So while I was out and about this weekend, I happened upon a capsuleer that was just itchin' for a fight. He was piloting a Rifter and,when I saw him, he had a can out that said 1v1 PVP.... Well, knowing that this probably wouldn't be a fair fight, either in skill points or in 1v1 fairness, I decided to give it a shot in my shiny new Merlin that I got from doing the military beginner's missions.
What happened in that fight and the sebsequent encounter are to be saved for another post. This one is meant as a detailed analysis of my plan on how I am going to become a pirate in the harsh universe of New Eden.
I have this plan. It includes the five following ships...Merlin, Kestrel, Rifter, Punisher, Incursus. Now, I know what you're thinking..."A ship from each race? Is he trying to gimp his SP allocation?" No, no dear readers, I am not. The difference is that I don't really care about going all out in one race or weapons' system. I like to have fun and being able to say "Hmm, Missiles? Projectiles? Shield Tank? Armor Tank? Drones?" This is the beauty of Eve Online. There are so many options and for the new folks out there, there are far more than they are aware of.
I chose a ship from each race. I chose two Caldari ships as I wanted a dedicated missile boat to make sure I experience everything else out there, but at the same time, I have heard so many good things about the Merlin that I couldn't exclude from my list in good conscience.
I'm sure by now, everyone knows that I am neither a newbie or even a new character in the strictest sense. I have about a month's worth of skills and at the time of this post am nearing 2 million SP on Nizran. That being said, I have devoted quite a bit of that into missiles and have gotten Missile Launcher Operation to rank 5, Rockets to 4, and most others to 3. I have also gotten small projectiles to 4 and have about 2 days left till T2 autocannons. The Punisher has no bonuses to weapons which allows me to use autocannons in place of lasers and the Merlin only has an increase to optimal range for hybrids. The Incursus DOES offer a bonus to hybrid damage, but I have no interest in training that right now and if I can't make PVP work in an Incursus then it's not the boat for me anyway.
Essentially my plan is this; over the next couple months in my limited play time, I am going to juggle fitting five of each ship with T1/T2 fittings to PVP, with missioning to try and pay for all these fittings. I know, I know, "But you hate missioning, Nizran" you say, well, I do. Very much. The problem is that I try to rat in lowsec to get spendy modules and high ISK kills, but I have spent triple the time evading people trying to kill me and nearly losing a Drake in the process so it seems a bit counter-productive. I figure for me to have a fighting chance these days I need to plan on spending between 3 to 4 mill per ship on fittings and hulls and, since the fittings aren't insurable, a very small amount of that will come back to me. 25 hulls, 4 million apiece, I figure I need to save up 100 mill. This isn't TOO difficult if you're running L4's, sadly, I never even unlocked L2's :P This means I will be spending quite a bit of time just trying to unlock L4's.
I am currently working on the storyline/Sisters of EVE missions as I have heard that those give a far greater boost in standings than the L1's that I currently have access to. Once I have my 100 mill wallet, it's going to be pure PVP time. If anyone wants to fight, I will be roaming the Region around Hevrice as this accomplishes two things.
1. I will get MASSIVE PVP experience as the very group I am trying to enlist with are stationed here and will be more than willing to give me a fight.
2. The Tuskers are stationed here and I figure the more exposure to them that I have, the more they get to know me and the better chances I have of one day joining their ranks.
Anyway, I have a decent skill allocation in the weapons' systems I will be using and have decent (albeit not preferable) skill allocation in both shield and armor tanking. I am hoping that after losing these 25 hulls, I will have learned enough that moving on to cruisers (yes Taurean, I will be doing a cruiser plan) won't totally destroy whatever remains of my wallet.
I would write more at this point, but my keyboard is one of those rubber "silent" things and it's a pain in the ass to use the spacebar with any sort of reliability, so before I try to add a little more rubber to the tread of my tire, I am just going to end my post.
Cheers and Safe Hunting fellow PVPers!
A very interesting twist. The advantage of trying so many hulls is that you should have a very clear idea of which weapon systems and ship styles you like by the time you hit hull 25.
ReplyDeleteEqually, you will probably find fighting against all those hulls that much easier.
Your estimate of costs is pretty much spot on (assuming you don't rig). The Sisters quest line should get you about 30 million on it's own, which is a nice start, and you may want to buy hulls and fittings in batches of five. That way you don't lose too much ISK if you decide to change your plan in response to what you have already done.
I also look forward to the eventual cruiser plan. Will it be something similar, or do you think you will focus on one or two hulls?
And finally, be aware that the Tuskers are on campaign in Molden Heath right now. Although many are still in Hev, feel free to stop by MH if you want a change of scene.
Good to know, I'll have to check out Molden Heath then too. Being in the premier PVP area is definitely an added bonus as, like you, I will probably lose quite a few ships, but gain invaluable experience at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get to cruisers, I will be researching more into each hull to decide which I want to fly as they are more expensive to fit and by then I should have a good idea as to what kind of tank/gank I enjoy using the most.