Warfare & Tactics

Greetings.

I'm wondering if fw is really what i'm looking for, i've started to think it's not, but i might really have missed something, and maybe you guys can clear up some things for me.

My experience of fw so far is essentially this:

Either i sit alone in a novice plex and nothing happens, as in no ships or only large ships show up on scan, and nothing can get to me or a blob of frigs enter local and zerg me before i manage to warp out.

I have had one (yes the first integer after zero) fight that was one-v-one, that i lost but enjoyed (learned some things about distances that day -the rest have all been blobs. over and over again )

This leads me to assume that:
1. "even" fights are very rare, as in fights that could have been fairly even (except for skill), and that i could have learnt something from.

2. zerg is the order of the day. -talking to guys in fw or pvp corps strengthens this belief.

3. the way to make any progress in fw is to join a blob


People seem to enjoy fw, so i'm wondering:
1. are my experiences representative of fw?
2. is there some way other than joining the hordes?

i did southshore - tarren mill back in the day. -kind of done with that stuff.
to further the simily, at the moment i'm standing alone in tarren mill being ganked by hordes of people in raid gear

Even if you are in a corp with people active you will still want to plex alone often and it takes only 30s for someone to engage you and the fight would be over before your backup arrives. Having the advice of corpmates and the possibility to call on them for revenge ops is nice but the most practical solution is just learning how to deal with the situations as they present themselves.

Fast kiter ships offer a means of staying out of tackle range. Even someone in a ship with more tank or DPS will be forced to give up if they realize there is no chance of getting close enough to win against you. You can also turn plex mechanics to your advantage, if you're in a frig and the system is full of dessies then sit in a novice and you can ignore anything bigger than a frig. Being in a plex puts you at the disadvantage of being visible, turn that into an advantage by switching it up with unpredictable fits and you will stand a better chance of trumping people coming at you expecting one thing and being surprised by something totally different.

On one hand, blobbing is a sure way to kill something if you manage to catch it.

But on the other hand, there are plenty of opportunities for the victim to escape.

Give it time, it will pass IMO. Or at least change into baiting/trapping, simply cos blobs will exhaust their ability to regularly and surely get kills. I stopped joining roams a while back, on the simple principle that you usually end up with a random kill at best after 50j or 2h. There are solo fights/small gang fights out there.

But still, you have to take into account how old this game is and how mature the understanding of ships for majority of players is. There are quite a few hulls that have the Sentinel syndrome now. If I were you I'd join a corp, not with the intention to blob, but with the intention of devising strategies to catch whatever targets you can.

Start with farmers >:D

faction warfare is the best way for a new pilot to learn pvp

gal mil is the best militia

let their fcs like dopi teach you some stuff so you can get a feel for the game... then branch out to solo

Long live caldari

There has been a lot of chatter about how "blobbing happens, this is EVE" and so on. There has also been some decent feedback and tips on how to get solo. I am not much of a solo pilot, a glance at my killboard will show minimal kills, plenty of deaths from fighting out numbered and plenty of kills where I called in friends. But let me tell you, each of the solo kills I've had have been so exciting that all other antics in the war zone were worth it! And each of the deaths, be they to pairs, gangs or blobs have taught me how to make the best use of my fit, when to disengage and when you overheat everything and go for the kill. In general, always overheat,always go for the kill. Because yolo.

It also took me about a year in FW, and months facing off against the current Gallente I fight the most, before I became truly confident enough in my SP, fits and meta knowledge. I know the pilots I am likely to be fighting. I know who prefers to kite, who has links, who calls for back up and who I am likely to beat. And all I have to do is sit in a plex in the right system. The best part is that if no one comes to fight me, I get LP I can use to afford more ships!

In my experience, it is possible to solo plex but most of the time you will be running away because yes most of the fights will be unfair. You will find that being in a fleet that the fights will be much more even. That being said, I have gotten into quite a few 1 v 1 fights.

The biggest obstacle to solo FW I have found is gate camps. It is really hard to break gate camps solo.

So yeah basically to your points: Even fights are very rare especially solo. My personal solo experiences involve doing alot of running away. And yes the best way to plex if you want fights and LP is to fleet up.

I agree with much of what was said above. I would also add that I'm a terrible solo pilot. Actually, I'm a terrible pilot. Just ask anyone who's ever flown with me.

But, I observe from watching good pilots that solo pvp requires a lot of patience, a helping of blue balling and a smidge of sh!ttalk in local to work correctly.

Because solo fights are so few, inexperienced pilots jump on any opportunity to fight solo, regardless of if the match-up is decent. I've had fights where I tackled a kiter on the button and blapped their face off and other times where I've gotten my pooper pushed in by jumping in on a kiter who knew what they were doing. It's just a matter of know what you're willing to risk versus what you're willing to gain.

RDRAW has a mix of pilots. A lot of guys fly in the fleet ops against our Templis and Meatshield foes that live next door. But, we have a handful of guys that just go fly solo and rack up kills on their own.

One of my favorite things was watching one of our solo guys who was in a plex in a T1 frig and a garmur came to his gate. He sat there and the garmur sat there. (I'm listening to it on comms) Finally, I see our pilot type "pu$$y" in local and about 5 seconds later the garmur warps in and gets his face blasted off. It was all a matter of picking the right fight, being patient and dabbling a little smack questions his manhood and boom, you've got a solo kill.

One last thing: I have never minded blobs. In fact, if I were in a corp and on comms and in trouble and my friends didn't try and help (within reason), I'd be pissed. That's what you do -- Back up your buddy.

Call it whatever you want, it's the way things work in reality. There is strength in numbers.

I have done combat against superior numbers, ships, and pilots for years in this game. It will never change, and it shouldn't.

Solo pvp is a silly idea because by definition it takes more than one player to qualify as pvp.

You must engineer situations in which you are effectively fighting a 1v1 battle.