Warfare & Tactics

"PVP" as in the art of blowing other people's spaceship up without their consent.

So yeah, I'm roughly 1 year old and I've been carebearing it up to the extreme with missions.
But I just don't see myself playing this game any longer if I continue with this utter boredom. It's time to pick up the pace!

Considering that my ultimate goal in EVE would be to experience those mysterious GF's I hear about (possibly in a small-gang-warfare focused mercenary corp), what would my next best step be?

I don't want to hog other people's time with teaching me. And sacrifcing my ships is justified as long as I learn something from it.

So I do have two approaches in mind:

Cut my ties and begin a solo life in LowSec, which is probably good to get some quick gropes but I just don't see myself flying mostly frigates forever.

Or, I could join FW which I don't even perfectly understand how it works yet. But it seems to offer opportunities for solo combat as well as small roaming gangs.

Join null-sec corps is completely out of the question, as I have no interest in hiding behind a blob and turning into a F1-bot.


Or perhaps there are some better options that I haven't considered yet. Anyone that's been through these things care to offer some insight?


TLDR: Total PVP noob looking to get the good stuff. What do?

Being in a somewhat similar situation as you, here are my thoughts about a possible approach.

I will start in lowsec, flying solo or with a friend, and just learning basic mechanics, probably racking up losses, but trying to learn from each one. Analyzing fights, asking the winner how they percieved it, hope some will anwser.

As you wrote you do not want to fly frigs and destroyers all the time. Once you have "outgrown" these shiptypes, I think you should have a look at some Wormhole PVP groups. Looking at the killmails I see a lot of T3s, BCs, BS action going on there. And it is basically nullsec freedom, with the added mistery and mechanics that wormholes and sleepers provide.

Being part of a really good lowsec PvP corp should be fun too ... but I think you do need some sort of experience for that.

An interesting article about FW from someone who does it: http://themittani.com/features/faction-war-and-loving-it

join RvB !

Anyway best way to learn pvp is to join some GOOD corporation where veteran pvp players teach how to pvp.

You have a terrible view of Nullsec Alliances. They reason you think this is most likely because those big "Press F1 and continue wanking" battles are the only battles people really hear about. Small gangs, and solo battles happens quite a bit, but 2 people shooting eachother is not really worthy of mention.

In FW you have a lot more potential to get even fights, because a complex might restrict ship types. There is nothing wrong with flying a Frigate. Ever since I started they were my favourite ships. Fast, Nimble, and if done right, will chew down a Cruiser.

Important to know that if you go the FW/small gang route, communication is vital. A gang of newbies with good coordination COULD take down a group of High skill pilots with ****** communication. And I don't mean typing the info in Fleet Chat. VoIP is key to this.


EDIT;

1. Buy and fit a bunch of frigates
2. Go to battle, most likely dying.(Make a recording if possible)
3. RELAX, sit down think about the fight. If you recorded it, watch it a few times to see what you did, what the enemy did, etc.. Self Reflection does wonders.
4. Go to 2.

I joined a lowsec pirate corp with my first character to get into pvp. Since then I've done nearly everything pvp related. Lowsec brawling, suicide ops, 0.0 renting with its associated CTAs, 0.0 sov holding, wormholes, hisec griefing, etc.

The old days of lowsec pirating were where I learned the most and were probably the most enjoyable time I have ever had playing EVE. Also as the SP of my pvp characters has gone up, the size of the ships they fly has gone down.
I now almost exclusively fly frigates when solo.

So my recommendation would be join a pirate corp. Failing that I hear good things about Brave Newbies, they look like they have buckets of fun and don't give a crap about losing ships.

In my opinion learning to PVP will come down to a few differant things:

1) surround yourself with more experianced players, and learn from them
2) learn how and where engagements happen
3) learn each ships strengths and weaknesses (not just the ones you fly)
4) learn each modules role and the mechanics behind it.
5) know your own and your ships limits.
6) never expect a fair fight.

for me, PVP has as much been a matter of studying the game as much as actual experience, you will find if your in the right ship and you know what it can do, you will do the right things naturally.

another note would be in Fleets, listen carefully. This is the most important skill any fleet pilot can have, to listen and execute commands properly is what makes a fleet work

OP,

I'm looking to re-learn the basics of PvP myself, if you want to roam with me let me know, I'm happy to teach you what I know - bear in mind I'm no pro, but its always fun to fly with someone than alone!

Monkfish nailed it. +1

Attitude is your most important asset. Remember these words-- Play to win, but don't mind losing.

It's a game, it should be fun. Losing should be fun. Sitting around for an hour waiting for someone to take your cyno bait should be fun. A gate camp eating your lunch should be fun. The kill mails are just the evidence of a much more interesting story.

Find some low sec pirates, tell them you wish to die horribly and often, and let the pew begin. Piracy is intentionally cheap and you'll find 50mil SP toons in the same Rifter as the new guys (well, maybe a couple more faction mods....). There it's more about that knowledge base Monkfish mentions-- knowing your enemy inside and out, roles, ranges, obvious TARP......
Pirate corps are very welcoming of new players as the focus on small hulls means even a newb is an asset, not just bait.

It is almost a meme among PvP'ers that we are all, in fact, quite bad at Eve Online. Most FC's will begin and end a fleet invite with a reminder that they are terrible. Even if they're not, it's that kind of humor and casual attachment to internet spaceships that really matters.

For the nuts and bolts... small hulls. Don't try to skip ahead to bigger ships too fast. It's better to be good at flying something smaller than barely be able to field something bigger. It's very quick to train up T2 tank and weapons in the Small category, putting you, at least as far as a ship goes- on even footing with everyone else.
Then put the time into core skills. PvP fittings can be very tight, especially in niche role ships common in the T2 line ups. Every slot used on a fitting mod is hurting your performance in combat, and you may notice that many fittings people offer assume all V's for skills to make them work.

Thanks to everyone for their input. I got a lot more positive feedback than I expected and a lot of different perspectives.

If it sounds like I'm not too fond of frigates it's probably just because I indeed made the classic newbie mistake of going for battleships too early. It sorta worked out for missions but I invested some of the last months just to get some support skills up on par, as I should.

For now, I think I'll just heed the siren call of Lowsec and get those first losses over with.
If I get some kills on the way, great. If I get the opportunity to make new friends along the way, even better. While I do respect 1vs1's a lot, the concept of ganking isn't really new to me - whether I'm on the dealing or receiving end. This is EVE after all and I still appreciate it for what it is.

As for joining any corporations yet, I will first see how I fare on my own and what I can find pleasure in, before I can make that kind of choice.


@ Gizznitt Malikite
I just took a look at the mentioned wiki and it's awesome. Got my work cut out for me again, thanks.


@ DarkestHeart
Sure, I'll take you up on that offer. Got nothing to lose. =)

^

Agony Unleashed does a great job introducing pilots to pvp. I flew with one of their post-class fleets and it was very well organized and the newer pvpers really seemed to be understanding the material. Would highly recommend attending one of their classes.