I was reviewing Rosewalker's skill queue last night and realized that I had just about come to the end of learning the skills for flying Minmatar ships. Oh sure, I only have the advanced artillery and autocannon skills to IV instead of V, but except for that I'll have the skills to fly all tech 1 Minmatar sub-capitals maxed out and all tech 2 sub-capitals up to IV by the end of the year. Since the only Minmatar capital ships I want to fly are the freighter and jump freighter, and Wandering Rose is training for those, I'm left with the question: what's next?
I've ruled the Amarr right out. I know that lasers use no ammo and are perfect for extended structure shoots, but they just don't interest me. Perhaps because I don't like the people who build them. I found that I've developed a distaste for the color gold playing Eve Online. That leaves the Caldari or the Gallente. Both use hybrid weapons, which means that if I train for one faction's ships I'll be able to train for the other's ships quicker than I could if I trained Amarr. So I have a logical reason to back up my prejudice against the Amarr.
What are the advantages of training for Gallente? First, training Gallente will allow me to fly the Angel Cartel frigates Daredevil and Dramiel, the cruiser-class ships Cynabal and Vigilant and the Machariel and Vindicator battleships. In addition, I hear that drones are great for missioning (and carrying around ECM to allow a pilot to flee bad places) and that ships like the Taranis and Ishkur are absolute beasts. And the Gallente blockade runner can easily carry packaged cruisers while the Caldari blockade runner struggles with that task.
Why think about flying Caldari? After all, learning Caldari ship skills will not allow me to fly any faction ships. But since I already will have all my advanced missile skills trained to IV to fly the Typhoon better, I should be able to train through all of the Caldari ships faster. And while I won't have the skills to fly faction ships, I will get to fly more famous ships like the Tengu, Drake and Raven. Did I mention Caldari ships are really good at electronic warfare? That would give me an excuse to also strengthen my target painter skills for Minmatar ships. Another big plus is that Sleepers really hate drones, so Caldari ships are better in wormholes than Gallente ships. Or so I'm told.
So which faction to train for, Caldari or Gallente? Right now I really don't have an opinion, which is good because I really don't have to make the decision until November. But Eve being Eve, I have to think about the choice now in order to use my time (i.e. set up my training plan) most effectively.
