Eve Missioning

I have been messing around with my missioner alt for the past few nights. He’s lvl1, has almost all the needed skills to satisfy the basic certificates that matter (Core Proficiency – shield skills, armor tanking, frigate laser turrets), and I now have Amarr Frigate 4 in queue to start the cruiser training regimen; which is basically medium turrets and a few more ‘core’ skills like EWAR and electronics / engineering / mechanic / navigation to levels 4 or 5; and maybe mwd training is in order. (‘Running’ / non-warp flying is the most frustrating waste of time for me.)




A few comments on my missioning ‘break’:

=The pew pew of lvl1 missions is pretty boring. A few intense points, but the travel time is painful. 80km away? At least I’m in a frigate that can Afterburner I at 600m/s. BC travel times are going to hurt… mwd training time, I think.

=The number of foes requires you to pretty much skill in tanking, which decreases your pew pew training potential. I like things going boom, but taking on 12 frigs at once (happened a couple times) seems a bit much. I didn’t have a problem completing it, and the worst ‘damage’ I took was 60% armor gone. I now have the passive armor resist skills; and the worst damage I have taken since has been 10% structure. Lvl2 missions may be in order, but I want a proper cruiser first.

=I have been sending my indy/orca character along in a catalyst to salvage / loot the missions. This probably saves at least 20m / mission, as I can tractor in up to 5 wrecks at a time. I did need to spend 1 day of supplemental training for my indy/orca pilot, but it’ll be worth it. The main drawback: I now need to travel this toon to the missioning area… more time traveling. In the Viator this only takes 5-10m, but still. Another drawback of trying not to make any faction mad: I don’t have jump clones for most of my characters. Even then, a 24hr cooldown is quite a bit. I should start sending my providence (different account) up to Jita for trading instead of my indy/orca pilot.

=The salvage has been great, and I have noticed how much salvage prices have increased since my last major rig construction project. I was sitting on 200-300m of salvage 3 months ago. That’s up probably 20-30% now. May be time to start making more rigs in between my various T2 items.

=Higher level courier missions always seemed ‘worth’ it. Lvl1 couriers to move a 10m3 item 7 jumps for 0.01 standing is just… bleh. The reward+bonus was ~75k, which is ok, I guess. Takes 7-10m to do (down, dock/hand-in and back), and I’ve done it 4x..



A typical lvl1 combat mission, with 100% looting/salvaging in tandem with my catalyst pulls around 500-550k, and takes 20-30m. This is at a ‘casual’ pace where I’m not trying to ‘push’ for time or efficiency. About 60-70% of the take from lvl1 missions is from salvage, and 20% from reward +bonus. If you’re new to eve and want to make isk; see if you can get in a destroyer and run a tractor beam + salvager setup with an agree-able Lvl4 missioner. You should be able to pay for your lvl2-3 mission ship + mods within a week, easily.



I am now to the point of deciding whether to train for T2 lasers, or go for a cruiser. In plugging into EFT, the Omen would be a much bigger dps increase than going for T2 lasers, and I could jump in the ship in a shorter period of time. I also looked at the Maller, but I feel my resistance skills should be sufficient for Lvl2 missions; without needing to sacrifice that much potential dps for tank. With my main (who does lvl4 missions in a passive T2 mod Drake), I greatly overpowered missions when I actually did them, having BC skills by the time I did my first mission. This character I am playing more while I ‘build him up’; at least… for now. While I’ll need T2 lasers eventually, I’m thinking of hopping into a cruiser now. T2 missions aren’t that rough, and for 5m, I should be able to fully fit an Omen for mission running, which would triple my dps.