very light tank and low damage, so your role is purely disruption and you will still need someone with DPS if you want to kill much of anything. When you are very comfortable flying these ships you can begin to think about upgrading to something more expensive (cerb, falcon, orthrus, tengu etc.) PVE I'm not as well versed in but I know the Drake can run just about anything and you can lose quite a few for the price of one Tengu. For exploration/hacking, check out the buzzard.

Although Tengus are very adaptable, one thing that prevents you just buying one hull and refitting as needed is the need to keep swapping rigs around as the rigs really have a huge affect on it's performance within each of it's specific roles...

f.e. I currently have:
- cov ops hauler/huntergu - 2x low friction nozzle joints II + ancillary current router II
- L3 blitzgu (rails) - 3x hyperspatial velocity optimizer II
- L4 pvegu (HAMs) - hydraulic bay thrusters II + rocket fuel cache partition II + warhead flare catalyst II
- null anomgu (HAMs) - capacitor control circuit II + rocket fuel cache partition II + hydraulic bay thrusters II

...then things like ECMgus will have trimarks or you might buffer tank one with CDFEs for shield fleet pvp or I think they use hybrid locus rigs on slippery petes...etc...

So even if I do mildly refit some of those hulls (I have different subs for my hauler/huntergu if it's in empire or null/wspace, and refit my null anomgu for travel or running sites) - I wouldn't refit the anomgu into my haulergu because of the rigs :)

So yeah, lotsa things can be done with them in general, but you'll need to buy a fair few hulls and train up a LOT of skills to make the most of their versatility.

Depends on the drone boat, the Ishtar costs about the same as a Tengu and the Gila is a fair chunk more expensive. Though Vexors are dirt cheap for what they can do.

Vexor, Arbitrator. Arbi is a bit more utility than vexor. For BCs Myrmidon, and Prophecy if a BC fits in their gang. I don't recommend going t2 or t3 before deciding if you like the different playstyle first. Always fight t1 first.

If your looking to sneak into lowsec or null to do different things then a tengu or other t3c is a good option. Though mining with one would be quite unproductive.

T3s are very flexible but you still have to be able to change fittings and rigs. Which arent a big deal if you have a base of operations somewhere and just dont want to bring a load of ships in. They are great for sneaking in places you really shouldnt be. I have one setup that will make it through even heavy gate camps.

The problem is that , when set up properly, they are decent at the task you are trying to do. But in almost all cases their is a role specific ship that does it better.

A T3 isnt going to intimidate very many people. PVPers dont have the mindset of "that ship looks scary,lets not mess with it" They will tackle you in a rifter, orbit your head( not your ship) at 3km/s and throw rocks at you until you die or someone shows up to help them.

That said, people in empire might get excited about a T3 kill, in null space everyone has one.... or 5 and no one gets excited about anything under a billion isk. You are simply a possible threat or spy that needs to be removed.

If your looking to sneak in to low or null and run sites and anoms its a good choice. I would suggest NPC null though if you decide to go to null. As you will have station access which has a lot of benefits since you are limited on cargo space, may want to refit to do something different and will need a place to store loot. Then you can always run a covert transport with a scout in to pick up the loot and haul it off to make your riches.

Edit to add:If your going to be messing around high sec i wouldnt waste money on a t3, its unnecessary and their are far far better options. If you want to get into more "dangerous" space i would recommend finding a quite lowsec area and do some mock runs of what you are planning on doing in null. If you use dotlan maps you canfind fairly dead lowsec systems and even constellations all over eve. They are typically a few jumps from hisec and they dont have a pipe nearby to null.

If you click the on the low sec systems on dotlan it will tell you important data. like ship kills last 1/24 hours and number of jumps in the last 1/24 hours. You want your op system to be one that has 3 kills or less in the last 24 hours none in the last hour and 250 jumps or less a day. Amarr space tends to have a lot of small pockets of low sec. while most other races have large pockets of low sec. i would start out with the dead single or double low sec system pockets and work up to bigger ones. Then work into NPC null once you got fits and a your op perfected. Then move into NPC null.