Warfare & Tactics

I've had a pretty short PvP career, at roughly 3 hours. After getting a few JCs installed, I went about building a pair of cheapfit frigates before planning a route to what I thought would be a clinic in submarine dogfighting.

Instead, I met the bubble. And the bubble had friends.

Actually my first death was pretty hilarious, as the 3 Glass Cannons™ parked 100km+ on my Z axis first alpha'd my Kestrel down to 30% Structure, then proceeded to miss me for almost a solid minute as I AB'd to the gate. I made it to within 7400m (from somewhere in the neighborhood of 68km) before I was blasted then podded. It was a close one.

The second was just as one-sided, but at least this one had a twist: joke ransom. Too bad for me my sense of humor is unpopular, so instead of trying to make 18 jumps back to highsec in a pod at 20% Structure, I saluted as they sent me home the fast way.

So... soloists, how do you handle the bubble? How do you look for the 'right' fight?

I do solo roams quite often.

I typically avoid warping gate to gate, and usually warp to random nearby celestial (Customs offices are excellent for this), and scan the gates to see if there are bubbles there.

I also make a lot of bookmarks, where I'll power to 250ish km's off gates in a random, non-aligned direction. I find a lot of traffic that comes through will try to chase you off. And it gives you a chance to assess your enemy. When you see something that might be engageable, engage it.... Once you have complete sets of bookmarks, just warp to the bookmark rather than the gate and see whats there....

If you go through a gate, and there is a bubbler, then burning back to gate is typically your most survivable optoin.

Properly fit and flown, most t1 combat frigates (rifter, tristan, merlin, ?punisher?) can take on and kill most interceptors (heavily depending on their fits), especially fleet inties...

First- it's important to remember that I'm terrible.....

Solo PvP is so much a lost art. Especially in the frigate class, as the smallest combat boat I generally see in null are BC's anymore. Blobs and blobs of BCs.........

It's the double edge sword of being solo, especially in a small boat like a T1 frigate- you should be finding fights everywhere yet no one believes you're actually some solo pilot out there in a canoe, and so even bigger ships will run away.
Everyone just assumes you're a bait ship for a gank fleet.

Bubbles- the bane of honorable combat. Great if you're the dude in the SB fleet sitting cloaked and aligned- horrible if you're just passin' thru on your way to be a bait ship for.........oh wait.....

How survivable it is to burn back to gate is heavily dependent on the ship you're flying and whats on gate. I typically do my solo roams in AB fit frigate hulls, and 80-90% of the time I can make it no problems except the occasional wound to rep. For making BM's, they are slow and kinda vulnerable when close to gate (< 60 kms). If you're patient, this extra time making BM's allows a passerby to take notice, and switch ships for a good fight (or a blob). And if you see a good target, you can give chase...

If you're in a MWD frigate, you have a much higher probability of living. They are great for making BM's, and their speed has many uses. At the same time, MWD are often vulnerable to AB fits, are typically a little trickier to fly, but just as viable for nullsec solo hunting.

For cruiser hulls, the vaga (mwd) and cynabal (mwd or dual prop) are very popular and effective solo ships. These ships typically use their speed and agility to string out targets and kill those that become vulnerable. They have a high probability of making it back to gate, but are large and juicy enough targets that you'll be hunted.

For BC hulls, the myrm and cane make excellent solo roam boats, but their survivability is not that high, and the first blob you run into will typically destroy your ship in a fairly unsatisfying manner.

When burning back to gate, remember to overheat your prop mod!

Does an MWD make traveling through null easier..... absolutely....
Does it improve your survivability when traveling.... occassionally....

but you can manage without it.... I have, and I've been in every region in EvE soloing in AB frigates...

I don't really PvP in lowsec, so I cannot attest to the quality of targets there.... In Nullsec, most solo fights happen at gates. As such, if your ab, you can decline the engagement whenever you are out of scram range (that's what i typically do).

In Lowsec, most 1v1's happen at planets/belts to my knowledge, and there someone can kite you and there is little you can do about it... Under such situations, AB's could have a significant disadvantage!

I solo pvp most time or with a small handfull of buddies. I recommed know your territory. Bookmarks and knowing the locals save your ass. Secondly, fly a ship you know. Fly ships that your well skilled for, you know the boundaries of it.
Third, use uncommon tactics in the area. Example, the locals fly frig gangs bring a bs gang, they fly bs gang bring nano hacs. Use what works best against your target.
Last bite off only what you can chew. Dont expect to kill that domi solo with your rifter, its possible, not likely.

Many things can help you in your pvp career, like corps and people you meet. Always watch and learn new tactics and keep in mind everything is ever evolving. What your doing today may not work tomorrow.

Go to nullsec, scan down and kill mission runners in a Curse or similar ship. Thanks to anomaly nerf CCP shafted pvp and pve but there will still be targets.

Low sec is a bit full on for the newer player tbh, the classic Eve .jpg describing sec status is spot on.

Edit: you might not have enough sp to fly a recon. Others will give advice with ships to use for this purpose.

Last time I saw Wensley around in AFs he was using ABs to good effect - he never seemed to have many problems making it back to gate when he jumped into a bubble. Of course if the AF changes go through then that may change as mwd on AFs will become compelling.

Depends on the people you run into of course - I never had any problems running around null in an AB Claw, people seemed perfectly happy to get into scram range.

I am SHOCKED no one has pointed this out yet. If you are trying to solo you best know how to use your d-scan. Not just “yea, know there is this little thing that shows me some stuffz.” I mean full on know how to use it, combined with local, to give you as much tactical awareness as possible.

The biggest difference I have seen between people who solo and people who complain solo doesn’t exist is the ability to use the d-scan. If you aren’t using it then you will be at an extreme tactical disadvantage in nearly every fight you come across.