I am a new player and unsure which race would be best suited to me.
I have done a little reading and I do like the sound of the Minmatar with their projectile weapons, but I read that to be good takes a bit more skill learning than the other races?
I plan to focus mainly on Combat/PVP, would the Minmatar race be a good choice?
The short answer to this is that your starting race has very little effect on your long term pvp gameplay, by the time you are ready to pvp you have a good chance of being able to fly ships from all 4 factions equally unless you hard focus on one faction. However, my first thought would be to go for missiles from Caldari, as they donât have problems with tracking (how fast the turret can turn around) and often have good range so you donât have to worry about sticking right next to your target.
(I can go fairly in depth on all of the weapon systems if you would like, but iâll hold off on beating you over the head with info for now)
As mentioned, unless 1, you care about where you start in space and what starter corps youâre associated with or RP. Race matters not to what you can fly
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Any race is fine. All races can train skills equally. The skills you train into determines the kinds of ships you fly and weapons you use. So itâs no problem to be a Minmatar race but fly Gallente ships with Amarrian drones, as an example.
As a rookie you will have a lot of fundamentals to learn. Please do not get discouraged when dying repeatedly, experience is a great teacher.
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It actually is a good idea to pick a race of ships to train for if you want to get into PvP very early in your career, but this doesnât have to be the same race that you select during character creation.
Any racial ship line works, and you will probably eventually train all of them, but pick one to start with and work on core skills and getting into T2 fits with a full spread of drones.
Personally I like Gallente to get good with Tristans or Minmatar to focus on Slashers early on, but again, any race works fine.
As others have said, the actual âraceâ of your Pilot is irrelevant, since you can learn any skill, fly any ship and use every weapon system with your Character.
However you will get some starting skills âfor freeâ that allow you to use the first basic ships of the race your character has chosen. But it doesnât take even a few days of skilling to just switch to another raceâs equipment from that if you like that more.
Some starting tipps:
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Passive Shield Ships are easiest to fly for beginners because they can fit a buffer tank that recharges on itâs own and still have a convenient pool of hitpoints. No capacitor management needed, no repair modules needed, just concentrate on the offense, keep your target pinned down and deliver damage, maybe try to reduce incoming damage by keeping your own speed up. Armor setups (especially active tanked) ones can get superior results in the endgame, but are much harder to master.
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Missiles are easier to use for beginners than turrets. They often have quite a good balance between range and damage output, they donât need capacitor to shoot and as long as you are in range they will at least hit the target. If you learn which ammo to use against which targets (application and damage type), you can go quite a way with that. Turrets on the other side become superior if you know very well what you are doing and how to fly, but that requires a lot more in-depth knowledge and ship control skill, because your own flight maneuvers play a huge role in how good you can apply damage to your target.
That being said:
Caldari is the easiest beginner race, hands down. They tank shield, are convenient to fit with buffer tank, they have a wide variety of missile ships and mostly even have a Kinetic bonus so if you just shoot kinetic missiles of the right size you are good for a start and can begin to soak up knowledge and hone your skills in ship movement, awareness of the battlefield and threat analysis.
But, you can ask 4 guys and get 6 answers here. My best advice: go look for a corp that can teach you and support you. Be patient and embrace losses as a chance to learn from someone who was better than you. EVE is a marathon, not a sprint.
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A long time ago, the choices you made during character creation decided your starting set of skills. Even then, anyone could fly anything, you just got a head start on particular stuff with particular races. Thatâs all gone and character race choice is just cosmetic now
Itâs possible to reach the same level of starting skills within one day of skilling, so itâs mainly a question of lore and what kind of weapon you prefer.
For example in Hek itâs easier to buy some Autocannons than Pulse Lasers, so your starting area is defined by your race - but you can travel around even in an Ibis or Velator (you are much quicker in a shuttle btw). You also can freely chose the starting career agents, no matter which race youâve picked.
So are you a faithful royalist? You are Amarr!
Or rather a rebel? Fight for freedom with the Minmatar!
The only true democracy? Welcome to the Gallente!
Want to earn money? Then join the Caldari!
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When I make a new character, most of the time I choose the race that has a starter system closest to my current home system (if I am going to use the new char to do a different thing than my main, but be in the same ish area) I remember when I was an amarr char, and joined a corp about 60 jumps away in Minnie space, so when U made a new char, I made a Minnie char because I didnât really want to do that again, it ended up just being around 20 jumps with my Minnie char, instead of 60 ish jumps
So for some people, the location matters, also, for me it is easier to have all my chars in the same place so if I need to contract something between chars, I donât need to go too far to pick it up
TL;DR where you start matters for some people, not as much for your first char, but when you make an alt char, it can be easier to get to your home system if you choose the race that has a starter system closest to your home.
Thank you for all the replies, what a great community! And all useful information, itâs much appreciated.
Are all weapons types equal? Or do some do more damage than others, for example missiles donât need an optimal range, so does that mean they wouldnât do as much damage as something requiring a bit more effort, such as lasers requiring you to be in optimal range? sort of like a trade off because you can just sit there not doing a lot?
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Skills, ship bonuses, range etc all matter dependant on what you are doing or fighting.
Like we had a question brought up on our discord about using light missiles vs rockets for burners. Rockets had better application in that instance.
Not at all.
| Weapon system | Cap use | Good close? | Good far? | Counter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Missiles | Zero | Yes | Yes, but with seconds of flight delay | Lower signature*, higher speed*, guidance disruptor module, ECM, sensor dampeners |
| Drones | Zero | Yes, except vs smartbombs | Yes, but with many seconds of flight delay | Shoot and web their drones until they run out |
| Hybrid Turrets | Low | Blasters only | Railguns only | Lower signature, higher angular velocity, tracking disruptor module, energy neutralizers, ECM, sensor dampeners |
| Projectile Turrets | Zero | Autocannons preferred | Artillery preferred | Lower signature, higher angular velocity, tracking disruptor module, ECM, sensor dampeners |
| Lasers | High | Pulse only | Beam only | Lower signature, higher angular velocity, tracking disruptor module, ECM, sensor dampeners |
| Vorton Projectors | ?** | |||
| Entropic Disintegrators** (ty) | Yes. | Occult ammo | Less range than turrets/missiles. VERY good tracking with Meson ammo. | Damage increases (âspools upâ) as disintegrator beam stays on target. Reset their spooling to minimum by moving far enough away from them, or breaking their lock with ECM or Sensor Dampeners. |
* missile math means lowering these sometimes doesnât help
** no personal experience, help me fill it in
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Entropic Disintegrators:
Cap: Yes
Good close: Yes, Occult ammo
Good far: kind of. Limited range compared to other long range weapon systems. Mystic and Meson ammo have decent range.
Counter: no falloff, so pulling range can break their spool up mechanics. They have VERY good tracking with Meson ammo.
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They are not equal, but every weapon system gives you a few options to adapt to most situations. Either by changing ammo, by using support- or counter-modules and by doing flight maneuvers that either help your damage application or hurt the enemies damage application.
The table from Nicen Jehr gives you a good rough estimate.
- Most notable is that Missile based Systems (and Vorton Projectors) can only have their damage reduced by certain factors, but never increased from good quality hits. On the other hand, missiles can never completely miss, as long as your target is in range of the missile. With turrets you can come into a situation where you cannot hit a smaller and faster target at all, because you always miss your shots.
- Again other weapon systems (Projectiles and Missiles) can shoot without needing any capacitor at all, so you can still use them even while being completely out of cap (from energy neutralizing or excessively using modules on your ship). Lasers, Hybrids, Disintegrators and Vorton Projectors will stop shooting if you have no capacitor left, leaving you helpless in space.
- Drones will keep attacking your target, even if your ship gets disabled by EWAR. Any effects on your ship like tracking disruption, dampening, jamming, energy neutralization have absolutely no effect on your drones as long as they have aquired their target. Note that you must have lock on a target to command them to specifically attack that target. But you can also just put them out and they will attack the next target that attacks you in return - and you donât need a lock on that target.
- Last but not least, Missiles and Drones can be âfirewalledâ by destroying them with a smartbomb (Area Damage) before they hit their target. Turret damage always applies instantly and cannot be prevented if the tracking formula calculates a hit.
Explaining all the weapon systems in EVE in detail could probably fill some hours and you will need months, if not years to master them all if you aim for perfection.
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