EVE New Citizens Q&A

I have a problem with EM weapons.

I tired my hand at low level pvp by going to level 1 faction warfare (without signing up of course) to see if I can find anything to shoot at.

So I find myself a target for my Kestrel and I move into attack, waiting for him to open fire so I don't lose security ranking. And I'm dead in 10 seconds. Shields go then my armour and my ship explodes and I run away in my pod. The cost isn't a problem so I get another kestrel and go at it again, different system and different target. Again dead in seconds. Both times frigates.

I check up and find that both enemy ships were armed with tech 2 guns and EM ammo.

So is there anyway I can beat these ships solo in a kestrel or are they just too good to beat?

I don't follow you

I was with 4 light missiles launchers with scourge missiles.

More than likely, the ship that is going against you is an amarr ship with beam/pulse lasers which do EM/thermal damage. Both of which are the worst for Caldari shields.

The ways to compensate for it is to put EM and Thermal Shield hardeners on your ship. This will boost the resistances of them.

Another way is to speed tank. See if you can get a fast orbit around whatever target yours shooting at. Tracking speeds on the energy turrets arent the best and will have a hard time keeping up with you if your trajectory is high. By all means, never fly straight towards or directly away from a ship with turrets. They will get direct hits everytime.

PS guys: OP is talking about PVP - not mission running

Rig your ships. If you need to fill an EM hole, fit the correct rig. Small anti-em screen reinforcer I in your case.

Edit. And some core defense field extenders too.
Take a look at the Jury Rigging skill and see all the options for your best choice.

yeah that what I try to do most of the time but the enemy always kill me before I've moved away from them.

In fact this is pretty much my experience in PvP in this game. Enemy comes up, enemy fires, my ship explodes

Well yes, that also describes my first attempts at PvP and I suppose most people have started their PvP careers losing lots of frigates. You'll learn from your mistakes, get better and sooner or later you'll be on the other side of someone else's "Enemy comes up, enemy fires, my ship explodes" story

Ah, and remember to put rigs on your ship. For frigates they are cheap and they can make quite the difference. For a kiting ship I would recommend something that improves your speed / agility or, if you're happy with those, a DPS rig.

First off, train jury rigging. It's a fast train and many rigs are dirt cheap - right now you're flying with some slots unfilled. Rigs are often the best way to fill "resist holes" (weak resists on your primary tank). For example, on most t1 shield ships I'd try to slap an anti-em screen reinforcer..

Other notes on your fit -


You're using light missile launchers, but you appear to be using a close-range fit with an afterburner. LMLs do less damage and have higher fitting requirements than rocket launchers, the only benefit being range. Unless you're really going to exploit that, go with rockets.

Cap rechargers are not useful in PVP. The small amount of % cap recharge you get is virtually never worth a midslot. If you really have capacitor problems you probably want a cap booster. The only thing on your fit that really eats cap is the small shield booster, which reminds me...

You're using small shield modules. Although it sounds counterintuitive (and it is), small shield boosting modules and small shield extenders don't really give you much of a benefit on a frigate hull. Typically ships fit one size larger (so, frigates/destroyers use medium shield extenders and shield boosters). It'll eat a lot of powergrid, but you can usually make the fit work.

Also, regular shield boosters are pretty awful for PVP in most circumstances. That's why ancilliary shield boosters exist. They give you a substantially higher tank with no capacitor cost, but they can only be run for a certain amount of time before the ammo it consumes runs out and it needs to reload. Ancillary shield boosters are expensive, though, and if cost is a problem (you seem to be using mostly flat t1 stuff), look at using a medium shield extender.

The above two points is why you seem to be exploding instantly. It seems like you have no tank because you really don't have much of a tank, not because they were shooting EM/thermal (though that probably helped)

Another point - try to always fit a damage control. It's a low slot module that gives you shield bonuses (one of very few modules that does this from a lot slot), as well as bringing your armor resists up. Further, it brings your structure resists up to 50-60%, which means that you gain a ton of effective hitpoints from this single module (just remember to turn it on). I consider it mandatory for almost every ship I fly

And finally, as the above guy said, you don't have a warp disruptor or warp scrambler, which means your target can just warp off at will.



In general, I'd try to avoid learning PVP on your own. Find a corp full of competent people who don't mind teaching you things (they exist), and join it.

whoops did that wrong

ok, I've specialised quite a bit around missiles so what kind of fitting would you suggest for a kestrel? Or is there another caldari ship that is better suited for solo PvP

The Kestrel itself is fine. It's just your fit for the kestrel that was flawed.