12 replies to this topic

[Dylan Everblight]

First, an introduction. If you don't care about that sort of thing you can skip to the end. All my PvE time, which was mostly years ago, I had Gallente ships, hybrid turrets, drones, armor tanking. (And mining, but that's not relevant.)

When I came back recently, I decided I wanted to learn to fly a CovOps ship and I think I'm there.

I joined RvB because I wanted to try out PvP. But I'm not sure what to do. In general terms, I always hear people talking about how the Rifter and Drake are so amazing. To try to develop some variety, I decided to start working up the skills for a stealth bomber. Not because I had a great stealth bomber plan, but because it would get me a reasonably solid set of missile skills.

Since joining RvB, I've worked up minmatar frigate, rockets and small projectile turrets so now I'm barely qualified to fly an entry-level Rifter. I took one out last night in a fleet action and it was really fun. I almost died twice, warping away with scant structure, but I had a blast. I have kill board stats now, although I don't think I contributed more than a few percent on any of them, I webbed, scrambled and shot at a lot of people.

But I can't help but feel that I wasn't contributing very much. I have 2.2 million skill points in drones. That's what I'm good at. What can I do to be effective and helpful to my side? In PvE I usually use a Vexor, but I'm not sure I'm up to having several of them blown up over the course of an evening. I have accepted that getting blown is likely to happen a lot while I'm learning. I have BC at 3, destroyers at 2...

So to sum up (especially for those who skipped down to here) ... I have a lot of points in drones. More than anything else. My skills in anything else are weak. What can I do to be useful and what should I be trying to learn now?

If more details would help, please let me know how best to present them.

[Dragon Venom]

Tristan is a tough little ship and Incursus is a lot of fun I would suggest not to cross train to a different race right now since you already have a lot of skills invested in gallente it seems. Get 20 Incursusii/Tristans fit them with T1 mods and join fleets. As to being useful, any RvB FC would take a guy with low SP and t1 mods that follows primaries over 50m SP uber dude that thinks that he can pick his own targets while in fleet.

[Dylan Everblight]

Oh, hey, you were the FC from last night. Thanks again, that was fun.

[Thecla Elarik]

Plenty of options with lots of drones/gallente:

Tristan, incursus and atron in terms of frigs all work
If you can park a catalyst at zero it does a LOT of damage
Taranis interceptor
Ishkur assault frig
Vexor cruiser (fit for blasters, neutralizers or with sentry drones)
Thorax cruiser can take 5 medium drones with it along with the bonussed blasters. It works in a faster shield fit and a slower/tankier armor fit (800 or 1600 millimeter plate both work)

[Ptygmit]

For fleet fights an imicus can be quite effective, especially if you have good drone skills. The fit below adds a little ewar to help the fleet against cruisers too. Does about 100dps overheated at 25km, or 60dps drones only at 40km. Switch rigs out to whatever you prefer - I like 1x CCC as it gives 3 mins of MWD cap, and you will be running it a fair bit to avoid the frigs that WILL chase you.

NB... it's not a good solo ship!!!

[Imicus, Imicus fit]

125mm Railgun II, Spike S
125mm Railgun II, Spike S

Limited 1MN MicroWarpdrive I
F-392 Baker Nunn Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Type-D Altered SS Overdrive Injector

Small Drone Speed Augmentor I
Small Drone Speed Augmentor I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I


Hobgoblin II x3

[Delucian]

Effectively others have given you the list of ships - I would add Aton (due to its low cost and fun factor - there are fits that will kill a well fit well flown Rifter - ask Krovos).

I am finishing my training of T2 heavies at the moment - and now spend a lot of time in the Ranis, Enyo and Vexor. I pull out the Ranis and Vexor as stellar PVP ships. THe Ranis because it can get in and get out quickly with a dual prop setup and most good frig pilots will engage it as they have a 50/50 chance of kiling it. At its price point it is a nice lower cost alternative to an Assault Frig which will not get you nearly as many fights.

The Vexor! What to say - it is, IMHO, one of the best boats in the game. THe slot layout provides for lots of options, it can be flow heavily tanked for fleet support, medium tank for both fleet and solo or light tank full on blaster madness. Its only true weakness is that it is slow - which can you imagine what a nightmare it would be if it were fast too!

A good drone pilot, in my mind, is worth a lot in a fleet, and having a Vexor that can bring to bear multiple flights while staying close to the fight and lending support is a huge value - Vexor pilots rarely get turned down in mixed boat fleet fights.

Gal is such a great race right now, I agree, stick with it - since you were cross training - having Rifter/Minny skills is a nice combo as well. Having started out life in Eve as a Caldari pilot, flying the standard fair in missioning - I now wish I had many of those missile skills back to apply elsewhere (not sure when I shot my last cruise missile).

[scummyb]

Don't knock cruise missiles, I can shoot them to nearly 250km from my raven. Blows shit up- so long as they don't fly off in the 20 sec flight time.!,

[BKMIndustries]

Nyr Dyv I have done all types of pvp from high sec ganks to 0.0 no matter how many skills points you have it is still DPS and if you can tackle it is even more cause lol in RvB more then in any alliance I have seen tackle dies fast and often. If you like to use drones fin gal frigs that have drone bays or if you have alot of cash pick up 20 vexors and 20 myrms.

The game is about fun and RvB is about. FC's might tell you what class ship to fly but I have yet to see one tell people they need to fly XXX race ships. The drake is a great ship in some ways and so if a rifter but every ship has a weakness. I love to fly crows (granted I always die when I do) but I suck in them lol I always tend to scout with them and get a kill for fleets but normally die before the person I tackle hehe (dont ever ask me for crow advice hehe).

Since I joined RvB my hanger has been full of all race ships from BC's down to T2 frigs. So I just use what I am in the mood for. Do not ever think you are not a help to the fleet. Long as you follow orders you are more of a help then people who go off on there own and do not listen to the FC.

cheers,
Mike

PS: I think this might have been more then 2 isk worth hehe.

[Shenanigansbus]

The drawback to Gallente frigates is that they get primaried early. Even the "tankier" tristan will get knocked out because of its damage potential and because it is still easier to kill than most merlins/punishers. If you must do a gallente frigate I suggest the imicus because you have good drone skills and can get out of the fray and apply your damage longer along with some ewar.

Build up your tanking skills and love the vexor. It has a variety of fits, great dps and tank and probably out of my favorite T1 cruisers (rupture, thorax, vexor) it is the best all rounder at 0m in a fleet brawl. The Myrm is nice especially if you have BC V and while I like the hurricane better, the Myrm does really well.

[meridun]

MOST IMPORTANT DRONE ADVICE YOU WILL EVER READ:

When you have drones, don't forget to launch them.


That is all

[Cameron Zero]

MOST IMPORTANT DRONE ADVICE YOU WILL EVER READ:

When you have drones, don't forget to launch them.


That is all

And don't forget to pull them back in when you get ready to warp off. I leave so many behind...

[meridun]

And don't forget to pull them back in when you get ready to warp off. I leave so many behind...

This should be a hot-key, as should the attack button. For me, F12 tells them to attack and Alt-F12 tells them to return to drone bay.

Suggested GTFO plan:

• Switch to PodSaver and pick a planet to run to
• Smack the warp button
• Tell drones to run back to ship
• Hope they make it before you finish aligning
  ...
  ...
  ...
• Start to panick as you try to figure out why you're not in warp
• Notice that about 20 people have points on you
• Start screaming "From Hell's Heart I stab at Thee" at your un-keyed mic and wishing that you had some sort of warp core overload device on the ship.

[Delucian]

This should be a hot-key, as should the attack button. For me, F12 tells them to attack and Alt-F12 tells them to return to drone bay.

You can map this - I have mine mapped to the "G" for go and the "R" for return keys - makes it easy so that once launched I just select a target and hit the button of choice.