The Road to Yarrr: Amarr

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I have a guilt complex.  Specifically, I feel guilty for taking so much joy from the game of EVE Online without giving something back.  It's one of the primary factors that drives me to write this blog.  So for the next two weeks I'll take a break from my tales of being blown up and present to you a guide to how you too can get blown up.

First things first, go get EVEMon to assist you in your skill training.  Here is a link to a two week skill plan built in EVEMon that will be used as the basis for the rest of this post.  This plan will take a brand new character with approximately 50,000 skill points and walk you through the quickest way to get into a viable Pirating vessel.  You won't be a lean mean Pirating machine just yet, but you'll certainly have something that's workable with a minimum of time.

Intro

Thankfully, the Amarr race provides us with a simple choice of ships for solo PvP.  The Punisher is the obvious choice for a solo frigate pilot.  By following this guide, within two weeks of creating your character, you'll be sitting in a shiny new T2 fit ship that's a great start to Piracy.

Phase I

The very first thing we're going to do is remap our skills.  Don't worry too much about how this will affect your long-term goals in EVE, because all new players start with 2 remaps.  What we want for this skill plan is an Intelligence of 21, a Perception of 27 and all other skills at 17.  After doing that, within 24 hours of creating your character you should be flying this ship:


[Punisher, Amarr]
200mm Reinforced Rolled Steel Plates I
Damage Control I
Adaptive Nano Plating I
Small Armor Repairer I


Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I


Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain
200mm AutoCannon I, Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon I, Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon I, Fusion S


Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
[empty rig slot]


Now, if you're wondering why you're using Autocannons, take a look at this post.  Not only is it a good read if you're using a Punisher, but it discusses my thoughts on Lasers with the Punisher.  With the absolute minimum skills, this ship will produce the following results.

Effective Hit Points: 3,437
Top Speed: 690m/s
Damage you can tank per second: 22
Damage you can deal per second: 37
Damage you can deal per volley: 120
Your capacitor will last: 1m 49s
Damage you can tank after that: 13
Total Cost: 930,387 isk
Skillbook Cost: 345,750isk

It's certainly not the most impressive stats you'll ever see, but it's a start.  The total price if you had bought this ship with this fitting in Jita today (2/12/2011 as I'm writing this) would have been 930,387isk.  If you went without the Rigs, you could get away with 465,387isk, which is a significant cost savings at the expense of about 20% of your DPS.  You'll need to decide for yourself which is more important to you, but I'd recommend the rigs and will assume for the rest of this post that you bought those too.  You'll also have a one time cost of 345,750isk for skillbooks.  Again, you can save 144,000isk off this cost by not putting on the rigs.

You'll be able to accomplish your primary goals in EVE PvP, which are to warp scramble a target and then put holes in his ship with your guns.  You can get out there and read a good guide or two and begin learning, first hand, the lessons that you can take with you no matter how many Skill Points you have.  My primary concerns in designing this fit are cost and speed of availability.  If you don't have those same concerns, maybe you should move on to...

Phase II

By the end of your first week of training you'll have made significant gains.  While the skills you've trained will improve the above fit, they'll also allow you to equip better modules.  By the end of week one you can now fly:


[Punisher, Amarr Week 1]
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Small Armor Repairer II


Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I


Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain
200mm AutoCannon I, Republic Fleet Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon I, Republic Fleet Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon I, Republic Fleet Fusion S


Small Projectile Burst Aerator I
Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
[empty rig slot]


With your skills at the end of one week of training, it will perform as follows.

Effective Hit Points: 4,630 (34% Increase)

Top Speed: 700m/s (1% Increase)

Damage you can tank per second: 38 (73% Increase)

Damage you can deal per second: 52 (41% Increase)

Damage you can deal per volley: 160 (33% Increase)

Your capacitor will last: 2m (10% Increase)

Damage you can tank after that: 24 (85% Increase)

Total Cost:  2,148,090isk (130% Increase)

Total Skillbook Cost: 1,557,750isk (207% Increase)

What a difference a week can make, eh?  The cost has increased as well, and the rigs now make up a small enough portion of the total cost that to do without them wouldn't make sense.  You've spent the week training enough skills to get a Tech II tank, as well as a number of your support skills up to level three.  You've also begun using Faction Ammo, and would suggest that the price is worth it.  In the beginning, you only need to go out with enough Republic Fleet Fusion for what's in your guns, plus an additional load of Republic Fleet EMP.  You can also consider jumping straight into this fit if you've been playing for a while, and have enough of a wallet balance to get right into it.  All it really lacks are the Tech II guns, which represent a significant investment, in isk and time.  It's coming up next.

Phase III

By the end of your second week your trial will be ending.  With any luck, the dark mistress that is EVE has sunk her claws into you and you'll soon be signing up for more, but if not, you'll be finishing up the skills for the following fit just in time for one last roam.

[Punisher, Amarr Week 2]

200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Damage Control II

Adaptive Nano Plating II

Small Armor Repairer II

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I

Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S

200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S

Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I

[empty rig slot]

Effective Hit Points: 4,630 (34% Increase)

Top Speed: 737m/s (7% Increase)

Damage you can tank per second: 38 (73% Increase)

Damage you can deal per second: 82 (122% Increase)

Damage you can deal per volley: 224 (87% Increase)

Your capacitor will last: 2m (10% Increase)

Damage you can tank after that: 24 (85% Increase)

Total Cost:  4,653,090isk (130% Increase)

Total Skillbook Cost: 3,864,750isk (1,018% Increase)

In just under two weeks you're now flying, what I would consider, the standard AC Punisher fit for PvP.  This exact fitting can keep you busy for months of Piracy and you can continue to upgrade skills that will improve it for the better part of your first year in EVE.  Now, most people don't stick with just one ship for that long, but where you go from here is outside of the scope of this, or perhaps any, blog post.

Closing Thoughts

The Amarr race benefits greatly, maybe more than any other race, from a large pool of Skill Points.  By the end of these two weeks, you won't even have touched on EM/Thermal/Kinetic/Explosive Armor Resistance skills.  Each one will enhance your tank even more.  By the same token, Amarr ships also suffer from a large number of different skill groups that are helpful.  While Autocannons are great for a Punisher, you'll need a completely different set of skills for Amarr Cruisers.  My recommendation being the Arbitrator, you're looking at a lot of training for Drones, Tracking Disruptors and Energy Neutralizers.  Likewise, an Amarr Battlecruiser will ask for, yet again, another completely different set of skills.  Although the road to Amarr supremacy is a long one, if you like the idea of one day flying ships that can do absolutely amazing things, the Amarr lineup of T2 ships is truly a wonder to behold.  Join  me next time for a look at the Caldari (Alphabetical Order FTW!), and just what can be done with them in the same amount of time.

Regarrrds,

FNG

EDITOR'S NOTE: This guide represents a first, although certainly not what I would consider rough, draft.  I appreciate any and all feedback from both players with more experience than I have, or anyone trying this skill plan themselves.  If you spot any errors in math, or errors in judgement throughout this post, please say so in the comments.  I will make every effort to make adjustments as long as arguments are presented in a convincing manner.  One piece of criticism I won't accept is that Piracy at two weeks is unfeasible, because I've seen players do it in the past.  While I myself started after playing four weeks, I had plenty of skills which were completely useless to PvP and, subtracting those, was actually behind any player using this skill plan.  It's also worth noting that the discontinuation of learning skills means a new player can be flying a formidable ship much faster than they could only a short time ago.