Support skills: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

~~{{stub}}~~

Support skills are those skills which affect how well you can fit and fly ships, without necessarily being directly required to use modules or sit in ships. For example, you don't need to train Controlled Bursts, Energy Management and Energy Systems Operation to put large lasers on an Amarr battleship -- but if you do so without training them you will find you swiftly run out of capacitor.

Line 62:

Line 60:

In general, at this level you should be able to fully T2 fit your ship. In practice, you'll need Weapon Upgrades 5 and a couple levels of Advanced Weapon Upgrades (AWU), or you'll be very frustrated when you try to fit guns. [[Cruiser#T2_Cruisers|T2 cruisers]] are small, fast, and powerful, but tend to have limited CPU and/or powergrid, and limited capacitor as well. You'll want your cap skills and fitting skills to be nearly maxed-out before flying one of these.

==~~=T3 Cruisers=~~==

==Skills==

Note that there is some overlap between these lists.

~~==Skills==~~

===Capacitor===

Ignoring skills relevant only to capital ships, there are seventeen skills which can help your capacitor. You don't necessarily have to train all of these, since some of them only apply to very specific sets of modules (Sensor Linking, for example, won't help you if you never use sensor dampeners or remote sensor boosters). But some of these skills are vital for every pilot, and many of the rest are quite important.

Line 100:

Line 97:

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Mining_Upgrades Mining Upgrades] 5% less CPU need for mining upgrade modules (useful for miners but, of course, ''only'' for miners)

===~~Agility and Speed~~===

===Mobility===

There are relatively few skills that directly help you become nimbler and faster, compared to the variety of fitting and capacitor skills available. Those that are available, however, are very helpful for any ship (and extremely helpful to small ships).

Since your ability to move around often depends on keeping your propulsion module running, capacitor skills are indirectly very important for mobility too.

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Acceleration_Control Acceleration Control]: 5% bonus to the speed increase from afterburners and MWDs per level

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Evasive_Maneuvering Evasive Maneuvering]: 5% bonus to agility per level -- a very significant bonus

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Spaceship_Command Spaceship Command]: 2% bonus to agility per level -- not as impressive as Evasive, but more quickly trained, and a prerequisite for various ships too

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Navigation Navigation]: 5% faster sub-warp speed per level -- a very nice bonus and a skill that's quickly trained

===Tanking===

The [[Full T2 Tank]] page linked previously is a good one-stop summary of the required skills for fitting a T2 armor or shield tank.

In the long run many characters wind up training for both kinds of tanking, even if they only fly one race's ships, partly because many tanking skills will increase your EHP (5% more shields is a smidgen more survival time even if you're armor-tanking) and partly because every race has some ships which can be tanked both ways.

As with mobility, if you mount an active tank (usually for PvE or for solo/very small gang PvP) then your capacitor skills will be key to your tank.

There are three skills which '''boost raw hitpoint totals''':

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Mechanic Mechanic]: 5% more hull hitpoints per level; quickly trained (great for everyone, especially great for the Gallente who usually have large amounts of hull hitpoints to begin with)

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Hull_Upgrades Hull Upgrades]: 5% more armor hp per level (despite having 'Hull' in its name); levels IV and V open up some key T2 armor-tanking modules; takes twice as long as Mechanic to train

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Shield_Management Shield Management]: 5% more shield hp per level; takes three times as long as Mechanic to train, which makes level V more of a medium-long term goal

Besides these three, there are a number of other significant skills for '''armor tanking''':

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Repair_Systems Repair Systems]: 5% less cycle time on armor repairers per level; high levels open up T2 armor repairers (note that this skill will ''increase'' an active armor tank's load on your capacitor!)

* The four 'X armor compensation' skills: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/EM_Armor_Compensation EM], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Explosive_Armor_Compensation Explosive], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Kinetic_Armor_Compensation Kinetic] and [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermic_Armor_Compensation Thermal].

** Each of these increases the armor resistance bonuses of passive armor hardeners by 5% per level. Their bonuses to active armor hardeners only apply when the active armor hardeners are turned off, and are therefore irrelevant.

** Since there is no omni-resist active armor hardener module (an armor equivalent to the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Invulnerability_Field_I I-Field]), the passive omni-resist platings ([http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Adaptive_Nano_Plating_I Adaptive] and [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Energized_Adaptive_Nano_Membrane_I Energized Adaptive]) see a lot of use in armor [[Buffer|buffer]] and [[Spider Tanking|armor RR]] fits, and these benefit from the armor compensation skills.

** So it's a good idea to get these to III fairly quickly, and perhaps to IV in the long term, if you ever have reasons to fit resistance plating.

. . . and a number of other significant skills for '''shield tanking''':

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Shield_Operation Shield Operation]: 5% faster shield recharge rate per level; quick to train, good for everyone, vital if you ever plan to mount a [[Shield_tanking#Shield_Tanking_Styles|passive shield tank]]

* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Tactical_Shield_Manipulation Tactical Shield Manipulation]: When your shields drop below 25%, damage begins to 'leak' through into your armor; each level in this skill lets your shields drop 5% lower before this begins to happen, to 0% at level V so that damage never leaks through

** Tactical Shield Manipulation's usefulness is disputed, but level IV is required to use the very useful T2 active shield hardeners, so most people train it to IV and then forget about it

* Like the armor compensation skills, there are four 'X shield compensation' skills (not to be confused with [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Shield_Compensation Shield Compensation] ''per se''!): [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/EM_Shield_Compensation EM], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Explosive_Shield_Compensation Explosive], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Kinetic_Shield_Compensation Kinetic] and [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermic_Shield_Compensation Thermal].

** Like the armor compensation skills these grant a 5% bonus to the resistance increase to one damage type that you get from passive shield hardeners per level; as with the armor compensation skills the bonuses they give to active shield hardeners only apply when the active hardeners are turned off and are therefore irrelevant

** However, unlike armor tankers, shield tankers have the option of an active omni-resist module, the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Invulnerability_Field_I I-Field], and so passive shield hardeners are very rarely used

** Consequently you can probably get away with ignoring these!

===Rigging===

Most (but not all) rigs come with a drawback (a 10% penalty to something) as well as a benefit. Each subset of rigs has an associated skill which lets you fit them, and that skill itself reduces the drawback effect of those rigs by 10%. You can use a ship which has rigs on it which you don't have the skills to fit -- you have to get someone else (someone that you trust) to rig the ship for you beforehand, and you'll get the full, unreduced drawback.

In practice getting other people to rig your ships for you is a pain, since you can't always be sure someone will always be (a) free, (b) willing and (c) near where you are. Furthermore, when you start flying battleships and specialized T2 ships you'll find the pool of people who have the skills to pilot the ship you want to rig (you need to get into the ship to open the fitting screen and fit the rigs) gets much smaller.

It is therefore a good idea to train a few levels in the fitting skills required for any rigs you plan to use at all regularly. You'll need [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Jury_Rigging Jury Rigging] level III as a prerequisite for other rigging skills, though it appears to give you no other real benefits.

Training specific rigging skills to high levels may not be a very efficient use of your time: the amelioration of the drawbacks doesn't hurt, but it's a very minor reduction in what is usually a minor penalty in the first place. You need the relevant rigging skill at IV to fit T2 rigs, but T2 rigs are mostly -- at the time of writing -- so hilariously expensive that only the rich and/or foolish fit them.

===Overheating===

In a sense, [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermodynamics Thermodynamics] is the ultimate PvP support skill: it lets you overheat modules beyond their design specs, ~~though~~ at the risk of temporarily burning them out. You need at least one level in Thermodynamics to overheat modules; getting this skill to level 4 doesn't take long and is well worth it, as each level reduces the damage your modules take from overheating. The prerequisites for Thermodynamics were reduced in the Dominion expansion.

In a sense, [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermodynamics Thermodynamics] is the ultimate PvP support skill: it lets you overheat modules beyond their design specs, at the risk of temporarily burning them out. You need at least one level in Thermodynamics to overheat modules; getting this skill to level 4 doesn't take long and is well worth it, as each level reduces the damage your modules take from overheating. The prerequisites for Thermodynamics were reduced in the Dominion expansion.

There's a more detailed guide to overheating's mechanics [[Overloading|here]].

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{stub}}
 Support skills are those skills which affect how well you can fit and fly ships, without necessarily being directly required to use modules or sit in ships.  For example, you don't need to train Controlled Bursts, Energy Management and Energy Systems Operation to put large lasers on an Amarr battleship -- but if you do so without training them you will find you swiftly run out of capacitor.
@@ Line 62: / Line 60: @@
 In general, at this level you should be able to fully T2 fit your ship.  In practice, you'll need Weapon Upgrades 5 and a couple levels of Advanced Weapon Upgrades (AWU), or you'll be very frustrated when you try to fit guns.  [[Cruiser#T2_Cruisers|T2 cruisers]] are small, fast, and powerful, but tend to have limited CPU and/or powergrid, and limited capacitor as well.  You'll want your cap skills and fitting skills to be nearly maxed-out before flying one of these.
-===T3 Cruisers===
+==Skills==
+Note that there is some overlap between these lists.
-==Skills==
 ===Capacitor===
 Ignoring skills relevant only to capital ships, there are seventeen skills which can help your capacitor. You don't necessarily have to train all of these, since some of them only apply to very specific sets of modules (Sensor Linking, for example, won't help you if you never use sensor dampeners or remote sensor boosters). But some of these skills are vital for every pilot, and many of the rest are quite important.
@@ Line 100: / Line 97: @@
 * [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Mining_Upgrades Mining Upgrades] 5% less CPU need for mining upgrade modules (useful for miners but, of course, ''only'' for miners)
-===Agility and Speed===
+===Mobility===
+There are relatively few skills that directly help you become nimbler and faster, compared to the variety of fitting and capacitor skills available. Those that are available, however, are very helpful for any ship (and extremely helpful to small ships).
+Since your ability to move around often depends on keeping your propulsion module running, capacitor skills are indirectly very important for mobility too.
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Acceleration_Control Acceleration Control]: 5% bonus to the speed increase from afterburners and MWDs per level
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Evasive_Maneuvering Evasive Maneuvering]: 5% bonus to agility per level -- a very significant bonus
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Spaceship_Command Spaceship Command]: 2% bonus to agility per level -- not as impressive as Evasive, but more quickly trained, and a prerequisite for various ships too
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Navigation Navigation]: 5% faster sub-warp speed per level -- a very nice bonus and a skill that's quickly trained
 ===Tanking===
+The [[Full T2 Tank]] page linked previously is a good one-stop summary of the required skills for fitting a T2 armor or shield tank.
+In the long run many characters wind up training for both kinds of tanking, even if they only fly one race's ships, partly because many tanking skills will increase your EHP (5% more shields is a smidgen more survival time even if you're armor-tanking) and partly because every race has some ships which can be tanked both ways.
+As with mobility, if you mount an active tank (usually for PvE or for solo/very small gang PvP) then your capacitor skills will be key to your tank.
+There are three skills which '''boost raw hitpoint totals''':
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Mechanic Mechanic]: 5% more hull hitpoints per level; quickly trained (great for everyone, especially great for the Gallente who usually have large amounts of hull hitpoints to begin with)
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Hull_Upgrades Hull Upgrades]: 5% more armor hp per level (despite having 'Hull' in its name); levels IV and V open up some key T2 armor-tanking modules; takes twice as long as Mechanic to train
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Shield_Management Shield Management]: 5% more shield hp per level; takes three times as long as Mechanic to train, which makes level V more of a medium-long term goal
+Besides these three, there are a number of other significant skills for '''armor tanking''':
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Repair_Systems Repair Systems]: 5% less cycle time on armor repairers per level; high levels open up T2 armor repairers (note that this skill will ''increase'' an active armor tank's load on your capacitor!)
+* The four 'X armor compensation' skills: [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/EM_Armor_Compensation EM], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Explosive_Armor_Compensation Explosive], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Kinetic_Armor_Compensation Kinetic] and [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermic_Armor_Compensation Thermal].
+** Each of these increases the armor resistance bonuses of passive armor hardeners by 5% per level. Their bonuses to active armor hardeners only apply when the active armor hardeners are turned off, and are therefore irrelevant.
+** Since there is no omni-resist active armor hardener module (an armor equivalent to the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Invulnerability_Field_I I-Field]), the passive omni-resist platings ([http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Adaptive_Nano_Plating_I Adaptive] and [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Energized_Adaptive_Nano_Membrane_I Energized Adaptive]) see a lot of use in armor [[Buffer|buffer]] and [[Spider Tanking|armor RR]] fits, and these benefit from the armor compensation skills.
+** So it's a good idea to get these to III fairly quickly, and perhaps to IV in the long term, if you ever have reasons to fit resistance plating.
+. . . and a number of other significant skills for '''shield tanking''':
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Shield_Operation Shield Operation]: 5% faster shield recharge rate per level; quick to train, good for everyone, vital if you ever plan to mount a [[Shield_tanking#Shield_Tanking_Styles|passive shield tank]]
+* [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Tactical_Shield_Manipulation Tactical Shield Manipulation]: When your shields drop below 25%, damage begins to 'leak' through into your armor; each level in this skill lets your shields drop 5% lower before this begins to happen, to 0% at level V so that damage never leaks through
+** Tactical Shield Manipulation's usefulness is disputed, but level IV is required to use the very useful T2 active shield hardeners, so most people train it to IV and then forget about it
+* Like the armor compensation skills, there are four 'X shield compensation' skills (not to be confused with [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Shield_Compensation Shield Compensation] ''per se''!): [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/EM_Shield_Compensation EM], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Explosive_Shield_Compensation Explosive], [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Kinetic_Shield_Compensation Kinetic] and [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermic_Shield_Compensation Thermal].
+** Like the armor compensation skills these grant a 5% bonus to the resistance increase to one damage type that you get from passive shield hardeners per level; as with the armor compensation skills the bonuses they give to active shield hardeners only apply when the active hardeners are turned off and are therefore irrelevant
+** However, unlike armor tankers, shield tankers have the option of an active omni-resist module, the [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Invulnerability_Field_I I-Field], and so passive shield hardeners are very rarely used
+** Consequently you can probably get away with ignoring these!
 ===Rigging===
+Most (but not all) rigs come with a drawback (a 10% penalty to something) as well as a benefit. Each subset of rigs has an associated skill which lets you fit them, and that skill itself reduces the drawback effect of those rigs by 10%. You can use a ship which has rigs on it which you don't have the skills to fit -- you have to get someone else (someone that you trust) to rig the ship for you beforehand, and you'll get the full, unreduced drawback.
+In practice getting other people to rig your ships for you is a pain, since you can't always be sure someone will always be (a) free, (b) willing and (c) near where you are. Furthermore, when you start flying battleships and specialized T2 ships you'll find the pool of people who have the skills to pilot the ship you want to rig (you need to get into the ship to open the fitting screen and fit the rigs) gets much smaller.
+It is therefore a good idea to train a few levels in the fitting skills required for any rigs you plan to use at all regularly. You'll need [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Jury_Rigging Jury Rigging] level III as a prerequisite for other rigging skills, though it appears to give you no other real benefits.
+Training specific rigging skills to high levels may not be a very efficient use of your time: the amelioration of the drawbacks doesn't hurt, but it's a very minor reduction in what is usually a minor penalty in the first place. You need the relevant rigging skill at IV to fit T2 rigs, but T2 rigs are mostly -- at the time of writing -- so hilariously expensive that only the rich and/or foolish fit them.
 ===Overheating===
-In a sense, [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermodynamics Thermodynamics] is the ultimate PvP support skill: it lets you overheat modules beyond their design specs, though at the risk of temporarily burning them out. You need at least one level in Thermodynamics to overheat modules; getting this skill to level 4 doesn't take long and is well worth it, as each level reduces the damage your modules take from overheating. The prerequisites for Thermodynamics were reduced in the Dominion expansion.
+In a sense, [http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Thermodynamics Thermodynamics] is the ultimate PvP support skill: it lets you overheat modules beyond their design specs, at the risk of temporarily burning them out. You need at least one level in Thermodynamics to overheat modules; getting this skill to level 4 doesn't take long and is well worth it, as each level reduces the damage your modules take from overheating. The prerequisites for Thermodynamics were reduced in the Dominion expansion.
 There's a more detailed guide to overheating's mechanics [[Overloading|here]].