What to train now

[tazelbain]

I am a month in and recently made the jump to cruiser.  Because I waited so long, the the transition has been easy.  And it feels like getting to BC is just a matter of grinding 100m cash.  In the meantime, what skills should I train?

1> Mining is out of the question.
2> Trader skills seem like it could be fun but I got no charism and doesn't seem useful for pirating.
3> Research looks profitable, but  boring
4> Am I over looking something skills needed for BC(ie Drake)?
5> Covops looks interesting, but seems like a lot of people are heading that way.
6> Is their some other skill set that'll help us pirate?

[Reg]

When in doubt, take your main skills to 5. By main skills I mean, Mechanical, Electrical, Gunnery, etc.  They usually give you a nice 5 percent bonus per level and are just rank 1 so they don't take forever to train.

[Viin]

If you wanna just shoot more stuff, start training stuff for BC/BS. ie: cruise missiles, torpedos

Other things to train is everything in the Missile category, and everything in the Engineering category. Anything to improve your shield tanking. All of the drone skills are helpful to Caldari especially moving into BC and BS. Gunnery would be next.

Another option is to start branching into the other races and get at least cruisers in them. Then you'll want to start learning drone skills (good idea!), lasers,armor tanking skills, etc.

Edit: My suggestion is to try and find a setup you want to try (say, a blaster Rohk) and then learn the skills to make it happen.

[Morat20]

Trading -- at least the bare minimum to be able to throw up a dozen sell orders or so -- is useful, even for pirates. You'll want to sell the nice stuff you take from your prey, and it's quite delicious when they buy back their own stuff from you.

Connections is good if you mission at all.

Mostly, though, how's your support skills? Gunnery or missile skills? Electronics? Mechanics? Hull? Propulsion? ECM? Targetting? Tanking-related skills? Drones?

[Hoax]

Here's an easy way that will help if your stumped, in EFT you can right click on an equipped module and go to change effecting skills and if your using your characters skills (set in the dropdown in the upper right of the ship fitting window) it will tell you what level you have in skills that matter for that module.  Can help to give you an idea of what you should train.  Also make sure you have BC to III obviously and for real, fitting skills are love, tanking skills, working up drones might not be a bad idea if you really feel good about your missile skills.

[Johny Cee]

I am a month in and recently made the jump to cruiser.  Because I waited so long, the the transition has been easy.  And it feels like getting to BC is just a matter of grinding 100m cash.  In the meantime, what skills should I train?

1> Mining is out of the question.
2> Trader skills seem like it could be fun but I got no charism and doesn't seem useful for pirating.
3> Research looks profitable, but  boring
4> Am I over looking something skills needed for BC(ie Drake)?
5> Covops looks interesting, but seems like a lot of people are heading that way.
6> Is their some other skill set that'll help us pirate?

You'll have trouble fitting a Drake as a noob.  I know,  because I'm having that trouble now:  actually own a Drake and a pile of modules and I'm trying to shove them in like a square peg in a round hole.

Your powergrid is too small.  Train engineering up (I'm at 4, training to 5 now) and any skill that reduces that powergrid cost of fitting modules (I think the shield upgrade skill reduces the powergrid need of sheild extenders and allows T2 large shield extenders,  which you'll need).

I found a passive tank build I want to try,  so I'm trying to train up any skills that boost the recharge time or shield size, as well.

I'm training energy grid updates to 4 to use the shield power relay II's in my low slots for higher shield regen.


That's not counting the fact I'll need to train up Heavy Missiles V and Heavy Miss specialization to be able to use Heavy Missile Launcher IIs.

[dwindlehop]

I personally wish I had trained for Interceptors as soon as I had the isk to lose them, which would have been after I got into a BC, but then I've never liked grinding isk. Interceptors are fun and useful. The tackling variants can engage outside of heavy neutralizer range nowadays which makes them more survivable. Evasive Maneuvering is one of those skills that I neglected for a long time, but after I trained it to V I wished I could train more levels of Evasive Maneuvering. It makes all your travel times shorter and increases your chances of escaping a bad situation. What's not to like?

[ClydeJr]

A pretty standard mission setup for a new drake pilot is:

Highs:
6 x Heavy Missile Launcher I

Mids:
3 x Large Shield Extender I
3 x Shield Hardeners I (type depends on what you're fighting)

Lows:
3 x Shield Power Relay I
1 x Power Diagnostic System I

Drones: 4-5 Light, or 3 Light, 1 Med

The drake has an incredible passive tank. With this setup, you can run almost any L3 mission with no issues with a little planning. However this setup is not high on the DPS. It's more of an "outlast the opponent" type setup. Use the missiles on cruisers and bigger. Use the drones on frigates and destroyers.

Engineering, Shield Upgrades, Shield Operation, Shield Management, Tactical Shield Manipulation, Shield Emmision Systems, and Energy Management are all important for maintaining your shield tank. I'd really concentrate on getting Shield Upgrades to 4 to get LSE IIs. Since the shield recharge is percentage based vs. amount based, increasing the size of the shield boosts the recharge.

For missiles, I would concentrate on Missile Projection and Missile Bombardment. Those will really increase the range of your missiles and allow you to shoot them before they can shoot you.

I'd also advise to get Drones to IV to chew up the small ships easier. That'll also help on those elite frigates that have big resists and shield/armor recharge rates.

Eventually you'll want to upgrade things to T2 and add some Core Defense Field Purger Rigs. You can even drop 1 or 2 of the Shield Power Relays and add some Ballistic Control Systems to improve your missiles.

[Teleku]

Why do you need to grind 100m ISK to fly a BC?  They cost a third of that.

On skills, as others have mentioned, I'd just suggest looking at a particular role you want to fly (covert ops, blasterthron, Recon ship, etc.), make a template list of all the skills and skill levels you need to effectively fullfill that roll, then train them all until your done.  Them aim at some other goal.

I did this for flying a Hulk, am currently doing it for being a specialized explorer/scan prober, and will probably move on to heavily training my gunnery skills after that.

[tazelbain]

     Race: Caldari
Bloodline: Achura


Intelligence: 14.04
    Charisma:  5.40
  Perception: 20.52
      Memory: 10.80
   Willpower: 11.88

Electronics, 11 Skills, 78,492 Points
: Electronic Warfare II (2)                2,829/512,000 Points
: Electronics IV (1)                       45,255/256,000 Points
: Electronics Upgrades II (2)              2,829/512,000 Points
: Long Range Targeting II (2)              2,839/512,000 Points
: Propulsion Jamming I (3)                 750/768,000 Points
: Sensor Linking I (3)                     750/768,000 Points
: Signature Analysis III (1)               8,000/256,000 Points
: Survey III (1)                           8,000/256,000 Points
: Target Painting I (3)                    750/768,000 Points
: Targeting II (1)                         5,740/256,000 Points
: Weapon Disruption I (3)                  750/768,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Engineering, 9 Skills, 138,887 Points
: Energy Grid Upgrades II (2)              2,829/512,000 Points
: Energy Management III (3)                24,000/768,000 Points
: Energy Systems Operation II (1)          1,803/256,000 Points
: Engineering IV (1)                       45,255/256,000 Points
: Shield Compensation III (2)              16,000/512,000 Points
: Shield Management III (3)                24,000/768,000 Points
: Shield Operation III (1)                 8,000/256,000 Points
: Shield Upgrades III (2)                  16,000/512,000 Points
: Tactical Shield Manipulation I (4)       1,000/1,024,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gunnery, 4 Skills, 513,000 Points
: Gunnery V (1)                            256,000/256,000 Points
: Sharpshooter I (2)                       500/512,000 Points
: Small Hybrid Turret V (1)                256,000/256,000 Points
: Weapon Upgrades I (2)                    500/512,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Industry, 1 Skill, 250 Points
: Mining I (1)                             250/256,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Learning, 7 Skills, 177,180 Points
: Analytical Mind III (1)                  8,000/256,000 Points
: Clarity III (3)                          24,000/768,000 Points
: Empathy II (1)                           1,415/256,000 Points
: Instant Recall IV (1)                    45,255/256,000 Points
: Iron Will III (1)                        8,000/256,000 Points
: Learning IV (1)                          45,255/256,000 Points
: Spatial Awareness IV (1)                 45,255/256,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mechanic, 5 Skills, 33,250 Points
: Hull Upgrades I (2)                      500/512,000 Points
: Jury Rigging I (2)                       500/512,000 Points
: Mechanic III (1)                         8,000/256,000 Points
: Repair Systems I (1)                     250/256,000 Points
: Salvaging III (3)                        24,000/768,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Missile Launcher Operation, 10 Skills, 289,711 Points
: Heavy Assault Missiles I (3)             750/768,000 Points
: Heavy Missiles I (3)                     3,375/768,000 Points
: Missile Bombardment III (2)              16,000/512,000 Points
: Missile Launcher Operation IV (1)        45,255/256,000 Points
: Missile Projection III (4)               32,000/1,024,000 Points
: Rapid Launch III (2)                     16,000/512,000 Points
: Rockets IV (1)                           45,255/256,000 Points
: Standard Missiles IV (2)                 90,510/512,000 Points
: Target Navigation Prediction I (2)       566/512,000 Points
: Warhead Upgrades III (5)                 40,000/1,280,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Navigation, 7 Skills, 102,148 Points
: Acceleration Control I (4)               1,002/1,024,000 Points
: Afterburner IV (1)                       45,255/256,000 Points
: Evasive Maneuvering I (2)                868/512,000 Points
: Fuel Conservation I (2)                  504/512,000 Points
: High Speed Maneuvering I (5)             1,264/1,280,000 Points
: Navigation IV (1)                        45,255/256,000 Points
: Warp Drive Operation III (1)             8,000/256,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Science, 2 Skills, 46,005 Points
: Cybernetics I (3)                        750/768,000 Points
: Science IV (1)                           45,255/256,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Social, 2 Skills, 24,000 Points
: Negotiation III (2)                      16,000/512,000 Points
: Social III (1)                           8,000/256,000 Points
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spaceship Command, 4 Skills, 148,506 Points
: Caldari Cruiser II (5)                   12,241/1,280,000 Points
: Caldari Frigate IV (2)                   90,510/512,000 Points
: Destroyers I (2)                         500/512,000 Points
: Spaceship Command IV (1)                 45,255/256,000 Points
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Hoax]

Put that 20per to use and train Weapon Upgrades to V, then Advanced to 3-4.  Your fittings will love you for it.  Otherwise, feel free to just start raising every skill you've got to 3, can't go wrong with that.

[tazelbain]

Why do you need to grind 100m ISK to fly a BC?  They cost a third of that.

On skills, as others have mentioned, I'd just suggest looking at a particular role you want to fly (covert ops, blasterthron, Recon ship, etc.), make a template list of all the skills and skill levels you need to effectively fullfill that roll, then train them all until your done.  Them aim at some other goal.

I did this for flying a Hulk, am currently doing it for being a specialized explorer/scan prober, and will probably move on to heavily training my gunnery skills after that.

Because I need 3 to move up.

Yes, I am asking for suggestions for goals.

EDIT: Wow those 2 are awesome, I total missed them because they were in Gunnery.  Thanks.

[IainC]

A useful thing to do is to open Evemon and the skill browser and check out all the skills. You'd be amazed how many really cool and relevant skills there are that you might not even think about otherwise. Put together a plan that'll take you a few months and gives you a defined goal - T2 standard missiles and missile support skills to 4, Fitting any T2 shield tank module in the game, Interceptors, whatever it is. If you're only a month old then I can pretty much guarantee that your fitting skills can be improved massively for example.

[bhodi]

More learning! More learning skills! Basic to 4, advanced to 3!

[Sparky]

More learning! More learning skills! Basic to 4, advanced to 3!

I was going to suggest that.  Learning skills are "boring" as you don't see an immediate payoff but it's the best SP investment you can make as a newbie.  Especially if you're at a loose end.

[Johny Cee]

A pretty standard mission setup for a new drake pilot is:

Highs:
6 x Heavy Missile Launcher I

Mids:
3 x Large Shield Extender I
3 x Shield Hardeners I (type depends on what you're fighting)

Lows:
3 x Shield Power Relay I
1 x Power Diagnostic System I

Drones: 4-5 Light, or 3 Light, 1 Med

The drake has an incredible passive tank. With this setup, you can run almost any L3 mission with no issues with a little planning. However this setup is not high on the DPS. It's more of an "outlast the opponent" type setup. Use the missiles on cruisers and bigger. Use the drones on frigates and destroyers.

Engineering, Shield Upgrades, Shield Operation, Shield Management, Tactical Shield Manipulation, Shield Emmision Systems, and Energy Management are all important for maintaining your shield tank. I'd really concentrate on getting Shield Upgrades to 4 to get LSE IIs. Since the shield recharge is percentage based vs. amount based, increasing the size of the shield boosts the recharge.

This is basically what I came up with on my lonesome as my progression for training and fitting out My First Drake (dibs on copyright).  Nice to see I'm not completely clueless.

Hmm.  So that reduces the cpu needs of all weapons?  I glanced at this skill,  but powergrid is my main bottleneck with my fittings right now on the Drake.  Is there anything that will reduce the powergrid needs of missile turrets?  Running 7 of the bastards just sucks up all my power.

I really don't want to spend 6 days training out engineering V for the 5% bump in powergrid at this point,  when there's a bunch of other things to train.
Put that 20per to use and train Weapon Upgrades to V, then Advanced to 3-4.  Your fittings will love you for it.  Otherwise, feel free to just start raising every skill you've got to 3, can't go wrong with that.

[bhodi]

Clyde's setup is terrible for PvE. If you are running missions with a missile boat and you have anything less than 2 BCS in your low slot, than you earn an epic fail from me (and the rest of eve). There is no reason, ever, to gimp your damage. In missions, your goal is to complete the mission as fast as possible.

You definitely don't have the passive tanking shield skills for "my first drake", so forget the shield power relays. With newbie fitting skills, you don't have enough powergrid without 2 PDS. If you can't fit this setup (requires engineering 4, shield upgrades 2), go ahead and train them. If you need a little extra powergrid, train shield upgrades 3. This setup is CPU light so you shouldn't need more CPU. I suggest:
------------------------------------
2x Ballistic Control System
2x Named Power Diagnostic System (local power plant managers are cheapish - make sure you don't get the 'basic' line which has half effectiveness)
2x Named Shield Hardeners (Get the named, they are CHEAPER than the 1s)
1x Named Small Shield booster (You can fit a medium if you are taking a lot of burst damage, but go with a small so you can leave it on all the time - we have a lot of extra cap due to the power diagnostic systems, so might as well use it here instead of a third named)
3x Named Large Shield Extenders (Azeotropics are cheapish)
7x Named Heavy Missile Bay ('limos' are cheap(er). Try not to skimp on these and go with Is; yes, they will be pricy but more DPS = more missions = more ISK)
5x Hobgobolin 1s (unless you can fit 2s, in which case why aren't you in a brutix?) Forget mediums, they move too slow to hit anything but a battleship unless you've trained drone navigation and sharpshooting to 3 each.
------------------------------------

For the named shield hardeners, go with 1 of the primary damage type and 1 of the secondary. Or, you can be lazy like me and fit 1 kenetic and 1 EM. With this build, you're cap stable (meaning you will never run out of capacitor) even with 2 hardeners and a booster running non-stop. With this setup, I have more HP than my Raven and almost as much effective HP (takes into account shield recharge, boosters.) My raven does L4s. L3s won't scratch your paintjob.

Use Kenetic (wrath missiles) whenever possible, you get a 5% per battlecruiser level bonus damage with them. If you are running caldari navy missions, 90% of your missions will be against guys that are weak to kenetic anyway.

Also, if you can buy ONE with insurance, and you can do L3s, just buy one. You do almost double a caracal's DPS and have a battleship tank. There is absoloutely NO reason to grind up to 100 mil before buying your first ship. If you lose it, you lose it, you can always go back to your caracal. If you lose it, you're out less than 10 mil anyway - insurance covers most of the cost. Hell, Slayerik just made 1B last night, I think he can afford to give you a few million for a replacement if you're really hard up for cash.

[Kamen]

More learning! More learning skills! Basic to 4, advanced to 3!

This.

[Slayerik]

By the way bhodi, its impressive how much you've learned about eve in a fairly short time. o7

[ClydeJr]

(and the rest of eve)

Glad to hear you speak for everyone in eve in the One True Way To Fit. 

Your way works. My way works. I'm more concerned with survivability since I have small child and have to go afk at a moment's notice.

[bhodi]

You posted a setup and you claimed it was a "pretty standard mission setup".

Your fitting is absolutely NOT a "standard mission setup" without 2-3 BCS and 7 launchers. Dropping a launcher and leaving out 2 BCS so you can fit a grossly inefficient and completely overkill tank is Fail with a capital F.

My setup (it's not really mine, just common sense, I'm sure you can find it under "cookie cutter drake") is just a hair less tank, does 35% more damage than yours, and you can STILL go AFK in L3s due to it having a badass battleship-class tank.

[Endie]

I am a month in and recently made the jump to cruiser.  Because I waited so long, the the transition has been easy.  And it feels like getting to BC is just a matter of grinding 100m cash.  In the meantime, what skills should I train?

...
2> Trader skills seem like it could be fun but I got no charism and doesn't seem useful for pirating.

Depends on  your idea of fun.  I made a lot of money trading for a couple of weeks, but it is the hardest work I have ever done in Eve: babysitting buy and sell orders in up to three hubs on three alts for hours.

3> Research looks profitable, but  boring

The advantage of research - whether BPOs using an empire POS or R&D using agents - is that once the undeniable work is done up front, you go for years with minimal work and a steady income.

5> Covops looks interesting, but seems like a lot of people are heading that way.
6> Is their some other skill set that'll help us pirate?

In the long run, cloaked recon gangs are deadly.  I intend to evangelise freely about these 

The biggest skill you can train for making a difference is probably cruisers V.  This opens up huge ranges of options: heavy assault cruisers, force and combat recon ships and logistics cruisers.  Also, just flying something like a vexor, a blackbird or a thorax becomes massively more effective with level 5 trained.  Sadly, of course, it takes three weeks or so to train even with good learning skills.

Much easier to get to, cheaper to fly and replace and still excellent for pvp are interceptors.  Frigate V is needed (directly or indirectly) for just about every advanced ship from inties up to command ships, so they're on the path to tons of stuff, and you can make yourself very hard to kill with some fairly limited investment of skills into navigation.



[/quote]

[ajax34i]

And train Leadership skills, dammit, commanders are needed everywhere for the bonuses.

[Slayerik]

Im kinda at a tough point. I'm basically maxed in Gallente skills, so I can choose to do a lot of the Energy Grid Upgrades crap to 5, or start cross training over to another race. At this point I'm kinda looking at Minmatar, for the Vaga/Muninn/Sleipnir. Once I have that completed, I'll have to get recon ships trained for the rapier / huginn. Luckily all my supporting gunnery skills are at 5, so its just a matter of getting Autocannons and the base 'small/medium projectile turret' to 5.

Caldari could be the other choice....as they use Hybrid guns, but I'm just not seeing any ships i'd really want to fly since I have ok missiles skills and shit ewar. If I trained Cruiser 5 I'd get Eagle and Cerb, and Nighthawk....meh


I could work towards caps ...but..how boring.

[IainC]

Im kinda at a tough point. I'm basically maxed in Gallente skills, so I can choose to do a lot of the Energy Grid Upgrades crap to 5, or start cross training over to another race. At this point I'm kinda looking at Minmatar, for the Vaga/Muninn/Sleipnir. Once I have that completed, I'll have to get recon ships trained for the rapier / huginn. Luckily all my supporting gunnery skills are at 5, so its just a matter of getting Autocannons and the base 'small/medium projectile turret' to 5.

Caldari could be the other choice....as they use Hybrid guns, but I'm just not seeing any ships i'd really want to fly since I have ok missiles skills and shit ewar. If I trained Cruiser 5 I'd get Eagle and Cerb, and Nighthawk....meh


I could work towards caps ...but..how boring.

Cross train to Minmatar because Cynabals are better than sex.

[Endie]

Caldari could be the other choice....as they use Hybrid guns, but I'm just not seeing any ships i'd really want to fly since I have ok missiles skills and shit ewar. If I trained Cruiser 5 I'd get Eagle and Cerb, and Nighthawk....meh

Cerbs do great dps with missiles.  Hard to tank them up, speed or shield, though.

[Vedi]

Caldari could be the other choice....as they use Hybrid guns, but I'm just not seeing any ships i'd really want to fly since I have ok missiles skills and shit ewar. If I trained Cruiser 5 I'd get Eagle and Cerb, and Nighthawk....meh

I'm not a huge fan of the Caldari HACs personally, but the recons are very cool but then again you don't ewar. I can't fly command ships yet, but I've not been that compelled to go for it. At least on paper, the Nighthawk doesn't look much hotter than a Drake. The Eagle is apparently getting another turret slot, so that might make it more viable as a close range blaster damage dealer, but why not fly a Deimos then?

Obviously, you can get a Raven to rat... ;)

[K9]

I'm in a similiar position atm as the OP, but the thing I'm wondering is, do I have to train up towards bigger ships? I'm playing pretty casually, but I'm quite happy sniping in my Merlin, and I'm just doing a lot of the basic skilling reccomended here while I think where I want to go. The only other ship skill I picked up was Industrials, for moving junk around.

If I don't train up towards cruisers will I end up being uncompetitive, or can you do anything with just tech I and tech II frigate skills. Personally I'd rather have a broader platform of skills in a small ship, than be gimped and limited in a large ship; and I'm not to fussed about flying something big for now. If I had to set a ship goal it would probably eb something like CoVops or Interceptors; is there a limit to how much you can get out of these sorts of ships?

[dwindlehop]

There's a hard limit on how much SP is useful for a covops or inty. I'm thinking you will max out your skills after investing 8 or 10M, though I have not counted. There is not much of a limit on how much you spend on fittings. People fly 200M+ isk Crows all the time, and  socking away 1bil in implants is pretty common too. The same applies to covops.

There's absolutely no limit to how much player skill is required to be an exceptional covops or inty pilot. Both can pull off some really amazing stunts if flown correctly.

I say it is quite possible to have a dedicated inty or covops main. The one place where they fall down is in money making potential (barring pvp loot). Get an R&D agent or five.

[MahrinSkel]

Being a good CovOps pilot is mostly personal skill.  I racked up probably a couple of hundred hours, a fair amount of them at battles I was just playing tourist to.  The hardest part of it is learning how to anticipate what the FC is going to need, when you're seeing something he needs to know about right away and when you can put it into a convo channel or just stifle it.

Jumping blind ahead of the fleet, and coming out into a super-blob full of bubbles and orbiting interceptors dragging drones has some major pucker factor to it.  But really, I lost more coverts because I forgot to recloak than because the enemy ran me down.  Of course, I also managed to lose 400M+ in coverts in one day (this was when cloaks were going for 75M each).  But I could afford it (actually, I already had the spares fitted) and I was being *really* agressive, trying to slow down fleets by making them waste time hunting me at gates.

As far as training goes: If you're already at cruisers, build those Learning skills.  It's not nearly as painful as when you had to hit 5 on the basics before you could train the Advanced, and you'll thank yourself later.

--Dave

[Yoru]

I say it is quite possible to have a dedicated inty or covops main. The one place where they fall down is in money making potential (barring pvp loot). Get an R&D agent or five.

If you're near-dedicated to covops, you can also make money with Exploration, as the Covops gets a near-essential bonus to scanning time. Scan down some magnetometric or radar sites for nice skillbooks and invention items which can generally be sold for a pretty penny. If you have mining skills or a mining alt, scan down gravimetric sites for some much nicer ore than you'll ever find in a highsec belt.

It does, however, require an immense amount of patience. A good estimate is 90 minutes invested per site, for a yield that ranges generally between 10 and 25 million for highsec sites. There's quite a bit of variance though; one site yielded 50m of goods as well as a rare rat spawn, who dropped another 100m in goods.

[lac]

I make my money doing exploration in high sec and most my money comes from faction loot, either in combat sites or from hidden DED3 plexes. In high sec the faction loot is always frigate sized, the good stuff (shield boosters, mwd and ab) sells for about 200-250mil a pop and some doesn't sell at all, small faction shield transporter anyone?.

Hacking and Archaeology sites are pretty much a waste of time in high sec if you want to make a profit.
Archaeology is a joke right now, you will find a site with a really low signature (normally denoting a hard site), scan for it for a couple of hours and it will feature four frigs and four containers. Two of the containers will be empty and the last two will contain about 5000 isk in salvage parts. A total wast of time.
Hacking is a bit better, you will find datacores and various components a lot more often than their archaeology counterparts.

Exploration sucks in terms of time vs reward. Do level 4 missions if you want to make cash fast. It is however great if you are bored with the same old standard missions or if you like a casual way to play eve. I normally throw my quest probes down and read a book/magazine or clean the house while returning to the pc every minute and a half to start a new scan until something pops up. This probably isn't the way most people like to play their games but I rather enjoy it.

Low sec and 0.0 exploration have considerably better rewards than empire. I have never been in a 0.0 corps but I hear exploration is very viable in your alliance space. Exploration in low sec is a pretty sure way to get your battleship blown up. Escalating combat sites require you to jump 4 systems after every escalation. Jumping 20 jumps through low sec in a pve battleship is pretty tricky business.