Just Starting EVE for the 1st time? What’s the best EVE character for beginners. What starting skills and attributes should you pick so you’re not gimped early on? What does it all mean?

Early on it is a good idea to concentrate a targeted career path. In order to help you decide I have put together this EVE character guide utilising  some of the most valuable advice available on early EVE career paths.

To properly choose and outfit your ship you’re really need to decide what type of work you will specialise in because no ship suits all type of work. (Of course with EVE skill progression there is no type of work you couldn’t put your hand to. You can do all of it if you wish, it will just take significant time and Isk).

ore-retriever-2At the beginning you should really focus on a basic idea, I suggest either an EVE Miner, EVE Trader or EVE Fighter (I will cover the actual Miner, Trader & Fighter EVE character builds later). Use the following click links to the character build pages if you want to look now, or use the side bar.

Obviously, this new character could be a requirement to help balance classes with your friends or Corp. If this is for a group/Corp requirement then you could, for example,  consider a manufacturing, business, science or exploration character–but you will need materials, Isk and often experience. However if you’re in this position you should already have some EVE experience, or veteran friends to help you decide the best way to go.

So for this EVE character guide I will concentrate on the best EVE character for the new EVE player. As stated I feel this is either a Miner, Fighter, or Trader. The Trader is less viable to the new player as you often need money to make money in this field. However it is something to look into later in your character development.

The Fighter/PvP is my personal favorite because I prefer other more exiting and volatile gameplay this career path this involves (more risky but this just adds to the fun, it is a game after all). The Miner still is solid choice for early players due to the reduced risk, ease of mining and Isk making potential – however I find this path a bit dull.

First a Little Overview of Skills and Attributes:

Skills

EVE is quite unusual on the skill front;

  1. No restriction on what skills you can learn (some have prerequisites including prior certain skills, skill  levels in one form or the other). Basically with enough time and dosh any character can excel in any or all areas
  2. Most Skills are advanced via a time frame system (i.e. once you start to learn the skill it will take a set amount of time to aquire). This offers less of gap between the casual and regular gamers and zero ability to power level your skills.
  3. Skills learn at different rates
  4. Specific primary and secondary player attributes  have an effect on how fast their related skills train
  5. Skills have a total of 5 levels
  6. There is a lot of strategy and planning involved in terms of which skill to train 1st, in what order, to what level, at what rate and as a requirement for what ships or modules.

Below I have listed all the skill groups and attributes, plus the most important attributes that benefit each skill. Therefore if you want to build and plan your own career you have the most important knowledge required.

Skill Groups

  1. retrieverCorporation Management
  2. Drones
  3. Electronics
  4. Engineering
  5. Industry
  6. Gunnery
  7. Leadership
  8. Learning
  9. Mechanics
  10. Missiles
  11. Navigation
  12. Science
  13. Social
  14. Spaceship Command
  15. Trade
  16. Subsystems

Attributes

Attributes are linked to skills progression and on going training. They have a direct impact on the rate at which skills are learned. There are 5 attributes:

  1. Charisma
  2. Wisdom
  3. Intelligence
  4. Perception
  5. Willpower

Here are the various skill groups, and which attributes are typically the most important for them:

  1. assualt-shipCorporation Management: Memory / Charisma
  2. Drones: Memory / Perception
  3. Electronics: Intelligence / Memory
  4. Engineering: Intelligence / Memory
  5. Gunnery: Perception / Willpower
  6. Industry: Memory / Intelligence
  7. Leadership: Charisma / Willpower
  8. Learning: Memory / Intelligence
  9. Mechanic: Intelligence / Memory
  10. Missile Launcher Operation: Perception / Willpower
  11. Navigation: Intelligence / Perception
  12. Science: Intelligence / Memory
  13. Social: Charisma / Intelligence
  14. Spaceship Command: Perception / Willpower
  15. Subsystems: Intelligence / Perception
  16. Trade: Charisma / Memory

The Learning Skill Group:

I feel this needs a special mention. While the learning tree does not give you immediate benefits such as increased fighting ability, they are essential. All the skills classified under “Learning” have an impact on your attributes. Every level gained will increase an attribute value. As attributes directly effect how fast your skills train, making use of the learning group skills will significantly shorten your skill training time. I could go into formulae but this is boring and something you will look into yourself as you progress.

Learning Group Skills and Their Effects:

  1. Empathy – Each level adds 1 attribute point of Charisma
  2. Analytic Mind – Each level adds 1 attribute point of Intelligence
  3. Instant Recall - Each level adds 1 attribute point of Memory
  4. Spatial Awareness - Each level adds 1 attribute point of Perception
  5. Iron Will - Each level adds 1 attribute point of Willpower
  6. Learning – All skill training times reduced by 2% per level
  7. Presence (advanced Skill) – Each level adds 1 attribute point of Charisma
  8. Logic (advanced Skill) – Each level adds 1 attribute point of Intelligence
  9. Eidetic Memory (advanced Skill) – Each level adds 1 attribute point of Memory
  10. Clarity (advanced Skill) – Each level adds 1 attribute point of Perception
  11. Focus (advanced Skill) – Each level adds 1 attribute point of Willpower

My Take On Learning Skill Progression – What To Do!

Personally I feel the learning skills should be trained first and fully, in general it is good idea to train all the learning skills to max as they will provide significant long term benefits to your character.

Basic Training  Help

Training Current Skills:
As easy as bringing up your character sheet, right clicking the skill you want to advance and selecting train to next level.

Aborting Training:
Any skill trained will keep its progress even if you remove or change order.

You can now queue multiple skills to complete over the course of 24 hours (e.g. you could queue up 5 skills that will take up to a total of 23 hours 15 mins to complete them all. You can add another skill as long as it starts before the 24 hour mark but nothing after the 24 hour mark). Always try and fill your training queue, please note you can always re-arrange the order of these skills by simply dragging them up or down and clicking apply.

Acquiring New Skills:
You can buy the from an academy, find them or receive as a reward from an agent

Future
EVE is constantly growing and expanding, skills will obviously change and evolve but the fundamental relationship and skill progression listed above will still be relevant. This is a great base knowledge and understanding to posses for character development.

EVE Online Character Builds

The Fighter
Click here for a detailed guide to building your EVE PvP/fighter Character

The Miner
Click here for a detailed guide to building your EVE Mining Character

The Trader
Click here for a detailed guide to building your EVE Trading Character