Minmatar Basic Ship and Skill Overview

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The Minmatar Basic Ship and Skill Guide is intended to give fitting and skill recommendations for Tech 1 Minmatar ships for Player vs. Environment (PvE) and Player vs. Player (PvP) encounters.

This is a work in progress, and the guide's Discussion Thread is on the Eve University forum. Please direct comments, suggestions, and corrections to that thread.

The fits listed here are suggestions. You can modify them as you see fit. These fits -- especially the ones for ships smaller than battlecruisers -- tend to use T1 meta 0 modules for ease of reference, but upgrading them to named or T2 modules is in many cases a good idea if you can afford it.

Rookie Ship

The rookie ship is the first ship you start with. If you are Minmatar, it will be a Reaper. A new rookie ship is given whenever you dock at a station where you do not have any ships.

Reaper

The Reaper is the Minmatar Rookie ship. Good for transport if you're too cheap to buy a shuttle.

Frigate

A frigate is the smallest of the ship classes in EVE. They can fill many roles and are easy to fit and fly; learning how to effectively pilot the frigate designed for your play style will give you good piloting practice for when you move on to the specialized roles the Tech 2 frigates offer.

Burst

The Burst is the Tech 1 mining frigate of the Minmatar Republic.

Slasher

The Slasher is a very cheap combat oriented frigate. It has the fastest base speed of any T1 frigate but it's not nearly as useful a fighter as the Rifter.

Vigil

The Vigil is the Tech 1 EWAR ship of the Minmatar Republic. This ship is fast and makes a decent tackler but it's main use will probably be for pilots practicing to get into covops ships. The bonus to target painters is effectively useless.

Breacher

A "missile boat" Tech 1 frigate. This frigate is rarely seen, it's effectiveness is overshadowed by the much more fun and durable Rifter.

Rifter

The Rifter is the T1 "assault" frigate of the Minmatar Republic. Many say that this frigate is as good, or better than, some T2 frigates. With the right skills trained it can be a very effective and cheap pvp platform.

Cookie-cutter Fit you are likely to see in pvp: http://eve.battleclinic.com/loadout/3546-Solo-PvP-Rifter.html

Probe

The Probe is the Minmatar exploration frigate. This ship is best used as an exploration boat but if you have the skills to deal with it's small capacitor it can be a speedy and cheap delivery ship due to it's comparatively large cargo bay.

Destroyer

Destroyers are ships slightly larger than frigates. They use the same sized modules as frigates, have more high slots. They are often used in pve for level 1 missions. They are rarely used in pvp, as their DPS is not impressive without high skills, although they sometimes fill the role of anti-interceptor.

Flying destroyers is not recommended for PvP Uni fleets. There are some exceptions, like Thrashers for a specialized Hit & Run fleet.

Thrasher

The Thrasher is the Minmatar destroyer. As with all Minmatar ships its emphasis is on speed. Most pilots use destroyer boats for PvE salvaging ops due to the ability to fit a large number of tractor beams and salvagers. The Thrasher can also make an effective antifrigate platform if piloted by a player with decent skill points. It is rarely seen in fleet combat but the cheap cost makes destoryers a favorite for suicide gankers, be aware of it's capabilities and don't underestimate the 8 high slots.

Cruiser

Scythe

The Scythe is the Logistics and Mining cruiser of the Minmatar Republic.

Bellicose

The Bellicose is the Minmatar EWAR cruiser, with bonuses to target painting and projectile turret rate of fire. It is a rare and unloved ship. Target painting is only vital in a few very specific situations (like a missile-ship-only fleet), and it can be done from unbonused midslots on normal combat ships. The Bellicose doesn't tank very well, has tight CPU and powergrid and a comparatively small capacitor. And, to top it all off, it only has three turret hardpoints, which limits the benefit of the rate of fire bonus.

However, its reputation means that the Bellicose is rarely primary target and it can be a useful fleet support ship. It's not much use in PvE, though.

Stabber

The Stabber is often affectionately referred to as the "mini vagabond." If you plan on moving into ships that utilize speed tanking or avoidance tactics this is a good ship to practice with. It can be fit as a heavy tackle, anti-frigate boat, or even a long range sniper/kiter. Part of the strength of the Stabber is that the enemy will not know exactly what you're fit for until you engage. All he'll know is that you will be fast.

Rupture

The heavy duty combat cruiser of the Minmatar Republic, this ship looks like a chunk of brick. The Rupture is the favored mission cruiser for the Minmatar, it has a good tank and good damage potential for level 2's and easy level 3's. In Uni fleet ops this cruiser is almost always set up as a cheap and effective direct damage ship. Occasionally this ship will fill a heavy tackle role but this is very rare in Uni ops.

Battlecruiser

Cyclone

While it is certainly true that the Hurricane is better than this ship in almost all situations, the cyclone can have a remarkably strong local active tank-even comparable to that of a Myrmidon. However to achieve this, one must fit an X-Large shield booster supplemented by a medium capacitor booster. This will gimp the dps quite alot due to fitting issues, so it is not recommended to fly this ship without T2 gun skills. If you're looking for a challenge or perhaps a bait ship, this could be your ship.

Hurricane

One of the more popular battlecruisers, the Hurricane has a long history of positive pvp performance. Most Minmatar pilots also choose a Hurricane as their level 3 mission ship, it tends to perform better than the cyclone in many situations. In PvP you will often find this ship fit with autocannons but kiting setups with artillery are also popular. The main theme in fits is that the hurricane will be equipped to be fast and to have a lot of damage output. The tank is a little thin but the pilot is expected to counter this by utilizing his speed to his best advantage. Compared to the cyclone this ship is less "tank" and more "gank."

Battleship

Typhoon

The Typhoon's position as the cheapest of the Minmatar battleships is a little misleading, as it's not a very good ship for new pilots. With seven low slots, a useful rate of fire bonus and the bandwidth to field a full flight of heavy or sentry drones, it has a lot of potential. But it takes considerable skillpoint investment to bring that potential out, and the rate of fire bonus is split between two different weapon systems.

The Typhoon is consequently not a common sight, but when it is used it's usually fitted with missiles, often with torpedoes and either neuts or armor RR for close combat. There are also viable L4 mission-running fits which use cruise missile launchers and sentry drones.

However, new Minmatar battleship pilots will probably be more effective in one of the other two options.

Maelstrom

On the same skill path as the Cyclone, the Maelstrom has a powerful active shield tank. Many players use this ship to absorb damage in level 5 missions. It is also one of the few Minmatar ships that can utilize each high slot with a turret.

Industrial

Wreathe

The introductory Minmatar industrial ship, the wreathe is similar in nature to all the entry industrials. It is a little faster than some of the other races' industrials but has a little less cargo space.

Ammunition, Range, and Kiting

You can read a detailed description of projectile turret ammunition here. Minmatar ships have the ability to control the type of damage they deal and therefore target their enemy's weaknesses. In PvE you can look up the damage type your enemy is weak to here and select the appropriate ammunition.

By default, close range (EMP, Fusion or Phased Plasma) ammo should be used for the best DPS. There is no close-range projectile ammo which does primarily kinetic damage, but the higher DPS of the short-ranged projectile ammunition types may compensate for this if you target their second-weakest resist. If you are taking too much damage at close range, switch to medium range (Titanium Sabot or Depleted Uranium) or long (Proton, Nuclear or Carbonized Lead) range ammo and fire from further away.

Guns can suffer from tracking issues, so I would recommend using the 'keep at range' option instead of the 'orbit' option. With the amount of enemies in missions, orbiting is less likely to mitigate the total incoming damage from rats.

Projectile turrets are unusual in having very long falloff. This means that keeping within optimal range is not as essential for you as it is for pilots using lasers and hybrids. Autocannon have such short optimal ranges that you are more or less condemned to fight in falloff with them; with artillery you should probably aim to be at the edge of your optimal range. There's no need to be closer than that, and the more range you can keep at the less trouble your guns will have tracking the enemy.

To find out your optimal and falloff ranges with ammo, load ammo in your guns, then right click and show info. The optimal displayed in the attributes will be adjusted for ammo and skills.

Tech and Meta Levels

These fittings were made mostly using Tech 1 Meta 0 modules, or Tech 2 for larger ships. This is partly to avoid confusion with higher meta names. Also, this insures that ship fittings are relatively cheap to get into without spending too much for new players with cash flow difficulties. And during war, pvp fittings using Tech 1 Meta 0 modules are provided by the university.

Higher Meta items up to meta 4 will often be easier to fit. Tech 2 is Meta 5, and harder to fit. Meta 3 and 4 are expensive, often more expensive than Tech 2. Meta 1 and 2 will often be less expensive than Meta 0, due to supply and demand on the market.

Drones

Small drones should be used against frigate and destroyer sized enemies, medium drones should be used against cruiser and battlecruiser sized enemies, and heavy drones should be used against battleship sized enemies. Sentries are mostly meant for battleship sized enemies, but if smaller enemies are far enough that tracking isnt an issue, they can deal relatively well with those.

Never use Amarr drones, due to their low damage multiplier, they are useless even against enemies who's lowest resistance is EM damage. Gallente drones have the highest damage multiplier, and thermal damage is the best or second best damage to deal against most rat types. For level 1 to 3 missions, gallente drones are fine to use exclusively, although switching drones will make more efficient runs. At level 4 missions, it is strongly recommended to always fit the best drone types to match rat weaknesses.

Drone aggro should be watched. When arriving in a mission room, aggro should be aquired by approaching enemies and shooting them with guns. If a new wave of enemies arrives and the drones catch aggro, they should be recalled to the drone bay, and released only when the enemies have targeted your ship. Under normal circumstances, you should never lose drones when using proper aggro management with rats.

Hot keys are recommended for drone management. They need to be initially launched manually from the drone window, though hot keys can be set for attack and return to drone bay.

In pvp, Gallente and Minmatar drones are used almost exclusively. Gallente drones for their damage potential, Minmatar drones for their speed and explosive damage which armor tankers will not always patch.

Tank & Gank

Different rat (NPC pirates) factions have different damage type resistances, and deal different damage types.

Drones and hardeners should be switched around based on rat types.

Damage type resistance and dealt by rats can be found in the NPC Damage Types article.

Mission-specific damage profiles can be found on Eve Survival.

All EHP in this guide is from EFT calculations, not in-game EHP.

Salvaging After the Mission

Salvaging boats, most commonly destroyers, are usually used to clean up rooms after missions are complete. To do so, make sure you bookmark one wreck for each room in the mission, since the acceleration gates will disappear after the mission has be turned in at the agent. Once the mission is turned in, the MWD can be used to propel the salvaging boat within tractor range faster.

For Level 4 missions, many players switch from a destroyer to a battlecruiser because they have lots of high slots, like destroyers, but bigger cargo holds. The Hurricane is a popular L4 salvaging ship because it is fast and agile (for a BC), has eight high slots for salvagers and tractor beams and six low slots for expanded cargohold modules (which aren't subject to stacking penalties).