Warfare & Tactics

Whew, I spent the last few days on a PVP marathon around the FW zones! I lost way more than I won, but I don't think there's any way that I'm going back to my carebearing ways. Fun/hr definitely beats isk/hr.

I know some PVP newbies will routinely get blapped by more-experienced players. These are a few lessons that I've learned from my PVP marathon and hope it will guide you to some victories.

1) Specialise. What I mean by this is that your ship and fit should focus on attacking certain ships and fits only. Avoid thinking like an "omni" PVPer that thinks every war target is suitable for attack. Identify a type of ship you want to kill, and come up with a ship and fit that will maximise your chance of killing this particular ship. Once you're flying in this highly-specialised ship, avoid engaging anyone except the ship(s) you want to kill. You are going to be the rock to someone's scissor.

2. Running from a fight you'd lose is winning. Winning doesn't strictly mean blowing up your enemy. It also means denying your enemy their objectives. If their objective is to kill you and you survive, in zero sum terms, their failure is your success. Only engage when you know you will win.

3. EHP is meaningless. I spent countless hours on EFT, trying to maximise my EHP. I even received advice that I should plug in any resistance holes. This is all misguided. This relates to point (1). If I'm targeting a type of ship that has little chance of shooting EM damage, for example, then why should I waste a precious slot on EM resistance? It's much better to use that slot to increase my DPS or resistance against damage I'd likely encounter, even if this means a lower EHP.

4. Build a hit list. Some pilots tend to stick to the same ship and fit that you're specialised against. Add them to your watchlist so when you encounter them in local, you're well-prepared.

5. Use Eve-kill to research your enemies. Just got blapped? Interested in how your enemy got the better of you? Look them up on Eve-kill or another killmail site. Chances are, they've used the same ship and fit in the past and died, revealing their fit.

I might expand this more as I continue my FW exploits. :) Any tips are also welcome.

Don't be afraid to engage 'fringe' targets on you 'hit list' of ships.

If you only engage stuff you know 100% that you are fit to counter them then you won't really learn what your ship is capable of.
And if you fly is a low pop TZ (AU I'm looking at you!) picking one ship/fit etc that you will engage severely limits your opportunity for combat.

In general decent advice but don't be afraid to go out and experiment. If you are in FW then replacing T1 frigs is easy to do so don't worry if you lose then hand over foot and you'll learn way more about what ships/fit work against what.

Fly dangerous! Cos safe is boring!

1. Learn EVERYTHING about EVERY SHIP and EVERY FIT
2. Create a ship with a large engagement profile
3. Manual pilot
4. Practice.

I tend to fly destroyers as they can engage most frigs, afs, and other dessies. Great dps, not so much on tanking. But it lets you engage a myriad of targets and even 1v2,3 frigs. Thrasher has been my go-to ship for solo pvp and its been working out decently.

Specialising and running away from fights you might lose are tips i would tell others myself, but as far as not counting in hp i woulndt go that far. There are but few ships that tend to use only some dmg types while the rest can switch to hit you in any resist, so like someone above said if you limit yourself to only a handfull of fights you lose out on more then half the experience you could gain and not to mention fights.

More or less the avarage solo pilot is never really solo or has something else as an ace in the hole

Just a question on attacking purples (or allied militia). What happens if I attack a purple? From what I read, your faction and militia standings don't get hurt. What about security status?

You'll lose sec status as well if the purple has above a -5 sec status I believe.

The following will happen in short order...

- you will lose standings with the faction of the militia you are both a part of.
- you will lose security status if the person in question has greater than a -5.0 security status.
- you may be attacked and blown up by the allies of the person who you shot.
- you may be kicked out of the fleet you are in (if you are in one).


Over the long term...

- you will be seen as either incompetent or untrustworthy (especially if you have been in FW for some time).
- you may be blacklisted from public fleets.
- you may be kicked out of any intel channels you have access to.
- (worst case scenario for habitual offenders) any corp you join will be war-dec'ed by friendly militia corps and/or you will be publicly marked as KOS (Kill on Sight) by anyone in the militia (and there will always be lunatics who are willing to take a standings hit themselves to get rid of a militia AWOXer).

I've a story that has some tips in it. I will place a KM with altered vic name below to provide proof.

I was flying around Heydieles looking for something to shoot in my Rifter, when I decided to go bait myself by ratting. This Crow shows up and I knew he was after me so I began to burn away knowing likely he'd hit approach. When he was 20k away I stopped my AB and hit approach to him, as I got turned I hit the AB again to close distance quickly before he realized I was closing distance. As soon as he was in scram range, I caught him, shut down his MWD, webbed him, NOS'd him, and ruined his ship.

I don't know if the fit below is still as good as it was then. But it remains that if you keep a cool head and think your way through it then an older toon with a more advanced ship does not necessarily mean you will lose.


[Rifter, PvP]
Small Armor Repairer II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II

1MN Afterburner II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

150mm Light AutoCannon II, EMP S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, EMP S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, EMP S
E5 Prototype Energy Vampire

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]




2009.04.03 05:23

Victim: **** *****
Corp: CASCADE OF SPECTRES
Alliance: Ocularis Inferno
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Crow
System: Heydieles
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 1456

Involved parties:

Name: Eddie Monaghan (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.6
Corp: Blood Money Bootcamp
Alliance: Blood Money Cartel
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 1102

Name: Bunzan Cardinal
Security: -10.0
Corp: Blood Money Bootcamp
Alliance: Blood Money Cartel
Faction: NONE
Ship: Thrasher
Weapon: 250mm Light Artillery Cannon II
Damage Done: 354

Destroyed items:

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Overdrive Injector System II
Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 468 (Cargo)
Auxiliary Thrusters I, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Upgraded 'Limos' Standard Missile Bay I
Upgraded 'Limos' Standard Missile Bay I
Upgraded 'Limos' Standard Missile Bay I
Caldari Navy Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 120
Patterned Stasis Web I
Warp Scrambler II
Inertia Stabilizers II
Inertia Stabilizers II

whats unfortunate is that for every one of these threads, 10 other rookies are starting eve, getting confused, not getting involved with pvp or player corps, get bored of missions or mining or sick of griefers, and then quit.