If you’ve chosen a path that involves fighting other ships, here are some skills you’ll probably want to train:
Weapon Upgrades Level IV allows you to use the tech 2 versions of
the damage bonus modules: Heat Sink II for lasers, Ballistic Control System
II for missiles, Magnetic Field Stabilizer II for hybrid weapons, Gyrostabilizer
II for projectile weapons, and Drone Damage Amplifier II for drones. Better
modules means more damage means faster ISK.
If your ships have drone bays, you’ll also want to further train your drone skills. Light Drone Operation Level IV is a good investment as the increased drone
damage will benefit any ship with a drone bay. Eventually you will want to train
the other drone support skills as well to improve the performance of your drones
even further.
Drones allows you to control more drones simultaneously. If flying ships with
at least 25 Mbit/sec of drone bandwidth (enough to control five light drones),
you will want to train this to level V when time allows. Level IV is required
to train many of the support skills, and Level III is required to use drones at all.
Drone Navigation increases the flight speed of your drones, meaning less time spent
waiting for them to reach their target.
Drone Avionics increases the range at which you can command your drones to attack. Training this to level III should be sufficient to allow a frigate or destroyer
to command drones out to its maximum lock range.
Drone Durability increases all your drones’ HP.
Drone Interfacing provides a substantial damage boost to all drones.
However, it requires Drones V to be trained as a pre-requisite.
If you’re flying ships that use shields as their main form of defense, you’ll want to train these skills to improve your shield defenses:
Shield Operation Level IV improves the rate at which you’re shields recharge and is
also required in order to train the various Shield Compensation skills, each of which
improves one of types of shield resistance for your ship.
Shield Compensation Level III minimizes the cost of your shield booster module,
allowing you to run it longer for more boosting.
Shield Management increases your total shield amount, you should train it as high
as possible for your race when you get the chance.
If you’re flying ships that use armor as their main form of defense, you’ll want to train these skills to improve your armor defenses:
Repair Systems Level III allows you to use a Small Armor Repairer II, which provides
more repairs than the basic armor repairer.
If you’re flying ships that use turrets as their main weapon system, you’ll want to train these skills to improve your turret weapons:
Surgical Strike offers a straight up bonus to all turret damage. You’ll want
to train it as high as possible for maximum damage.
Rapid Firing increases the fire rate of your turrets, increasing your
overall damage output. You’ll want to train it as high as possible.
Motion Prediction increases the tracking speed of your turrets, making
it less likely that you’ll miss. You’ll want to eventually train it as high
as possible.
Sharpshooter increases the optimal range of your turrets by a percentage, extending
the distance at which they are most effective. (This benefits projectile turrets
less due to their low base optimal range, so Minmatar alpha clone pilots can wait
to train this skill.)
Trajectory Analysis increases the falloff distance of your turrets by a percentage,
extending the distance at which they are effective.
Controlled Bursts decreases the capacitor cost of firing your turrets. Minmatar alpha
clone pilots can ignore this skill since projectile turrets don’t use capacitor. For
everyone else, it’s generally a good idea to train this skill.
If you’re flying ships that use missiles as their main weapon system, you’ll want to train these skills to improve your missile launchers:
Light Missiles is required to use light missile launchers and provides a straight
up bonus to light missile damage for each level. Train it to at least Level I, and
if you plan to keep flying missile-using frigates for a while, train it as high as
possible.
Missile Launcher Operation improves your launcher rate of fire, increasing your
overall damage output. Train it as high as possible.
Warhead Upgrades provides a straight up bonus to missile damage that stacks
with the bonus from other skills. Train it as high as possible.
Rapid Launch increases your launcher rate of fire and stacks with the bonuses
from Missile Launcher Operation, increasing your overall damage output. Train it
as high as possible.
Missile Projection makes your missiles fly faster, which means they also fly
further. It’s generally a good idea to eventually train it as high as possible.
Missile Bombardment allows your missiles to fly longer, which means they also fly
further. It’s generally a good idea to eventually train it as high as possible.
Missile speed and missile flight time stack multiplicatively with one another when it comes to determining overall maximum range, so train both Projection and Bombardment equally for best results.
Target Navigation Prediction makes your missiles apply a greater percentage of
their maximum potential damage to fast-moving targets. If you often find yourself
struggling to do much damage to the smaller, faster ships you’re shooting, train
this skill to help with that.
If the path you’ve chosen involves upgrading to cruisers and battlecruisers, you’ll also want to train for medium-sized weapons to put on them. This means some subset of the following:
Medium Energy Turret (Amarr)Medium Hybrid Turret (Caldari, Gallente)Medium Projectile Turret (Minmatar)Heavy Missiles (Caldari, Minmatar)Heavy Assault Missiles (Caldari, Minmatar)Medium Drone Operation (Amarr, Gallente)