I'm a caldari pilot with around 2mil sp. I liked the fact that their ships are missile-based shield tanks, as well as their general aesthetic/backstory.
Did I make the wrong choice for serious pvp/fleet ops? I heard caldari battleships are laughed at in low sec engagements because of armor-tank logi priority.
If so, how hard would it be to train for minmatar or amarr ships? Would it be a better idea to just re-roll?
Phil
[ Editor ]
Ignore the naysayers. Caldari do just fine in PvP - in fact, one of the most commpnly flown PvP ships in the game is the Drake.
The only reason people say otherwise is that the other three races - so, better than 3/4 of the ships flown in PvP - are armour tanked so it's easier to fit a minnie, Amarr or Gallente ship and still expect to be remote repped.
In practice, a well-fitted Caldari ship has more effective hit points and a comparable DPS to its peers, with the added advantage of damage type flexibility.
You specified Caldari battleships in your OP. the Raven is one of the most widely-flown ships in the game, and has long been a favourite of some very respected PvP corps. Most notably, Burn Eden are well known for preferring it over any other ship. The Scorp is an excellent ECM platform with decent damage output, and the Rokh, when fitted with blasters and a HP tank, is perfect for front line combat.
Let's focus on the Raven. a well-fit, well skilled Raven pilot can put out about 1200 to 1300 DPS. The mistake people keep making with PvP ravens is fitting shield boosters on them. Don't - use large shield extenders and give it lots of HP. minimise the cap usage in all areas aside from hardeners, and you'll have enough to run some remote reppers in those remaining two highslots. That combination makes the Raven a hard-hitter, fairly tough, and a welcome bit of logistics support all in one package.
Bear in mind that just because it's not outstanding in any one narrow field doesn't make it bad. The Raven's a versatile workhorse and well worth flying.
One thing I will say - Caldari ships rarely do well in solo PvP. but this is a MULTIPLAYER game - get some friends, spec in Caldari, show the narrow-minded idiots who think that PvP begins and ends with how personally l33t they and their ship are how wrong they are.
1200-1300 DPS? WTF? Who’s numbers are those? I a have never seen a BS over 800 DPS and I would say 700 is a more realistic number.
I believe that a Megathron’s quite capable of pulling 1400 DPS.
That said, my above is based on memory and might be out of date. I’ll take a second look and revise my estimate as appropriate.
Confirmed: a Raven loaded with six Siege Missile Launcher IIs and three Ballistic Control System IIs, using three Ogre II drones will produce 1,246 damage per second, according to the way EFT calculates things. with cruise missiles, you get 766dps.
Gah'Matar
[ Moderator ]
In small-to-medium gangs, Drakes do well. Especially if fit for damage rather then tank (an unusual choice). Ferox can be a surprising DPS platform with your choice of lasers, blasters or autocannons.
People mostly don't like the delay for damage with missiles.
The shield/armor logi is a red herring. HAC/Recons gang run shield logistics and do quite well, no reason it wouldn't work for BCs or even BS.
What does fail is RR-BS due to the CPU requirement of BS sized remote reppers.
mark lt
[ Editor ]
Dont reroll a new character because all the support skills you already have trained will have been wasted. Its far easier to just start training for the ships and weapons of a new race and keep all the support skills you have. Since your Caldari going for Minmatar would prob be easiest for you IF you wanted to change.
As for fleets besides ECM boats as mentioned above the Rohk Battleship is your best bet but you would have to train up your Gunnery skills for Railguns.
Yuri
[ Editor ]
No re-rolling would be bad.
Almost all your skill points except for your Space Ship Command will be useful in Gallente ships (which also use hybrid turrets).
At 2M SP a lot of those points should be invested in the oh so boring but pay off oh so well learning skills--and throwing away that would be painful.
The Caldari BS's may not be the best for PVP, but they are good enough and they are the best ECM boats around.
Most often low sec fights come down to who brought more ships (or force multipliers) than which race's ships were doing DPS. The Drake (the Caldari battle cruiser) is probably the best ship in class for both PVP and PVE even though it is a shield tanked missile boat.
And larger fleet ops will probably have both armor and shield repping logistics ships around.
rixx javix
All of the races have their positives and negatives, no matter what anyone tells you. And at 2m sp almost everything tends to be difficult and challenging. Stick it out, develop a solid skill plan and stick with it. The cross-training will come along as a natural extension of that skill plan.
As a Caldari pilot myself, you will make some sacrifices especially early on. But all races do. A missile/shield boat does have some disadvantages, but it also has some major advantages - mostly range. I can't tell you the times I've kept blaster boats at range and watched them die horribly and emo rage in local.
So much of it depends on your style of play. Eve is about choices and having the dedication to stick with those choices. Good luck.
derp
Caldari ECM boats such as the Blackbird, Scorpion, Falcon, and Rook are incredibly useful, as they can keep enemies from being able to target other ships.. In most combat situations that are gang related, missiles should do just fine,
lt_47
As you are relatively new I would suggest training minmitar now. As a fellow caldari (currently at 17mill sp) I have just this week began my journey into the minnie ships.
Early on, the jaguar/sabre/vaga wipe the floor with caldari ships (for pvp) due to speed/insta damage and it is a similar scenario when it comes to BS engagements. Rokh is a great sniper, but in a fleet of 40 other tempest/apocs you will get little rep love and will pop crying and alone :P
either decision, you can still pvp, however with caldari you need friends. I fly falcon alot as it rapepwns however its all down to personal preference. Personally, if I began my minnie skilling earlier I would be happier for it now :)
Good luck whatever you choose to do.
mattk50
To sum it up, caldari have great fleet ships and 2 or 3 (drake, rook/falcon... something else) great solo ships. Later in the game most people do cross train. Im nearing 30m SP and I've begun to train Minnie ships on my caldari main, their ships had a different play style i wanted to check out. If you see another race that you really like, go ahead and train it up. If you want to swap races because you think caldari suck, they dont.
(not to mention the fun when you fly a moa or a ferox to bait pirates (people think they are terrible, they are not) and then end up killing them because of caldari's bad rep.)