Skill training

Character creation First 200 hours Skill training Cloning Trading Mission running Basin in EVE Bug or not Ship fitting Amarr Caldari Gallente Minmatar Skills are the core of a character. Unlike many other game systems there are no "classes" in EVE; instead it is the skills you learn which determine the type of character you are. The way skills are learned is also different to most other games. The first thing you need to know is that learning skills takes time, real time: if your character takes three hours to learn a skill, that is three real-life hours. However, unlike many other games it does not matter if you are on-line or not during that time; your character will continue to learn. The next important thing about skills is that only one character on each account can be learning a skill at one time! These characteristics of learning bring us to a couple of very simple ideas: first, since learning takes time we don't want to waste any: you should always be learning a skill! Second, since there are far too many skills for anyone to learn them all fully, you should have a plan! There are so many skills, they interact with each other in such complicated ways and there are so many possible paths to follow that it is sometimes difficult to know which skills to learn, and in what order to learn them. The good news is that there are some fundamental skills which almost any character will need to succeed, and a basic learning path which will get you off to a good start no matter what your ultimate goals may be. There is a special category of skills in EVE, the Learning skills. These skills, as you might expect, increase the rate at which you learn skills (what they actually do is increase your attributes, which increases the rate at which you learn). Since skills and learning are so important, the Learning skills are critical. However, it will probably take you a month or more to get your Learning skills to the level you need them to be, and we don't want to wait a month before we start learning the fun skills, right? So the plan is this: learn enough skills that you can have some fun and earn some money, and then devote some time to the Learning skills. Once those are completed you can top-up the fundamental skills that everyone needs. By that time, you should have a good idea of where you want your character to go, and how you want to get them there, and you will have a solid foundation to build upon. Skill basics Each skill takes a certain number of points to learn. How many points a particular skill requires is determined by two numbers, Rank and Level: Rank never changes: it represents how difficult a skill is to learn. Rank is a simple multiplier, so a Rank 2 skill will take twice as long to learn as a Rank 1 skill. Skills range from Rank 1 to Rank 16. Level does change: it represents how accomplished you are with that skill. As you spend more time learning a skill, Level will increase to a maximum of Level 5. The Level of a skill is generally expressed as a Roman numeral so the skill Gunnery at level 3 would be Gunnery III. Skills are divided into fifteen categories, each of which has a primary and a secondary attribute associated with it. Your character's rating in those attributes determine how quickly you will learn the skills in each category. The higher your attributes, the faster you will learn the skills. Typical primary and secondary attributes are listed below: Category Attribute Primary Secondary Corporation Management Memory Charisma Drones Memory Perception Electronics Intelligence Memory Engineering Intelligence Memory Gunnery Perception Willpower Industry Memory Intelligence Leadership Willpower Charisma Learning Memory Intelligence Category Attribute Primary Secondary Mechanic Intelligence Memory Missile Launcher Operation Perception Willpower Navigation Intelligence Perception Science Intelligence Memory Social Charisma Intelligence Spaceship Command Perception Willpower Trade Willpower Charisma Almost all actual mechanics of learning a skill are transparent. This means that although you will see how many points you need to learn a skill you will never see exactly how many points per minute your character is accumulating towards learning it. Those calculations happen behind the scenes and all you will see is the final result: how long it will take your character to learn a specific skill. To determine exactly how many points it would require to learn a skill is fairly simple. The points required to learn each Level of a Rank 1 skill are as follows: Level I II III IV V Points 250 1,414 8,000 45,255 256,000 For a Rank 2 skill each level would require twice as many points, for a Rank 3 skill three times as many, and so on. Your character accumulates points based on their rating in the primary and secondary attributes associated with the category of the skill being learned. For every point in the primary attribute you have and for every two points in the secondary attribute you have you will generate one point per minute: Points per minute = Primary Attribute + [Secondary Attribute/2] This is also affected by the Learning skill which increases the points earned by 2% per Level of Learning your character has acquired. As long as a skill is actively being learned your character will accumulate points towards it. When enough points are accumulated to meet the Level requirement, the skill has been learned to that Level and learning stops. Fundamental skills Before you buckle down and learn your Learning skills you will want to be able to safely fly a decent ship, and be able to use some decent weapons and other modules. By learning each of the following skills to level II or III you will be able to have some fun while your learning skills "cook". Here are the fundamental skills everyone will want: Category Skills Description Drones Drones Allows you to control 1 drone per skill level Scout Drone Operations Required to use light combat drones Electronics Electronics Improves ship CPU output Targeting Increases the number of active targets you may have Engineering Engineering Improves ship Power Grid output Energy Systems Operation Improves ship Capacitor recharge rate Shield Management Increases shield points Shield Operations Improves shield regeneration rate Mechanic Mechanic Increases Structural points Hull Upgrades Increases Armor points Navigation Navigation Increases ship's maximum velocity Afterburner Allows afterburner modules Warp Drive Operations Improves Capacitor drain from warping Spaceship Command Spaceship Command Improves ship's Agility Frigate Faction-specific, effects vary by ship Cruiser Faction-specific, effects vary by ship In addition to these, you will want to learn enough skills to use weapons and modules. Which weapons and defensive measures you use are heavily influenced by your faction and the ship you are flying. For example, Caldari ships tend to gain a bonus for Missiles or Hybrid Turrets, so a Caldari pilot will generally want the skills to fit Missiles or Hybrid Turrets (or both) on the ship to take advantage of this. This applies to the factions as follows: Faction Preferred weapons Skills Amarr Lasers Small Energy Turret, Medium Energy Turret Caldari Missiles Missile Launcher Operations, Standard Missiles Hybrid Turrets Small Hybrid Turret, Medium Hybrid Turret Gallente Drones Combat Drone Operations Hybrid Turrets Small Hybrid Turret, Medium Hybrid Turret Minmatar Projectile Turrets Small Projectile Turret, Medium Projectile Turret Learning skills By this point you should have enough skills to have some fun and earn some money. This is important because the books for some of the following skills cost over two million Interstellar Kredits (ISK)! Now is the time to learn your Learning skills. There are two tiers: basic and the advanced skills. There is one of each which affects each of your attributes. Each level in these learning skills adds 1 to the related attribute, so Empathy IV and Presence II would give you a total of 6 points added to your Charisma attribute. Attribute Learning skill Basic Advanced Intelligence Analytical Mind Logic Perception Spatial Awareness Clarity Charisma Empathy Presence Willpower Iron Will Focus Memory Instant Recall Eidetic Memory The last Learning skill, Learning, helps with learning all skills regardless of their related attributes. Since the Learning skills increase your attributes, and your attributes increase the rate at which you train skills, you can learn these skills much more quickly by learning them in a specific pattern. The pattern is to increase Memory, then Intelligence and then the Learning skill by one step each, then repeat. In this way each skill learned helps us train the next skill more quickly. So we train as follows: Instant Recall I → Analytical Mind I → Learning I → Instant Recall II → Analytical Mind II → Learning II, and so on up to Level IV each Once you have these three skills to level IV, you can go back and increase some of your fundamental skills, or begin to work on the common skills you have not yet begun. Once the training times on those skills start reaching into multiple days, and you are comfortably piloting a Cruiser through Level 2 missions, it is time to complete your Learning skills. The sequence now will be: Eidetic Memory I → Logic I → Eidteic Memory II & Logic II until you have level IV each, then train Instant Recall V → Analytical Mind V After this you can train the other Learning skills to improve your Perception, Willpower and Charisma. The time required to train Level V in the advanced Learning skills is not usually worth it for the return it gives: most people never bother. Common skills Beyond the fundamental skills are some skills which, while not quite as critical, most everyone will want. While you will want to train all of your fundamental skills to at least Level IV, if not to Level V, it may be enough for you to train the common skills to Level III. Common skills are as follows: Category Skills Description Drones Drone Interfacing Substantially increases drone damage done Combat Drone Operations Increases the damage of light and medium drones Drone Navigation Increases the speed of your drones Drone Sharpshooting Increases your drones optimal range Electronics Long Range Targeting Increases the range at which you can target Signature Analysis Improves your targeting speed Electronics Upgrades Allows the use of sensor upgrade modules Propulsion Jamming Allows the use of warp scramblers and webifiers Target Painting Allows the use target painting modules Engineering Energy Grid Upgrades Allows the use of capacitor batteries and PDUs Gunnery Gunnery Increases rate of fire, prerequisite for many other skills Motion Prediction Increases turret tracking speed Rapid Firing Increases turret weapon rates of fire Sharpshooting Increases turret weapon optimal ranges Controlled Bursts Reduces capacitor use of turret weapons Trajectory Analysis Improves turret weapon accuracy falloff Surgical Strike Increases damage for all weapons Weapons Upgrades Allows weapon upgrade modules, improves weapon CPU requirements Advanced Weapons Upgrades Reduces Power Grid requirements of weapons Mechanic Salvaging Allows the use of salvager modules, increases salvage retrieval chances Jury Rigging Allows the training of ship rigging skills Repair Systems Allows armor repair modules, improves repair module duration Missile Launcher Operations Missile Launcher Operations Improves missile launcher rates of fire Missile Bombardment Increases missile flight time Missile Projection Increases missile maximum velocity Rapid Launch Improves missile launcher rates of fire Target Navigation Projection Reduces target velocity effects on missile damage Warhead Upgrades Increases missile damage Standard Missiles Allows light missiles, increases light missile damage Heavy Missiles Allows heavy missiles, increases heavy missile damage Navigation Evasive Maneuvering Improves ship agility Acceleration Control Increases afterburner and microwarp drive speed boosts Fuel Conservation Decreases afterburner capacitor consumption High Speed Manoeuvring Allows microwarp drive use, decreases MWD capacitor consumption Skills and modules Information on tuning your skills toward a specific career, or to provide a specific need. Better ship attributes To increase available CPU: Skill: Electronics increases ship's CPU by 5% per skill level Modules: adding Co-processors increases CPU To increase available Power Grid: Skill: Engineering increases ship's Power Grid by 5% per skill level Modules: Power Diagnostic Systems, Reactor Control Units and Auxiliary Power Controls increase Power Grid Essential Fives The following is a listing of recommended Level V skills for all pilots. Some are obviously more important than others (like Structure and Armor points on Gallente ships)... Hit Point Boosts Shield Operation Shield Management Mechanic Hull Upgrades Capacitor Boosts Energy Systems Operation Energy Management Fitting Skills Engineering Electronics Weapon Upgrades Advanced Weapon Upgrades (Long-Term, Battleship/T2 fittings) Miscellaneous Navigation Cybernetics (Long-Term) Better mission running Social: increases the standing increase you receive from completing missions Negotiation: increase the payment for completing missions There are a number of Connection skills which increase the loyalty point rewards for completing missions. Each of the skill affects the rewards from agents in certain corporate departments, as follows: Connections Bureaucratic Financial High Tech Labor Military Political Administration Internal Security Personnel Storage Archives Financial Public Relations Marketing Legal Accounting Financial Distribution Archives Advisory Intelligence Manufacturing Surveillance Manufacturing Production Personnel Mining Astrosurveying Intelligence Security Astrosurveying Command Internal Security Surveillance Security Legal Administration Advisory Command Public Relations EVEMon EVEMon is an excellent third party utility which allows you to set up a skill training plan, play "what if" with attributes and implants, and keep track of the books you will need to purchase for your skills.