Warfare & Tactics

Judging from your killboard,

- it looks like you have poor target selection (see: don't engage a drone-boat (Stratios) with a frigate (Firetail)).
- it looks like you are getting killed in PvE fits (see: passive shield Vexor Navy).

Some ships are inherently strong against other ships. Some ship fits are poor for anything beyond their focus.


Beyond this... I need more information.
- how was your Rattlesnake fitted? (it isn't showing up on the killboards)
- what were you doing?
- what ships killed your Rattlesnake?
- did you have friendly support nearby and willing to help? (see: where was your corporation/alliance when this was happening?)
- were you paying attention to Local chat?

pve fit ships will get chewed out by almost anything fit for pvp and flown by a pilot with any degree of competency.

that rattlesnake was pve fit,
scrams,webs ,neuts , all these things might have made a difference.

This.

So much THIS.

While ratting away in your ratting fit VNIs or Rattlers, keep a close eye on your Imperium Intel channels and on Local chat. for O1Y-ED, that's the Fade, Deklein and Pure Blind intel channels. Actually, I'd probably look for a better system to rat in than that one. You're only three jumps from Pure Blind and two from Deklein in O1Y-ED. If a gangs coming down from 8S28-3 or up from E-Z2ZX, you'll have very little warning unless you're watching the PB & Dek intel channels closely. I-UUI5, X5-UME or 0-ARFO look to be slightly safer to my mind.

If Intel starts reporting a gang heading in your direction: GET SAFE. Either Dock Up (there's an outpost in that system) or warp to a safe POS.
If a bunch of non-blues appear in Local Chat: GET SAFE, probably best to warp off to a Safe POS in this circumstance.

EDIT: Roving gangs through CFC space is nothing new. There's nothing 'unfair' about it. They're looking for easy kills by smacking ratters. Given the number of AFK ratting Ishtars and VNIs in CFC space, they have plenty of incentive to continue to come.

Withstanding a gank doesn't mean much though, if it is a ceptor fleet it probably wouldn't take on a ratting Thanatos except to provoke an escalation to the fight. So it would "withstand" the gank but one lone cheetah with a cyno and 40 bombers appear and blap the Thanatos in minutes. The thing is you don't know what the enemy might bring so focus on withstanding the bankers isn't really productive.

What is more productive is to focus on what you can do to avoid gankers till you can see what they are in and form a plan to deal with them. As the sentiments echoed above get safe, stay aligned as you are in your site and don't worry about leaving drones behind. Also flying ships like Ishtars or cerbs gives you the ability to warp much quicker than a rattlesnake.

If you rat exclusively in one system perhaps a Pos with some combat fit ships in it. Otherwise perhaps fleets are a better choice to find PVP content.

Your giving them a lot of nice kills. So they are going to keep coming back.

PVP is made up of 3 vital components:
-ship and fit( tools)
-Skills( character skills)
- experience and ability( player skills)

You are missing at least half of those. First you must understand that player skills makes a huge difference. You can put a vet pvper in a rifter and he can take out targets worth 100 mil plus solo. Or you can put a carebear in a 2 bil isk fitted rattler and he will die in minutes to a cepter, and 2-3 t2 cruisers.

to combat this problem follow my 12 step program:

Step 1: stop giving them kills. Be aligned to a safe spot, kill all scrambling rats first, and watch local. As soon as a neut enters system safe up. best safe spots in order: POS, Dock, Bookmark( need cloak or to constantly warp between half a dozen bookmarks or so.

Step 2: your in null you should have an intel channel for your region. Use it. If you dont have one make it and get blues to join it. Intel channels are vital for everyday survival in null. A good intel channel will allow you to move around the region and avoid 95% of enemy fleets while continuing your daily activities for the most part. Your region probably already has this channel, you either dont bother to use it, join it, or your really not suppose to be there so they arent telling you what it is.

Step 3: Learn to pvp in a group in fiscally responsible ships Not in ships worth millions and billions.

Step 4: Learn what pvp fits are. You have tackle( keeps them from running away), DPS fit, and ewar fits. Each ship is good at something. Buffer tanks work best in pvp. Shield buffer is the best because it recharges on its own. if you armor buffer you need to be able to rep.

Step 5: Create ship doctrines for your gang to use that are designed for pvp. The ships in fleet should complement each other. For example for a 12 man gang you might have: 2 ceptors, a HIC, 2 recons,4 HACS ,4 logi. Ceptors are fast tackle, HIC is a high EHP tackle, recons have your ewar, HACS are DPS support, logis help keep everyone alive.

Step 6: Remember the 4 main food groups: Tackle, Ewar, DPS, Reps. A decent size gang covers all these easily however in smaller gangs one player has to cover more stuff. In larger gangs ships can become a lot more tailored to roles and thats when they really shine. A 2 or 3 man gang can still be quite effective but each player has to cover more roles.

Step 7: Buy cheap ships....lots of them. T1 frigs through cruisers. These are the ships you want to start pvp in. You will die, get use to it. The goal of the cheap fleet is for people to get experience in pvp encounters. Learn what works and what dont. For your FCs to get practice and for you to get use to fighting players.

Step 8: Go on pvp roams. Null NPC and low sec are good places to roam for noobs to pvp. Null NPC is more disorganized than sov space. And low sec likely has no or extremely poor intel and is rich in targets in pipes. You need to do at least 2 roams a week but a daily roam at different times would be the best.

Step 9: Learn system defense. Learn to place bubbles, and to gate camp. Keep a stock of defensive pvp ships. Meatier ships such as BCs and BS work much better than on roams since your not doing a lot of traveling and you can set traps. Still you have to keep to the 4 food groups.

Step 10: Move into better ships, T2 frigs and destroyers, you can support these with T1 or T2 cruisers and battlecruisers depending on your budget.

Step 11: Use T2 role ships, T3s, faction ships when you get good at pvp. Better ships do increase survivability. By this point you should know not to use a rattlesnake to fight pvp gangs and will instead jump into a inty, recon, HAC or something made for pvp.

Step 12: You have won eve. You may now carebear in peace.

One scimi, if well played is actually more than enough, and you could switch the 3 other to maybe 1-2 T3 bcs

the key part of this statement is played well. I was thinking of newb pvpers in newb logis rather than t2 logi with experienced logi pilots.