Beginner's Guide to Amarr Combat Ships

Welcome to the Golden Fleet!

This guide is centered on Amarr ships (laser turrets & armor). *We're going to skip the t2 Amarrian missile ships for this guide.  Feel free to look over the Caldari guide for missile advice if this is your goal; you may even want to start with a Caldari ship.*

If you're new to Eve you likely went through the tutorial, so we'll pick up from there, give you some more information, and help you align with getting into our corporation. First up, let's set some goals:

• Laser Turrets: They're your only choice for tech 1 guns.  You're in luck, they're great!  They do have a downside in that they use a ton of energy.  Be sure to train your capacitor skills early and often; it makes your life much easier and your ships last much longer, especially once you consider armor doesn't regenerate and armor repairers require energy as well.

       Until you get to tech 2 frequency crystals: focus on pulse laser using Multifrequency (close range/high dps) and Ultraviolent (mid-range).  Later you'll want to use Amarr Navy Multifrequency and Scorch.

• To Drone or Not to Drone? While laser turrets are the preferred weapon system of choice for t1 ships, there is a progression of ships that incorporates drones.  I will include these ships as a brief, secondary progression option, however, please note that this is a large skill tree and these ships tend to favor electronic warfare (something that will not be covered in this guide and which is an additional skill tree), especially in more advanced ships.

• Cruiser: You need to be able to at least fly a cruiser to get into Rubber Bullet Inc.  This ensures you have some basic understanding of the game, have worked on some skills, earned some isk, and are willing to stick with the game if we provide you with more in-depth game content.  You'll want to work toward a cruiser skill of 4 as soon as possible.  Your ideal ships will be either the Omen (dps), the Maller (tank), or the Arbitrator (drone mini-carrier).  We will not be covering Electronic Warfare or Logistics in this guide.

       Your ship progression will look like this, depending on your weapon system choice and how much of a tank you want to be.  (Note: you can always train the other weapon system later, but training multiple system initially will delay your ability to engage with most of Eve.)

       Executioner > Coercer> Omen

       Punisher > Coercer > Maller

       Tormentor > Cyclops > Arbitrator

       You'll find frigates improve noticeably with each skill you train.  Destroyers excel at killing frigates but move very slow.  Cruiser are a big step up in survivability and damage.

• Core Skills:  Starting out, every player sprints to get the biggest ship possible.  This often results in crazy setups, lost ships and grinding level one missions/mining to buy a new ship.  Our advice to you is that you take some time to improve your fitting skills as you improve your damage, armor and piloting skills. When you get to flying a cruiser, the difference in being able to fit one module can be a drained capacitor vs an unbreakable defense.  These single modules can make a big difference in how fast you make money and can make missions much easier.  Consider level 2 in a skill as "prerequisite" and level 3 in a skill as "ok" and level 4 in a skill as "good for now" until you get further into the game.

      The follow lists will help guide you.  The skill descriptions have been greatly simplified.

Core Skills: (*) denotes a capacitor skill or a skill that affects energy consumption

Turret Skills:

This completes this beginner's guide to Amarr combat ships.  You should have joined the RUBUL public channel for our corporation by now (or should do so now).  Within that channel, you will have access to veteran advice and our recruitment officers and be able to ask questions.  Having experienced pilots to ask for advice is pivotal to your success in Eve - make good use of this resource! 

Some after-thoughts...

The above goals and skill lists will help you choose the right direction for you.  No one in our corp is going to tell you what you need to do with your character (we only offer advice, based on what you tell us you want to do) -- this is very different from other corps.  We do not force "doctrines" (required ships and fittings) on pilots.  We're happy to provide ship setups as advice and only require doctrines for organized fleet actions.

Once you are in a cruiser you will have access to a good foundation for making entry-level isk to open up other aspects of the game and meet that prerequisite for joining Rubber Bullet Inc.  After you have joined our corporation, you will have access to fleet PVP, intel, organized events, wormholes, integrated industrial support, corporate discounts, and so on.  View missions as a catapult into other endeavors and understand that the rewards for combat scale exponentially with risk.

Next steps for you?

• Read about NPC damage types and how to set resist modules: link
• Read about transversal velocity and signature radius to maximize your turrets' ability to apply damage: link
• Ask about how to get a level 2 combat agent (sooner the better - save yourself some grinding/time)
• Talk to a recruitment officer about submitting an API key to finalize your recruitment.
• Plan out your next steps for character growth.
• Learn a little about how the market works (even if you aren't going to be a trade tycoon).
• Ask about how to avoid common scams and being "ganked" in hi-sec.
• PVE Combat:
  

  Level 1 mission Level 2 mission Level 3 mission Level 4 mission Incursions Level 5 mission      Null belts

  t1 frigate, t1 destroyer t1 destroyer, t1 cruiser t1-2 cruiser, t1-2 battlecruiser t2-3 cruiser, t1-2 battlecruiser, or battleship t3 cruisers, logistics with multiple battleships (fleet) carrier with multiple battleships (fleet) t2-3 cruiser, battlecruiser, battleship, or carrier

  *don't rush into bigger ships without solid core/capacitor skills.
  

25.4.15 Edit: added transversal velocity link

26.4.15 Edit: Updated transversal velocity and signature radius link