Amarr Ships 101

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Contents

Class Information

This is a syllabus for a class provided by EVE University. This section contains information about this class and its contents. General Information includes materials to create a proper class listing on the EVE University forum. Additional resources and teaching tips are listed under Notes for the Teacher.

General Information

Illustration link for class description on the Eve University forum:
Illustration link for class description on the Eve University forum

This class provides an overview of all Tech I Amarr spacecraft, with guidelines for how to fly them well. This course is designed for all aspiring Amarr ship pilots, and for those who simply wish to know more about the strengths and weaknesses of the most common Amarr vessels.

  • Duration: 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the number of questions received
  • Location: Docked up safely in any station

Class contents: Topics covered:

  • General Amarr ship philosophy
  • Amarr T1 Subcapital ships overview
  • Basic skills valuable for Amarr pilots
  • Q&A

Student requirements:

  • Mumble registration and access - make sure you have Mumble sorted out and operational well before the class begins. Use this guide for set-up: http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Mumble
  • Access to the Class.E-UNI in-game chat channel

Additional information: This class is primarily lecture delivered in the Chat.E-UNI channel in Mumble, followed by Q&A. If there are questions about Tech II ships or fitting options, I'd be happy to talk about those after the class, but the focus will be on Tech I ships and the basics.

Notes for the Teacher

Required materials:

Keep the lecture moving forward briskly - there is a lot of content to cover here, and it's easy to go over two hours if your pace is slow.

Class Contents

Introduction

Welcome to this class on Amarr Ships 101!

This course is designed primarily for Amarr pilots, or those who aspire to fly Amarr ships, or those who just want to learn more about Amarr vessels.

Over the couple of hours, we shall cover:

  • Amarr general ship philosophy
  • Overview of each ship type, by class
  • Essential Amarr pilot skills

(Instructor should then introduce himself or herself - covering relevant experience level and background.)

We have a few ground rules for this class:

  • Please put your Mumble settings on "Push to Talk" if you have not already done so.
  • Feel free to type any questions in the Class.E-UNI chat channel as we proceed - I will try to answer your questions as they come during the class. [At the end of my lecture, we'll open Mumble for any further questions or general discussion.]
  • You should be [docked up safely in a station [in Aldrat if you intend to participate in the practical exercise], or located...]

Everyone ready? OK, then - let's begin...

General Amarr Ship Guidelines

Some common attributes of Amarr ship philosophy include:

Amarr Hulls

  • T1 Level pretty common - guns, tank, not a lot of flexibility (good cruiser/frigate options), some projectiles. Solid damage at medium range, making them functional for fleets.
  • T2 level add nos/neut and missiles
  • Heavily dependent on capacitor. Good base capacitor, but skills always help.
  • Some ships heavily CPU limited (Armageddon, Punisher), while others are grid limited (mission apocs, omens)
  • Typically a little slower than other races' ships.
  • Excellent snipers

Armor Tank

  • Cap efficient
  • Uses up lots of lows, limiting damage mods
  • Lowers speed/agility if you fit plates (not if you don't, though)
  • Triggers at the end of the cycle

Lasers

  • Beams vs. Pulses
  • Good range-band, decent tracking.
  • Laser Crystal ammunition
    • Instant-swap ammo
    • All the same damage type
    • Different cap use on different ammo - lowest is Standard, middle range band
    • Higher damage is shorter range ammo
    • Infinite uses on t1 ammo, t2 and faction crystals break
  • Scorch is hilariously good
  • Good for snipers

Drone Use

  • Second to the Gallente, only non Gallente drone-bonused hull

Amarr Frigates

The Amarr frigates are a bit less popular than other racial frigates because they're slower than other frigates, negating one of the biggest advantages frigates have. Additionally, several Amarr frigates lack three mid-slots, preventing them fitting an afterburner/MWD, warp scrambler, and stasis webifier. On the upside, the amarr frigates are among the most durable frigates, and the punisher is a fantastic ship, capable of more than holding its own against any other t1 frigate in the game.

Impairor

  • Noobship, though still a frigate
  • Looks awesome
  • Free
  • Has space for a single drone! Woo!

Crucifier

  • Amarr EWAR Frigate
  • Amarr racial EWAR is tracking disruption, which severely weakens enemy turrets, reducing their maximum range and their ability to track moving/small targets. This enables the Crucifier to disable a much larger ship, preventing it from harming fleetmates.
  • While it has two turret slots, most pilots prefer to reserve the crucifier's capacitor for ewar and tank, since damage dealing is not its primary responsibilty.
  • Does have three mid slots, letting it fit a AB/MWD, Scram/Disruptor, and stasis webifier, the holy trinity of tackle, but it is relatively slow.
  • Don't forget the drone! The crucifier can carry a single light drone.

Executioner

  • Great little ship. Very fast for amarr ships, it is often used as a small shuttle for ferrying goods or pilots around. Quick align time, too. It has had some serious upgrades in Inferno 1.2, making it into (essentially) a T1 interceptor.
  • Has a damage bonus, and three turret slots. (even with bonus, punisher does more damage)
  • Can tackle with a microwarp drive and disruptor and stasis webifier. Speed and high scan resolution make it a good interceptor substitute.
  • Extremely inexpensive.

Inquisitor

  • The only tech one amarr ship oriented towards missiles, the Inquisitor out-ranges the other amarr frigates.
  • Somewhat underused, since most amarr pilots have poor missile skills. Go caldari if you want missiles.

Magnate

  • Scanning/exploration frigate
  • Bonus to scan probe strength, making it easier to find exploration sites.
  • Looks a bit like an elephant's head.
  • Space for two light drones
  • Room for an expanded probe launcher as well as a cloak.
  • Largest cargo hold of the Amarr frigates, so decent for hauling loot around if you don't have access to an industrial.

Punisher

  • Most popular amarr frigate, with good reason.
  • Beefy tank, aided by its armor resist bonuses
  • Highest DPS of the Amarr frigates, with three turret slots (bonus laser damage).
  • Lacks a third midslot, making tackling difficult, but compensates with a large number of low slots.
  • Often fitted with projectile turrets, allowing the large capacitor to be used to run an efficient armor repairer
  • Room for armor plates, though this further slows the punsher.

Tormentor

  • TODO

Destroyer

Coercer

  • Combat ship
    • Full rack of guns mows through L1 missions really quickly
    • Frigate sized tank on a bigger than frigate sized target makes it more vulnerable than frigates, especially as most folks transition from the beefy punisher to the coercer.
    • Lots of lows for damage mods, plus the option to fit fairly long range guns
    • If you're grouping guns, be careful as you may insta-pop NPC frigates, wasting damage.
  • Salvage destroyer
    • 4x4 Tractor/Salvager, Salvage tackle rigs if you can afford them
    • AB/MWD + Expanded Cargohold II's
    • Clean up wrecks quickly

Amarr Cruisers

Odd cruiser line – each ship has a rather distinct role. Amarr have one of the best drone cruisers, arguably better than the gallente Vexor. Relatively poor mining cruiser, though.

Arbitrator

  • Fantastic ship.
  • Drone damage and mining drone bonus. Bonused drones are great.
    • Long range on drones makes them a bit better for missioning than lasers, since this lets you kite NPCs and avoid most of the incoming damage, rather than being forced to tank it, plus the damage is pretty good.
  • Tracking disruptor bonus – shuts down incoming dps, awesome in pvp for shutting down enemy damage-dealers, though of course vulnerable to missile ships.
  • 4/4/4 slot layout gives it versatility in what it fits – more mids than most amarr ships of its size.
  • Poor weapons on the ship itself – two turrets and a single missile launcher without bonuses gives it paltry dps. Most folks either ignore the weapons for pvp use, or fit a token gun to get the attention of NPCs while drones destroy them unmolested.
  • Great ship for missioning, exploration, and pvp, plus it's a decent miner if you don't want to train the ORE ships.
  • Really starts to be better than the omen for pve around drones 4.

Augoror

  • Amarr logistics cruiser.
  • Bonused towards capacitor transfer, which is of limited use by itself.
  • Can fit a strong tank, though ship is rarely used.

Maller

  • Armor resist bonus lets it fit a really beastly tank, especially as it has sufficient fitting room to fit a bunch of armor.
  • Cap use bonus on lasers is not always fantastic, so the Maller often uses projectiles instead.
  • For PvE, this is rarely used. For PvP, the Maller is often either bait, as it can fit a big tank, or setup as a frigate killer, with a huge tank and frigate-sized guns.

Omen

  • Highest damage potential of the amarr cruisers.
  • Common obvious choice for starting pve pilots, since it uses lasers, unlike the Arbitrator, which uses drones (though the Arbitrator is probably superior)
  • Excellent damage, plus relatively balanced slot layout, for amarr, makes for a good all-around ship.
  • Two principal problems – limited fitting space makes it hard to get everything you want on the Omen even with really good skills, and, as with all laser ships, it has some capacitor problems. Still lots of fun to fly.
  • Best looking Amarr cruiser

Amarr Battlecruisers

One excellent battlecruiser, and one very rarely used ship.

Prophecy

  • Rarely used
  • Can fit an amazing tank for slightly less cost than the harbinger
  • Lower damage output than the harbinger
  • Occasionally fitted with projectile turrets because it has no laser damage bonus. (tempting for pve vs. angels, but use a harby)
  • If you encounter one in a pvp setting, it's typically bait for a larger fleet.
  • Can function as an extremely heavy tackler.

Harbinger

  • Fantastic battlecruiser
  • Good combination of DPS and range, and a decent drone-bay for a BC. Depending on your fitting skills, it can be difficult to have the power grid for the biggest medium guns (either Heavy Pulse or Heavy Beams)
  • Seven high slots, typically completely full of lasers, with a single utility slot – commonly left empty on pvp builds, or with a single salvager. For pve, drone link augmentors (depending on CPU), salvagers, tractor beams, and probe launchers are common. Capacitor warfare mods are options, but the harby typically has powergrid problems.
  • Good number of mid-slots for an amarr ship, providing room for a MWD/point/web/utility mod (usually a cap booster)
  • Enough low-slots to give it the option of a beefy armor tank or lots of damage/range modules, or a nice balance between the two.
  • There are some niche pvp fits that utililze shield tanks, filling the low slots with damage, tracking, and speed modules.

Oracle

  • Glass cannon battlecruiser
  • Can fit large battleship-grade weapons, but not as tough as other battlecruisers.
  • Even with the reduction in fitting for large weapons, it is still a tight fit. Can be fit as pure dps fit with beams as a sniper, or can field Mega Pulse Laser 2's with a 40k ehp tank.

Amarr Battleships

Very strong battleship lineup, though less specialized than many other races' ships. High damage output at a range which is feasible in pvp, unlike blasters, which often have trouble getting into range. (comparison may be a bad idea here). Like all battleships, they're slow. They're slower yet because they're typically armor rigged, and, for pvp, fitted with armor tanks.

Armageddon

  • Cheapest amarr battleship, making it popular among pilots who are concerned about losing their ship in pvp.
  • Cap use and damage bonus is a nice, balanced set of bonuses.
  • Ability to fit 7 guns, giving the armageddon a utility high slot, normally used for nos/neut or some type of remote-repair setup.
  • Huge number of low-slots means a big tank.
  • The only amarr battleship that can field a full flight of heavy drones or sentries.
  • Sadly only has three mids, meaning it can't fit all of MWD/point/eccm/cap booster for pvp.
  • Frequently used as a POS-bashing ship in addition to other pvp use.

Apocalypse

  • Range bonus and cap use bonus – no damage bonus. Normally that would imply that a projectile weapon fit is common, however that's not often the case with the apoc, because the range bonus can translate into a damage bonus by fitting shorter-range crystals.
  • Apoc is the most common pve ship, because range is so useful in missions, and the cap use bonus lets it fit a tank more easily. With higher levels of amarr battleship, the Apoc can often fit pulse lasers and deal damage at beam laser range.
  • Apoc also makes an excellent fleet sniper, able to hit hard out to 200km or so.
  • Less common in mid-range pvp, because the other two ships get damage/tank bonuses.
  • Looks like an animal cracker.

Abaddon

  • Damage bonus and armor resist bonus. Tank and gank, plus 8 large turrets. The 'Golden Brick' is a beast. Lots of damage and a huge buffer tank, if properly set up.
  • Downside, of course, is capacitor – the tendency to fit big guns and use the short-range, high cap use damage ammo, plus possible armor reppers/microwarp drives, make the abaddon burn through cap very quickly. As such, it's almost always fit with a capacitor booster.
  • Pve, it is an option compared to the apoc, since it basically comes with a free Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane (8th low slot), but it takes a bit of work to get a cap-stable tank. Still, it has a higher damage potential than the apoc, depending on the range at which you're engaging targets
  • The resist bonuses are helpful in pvp, both for buffer tanks but also for improving RR efficiency from friendly vessels.

Amarr Industrials

Sigil

  • Quicker than most industrials, but with a smaller cargo bay. Folks typically use the Bestower instead, since the cargo space difference is so large, and all industrials are slow. Much better looking model, though.

Bestower

  • Only requires Industrial 1, making it very easy to get into, with a roomy cargo bay (22k m3 rigged/fitted, 29k-ish with GSCs)
  • Largest industrial for that amount of training

Skills for Amarr Ships

  • You need a lot of skills to perform well in Amarr ships, and it can be difficult to know which to invest in first. Here are some general guidelines to help the new Amarr ship pilot.
  • This advice touches on only the essential skills – you should develop your own specific skill development plan using a tool like EveMon or EveHQ – but these guidelines should start you in the right direction.

Ship Command Skills

Fitting Skills

  • A ship can be only as good as the modules you can fit on it, and to do that, you need strong fitting skills.
  • Essential fitting skills that should be trained to Level V are:
    • Engineering - 5% Bonus to ship's powergrid output per skill level.
    • Electronics - 5% Bonus to ship CPU output per skill level
    • Weapon Upgrades - 5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets and launchers. Also gets you t2 heat sinks.
  • Skills you should develop to Level IV or better include:
    • Energy Grid Upgrades - to fit Power Diagnostic Systems, which increase powergrid, and Cap Rechargers.
    • Electronics Upgrades – for a 5% reduction of sensor upgrade CPU needs per skill level, and to fit Co-Processors.
  • Develop Advanced Weapon Upgrades to at least level III, earning a 2% reduction per level in powergrid needs of weapon turrets and launchers.
  • By the way, an excellent utility for helping you outfit your ship is the Eve Fitting Tool, or EFT, a free software application designed for optimizing your ship configuration – if you don’t have EFT, download it here today.

Capacitor Skills

  • Capacitor is life – without energy in your capacitor, you can’t run active modules, your defenses degrade, and you end up stripped of your ship, floating in space in a pod. Amarr pilots depend on capacitor energy to run active armor tanks and to fire lasers, and as a result, they must develop several capacitor management skills.
  • These are all the skills you need to optimize the size, recharge rate and efficiency of your capacitor:
  • You'll want Energy Systems Operation at level 5 and Energy Management to level 4 at least. Cap Rechargers or Cap Boosters are prevalent in most PvP fittings, so you'll want to be able to fit the best with good Energy Grid Upgrade skills, 4.

Navigation Skills

  • These are essential skills. While some Amarr pilots neglect navigation skills since armor buffer tanks tend to hurt mobility, they are rather important, particularly if you want to fly any tech 2 frigates. Even if you stick to the bigger ships, having a more agile/quicker than expected battleship can save your life.

Armor Tanking Skills

  • Because most Amarr ships favor an armor tanking approach, Amarr pilots must become proficient at armor taking skills. Specifically, Amarr pilots should train as quickly as possible to fit Tech II armor tanking modules. A Tech II tank is more than 40% more effective than a Tech I tank – a huge competitive advantage.
  • To fit Tech II modules, train Mechanic and Hull Upgrades to level V.
    • Mechanic - 5% bonus to structure hit points per skill level and allows you to fit Armor Repairers.
    • Hull Upgrades - for a 5% bonus to armor hit points per skill level, and to fit Active Armor Hardeners and Plates.
  • You can train Repair Systems to Level V if you wish, to maximize the 5% reduction in repair systems duration per skill level, and to fit effective Armor Repairers, but you only really need Level IV to fit Tech II varieties.
  • Train EM Armor Compensation, Explosive Armor Compensation, Kinetic Armor Compensation, and Thermic Armor Compensation to Level 3 or higher, to improve passive armor module resists against these damage types (To active armor hardeners: 3% bonus per skill level to Armor resistance when the modules are not active -- To passive armor hardeners: 5% bonus per skill level to Armor resistance). These skills will make modules like the Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane (T1 version, T2 version) much more effective against enemy attacks.
  • Jury Rigging - pre-req for specific rigging skills, and handy for the Energy Grid variety of rigs (ACR's, CCC's)
    • Armor Rigging - trimarks are amazing (15% bonus to Armor HP, 10% penalty to max velocity).
    • Astronautic Rigging - handy for industrialists w/ exp. cargoholds.
    • Energy Weapon Rigging - Laser turret rigs which increase the PG need to turrets and have a variety of effects (i.e. tracking, damage, etc.)

Tackling Skills

  • All PvP combat pilots need to train up on tackling skills. These are the skills you need to prevent a target from escaping. These are usually the first combat skills learned by new pilots, because they are easy to master, and because they are highly valued, especially in fleet.
  • Plan to train Propulsion Jamming to Level IV or higher, for a 5% reduction to warp scrambler and stasis web capacitor need per skill level, and to fit effective scramblers, disruptors, and webifiers.
  • Train Energy Emission Systems to Level IV also, to fit energy neutralizers to kill your target's capacitor energy. This is particularly valuable for Amarr pilots looking at the T2 Curse, Pilgrim, and Sentinel.
  • If you ever plan to venture into 0.0 space, you might also consider training Anchoring to Level II or more. This skill is used to deploy various items in space, including mobile warp disruptors – you’ll need this to set up warp disruption bubbles in null-sec space. By the way, Anchoring is also useful for setting storage containers in space, which is helpful if you plan to make some ISK as a miner.

Gunnery Skills

  • If you are going to pilot Amarr ships into battle, you must master laser turrets – and there are a lot of skills required to do so.
  • To maximize your damage dealing effectiveness from your guns, train the following to Level IV or higher:
    • Gunnery -- 2% Bonus to weapon turrets' rate of fire per skill level. You will need Gunnery V for large turrets and all T2 turrets.
    • Small Energy Turret -- 5% Bonus to small energy turret damage per level. Used with frigates and destroyers.
    • Medium Energy Turret -- 5% Bonus to medium energy turret damage per level. Used with cruisers and battlecruisers.
    • Large Energy Turret -- 5% Bonus to large energy turret damage per level. Used with battleships.
  • You should also train these Gunnery skills to level 4 or better:
    • Motion Prediction -- 5% bonus per skill level to weapon turret tracking speeds.
    • Rapid Firing -- 4% bonus per skill level to weapon turret rate of fire.
    • Sharpshooter -- 5% bonus to weapon turret optimal range per skill level.
    • Controlled Bursts -- 5% reduction in capacitor need of weapon turrets per skill level.
    • Surgical Strike -- 3% bonus per skill level to the damage of all weapon turrets.
    • Trajectory Analysis -- 5% bonus per skill level to weapon turret accuracy falloff.

Drone Skills

  • If you fly a larger Amarr ship, or the Arbitrator, you will want drone skills. To be most effective, you will need to get Tech II drones, which means investing even more time and effort in drone skill development.
  • If you specialize in drone weaponry, train these skills to level V:
    • Drones -- Can operate 1 drone per skill level. Key for almost all pilots that want to fly a cruiser or larger.
    • Scout Drone Operation -- Bonus: drone control range increased by 5000 meters per skill level.
  • You should also develop the following skills to level IV or better:
  • When you begin to pilot battleships, develop Heavy Drone Operation.
  • To get Tech II drones, you’ll need to develop the four racial drone specialization skills also, though Minmatar and Gallente are the most useful.

EWAR Skills

  • Electronic Warfare (EW/EWAR) is a major part of fleet and small gang combat operations, especially in the UNI. Because most of our opponents have higher skill levels than the typical Eve University pilot, we must neutralize their natural advantage – and EWAR is an effective way to do this. An experienced pilot, even with tens of millions of skill points and a host of powerful faction ship modules, can do nothing if they can’t target anything. With the right combination of EWAR, you can practically turn off an opponent's ship. Combined tackling and Electronic Warfare can render even the sturdiest tank and most ominous firepower absolutely useless.
  • The Crucifier and Arbitrator are the two Tech 1 EWAR ships in the Amarr lineup. Both rely on tracking disruption (TD), which shuts down turret-based targets rather effectively, but are useless against missile based weapons systems (i.e. most Caldari Pilots, Khanid ships)

Accelerating Skill Learning

  • You can compress the time required train these skills by investing in implants for Intelligence, Memory, Perception and Willpower.
    • +3 implants should be the minimum level that you install, to keep skill training times reasonable. If you meet the program requirements, E-UNI's +3 implants program can help you get these.

Class Wrap-up

  • Thanks for attending this class!
    • I would appreciate any feedback from people on how to improve the class
  • Questions ?
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