Training, jump clones and Estel Arador Corp Services

The problem:

I started playing Eve shortly after training skills were abolished, so I never had to choose between long and short term skill training. I'm grateful for that.

However, the advice of so many (out of date) guides to prioritise long term training was not lost on me. When I made my first 100 million, shortly after my trial account was converted into a full account, I bought myself a set of +4 implants. They cut about 20% off my training times, and they are easily the best in-game investment I have made.

Of course, every time I pvp'd, I was at risk of getting podded and losing my hard earned investment. I knew that to avoid this I would need a jump clone for pvp, and so I began grinding standings with the Theology Council.

Boosting your standings is a long, mind numbing process, and I just couldn't stay focused. I wanted to pvp, but if  I did not want to loose my implants, I needed to do loads of pve first. And of course, pve required me to train different (ie, non-frigate) skills, which called the whole concept of boosting my skill training into question.


The solution:

Then I discovered Estel Arador Corp Services. I know it sounds like a line from a bad infomercial, but that's what happened. For those that don't know, EACS is a free jump clone service. They have jump clone rights to over a thousand stations, and when you join you are entitled to those same jump clone services, which allows you to create as many jump clones as your skills will allow.

The whole thing was very simple; I applied to join (blank application), and within 24 hours I was in my new corp. I created 3 jump clones, and four days later I was automatically kicked out of the corp before my (low) standings began to drag down the corp's standings.

Now, I pvp in a bare clone, but whenever I know it will be more than 24 hours before my next session (which is fairly frequent for me) I jump into my training clone before logging out. It's perfect.

With a couple of extra clones, I have some more options if/when I decide to kiss my security status goodbye. I can "seed" clones in areas that I am likely to want to go to, but would otherwise be hard to visit. I can have a couple of bases around New Eden, and jump between them as hunting requires.

As it's free, I would encourage anyone who is short a few jump clones to try Estel Arador Corp Services. And then tell people about it.