Warfare & Tactics

https://zkillboard.com/character/94178346/

Am I a crappy player, in your judgement?

No, I am not fishing for compliments to stroke my e-peen to, nor am I looking for pity. I just want serious feedback if, judging by my kills, losses and ratio, I look up to par or not. Give me your brutal, blunt honesty. If I do suck, tell me ways I can improve.

Also, this account is about 4 months old.

without actually seeing you in combat there no real way to no if your truely a good pvper.

however. your fits are sound and good.

now in my years of experience. meta4/t1 fits, are completely worthless against virtually anyship. once you get t2 guns and t2 tank youll be in a MUCH better position to kill people.

whatever anybody says, meta4/t1 fits were only EVER viable in 2008.

Your fits seem to be on the right track for the most part, and meta modules aren't that big of a disadvantage depending on fits. Some of your fits show some very glaring weaknesses, however, which I'll get into in a minute.

Unless you're constantly getting caught in these fights, IMO one of the biggest issues is that you're taking fights that in general you have no chance of winning. Trying to fight OLD MAN GANG and Nasarite Watch solo, in their home systems where they're generally boosted, in ships that would have a hard time countering their fits even without boosts, is a one-way ticket to a crap killboard efficiency. When we started our Enaluri offensive, we would regularly get our teeth kicked in by these guys, until we figured out how they flew and how to counter their comps - not to mention brought our own boosts. This coming from someone with a pretty solid killboard, in a corp where you just don't break into the top 10 anymore without getting 250-300 kills in a month. Those guys - and TUSKERS, ffs - really know their stuff and are not folks to go up against lightly on their home ground.

I really really wish that Azual Skoll was still blogging - his website really opened my eyes to a lot of PvP / piloting / fitting theory that I hadn't really grasped before. One of the things he got me to recognize was the concept of engagement envelopes, and being able to gauge which ships / pilots / comps you've got a reasonable chance of beating in a fight. It's a skill that takes a whole lot of time to learn, and there's some pilots that you simply don't engage under any circumstances solo, no matter what the hell you're flying (Yuri Antollare). They're just that good. The more you fly in an area, the more familiar you become with common fits and what different corps and pilots are in the area, the better you'll get at gauging the odds.

Take for example this loss. You're using 200mm autos on a Thrasher, and that's a good start. Buzzsaw Thrashers can tear things apart when fitted right. You're better off spending another couple 100k isk to get meta autocannons, because the extra 10-20% damage really does make a huge difference. MWD and meta scram is also fine, perfect setup for a BST because you've gotta get close to really put in your DPS. DCU and gyrostab are also good, though again low-meta modules will give you a measurable performance boost without a massive outlay of isk.

Engaging a Rifter in that should have been an easily winnable engagement, especially if he's autocannon fit. You put out a lot more DPS and can theoretically tank a lot better. Using T1 only puts you at a serious disadvantage, since he can use Barrage and scram kite you within the 7-9km range where your T1 guns are in heavy falloff, but if you've got SP restrictions that prevent you from using T2 guns you've just got to ensure he doesn't make it out to that range.

There's two things that killed you here, in my opinion. First, the Medium Neutron shield booster. Going for an active shield tank is fine - but you have nowhere near enough cap to sustain that tank long enough to matter. You would have been far, far better off using a medium shield extender for a buffer fit, or if you really want to go active tank use a Medium Anciliary Shield Booster instead. With Navy 50s in the booster, you can rep for 9 cycles for zero cap - giving you respectable HP repaired over that period of time. MASB setups can be very very strong on high resist ships or ships with a shield boost bonus like Breachers. Most times you're better off with buffer + resists, however, since most engagements are decided too soon for rep sustainability to be a factor. Dual rep cap injected Incursus setups, and dual MASB setups, are the notable exceptions to this rule.

Second, is the use of 3x small core defense extenders. This left massive resistance holes, leaving your overall ability to mitigate damage even with a shield booster in a very very poor state. Going with EM/Therm/Kin resist rigs would have given you far more EHP and far better rep ability than the setup you used.

My best advice is to read and re-read Azual Skoll's articles, and look on YouTube for some good PvP videos. There's several out there that go into the fits themselves, why they were chosen, and how they're used - then give you some actual use footage to see it in action. Those are golden, and you'll learn a ridiculous amount in a short time by watching them. Something like this video on a dual web Firetail is a good example. If you need fitting advice, asking in Militia chat can get you some decent feedback, and being in an active PvP corp can be a huge benefit. In addition, looking up active PvP corps and looking through their lossmails can give you excellent setups that are proven to work well. They may not work for you, but that's part of the experimentation process - trying things out and figuring out what mechanics and styles of flying work best for you.

Good luck on your journey to becoming a stone cold death machine, and may your enemies start to fear you as much as they do us.

He's actually paying you a compliment. For being 4 months old and trying to solo against boosted elite solo PvPers and still going out to get shot at again, you ARE showing all the right qualities to make a great PvP pilot.

Your current poor track record is because you're taking fights where you're massively overmatched on average, and you don't have the depth of experience to turn a losing fight into a winning one. Your lack of SP (and probably lack of ready supply of isk too) make it hard for you to field truly effective ship fits, so you're generally fighting an uphill battle. Given where you're fighting at, your target selection means you're banging your head against a very very tough wall and wondering why it's not breaking.

Work on finding more suitable targets to engage, and work on your fits a bit. You ARE on the right path, and your tenacity and fact that you're looking for advice here mean that you WILL get there if you can stop yourself from giving up before you do. Get some support from a larger, more successful, and more active PvP corp. Your corp is small and it's record isn't great as far as PvP goes, so it's hard to get solid mentorship from that kind of environment.

Consider getting some PvP training from someplace like the Open University of Celestial Hardship or Agony Unleashed. Those folks really know their stuff, and have effective PvP training programs that are (i believe?) open enrollment or fairly unrestricted enrollment.

Don't give up, in short. You're on the right track. There's resources out there to get you where you want to be - go find them. Then go back and murder the folks who frustrated you so much in your early days.

The way you are approaching it, your win:loss ratio will turn around.

Mine did though I also still have a long way to go. Your attitude alone makes you a good pilot. As long as you keep learning, the break through ("ah ha") moments will come.

yes you suck.

the good news is that eve takes an incredibly low amount of mechanical skill.

you can play with one hand on your junk and still win at eve. (this is not hyperbole)

what you need to do is learn about overpowered ships: arty firetail, rail atron, lml crow, stuff like that.

learn what counters what.

then only fight when you know you can stomp the other person.

youre welcome

edit: okay i see that your char is brand new. however the concept still applies.

if u want to be pr0 at eve only fight what u can beat, even if that means only killing miners.

Nobody ever accomplished anything with meta fits.

Killboards are pretty good at hiding good pvpers due to the randomness of pvp.

Yes, all of that.

That's great advice, I can't begin to say how crucial t2 guns/tank are. Are there some things you can get away with by throwing on a meta 4 mod? Sure. Neuts, for example, and (for fitting reasons) plates if you roll armor. But for the most part, get those t2 guns and t2 tank out ASAP. Training t2 guns for anything is a *****, but the reward is worth it.

On top of that, give different fits a try. Normally brawl? Try kiting. I'm not a great pvper by any stretch of the imagination, but it's (almost) always beneficial to try new things. To continue with this line of thought, I'm seeing a lot of thrasher and condor losses. Try some new ships dude! If you really like those two, then forget what I'm saying, but its fun trying new things!

Try the Slasher for example, it's a neat ship.

I also see you're rolling into lowsec a lot. Are you soloing? If so, good for you, but you must be getting frustrated, sometimes it's hard to find a good 1v1. This might not be your style, but try mission flipping! Here's a guide for ya: http://evedarklord.blogspot.ca/2014/03/carebear-to-killer.html

I highly recommend it, as it will teach you/help you refine some pvp techniques, while potentially getting you some juicy kills with potential $$$ at the same time.

Anyway, I hope this helped, good luck man, hope things go well for ya


EDIT:

KB stats are dumb and don't matter, it's all about how much fun you have. You're on the right track buddy, keep doing what you're doing