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Friday, February 10, 2012

Caldari or Gallente?

I was reviewing Rosewalker's skill queue last night and realized that I had just about come to the end of learning the skills for flying Minmatar ships.  Oh sure, I only have the advanced artillery and autocannon skills to IV instead of V, but except for that I'll have the skills to fly all tech 1 Minmatar sub-capitals maxed out and all tech 2 sub-capitals up to IV by the end of the year.  Since the only Minmatar capital ships I want to fly are the freighter and jump freighter, and Wandering Rose is training for those, I'm left with the question: what's next?

I've ruled the Amarr right out.  I know that lasers use no ammo and are perfect for extended structure shoots, but they just don't interest me.  Perhaps because I don't like the people who build them.  I found that I've developed a distaste for the color gold playing Eve Online.  That leaves the Caldari or the Gallente. Both use hybrid weapons, which means that if I train for one faction's ships I'll be able to train for the other's ships quicker than I could if I trained Amarr.  So I have a logical reason to back up my prejudice against the Amarr.

What are the advantages of training for Gallente?  First, training Gallente will allow me to fly the Angel Cartel frigates Daredevil and Dramiel, the cruiser-class ships Cynabal and Vigilant and the Machariel and Vindicator battleships.  In addition, I hear that drones are great for missioning (and carrying around ECM to allow a pilot to flee bad places) and that ships like the Taranis and Ishkur are absolute beasts.  And the Gallente blockade runner can easily carry packaged cruisers while the Caldari blockade runner struggles with that task.

Why think about flying Caldari?  After all, learning Caldari ship skills will not allow me to fly any faction ships.  But since I already will have all my advanced missile skills trained to IV to fly the Typhoon better, I should be able to train through all of the Caldari ships faster.  And while I won't have the skills to fly faction ships, I will get to fly more famous ships like the Tengu, Drake and Raven.  Did I mention Caldari ships are really good at electronic warfare?  That would give me an excuse to also strengthen my target painter skills for Minmatar ships.  Another big plus is that Sleepers really hate drones, so Caldari ships are better in wormholes than Gallente ships.  Or so I'm told.



So which faction to train for, Caldari or Gallente?  Right now I really don't have an opinion, which is good because I really don't have to make the decision until November.  But Eve being Eve, I have to think about the choice now in order to use my time (i.e. set up my training plan) most effectively.

3 comments:

  1. You will get more mileage out of Gallente skills.

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  2. Everyone and their mother are using Tengu, so you cannot go wrong with Caldari. Gallente are good for AFK missioning in drone boats, hybrid guns are still not good enough.

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  3. For PvE: Caldari.
    Drake is a good mission ship and is a great choice for starting in wormholes. Its the only T1 battlecruiser that can comfortably solo a level3 site, and other T1 BCs even struggle running T2s solo. Thats how far ahead the Drake is in PvE.
    Raven derivatives are still widely held as the best isk/hour in lvl4 missions. If you can throw down money for a mach or nightmare you might squeeze more isk/hour in a selective faction's space. But Raven deriviatives will always win when considering all factions. (CNR/Golem). The Golem is a great investment if you run lvl4 missions often.
    Then there is the Tengu. By far the best PvE T3. Great soloing up to lvl4 wormhole sites or running lvl4 missions in style. No other T3 can do what the Tengu does in PvE.

    For PvP...
    Sadly Caldari again.
    Drake fleets are very common now for non-elite alliances. If you start out in 0.0 these days, fitting a drake well is a definate advantage. They can even be used to rat when fleet ops arent running.
    In the battleship role, neither Caldari or gallente is ahead. Indeed neither of them are better than a good Maelstrom. So you have that role covered.
    Finally the Tengu again comes in strong for PvP. Very versatile and can be used solo or in Drake/Tengu fleets. Obviously its an expensive PvP ship so not for the lighthearted.
    Solo / small gang T1 BC is already covered with the hurricane.
    T2 cruiser you already have the Vagabond. Neither Caldari or Gallente is any better here.

    I think Gallente would be a waste for you at this stage. With Hybrid turrets in their current state.

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