Is it Minmatar or Winmatar?

Pod Pilot Report Agatir Solenth:

Greetings my fellow pod pilots and blog readers!

It is a sad day in EvE when as a Amarrian character you have to come to admit the Minmatar really are better.  Even worse... it is because of the supposed "trash" they are suppose to be flying.  Sadly, when you get down to it, they are most likely the most versatile race for PvP.

What you quickly learn when you begin to fly in alliance gangs is that you have to be versatile.  One day you will called to fly armor tanked ships, the next day shield, other times small fast ones.  Most races require you to specialize in one form, but the Minmatar have the luxury of having the capability to do them all.  They may not be the best tankers, but they can get enough tank out of their setups.  Even worse, a good portion of their ships have the additional advantage of speed.  One of the key components to success in a fight is the ability to dictate the field of battle. (ie range)  Ships with speed do it best... and there are not a lot of ships that will keep up with the "Winmatar".  Why else would their ships be so prevalent on the killboards?  Especially in cruiser sized hulls or smaller.

Once a character advances to Minmatar Cruiser 5 skill, and this is when they truly begin to become dangerous.

Lets look at some of ships that they have to offer:

T1
Rifter (Frigate) - Pound for pound considered to be the best PvP ship in the game!
Stabber & Rupture (Cruiser) - Good ships to cut your teeth in PvP and learn how to fly Minmatar.
Hurricane (Battle Cruiser) -  Can you find a small gang/fleet that doesn't have a handful of these present?
Maelstrom & Tempest (Battleships) - Solid workhorses & can you say, "Alpha Strike"?

T2
Vagabond (Heavy Assault) - Anyone that has attempted to pin one of these down know what I'm talking about.
Muninn (Heavy Assault) - I have heard of corps using these to power PvP fleets.
Rapier (Recon) - How do you counter speed?  With webs silly.
Scimitar (Logistics) - If you have a shield based fleet... this IS the logistics ships to have.

T3
Loki (Strategic Cruiser) - It is a T3, with webbing bonuses & ability to tank, need I say more?

Now I am not saying that the "Winmatar" are the omg I so leet absolute best!  (they are close)  However, if you want to learn how to PvP the Minmatar ships are the best place to start.  Increasing both armor and shield skills will make you more effective in using other Minmatar ships, and worth the time and effort to maximize them.  Since you will be using only one race to fly in all fleet, you can generally specialize in one classification of turrents - projectiles.  The skills you will learn while flying any of these ships will directly translate to the piloting of other races ships.

In other words... by starting out in Minmatar you will get a good foundation of skills and experience that will translate much more easily when you decide to hop races.

Until next time...


Be bold!!!