Drone Boats & Neural Remap Planning

[CapnJakku]

In my previous thread i got some great advice. Since the topic has adjusted slightly I decided to make a new one.

I’m trying on EVEMon to plan my first neural remap. My 6+ month plan will mostly focus mostly on PvE Gallente drone boats. I want to get experience flying and fitting Algos-Vexor-Myrmidon-Dominix and also branch into Worm/Gila and be able to run L2-L4 missions (or other relevant corp+related PvP/PvE) as quickly as I can with all these ships.

I have my first ~3 months skills locked in which are mostly Memory-Perception (Drone-related) and Intelligence-Memory (core ship skills).

Im trying to plan fittings for Worm/Vexor/Gila/Myrm/Dominix but Workbench just has too many fits and variations lol, and a even on Reddit or forums ppl are constantly disagreeing over fits.

Any advice on planning fittings for these ships as I scale up that will help me run missions quickly?

Based on my research it seems like MJD + Sentry Dominix will be the end of this “training block” for L4s.

Is there any way to efficiently select relevant fits out of thousands or is it purely a trial and error situation?

[Bitterbread_Andwine]

Evening;

If you you go for npc salvage & loot, then it will save time being able to salvage while shooting, which calls for a bit more tank, cap, and reps/resist as you’ll be closer to the action for longer periods of time … at the cost of dps – vs going home to return with a salvage boat. Kind of a balance which can be a game in itself, when the last target is also nearly the last wreck in the overview.

If blitzing a level 4, there are a lot of workable variations of doms, but they most all have at least one sentry damage rig, 3 drone damage, at least 3 drone links, a t2 sensor booster (and possibly an enhancer in the lows also, 2 drone tracking computers, leaving a couple of slots/rigs for rep and cap.

A dom can be as happy in the middle of an aggro’d pocket as one on the outskirts, but they hardly resemble each other in fit. Once you have your preferred engagement range down, and blitz vs salvage settled, build the boat for that situation.

My interaction with sniping ‘blitz’ doms like that have only been relatively recent, as I like the salvage for rig-making and the loot for reducing, which would be a luxury for someone trying to pay their sub via lvl 4s, threading missions as quickly as they can, so I should stop now.

[CapnJakku]

Very informative Bitterbeard,

To be honest the reason I’m doing this drone focus is because I want to learn all about how to effectively use them but also to understand what they are capable of so in the future I can defend against them better.

With that in mind, I definitely want some experience with Sentries, and the Dom seems like a good opportunity to use them effectively.

But what you mentioned about doing a more tanky salvage (2in1) type Dom also sounds interesting. I’m doing this all so I can learn different play styles, so ideally I’d like to be able to try both… I just don’t know if that requires too much cross-training in other skills.

The reason I want to try salvage is because I’m about ready to move up from L2 missions (which don’t seem worth salvaging based on a couple tests). I literally have no idea what I could get from looting/salvaging L3/4s, and how it compares in ISK as well. I’d like to keep both options open and train into them if I can.

[Shipwreck_Jones]

I’m of the opinion that salvaging is a waste of time. Better to blitz missions, selectively loot (any notable loot will be documented Eve Survival), and ignore the salvage. You might also seriously consider cross training for the Unified Nergal, so that you can run the anomic/burner missions. I know it seems like you already have a billion skills to train, but you can get up to 250mil/hr by being picky with your regular level 4’s, blitzing the ones you do run (only killing what is necessary and selectively looting), and by running every anomic that you can get your hands on (aside from the carrier one, which is typically avoided because it takes a long time to run).

Anyway, planning out a year long queue, and then creating a remap optimized specifically for it will give you the most SP that you can possible get. However, this strat will also penalize you for trying to change directions -which is something that newer players are more prone to do (you might discover other ships, roles, or activities which you enjoy more). Thus, I generally recommend that newer players (who are not trying to get into stuff like mining, industry, or trade) roll with a 27 perception, 21 intelligence remap (not counting implants). This strategy won’t give you the best training rate possible, but it’s still much better than the default remap, and it will give you more flexibility to adapt your skill queue to changing goals. I made a video about it if you want to know more.

And I wouldn’t worry too much about hammering out fits for 6 months down the road. Balance passes might change things, and your fitting knowledge will likely improve rapidly during that time.

Of course, if I understand you correctly, you might be wanting to do this so that you know what skills you need to train. Unfortunately, I’m not going to spend an hour making a year long skill plan for you. However, I will tell you that the P27/I21 remap does work well with the skills that you’ll be wanting to train. Like I said, it won’t help you eek out every last SP that you could get with an Evemon Optimized remap, but it doesn’t require a bunch of planning, and won’t punish you for forgetting anything or wanting to change direction. So, as long as you don’t pivot into mining, industry, or trade, and stick with pew pew stuff, it will have you covered.

And, if you’re curious, here’s a broad overview of the skills you’ll want to train. Note that, aside from a few odds and ends, all the primary and secondary attributes will always include per or int.

• spaceship command skills (Per/Wis)
• missiles (per/wis and wis/per)
• tanking (int/mem)
• support skills/magick 14 skills (int/mem)
• navigation (int/per)
• drone skills (mem/per).
• various skills from social, neural enhancement, and trade, which have varied attributes. However, these skills will require a relatively small portion of your skill training time.

[CapnJakku]

Thanks for taking the time to write up and share your thoughts. Both for me and anybody who’s Google searching specific questions. I know this is useful because I’ve already seen your posts as well as other regular forum members dating back awhile, even years.

1. Salvage vs Blitz - Based on your opinion about blitzing, I really guess the difficulty for new players like me would be the “only killing what is necessary and selectively looting” part. I’m sure after many many reruns of missions (+ using Eve Survival) I’ll get the hang of it. As for Anomics, looks promising once I get the skills up - you’re right, there’s a ton to train and many books to buy at the beginning.

2. Planning for Attribute Remap - your advice is quite good, and nice to see you mention EVEMon as well.
   Since I’ll be starting with mostly Gallente, I’ve mapped out a 7-month plan that includes core ship skills (most of what you mentioned at the end of your post), drones, and ship-specific training. When I mapped it out in EVEMon I expected I’d be doing Memory (tons of drone skills in EVE) & Intelligence. But the optimizer had me map max Mem/Per (27/21). Guess this is because it takes some training to bring racial Frig/Dest/Cruiser/BC/BS all up to IV, and they use Per as primary attribute.

3. Future Fits - you are right about not getting caught up on specific future fits. Its just a steep learning curve for new players to learn how to fit different classes of ships with hundreds of various modules for specific roles in future activities that we haven’t yet attempted . I think this is why so many “do you have a fit for this?” questions come up…

4. Conclusion - with the help of everyone in forums & in-game, I definitely feel confident with my current plan that I touched on in (2). Obviously I’ll add skills here and there, but I think 90% of it is static and will serve me well for years to come. In the short term I think it will allow me to get up to L4 missions, do Abyssals, some PvP, and also participate in some corp activities like Incursions, etc.

…and to think I joined the forums a week ago because I had just started playing, didn’t know anything, and wanted the expedited route to flying a Nyx