EVE General Discussion

If you look at your hud, the top row of modules are all mapped to your F-keys (F1 - F8) by default.

Put the most commonly used modules in that row and you can hit them very quickly after targeting.

CTRL+click will target whatever you click.

Try that until it's natural.

IF a weapon is on the left-most slot on the top row, it's bound to F1.
Q+left click or double click on anything will make you approach it.
Press F1 and a cross-hair will appear that you can drop on whatever you want to attack.
If the object is in range target lock will complete and that mod will activate immediately.
Have point/scram on F1, web/other ewar on F2, damage on F3 and nos/neut on F4.
Activate them in this order so that you have them caught, messed up, hurt and depleted without thinking too much and use your other braincell to manage orbit or lock up drones to shoot. Default orbit distance can be set in selected item window so it's one click for dumb orbit.
Drag n drop drones as a group from drone window to space, press F and they will attack whatever targeted object is selected at that time.

Like a card trick it just takes practice, adrenaline is not your friend. A calm and dignified manner will allow you to keep an eye on d-scan and local, put WWW in fleet channel, micro-manage cap boosters and repairing modules. Later on shift clicking mods will overheat them to be even more epic.
Only when all hostiles are dead or fled may you loot the field, get to a safe while standing on your chair punching the air.

1. Reconfigure your overview to remove clutter if necessary, or to have a PVP tab where you can see and select his ship easily.

2. Ctrl-click him in the overview to lock him. Actually you can lock him before the duel starts, target-locking someone doesn't cause aggression.

3. Group your weapons in the fitting screen (you have to have the exact same weapons in all slots) by dragging their icons over the weapon in the first slot. This lets you activate all weapons with just F1.

4. Go into settings and look at the keyboard shortcuts. If I remember correctly,

F1, F2, F3, ... F8 activates high slots
Alt F1, Alt F2, Alt F3... Alt F8 mid slots
Ctrl F1, Ctrl F2, ... low slots

This is a bit cumbersome to use. Considering that most ships will have weapons grouped, and not a lot of "active" modules (that must be turned on manually), you can probably change the shortcuts to:

F1 F2 F3 F4 - high slots
F5 F6 F7 F8 - med slots
F9 F10 F11 F12 - low slots

And just drag the round icons that you see in space next to that big circle (we call it the HUD - heads-up display) into different high, medium, and low slots, to fit your schema of 4 keys for each.

For example I drag all jammers and neutralizers to the top row, because they're "weapon-like". I usually keep propulsion (afterburner or MWD), cloak, and capacitor stuff in the middle row, and move all "defenses" (shield or armor repairer, shield or armor resistances, etc.) to the low row.

You may have to unlock the HUD to move things around and to "hide passive items"; the settings icon is a tiny icon in the lower right corner of it. Hover your mouse to find it.

In any case, between Ctrl-clicking to target-lock, and using F keys to activate your stuff, your reaction time should be a lot faster.

5. Drones. If you use drones, you should right-click on them when you're in space but the drones are still in your drone bay, and add them to groups. Name the groups something like "Small Thermal" or "Medium Kinetic" or something descriptive. This way you can right-click the group to launch all the drones. Also make sure you use the keybindings to control your drones; I've changed my keybindings to ctrl-shift-E for "drones engage" and "ctrl-shift-R" for "drones return to bay".

You need fast control over your drones, and doing it with the mouse and right-clicking is just too cumbersome. Always use the shortcuts.

Just one thing that's been left unsaid - in addition to the use of key short-cuts, there may be other reasons for why you are locking and applying damages so slow. Specifically, there are modules such as a sebo which significantly speed up locking time. Also I believe that there are skills that will also help decrease the time that takes for you to lock. Conversely, there are mods that impose penalties to locking time - in particular a cloak will significantly delay your ability to lock - i think the delay even if you have the cloak offline but i could be mistaken about that.

If you're flying T1 frigates, these are small ships that rely more on speed and small size to survive than on actual defense modules and resistances. Not to say that you can't put some in, though.

But basically, it's important to install an afterburner to get faster, and then use it to control the range so you're either kiting him (long range, maybe outside his guns) or brawling him (very short range, fast orbit, so you're under his guns). Either case, you have to fit your ship for the purpose; don't just throw modules in.

Usually you pick a range (long or short), install weapons for that range (same weapon in all slots, and grouped), install an afterburner or MWD drive so you have the speed to maintain that range and control it during the fight, then worry about a light defense (maybe a shield booster or armor repairer), dps enhancers (magnetic field stabilizer, heat sink, etc. depends on the weapon you're using), capacitor juice (cap booster with charges) or other utility modules (webifier, etc.).

For PVP where you're not dueling with your friend, keep in mind that your target will try to warp away, so you absolutely need a warp disruptor or warp scrambler.

I strongly recommend ditching the F1-12 keys. I have high slots as keys 1-5, mids as shift 1-5, and lows as control 1-5. It's a very small change, but it made a big difference to me