Amarr or Minmatar

Well as the title says I am a long gone returning player struggling to decide on Amarr ships or Minmatar ships. Both have features I like with long range and armour but it is the other abilities that are the tough choice. I like the sound of energy disruption of Amarr but the speed and missiles of Minmatar are just as appealing, with an Alpha clone I want to be careful with my skill points.

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There is no right answer. If you train one, you’ll want the other eventually.

If there are any specific goals you have in mind, one of them may be a better option. In any case, the game doesn’t want you to remain below the SP limit for the long run. Anything you’ll end up not being able to do is an incentive for you to subscribe.

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Well, I don’t think it really matters anymore, most of the ship classes have been balanced to be equal and Alpha clones can cross train into other Faction ships. I would say the main difference is Minmatar ships are mainly shields whereas Amarr ships are mainly armor.

Anyway, here’s some reading material for more info.

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Minmatar_Ships_101
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Minmatar_Ships_102

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Amarr_Ships_101
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Amarr_Ships_102

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Since this is the PVE forum, I’m going to assume you aren’t asking here for PVP purposes.

One point you might not be aware of, Alpha characters cannot accept level 4 PVE missions, you’re restricted to level 3 at the highest. You could fleet up with another player who’s Omega and run level 4 PVE missions with them, but you cannot accept and run level 4 missions by yourself as an Alpha.

With that out of the way, for PVE there are two details that rise to the top.

1: How do the ships fly? Minmatar ships are generally faster and more agile, but Amarr aren’t lumps of lead in comparison. Gallente ships are fairly similar to Amarr in terms of speed and agility. If speed, acceleration and agility are important to you, Minmatar has the advantage over Amarr.

2: Damage types they do. Minmatar ships can do any damage type with both missiles and projectile turrets. PVE will involve lots of shooting at NPC ships and different pirate factions have different damage weaknesses, so it’s a matter of having the right types of ammo for the rats you expect to fight. Amarr lasers don’t have the same damage flexibility, lasers only ever do EM and Thermal damage, nothing else.

While this does make Amarr look less flexible than Minmatar, Amarr does have some ships that can fit missiles. Not as many ships as Minmatar and as an Alpha you’re restricted to T1 and navy/faction ships, so you don’t get any of the Amarr ships with bonuses for missiles, but you still have options for missiles in some of the T1 Amarr ships, plus Amarr gets something Minmatar doesn’t, ships with bonuses for drones. All of the Amarr drone ships can fit missiles. The Dragoon (destroyer), Arbitrator (cruiser), Prophecy (battlecruiser) and Armageddon (battleship) all have drone bonuses and can fit lasers and missiles.

A laser + drone combo has the potential to be an “ammunitionless” ship, meaning you don’t have to keep buying more ammo. T1 laser crystals never wear out and drones never need ammo reloads, but T1 crystals produce the lowest dps. If you want more laser dps, go for faction or T2 crystals, but those crystals will wear out and need replacing. If you want to keep the cost of running missions down to maximise your isk, not having to buy ammo reloads is one way to reduce your mission running costs. The lasers don’t have any flexibility for their damage but you can make up for that with the types of drones you use.

A missile + drone combo can maximise your damage to rats by targeting their damage weakness with both weapon types. It’s a bit of an oddball option, missiles and drones on an Amarr ship, and you won’t get any extra bonus to the missile damage, but it is viable. I’ve done a fair amount of testing a missile + drone Armageddon on the test server. As an Omega, 1000+ dps isn’t hard to reach. For an Alpha, there will be some skills you won’t be able to train to V so I doubt you’ll get to 1000 dps, but I’d be surprised if you can’t get 800+ dps from this setup.

That said, drones do add a layer of micromanagement to how you fight, because hostile NPC ships are more aggressive to drones these days than they were in the past, plus on the Amarr drone ships, the missiles are the secondary weapon type, the drones will be your #1 source of dps. If that sounds like too much work, go Minmatar.

You don’t have to train up skills for lasers to use certain Amarr ships, plus the drone skills will work with Minmatar ships, you just don’t get any bonuses for drones in Minmatar. Training missiles and drones gives you options in both Minmatar and Amarr, then it’s a matter of training the skills for the actual Minmatar and Amarr ships. In Minmatar, the missiles will be the #1 weapon with drones as secondary, in Amarr it will be the other way around.

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Just by asking the question you have revealed yourself as a heretic. Go wallow with your fellow rust-fetishists, you are unworthy to wield the Empress’ purifying light.

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You will stare at your ship a lot. Choose with heart, not with mind :wink: Praxis will help you with PvE in meanwhile.

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Its simple, if you like golden ships build by enslaved People Go for Amarr, if you however prefer Freedom ships in Rusty Color Go for Minmatar!

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Most Amarr ships do one thing and they do it very well: Tanky laser boats.

Various Minmatar ships can do a variety of things, but don’t really excel at any of them beyond the other races. The primary advantage of Minmatar tech is the capless guns, and the high alpha damage potential of artillery cannons. The latter is mainly an advantage in group PVP situations tho, not so much in PvE.

Another big factor is that Amarr tech is very limited to EM and Thermal damage, whereas Minmatar tech can cover all damage types. Overall this is probably the biggest factor when it comes to PvE.

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Partly true.

Though there are Amarr ships that are drone/missile boats.
There are also a few omni weapon capable ships that allow for both turret and missile fits, though these have no weapon bonuses, they tend to have drone bonuses and EWAR bonuses.

Amarr are the armour tank kings, they also tend to have the highest fitting capacity due to the high requirements to fit lasers, but there’s no reason you can’t mount other turrets instead. Yes you’ll loose turret bonuses for lasers, but sometimes what you lose there you gain in cap and fitting options, which in some cases is better depending on what you’re fighting.

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