The path to effective low sec piracy

I have put this guide together as a quick ‘what-to-train’ for new members of the academy. These skills will help you in becoming useful both in large fleets and smaller gangs.

I am basing this on someone who is very new to the game and has less than 1 million skill points. However more experienced members of EVE may still find this useful.

First off is your Learning skill. Very boring as it does not give you access to any nice new shiny ships or equipment but is vital none the less.

The skill ‘Learning’ should be at level 5 and the other learning skills should be at least to level 4. These skills cut the time you need to spend training for new equipment and ships and will make a noticeable difference to your skill plan.

Signature Analysis Level 5 should be the next skill you max out. This directly effects you locking speed. If you can get a fast lock on something then you can start doing the damage before the other person your half way there. This is especially important to those who want to fill the role of a tackler in fleet engagements or gatecamps.

Next up is gunnery/missiles depending on what you’re flying. Don’t train for T2 guns straight away. The gunnery/missile support skills make a HUGE difference to your rate of fire, tracking speed and how hard you actually hit!

If your T1 Autocannon fitted frigate, with all of the gunnery support skills trained, came up against a T2 weapon fitted frigate with none of the support skills, you will be miles ahead in DPS and volley damage, thats a win in my book.

My advice would be to have a training skill that looks something like this:
Turret Users
Gunnery level 5
Weapon upgrades Level 5
Sharpshooter Level 3
Rapid Firing Level 3
Controlled Bursts Level 3
Trajectory Analysis Level 3
Motion Prediction Level 3
Advanced Weapon Upgrades Level 4

Missile Users
Weapon Upgrades Level 5
Missile Launcher Operation Level 5
Missile Bombardment Level 3
Warhead Upgrades Level 3
Rapid Launch Level 3
Target Navigation Prediction Level 3
Missile Projection Level 3
Advanced Weapon Upgrades Level 4

I would also suggest learning the skill Thermodynamics to level 4. This allows you to overheat your modules to boost there effectivness above normal limits. This means that you can get extra DPS out of your weapons, extra speed out of a MWD or Afterburner or get extra armor or shield boosts from repair modules. Be warned that all modules that are overheated can be damaged or destroyed if you overheat to much.

Once the above is dealt with T2 weapons are the next thing you would train for. Obviously you would train the best weapons for what you are flying. If your flying Gallente then Hybrids, Minmitar would be Projectiles, Amarr would be lasers and/or hybrids and Caldari would be Missiles and/or Hybrids.

My next bit of advice is also a bit boring. Support Skills. There is no point training for a Battlecruiser if you don’t have the support skills to maximise its effectiveness. So your next training should focus on the main skills.

Electronics Level 5
Mechanic Level 5
Engineering Level 5

These skills free up a lot of CPU and powergrid and make fitting ships a lot easier. In each section there are a number of other skills that are also suggested for training.

Electronics
Electronic Warfare Level 4
Electronics Upgrades Level 4

Engineering
Energy System Operation Level 4
Energy Grid Upgrades Level 3
Energy Emissions Level 3
Energy Management Level 4
Shield Operation Level 4
Shield Upgrades Level 4
Shield Management Level 3
Tactical Shield Manipulation Level 4

Mechanics
Hull Upgrades Level 5
Repair Systems Level 4
Jury Rigging Level 3
Salvaging Level 1
Remote Armor Repair Systems Level 3

A few other useful support skills include:
High Speed Manoeuvring Level 3
Afterburner Level 4
Informorph Psychology Level 2
Science Level 4
Cynosoraul Field Operation Level 3

The above are what I would suggest for anyone wanting to fly an effective PVP ship in EvE. All of the above skills either make it a lot easier to fit ships by making more CPU or Powergrid available, or it means you will be able to fit the modules needed to PVP in low sec.

The Science and Informorph Psychology skills are for the placement of jump clones in other areas of space.

The Cyno operation skill allows you to set up a field to which Capital class ships can jump. This is very useful in large fleet engagements and also for just being able to help out your capital fleet pilots.

If you are a drone user then I would suggest the following skills to be able to use those effectively in a PVP context.

Drones Level 5
Scout Drone Operation Level 5
Drone Navigation Level 3
Drone Interfacing Level 4
Drone Durability Level 3
Drone Sharp Shooting Level 3
Electronic Drone Interfacing Level 4

Once the above is complete decide which race of drone you wish to specialize in and train that skill to be able to use the T2 variants.

Ewar, Electronic Warfare, a very large part of EvE and can decide the outcome of any fleet fights. At lease one of the following skills should be trained to help both you, and your fleet come out on top.

Target Painting Level 4
Weapon Disruption Level 4
Sensor Linking Level 4

Target Painting skill lets you use a Target Painter, use this on the primary to grant you and your fleet bonus to tracking and damage.

Weapon Disruption skills lets you use weapon disruptors. Fit one of these to your ships and the enemy will have a hard job in hitting you for their full damage. N.B DOESNT WORK ON MISSILE SHIPS

Sensor Linking lets you use Dampners, these cut the effective range of your enemy making you and your fleet tougher to hit.

Ok so you have T2 weapons, shiny support skills, droney goodness and now you need a nice shiny new ship. Now with the skills above you should be able to effectively fly up to a Battlecruiser without too much of a problem. If your wishing to specialise into a certain type of ship now is the time to do so. You have the general skills needed to fly well in Low-sec PVP, now go carve your own path.

My last piece of advice is to train the skills here to Level 5, it may take months and you may take breaks away to train for other useful skills and to train for new ships, weapons and upgrades. But when you have nothing else to train, fall back to maxing out your support skills.

They will save your life and make EvE a more fun place to be.

Also remeber that in the end the individual skill of the pilot may come into play. SP is not everything. There is no 'I WIN' button here. Just a guide on the things you need to know!

Fly dangerous o/

(I would like to thank the members of The Guristas Associates who helped me in writing this skill guide.)