This is a starterup lvling guide. To do this you need cash, maybe 5b or more, most of that will go to gg and eventual OHL's... so trying to say 3wks for a first accts without someone banking you or helping out will be very very difficult.
I recommend, absolutely 100% the first class until lvl 500ish should be monk, but others work but not nearly as ez and not as fast from what i've seen so far. The reason monk works, it's a nice lead into fc since cap ships make great monk main ships (you can use auras then too), you can heal your slaves and don't need to break for drone deployment skills. You can aug for slave dps without consequences since you can rely on your class shield bonus. your biggest challenge with this class will be a common one, but one you can overcome, energy recharge.
If you don't have mfbots, i think lvling with ANY class will be a lot slower.
Problelms with other classes (lvling 1st early class until fc):
*zerk-took me a while to get mfx2 yet alone mfx3 on them and the time wasted was problematic, also while lvling mfx3 when you get there is a major energy suck and tough on a character who's skills are developing... best left until later lvls for sure!
*fc-lot of young fcs out there. my own guide has switching to fc eventually but not initially for a couple reasons. 1. i don't like effs and think they're limiting. 2. unless you're doing an uber setup fc in most anything other than eff or higher is ludicrous. you're going to need some advanced skills just to class switch to fc (most things to 10 at least.)
*gunner-Seronys likes it to lvl with but fc is just broken. If i was gonna do gunner it would be after i did monk for first couple lvls and then got efbcs, much like what seronys was talking about below, probably not any other way.
*engineer-meh... droners used to own the game but it's not the best way to lvl now. their slaves r pretty damn weak, and... there are just better options.
*speed demon-probably close to effective as my monk setup, but mine is still better when i lvl in races. not sure more about this since i never did an SD alt. if you do it go fwing at first and lvl copper.
BASIC MONK STUFF:
The class gives overall with maxed subskills:
Shield Monkey: +150% shield max, +130% shield recharge, +30% damage, !!!!+60% slave damage!!!!, +130% trans damage, +100% trans resistance
Basic strategy works around your overabundant amount shields, which will be multiplied higher with a monk aura (and you can get a basic monkey projector in a minute in w0). Since you have an overabundance of shields you can actually aug firing, damage, or rages, and not just hestias solely like other classes. getting the skills drone deployment and getting better at transference mean you can aug less for shields and even more for dps.
I would never recommend doing perilous or anything above df 180 with the setups as the monk lvling setups listed here.
SLAVES:
GOOD:paximinimus- cheap and ez... t3 ships so augs limited, but good resists 30% to most everything, 2 aug slots, and 2 weap slots. a damn ez starter ship.
BAD: t4 cruisers (hull is so much more important than rof), mini-rags (way way too little hull for monk),
kelvin+ (75m) with class 660 hull, speed 80s, 3 weap slots
but 3 aug slots. NO RESISTS!!! (MAJOR NO NO!)
enforcer ships (150-200m slave form) almost identical to the kelvin+ but more weapon slots, t5 not t6, and 20% resists on everything but laser (0%) and rad (100%). NO LASER RESISTS!!! (MAJOR NO NO! EVERY AI IN THE GAME HAS LASER WEAPONS PRACTICALLY SO OTHER RESISTS MEAN VERY LITTLE IN COMPARISON)
*On my original character I lvled with enforcer ships and was trying to make a mini uber setup, but ofc as you play you learn what works and what doesn't work. even with mfbots on all 6 of the little guys and ohl's, their poor laser resists led me abandon them.
MAIN:
Good ships are ones with resists. Capships will amaze you at the shield banks you can get, so go capship as soon as possible, augging can vary widely depending on your use. On EFBCs you can hit 150k shield bank without breaking a sweat. If you're not to piloting 10 yet you're on your own for a good ship, there are a lot of options and they're all about the same, just wait a bit. Monks get roughly 2x cap ship hull so they make great main, plus you're going to need to equip a monk aura to make lvling that much easier.
THE SETUP EXACTLY:
paxi slaves with either mfbots or defensive bots- use ohl's (mid 100mish) or os mining iii's (3mish at gargan). if mfing you can fit 2 ohl's in each paxi. augging i use is 1 hestia+ and one adv minor rage, but 2 hestias work pretty well too. undershirts are ideal but can also use ai base shields. engines i use micro dime motions (micron) and energy go entropy cascades (electrical tempering always with mfing beats plain energy regen!) i didn't use OL's but go for it. stats say smooth OL's are a good mix of effective and and cheaper than other OL's given the fail rate.
*with undershirts, defensive bots, and monk subskills i had 60k shield bank on each slave with 30% resists! little tanks!
Early-lvling: ez if you know the tricks.
***get dd to 3 asap (and piloting 3, of course... go paximini)! the ai station t3 drones are enough to get you to lvl 20 in an hour or two in deep space system!
drop drones and dock, set the drones to aggro, maybe pop out for support, but the drones are so damn cheap who cares if you lose em.
After this it gets ez, you have spent no sp and have about 80 sp to blow on a lvl 20 guy! sounds strange but the two most important skills to get up quickly are engines and shields. engines so you can get slaves that can turn and actually hit a target, and shields so you don't waste gg and can survive long enough to kill.
SKILL MINIMUMS FOR SLAVES, AND I RECOMMEND HIGHLY GETTING SLAVES AS SOON AS YOU HIT THESE MARKS:
weaps to 4 (magcannon damn good lvling weapon, especially with poor engines! also has agreeable dpe for poor energy)
engine to 5 (combat eninge)
shields to 3 (ion wall)
equip to 4 (enough to get slave stasis gens protected)
piloting to 3 (enough for the paxis)
*THAT'S IT!!!!!!
at this point spend every sp you get for rc, i did it all at once.
now go kill stuff. DON'T kill the ampages, they'll be too much for you. FOCUS on things that are weapon type weak (BY FAR BEST TIP TO LVLING) picking a system with a lot of trader bases in w1 and killing every ai in site, with enough x surg'd slaves you can take out pax astralogica ships, pax serenities are very very weak to mining, but other than this i've just run killing everything.
*ASAP before you hit lvl 100 even, get w3!!!! because with most basic of setups you can kill thorns or those uber weak urqa ships found in so many w2 dgs, you'll get 500sp per kill.
WITH 2-3 DAYS I CAN GET TO LVL 300 DOING PRETTY MUCH WHAT I JUST SAID ABOVE.
Once you can get out of this awkward growing phase and solo dg you will be on a whole new lvl. I highly recommend dg lvling. dgs are predictable, once you do it you know the ai types you'll face and pick and choose dgs.
(For the alt, DD i'd say is always nice to have for any class, but i don't find i'm reliant on them it as a monk. To dg in w3 i'd say it would help immensely with distributing aggro, maybe a bit with recharge (acmes) but other than this, meh.)
*once you get weaps 14 and equip 14, your life changes!
when you can switch to ohl's (120mish) (can easily fit 2 ohl's and mfbots with radiated shield and halved antimatter energy into kelvin+ or enforcer or paxis (all have about 660 hull), and had spare room) and os mining iii's (abstructors cost more and suck more). Basils and rosies crumble under mfing ohl monks, nephils do to. Find one or two dgs that you like and alternate again, you can get to lvl 500.
*MY RECORD FOR GETTING TO LVL 500 HAS BEEN 5 DAYS, BUT I'M SURE I COULD DO IT IN 4. WITH KILLING THORNS AND THEN SWITCHING TO OHLS AND KILLING ROSIES, THE MOST LVLS I GOT IN ONE DAY WAS 152. IT'S TOUGHT TO IMAGINE BUT WHEN YOU'RE GETTING 500SP PER KILL IT'S REALLY NOT THAT TOUGH.
Now you'll hit a wall. everyone hits a wall sooner or later. lvl 500-1k is toughest by far. because now you need a genuine setup. it's a good time to switch to fc. and for effectively switching you'll need mfbots, and some sort of decent OL, and good rad weapons (giga neuts is life changing in itself, you'll see when you do 5k dps with the right augs). hopefully some of this stuff you have on your main and can transfer over.
ONE FC SETUP:
-600M-1.5B efbcs (or efcs if you don't want the thing to stay fc and don't want to waste cash)
-1.5B giga neuts (nothing else compares)
-3bto?(price varies a lot) mfbots
-everyone knows good fc efbc augging is athena+ ares+ augging but i found same dps can get form 2 adv basic rage augs.
energy can be a couple... infernal battery, halved antimatter, if you want better energies it's not tough to imagine (giga halved antimatter)
-500m. OL should be os5 if you aug any rof.
shields ideally undershirts but rad shield works until you get em
*if you find you have a ton of basic augs and adv basic bps, i'd consider looking at shawn_mccall's post fc lvling post. Fc is strong class, and as long as you follow either formula you will be lvling well.
*DON'T GET THE FLIGHT CONTROLLER SUBSKILL UNTIL VERY VERY LAST!!! MOST IMPORTANT IS RADEX AND SLAVE MASTERY
once you get setup you should look to murdering greens, rosies, forgones, most every w3 ai. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY PICKS ARE RAD WEAK!!! SO i put my lvl 500 guys in multiple pick dgs and this way i can get 100 lvls a day. ALWAYS TARGET AI WITH HIGH LVLS AND WEAKNESSES TO YOUR WEAPON TYPE.
OTHER RANDOM TIPS:
for getting weaps to 19, topbuzz taught me a good tip... unequip your engine and have a friend drop the prom to your lev you bought there. you can't be gremmed this way, although you can still be pushed with the physical weapons from the little turds. save enough space for the prom and load your lev up with nucs to weight it down when the little guys shoot you.
(for the noobs) Piloting is easiest if someone clears it for you. Get w3 and join a decent team and dock at an ai base and get piloting to 9ish, then ask an uber to help you with the piloting.
to get boomers and nutters or giant goblets, I LOVE PAYING FOR THEM!!!!! paying 50m per i can get this all done in an hour, no hassles. give a sub 100 guy a payday.
BEING LAZY ABOUT IT TOWARDS THE END I GOT A GUY TO LVL 1K IN 3WKS, BUT I'M SURE LESS IS POSSIBLE WITH THIS GUIDE. GOOD LUCK!