The prophecy is a humble, much-maligned vessel. It is famous for fielding an impressive tank, but equally famous for not being able to inflict enough damage to make having that tank worthwhile in either missions or PvP.

Nevertheless, the prophecy is not without virtues. It is a cheap vessel, costing only 20mil ISK compared to 30mil for the harbinger. It is difficult to lose a harbinger in a mission, and there will be ample warning before any actual loss occurs. It is also very easy to fit, and functional even with bare-bones skills. Thus, for a player that loves grinding missions and has not played for more than a month or two, the prophecy may in fact retain some virtue.

For such players, the prophecy is a valid choice. This is a guide to fitting it out for mission combat.

Why Fly The Prophecy

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style="font-style: italic;">If armor is your thing, the Prophecy will not let you down.

The prophecy has two hull bonuses: the first is a bonus to medium laser capacitor cost, allowing the prophecy to use lasers without completely "capping out" (emptying its capacitor), while the second is a bonus to armor resistances. This latter bonus is handy for tanking missions, as is the plentitude of low-slots that allow even a very new pilot to modify his armor resistances and capacitor regeneration to suit a particular mission.

The prophecy ends up having a big chunk of buffer hit points, making it very forgiving for newbies that have yet to fine tune their mission-running skills. It can also be outfitted and used with very minimal skills. The end result is a very damage-resistant ship that can whittle down foes with lasers while a flight of light drones takes care of frigate-sized enemies.

Overall, it is a very suitable choice for players looking to grind through missions during their first month of EVE. Once those skills are a bit better, players should look into the harbinger. It is entirely possible for even a new player to grind up to level 3 missions within a couple weeks or less, even with only the most rudimentary of skills trained. When that player hits level 3 missions there will start to be problems. Support skills start to matter more, and a cruiser won't cut it. Yet a ship like the harbinger is much more reliant on good skills, generally less survivable, and (did I mention?) more expensive to lose.

In short, the prophecy is kind of like that hot person's average-looking friend that you go home with, expecting better things to come along in the future.

High Slots - Guns and Fun

• x6 Focused Medium Beam Laser I
• x1 Salvager I or Small Tractor Beam I

This is pretty straightforward. Using middle of the road medium-sized guns is best because of the way your fitting requirements work out, at least for any newbie that is not better off in a harbinger. Training fitting skills or fitting a "reactor control unit I" in your low slots will allow you to upgrade, though you may need to make compromises elsewhere.

Between the salvager and tractor beam, I would favor the tractor beam. Dabbling in salvage will be pretty inefficient with a ship that maneuvers as poorly as this, and you are generally better off running more missions rather than wasting time on wrecks. So ignore salvaging and use your tractor beam to pul in wrecks on the side, while you concentrate on beating the mission. Grab wrecks with your tractor beam and empty them out as you go along for a bit of extra ISK and something to micromanage as you go along, for a slight ISK boost and the possibility of finding some better modules.

I realize that there is a tremendous temptation to do things as completely as possible, but wasting your time salvaging when the mission rewards pay so much better (at least for most level 3 missions) is silly. And level 4 missions are right around the corner. If you have a mission that leaves a particularly big pile of salvageable wrecks, you can always right-click on a wreck, bookmark it, and come back with a salvaging frigate after the mission is over. Any mission stuff will have disappeared, but the wrecks will remain for an hour or two.

The Projectile Turret Alternative: If you are willing to sidetrack some of your skill points, you may want to detour into getting autocannons. Projectile turrets are often used by Amarr ships seeking to vary their damage types, reduce capacitor consumption, or cram a difficult fitting together. With projectiles instead of lasers you have a lot more options. Depending on your skills, you will be able to ditch some your capacitor modules, or perhaps fit a second armor repairer, even if it is just a small-sized one.

Medium Slots - Propulsion and Capacitor

• x1 10mn Afterburner I
• x1 Cap Recharger I
• x1 Large Capacitor Battery I

The afterburner will be fine for zooming betwixt warp gates while shooting enemies, or getting within tractor beam range of mission-critical loot.

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style="font-style: italic;">Yeah, it kind of looks like an obese, glittering turkey.

If you haven't trained the Engineering skill up, you may have some trouble getting the battery to fit. Even a few levels should make it all right, though, and well worth the bonus to capacitor and capacitor recharge.

The capacitor is important because you want to be able to use your lasers, afterburner, and armor repairer, more or less all at once. Capacitor is life.

No Propulsion Option: If you are truly an patient soul, you might swap the afterburner out for a stasis webifier, target painter, or tracking computer. After all, the prophecy is slow as molasses even with an afterburner, and not squandering all-important capacitor on it will leave you plenty for extra repairing, and the extra slot always helps.

Low Slots - Armor, Capacitor, and Damage

• x1 Medium Armor Repairer I
• x1 Capacitor Power Relay I
• x1 Armor Explosive Hardener I
• x1 Armor Kinetic Hardener I
• x2 Heat Sink I

The two armor hardeners liste above can be swapped out for types more appropriate to the NPC type that you will be fighting. If the enemy in your mission is not clear based on your NPC agent's text, you can find any mission by using google or an EVE agent web site.

If a really heavy tank is needed, you can compromise your damage-dealing ability by swapping out your heat sinks for more armor hardeners or, if you find yourself capping out too much, capacitor power relays.

Drones and Rigs

• x5 Warrior I

A flight of warriors is generally your best solution to frigate-sized enemies in missions. The difference between them and a more particular enemy is often very minor, with their high speed generally making up for any NPC-specific resistances. While they are chewing away at the frigates that your guns have trouble hitting, you can focus on lasering the big stuff to death.

For ISK-poor newbies, rigs can be an impossible luxury. A "Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I" would go a long way toward alleviating problems with capacitor and subsequently freeing up module slots for other handy stuff, but for players most likely to use a prophecy are probably better off spending that ISK on skillbooks, spare hulls, or a harbinger, rather than a temporary nicety like that. Especially given the rate that inexperienced players lose ships at.

Upgrading

As you run missions, swap out your modules for better versions from amongst your loot. Even slight upgrades will pay dividends, especially in the capacitor department.

If you feel like investing a few million ISK into your ship, tech two capacitor batteries and cap rechargers are both very easy to train for, and will not break anybody's budget. If you have some spare ISK that may be a good way to spend it. With tech two versions, reasonable skills, and a turned-off afterburner, the armor repairer can run permanently without capping you out.

Tech two laser turrets are also very handy, though once you have those you are probably better graduating from the prophecy and moving on to the harbinger. Once there, you can fondly remember your days as a newbie, when the best you could fly was the poor, humble prophecy.