EVE New Citizens Q&A

If you and your friends are interested in small scale stuff, send me an evemail. I used to run pvp classes for a while, and although I'm a bit rusty, I can certainly show you the basics.

Typically, I'd send you a list of T1 frigs to fit up, and we'd work through a few scenarios to get a feel for mechanics, and then we'd finish off with an actual fight, with feedback.

Edit:

Here's and example of one of my classes. I've not tried FRAPSing anything on my new laptop, so I can't promise video.

If people in your alliance are unwilling to help show you the ropes, you may be in the wrong alliance at this time. First, have you asked what training they give? Watching the videos etc is good, but nothing prepares you like actual combat experience. A mentor might be a good step.

Secondly, getting stomped regularly is part of the early learning curve. The key is that you try and examine each encounter and understand for yourself why it went the way it did. Recording your battles, when possible, is a great learning tool. Often it's advised here to buy 100 or so cheap T1 frigates and go get blown up frequently, analysing each loss. When possible, ask your killers for advice, or your alliance colleagues.

As an example, I joined my first faction warfare corp to learn PvP and found them a bit small to have much time for a newbie. A little later, I joined Coreli (part of the Mercenary Coalition) and rapidly found myself far out of my depth among pilots who were much more experienced. I felt I was letting everyone down, so after explaining my thoughts to the leader, I left. After a period of introspection about what I wanted from the game, I joined up with Pandemic Horde to gain PvP experience in all situations from huge fleets to small gang and solo. I was able to fly cheap tackle, logistics, battlecruisers as DPS, T3 destroyers, stealth bombers and cloaky ops - you get the picture. I found that I loved interceptors as scout and tackle, and logistics support.

After six months learning, I felt ready to re-join Coreli and now feel a competent member of the team in my chosen fields. There's lots of training opportunities and mentoring from the wider alliance and a clearer career path and doctrine skill plans, but most of all I feel I'm not wasting colleagues' time because now I know the questions to ask.

Now, there are several choices out there for similarly developing your learning, depending on your learning style. Ideally, your alliance will already have these pathways. If not, there should be no issue if you choose to step into another learning environment until you find your confidence. Or simply go pew for a while, and learn from your mistakes as above (though I know some alliances can get upset if your killboard goes red for a time so check they are OK with your plan).

The best place to start out with PVP is probably Faction Warfare low sec.

- No bubbles
- 1/3 of players there are on your side, sometimes even giving useful intel or helping in a fight :)
- The FW Complexes let you see in advance who is comming to kill you and you can decide if you stay or bail
- The same complexes let you choose which ship classes you want to fight
- A lot of people use cheap ships there.
- Getting a fight takes about 15 minutes without roaming for ages.

But like everywhere else in Eve, it's better to join a corp that has experience in this area. Later, once you have the knowledge you can decide to go solo, which also works very good in FW (a lot of ppl have alts in FW just for the fun).

I started out by scanning down mission runners flying battleships and stealing their ****.

You'd be surprised how many people will throw down over metal scraps.
Granted when you're in a frigate they're pretty confident they can just blap you and be done with it.
Got some fantastic fight's and learned a hell of a lot.

Was fun.

Join a large sov null entity. There is literally no easier way to learn PvP.

-most run training fleets for virtually every fleet role
-they hand out skillbooks. Learn to fly a capital for free
-they often hand out free ships
-if not they have an SRP, making PvP completely FREE. Forget having to 'fund your PvP' any money you make on the side is yours
-all the big sov groups have solid FCs. I've either fought with them or against them and they all get my respect
-fleet roles...the larger the fleet the more room for individual roles to be specialized in. Small gangs are fun but everyone basically has to be a jack of all trades. Big fleets have whole squads for logi, ewar, tackle, boosts....you can explore fleet roles much better in a larger group.
-doctrines that very experienced players develop, making what skills to train for a much less confusing decision process
-content. Large groups have large things to fight over. An evening chasing stabbed frigates out of FW plexes pales in comparison to a 1000 man battleship brawl over a final timer

Before someone rattles on about being an F1 monkey...there is nothing wrong with that at first.
PvP is incredibly overwhelming at first, and there is nothing wrong with just 'following along' until you learn the ropes. The problem comes only if you remain there without learning.
Very quickly you won't be just spamming F1. You might start scouting ahead of the fleet, reporting back intel and getting hero tackles. You might fly an EWAR ship and operate independent of FC commands, choosing what ships to prioritize on your own. Logi still use an achor to remain in effective range, but that anchor must know how to react to the main body's maneuvering. There is alot more to do in a fleet than hit F1.

Don't be afraid to be a newbie. I've never been on a titan bridge where someone didn't have to ask how to take a bridge. Learn and improve is all you can do.

......wut?

Get in touch for a PvP conversation OP, I'll be happy to help out