EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

There's gear and then there's gear. The clothes make the man, and in EVE Online your gear is your clothing, at least until the Incarna and Incursion expansions are released. Once you reach a certain level with your skillpoints, and settle on a more or less standard ship fitting, your gear is the main factor that differentiates your ship from those flown by other players. An extra 3% here and there is not going to make a humongous difference, but the aggregate total of several such bonuses will have an effect on your performance whether you are PvPing or running a difficult mission.

Tech two modules are the most obvious quality milestone. But once you have all tech two modules on your ship, there are still ways to leverage your ISK into greater effectiveness. This guide presents an overview of reasonable options to explore for kitting out your ships and your self.

Faction Modules

The closer you are to maximizing your skills, the more important extra bonuses become.Even seemingly minor advantages begin to matter.

For most ship fittings, the next step up from tech two modules is faction modules. Faction modules are mostly obtained from loyalty point stores, where mission-runners spend hard-earned loyalty points. However, some faction modules can still only be obtained from rare NPC wrecks.

Faction modules are usually just a smidgen better than their tech two counterparts, though this small difference can make all the world, especially with regards to getting a module to fit despite a shortage of CPU or power grid on a ship. Some ships have such tight fitting that they can't really be flown effectively unless their pilot is using faction modules.

Some faction modules are more than just a little better than their tech two counterparts. For example, the "Republic Fleet Warp Disruptor" has an extra 6km of range, allowing one to prevent targets from warping out at ranges of 30km, before overheating or any ship bonuses. With the various ships that receive a bonus to warp disruption range, like interceptors or the Gallente recons, this can reach pretty absurd ranges. That extra quality costs a heap, though. As of this writing, that there republic fleet gizmo will run you for around 160mil.

To maximize your ISK to effectiveness ratio, try sticking to modules that you only need one of, that will give you an advantage in your area of specialty on a particular ship. For example, getting a faction shield booster is generally more practical than getting several faction shield hardeners. Or fitting a faction "Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane" is a better idea than fitting seven faction lasers.

Pimping a ship out is all right, but going overboard with expensive modules, especially for PvP ships, is probably less desirable than being able to afford several ships with one or two faction modules, apiece. A good rule of thumb is that if your faction module flourish costs more than the rest of your modules combined, you are wasting ISK.

Faction Ammunition

Though tech two ammunition has a few high points with regards to Scorch crystals, Barrage projectile ammo, and Scourge Fury missiles, faction ammunition is generally the way to go when you need more bang for your buck. They deal +15% damage with no drawbacks except their cost.

For PvP or difficult combat missions, faction ammunition is pretty much the new baseline for damage. It is probably the single best thing that a player can spend ISK on, to improve damage-dealing capabilities. Most PvP players probably don't worry about carrying more than three or four loads of faction ammunition at a time, unless they are going on an extended rampage.

The ship class that probably benefits most from faction ammunition is stealth bombers, who often have trouble fitting tech two missile launchers, and are all about their offense.

Rigs

Once upon a time, rigs were expensive and rare. Without a thriving bank account, pilots needed to go without them. With a few exceptions, this era is long over. Rig slots are basically just a different kind of fitting slot.

There are some differences, of course. Armor-tanking ships get the shaft because of the high price of armor rig ingredients. And forget about tech two, they are pretty much just for capitals or supercapitals, on account of their cost and calibration limitations.

The best rigs depend on your ship race and type. Some guidelines:

• Small and medium rigs of every sort are so cheap that it is just plain kooky nuts to not use them. Even moreso for tech two ships. If you can afford a tech two ship, you can afford rigs.
• Shield rigs are incredibly cheap, and often useful for plugging up an EM damage vulnerability, especially in the case of Caldari ships.
• Capacitor rigs don't really have any drawbacks, and are incredibly useful on any ship type, but especially so for cap-thirsty Amarr ships.
• Gallente ships probably vary the most in their rig options, though it is noteworthy how lamentable the drone rigs are. Depending on the circumstances, Gallente ships benefit well from armor, shield, or capacitor rigs.
• Minmatar ships often thrive with some combination of projectile and astronautics rigs, though shield rigs play no small part of their fittings, as well.
• Practically all small ships benefit from using astronautics rigs to boost their speed or agility.
• Covert ops and dedicated salvaging vessels are unlikely to die under normal circumstances. It is therefore a safe investment to procure rigs relating to their area of specialty.