New Beginnings

Welcome to Wild Bill's Rage Machine. This blog is pretty simple... It focuses on a new player's evolution in EVE... "But Bill there are a thousand blogs like this..." Yes you are correct about that but if you will shut the fuck up for a second, I will explain why mine is different... I am an experienced player, been playing since 2007 off and on but mostly on for the last 2+ years. Therefore, Bill's development as a lowsec pirate will have the luxury of hindsight and there are only hundreds of blog like this... The point of this blog will be to share that hindsight with new players who might not have access to good teachers in the game. Feel free to ask any questions or add your own knowledge via the comments. All comments will be posted without censorship...

Before I get into my first post, I want to make a little disclaimer... There's a million different ways to approach this game. What I am about to write does not constitute the only correct way to play EVE online. Bill's goal is to become a nasty -10 solo-frigate flying bastard. I plan to fly the Wolf and my skill training is based solely on that goal, with a few detours to improve my present game-play. For example, I took 8 or so hours to train Destroyers III for everyone's favorite festival of lights, HULKAGEDDON! Now that we got that out of the way, if you are interested in solo-frigate pew pew, stick around.

Bill is a little over two months old and armed with just under 4 million skill points (SPs). His training has been extremely focused because I am an SP/Hour whore. To maximize Bill's SP rate I trained for implants on day one. Cybernetics IV is the required skill to use +4 learning implants. There are +5s available but I am too damn cheap for that shit. To get into my +4 implants as fast as possible, I used one of the two remaps CCP graciously allotted me and boosted my attributes for Intelligence and Memory. These are the primary and secondary attributes used for training Cybernetics as well as other essential core skills.

Once Cybernetics IV was knocked out, I turned to various core skills. To identify what these are, look in the certificate planner and read through the core certificates. The core skills improve power-grid, capacitor, targeting, and navigation. In addition to these important skills, do not overlook Thermodynamics. Bill is currently grinding out Thermo V for another 6+ days.

Core Certs

Shield tanking and Armor tanking skills also use Int/Mem as primary and secondary skill. Since I want to fly the Wolf, armor tanking skills are important to me, however I have spent considerable time studying shield tanking skills as well. I did this so I could fly a shield Rifter in the mean time because I figure if I want to win 1v1 fights with my low SP I need to embrace the element of surprise. The shield skills will still be helpful when I jump into a Wolf because they will provide a little buffer before my opponent gets to my main armor tank.

I deviated from the int/mem skills briefly to get Bill into tech 2 guns. However, the required skills don't take a long time to train, even if you aren't mapped for them. I was tired of sitting in a station and I have a strict rule against flying ships without T2 weapons, suicide ships excluded. 

So far Bill has won 2 out of 3 1v1s... lost a ship and pod to insta-locking gate camps on two occasions, died a horrible death in a 1v2, and ganked an innocent miner (if there is such a thing). Standby for further updates... Yarr bitches...

[EDIT] I wanted to add something about Core Skills... I already know what ship I want to specialize in so I know what skills I need to work on. If you're new to the game, you probably have no idea what ship you want to fly as a solo-frig pilot and therefore, have no idea what skills to work on. Core Skills are what you want to start with... These skills will benefit whatever ship you choose. While you train those Core Skills you can read about the various ships and modules to choose from in the Evolopedia. In my next post, I will give my own opinions on the different T2 frigs available as well as a link to some great guides on the different ships and their roles.