Caldari

Character creation First 200 hours Skill training Cloning Trading Mission running Basin in EVE Bug or not Ship fitting Amarr Caldari Gallente Minmatar Caldari (EVElopedia) Ships (EVElopedia) Caldari ships (EVElopedia) Frigate Kestrel The Kestrel is a great frigate for pilots of all skill levels. It is one of the slowest combat frigates which makes it less useful as a tackler but it's damage capabilities are rated as one of the highest of all frigate-class ships. It should be used as a anti-frigate ship or a support damage dealer. There are two main ways to set up the Kestrel: Rockets or Standard Missiles. Rockets are very close range, fire very quickly and tear apart most of what they meet. Range should be around 5000m, depending on skills. For the middle slots you can do a couple of things but the modules you should be looking at are: Warp Scrambler/Disruptor Small Shield Booster Webifier Tracking Disruptor (rare) Afterburner (MWD doesn't fit well on a Kestrel) Sensor Dampener and EW As for the low slots, you can pretty much put anything in there that you want. Some examples are: 2 Nanofiber Micro Auxilary Power Core, 400mm Plate 2 Cap Relay (Don't use power relay if you are using shield booster) 200mm Plate, Small Rep 2 Ballistic Control System You might not be able to fit any combination, but you get the general idea. Pros Great damage Good slot layout Can do any damage type Cons Slow Rockets High slots Mid slots Low slots 4 Rocket launchers 1MN Afterburner Small shield extender Small shield booster 2 Nanofiber internal structure or Nanofiber internal structure Ballistics control system Missiles High slots Mid slots Low slots 4 standard missile launchers 1MN Afterburner Small shield extender Small shield booster 2 Nanofiber internal structure or Nanofiber internal structure Ballistics control system Warning: This is skill-intensive fitting, since it requires a lot of CPU and grid, which you need to mend with your skills, like engineering, electronics and weapon upgrades. Both of these set-ups are made for a gang or fleet fight; however, if you can't depend on support ships, your mid-slots should have at least 1 webifier, and the other two slots filled with any combination of sensor dampeners or warp scramblers. 1v1 PvP High slots Mid slots Low slots 4 Rocket launchers 2 Stasis webifier Warp scrambler 400mm armor plate Micro auxiliary power core In this set-up, the EW mid-slots are used to keep your target from running, so you can pound it with rockets. The low slot is used by an armor plate, since the mid-slots you used to tank before are in use already. Cruiser Caracal Skills Caldari Cruiser III Missile Launcher Operation III Heavy Missiles III Missile Projection III Missile Bombardment III Rapid Launch III Target Navigation Prediction III Electronics IV Engineering IV Energy Systems Operation II Energy Management II Weapon Upgrades II Long Range Targeting I Optional but recommended skills, which should only add 2-3 days of training time: Missile Launcher Operation IV Warhead Upgrades III Drones II Scout Drone Operation II Standard quick-fit layout High slots Mid slots Low slots Drones Heavy Missile Launcher I Heavy Missile Launcher I Heavy Missile Launcher I Heavy Missile Launcher I Heavy Missile Launcher I 10MN Afterburner I Sensor Booster I Target Painter I Target Painter I Medium Shield Booster I Ballistic Control System I Ballistic Control System I 2 Light Drone (Optional) Heavy Missile Launcher I are all loaded with 29 Scourge Heavy Missiles. Another possible set-up is to use Assault Missile Launchers, adding two Remote Sensor Dampers and two Sensor Boosters in the mid-slots. You can also substitute the Afterburner for a 10MN Microwarp Drive. In the low slots, a Ballistic Control System and a Damage Control are good. This set-up is a PvP set-up for engaging enemy frigate/destroyer-sized vessels, be they Tech 1, or Tech 2. With good skills, the Assault Missile Launchers can send off a volley every 8.5 seconds, rendering your Caracal a potent damage dealer. Don't expect this set-up to allow you to keep up with those frigates, however, you just won't be that fast, even with the Microwarp Drive (MWD) fitted. Your main hope is to engage and do lots of damage fast. This, again with the right skills, is also a potent mission runner for Level 2 missions, although, substituting the Dampers for two Shield Extenders, or even one, is a good idea. With good skills, standard missiles will gain a range of around 48,000 meters, which will allow you to engage most enemies in an L2 mission while denying them the ability to engage you in return. In both versions, two light drones should be fitted to deal with pesky frigates or drones that get too close. Another recommendation is to fit only two of the launchers, be they heavy, or assault with kinetic damage missiles, and one each of heat, em and explosive missiles in the others. This seems to give a slight benefit in terms of killing power, although it should not, by the numbers, do so. Also, in a PvP situation, it is unlikely that any enemy will be able to defend against every type of damage and Caldari ships are very common in PvP, so, you can bet that there will be defenses against your kinetic ammunition. Battlecruiser Drake It's unique in that it's both symmetrical and good at PvE, two things that you normally don't find on Caldari ships. Or at least one of those two. Passive Tank Megadrake High slots Mid slots Low slots Drones Rigs Heavy Missile Launcher II Heavy Missile Launcher II Heavy Missile Launcher II Heavy Missile Launcher II Heavy Missile Launcher II Heavy Missile Launcher II Heavy Missile Launcher II Small Tractor Beam I Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Large Shield Extender II Shield Recharger II 2 Dread Guristas Shield Hardeners Shield Power Relay II Shield Power Relay II Shield Power Relay II Shield Power Relay II 5 Hobgoblin II Core Defense Field Purger I Core Defense Field Purger I Core Defense Field Purger I Dread Guristas Shield Hardeners are Mission-Specific or EM/Therm for general use. Any time someone complains about an imbalanced ship, point to the Drake and laugh hysterically. Here's a ship that, while it's not doing a ton of DPS, should have over 50k effective shield hit points and a sub-180 second recharge time, giving it an effective, hands-off passive tank of somewhere north of 550 DPS. At the low end. With optimal skills, you're talking the 750-DPS range, depending on the damage mix. Damage comes from the Heavy Missile Launchers and the Drones. You'll need good drones to break some high-end NPC tanks. If there's one reason that everybody and their brother isn't running Drakes for Level 4 missions, it is because the damage output is fairly anaemic when compared to the other high-tank PvE platforms. The Drake can persist in combat, but that's because it's forced to do so in order to kill. Also critical is cap usage. You've only got a pair of active modules, but with the severe gimping that cap recharge rate takes because of the rack of Shield Power Relays, those two hardeners really hit it hard. That's the whole reason for the Dread Guristas modules, despite the fact that Tech 2 gear would do the same resistance for a lot less cost: The Dread modules are much easier on the cap. T2 modules give your cap a timer, and if you're on a timer for your tank, you might as well be flying a Raven. It's also worth noting that, for many missions, the set-up's tanking ability will be totally overpowered. Because of this, it's pretty simple to swap in a few Ballistic Control Units. It's usually better to kill slightly faster with a weaker tank, right?