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Assault Ships?
Wycliffe
Member Posts: 354
in EVE Online
I just started playing Friday and have a noob question. I notice a lot of people seem to skill up immediately to cruisers or w/e, but is that really the best way to go? I already have plenty of frigate skills trained and it seems going up to assault ships would give me quicker access to t2 equipment that is affordable for a new player. Do corps need assault ships in pvp and are they viable for running missions?
Comments
People skill up for larger ships because they underestimate small ships, think bigger is better, someone else told them but mainly it is due running missions...
Assault ships are sort of obsolete for PvP, still as small ships are great for fun and giggles.
Their best use is low level plex farming though.
Your thinking is right. Smaller ship you fly, less skills are needed to fly it properly.
I will strongly advice you to focus your training towards interceptors - they are true PvP ships.
Assault Frigates are still exceptionally viable, despite being painted as the black sheep of the frigate line. They do require a lot more skillpoints to use than an interceptor, purely because you're packing a lot more into one than speed and guns, but they are capable of some truly great things.
Take the Vengeance for example. It can have an awesome tank, whilst perma-running at 800km/s spewing rockets at the enemy. The Crow, nor the Malediction can do that.
No, I don''t care about your opinion.
Small ships are extremely powerfull in PVP. Their speed, signature radius and efficient weapon bonuses makes them a force to recon with. I’m a 3+ year old player and I mostly fly Interceptors, assault frigates and cruisers depending on the situation.
Going from Frigates to assault frigrates is a great way of thinking and you won’t regret it. The skills you need to get these ships also enables a lot more bonuses then one might see. For example, you need engineer V and with that, you get tech 2 armor, tech 2 repair systems and other second tier bonuses. This makes you stronger overall.
Stay away from big ship until you really need it.
Unless you have a sugar daddy or a corp that will pay for your lost ships you need a way to make money. Most people do it by missioning or ratting. And unless you want to do a crapton of level 1 and 2 missions you're going to want a bigger ship. Hence the typical progresion is frigate-cruiser-battlecruiser-battleship with the corresponding mission levels being 1-2-3-4. Now you don't have to mission to make money but it is one of the fastest/easiest ways especially with a combat skilled character.
If you can get money another way I'm happy for you, missions get horribly boring. Ratting is more fun but that can get old as well. Exploration and mining and industry will take away skill points from your combat skills so you can trade but it's nice to start with a decent bank roll to get into trading.
Good luck getting into assault frigates if that's what you want but do keep in mind you need a decent source of income.
Ugh, he's right on that though. You need a way to make money and well, empire space is all about missions. In my situation, I Rat and sell the loots of my PVP kills but then again, the difference in my situation is that I live in 0.0 in a pretty big Alliance so ISK is far from a problem.
Though, battleships is really obligated for L4 missions... I've done them in assault frigates and interceptors (a a bit suicidal though)
Belt piracy leading to extortion and/or corporate ransom is more of a money maker in Empire than you would imagine. The mindset that Empire is only where carebears and two-bit combat corporations hang out is utterly incorrect.
Depends what you do.
No, I don''t care about your opinion.
Oh I'm aware of that but come on, do you think I'm gona go and tell him to be an asshole pirate and all?
Watch it bud! Who you callin' an asshole?!?
edit: Small ships are great for PvP, btw. Recently 2 friends and I, in a frigate, assault frigate, and interceptor, took out a battleship, a typhoon, to be exact. Good times!
To the OP, I suggest you don't even move out of your frigate though until the skills you need for an AF are pretty well maxed. Reason is, you'll need those skills in order to keep from losing too many ships that are much more expensive than a frigate. As well, you can learn most of what you need to know about PvP in a frigate, so, if your're going to lose ships they might just as well be cheap!
He who brings the biggest Gun leaves the biggest Hole.
MAGA
*blink*
perhaps so, but its not going to be in the side of my ship.
i prefer cruisers for pvp, more damage and more options, the cruiser class gives so much flexibilitiy in the form of recons and hacs.
Aww Now, whats alittle friendly fire amongst pilots
MAGA
i love my AF jaguar. ( yes i use it as an arty boat too BOO HISS)
but my progression was frigates (rifter still the BEST frig in the game), cruisers(rupture), BC(hurricane) , BS(maelstrom) for missions and sort of learned AF by accident getting my secondary skills up to use T2 modules and needing the cap / PG bonuses. Then i found the jaguar assualt frig. amazing little ship only thing you have to fear are drones and pairs of other t2 frigs, as usually singles go poof under your heavy combat role if they engage you ( most wont unless they got backup).
Besides you can run L3's in an AF all day long to make money and farm plexes.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
Assault Frigates can be absolute monsters IF you have the proper skills and knowledge how to use them. There's a lot of supportive skills that absolutely must be trained in order for them to be effective and a majority of those skills are frequently overlooked by those type of players who progress straight through the frigate, cruiser battleship chain.
I use Retributions and not only do they have a serious bite but they also have incredibly resistant armor if fitted well. Truth be told I had spent many hours succesfully soloing Blood Raiders and Sansha (it's a truthfully selective example that maximizes the effectiveness) rats in that little ship making more then enough ISK to supply myself with an ample supply of them completely fitted with t2 modules.
To further support this, there had been several times I chose to field a Retribution when a group of Corp mates were running a 10/10 plex. The first opinion on my decision was a unanimous "you're nuts bringing that thing out here!" My roll was anti frigate, anti cruiser, support and everything was going impressively well until about 10 battleships locked me and started firing; I think we were noobs when it came to controlling agro. Upon the first volley of missles my shields were gone and everyone with me was resounding their confident "I told you not to bring that thing!" After about 20 minutes of tanking ALL of the battleship Rats everyone made it very clear they completely underestimated how effective the Retribution can be and persisted with questions regarding skills and ship fittings. To gloat even more (afterall, we are talkign about EVE) they were also extremely amazed at how quick the cruisers were insta-popping to a frigate class ship; battlecruisers can be a bitch.
Mind you, I have every skill at level 5 that relates to the ship's functions and it's an absolute monster. The fitout I use is not elaborate and the experiance expressed is prior to riggings being implemented. I've also been in situations where a combination of 10-15 other support ships were completely unable to do anything agasint me other then MWD out of each other's weapons range and it took the addition of a HAC to get me.
For what ever it's worth, I have also proved several points by using a Coercer to solo BS/Frigate spawns in 0.0 although this will never be an easy task. I can currently use a Retribution to solo level 3 missions with no sweat although I prefer my Abaddon for level 4's.
If you venture upon someone using an AF in a wormhole be wary of engagement...
My recent account has only been playing EVE for about nine months (first account was sold a couple years ago due to Wife aggro lol) and to be honest the only ships that interest me are AFs and Cruiser size hulls.
I go back and forth between my Vexor and Ishkur.
Both are amazing ships I could actually fly a HAC and Even get my ass in a Tactical cruiser but I prefer using my Vexor most of the time.
Most people want to fly bigger ships right away due to the "bigger is better" mentality, Hell I pirated in a Incursus 6+ months I had a great time didn't want to fly a BC, BS or t2 variant Ever.
If you want to fly that frig and move into a AF go for it.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Since Quantum Rise, AFs are actually really good in the hands of a skilled pilot.
PROs:
CONs:
I love my AFs. I love my T1 cruisers too. They both have a place and are both excellent tools in the hands of someone who knows how to use them. And, as was said earlier, the skills needed to fly AFs will be very useful elsewhere. You really can't go wrong with them.