Skill training is an important and time-consuming aspect of Eve Online. Players must train their characters in real-time with skills taking anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks and even months to fully train. Considering it would take well over a decade to train all skills in the game it’s important to know what to train first.
At the same time, what skills are best depends on what the player wants to do in the game. After all, a successful asteroid miner will need different skills than a solo pirate. Generally speaking here are the skills every player should consider learning regardless of their chosen playstyle.
10 Drones
The vast majority of ships in this game utilize drones to one degree or another. PVPers will use some as extra firepower, miners will use a few as either defense or added mining, and even haulers will have a few on board to act as a distraction to escape a gank.
Admittedly there are a few ships that don’t support drones which is why this ranks low on the list. Still, even these players should consider leveling drones at some point as the best ships and the higher tier ships will use them.
9 Neural Enhancement
Neural Enhancement skills will give players access to a number of helpful tools to further their gameplay. Cloning facilities and Jump clones are a big one, especially if the player is involved in high-risk activities.
Boosters will give players an edge in combat and skills like Neurotoxin Control can minimize the downsides of these drugs. The main prize of Neural Enhancement skills are the Implants. Implants can be used to nudge a player's skills to higher levels and even cut down on training time. Players looking to train a lot of skills should definitely consider using Implants.
8 Spaceship Command
Spaceship Command skills are what determine what a player is capable of flying. Players intent on flying Sisters of Eve ships like the Stratios will need to train a number of Spaceship Command skills for both Gallente and Amarr.
The reason this doesn’t rank higher is that once the player is flying what they’re interested in this skill is less important. Some players content to fly Frigates will have little need for Spaceship Command skills. Still, for many players, it pays to have options, especially when trying new things or if new ships are coming down the pike.
7 Rigging
Rigs are little adjustments players can make to their ship to improve it in various ways. Players can install Armor Rigs to boost the Armor, Drone rigs to enhance their Drones, and so on. Rigs are an effective way of enhancing a ship for certain roles.
That level of customization is invaluable regardless of what the player is fighting. This is especially true if the player hasn’t trained very many skills in certain areas. For instance, a lot of Astronautic rigs are useful for budding explorers who haven’t developed many skills yet.
6 Electronic Systems
Electronic Systems are skills that can help everyone from explorers to pirates. These skills give access to helpful tools like Warp Scramblers to prevent enemies from fleeing or ECM jammers to disrupt all kinds of things.
The real prize of this skill group is Cloaking. Cloaking can be used to get the jump on targets when pirating or escape via MWD+cloak when hauling. There are a number of ways to use Cloaking to a player’s advantage for defense or offense making Electronic Systems, in general, an important group of skills to have.
5 Targeting
Targeting tends to be better suited for combat-based play, but even passive players will find these skills to be useful. Targeting skills allow a ship to do everything from targeting multiple objects, increasing the range on getting a lock, and improve resistance to ECM.
Miners will enjoy being able to target multiple rocks, Ratters will enjoy handling multiple opponents, and PVPers can lock on sooner and from a greater distance with the right Targeting skills. Every player should consider investing a few points in these.
4 Shield
Shield skills are important as they can determine how much shielding a ship has, how many upgrade modules are allowed, and how fast they can recharge. For combat purposes, Shields are renewable hit points that let players take more hits without dying.
For passive players having a bit of extra shielding can prevent pirates from killing the player before Concord or teammates arrive. At the very least Shield skills can save the player a bit of money as they minimize hull repairs.
3 Armor
While proper Shielding is important, Armor is king. This is largely due to subjective metas and mechanics in the game, but at the moment Armor trumps Shields. The major difference, and why armor is more popular, is because there are more ships with low-slots to support Armor tanking.
Even from a non-subjective standard, Armor skills will keep the player alive longer. The same benefits of learning Shield skills applies to Armor skills. Players can increase the amount of hits they take, the amount of damage enemies deal, and even heal some of the damage to the hull. All important when flying some of the most expensive ships in the game.
2 Engineering
Fitting a ship is a complicated process. Each item installed on a ship requires a certain amount of CPU and energy requirements to function properly. If the player doesn’t have sufficient resources to power their fittings there are going to be slots with pointless equipment installed.
Learning various Engineering skills is key to getting the most out of a ship. Players can increase the number of tools they can fit, how well they perform, how long they can run, and how many can operate at the same time.
1 Navigation
At the end of the day Navigation skills are vitally important to any role in the game. Whether it’s cruising asteroid belts, chasing down pirates, or outrunning bounty hunters speed and mobility will be key.
Every ship, whether it’s a lowly Venture or a Drake will want high velocity, agility, and the best modules to get in and out of combat. This will allow players to chase down targets or flee from pursuers, two scenarios that will occur no matter the path the player pursues. Not to mention a higher movement speed leads to greater efficiency and better profits.