Warfare & Tactics

Do not believe those that say solo-ing is only one character..
Get an alt in a cheap cov op, to,scout gates ahead of your main ship, ne scan alternate routes via WH space.
use dotlan to check jumps in the last hours, and avoid going closer than 2 or 3 jumps from those red systems.
Use WH as alternate routes..

Most one character "soloers" are in fact relying on a corp or alliance level intel channels, and potential backup if things do not go their way...

In short, create your own intel.

Most guys don't like dictate. Interesting.



Just have fun. If you get frustrated move on to something else. The whole 'solo pvp dude' dream gets chaced a lot, but is seldom found. There just isn't really a place in eve where you can go to get that sort of thing. It kind of goes against overall game design.

Good solo pvp is about as common as that super hot girl in the white bathing suit swimming through her monthy visit with no issues.

If you see me just engage. I'm really bad and it's basically a free kill.

I must be lucky, I find good solo fun every time I undock alone, looking for trouble. And god invented the monthly visit to let us play EVE for a couple of days without irresistible distractions.

Get to know Dotlan.

Scorch

I'd advise them to read evedarklord.blogspot.com/ so that I could say everything in one conveniently packaged "tip."

it depends. The lower end hardwires (1-3%) can give you a little boost to ship performance without costing too much. Given that you get your pod out. But this mostly applies for lowsec.

Learn the difference between loose and lose as there seems to be an issue with the word lose here.

Advise I was given was take a cheap ship, get someone in your corp to vet the fit, know roughly what ships you should target then attack them all, and learn from each encounter.

Don't invest in off grid boosts and links or implants. You're new, and they will handicap you so you never get good. Instead...

Learn your own style and stick to it. Find that niche you enjoy flying that works for you. For me its minmatar flexible ships. People said the fire tail was just a better rifter back 3 years ago, and wasn't worth it. I continued flying them and kicked ass. Meta eventually caught up and I saw more people adopting the TD style. People say the Jaguar is awful too but frankly its a great ship that I do well with. My point is if you find your own style that you enjoy, you'll both fight well and surprise people, which is a strength all its own.

Don't go in looking to win. Go in looking for good fights. You'll be less frustrated and get more fights you enjoy.

In the roguelike community there is a saying that "losing is fun". This is true. Some of my best fights I've had have been ones where I ran, or they ran, or I died.

Additionally, take fights that you *should* lose, but aren't 100% about. You miss 100% of shots you can't take. I have a surprising number of kills on my firetail vs tracking disruptor fittings where I stayed around and tried to position to minimize its effects. If its a guaranteed loss don't bother, but as a soloer the odds are "never" in your favor, so take those fights that are stacked against you.

Learn to fight the blob. If you only look for honorable 1v1s you'll never fight. So your mark has backup in local? Screw it, take him anyways, but bait him off the warp in of a plex or split them up. This skill is important. My killboard isn't impressive but I think these days half of my fights I take are vs multiple opponents. I run from many, but sometimes I get a kill before I have to run. And Sometimes I kill em all or they run. Either way if you show courage and take the fights you will improve.

Learn from every fight. Very few fights are played perfectly by anyone. I can only think of one fight I've had in the entirety of eve that I handled perfectly, over the last 5 years playing. And that fight stemmed from me flying my firetail nonstop taking fights I shouldn't and learning the strengths and weaknesses like the back of my hand. Nobody masters eve. They only get better.

Learn to design ships. Some of the best PvPers know how to build a ship and design their own style. This plays into the surprise element as well. You'll get more fights and do better if you run something atypical or put your own spin on something. Use popular fittings as a point of comparison, but understand that paper dps isn't the whole story. A good ship is more than the sum of its parts. When you can learn this and how to do this you'll be well on your way.

Learn to run. You should take every fight you can, but don't feel bad about running. The more important thing is that you managed to both get into the fight and then get away. If you can take 10 fights and run from every single one then you are teaching yourself how to maneuver and position and control range. There's no shame in that. Only shame if you never took the fight to begin with.

Again, my KB is nothing impressive, but I doubt many "true" soloers who aren't 4 bil invested into boosters and links and implants have good killboards. So don't be too hard on yourself. Most people in low are using massive financial investment to rig the game before it starts. If you get anywhere near 50% you're doing well.