EVE General Discussion

I'd like to remind you that a lot of us who have been involved in PvP for a long time used to be in your situation. We were starting to get fights and we were losing. A lot.

That's normal. Some are butter than others when starting out, but we all started out by losing a lot of ships.

T2 guns to have an advantage: The specialization skills give a 2% damage increase per level of said skill, so even with all things being equal, a fully skilled pilot may be doing up to 10% more damage than you with the same ammo.

However, most fights are won outside of that 10% margin. Most fights are won before one side opens fire.

Try doing this for a while:
Read, read, read, read about every frigate and destroyer. Know what they are capable of, what they are not capable of, and common PvP fits. Not just the ships YOU fly, but every ship you're likely to see (and then some).

Now that you have a conceptual knowledge of strengths and weaknesses, you need to dictate the terms of the fight. Start the fight in a position that is advantageous to you, but disadvantageous to your opponent.

Caldari ships use hybrids and missiles, which gives you a really good mix of close combat and long range combat capabilities depending on what you want to do. Make use of that. Try some in your face blaster merlins. Try some railguns. Try light missiles, rockets. Try crazy things that everyone says won't work because, quite frankly, why not? It's just space pixels.

Solo combat is hard. It's really hard. On top of being new, you have zero backup. Then, you also have to deal with people who have off grid boosters, giving them a further edge in combat.

It takes time, but keep working at it. Those first few kills will be the hardest ones to get, but they will be the sweetest. True Solo PvP is the hardest way of life in Eve but, in my opinion, the most rewarding.

I'll make a deal with you: I'll supply you with 10 non-faction frigates of your choice if you promise to send me what you've learned from each of your fights. Do that and I'll give you another 10. I might even throw in a special toy or two from time to time.

Op, spend a bit more on your mods and stop fitting meta zero mods. T1 is anything up to meta 4. Meta 3 are way better than the basic junk you are fitting atm and still cheap. T2 guns and launchers are more about giving access to different ammo types. This is more important with autocannons, lasers and to a certain extent blasters. All others work very well as T1, especially launchers, railguns and artillery. They are easier to fit too. I hardly ever use T2 railguns now.

Also, don't get yourself bogged down with 'races'. Pick a weapon system, pick a shp class, skill for it.




Ed. If that is your only killboard, you have had a total of eleven fights. Seriously dude, that is nothing, it seems like you are not even trying. Get more practice, die lots, the die less.

I'l caldari so we're all about missiles and shields so thats not really an issue
I have only one real route


and about the killboard really? From the kills I look up on Eve kill everyone else does so much better when they start

jesus christ

Caldari is missiles and hybrids. Many of their most effective ships are fit with blasters. The Merlin is a great example of this at the frigate level.

If you're focusing on missiles though, remain aware that range doesn't mean anything to you as long as you can hit the target. What matters is their speed and their signature radius. Using small weapons (rockets, light missiles) you really just need to worry about speed.

This is the opposite of guns and their combination of optimal and falloff ranges. Once you're outside of their optimal and into falloff, they will apply less and less damage. They also have to worry about tracking - if you can get "under their guns" and orbit them faster than they can track, they will have troubles applying damage.

That is one of the strengths of missiles - they allow you to fight anywhere in their range and you can apply damage. You just need to care about your target's speed (and signature radius to a degree).

So, dictate the range of the engagement. If they have short range weapons, start fighting them at the edge of scram/web range. Stay there as long as you can in their falloff. If they have long range weapons, get in close and orbit them as fast as you can. Outrun their tracking to reduce damage while you keep lobbing missiles.

Mixing in some EWar can really help you out here, too. You don't HAVE to shield tank your ships even if they're Caldari. As an example you can fit a speed mod, scram, web, and TD in the mid slots of a Merlin and dump an armor plate in the low for a buffer. It's not traditional, it's uncouth, some will call it heresy, but it can be done. The griffin fit posted above will give pilots the shakes if you can catch them with it.

Your going to always be at a disadvantage to t2 guns, as the skills required to use them (racial small gun 5, racial small gun spec) increases the damage they do quite a bit.

Your Kestrel fits are horrible. That's not trying to ***** at you, but it's true. I'm not sure what your core and fitting skills are like right now, but you do not need two power grid fitting mods on a Kestrel. You shouldn't even need one. Fit more ewar. A long point and a damp work well on most anything, a long point and a TD work well against turret boats. You'll have crap for cap life, but you should have plenty to kill other T1 frigates. Avoid Tristans and other drone heavy ships; Algos, Dragoon, Breacher, Tormentor, etc. You may even try dropping an AAR or a 200mm plate and a T2 DC on the bottom end of a rocket Kestrel. Scram, dual web (or web and TD), afterburner in the mids, and you can brawl the hell out of things close range.

All of this is part of learning what you can and cannot kill, as someone else in the thread suggested. That takes time, help, and experience. Do not lose faith; the knowledge will come. Maybe. At least, that's what they keep telling me.

Furthermore, a lot of the fights you seem to lose are fights that anyone flying solo in a frigate could expect to lose. A Hawk and two Hookbills pretty much equals dead solo frigate in many cases. Getting blapped by a Tornado happens. Don't let it get over on you. True 1v1 is hard, and it happens far less often than people would like.

If your choices were: losing with elegance or winning through dirty tricks, what would you pick?

I think he's suggesting you start praying.

Throw yourself on the spears. Eventually, you'll get to teh point where you no longer get an adrenaline surge when dying. then you can start thinking clearly - remebering to overheat. Remembering to to switch from long-range to short range ammo at the right point. Remembering to keep transversal in your favor. Etc. etc. etc.

Clear-headed thinking is in your favor. "Buck fever" will get you sent home with a spanking via pod express. So go get spanked until it's not a novelty any longer, then start thinking as you engage.

Having T2 weaponry is nearly as meaningless as having T1 weaponry if your gunnery support skils are non existent. Traj Analysis, Rapid fire, etc. Those are super important.