EVE New Citizens Q&A

In lowsec, 2 is the only time you're at all vulnerable, that is when the tacklers of any gate-camp you go through will try to lock you. A frigate or decently-quick aligning cruiser won't have much issue just warping away. It's not 100% perfect, now and then there'll be a really good camp that'll get lucky, but I feel no more in danger flying through lowsec gate-to-gate in a frig than I do in highsec. In step 4, you're not vulnerable because you're still untargetable while your speed is showing "warping". If you spam "Jump" as you finish decelerating, there's nothing they can do. And, no, points don't stop you from jumping.

Nullsec complicates things a bit, due to bubbles. They can make 4/5 take minutes instead of seconds (by dropping you out of warp minutes away from jumping (rather than seconds). This can be mostly alleviated by being smart about bouncing off of celestials. If you know how to bounce properly, then null is almost as safe as lowsec in a frigate. (bouncing is when you go to a planet or safespot which isn't in line with the target gate and anything else and then warp to the gate so that any drag bubbles don't catch you).

Of course, it gets exponentially less safe as you fly bigger ships with slower align time.

My advice: try flying around in lowsec for a while in a T1 frig. Worst case, you lose it. Best case, you learn lowsec isn't as scary as people make it out to be, so long as you don't dawdle around and wait to be caught.

Best of luck.

Lowsec is pretty safe in a small ship just travelling from gate to gate, because few people will bother to engage you on a gate due to the fact that to attack you there will start the gate guns firing at them. To catch a small ship requires something fast locking, but something fast locking usually doesn't have the tank to withstand the gate guns.

But there are of course exceptions. It is possible to catch a small ship during phase 2. and with remote sensor boosters a larger tankier ship can do it. In addition it is possible to catch someone at both phase 2 and 5 using a smart bombing battleship which doesn't have to lock you before causing damage. Rancer is known for smart bombing gate camps, but that camp is not as permanent as some scare mongers will have you believe. I've passed through Rancer several times and I've yet to see it (famous last words). Your friend is the in game map, check ship and pod kills in the last hour and last 24 hours when planning your route.

Null is completely different due to bubbles. If you jump into a bubble and are not in a covops ship your chance of burning out of the bubble and getting to warp are slim. If you are fitted with a non covert cloak your chances are much improved but still quite high that you will be uncloaked, killed and podded. Your best bet in those circumstances is to MWD back to the gate and jump back.

At the other end of warp during phase 4, you have another danger from bubbles. They can pull you out of warp early or if placed behind the gate, will actually suck you right past the gate into them. In both cases you will most likely end up 70 or 80 Kms from the gate, too close to warp but too far to burn with one of more HACs in close proximity ready to take you down. Your only hope in these cases is a cloak, again the covops ship has a good chance of getting out, with any sort of other cloak giving a small chance (due to the fact that they gimp your burn speed). Your best chance of avoiding getting caught this way is to warp to a celestral first, not directly from your in gate. The bubble has to be inline with your warp path to catch you. As you travel through null, get in the habit of setting up purch bookmarks 200Km above or below each gate you pass through. Warping to them will avoid the bubbles. Do not think that warping to 100 from the gate will save you. If you land on grid with an inline bubble, it will suck you into it.

To summerise, travel through low is pretty safe in a small ship, but occassionally you will be unluckly. Travelling through null is much more dangerous, perhaps 30% of the time you will be caught, unless you're in a covops ship.

Instalocking, remote sensor boosted hictors.

No amount of warp stabs will save you.

But is it cost effective to smart bomb frigates/destroyers and can my shielding "stomach" it?

Other thing about bubbles if it's a large or medium you will in most cases retain your covert ops cloak when you land on it, small bubble how ever is so small that it decloaks and keeps your BR from being cloaked long enough to ensure that you will die before you burn out of the bubble.

Remember Murphy's Law :
The one time you take a shortcut trough lowsec in a frigate there will be 4 Abaddons smartbombing at the gate.
Lost my first set of +4 implants (ca. 125M isk) like that.

Good information!! :)

Ok, now here's a related question. Spamming gates with trash to autodecloak people coming through. One person said that has been nerfed or is only doable in null. Is this considered an exploit or valid tactic? Anyone have a firm answer? I know people used to surround gates with corpses so there was no way to get through cloaked.

AFAIK it's only an exploit when used to created vast ammounts of lag.

No, you can't.

Your gate cloak is immune to everything, which includes any means of decloaking you and AOE damage from smartbombs/bombs.

E: Lowsec is mostly safe in a small fast ship for the reasons given above. However, if you're asking because you've noticed there's a shortcut to get from highsec A to highsec B then you'll be passing through any one of several well known chokepoint systems. These will have a gatecamp on them setup to catch anything, so they are not advised.