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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Exploration, what is the progression of ships/skills
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Anters Andel
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2012-02-14 06:08:10 UTC
Hi there,

The one thing that really brought me to this game was the idea of space exploration. Scanning down strange things in space and then looting them for profit.

Im trying to work out what ship i should aim for but also what ships can be utilised on the way to this.

Ill be a solo pilot, if there is just the one of you no spliting that fat ISK. Is it possible to do solo?

Any and all advice, links, words of warning will be well recieved.

I am only a couple of days into my trial, but im liking the game a lot. :)

Take care out there.
Mike Whiite
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#2 - 2012-02-14 08:28:28 UTC
It is possible.

Not an easy road but it is.

The way I did it:

Train for Racial Battle Cruiser. (Including Apropiate skills)
Train Racial scanning frigate (Including Appropiate skills)
Train Racial Covert - ops - (Including Appropiate skills)

Get the hell out of high-sec and deep in to low sec (relatively quiet, better loot, less competition)

Scan down sites in lowsec, use battlecruiser to run them. make a few side steps to wormholes.

Next step is one of personal choice:

Train Stratigic cruiser, you're mimatar I believe -> either Caldari, or Amnar are very good exploration ships, though The minmatar Stratigic cruiser is very good as well.

This is the dream ship of an exporer. (it can scan down and run most sites solo without refitting)




Side step. Train transports for a Blockade runner to get your stuff in and out of low sec without any trouble.
mxzf
Shovel Bros
#3 - 2012-02-14 18:08:56 UTC
There are a few ways to go about it, depending on your amount of experience with Eve and your current SP. Assuming that you are a fairly green character with little experience in Eve and low SP, I'm going to suggest that you start out in highsec because it's much simpler.

The first step is often to start out probing in a T1 probing frigate and go for the very easiest Radar and Mag sites, the ones with no guards or only 2-3 frigs.

After that, there are two paths to take. You can either go for an all-in-one ship that can probe and run sites without refitting or you can go the switching-off path and probe with one ship and then go back for a combat ship once you found the sites. The all-in-one is better for dedicated explorers who are roaming far and wide, the switching-off is better for part-time explorers just checking the 2-5j around their home base and don't want to put as much effort into a dedicated exploring setup.

For switching off, you will want a probing ship (either a T1 probing frig or, preferably, a T2 CovOps) and a combat ship (usually a cruiser or BC).

For all-in-one, your best bet is generally to move into a T1 drone-based cruiser next (Vexor or Arbitrator). After that you'll end up wanting either a Gila, Ishtar, or Pilgrim; they each have their own strengths and all three are solid mid-high SP exploring ships.

Another route for the all-in-one ship in highsec is to use Assault Frigates. They are small enough and have high enough DPS/tank to run pretty much all highsec sites (in my experience, the 4/10 and Vigil sites are all they can't do) and are much cheaper than a T2/faction cruiser and are easier to skill for. Personally, I've used the Ishkur and Wolf to great success, but other AFs do quite well too.

And finally, the pinnacle of all-in-one ships is the T3. They have a subsystem that lets them probe as well as a CovOps ship and can do it while also having the DPS/tank to run most highsec and lowsec sites (and many nullsec ones) without any difficulty.

Also, I suggest joining the 'Exploration' channel in-game, there are many seasoned explorers on there who are willing to answer questions for people who are trying to learn how to get going.
Anshio Tamark
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#4 - 2012-02-14 22:57:51 UTC
What I did was I started with skilling for a Heron (Caldari Probing Frigate), and stuck with it until I had the ISK to buy the skills needed for the Buzzard (Caldari Stealth Prober). I didn't need to train for anything higher than that, for a long time, until I wanted to also try a few of the "Unknown" sites, so I trained for an Assault Frigate, that I've been flying for the last half year or so. It has an excellent tank, amazing DPS (even more so after the buff) and generally rock. When properly fitted, it's actually possible to do all the high-sec sites you find, even the 4/10s, though they really require attention and proper skills (player skills, that is). I did one 4/10 site recently and it's just about as much of a challenge as trying to do Level 4 missions in a Stealth Bomber, which I've also tried on occasions just for fun.

Generally, you want to go Probing Frigate -> Stealth Prober -> good, solid combat ship with probe launcher. After that, it's all in improving your own skills with those ships.
Xercodo
Cruor Angelicus
#5 - 2012-02-14 23:10:57 UTC
Here is also a nice idea:

Train for a T3 as noted above but do so with the native rats in mind.

Run lots of angels sites? then fit a legion with HMs or HAMs with nova missiles
Run lots of sansha? run a Loki with EMP ammo

Use a T3 opposite of the race's space you are in cause the T3 have "T2 resistances" meaning that they have very high resists made to counter their opposing faction.

For example with the legion, it's made to combat Minmatar so it has a very high explosive resistance from the get go. This means you won't have to use as many slots on tank and maybe instead used them on better damage.

The Drake is a Lie