Sometime yesterday I crossed over 40 million skillpoints. Once I finish my current skill I need to decide what direction to go next.
Here is my current skill breakout (rounded to nearest 100k) with some commentary.
Armor 400 000: Mechanics, Hull Upgrades and not much else.
Corporation Management 1 000: Anchoring 1, Corp Mgt 1. No further training planned.
Drones 1 500 000: Drones 5, Combat Drone Op 5, Scout Drone 5, No Sentry or Heavy Drone skills. Everything else to 3 or 4.
Electronic Systems 400 000: Cloaking and E-war skill basics.
Engineering 3 400 000: All fitting skills to 5 except Adv Weapons Upgrades which is 4.
Gunnery 500 000: Not much here. Small turrets only and nothing to 5.
Missiles 9 700 000: Nearly maxed out. Everything useful is 5 except Torpedoes and the individual Specialization skills.
Navigation 2 300 000: Currently training Acceleration Control to 5. Afterburner, Evasive Maneuvering, Fuel Conservation, Navigation all 5. High Speed Maneuvering, Warp Drive Operation at 4 , Micro Jump Drive Operation at 3.
Neural Enhancement 200 000: Cybernetics 4, Infomorph Psychology 4, Informorph Sync 3. No further training planned.
Planet Management 400 000: CC upgrades and Interplanetary Consolidation at 4. No further training planned.
Production 1 100 000: Industry & Prod Efficiency at 5, Mass Production at 4. No further training planned.
Resource Processing 800 000: Salvaging 5. No further training planned.
Rigging 400 000: The ones I use are at 4.
Scanning 2 900 000: Archeology, Astrometics, Hacking at 5. Pinpointing and Rangefinding at 4.
Science 1 100 000: Science 5. The rest are a mix of 3’s and 4’s to allow for Invention.
Shields 1 400 000: Shield Mgt and Operation to 5. Shield Comp, Upgrades, Tactical Manipulation to 4. The passive compensation skills are a mix of 2-4’s.
Social 200 000: Not much here. No further training planned.
Spaceship Command 11 800 000: All Battlecruiser and Destroyer skills to 5 thanks to the skill change this past year. Caldari Frigate and Caldari Cruiser to 5. Spaceship Command to 5.
Subsystems 1 300 000: All Caldari Subsystems to 5. I spend most of my time in a Tengu after all. A few of these have been trained to 5 a few times unfortunately.
Targeting 200 000: Mostly 4’s.
Trade 66 000: Not much here and nothing planned.
So…
What do I do next? My current play style is nearly maxed out skillpoint wise. I could train HAM Specialization to 5 picking up another 2% damage for a month of training. I could also train Shield Compensation to 5 picking up a 2% savings in capacitor required for shield boosting. Also I could spend another month or 3 maxing out my scanning skills for a small time improvement. I could also train Shield Upgrades and Advanced Weapons Upgrades to 5 for a currently unnecessary powergid savings of 5% and 2% respectively.
Alternatively, I could start training for a new ship.
The Stratios is an obvious choice and requires Gallente/Amarr Cruiser to 5, Armor Skills, Drone Skills, and some kind of Medium Turret. This would allow more exploration options and allow the option of not having to chase missile restocking all the time. However, I am not convinced this opens up any new gameplay options for me. On the plus side, it would be good blog fodder and it opens up the DED 4/10’s which Strategic Cruisers are locked out of, and it gives some nerf protection for when/if the Tengu gets nerfed. This is a mix of training with Command, Drones, and Armor skills all requiring different attributes. I would need to remap probably and commit to it for the long term. It is basically the total opposite of what I have currently trained.
A blockade runner would only require about 20 some days of training and would open up some options for me with my current and potentially planned activities. If I can’t make up my mind for a longer commitment, then I will probably plug this in to buy some more time.
I could train up more battleships skills for mission running. Or maybe train for a marauder. I don’t particularly enjoy missions though and I don’t think the isk/time is worth it. I always thought that it would be fun to fly a Machariel or a Nightmare, but I don’t know what I would actually do with them if I had them.
I could focus on frigates. They are fun to fly and maybe I could do some lowsec roaming or RvB or something. This would be Tech 2 small turret skills and Frigate command skills. Or I could just train Assault Frigates to 5 and Rocket Spec to 4 and fly the Hawk. Or I could round out my armor skills and play some more with the Astero – either exploring or pvping.
I could focus on another Strategic Cruiser. I love the Legion and have been trying very hard to come up with a good exploration use for it. It does ok verses Sanshas and a HAM Legion does great verses Angels. It probably doesn’t beat either the Stratios or the Tengu though. Cloaky Loki’s sound fun as does a gank Proteus. Not sure how much I would actually use it though.
Right now, I am leaning towards focusing on the Astero and maybe maxing my scanning skills. Then build on that for the Stratios.
Any suggestions?
Pilgrim in Exile 
I just finished maximising my scanning skills – CCP has said recently that there will be new content which will require it. (No news on when though.) I really like the Stratios, and would suggest heading in that direction. It won’t really add to what you do in game though – but it does provide some much needed nerf protection for you.
Did you max all the scanning skills or just the scan strength ones?
All 7 skills under Scanning are at rank V. Covert Ops is at rank V, 3 of 4 T3 Electronic subsystems are at rank V, and I am working on Cloaking V now for good measure. Not sure if I am missing something else.
Nice!
Honestly I was disappointed with the stratios. Jack of all trades but master of none, and since mobile depots have made t3s even more viable then they already were I’d say legion. I’m probably biased though because that’s the only tech 3 I can’t fly yet.
The Stratios is nice because it can enter and complete the lower end complexes. I am just not sure that is important to me. In any case, it is a fairly long train. Also, there is a fair bit of overlap with the Legion in the armor and Amarr cruiser skills. I guess I could train those and put off the decision a bit longer.