eve newbie skill guide

Skills in Eve Online represent the foundation of your character. They determine a multitude of facets within the game including which ships and equipment you can use and their effectiveness, the types and number of materials you produce and how often you do so, the speed at which you develop standing with corporations and how much they pay you for your services, just to name a few. Hence, a systematic and time conscious plan for skill training is paramount to an enjoyable experience in eve online.

There are sixteen different skill groupings or categories within the eve universe. Below is a list of these categories with a short description of what each provide:

1. Corporation Management- these skills relate to the operation of player made corporations.
2. Drones- these skills allow the use of various drone types as well as determine the number and effectiveness of drones under the pilots command.
3. Electronics- these skills affect the electrical equipment a pilot places on a ship. Some popular examples are cloaking devices, targeting equipment, and warp disruptors.
4. Engineering- these skills affect the engineering equipment a pilot places on a ship. Some popular examples are energy grid upgrades, shield upgrades, and energy emissions systems.
5. Gunnery- these skills determine the effectiveness of turrets and other related combat systems.
6. Industry- these skills cover the mining, refining, and production aspects of the game.
7. Leadership- these skills enable the pilot to provide various buffs to fleet members.
8. Learning- these skills directly affect how quickly other skills are learned by increasing the amount of attributes a character has.
9. Mechanic- these skills deal with the more mechanical aspects of ships. Some examples are repair systems, rigs, and salvaging.
10. Missile Launcher Operation- these skills determine the pilots ability with the various launcher and missile types.
11. Navigation- these skills deal with the propulsion, maneuvering, and warp capabilities of ships.
12. Science- these skills represent research and development. Some examples are hacking, cybernetics, and metallurgy.
13. Social- these skills affect your standing with various npc corporations and agents. Some examples are negotiation, diplomacy, and connections.
14. Spaceship Command- these skills determine which ships the pilot can use and the amount of a ship type bonus he or she receives.
15. Subsystems- these skills represent an advanced understanding of a given races ships which is nessecary for piloting tech II and tech III ships.
16. Trade- these skills deal with player use of the market system within eve.

In order to select your skills for training you will need to access the character sheet. After you have selected the character sheet by left clicking it a new window should appear with a list of your current skills. On the right hand side of this window you should see a button titled open training queue. Open the training queue by left clicking. The training queue should appear in a new window. On the left hand side is a list of the sixteen skill categories mentioned above. You can find your current skills and their level by left clicking on the individual categories. All skills are trainable to level five. If you do not currently have the skill that you are desiring to train you must purchase the skill from the market or a loyalty point store. The first being the less complicated.

Keep in mind that some skills have pre-requisities or other skills that must be trained before it. To determine what a skill's pre-requisities are right click on a skill and select show info. Then select the pre-requisites tab by left clicking. Now that you know what skills you have and what their pre-requisites are you should be ready to being training. To place a skill on the training queue left click and drag the skill from the left side of the training queue window to the right side then release the left mouse button. There is no limit to the amount of skills that you can place into the training queue. However you may only place skills in the training queue that will start training within the next 24 hours. So, if you have a skill that takes seven days and one that takes one hour if you wish them both to be on the que you have to start with the skill that only takes one hour. Make sure that once you have selected the skills you want to train you press the apply button.

If you happen to be a new player to the eve universe or an individual making an alternative account let me suggest beginning by training up your learning skills. This is because learning skills increase the attributes your character uses to determine how fast you learn skills. As a new player you are granted a double skill training speed until you reach 1.6 million skill points. If you happen to take the initiative to train your learning skills under this bonus the other skills that you train after the bonus expires will be training about double what they would have with your original attributes. Admittedly this route takes patience as you wont be able to improve to better ships or ship equipment as quickly without necessary skills. I suggest getting enough skills to pilot your races premier frigate comfortably and doing level one missions while you train your learning skills up.

As a new player you receive two attribute revamps. You should use the first revamp to move your intelligence and memory attributes to 12 placing the others at the minimum. This is because these two attributes are the primary and secondary attributes used in training learning skills. Train instant recall (memory), analytical mind (intelligence), and learning in that order to level one. Then repeat the process until each of them is level four. Should you have enough isk to purchase the advanced learning skill books begin by training memory, and then intelligence to level four (if not simply skip this step until you can). After that, train empathy, iron will, and spacial awareness to level four. The reason for training these skills to level four is that it is a pre-requisite for their advanced learning skill books. While the standard skill books for these attributes use memory and intelligence the advanced skill books use a different set of attributes.

Now that you have all the pre-requisites for the advanced learning skills you will want to revamp your skills according to how you plan to play the game. For example combat oriented players will want to have a higher perception, intelligence, and willpower where as a character cenetered around trade would benefit more from a higher willpower, charisma, and memory. None the less, a well balanced character will use each of the attributes. The key is identifiying and emphasising which attributes will be most important to your character.

One last thing, don't forget to upgrade your clone from a station with a medical center. Your starting clone only saves you 900,000 skill points! Should you get pod killed by a player you will loose skill points from your highest level skills until the amount of 900,000 skill points is reached. That is unless you upgrade your clone. To do so, select the medical facility button on the right hand side of the screen under station services when docked at a station with a medical facility. A new window should apear with the an option to upgrade your clone. Upgrading is rather cheap considering the risk you'll be running if you decide against it.

For a general introduction to Eve Online go here: http://hubpages.com/hub/EVE-Online-Info

For a short guide for new players continue to this website: http://hubpages.com/hub/Eve-Online--How-to-start-off-on-the-right-foot

To visit a website where you can download a windows application called eve mon that runs outside of the eve program so that you can monitor and experiment with your skill training click this link: http://evemon.battleclinic.com/index.php