Miya Katsuko
   |
Posted - 2011.03.06 16:52:00 -
[1]
I started out with Amarr, and then cross-trained for Gallente drone boats. I found that Amarr ships are very simple and straightforward to fly, but the laser damage profile was too restrictive for my purposes.
Amarr ships are quite newbie friendly, provided that the newbie in question has some guidance from a more experience player and has a little bit of common sense. Most Amarr ships can fit a very good armor tank while putting out quite a bit of damage. Because crystals can be swapped instantly, a new player does not have to worry as much about using the wrong ammo, and can change out the crystal depending on range. Both pulse and beam lasers have reasonable optimal range and tracking, unlike blasters and railguns. That said, Amarr laser boats require very good cap skills; cap skills should be one of the first things an Amarr pilot trains. Laser damage profile (EM/THERM) is very restrictive for mission running, since most faction agents, except for Amarr agents, will throw you against enemies which have high EM resists; this becomes a problem in Level 4 missions.
Gallente ships basically have the same skill requirements as Amarr ships, except that Gallente drone boats require high drone skills rather than high gunnery skills for best results. So arguably Gallente have higher skill requirements. However, for mission running Gallente drone boats are somewhat superior since each faction's drones deal a particular damage (i.e. all Gallente drones deal THERM damage; all Amarr drones deal EM damage), so drones can be swapped out as necessary. I don't have experience with Gallente hybrid boats, so cannot comment on them. In theory, drone boats can be set up to passively run missions; that doesn't mean you can't actively run missions in them. Because NPCs will aggro drones, AFK drone boats are horrifically overtanked, since the usual idea is to grab all the aggro in a room and only then deploy drones. When actively running missions, that's not necessary, but then you must keep an eye on your drones to make sure they are not taking damage or attacking the wrong target.
|