Where to go next (skill training)

[Requiel]

You want to have the choice to switch between one type of tank or the other depending on the ship you fly.

It's probably best to concentrate on one to begin with but the skills for basic competency in either are pretty easy to get.

 

[Chick]

The best rifter fit for L1's is a passive tank gottaa:

Highs: 3x guns and a rocket launcher
mids: 2 of the larget shield extenders you can fit, and a invuln field.
Lows: 1 gyro, 2 shield power relays.

As a general rule though, it's Armour for (general) PvP, Shield for Missions.
Nanogangs made passive shield tanking cool, but i believe they are pretty much dead now replaced by Snipe-Hacs ?

 

[Taians]

Thanks Req, from all I've read that's the clearest thing I've read about them.

If I am going to focus on shield tanking could I in theory drop all armour skills which I had planned ? or is it worth just having a basic level in armour

Edit: Just looked and Rifter is an armour tank by all accounts, yet being as it seems to be rated as a good starting ship/future PvP ship I was going to stick with it. So the same question, expect looks like I'll focus on the armour skills and not use shield ?

Shield tanking

Level 1 = w/e
Level 2 = Caracal passive tank
level 3 = Drake passive tank
Level 4 = Raven active shield tank or passive shield tank nighthawk ( raven is better )

 

[Requiel]

Shield tanking

Level 1 = w/e
Level 2 = Caracal passive tank
level 3 = Drake passive tank
Level 4 = Raven active shield tank or passive shield tank nighthawk ( raven is better )

All of which are awesome suggestions for a Minmatar pilot.....

Level1 = Rifter one of the best small ships in the game, fast, good capability and cheap to lose. Speed tank (you rely on being fast and hard to hit rather than tanking the damage)
Level 2 = Rupture, armour tank or Stabber, shield tank
Level 3 = Hurricane, armour tank or Cyclone, shield tank
Level 4 = Tempest, can be tanked with either or Maelstrom, shield tank.

Those are my suggestions for suitable mission-running ships.

For level 4 missions the most popular ships are the Dominix (Gallente, drones and armour tank) or the Raven (Caldari, missiles and shield tank). That doesn't mean that Amarr or Minnie ships are bad for mission running, just that they aren't as popular.

 

[Gottaa]

Speed tank I assume means to be effective you need to be as fast as possible, and always moving/orbiting other vessels, and do ship control/faster turning/faster top speed, are all keys skills to have ?

That being the case as I play on the mac sometimes I am finding the right click and moving abit clunky on the trackpad, are there such things as shortcuts for thinks like orbit/approach/target, etc ? so I can be using the trackpad purely to target in the overview list and then keyboard to orbit/lock/F1, F2, F3 and wait till they go boom.

I'm still on the training missions, I've completed two of the people's quests, and going to do all I can there to learn as much as I can before venturing out into L1 missions

 

[Nymawae]

Awesome ship advice folks, really useful and will save a lot of cursing as I try to do something which downright stoopid