Warfare & Tactics

OK, Having tried several corps recently and not really finding what I am looking for I had a rethink about trying to achieve what I was looking for which is solo to small gang fights. Having read an article recently I think that I may have been focusing my efforts in the wrong place… null sec.

The article I read indicated to me that at least for small gang stuff low sec is the place to be and so I may now revert my hunting grounds to low sec, however having never lived in low sec I have some questions and hope that you guys can answer those questions, although I am in a self-created corp of 1 at the moment and so would be doing solo rather than small gang pvp at the moment.

Going to FW space is an option and I have tried a little PVP there, most seem to be plex farmers who warp out when you aggress and whilst someone on another thread said “fit your ships to kill those types” that is not the kind of pvp I am looking for, I want something where your opponent fights back, I don’t care about losing ships I just want to have good fun fights.

1. I know that if I aggress anything on gate or station then the gate/station guns will open up on me, so gates and stations are probably not the best places in which to find fights, and indeed I have flown through low on a fair few occasions and rarely find people at gates. So where are the best places to find people to attack, Is it a case of jumping into system and choosing an anom or belt to fly to and hope for the best? I wonder if someone could advise on some hunting techniques.

2. One reason that has keep me out of much low sec PVP is the sec status hit, I want my character to be able to balance his sec status, it doesn’t have to be 5 as it is now but I don’t really want it to drop below 3, obviously ratting seems to be the quickest way to do that but I am not sure of the kinds of hits I take to sec status when pvping in low sec, I know podding gives a higher hit so my intension is not to pod, but how quickly in general would it take a sec status to fall from 5 to 3 without podding and how much ratting would you need to do to recover that sec status to say 4?

3. Faction warfare areas aside, what are the best places currently in game that would more likely to get small fleet battles (I would say more chance to get solo but I am not sure that is even a wise question).

I know this is a wall of text, apologies, any help would be appreciated, oh time zone is EU so between 19:00 / 22:30 weedays.

What about non FW low sec? surely battles go on there too? and the tags you mention are these regular tags you trade in at a data centre? if not where do you get these tags and how do you trade them in?

Non FW LS is much quieter. The fights there I've had have been quite orchestrated and well planned (on the other side - not by me), whereas FW space is very 'Cruise around and pounce on whatever you can find'. But there are tonnes more fights to be found that way.

'Tags for Sec' is a whole other bag of tags: http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/wanttotrade-tags-for-security-status/

Dont bother hunting the rats if you're joining FW. The money is not as good as plexing.

1. Depending on where you are, checking anomalies, signature sites, or even belts can yield targets. I've had a lot of luck using a CovOps alt to probe down explorers and popping them with a 'ceptor. Also note: sentry guns in losc only fire at you in response to the act of initiating aggression, not the act of continuing aggression. If you aggress someone, warp off, warp back, and continue shooting at them while you are still suspect flagged from the initial aggression, the guns will not shoot you. Making sure your target doesn't leave in the intervening time is obviously an issue.

I have no personal experience with FW, but I do hear that it's great to get into if you're looking for fights.

2. If you get into FW and only shoot at folks who are in opposing factions, your security status isn't an issue. You are technically at war with opposing factions and thus are free to shoot on sight. Having said that, I can't imagine operating in FW losec and only getting fights with FW opponents. Keeping your sec status above 3 isn't really a realistic expectation unless you spend lots of time grinding 'rats. I try to keep mine above -1.0, and that's not hard at all. Also, avoid aggressing non-FW pods as that will murder your sec status, and flag you as a criminal instead of just a suspect.

3. Solo PvP isn't always about shooting at other ships. I've made a career out of roaming losec in a bomber and popping offline POS mods. It's not necessarily as exciting as fighting piloted ships, but it is something you can do on your own and it can be quite...profitable. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but it's something to consider.

just join FW and pester the poor guys reading militia chat about what to do