Warfare & Tactics

Just a few questions for the folks who live and breath FW on how to go out on the occasional day trip in search of the gud-fights. I have no interest in the joining of sides or beating of space politicians, so just joining up is largely out of the scope.

I have no exp what so ever on the ground in FW space so I realize that no amount of forum warrior work will really prepare for the plex fighting. With that in mind I am wondering where to start looking for people who will fight and not just run from every frigate that lands?

Or am I better off just setting a course and hoping into each plex to get lucky? Perhaps just burn up a frigate alt and go incognito?

enter system, notice the plexes (novice, small, medium, large), warp to a planet within scan range, scan plex(s), if you want to fight whats in there warp to it, activate the accel gate, lose ship and pod, logon to forum again, tell everyone how much fun it was.

Find a system that is less than 10 percent contested and has fw people docked. That is a home system. Open a plex in the system and wait 1 to 2 minutes for a fight.

Join one of the multiple pirate corps in fw lowsec?

IF you decide on the pirate route do go and join shadow cartel as they actually fight not only FWers but other pirates unlike the rest of the blue smurf huggers *cough* yarr club around here

This is a good guide to plexes in faction war.

http://www.gamerchick.net/2013/01/the-beginners-guide-to-faction-war.html

You can use your onboard scanner open plexes yourself even though you are not in fw.

If you are mainly looking for fights stay out of fw so you aren't blue to allot of people in plexes.

If want some lp out of your main character at the expense of fights then join fw.

As a neutral you will not run the timer or get lp. But the rest is pretty much the same.

Plexes are a great place to find pvp.


In the amarr minmatar map basically anywhere within 2 jumps of kourm is a good place to find fights. Kourm is a good place to base out of.

For caldari gallente I am still learning a bit but generally you can look at the ships/pods killed on eve dotlan and find the hot systems. I base out of nennamaila and Heydieles.

Black Dragon Fighting Society is only blue to Black Rebel Rifter Club(we are in the same alliance) and Black Frog logistics.

In 2 months of plex fighting I only ran into a blue one time in a plex.

Go to Hykanima an hour or two before DT.

And after your statement - I know you won't run when I land on a plex gate... or will you????

Yeah I've been trying to decide between the flight mechanics of kiting vs trying to sling that kiter back into scram range. Is the AC slasher any good for anything besides taking on up sized ships?

I'd like to avoid flying the hookbill as a rule but it seemed that a scram web slasher might be able to direct counter it.

I've recently gotten into this. A friend I made (after trying to kill him in a complex) pointed me to this thread. After a number of years in a [NPC] null-sec alliance it's been a new experience for me; not just the fights, but the people as well.

The basic principles are easy enough. You jump into a faction warfare system (hopefully you have a course through many of them) and use your directional scanner. Warp to points within the system so that you can directly scan each faction warfare complex (they show up on your overview if you've set them to). The new-ish tracking camera can really help with this as it will point you straight at the complex and you can just use the 5 degree scan. Don't let yourself be blinded to just what's in the complex though, you want to have situational awareness of the whole system. Once you've identified a target, warp to it -- this will put you at an acceleration gate which you can activate if you're of the right ship class. Tech 1 frigates can go into any complex (including Navy and Pirate frigates) but Tech 2 frigates and larger hulls are restricted based on the size of the complex which will be in its name.

It's great fun, but there are a number of things you will want to think about:

• The number of pilots/corporations/alliances using off-grid boosters is unreasonably high. These people are not looking for good fights, they're looking to earn LP or gank real solo pilots. Learn who these people are by looking for Legions/Lokis/Command Ships on scan as you move about the system and noting what group makes up the bulk of the pilots there. The joke is on them though, when off-grid boosters are nerfed they won't know how to fight.
• Many people run. You'll learn who these people are if you stay in an area long enough. Chase them anyway, sometimes they make mistakes. If you catch them, you will gain two things: they'll be less likely to do it again if they're killed, and you'll have some loot to pick yourself up with when you get stomped down. And a ship named "WCStabbed01" probably means what it says; but the name doesn't guarantee it.
• Target selection is a big part of the fight, but it's not all there is. Shoot things you're not sure about; you might win.
• Anyone already in a complex who is actually looking for a fight has a decent advantage against any kiting ship you will bring. If they are good and they are prepared, you probably won't get out of scram range. With that said, try it anyway -- it often works.
• Read blogs, they're great sources and there are a number of low-sec pirates and faction warfare pilots who write them. There is a decent feed available here.

Depending on where you're looking, there are any number of low-sec pirate organizations that would be willing to offer help. While some people tend to assume we're jerks looking to ruin their gameplay (these are the cloaky or WCSed LP farmers -- I'm not sure you can call that "play"), we're really a decent lot. Find an organization or two near you and join the public channel they probably have.

Good luck.