Warfare & Tactics

Hello, complete newb here. Im trying to get a mental image of different pvp situations.

Im aware of gate camps, mining ganks, jita, mission, plex ganks. And feel comfortable whats happening here.

1) I have a vague idea that fw exists where missions are done and pvp happens but u take faction standing hits. Where do i signup for fw? After that a warp into a system and find what? Hundreds of frigates blowing each other up in a thunderdome setting? Please paint a picture for me. Im still working on my core competancy skills and building up a bank role to fund frigate losses. Reading and learning in the meantime.

2) ive heard about rvb. Where do i sign up and how does it differ from faction warfare? Whos running rvb? 2 corps that want to have fun...player generated content? Hows this pvp look....just 2 corps perpetually in wardec fighting across all of eve? Or thunderdome set for certain days?

3) i know some players go on solo/small gang roams looking for targets. They do this in low or null? Why arent they instantly curb stomped by the corp holding that space? How are they finding pvp ships to kill that dont instantly dock? Im not interested in killing afk miners(maybe that will change with time but doesnt seem to scratch the itch)

4) i know some players go on solo/gang roams in wh. Is this where almost all pvp happens on account of no local? So u get higher chance that target wont insta dock? Arent wh residents the most paranoid group. Watching the entrances for warp flashes. Bubbling the entrance. Spamming dscan with corpmates doing the same?


Im trying to get a picture of how the scene plays out so while im waiting for my skills i can gain as much theory knowldge as possible and shorten my learning curb for when i start flying and losing frigs

The only way you can really get a grasp of PvP is going out and doing it. There are many different flavors of PVP but there are a few overarching similarities that you find in almost all cases.

1. People are risk averse. Prepare yourself for PvPPPPPPPPP There is no such thing as a 'fair' fight, and expect to be blobbed at all times.

2. Don't complain about blobbing, surprise falcons, surprise reps, or that hot drop. Every time you die it is your fault. No not because of falcon, and no not because of rapier. It was you making a mistake.

3. You need to learn how to fly the correct types of ships with the correct types of fits in order to do well in this environment. I would suggest that you learn about kiting, and kiting ships. because these types of ships lend themselves well to fighting outnumbered, and fighting against a blob.

4. You should stop posting on the EvE-o forums and start talking with the right people. There is a ton of dis-information going on in eve. Most of the people posting here don't have a clue about pvp, as will most of the people you meet in game.

5. Talk with people in ( Turn left, Hatchery, Aquila, Gun Point, and some people in RvB) If you want- shoot me a PM and i can get you pointed in the right direction.

No no, im not saying join any of those corps. I am telling you to speak with the people in them, as they are some of the best in the business when it comes to small gang PvP

As i said earlier, It is varied.

1. High sec:

Go high sec warlording and duel people on stations. They have 3X links set up in system, and will have crazy fits set up with a merlin / other unassuming ship. high sec warloding goes all the way up to the big station gamers, sitting in vidicators worth 13+ bil. Its basically a big baby fest- and its pretty horrible pvp.

2. Null blocs

Go join a null sec corporation. There you get to join a fleet and press F1 when the FC tells you. You along with all of your corpies line up in battleships, and just like in the civil war have a war of attrition. Follow orders, participate in big 1000+ player battles. You will learn next to nothing about PvP, but you will be shooting things.

3. Faction Warfare

Here we have a group of people that like high sec players, will most likely have links and or extremely pimped out frigates designed to melt your new t1 ship. It is mostly a huge blob fest, and most factions are extremely risk averse. However there are some competent pilots to be found there if you look hard enough.

4. EvE Uni

A bunch of pompous fools who try and groom excited newbros for Nul corps. They will teach you how to blob ie (how to effectively kill 1/5 guys with 3/5 times their numbers.) Again you will not learn much in the way of PvP however many people end up being sucked into this hell hole.

5. RvB

Slightly blobby, but they are easily the best outfit when it comes to being in a environment where you will actually learn a thing or two. There are some good pilots that fly in here. Getting fights is pretty easy, and you can come across some 1v1's here and there. I would give it an A+

6. Low sec

Molden heath, and the area around molden is a nice place to grab some solo / small gang PvP. gunpoint lives there, along with uberlisk (king of the north) I am friends with both. Black rebel rifter club is also a nice small gang honorable frig corp- who used to base out of there as well. You will learn a lot from those guys. great small gang pvpers.

7. Nul sec entry systems:

Ec-PR, M-0 ext ext these systems are high / nul or lowsec / nul gates. if you jump onto the nul sec side, there will always be some kind of ****** gate camp there. you can get fights, but you need to be prepared. Expect recons, heavy blobbing, sniper Tier3 all the works.

8. Worm hole Space

Do not go in worm hole. It is a horrible pvp environment. Unless you are looking to gank noctis / miners stay out

9. Lifeless Low sec (IE. non FW space)

Nothing much to see here. You might run across a few insta death gate camps, but other than that It can be devoid of life for the most part.

10. Brave newbies

I have a lot of respect for these guys. I can't say much about there pvp skill or knowledge, but they certainly do bring a fight- and are not afraid to engage targets for the most part. While i wouldn't suggest joining them, if you can track down where they are basing out of- its a ton of fun fighting them.

11. Super high end PvP corps

Hatchery
Turn Left
Genos
Hydra
Aquila
and a few others i am forgetting about

If you can somehow get talking to the guys found in this environment, I highly suggest it. Most if not all of them have flown in alliance turnys, they have a ton of small gang pvp experience and are very knowledgeable about the game.

If small gang/solo if what you are looking for then I'd also add the Black Dragon Fighting Society to the list of people to speak of.

Chessur has a pretty good (if slightly cynical) summary of the various environments.
The only thing I'd add is that you are NEVER to young a toon to start pvp.

Yes you will die more than not.
Yes your fits will not be the most efficient.
Yes you probably will lose some pods. (depending on your area of operations.)

But.

A 7 mil frig (looking at you atron you OP pita! ) can still screw up someones 15 mil frig or 30 mil T2 in the right circumstances.

The key to it all is to know when to engage and HOW to engage. and ultimately if you are flying cheapfit frigs who cares if you lose as you will learn something. The toon SP thing will come in time and by the time you can utilise the higher end frigs/mod/skills you as a pleyer will have the skills to actually put them to use.


Edit - if isk is an issue join FW (even as npc corp) you can easily support your pvp with LP payout for plexing.

If you plex in FW yes you will get faction hits. This can be mitigated by some skills so you can still operate in enemy high sec if you drop the militia.

eg. my minnie and gallente standing is crap as I've spent most of the last year in Amarr and Caldari FW but if I leave FW I can still do normal pve activities in minnie/Gallente high sec no problems.

It's not really thunderdome although it can look like it. Fleets will have a commander/coordinator who people call an FC. Everyone in the fleet is going to do what the FC says to do. They'll lock up targets and shoot them down one at a time in the order the FC "calls" them. If you don't do this you'll often lose the fight assuming your enemy is in a similar fleet with better discipline. The FC will also make decisions about where to go, how to configure his fleet (which ships people are asked to bring), when to engage, when to disengage etc etc.


Curb stompings do happen but there are ways to avoid just blindly flying around. One way is to have a scout in something like a cloaky ship or an interceptor who goes ahead of the fleet and reports back on what he sees. That way your fleet can go around other fleets that you don't want to engage or try to get in position to engage the other fleet.


Wormholes are not normally used as bases for PVP. However, no local means you have much better chances of sneaking up on ratters or miners than you normally would. PVP in wormholes is thus usually a small gang ganking someone who was ratting and then moving on. Skirmishes do happen but in my experience they're not overly common in wormholes.

I heard New Eden Renegades are a super high end PVP corp.

v0v

Best way to learn PVP is to join a noob friendly FW corp, like for example T.R.I.A.D. You will learn things like these:

a) For the beginning you will learn how to expulse enemy WT farmers from our plexes. Not much rewarding, and it is usually about having friends to help you out with things you can't take alone. But it learns you the basics.

b) Once you get more experienced you can try solo fighting by going into an enemy plex and waiting for the enemy to come towards you. This can give you very good solo or small scale fights if you manage to avoid the blob. This is where you knowledge learned from a) helps you in avoiding the blob. If you know how a blob works, you also know how to avoid it.

c) Once this is getting too boring or easy to you, then you can join our "Kill the Amarr in their own home" campaign to learn how to kill the amarr in their own high sec system. You will get chased a lot by Amarr navy so you have to be quick and cooperate well in the fleet to catch the bigger stuff. But it is a lot of fun... especially when Amarr are back in their "farm-only" WCS+cloak mode which usually means that there is nothing to kill on low-sec.

And yes, if you do FW missions then your Amarr standing will drop fast. Therefore, just don't missions, stay with defensive plexing or just kill the enemies only which doesn't result in any Amarr standing loss as far as I know.

The KB says you are not trolling well enough.

Mad and bad?

You don' t know the real story about the euni low sec camp do you?

Me, along with 6/8 other hatchery pilots flew down to molden heath to assist the king of the north. Pirate lord Ueberlisk. What happened during that short month, was pure destruction. IVY went crying back home, and the stain that had descended upon our lords land (and the ancestral home of Hatchery) was removed once and for all.

http://eve-kill.net/?a=pilot_detail&plt_id=625011&m=6&y=2012&view=kills

As you can see, hatchery came out well on top. During that time IVY management showed us their true colors- that they are pompous fools who have no idea how to PvP, yet preach otherwise.

I can't tell you the large difference between brave newbies / RvB when compared to IVY. IVY is like some old smelly cheese you forgot in the back of your fridge for a few months. While RvB / Brave is like that new Brie cheese you have been saving for that extra special event.