So I started tanking and want to head my skillpoints to gallente tanks with blaster to provide anti-infantry support on the battlefield.

Where should I start spending my SP ?
Dropsuit armor upgrades or cores ?

Also , is there a chat channel for me to roll with some experienced tankers ?

Thanks in advance

I am NOT an HAV driver myself (but I do stay at a Holiday Inn when I'm turret-gunning), though I always enjoy seeing good HAV operators do their stuff.

I still recall some players who were cool enough (I'm talking, ROCKING COOL), to get together with their HAVs and form offensive convoys. They'd circle around the map along the main road, stay close enough behind each other that no AVer could effectively penetrate the group and ambush any single HAVGǪ and naturally they dominated each battle. Outstanding!

But I don't see ANY players that resourceful anymore. Have they all gone away?

I think there used to be a Chat Channel: Tanks R Us, or something to that effect. Daaaa, you might want to try typing that in the join/create box and see what happens.

Keep fingers crossedGǪ. Unfortunately many of these channels were created by social and co-op minded vets who have moved on, abandoned the channel, and were far too advanced for today's "neo" mercs to think and network like they used to.

So I started tanking and want to head my skillpoints to gallente tanks with blaster to provide anti-infantry support on the battlefield.

Where should I start spending my SP ?
Dropsuit armor upgrades or cores ?

Also , is there a chat channel for me to roll with some experienced tankers ?

Thanks in advance

If my advice counts for anything then I suggest you start with the basics. Your core skills.

Two of the most important skills for you will be those that affect active module duration and active module cool down. These will make your defensive cool downs more 'available' to you throughout the deployment of your HAV.

Additional skills of up most importance are your Module Fitting Requirement Skills and your Turret Fitting Requirement Skills. These will allow you to dramatically increase the meta level of the modules you fit on your tank. Especially those of light turrets. I don't even look at SHAV because they are a bloody waste of time and resources.

You could probably make a pretty competitive HAV (by my standards) with about 10 Million SP.

Simple yet really effective fit-

Adv maddie
Basic blaster
2 basic hardeners
2 basic heavy reps
1 basic fuel injector
1 basic scanner
1 damage mod, heatsink or dispersion of choice.

You can also swap a rep for a 120plate for more armor.

Something your gonna want to do is learn to loose tanks of you have fear of loosing lots of isk. It took me some time to do so after tanks were changed. It really affected my performance. You might not hav that problem.

If my advice counts for anything then I suggest you start with the basics. Your core skills.

Two of the most important skills for you will be those that affect active module duration and active module cool down. These will make your defensive cool downs more 'available' to you throughout the deployment of your HAV.

Additional skills of up most importance are your Module Fitting Requirement Skills and your Turret Fitting Requirement Skills. These will allow you to dramatically increase the meta level of the modules you fit on your tank. Especially those of light turrets. I don't even look at SHAV because they are a bloody waste of time and resources.

You could probably make a pretty competitive HAV (by my standards) with about 10 Million SP.

So I started tanking and want to head my skillpoints to gallente tanks with blaster to provide anti-infantry support on the battlefield.

Where should I start spending my SP ?
Dropsuit armor upgrades or cores ?

Also , is there a chat channel for me to roll with some experienced tankers ?

Thanks in advance