Preparing for Incursions
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Planning ahead
Unless you are already heavily invested into a certain race or weapon system, it might be a good idea to think of which logistics ship, strategic cruiser or pirate faction battleship you'll want in the end, rather than what your first incursion ship should be.
You should also consider secondary value of whatever you train, perhaps you can find an end-of-the-line ship that not only furthers your goals for incursions but other goals as well given the skills you'll end up training for it. If you already know that you like smaller ships, or have plans for diving into a wormhole in the future, it would make much more sense training into a strategic cruiser than a pirate faction battleship.
Depending on the race, training for strategic cruisers will make quite some progress towards being able to fly logistics as well, or the other way around if your goal is to fly logistcs. That said, most strategic cruisers pale in comparison to the pirate faction battleships who remain the epitome of incursion boats.
Recommended battleships:
Races | Ship | Description |
---|---|---|
The Maelstrom can easily lead into the Machariel, retaining the projectile skills and Minmatar skills, but requires Gallente battleship. Minmatar in general also offers the Loki and Sleipnir as well as the Scimitar for logistics. | ||
The Rokh can train into a Vindicator, retaining the hybrid skills, but forced to train both Gallente and Minmatar battleships. It can also train into the Nightmare, retaining the Caldari battleship skills, but forced to crosstrain into lasers. Caldari also offers the Basilisk for logistics. | ||
The Hyperion can easily lead into the Vindicator, retaining the hybrid skills and Gallente skills, but requires Minmatar battleship. |
End-game ships:
Races | Ship | Description |
---|---|---|
The Machariel combines a flexible engagement range for autocannons with a high rate of fire. Fit for long range the impressive alpha is unmatched. It also has enough midslots to fit for any occasion. | ||
The Nightmare has very good damage at any range due to fast-swapping crystals and compensates for the innate low tracking of lasers with the ship's tracking bonus. It also has plenty of utility midslots available. Has some cap issues. | ||
The Vindicator is a brawler without match, both in terms of damage and incredibly strong webs. Despite appearances, it is also a very potent sniper when fitted with railguns, and tech two ammo makes it possible to use blasters at medium range. | ||
The Legion combines powerful short range capabilities with instant-swapping long range capabilities due to how crystals work. Ideal ship if you prefer smaller, more agile ships to the bulkier battleships. | ||
The Loki combines multiple webs with extreme tracking which makes it very useful. It also has the option to fit for longer webs, which isn't always needed but makes a world of difference when it is. | ||
Very few Command Ships have the range and utility needed to make them good for incursions, suffering the same problems as most ships with medium weaponry. The Sleipnir stands out with exceptional tracking, range and damage capabilities. | ||
The Scimitar is a logistics ship, the core of fleet defense. It does not rely on energy transfers to be cap stable and can therefor be fully operational on its own. The bonus to tracking links makes it an enormous asset on the field, on top of the repairs it supplies. | ||
The Basilisk is another logistics ship, but unlike the Scimitar, it needs someone to exchange energy transfers with to be effective. With good skills it can provide energy transfers to the fleet or field one more shield transporter for extra repping power. |
Recommended skills
The following skills are recommended, if not downright required to fit the modules you have to in order to do incursions. For more information on what the different skills do, see the Support Skills page. It's worth noting that the skills we recommend are basic skills, useful for pretty much all combat ships in EVE.
The training times listed for these will assume that you trained Cybernetics I and got a cheap set of +3 attribute implants, which is not only reasonable but highly recommended regardless what you plan on doing in EVE. There's even The +3 Implants Program for unistas to get started.
Damage dealers
Getting the recommended skills for a damage dealer requires a little over 60 days of training, if you train into a turret-based battleship on a brand new character.
Considering that is far more likely that you come looking for incursions after you have played the game for at least a couple of weeks, having trained some of the support skills already (the tutorial mentions many of them), you can often get ready much faster. Add to that the potential of neural remapping and what might seem like a daunting train can be covered in no-time.
These recommended skills will allow you to fly any of the recommended battleships for vanguards and assaults.
Support skills | Gunnery skills | Ship skills | Drone skills |
---|---|---|---|
~ 21 days and 22 hours | ~ 22 days and 2 hours | ~ 4 days and 11 hours | ~ 13 days and 9 hours |
Cybernetics I |
Gunnery V |
<racial> Frigate III |
Drones V |
~ 61 days and 20 hours worth of training in total |
- ^ Target Painting III is only needed if you'll use a Target Painter module.
- ^ Hull Upgrades IV is required to fit the Damage Control II module.
- ^ Controlled Bursts is useful for all hybrids and lasers, but useless for projectiles and missiles as they do not utilize cap.
- ^ a b Drones V, Scout Drone Operation V and Minmatar Drone Specialization I is required to use Warrior II and Valkyrie II drones.
- ^ a b c Drone Durability I, Repair Drone Operation II and Shield Emission System III is required to use Shield Maintenance drones, which can be trained in mere hours if you can already use tech two scout drones.
Logistics
Training for logistics is considerably more time-consuming than that of a regular damage dealer. Please remember that when you think the above mentioned skills for a damage dealer is a long train.
It takes up to 79 days to get good enough skills to fly a logistics starter fit.
Support skills | Logistics support skills | Ship skills | Drone skills |
---|---|---|---|
~ 20 days and 2 hours | ~ 6 days and 9 hours | ~ 47 days and 9 hours | ~ 5 days and 6 hours |
Cybernetics I |
Shield Emission Systems IV |
<racial> Frigate III |
Drones V |
~ 79 days and 2 hours worth of training in total |
- ^ Energy Grid Upgrades II is required for the reactor controls and power diagnostic modules.
- ^ Target Management V is a requirement for Advanced Target Management.
- ^ Advanced Target Management III is required to lock up 10 fleet members.
- ^ Hull Upgrades IV is required to fit the Damage Control II module.
- ^ Capacitor Emission Systems is only required if you fly a Guardian or a Basilisk with energy transfer modules, the Oneiros and the Scimitar does not need this skill.
- ^ Sensor Linking is only required if you can fit the Tracking Link module and only needed at higher skill-levels if you try to fit several faction links at once.
- ^ a b Signature Analysis V and Long Range Targeting V is a requirement for the Logistics skill.
- ^ a b Drone Durability I, Repair Drone Operation II and Shield Emission System III is required to use Shield Maintenance drones, which can be trained in mere hours if you can already use tech two scout drones.
- ^ This skill is a requirement for Shield Transporters and Shield Maintenance Bots and is covered in the Repair skills section.
Further training
Once you have the recommended skills, it's time to consider what else to train.
Advanced hulls
The step from a battleship to a strategic cruiser or a pirate faction battleship is surprisingly short and you should take this step as soon as possible to get into a really good ship. You might need to top off some of the support skills, pending on what ship you decide to move into, if you run into powergrid, CPU or cap issues.
For strategic cruisers you'll most likely require you to train some support skills to V and of course your racial cruiser of choice to V. Then you just move towards tech two medium weapons for further efficiency. When it comes to pirate faction battleship hulls like the Machariel, Nightmare and Vindicator, which are better in all regards compared to the regular battleships regardless of your skill, you'll need to train anything from a secondary racial shipline to two new racial shiplines and new racial turret skills. Flying ships that cost over a billion in just the hull shouldn't be taken lightly however, but from an efficiency point of view there is no reason not to get one.
Also remember that once you've trained the generic support skills for ships and weapons, crosstraining into a different racial ship or a secondary racial turret doesn't take that long. Same for logistics, once you have the skills to fly one of them, the other is a matter of training up a new racial cruiser skill to V. Being able to fly several ships and roles, like both that of a damage dealer and a logistics, gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility. It also makes you quite desirable among the incursion communities, both within EVE University and beyond, as having pilots capable of switching roles or ships based on what the fleet needs is incredibly useful.
Strategic Cruisers | Pirate Faction Battleships [1] | New racial turret | New racial shipline |
---|---|---|---|
~ 43 days and 20 hours | ~ 24 days and 15 hours | ~ 5 days and 5 hours | ~ 9 days and 17 hours |
Mechanics V |
<primary> Frigate III |
Small <racial> Turret III |
<racial> Frigate III |
- ^ Assuming the worst possible starter skills, two racial shiplines and new gunnery skills. Most likely you'll end up only needing to train a new racial ship line for your secondary battleship skill.
- ^ Gunnery V for the Legion, Loki and Proteus, but only Gunnery III for the Tengu. This skill is covered by the recommended skills already.
- ^ Missile Launcher Operation V for the Tengu and Missile Launcher Operation III for the Loki. Neither the Legion or the Proteus needs this skill trained unless they decide to fit missiles.
- ^ For the Loki it is very important to get Minmatar Electronic Systems V, since it increases damage projection as well as reduces cap usage of your turrets. Slightly less important for the Legion, but it does increase your scan resolution.
- ^ For the Legion it is very important to get Amarr Offensive Systems V, since it increases damage projection as well as reduces cap usage of your turrets. For the Loki it is a straight up damage projection increase.
Honing your skills
Remember that the recommended skills are just the beginning and there is much room for improvement. Increase these skills, train up for tech two weaponry and max out the gunnery and support skills, and your ship will be much more efficient. You'll also have many more options to improve your fit with better fitting and support skills, like upgrading a module, drop an excessive tank module for more utility modules and so forth.
What you're going to train next differs a little bit based on what ship and what weapons you're going to use. For some fitting skills will be prioritized due to the lack of CPU or powergrid of their hull, for others capacitor skills are more important while others can simply go straight for better ship skills and tech two weaponry.
Support skills | Gunnery skills | Ship skills | Drone skills |
---|---|---|---|
Prioritize which skills to train first, some are more important than others, so do your research. | |||
Cybernetics V [1] |
Weapon Upgrades V |
<racial> Battleship V |
Electronic Warfare IV [10] |
- ^ Cybernetics V is required for the top-tier advanced implants, like the +6% CONCORD-implants.
- ^ Jury Rigging IV is only needed if it is a requirement for your more generic rigs, like energy grid rigs.
- ^ Capacitor Emission Systems is only required for ships that use energy transfer modules, like the Guardian and the Basilisk. It's also useful for ships in need of cap chains to remain cap stable, like the Nightmare.
- ^ Sensor Linking is only required if you can fit the Tracking Link module and only needed at higher skill-levels if you try to fit several faction links at once.
- ^ Only if you actually use the passive EM Ward Amplifier module.
- ^ Controlled Bursts is useful for all hybrids and lasers, but useless for projectiles and missiles as they do not utilize cap.
- ^ Training the large racial turret to V before you start training for tech two small and medium guns allows you to enjoy the extra bonus from having the skill to V while you're training the smaller weapons.
- ^ a b c Turrets have two different specialization skills, for example projectiles have both autocannons and artillery which are split into two different specialization skills.
- ^ While it isn't a requirement for anything, it does add longevity to your overheat abilities.
- ^ Electronic Warfare is required for Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing.
- ^ Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing increases your drone control range by an additional 3 km / skillevel.
- ^ Repair Drone Operation V is needed for tech two shield maintenance bots.
- ^ Drone Durability is one of those skills that you might consider twice before training. It's nice to have some studier drones, but ideally they shouldn't be taking damage anyway.
- ^ If your ship can field sentries, train Sentry Drones V so you can field tech two sentries. Not useful for common fleets, but very useful for specialized fleets.
- ^ a b If your ship can field Ogres, train Gallente Drone Specialization IV and Heavy Drones V. While not used in vanguards and assaults, they can be very useful in some headquarter sites and the mothership site.
Miscellaneous skills
While not critical, being able to overheat your modules for a short while is often more than enough to save your ship when things turn from bad to worse. Basic navigation skills are good too, especially a decent level in warp drive skills so you don't cap out in long warps. Having the skills to use the microwarpdrive and cloak trick for safer travel is also handy.
As such, it's also recommended that people train the following skills:
Thermodynamics | Navigation | 32px MWD + Cloak trick |
---|---|---|
~ 5 days and 12 hours | ~ 9 days and 17 hours | ~ 1 day and 19 hours |
Power Grid management V [1] |
Acceleration Control IV [2] |
High Speed Maneuvering III |
- ^ a b Power Grid management V and Science IV are required to train Thermodynamics (training time assuming you have Power Grid management IV already, as per the recommendations). Cite error: Invalid
<ref>
tag; name "thermo" defined multiple times with different content - ^ a b c Mostly for logistics-pilots, but generally applies to anyone who uses an afterburner.
Crosstraining into armour
While we primarily run shield fleets, most of the skills you use will be reusable for armour fleets as well. It wouldn't take too long to touch up on your armour skills to be able to run armour fleets. For unistas it also gives them great skills to use within the Wormhole Campus, as they run primarily armour fleets.
Damage dealers | Logistics |
---|---|
~ 18 days and 10 hours | ~ 46 days and 7 hours |
Hull Upgrades V |
Hull Upgrades V |
Useful training for alts
It is no secret that having alts or several accounts are extremely useful in EVE. Incursions are no different and we can make good use of alts for a wide variety of things, especially unistas during war.
Scout / hacker
Scouting can be done in pretty much any ship, even shuttles. When it comes to hacking there are a few skills that help.
Support skills | Navigation skills | Ship skills | Hacking |
---|---|---|---|
~ 3 hours and 40 minutes | ~ 4 hours and 29 minutes | ~ 15 minutes | ~ 8 hours and 6 minutes |
Hull Upgrades I |
Caldari Frigate I [3] |
||
~ 16 hours and 28 minutes worth of training in total |
- ^ Afterburner III is a requirement for the High Speed Maneuvering skill.
- ^ High Speed Maneuvering I is what's strictly needed, but consider spending another 18 hours getting High Speed Maneuvering III trained for better capacitor handling.
- ^ Getting Caldari Frigate II or III wouldn't take long either, but not strictly needed.
- ^ Electronics Upgrades III is a requirement for the Hacking skill.
- ^ Hacking I is what's strictly needed, but consider spending another 11 hours getting Hacking III trained for a considerable increase in efficiency.
Orca
The Orca is a wonderful ship that's more like a mobile base than just a ship. It has a ship maintenance bay to store ship, enough cargo hold to carry lots of ammo as well as spare modules, an ore hold for lyavite. Its refitting services and fleet hangar is also very useful for changing things up while in space, or to have a nearby stock of lyavite handy in a non-station system.
Even if you fly this ship on an alt that you cannot have logged on at the same time as your main character, the Orca is a tremendously useful ship.
Training into the Orca
Support skills | Ship skills | Leadership skills | Navigation skills |
---|---|---|---|
~ 6 days and 7 hours | ~ 5 days and 15 hours | ~ 10 days and 16 hours | ~ 1 days and 19 hours |
Cybernetics I |
Spaceship Command V |
Leadership I |
Afterburner III |
~ 24 days and 9 hours worth of training in total |
Minimum Orca fit
Prototype 100MN Microwarpdrive I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
Reinforced Bulkheads II
Damage Control II
Large Ancillary Current Router I
Large Ancillary Current Router I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
- With everything turned off, you still have 92 - 96k ehp.
- With just the Damage Control II turned on, you have 195 - 200k ehp.
- With the shield hardeners turned on, your ehp goes up to 209 - 230k.
Ore Hold
The ore hold is perfect for lyavite and can hold up to 163 full stacks which is 41,575 units of ore. (the hold itself can take 50,000 m3 worth of any ore and is unaffected by skill) |
Fleet Hangar
The fleet hangar is another 40,000 m3 that can hold just about anything (including rigged frigates). This hold can be used for spare modules and ore to be available to fleet members, or just secondary storage. |
Ship Maintenance Bay
Nothing in the maintenance bay will drop if your ship is destroyed, they will simply be destroyed along with your ship. This makes it very useful for denying suicide gankers their profit by putting the costly modules on ships inside the maintenance bay. Keep in mind that you would still lose those ships and modules, but they wouldn't be a contributing factor when suicide gankers calculate the profit of ganking you.
The ship maintenance bay is 400,000 m3 worth of assembled ships which is enough to hold ships as large as a battlecruiser-hull, or a selection of cruiser-hull or smaller. You could fill out the maintenance bay with some extra ships for exploration, low level missioning (or even high level missioning with a Tengu), mining ships (for lyavite or just in general). For those with the skills to fly several ships, it is also ideal for moving multiple logistics or strategical cruisers as well as a command ship.
Below is a list of ships and how much room they take up:
Logistics and strategic cruisers | Command ships | Other ships | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
89,000 m3 | 107,000 m3 | 118,000 m3 | 80,000 m3 | 92,000 m3 | 115,000 m3 | 216,000 m3 | 252,000 m3 | 234,000 m3 | 18,900 m3 | 100,000 m3 |
Making the most of it
If you can afford to spend a little more time on it, there are various things you could do to make life a little easier for your Orca-pilot.
Should you have a lot of time and an interest in mining as well, the Orca is the premier booster for mining operations, shadowed only by the Rorqual. But that would be a considerable time investment.
Support skills | Navigation skills | Mining Foreman links |
---|---|---|
~ 4 days and 24 hours | ~ 7 days and 12 hours | ~ 58 days and 22 hours |
Mechanics IV |
Warp Drive Operation IV |
Cybernetics V [2] |
- ^ The Industrial Command Ships skill will improve your normal cargo hold capacity.
- ^ Cybernetics V is needed for the Mining Foreman Mindlink.
- ^ Mining Director V is needed for the tech two Mining Foreman Links, as well as improves the efficiency of the links by 100% per level.
- ^ The Warfare Link Specialist skill isn't required to use the tech two Mining Foreman Links, but it improves the efficiency of the links by 10% per level.
- ^ The Industrial Command Ships skill isn't required to use the tech two Mining Foreman Links, but it improves the efficiency of the links by 3% per level.
Valet alt
Having an alt capable of flying your ships around is invaluable when your main character is at war or otherwise indisposed. If the purpose is just to fly the ship, they wouldn't need any gunnery skills whatsoever.
Below are various levels of training needed for different type of tanking capabilities. As a minimum, the Hull tanking and Ship skills is enough to fit a Damage Control II and Reinforced Bulkhead II modules for a solid 150k+ ehp buffer on a regular tech one battleship. If you train the Additional race as well, the alt could move a pirate faction battleship.
Hull tanking | Ship skills | Additional race | Shield tanking [1] | Better shield tanking [2] |
---|---|---|---|---|
~ 1 day and 23 hours | ~ 3 days and 5 hours | ~ 2 days and 11 hours | ~ 15 minutes | ~ 5 day and 11 hours |
Mechanics III |
Spaceship Command IV |
<racial> Frigate III |
Shield Upgrades I |
Shield Upgrades IV |
- ^ This short train allows you to use Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction and amplifiers like the Upgraded EM Ward Amplifier I module.
- ^ Increasing the train to a handful of days means you can upgrade the shield tank and use the Large Shield Extender II, EM Ward Amplifier II as well as the Adaptive Invulnerability Field II modules (or any of the active hardeners or passive amplifiers).
Neural remaps
Normally one should be careful about remaps and not spend them needlessly. However, if you are making an alt knowing that it will only train for a month or two and not train anything else after that point, consider using all the remaps.
For example, if you're using a PLEX (Pilot License Extension) to activate Dual Character Training for a month or two, then using all three neural remaps makes sense. It might allow you to squeeze in some more skills or shorten the training time to be within one or two months instead of slightly more.
Common guides
There are several common guides on the wiki already. Our needs in the incursion community is a little different, but it might be useful for general purposes or to get some inspiration of what else to train on your alt.