shield upgrades to 4, armor upgrades to 4, shield extension to 5, electronics to 4, engineering to 4, core upgrades to 5, biotics to 5, kinetic catalysers to 5 and whatever dropsuit you want to five. (I recommend minmatar commando to 5 and minmatar heavy to 3)

you can also get what ever equipment you want. I recommend getting nanocircuitry to 3 if you like using mass drivers and swarm launchers.

Once you get these skills I suggest you use a minmatar commando with complex shield extenders in the high slots, and complex kinetic catalysers in the low slots. Use a mass driver and assault rifle or swarm launcher in your weapon slots and a nanohive in your equipment slot.

The only time your swarms should miss is if you are shooting a dropship which can fly away some times. The vehicles also might be repairing very quickly which makes it seem as though you are doing no damage. Just try getting better swarm launchers and getting closer to your target.

To avoid snipers just stick to cover and use shield extenders and armor plates so you dont get killed in one shot. You could also get a piece of equipment called the active scanner that might detect them if they are close enough. Unforrtunatley they are usually too far away for this to work.

I recommend you join this chat channel: Learning Coalition

Try to reach LV 5 in Armor Upgrades and Shield Upgrades
LV 3 in Armor Plates/Repairs
LV 3 Shield Extenders/Rechargers
LV 4 Dropsuit Upgrades
LV 3 Hacking Speed
LV 3 Electronics
LV 3 Engineering
LV 3 Biotics
LV 3 Dropsuit Dampners, Precision, Range Amps

Hacking to 3 only shaves of 1.5 seconds off a hack which is kind of useless unless he plans on doing planetary conquest. Dampening, precision, and range amps are also only really useful on scouts. I agree that rechargers and repairers are useful but only if he doesnt use the minmatar commando. Getting armor and shield upgrades to lvl 5 is unecessary as it will only let you survive one or two bullets more than at lvl 4

I honestly don't get how you guys play this game, I'm great at FPS games but after a couple of games of Dust I already realize why I stopped playing. Investing massive skill points into something like the mass driver but a machine gun out damages me and kills me despite the opponent having 400 less health, it's ridiculous. My suits cost 150k each but you only make a few 100k per mission, the ISK runs out quick lol.

Mass driver is a great anti scout weapon and it does have a greater range then a HMG.

But with a mass driver I get as many assists as kills. They are a support and suppression weapon.

You migh want to upgrade to a plasma cannon for sheer stopping power.

I bought the Commando mk.0

It's probably the most useless grenade launcher I've used in any game. Earlier I saw a guy in a heavy suit shooting at a teammate with his back at me, he had 30% health left, his shields were gone, he was strafing back and forth, I shot the best mass driver available 4 times right alongside his legs, 4 hits to kill him off splash damage at 30% is ridiculous

I may as well be running around with a sniper rifle in close combat since the only time the mass driver does any real damage is from a direct impact. I have already lost 5 million ISK after dying so much, seems pretty pointless. Will probably quit and move on by tomorrow.