Warfare & Tactics

Your spelling is slipping SeaSaw.

Until you get owned 10 times in a row to decent frig pilot and wonder 'How did that happen? I'm in a destroyer......it's designed to 'destroy' frigates."


Not completely disagreeing but often new players don't understand that bigger isn't always better and learning how to deal with losing a ship is essential to becoming a pvp'er. Frigs allow you to get to know the capabilities of the various sized ship classes and not worry about your losses as they are so cheap.

First, don't get too wrapped up in skill plans or meta levels on modules. I'll say right now that while skills and how shiny a ship you've got does matter- the most important aspects of PvP are not found in skill books or in hangars. The most important skills for survival outside of high sec aren't even taught in PvE applications. You simply have to learn this stuff- which makes that whole 'solo weekend warrior' plan almost doomed from the start.
Because it's not a matter of NOT dying, it's a matter of learning from each death.

The D-Scan. Learn it. Live it. The single most important device you have. Nothing should ever land on you that you didn't see coming. It is LIFE in hostile space, and I don't think any PvE makes real use of it. Practice this in safety in high sec until it's second nature. Jump into a system, hit a safe, scan for miners and track them to what belt they're in (obviously don't engage). Hostile, pirate infested space is no place to be learning how to bounce between short and long scans at 5 degrees.

Safes. This is important- many weekend warrior PvP'ers get too concerned with numbers- SP, DPS, etc- but fail to take into account that when they leave their high sec home thinking they are ready for PvP in their shiny ships, they are in MY backyard where I have a dozen safes per system and can scan you down and anticipate where you're headed next- even re-ship based on what you are in. Safes, combined with the D-Scan is what hunting is about in Eve. Safes are what gives players the confidence to LIVE in low and null while so many players are afraid to use 'shortest route' in their autopilot lest they cross out of high sec.

Timers. CCP made an effort but knowing every timer Eve runs under the hood and how they work is absolutely critical. This becomes even more important in a fleet where you don't want to warp the fleet to the gate when two of your members are still flashy to the world (and gate guns). Timers can spell doom or survival just as much as having the 'right' gun or tank.

Memorize it all! One of the biggest parts of PvP is just knowing what you can and cannot take on. I've played Eve for two years and still don't know every ship and it's capabilities when I see it on my D-Scan. Tweaks from CCP and keeping up on player trends- which ships tend to be kiters vs brawlers for example- is important. Dev blogs, I swear I READ more about Eve than actually play it.....

Finally, skills and the meta they bring. The reason you hear stories of some newb in a duct taped Rifter smoking a guy in a faction BS is because all of the above is more important than skills and shiny ships.
However, in the end PvP is not only skill intensive, but most of the people that do it tend to dedicate themselves to that vaunted level V. Because yes, that 5% whatever WILL matter at some point.
Too many people want to dabble in PvP and think Eve is broken when they keep losing, but it's the same as if I tried to compete in the marketplace with my toon- who has virtually no indy skills and I have no experience at it other than buying replacement parts when I get blow'd up. Of course I'd be slaughtered.

The best advice to give anyone that wants to PvP is to do it...totally. You don't have time to waste on the next mining level if you want to get Gunnery filled in!
While it's not the path I went, I agree with most people here and suggest FW as a starting point. It's getting a lot of love from CCP lately, and is set up to at least try to offset combat losses to keep you in ships.

Mostly- have fun. PvP in Eve is really complex, difficult, often unfair- but really rewarding too.