Warfare & Tactics

Yes, this is a forum alt to hide my shame.

I have a confession. I have recently joined a Pirate corp because I've always wanted to get more into PVP. Unfortunately, I'm just terrible at it.

If I could possibly defeat someone they warp around and avoid me, or call in friends. The only fights I can actually get are ones that I don't have much hope of winning. Is this the epic EVE PVP I've been hearing about for years?

There's so much crap to keep track of at once that I forget to do something simple like turn off a MWD or click Keep at Range and I die even faster than I otherwise would have. Manual piloting is a lost cause at my skill level.

I tried flying a bunch of frigates, but got terribly bored because fights were over too fast for me to figure out what I was doing wrong. Not to mention T2 or Faction frigs just wipe the floor with me. Battlecruisers are more my speed right now, though much pricier. That isn't a huge deal since I've carebeared for a long time. Still, my corp is getting annoyed that I'm wrecking their killboard with my constant losses.

I'm not asking how I can slaughter everything endlessly. I'm asking how not to be terrible. Any pointers?

I have about 25m skillpoints. Most of them are in Amarr cruiser/BC/T3/Recon.

Basically yes, most fights are very one sided, tho it's not always the side you'd think of at the beginning of the encounter. Its about those rear fights that turn out even or those hopples ones you can turn around.
And yes, there are tuns of things to look out for, the better you get the more things you will look out for. Therefor even pro players screw up all the time, tho causing less sever consequences.

Frigs are cheap but are also one of the most challenging ships to fly properly, if losses are wayn then they are great fun even for a beginner.
BC are at a much more relaxed past but most setups are so versatile that you can or have to pay attention to allot.

Usually most everyone will tell you to join a pvp corp and have them show you, but you have, so it seems that corp might not be optimal for you.

Anyways, you should try setups that are less versatile and more survivable, maybe passive shield tanked frigs or big buffer tanked setups.
Do or Die Style, If you worry to much about GTFO you wont have much fun or good fights, go in with your no brainer setup with very little active modules, not so cap hungry not so range and tracking limited.
Amarr don't have much along those lines but a fair few good ones. the arbitrator is a good choice for cheap and easy pvp and one of very few t1 cruisers that can be really easy, fun and effective to fly in pvp

So, basically try to guess what the other guy's game is and warp away if I'm not reasonably sure I can kill him before his backup arrives?

But, the other guy's going to be doing the same to me. So, if I surmise that I can beat him then he'll surmise the same thing and disengage unless I'm wrong or he's being crafty.

I never imagined PVP would be 90% feinting and sizing each other up. How the heck do people do all that calculus in the 2 seconds before a fight starts all while juggling modules and managing range/speed? Is it just practice?

Reminds me of...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6MRR8IRvDQ

There's no shame in being new. Eve is a very complex game by design, and does a good job of keeping the daddys-credit-card-heroes out. Pirate corps generally don't have room for much error, but if they take a hands off approach to your success, leave. Pure and simple. If you are aggressive, intuitive, and observant you will learn quickly. You'll learn faster with a good teacher. If your current corp has no tolerance for nubs (as we all were and are still), you'll only get more frustrated with the game and eventually leave. This is not good because I want you to be good and eventually shoot you in the face.
Whether on your main or an alt, you may want to look into Eve University or Agony Unleashed for a classroom style PvP training regimen. Some corps/alliances also have first class PvP training for beginners, though its hard to tell which when you are new to combat. I did the hard knocks way, but if I started again, I'd go with one of the two above. One of the benefits is to be able to define during training what style of fighter you are, as opposed to being pushed in. Scout, brawler, logistics, blackops, etc.. so that when you find a corp/alliance that you want, you have your role defined when you step to the plate, as it were. All are important, and when you do what you love you'll be great at it.
Best of luck, hope to see you on the battlefield.

You are in the wrong corp. That's a very large part of your problems.

You need to find a corp where people don't care much about the kill-board or at the very least don't care about the kill-board when its newbie PvPrs involved.

You've been given a load of info which is HEAVILY slanted towards nullbear blobs. Its bad advice for this stage of your PvP "career" and will teach you little to nothing about actually flying your ships effectively in small gangs/solo. It IS advice that is applicable to larger gangs but its unlikely to help you at this stage.

I suggest you go take a look at Agony PvP-Uni courses. You will certainly find the first 3 of use (PvP-Basics, Wolfpacks, PvP-Advanced).

Other than that read people's blogs & guides (www.rifterdrifter.com for example).

Learn what sort of ship fittings are common on the ships you're facing.

Maybe watch a couple of videos (Agony have a good spiralling video for example).

Check out the target/target's corp on killboards to see where they live/what they fly.

Have dotlan maps open on your region ALL THE TIME. It gives you some idea of what is going on in surrounding systems (ship/pod kills/jumps per hour etc).

Frigate fights are short and brutal. In most cases (all else being pretty equal) if you don't initiate the fight and overheat instantly then you're going to lose. Its simply practice and if you don't fly them at least several times a week then you're not going to be very good in them. I spent a year doing PvP in frigates/destroyers but I'm so out of practice on them now I would get my arse handed to me on a plate in most cases - that's just a matter of getting up to speed again though.

HTH.

Battlecruisers are a great way to learn to solo. After insurance, they are cheap, and they work in many situations, especially in lowsec.

I suggest you fly nano-ed BCs for solo. Hurricanes and drakes are best, because they have the tools to deal with smaller ship classes. Shield harbingers work very well too, but they need more finesse, as you will have neither neuts nor webs. Basically, you want to engage anything that appears to be solo. Stay at range, watch out for their reinforcements, then burn away when they come in.

Leave no trap untriggered, it's the only way to learn.

It's no replacement for actual PvP experience, but go into the 'My EVE' forums and look for PvP videos. If you don't know which one to download, make sure to read the OP and browse through the responses to get an idea of what the vid's about and what people think of it. Look for solo / small gang PvP vids as those are the ones most relevant to your situation. Ones by Kil2 are good, and I'm sure others can make added recommendations.

Watch the videos but don't just lean back and enjoy them as entertainment (as entertaining as many of them are). Play close attention to what the pilot's doing - their overview settings, their use of dscan, their navigation and speed choices, when they activate and deactivate modules, etc. Try putting yourself in their shoes and thinking through the situation. Figure out why they made the choices they did, and you'll get some insight into what goes on during a fight. PvP vids with commentary is particularly useful for this.

Edit: Looks like PvP vids, and Kil2's in particular, were already recommended earlier in the thread. Only goes to show there's a lot to learn from the media the community's put together!

That's why my guitar is collecting dust since 2007 and I still can't play fkin chord. Or whatever they call those sounds from strings you make with your fingers...

And I suck at PVP too, so maybe there's a pattern...

Don't give up with trying to blow up others space pixel riders :)

+1 for RvB.

Learn by doing.

lol, wut? Where did you hear that? That's complete garbage. Whoever is already flashy red will get gun aggro first. Barring any current outlaws, whoever fires first within sight of gate or station guns will get the gun aggro. Then the guns will cycle through randomly on other flashy reds as they become available.