EVE New Citizens Q&A

Someone should bring a burst for logi :D

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Burst

Check info in-game as evelopedia is completely wrong now.

You need to find targets, catch them, and kill them.

Finding targets may require probing them out, although you guys are probably going to be more prey than predators in lowsec, because your group is small. As such, not sure if you'll be able to sit at a safespot for 2 minutes with the local map up and playing with probes; you'll probably be found and destroyed before that. You may have to just check the belts and move on if nobody suitable is around.

Catching people requires warp disruptor or warp scrambler, afterburner or MWD, and perhaps stasis webifier. Frigates won't have many medium slots left after installing these 3 modules.

Killing targets requires DPS, and frigate combat is typically at short-ish ranges (20km). Rockets, light missiles, whatever guns you can install in the high slots. Pick small targets, and beware of bait (lone ship with a fleet of friends standing by elsewhere).

Dangers are:

- Smartbombs. Usually lowsec denizens if they see a large frigate group pass through they'll set up a smartbomb camp for when the frigate group returns home later. Don't warp gate-to-gate, use the d-scanner from the planet nearest the gate to see who's on the gate, and use a scout.

- Big ships - destroyer and cruiser hulls probably have the tracking and DPS to take out frigates really fast; battlecruisers and battleships likely have drones, and a set of small or medium drones will do nasty damage to you.

- Recons - Rapier and Huginn can webify you from long range (really nasty for frigates), Arazu can warp disrupt you from long range, Curse can drain your cap dry from long range, and these are cloaky ships. Watch out for them.

- Energy Neutralizers - usually installed on bigger ships as an anti-frigate weapon, if you get close they'll suck your cap dry almost instantly, which will turn off your speed module, guns, and more importantly warp disruptor or scrambler.

3 frigates is a small group; they won't really need smartbombs to kill you, a few drones will do the trick, and you also don't have the numbers to do DPS fast enough to kill anything big.

Your defenses are speed and orbiting as close as it's safe. Maybe tracking disruptors if you can fit one. And picking your targets carefully.

EDIT: Oh, as far as specific ships, CCP has just rebalanced all race frigates to be relatively equal to the Rifter. Each race offers a fast attack/tackle ship, a regular combat ship, a probing ship, an ewar ship, etc., it's just a matter of flavor of weapons you want to use or the type of ewar you want to apply.

I have several thoughts for you:

1.) I very much recommend you take Agony's PvP Basic course... Our next class is in early January, and will be in the Aussie Timezone... PM me if you'd like any assistance enrolling. This is our enrollment forum, where you can view FAQs on our courses, read class feedback, etc.... Feel free to browse our wiki articles, which give a solid introduction to EvE PvP concepts. (note: browse the wiki beyond that linked page and you can find recorded seminars, videos, ship fittings, and more...)

2.) What are you trying to hunt with your three man gang? Three low-sp pilots in t1 frigates can do a lot of damage, but they are also easy to counter. You need to make sure your gang has synergy, and that you have to tools to take on a target. Things you should be asking:
How are the rifters fit: Are they AB or MWD? What Ewar do they have? Do any of them have a NOS?
Where are you roaming? Nullsec or lowsec? Nullsec is more dangerous (because of bubbles), but you can also use bubbles yourself...
Things to remember:
--- a scram is essential for shutting down a target's mwd. Many MWD'ing frigs, cruisers, and some BC's may power off if you don't shut down their MWD... or worse, they may kite your ships and tear you apart.
--- a disruptor (a.k.a. a point) has enough range to catch most ships coming through a gate, preventing their initial warp... At the same point in time... they require a ton of cap, and don't slow down a ship.
--- MWD's allow you to quickly get on top of a target, but they also make you easier to hit... If you fit one, turn it off when you get on top of your target.... AB's mean you aren't nearly as fast, but are very useful for mitigating damage when orbiting close.
--- Web's are very useful for slowing down your target.... a scram + webbed cruiser not only can't move very fast, but is generally slow enough that you can orbit them close (500m) and mitigate much of their dps.
--- Jams (best used on bonused ships) and Tracks help mitigate a ton of damage, and are great "add ons" to help you and your buddies survive.
--- Big ships are often easily destroyed by small ships... if you orbit under their guns and destroy their drones, they often can't even hurt you anymore. Then it just takes time to kill them...

3.) The exact ship type you bring is moreless irrelevant... With the release of Retribution, most frigs and destroyers are extremely viable PvP ships. You should bring a ship you can fly well, and truth be told, never underestimate the value of EWAR. Three gank rifter's may have a hard time bringing down a hurricane.... but two gank rifters and a cruicifer or griffin might easily destroy that hurricane...

Finally, someone mentioned a logistics frigate.... in my experience, the logistics frigates work very well when you have a pilot that knows you to utilize it. It takes some practice, but even a solo logi frigate can be a strong addition to your gang...

I have had great success running Rifter gangs like this. If your friends are flying Rifters there is some merit to flying a third Rifter. If nothing else, it keeps the enemy guessing. Coordinate on what sort of guns you want to carry so that you can apply all of your damage at roughly the same range. Coordinate also on what sort of propulsion module you wish to use, MWD or AB, so that you can move approximately the same speed, which helps to avoid getting spread out and killed one at a time, and also helps to allow you to focus fire on a single target. With 3 Rifters I would probably have one guy carry a warp scrambler, one a warp disruptor, and the third guy should carry a tracking disruptor with a tracking speed disruption script. Depending on how you tank, you may be able to get stasis webifiers in there somehow too.

With your Rifter gang you want to seek out either other frigates solo and in ones and twos, or you want to look for bigger game. Solo cruisers and battlecruisers are pretty good. Get in as close an orbit as you can, turn off your microwarpdrive if you chose to fit one, tracking disrupt the crap out of him, scram him, and web him, and shoot your guns. If he has drones shoot them first.

You can kill a lot of things with this sort of gang, even with very low skills. The key is to choose the right targets and catch them at close range. Beware of destroyers and assault frigates, as they will chew you to pieces. Beware also of trying to chase down larger targets from long range, as their guns will be better able to track you at range.

This is just one example of how you can put together an effective little gang with three noobs. Another option that could work well would be two Rifters and a Griffin to jam your targets with ECM. I have not played with logi frigates like the Burst yet, but I am inclined to think it isn't ideal for this small and fragile a gang. It may be worth a try though, just to find out. The most important thing is not to listen to any naysayers who try and convince you this is a bad idea, or who tell you you will just get killed. A few new players in frigates with a decent fit and a coordinated strategy can give an experienced player a nasty surprise.

Logistics ships get targetted first. Healers always get targetted first in any MMO.

In addition, 2 of the 4 Logistics can refill capacitors in addition to armor/shields, so people flying these ships fit them to be cap unstable, expecting to group up in pairs or a chain refilling each other's capacitors as they go.

You can take pretty much any frigs you want, its how you compliment each other that matters. 2 buffer fit brawling blaster merlins being tanked by a kitey burst or bantam is great. 3 kiting light missile kestrels can work, 3 pure gank tormentors. Mixing the wrong ships wont work though, punishers + burst no for example (shield logi, armour tanks).

I personally would go for two brawlers (frigs or destroyers) that get on the enemy and then a kite fit logi or ewar ship (especially grffin). Find another couple of pilots and you can do even better, with the basis of a pvp gang. 2 ewar frigs can work together (griffin+maulus working together is awesome) while 2 logis can rep each other. If you take 2 of either of these in a gang of three though you wont have the dps to kill anything but another t1 frigate.

The multispectral ECM has less strength than the racial ECM's, and because you don't know what ships you'll encounter, people usually fit one ECM for each race (magnetometric, gravimetric, ladar, radar). If you don't have enough mid slots, pick your best guess (Minmatar ships are usually used by PVP'ers, you may see Caldari for mission runners, Gallente use drones which are currently disfavored for missions, and I'm not sure about Amarr ships).

As far as whether to focus or split jamming, bigger ships have stronger sensors.

Take 2 Herons and fit the mids with Balmer TDs, scram, web, AB and MSE 2. Your highs are rockets and a LOLrail gun. Drones should probably be warrior IIs. Your 3rd frigate can be a Burst with 3 small shd reppers (range of around 30km iirc) and T1 drone of any sort just to whore in on KMs. Go kill everything cruiser hull and down that doesn't shoot missiles.

The Herons look loltastic enough that your victims probably won't run from them, but they've more EHP than anyone will think (due to recent re-balancing) and double TD plus double web is a speedy death for any frig you find. As a bonus, even pimping these out with T2 gear all 3 of them might cost 24 mil or so (if that).