A support skill is a broad description, without clues in the name as to what they might actually be.
My definition of support skills are those skills that give pilots added flexibility to their ship fitting, their capacitor usage, and their piloting. They do not give bonuses only to specific module types, but rather give their bonuses across the board. They can increase weapon ranges, weapon tracking speeds, they can increase the speed of ships, ship agility, they can allow more for effective capacitor use, they can allow for better usage of powergrid and CPU, which allows for more leeway in fitting ships.
Support skills give far more options to a pilot regarding ship fitting, capacitor use, and piloting options.
(I have included a couple of damage-related skills, since they give a damage bonus across the board, and not only to particular types of modules. I have included a couple of skills that give their bonuses only to specific module types.)
I've broken down support skills into a number of categories below. Several skills are listed in multiple categories, for ease of reference.
Fitting
Advanced Weapon Upgrades2% reduction per skill level in powergrid needs of weapon turrets and launchers.
Electronics
5% Bonus to ship CPU output per skill level.
Electronics Upgrades
5% reduction of CPU needs for all modules requiring Electronics Upgrades per skill level.
Energy Grid Upgrades
5% reduction in CPU needs of modules requiring Energy Grid Upgrades per skill level.
Engineering
5% Bonus to ship's powergrid output per skill level.
Shield Upgrades
5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs.
Weapon Upgrades
5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets, launchers and smartbombs.
Capacitor
Controlled Bursts5% reduction in capacitor need of weapon turrets per skill level.
Energy Management
5% bonus to capacitor capacity per skill level.
Energy Systems Operation
5% reduction in capacitor recharge time per skill level.
Fuel Conservation
10% reduction in afterburner capacitor needs per skill level.
High Speed Maneuvering
5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level.
Shield Compensation
2% less capacitor need for shield boosters per skill level.
Warp Drive Operation
Each skill level reduces the capacitor need of initiating warp by 10%.
Navigation
Acceleration Control5% Bonus to Afterburner and MicroWarpdrive speed boost per skill level.
Afterburner
10% bonus to Afterburner duration per skill level.
Evasive Maneuvering
5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.
Fuel Conservation
10% reduction in afterburner capacitor needs per skill level.
High Speed Maneuvering
5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level.
Navigation
5% bonus to sub-warp ship velocity per skill level.
Warp Drive Operation
Each skill level reduces the capacitor need of initiating warp by 10%.
Targeting
Long Range Targeting5% Bonus to targeting range per skill level.
Multitasking
+1 extra target per skill level, up to the ship's maximum allowed number of targets locked.
Signature Analysis
5% improved targeting speed per skill level.
Targeting
+1 extra target per skill level, up to the ship's maximum allowed number of targets locked.
Gunnery
Advanced Weapon Upgrades2% reduction per skill level in powergrid needs of weapon turrets and launchers.
Controlled Bursts
5% reduction in capacitor need of weapon turrets per skill level.
Gunnery
2% Bonus to weapon turrets' rate of fire per skill level.
Motion Prediction
5% bonus per skill level to weapon turret tracking speeds.
Rapid Firing
4% bonus per skill level to weapon turret rate of fire.
Sharpshooter
5% bonus to weapon turret optimal range per skill level.
Surgical Strike
3% bonus per skill level to the damage of all weapon turrets.
Trajectory Analysis
5% bonus per skill level to weapon turret accuracy falloff.
Weapon Upgrades
5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets, launchers and smartbombs.
Missiles
Advanced Weapon Upgrades2% reduction per skill level in powergrid needs of weapon turrets and launchers.
Auto-Targeting Missiles
5% bonus to Auto-Targeting Missiles (light, heavy and cruise) damage per skill level.
Guided Missile Precision
5% decreased factor of signature radius for light, heavy and cruise missile explosions per level of skill.
Missile Bombardment
10% bonus to all missiles' maximum flight time per level.
Missile Launcher Operation
2% Bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per skill level.
Missile Projection
10% bonus to all missiles' maximum velocity per level.
Rapid Launch
3% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level.
Target Navigation Prediction
10% decrease per level in factor of target's velocity for all missiles.
Warhead Upgrades
2% bonus to all missile damage per skill level.
Weapon Upgrades
5% reduction per skill level in the CPU needs of weapon turrets, launchers and smartbombs.
Drones
Drone Durability5% bonus to drone shield, armor and hull hit points per level.
Drone Interfacing
20% bonus to drone damage, drone mining yield per level.
Drone Navigation
5% increase in drone MicroWarpdrive speed per level.
Drone Sharpshooting
Increases drone optimal range.
Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing
3,000m bonus drone control range per level to all drones.
Scout Drone Operation
Drone control range increased by 5000 meters per skill level.
Armor/Structure
Armor Resistance PhasingReduces duration time of Reactive Armor Hardeners by 10% per level.
Hull Upgrades
Grants a 5% bonus to armor hit points per skill level.
Mechanics
5% bonus to structure hit points per skill level.
Repair Systems
5% reduction in repair systems duration per skill level.
Shields
Shield Compensation2% less capacitor need for shield boosters per skill level.
Shield Management
5% bonus to shield capacity per skill level.
Shield Operation
5% reduction in shield recharge time per skill level.
Shield Upgrades
5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs.
Science
ThermodynamicsAllows overheating of modules. Reduces heat damage by 5% per level.
***
As always, if I've forgotten any skills, please comment. If you feel I've left out entire areas, give your reasons why they should be included. For instance, I decided not to include sections for ewar or logistics, feeling that those are advanced enough topics, that by the time a newbie gets to those as PvP paths, they will be more than familiar with the skills trees to know what and what not to train.
That is a lot of skills. Do you recommend training these skills to level 5, or just to level 4?
ReplyDeleteIf you recommend that all of these skills be trained to level 5, how long will it take, assuming that you are a new player.
Don't forget that you first need to train up Cybernetics 5, in order to use the +5 implants for maximum training efficiency (assuming you can afford them, ofc). Though, it might be interesting to see how the training time numbers work out with just +3 or +4 implants instead.
I have all of my gunnery skills to V already. Most of the rest to IV. Mechanics, Engineering and Electronics should be trained to V fairly quickly. Fitting and capacitor skills are useful across the board, therefore those should be trained to V quickly as well.
DeleteAs for Armor vs. Shields, depends on what sorts of ships you want to concentrate on. Same with Drones vs. Gunnery vs. Missiles. Gunnery is probably the most important of the three. Drones is dependent upon whether you want to concentrate on Gallente ships. Missiles whether you want to concentrate on Caldari ships. Though there is bleed over on Drones and Missiles to other factions.
As for training time. Not sure how long to train all to V, but probably close to year.
I trained all the support skills to 4/5.
DeleteMy rule of thumb was, if it takes less than 10 days to train a level, train it. Else, consider the special case of dependency.
Anyway... for a newish pilot, all these skills to 4 is great, and even somewhat overkill if you are flying tackle frigs on fleets, but sooner or later, you end up with everything at 4/5.
You might mention the damage-type specific Shield/Armor compensation skills as well, though they are fairly specific in usage (but the shield/armor sections here are pretty empty anyway, maybe just mark them as lower priority).
ReplyDeleteI normally hate you and your blog but this is pretty decent as I'm helping a friend start out.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Worth mentioning the rig skills I think. Good list, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI'd add that Minmatar pilots can safely ignore "Controlled Bursts" until they cross-train into another racial ship type.
ReplyDeleteI disagree strongly about including the damage-type-specific Compensation skillz. I think they are for specialized uses for advanced players; not for newbies. At least I know the shield ones are. I admit I don't know much about armour tanking.
ReplyDeleteAs for training everything on the list to 5, NO, you shouldn't do that right away. A small subset of the many skillz on the list are worth training to 5 very fast, a lot of the others are worth training to 5 eventually, and you'll want all of them trained to at least 4 after a couple of years of playing, with exceptions depending on your play style (e.g. if you rarely use drones, if you rarely armou tank, if you rarely use shields, or missiles, or güns).
The shield ones give bonuses to passive hardeners, the armour ones give bonuses to both passive hardeners and active hardeners. Thus a lot more useful.
DeleteThey both give bonuses to passive and active hardeners. However the bonus to active hardeners is when the mod is turned off. Since passive armor hardeners are more common such as an EANM or ANP the armor comps are more useful.
DeleteSCIENCE:
ReplyDeleteBiology (for boosters)
Cybernetics (for implants)
Infomorph Psychology (for jump clones)
The first two can enhance any number of skills, while the last is just plain convenient.
Personally speaking, I generally train any relevant 'rank 1' skill to V (because it is not overly time consuming to do so, and their benefits are broad), and any other to IV (unless V is a prerequisite to something else -- Weapon Upgrades to unlock Advanced Weapons Upgrades, for example).
Remember to get your newbros on evemon right away. When they start thinking crap this is a lot of stuff to train they can check evemon and save a profile for themselves and plan accordingly. I like not having to guess or try and remember where I was and what I wanted to do. It can also help when setting up your attributes early on. It sucks planning out a year or even 6 month as a new player but get the core skills mixed in with what you wanna do ship wise. I have found it helps folks not want to jump into the next ship right away when knowing they have 40 days worth of training on the way to begin effectively flying what they have now.
ReplyDelete