Warfare & Tactics

So i was just out ratting in .3 with an Oracle (Yeah alright, probably not the best idea to begin with) but i had it fit for glass cannon with tachs and such...Low SP, locks a frig at 133km in about 4s, seems to do the trick for me...anyways...here i am in a belt collecting some loot from one of my kills and another ship warps to within about 100k from me. (A Tempest.) The pilot had low sec standing and i had a real bad feeling about it...not to mention i was eager to get a couple shots in, as i havent really had much PVP experience...So i lock him, and start volleying. he goes down to about 25% shields before i warp away because he's closing too fast and im simply not fit for a stand up fight. now im on the run.

So now the aggression timer is at 14 minutes. im warping from one celestial to another, always staying 100km away and aligned to another celestial, cause the tempest is always close behind me and warps in a couple seconds after i do.

I spend the next 13 or so minutes doing this, trying to not get killed, waiting for the timer to expire. not that it would have mattered, he would have attacked me anyway. And why didnt i just warp out of system or dock, you ask? well, i was pretty confident that what i was doing would work, i suppose. My heart was also punding through my chest with excitement, so i probably wasnt exactly thinking straight either. But i was pretty agile and as far as i could see, it was just him after me.

So im down to the last minute on the timer. Im 100km off of some kind of celestial and im aligned to another planet. I've been aligned to it for a few minutes now, and i think he's given up, but i stay aligned just in case. Then all of a sudden, here comes this damned tempest again, warping to within a few hundred clicks from me. i instantly warp to the celestial i've been aligned to for the past while, only to come face to face...and i mean within 20 meters...of another pilot, who instantly proceeds to lock me, scram and web me, and release the drones.

Now im screwed, i cant go anywhere, and yet again here comes that tempest. Im assuming you can guess what happens next, and it resulted in me losing a 100m isk ship.

SO my questions to you:

1. Can you find out where an enemy ship is aligned to, or was this just horrible luck on my part?

2. What would you have done differently in my situation? (Im sure there are lots of things)

I really am not complaining about this loss. It was a good experience. Its not the first or the last expensive ship i've ever lost, and i've made lots of stupid mistakes in my short pvp career. I enjoy learning about PVP alone for the most part, but i need your help on this one, particularly on the first question. Any advice would be great.

Thanks

^^^ this. Right click and zoom in, pan the camera to look down their spine, and you will see what star bases / gates / etc are directly ahead. Unless of course they simply have a safe spot out in that direction, in which case you may just over shoot them if you warp to where you thought they were headed. ;)

Instead of going to celestials, as in directly to planets, go to moons next time. No one checks moons and planets usually have a few so if you pick one randomly they'll never get you.

Another viable escape is warp to one place, bookmark the spot you are at in the middle of warp, then when you land warp to said bookmark. Voila, you are in the middle of space and safe, unless the enemy has combat probes. Just directional scan while you align outbound and you should be good.

You clearly had pattern on warping so you made it really easy for him to catch you.

If you play with fire you will burn badly sooner or later.

simplest methode to knoe where the target is aligned to. right click their ship ans select look at. than pan the camera to the back of there ship so you see where they are pointing to.

Sometimes this is not exact as there are occasionally multiple objects on top of each other. For example a planet, station, customs office, moon, or asteroid belt can often stack from a distance away.

As others have said you could have made some safe spots while warping. you do this by making a book mark mid warp. you have to be fast though. You can then warp to the BM and be safe from anyone without combat probes.

This ^

This is the worst advice anyone can give you. Do NOT warp to moons in lowsec unless you know for sure there isn't a pos at that moon.

If there is a pos you will get owned by the posguns.

The best advice is to make a safespot and warp there. then keep an eye on D-scan for probes.

If by the above you meant that you constantly warped to your next celestial at 100km (?) then that doesn't help to evade people either. If you warped to a 100 to the previous 3 celestials, then your attacker will probably gamble you will do the same this time.

As other people have said; always make in-line bookmarks between celestials. You have plenty of time whilst in warp to do this and you wont need to do any of the below. There should be plenty of material on the forums/internetz around making good bookmarks that you should definitely seek out.

But If you know you are being chased (and you don't want to be caught) and for some reason (?) can't make a bookmark then > Don't be predictable....

- Vary your warp outs (don't go planet 1 > planet 2 > planet 3 > Planet 4 etc). This code will get cracked eventually! Use belts, planets, Sun, plex gates, etc.
- If possible, warp to a cluster of celestials where you could be warping to one of several points within.
- Warp at a number of different ranges (0 - 10 - 50 - 70 - 100) to avoid predictability.
- If your being chased by something faster in warp than yourself (interceptors for example) try to keep your warps shorter by aligning to closer celestials, minimising any advantage in warp speed/time by reducing the distance of warp.
- Once you get used to the above, and with some practice, you should have enough time to do a quick D-scan on your next align out and see if anythings there, presuming its in scan range.

Ultimately, it sounds to me like you just crossed the line in flirting with an attacker by being too predictable. There was an element of luck that you got caught by ship 2 but that's what a lot of PvP in this game is all about > maximising and minimising percentages. (oh, and T3 alts and blobbing as well ofc ).

The real fun in all of the above comes from looking at this from a slightly different angle.... With a little more experience under your belt, you can use these warping tactics (sometimes deliberately in reverse) to allow yourself to get caught / be on grid with the enemy on purpose. You can split up gangs that you couldn't fight head and create a window of opportunity to kill tacklers/faster ships on your own terms. Look up ''Kil2'' on YouTube for some informative and entertaining videos on this. Thoroughly recommended.


Most important of all is that you show a great attitude. The only way you learn these things is by making mistakes and taking experience from them, and you seem to be very receptive to that - which is half the battle. Good original post as well, informative on your situation, and easily answerable. People on the forums will be more than willing to help out.

Good luck in the future! o/

Youtube Safe Spots 101 tutorial.

Learn em, love em. Then practice bringing it up in a hurry to warp to.


~Zyella

To play devil's advocate, this is exactly the reason I often warp to moons. Experienced pilots might be leery to head there themselves or not expect you to due to POSes, so if you're confident you can get out before being tackled by the POS (no bubbles etc) there's no reason not to and it gives you a lot more options than just planet/belt/customs when you have a lot of tacklers after you. Where you warp should always be thought out, not just a matter of habit.