A Guide for New Players

Recently we had a few new members join our ranks. Now there are many nice guides for new players out there, but quite a few months ago I took the time to write down some points for leveling up during your first few weeks that turned into a bigger guide in time, and then it grew even bigger and bigger… so I thought I’d refine it and share it with the community. So here it is.

Here is a link to Part 1

This is Part 2. Part 3 will follow soon ™.

QP

In Part 2 I will continue the talk about the various aspects that you can train for in this game. As in part 1, I will be presenting multiple skill plans as an example to what to train for in each aspect.

As a reminder:

There is no such thing as a "Perfect training plan" nor such thing as a "Power Gamers’ Plan" to help you in training your skills.

I came across a couple of links in the wiki that I missed linking in the first part.

Take a look, they are quite informative.

Ship Fitting Guide

Skills Guide

Now let’s go meet the rest of the Offensive skills. In Part 1 I discussed the Drones Skill Group. In Part 2 I’ll talk about the Gunnery and Missile groups.

Offensive ( Drones / Gunnery / Missiles )

 

The Gunnery Skill Group.

 

Guns are simple.

You load them with ammunition and you shoot at your targets. The more skills you have in the Gunnery group, the more damage you should be able to dish out, and the bigger guns you should be able to fit to your ship. If your tanking skills (more on that in Part 3) are just as good, you will be able to survive long enough to be the last man standing. That is always a good thing.

Guns are simple.

However it doesn’t seem that simple when you first look at that Gunnery Skill Group. Now apart from some odd skills like Tactical Weapon Reconfiguration that I am not going to discuss in this guide, we saw 2 of the skills in this group being used in enhancing your ship’s fitting in Part 1 of this guide. Weapon Upgrades and Advanced Weapon Upgrades will reduce the amount of CPU and Powergrid respectively that your ship’s weapons use. I will not discuss them further here.

Also note that by training the Weapon Upgrades skill you will be able to use some low-slot modules to augment the damage and Rate of fire of your preferred weapon system. These modules are Heat Sinks (for Energy Weapons), Gyrostabilizers (for Projectile Weapons), Magnetic Field Stabilizers (for Hybrid Weapons) and Ballistic Control Systems (for Missile Launchers). To use the Tech 2 versions of those modules you will need to train Weapon Upgrades to level IV.

 

Before you play with guns, read this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071223162431/www.eve-online.com/guide/en/g25.asp

Now you got your mind wrapped around concepts like Optimal, Falloff, Tracking Speed, Signature Radius, Transversal Velocity and so on… You will need to understand how these concepts work (it’s not hard if you have some basic math/physics knowledge) and how they are introduced in the game mechanics. Then you will be able to fit and fly your ships more effectively.

If you want to see how your fitting would work in some dogfights you can use the great ship fitting tool included with EVEHQ (http://evehq.net) called HQF. In there is a Damage Analysis tool (similar to that one in page 4 of the guide above) that will allow you to position your ship and a target and set speeds and range and take transversal velocity in mind and all that… go play!

Also, it’s highly recommended that you read the Missile section of this guide (see below) to understand how these two weapon systems work in the game and make your choices wisely. There are a lot of ships that can support both Guns and Missiles in the game and that might be the way to go for you!

 

Types of Guns

The first thing I should mention is that every Race in the game has it’s own ships and each type of ship is optimized to use different type of guns. Take a look at ships like the Harpy or the Jaguar for example. Or the Abaddon. Each of these ships gives bonuses to different type of weapons.

There are 3 major types of Guns in the game. Energy, Projectiles and Hybrids. Each of these types has 2 variants, one for close and one for long range. Each of these come in 4 sizes. Small, Medium, Large and Capital (or X-Large).

So you have a total of 24 different types of guns…

…and you bet there is a different skill for each

Of course you can mix & match but if you don’t know what you are doing, you should better stay with your own race’s type of guns. If you think you know what you are doing – why are you reading this guide for then? :-p

Also it is very important to mention that you should not be mixing different type of guns in the same ship. You either go for short/close range or try to stay far away. You don’t put Artillery and Autocannons in the same ship. This is one of the most common mistakes you can do in your first fitting attempts.

Everyone has done it and even if they don’t admit it, they had at some point a ship fitted with different type of weapon ranges. If however they do admit it and feel proud about it, then nod and walk away… slowly. Then go to read this: http://www.dontmixguns.com

Last, but not least, make sure you fit the correct size of gun to your ship. Small Guns are for Frigates and Destroyers, Medium are for Cruisers and BattleCruisers, Large are for Battleships and Capitals are for Capitals

So let’s see what we have for each race:

 

• Amarr: pew pew lazorz

  • Amarr use Energy weapons (also known as teh Lazorz) as their main offensive force.

  • Beam Weapons that are best for longer ranges, have medium tracking and do good damage and Pulse Weapons that are best for shorter to medium ranges, have good tracking and do very good damage.

  • Lasers don’t use ammo like other guns, but use Crystals that once you load into your gun, you won’t have to reload for a long-long time. Of course at some point the crystal will be destroyed and you will have to buy a new one, but usually you will be swapping different crystals based on the range of your opponents. Crystals do EM and Thermal Damage.

  • Energy weapons are the most capacitor greedy of all, so make sure you have great capacitor skills if you want to keep your guns firing during the whole encounter!

 

• Minmatar: ratatatatatattttatttt

  • Minmattar use Projectile weapons as their main offense.

  • Autocannons are for short ranges while Artilleries are for longer ranges.

  • Projectiles use ammo and by changing the type of ammo you use, you will get different Optimal & Falloff range as well as damage. Projectile ammo can do all types of damage, however each type of ammo does two types of damage. So you can swap ammo in order to match your opponent’s weakest defenses. However note that projectile ammo is consumed in large quantities – especially in autocannons.

  • Projectile Guns don’t use capacitor, which is a great bonus!

    • Read this excellent guide from Letrange if you are looking into more details for Minmatar weapons: http://letrangeeve.blogspot.com/2009/12/projectile-ammo.html and http://letrangeeve.blogspot.com/2009/12/artillery.html

 

• Gallente: “Launch Drones.. I mean.. Fire!”

  • It’s true that most Gallente pilots consider Drones to be their primary weapon of choice, however they share the same love as the Caldari for Hybrid Weapons.

  • Hybrids come in two choices, Railguns for superior snipping range, moderate damage and bad tracking and Blasters for up close and personal massive damage with good tracking.

  • Much like the projectiles, they have ammo to swap for changing their effective optimal and falloff range. Hybrid guns use ammo that does a mix of Thermal and Kinetic Damage.

  • Hybrid weapons use capacitor but are not as demanding as Lasers. Still you will need to train some capacitor skills to compensate.

 

The Path to Bigger Weapons

So let’s assume you want to get into a Battleship, and you will need Large Guns. You will need to train the following skills:

Gunnery III
Gunnery IV
Gunnery V
Small XXX Turret I (20.000 ISK)
Small XXX Turret II
Small XXX Turret III
Medium XXX Turret I (100.000 ISK)
Medium XXX Turret II
Medium XXX Turret III
Large XXX Turret I (2.000.000 ISK)
Large XXX Turret II
Large XXX Turret III

Total time: 9 days, 10 hours, 47 minutes, 42 seconds
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

• Where XXX can be your choice of Energy (for Amarr), Projectile (Minmatar) or Hybrid (Gallente & Caldari)

 

Gunnery Support Skills:

Much like the Drones and Missiles, there are some skills in the Gunnery Group that will affect any type of guns you use. It’s good to train them soon because the give good bonuses to your damage output. Whether or not you are going for Tech 2 Guns, you will have to level up some of these skills faster and further than others. But more on that bellow.

At a minimum, you should have the following skills trained to support your guns of choice:

Controlled Bursts I (70.000 ISK)
Controlled Bursts II
Controlled Bursts III
Motion Prediction I (60.000 ISK)
Motion Prediction II
Motion Prediction III
Rapid Firing I (40.000 ISK)
Rapid Firing II
Rapid Firing III
Sharpshooter I (80.000 ISK)
Sharpshooter II
Sharpshooter III
Surgical Strike I (1.000.000 ISK)
Surgical Strike II
Surgical Strike III
Trajectory Analysis I (100.000 ISK)
Trajectory Analysis II
Trajectory Analysis III

Total time: 5 days, 4 hours, 53 minutes, 20 seconds
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

If you are to invest more on support skills, besides the two needed for T2 guns, Rapid Firing would be the one to maximize first, as it is a Rank 2 skill (can get to V less than 10 days) and gives 4% bonus to the Rate of Fire of your guns per level.

 

Going for Tech 2 Guns

Tech 2 Guns are better. Bigger, faster, stronger.. take your pick. You want them just because they exist. Let’s see what’s needed for you to get them.

First of all, you will notice that you not only need to get some of your Gunnery Support skills first to higher levels (Sharpshooter for the Long Range versions / Motion Prediction for the Short Range ones), but also you will need to have all the smaller sized gun skill to level V and it’s specialization at IV before you can train the next one in size.

 

Let’s assume you want to go for the Long Range variant of your weapon of choice, in order to fit for a Cruiser-sized-ship that will be snipping targets from far away. Here is what you’ll need to train:

Sharpshooter I (80.000 ISK)
Sharpshooter II
Sharpshooter III
Sharpshooter IV
Small XXX Turret I (20.000 ISK)
Small XXX Turret II
Small XXX Turret III
Small XXX Turret IV
Small XXX Turret V
Small YYY Specialization I (1.000.000 ISK)
Small YYY Specialization II
Small YYY Specialization III
Small YYY Specialization IV
Gunnery III
Medium XXX Turret I (100.000 ISK)
Medium XXX Turret II
Medium XXX Turret III
Medium XXX Turret IV
Medium XXX Turret V
Medium YYY Specialization I (3.000.000 ISK)
Medium YYY Specialization II
Medium YYY Specialization III

Total time: 37 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes, 50 seconds
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

• Where XXX can be your choice of Energy (for Amarr), Projectile (Minmatar) or Hybrid (Gallente & Caldari)
• Where YYY is: Beam Laser (for Amarr), Artillery (for Minmatar) or Railgun (Gallente & Caldari)

 

Now let’s say you want to go for the Short Range variant, so you can get into a fast Frigate-sized ship and orbit at close ranges, dealing pain to your opponent.

Motion Prediction I (60.000 ISK)
Motion Prediction II
Motion Prediction III
Small XXX Turret I (20.000 ISK)
Small XXX Turret II
Small XXX Turret III
Small XXX Turret IV
Small XXX Turret V
Small ZZZ Specialization I (1.000.000 ISK)
Small ZZZ Specialization II
Small ZZZ Specialization III

Total time: 8 days, 13 hours, 33 minutes, 20 seconds
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

• Where XXX can be your choice of Energy (for Amarr), Projectile (Minmatar) or Hybrid (Gallente & Caldari)
• Where ZZZ is: Pulse Laser (for Amarr), Autocannon (for Minmatar) or Blaster (Gallente & Caldari)

Tech 2 Ammunition

Tech 2 Ammo can only be used in Tech 2 Guns. I am not going to discuss Tech 2 ammo here, but what you should know is that Tech 2 ammo comes with higher DPS or higher ranges but also with a disadvantage to your ship. Either increased signature radius (you become easier to hit) or reduced speed or reduced capacitor recharge. You will have to weight the Pros and Cons when deciding to use Tech 2 Ammo.

You can however, use your Tech 2 Gun together with normal Tech 1 Ammo or use Faction Ammo (can be quite expensive sometimes) for extra damage without any drawbacks.

 

Things to note about T2 guns:

• As you can see above, if you want to go for T2 guns, you can’t go for the Large Long Range version unless you also train the Medium and Small Long Range versions first.
• That means that although you might be able to use Large T2 Pulse Lasers (Amarr Battleship Close Range weapons) chances are you won’ be able to use Small T2 Beam Lasers (Amarr Frigate Long Range weapons).
• This is drastically different in the Missile Group, where as you can see below, you only need to train the appropriate size to level V and then the specialization for it.

 

The Missile Launcher Operation Skill Group

Missiles. The domain of the Caldari. Also a nice supplement to both Amarr and Minmatar pilots. They always hit their target with constant DPS, are not affected by transversal velocity, don’t have tracking speed issues but also do not hit instantly like guns do.

I need to point out at this stage that I am primarily a missile user so I’ve come to love and hate missiles at the same time.

Love because they have a much simpler training plan than guns above. Love because they put constant DPS on the target without worrying about orbiting speeds or tracking speeds or transversal velocity. Love because I can chose what type of damage I do based on what the weakest resistance on my target’s tank is. Love because they use no capacitor at all.

Hate because their DPS is usually lower of that of a gunboat. Hate because they have long reload times and low ammo capacity on their launchers. Hate because it takes time to reach their target and that’s bad for PVP. Hate because I don’t have an animation whenever I fire a missile (rather than a pile of smoke coming from the center of my ship) compared to awesome looking Turrets tracking their targets on gunboats.

 

Before you play with missiles, read this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071231134111/www.eve-online.com/guide/en/g61_3.asp

Now you got your mind wrapped around concepts like Explosion Radius, Signature Radius, Explosion Velocity and so on… You will need to understand how these concepts work (it’s not hard if you have some basic math/physics knowledge) and how they are introduced in the game mechanics. Then you will be able to fit and fly your ships more effectively.

If you want to see how your fitting would work in some dogfights you can use the great ship fitting tool included with EVEHQ (http://evehq.net) called HQF. In there is a Damage Analysis tool (similar to that one in page 4 of the Gunnery guide above) that will allow you to position your ship and a target and set speeds and range and take transversal velocity in mind and all that… go play!

Also, it’s highly recommended that you read the Gunnery Section of this guide (see above) to understand how these two weapon systems work in the game and make your choices wisely. There are a lot of ships that can support both Guns and Missiles in the game and that might be the way to go for you!

 

Types of Launchers

Launchers are a bit less complicated than guns. Their main distinction is that of size.

• Rocket Launchers and Standard Missile Launchers are for Frigates and Destroyers
• Assault Missile Launchers, Heavy Missile Launchers and Heavy Assault Missile Launchers are for Cruisers and Battlecruisers
• Cruise Missile Launchers and Siege Launchers are for Battleships
• Citadel Cruise Launchers and Citadel Launchers are for Capitals.
• Bomb Launchers can be used only on Stealth Bombers (Tech 2 Covert Ops Frigates)

 

To avoid Confusion:

Don’t try to find any “Standard Missiles” to be used with Standard Missile Launchers, nor any “Assault Missiles” to be used with Assault Missile Launchers. They are called Light Missiles, and their respective skill is called Standard Missiles.

Light Missiles like the Bloodclaw Light Missile are the only type of missile that can be used in two different type of Launchers. When used on a Frigate/Destroyer they are launched from Standard Missile Launchers, while when they are used on a Cruiser/BattleCruiser they are launched from Assault Missile Launchers.

Torpedoes are launched from a Siege Launcher. Don’t try to find any “Torpedo Launcher” cause there isn’t one.

 

Did I mention the Missile Skill group isn’t as complicated as the Gunnery group? Well.. I lied. :-p

 

Types of Missiles

Rockets are used in Frigates/Destroyers that want to have a very close orbit (usually less than 8KM), are fast and have high RoF but have very low damage. The Rocket Launchers have very low CPU/Powergrid requirements however so they can be fitted in a ship much easier than Standard Missile Launchers.

Light Missiles when used on a Frigate will have great range (can reach up to 40KM), higher speed than rockets (will hit faster moving targets like Interceptors and Drones), higher damage, but lower rate of fire. When used on a Cruiser will have much higher rate of fire, but it’s more common to use Heavy Missiles or Heavy Assault Missiles in that ship size. If you want to have the perfect anti-frigate missile ship however it’s a Cruiser with Assault Missiles.

Heavy Missiles have great range (up to 90KM or more), good damage but slow rate of fire. It’s the weapon of choice for PVE Cruisers like the Caracal and BattleCruisers like the Drake.

Heavy Assault Missiles have low range (can reach around 15KM) lower damage per volley than Heavies but much higher rate of fire, hence better DPS. They are mostly used in PVP Caldari setups.

Cruise Missiles can reach massive ranges (150KM+), pack a great volley damage with moderate DPS. It’s the weapon of choice for one of the most used ships in the game, the Raven.

Torpedoes have low range (up to 25KM), have massive volley damage and great rate of fire for high DPS. They can also be used in Stealth Bombers and are ideal for anti-Battleship setups.

 

Based on the type of ship you can fly, essentially you have to choose between the long-ranged Guided missile but lower DPS version (Light, Heavy, Cruise) or the shorter range un-Guided, high DPS version (Rockets, Heavy Assault, Torpedoes).

 

Special Types of Missiles:

Bombs are a specialty, since only Stealth Bombers can use them. They don’t require a lock on the target, only your ship to be facing the target, will travel 30KM away from you and explode doing massive amounts of damage to everything in a 15KM radius. It takes about 5 seconds to cover that distance and your target might have time to warp out by the time it reaches them. The respective skill decreases the time it takes to be able to fire again with a bomb launcher. Nice to level up if you plan on spending a lot of time in a Stealth Bomber.

Defender Missiles are rarely seen in-game besides some NPCs and are used as chaff, to hit and destroy incoming missiles. Don’t bother training this skill at all.

Friend-or-Foe (FOF) Missiles can be used if you become jammed (unable to lock targets) by use of ECM from your enemy ships. The missiles will launch and hit the first available target in range. Useful, but not really needed. Train this if you don’t have anything better to do.

 

Path to bigger Launchers

Let’s assume you want to equip your Raven with the appropriate set of tools for the job. The weapon of choice is Cruise Missiles. Here is what you’ll need:

Missile Launcher Operation I (20.000 ISK)
Missile Launcher Operation II
Missile Launcher Operation III
Missile Launcher Operation IV
Missile Launcher Operation V
Standard Missiles I (20.000 ISK)
Standard Missiles II
Standard Missiles III
Heavy Missiles I (100.000 ISK)
Heavy Missiles II
Heavy Missiles III
Cruise Missiles I (350.000 ISK)
Cruise Missiles II
Cruise Missiles III

Total time: 9 days, 17 hours, 20 minutes
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

 

Stealth Bombers

As mentioned earlier, there is a special type of Ship, called Stealth Bomber that uses some special type of weapons, called Bombs. These lovely toys are used together with Torpedoes to make this small frigate a feared opponent to any Battleship that has no smaller ships around to protect it.

Bombs can also be used to one-shot enemy Frigates, Destroyers, Industrial ships or even poorly-fitted Cruisers and all of their Tech 2 Variants. There are also special type of bombs available that can do nasty things besides damage, like remove the capacitor from the enemy ships or break their target locks.

Here is what you’ll need to use both a Bombs and Torpedoes on a Stealth Bomber:

Missile Launcher Operation I (20.000 ISK)
Missile Launcher Operation II
Missile Launcher Operation III
Missile Launcher Operation IV
Standard Missiles I (20.000 ISK)
Standard Missiles II
Standard Missiles III
Heavy Missiles I (100.000 ISK)
Heavy Missiles II
Heavy Missiles III
Torpedoes I (400.000 ISK)
Torpedoes II
Torpedoes III
Missile Bombardment I (80.000 ISK)
Missile Bombardment II
Missile Bombardment III
Missile Bombardment IV
Bomb Deployment I (8.000.000 ISK)

Total time: 6 days, 58 minutes, 32 seconds
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

 

Missile Launcher Support Skills

Just like the rest of the Offensive Groups, Missile Launcher Operation has some skills that give bonuses to all other Missile Skills.

Well not true.

There is a skill, Guided Missile Precision that only gives it’s bonus of 5% decreased factor of signature radius only to Light, Heavy and Cruise missiles. That means that this skill does nothing for your Rockets, Heavy Assault Missiles and Torpedoes. Besides that however, it’s a great skill to train, because it will increase your damage to smaller targets when using Guided missiles.

Here is what a decent Missile Launcher Support skill group should look like:

Missile Launcher Operation I (20.000 ISK)
Missile Launcher Operation II
Rapid Launch I (40.000 ISK)
Rapid Launch II
Rapid Launch III
Target Navigation Prediction I (60.000 ISK)
Target Navigation Prediction II
Target Navigation Prediction III
Missile Bombardment I (80.000 ISK)
Missile Bombardment II
Missile Bombardment III
Missile Launcher Operation III
Missile Projection I (100.000 ISK)
Missile Projection II
Missile Projection III
Missile Launcher Operation IV
Warhead Upgrades I (1.000.000 ISK)
Warhead Upgrades II
Warhead Upgrades III
Missile Launcher Operation V
Guided Missile Precision I (500.000 ISK)
Guided Missile Precision II
Guided Missile Precision III

Total time: 12 days, 53 minutes, 20 seconds
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

 

If you can spend more time training up your missile skills, Rapid Launch, Target Navigation Prediction and Missile Bombardment are the skills to level up first. You can leave Warhead Upgrades last because it only makes a difference if you are using Cruise, Torpedoes or Capital missiles.

 

Getting to Tech 2 Launchers

Let’s see some training plans for T2 Launchers.

First, let’s assume that I want to equip a BattleCruiser like the Drake with T2 Heavy Missile Launchers so that I can clear some of those Level 4 missions faster. Here’s what I’ll go for:

Missile Launcher Operation I (20.000 ISK)
Missile Launcher Operation II
Missile Launcher Operation III
Missile Launcher Operation IV
Missile Launcher Operation V
Standard Missiles I (20.000 ISK)
Standard Missiles II
Standard Missiles III
Heavy Missiles I (100.000 ISK)
Heavy Missiles II
Heavy Missiles III
Heavy Missiles IV
Heavy Missiles V
Heavy Missile Specialization I (3.000.000 ISK)
Heavy Missile Specialization II
Heavy Missile Specialization III

Total time: 31 days, 6 hours
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

 

Next let’s say I want to equip my fast-moving Interceptor class Frigate like the Crow with T2 Standard Missiles. This will allow me to hit my target with decent DPS without worrying about my tracking speed while keeping a really high transversal and orbit speeds in excess of 4.000 m/sec:

Missile Launcher Operation I (20.000 ISK)
Missile Launcher Operation II
Missile Launcher Operation III
Standard Missiles I (20.000 ISK)
Standard Missiles II
Standard Missiles III
Standard Missiles IV
Standard Missiles V
Standard Missile Specialization I (1.000.000 ISK)
Standard Missile Specialization II
Standard Missile Specialization III
Missile Launcher Operation IV
Missile Launcher Operation V

Total time: 22 days, 22 hours
N.B. Skill costs are based on CCP’s database and are indicative only

 

Tech 2 Ammunition

Tech 2 Ammo can only be used in Tech 2 Launchers. I am not going to discuss Tech 2 ammo here, but what you should know is that Tech 2 ammo comes with higher DPS or higher ranges but also with a disadvantage to your ship. Either increased signature radius (you become easier to hit) or reduced speed or reduced capacitor recharge. You will have to weight the Pros and Cons when deciding to use Tech 2 Ammo.

You can however, use your Tech 2 Launcher together with normal Tech 1 Ammo or use Faction Ammo (can be quite expensive sometimes) for extra damage without any drawbacks.

 

Coming up in later parts:

Defensive (Armor & Shield Tanking)

Exploration & Wormhole-specifics

Electronic Warfare

Fleet Support & Logistics

Other Useful things

Complete suggestions for various races with sample skill training plans

 

Please leave a comment if you liked the guide and suggestions / improvements are always welcome.

EVEMon was used during this guide to show learning trees and skills suggestions. No pets where harmed while writing this guide (at least to my knowledge) :-p

QP