As for your support weapon I would say use an AR, Scr, or Combat rifle. I know that these wepons deal large amounts of damage but they are great for getting the enemy to take cover while you do your job. You are correct about the rail rifle at level one it isn't great for suppression but if you can get the assault version it will work too.

I use the CR, it gives a lot of bang for the buck in terms of it's low fitting costs, saving you room for equipment. Unless you are using an Amarr logi (which has a sidearm) I'd avoid niche weapons like the plama cannon.

Mass driver might be OK without a sidearm if you strictly keep off the frontlines. If they ever fix the LR you could try that, it used to be my preferred support weapon, but again I have a sidearm to fall back on.

I would go for complex shield extenders before maxing out the shield skill. On anything but a heavy the extenders will jump start your path to survival. Heavy gets a bonus of 120 for the shield skill so its better to max that.

I found myself right with you in that support is my role. My kdr is **** poor and I won't help you kill much of anything, but I support well and its what I love to do. As a proto Min Logi (which I never use unless I'm in a team that uses good teamwork), I have a variety of suits and have capped how many I can create (CCP GIVE US MORE FITTINGS).

I used to run MD and got proto with prof 1. Then, with the proto ARs, I found myself getting gunned down before I could make it to cover, so I gave up my MD, however it is still a very good weapon on certain maps. Sometimes simply denying ground is better than getting kills. I skilled into the MD initially because my aim is just...embarrasing, but after a lot of work and learning how to strafe properly, I can stand my own much better. However, with very limited ammo, I just had to put the MD down.

I then moved to the SCR. I loved that thing and still use it on my weaker fits. Because of the overheat, it can cause you some issues. Getting them down to just 8 more armor doesn't do you much if your weapon locks up and they can just rush in and finish you off. But the gun has power and range, both of which I needed. Now, I can shoot back and cause the enemy to get to cover.

With the intro of the new rifles, I went lvl 3 into both the RR and CR. I found the charge up of the RR to not be my style and chose to go proto with CR instead. This really hurts me when I'm solo as I get gunned down across the map. However, I try my best to never be solo as a support person running solo is just silly and dooming you to repeat deaths. Therefore, I often have a team running RR or AR. This means they can can range for me and I can clear CQC with my CR so I can revive people as needed.

My advice to you is to search in the Rookie Forums for the Logi Code training guide. That thing is gold and I wish I had found it when I was first starting.

In short tho, from my personal bias, make sure before you go proto suit, that you first sink into core skills (CPU/PG, Shield, Armor and Nanocircitry). The suit is very tempting. With all those slots and being able to carry ALL THE THINGS. But the worse thing skilling into the suit first is:

• you won't be able to carry everything anyways because you'll run out of CPU/PG until you skill into them
• you'll lose the suit faster than you can blink because you don't have any shield/armor skills
• because of the above points, you're going to lose so much isk from that suit dying that you'll be force to run a lower suit anyways

All in all, I tend to run my lvl 3 suits most often. I keep proto for special occasions only (FW, PC or a really really really good team). Otherwise, it is simply overkill and that extra slot is just a nice to have in pub matches.

Since you're support, never run a suit with an injector if you're not going to have a rep tool. If you only have two slots and one of them is taken by an uplink, then run rep tool. There is nothing more detrimental to a team than rezzing someone who can't get back into battle without immediately dying or hiding for several seconds. The really good teams I run with actually have assaults running with the injector only because they know I'm right behind them with a rep tool really to get them back to work. Clear the room before running towards the revive icon. Vets will be very angry at you for rezzing them so they can immediately die again. You'll only end up dying too, right after them.

Overall, many squads love a logi, even if they always won't tell you. It's a labor of love and people will appreciate your dedication. +1 to a fellow Logibro. o7

I would go for complex shield extenders before maxing out the shield skill. On anything but a heavy the extenders will jump start your path to survival. Heavy gets a bonus of 120 for the shield skill so its better to max that.

looking at caldari suits, they seem to be totally shield users, like minmatar suits, but with both suits at lvl 1 assault, Caldari have 2 high and 2 low slots, and minmatar has 3 high and 1 low. Caldari have higher base shield HP on their suits and minmatar has lower, but i guess the extra high slot makes up for that. the question is, are minmatar and caldari shield users equal "shield" wise? or am i missing something that the extra high slot minmatar assault suit gives it over the caldari suit? something im not seeing at the moment....hmmm....

when i found out that kills werent the only way to get SP, i realized i didnt have to rely on my combat skills to play the game, so on Aaronjin i have SP moved all over the place, ive stopped playing that char and started playing on this new "main" and i hae assigned SP into the proper areas so i have more going for me now. i kinda wanna get everything to lvl 3 first logi wise before i start investing into a combat setup. ive had support success with my mass driver so far, enemies take a step back around corners which gives me enough time to move away or heal/rez who i need too. when someone runs in and starts fighting me head-on, i have a higher chance of surivial as i just have to aim at their feet instead of at them and a couple rounds of a MD and that person goes flying. about 70% of the time, its someone in a fancy suit running up on me and they dont die due to their shields and i get wasted. i normally avoid combat so this dont happen often and i know when to urn away when i need to. i bought that aurum pack, the one with all the weapons in it to try out and i found i like the mass driver, the rail rifle, and the scrambler rifle. the mass driver i can use as support on my logi setup. of course. the rail rifle i used and it was "ok" for starndard assault kinds of things, but the scrambler rifle i liked, as it was something i found easy to use and was giving me more results than any other gun. i found the logi post here in the forums along with alot of other information, i read everything relevant and have a working knowledge of "how" to do things; of course now the next step is to put it into practice in the battle field.

i like this forum as i can post info and i get answers, heh. not like some other games who troll you endlessly; as i continue to make progress, ill keep checking in here. :O