Warfare & Tactics

Well a few things to add here. Firstly, I want to echo the compliment from earlier for having a bunch of constructive posts here, I really appreciate it.

So, I do have two accounts, but most of the time I don't dualbox them. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, it is simply difficult to do combat with two pilots at once. Secondly, if you're going to get blobbed and killed, having a 2nd pilot flying a falcon or something like that isn't going to save you - in fact, all its going to do is get killed also.

Now, a ganglinked T3 in the system cloaked for resists or something along those lines...that sounds like a viable option. Perhaps I should look into that.


Since the original post, I've gone out and got myself in 2 fights with hurricanes. Both times, I engaged one person and about 30 seconds later, 4-5 people showed up and blobbed me.

So yeah, I'm pretty much on the same train as everyone else with the 'blobs suck' thing. What people want is fair fights, yet the game makes no effort or mechanics to try to at least provide an incentive for that to happen.

I know I'll get flamed all to hell by saying this, but I do wish there was some kind of duel system or arena system where you coul sign up for like a 1v1 or 2v2 or 3v3 and nobody else could interfere. I think it would be fun as hell.

Inb4 go back to wow
inb4 arenas would ruin EvE
inb4 eve is not a solo game, find some frinds

OP,

The only thing I can say is go buy 2 dozen rifters (or your frig of choice), take them to a High to Low sec system. Next fit them all, yes do them ALL now, you can later change them, but fit them all now, just cookie cutter them. Next go lose the first dozen, and then only then begin to change your fittings (unless of course your fit was really bad to start with). Only by losing ship after ship can you get past the stomach wrenching initial feelings in combat.

Sadly all I've mastered is losing ships whilst thinking oh well.

Solo PvP can be difficult but rewarding. On the other hand dropping in balls to the wall, do or die is alot of fun.

Successful pvp is about illusion as much as it is about fittings and tactics. Few people will engage in pvp in this game without thinking they hold a solid advantage. The key is making them think they have the advantage when they really don't. The simplest form of this is the bait as you've already seen. You set up a nice little target (not too juicy, that's suspicious) and wait for someone to bite, then you warp in your real gang to kill the attackers. You will catch pvp noobs like yourself this way but more experienced players will instantly recognize a bait ship without even being on grid with it.

A more advanced approach is using ganglinks, unusual ships/configurations and highly organized fleet setups to overcome seemingly superior forces. A cheap (relatively) and direct example of this is arty cane with a skirmish booster alt. The alt doesn't have to be in a loki, but you do need the mindlink for it to work properly. Most people fit their ships for close range brawling when solo or in a small gang and the solo/small gang arty cane takes advantage of that.

The 425's on a typical armor or nano-cane only shoot to around 25km with barrage and really suffer damage reductions at anything beyond 15km. By choosing arty and orbiting at 30km (t2 point has 34km base range with skirmish links), you can evade nearly all incoming damage from the opposing BC's. This allows you to attack a numerically superior force, theoretically of unlimited size so long as you stay out of their range.

I personally have used this to great effect. I've taken on 10 man cruiser/BC gangs solo in a completely ordinary t2 fit arty cane and won. It isn't any god like skill on my part, I simply maintained my spacing and plucked them off one by one. It takes practice to keep your range where you want it but it's pretty easy to learn I think. This is also a very cheap approach to take as it doesn't require fancy implants/mods/ships to do. The minimum is the skirmish mindlink and a pair of t1 BC's.

Another and I think more interesting method is by going nuts on tank. Once again you must take advantage of links. One little gem I've discovered is the MSB jaguar. Most people go with buffer tanking (MSE in jag's case) but active tanking offers some interesting possibilities. By itself, a t2 fitted MSB jag with no implants can solo virtually any other frigate or fight it to a draw. The reason is it can basically permatank them.

But if you throw in a siege warfare booster alt, a standard blue pill (3.5M isk, 1 hr duration) and especially a crystal set (2-2.5B isk), you can do far more. That same t2 fitted jag with the above goodies can permatank absolutely any frigate hull and nearly all of them even in a 3 v 1 fight (not counting the booster alt). Throw in a shiny x-type MSB instead of t2, and you'll be tanking nearly a dozen frigs at once.

That type of uber active tank can be done all the way up to BS size. You don't know the meaning of owned until a solo maelstrom warps in on your dozen or more BC/HAC gang, attacks and proceeds to destroy half your fleet with the other half fleeing the field. This can also be done with active armor tanks although it's more difficult due to increased cycle times and the lack of an XL armor repper.

This uber tank style can be done with buffer tanking but that is trickier and beyond the scope of this post. I will say that it's trickier because you don't get any relevant boosters and only the resistance links are useful for it, the cycle time and cap reduction links obviously don't offer any benefit on buffer. You have to work around those shortcomings with shiny mods and the ship hull itself. It gets terribly expensive in a hurry. It's pretty funny flying around in million EHP cruisers though.

Edit: sorry for wall of text, trying to break it up a little better.

This, this, this. There are people who engage without having an advantage in EVE, but they are few and far between. Assume they don't exist. I'll freely admit to not going into fights where I don't think I have even a slight chance of winning, and I think that's just human nature.

So the secret of EVE PvP is to have the advantage, and let the other person think they have it. This is why aggressivly seeking a fight makes you a less desirable target in many cases - people will more willingly engage someone they think they've 'caught' against their will than someone they know is looking for a fight.

There are limitless ways to make yourself seem like the victim, and the number one way is to go out pewing in your t1 frig and learn who *are* the easy targets, and then make yourself look like them. It's actually shockingly difficult to look incompetent when you have half an idea what you're doing, so this takes practice, but with time you'll be able to get a steady stream of decent fights. Knowledge is key - know what they're backup is and what the usual fits are, and you know what they'll be down to engage. Then do the unexpected, get them overconfident, and you're already halfway to winning.

It sounds like you are flying an armor cane in which case u may consider fittng 220 guns ans dual neut. also give nano cane a go its a great solo roaming ship. As for general advice in solo pvp i would say spend a lot of time playiIng around in eft and browsing fits to get familiar with different fits each ship flies so u cna think abouy how u may counter them in real combat - e.g it helps a lor to know gun ranges and top speed of other ships if u are flying a kite ship

For the thrasher try swapping out the dc for a mapc and fit a med shield extender in the med slots. It will allow you to take shots at pods/small frigs on gate or station for extra fun.

these are way fun and I have heard nothign but good things about them, I highly recomend Agonys pvp classes

It seems to me that the "go blow up 100 rifters" advice is always given in threads like these. However, most guides don't emphasize how important it is to learn EVERY ship. Not just their names and classes, but weapons, range, DPS, strengths and weaknesses. One thing that makes Eve PVP difficult is that you really do need to absorb a lot of knowledge in order to be effective. What good does it do for a new player to go suicide 100 frigs if he's not even aware of how each one is lost (other than "in a fire")? The truly great Eve PVPers all have one thing in common: They're all Eve Super-Nerds and can prattle on for hours about just about every ship in the game that is found in PVP. You can play FPS's casually, and have a great time, and even get pretty good. You can't really be a casual Eve player and good at Eve PVP.

Similar advice has already been given in this thread, but it really worked for me. I started as month old character back in February, and now I make my living off pvp (ie, no missioning, no exploration, just loot and ransoms). If you're interested, you can try learning from my (many) mistakes; I recorded my progress on my blog.

Although I used a Punisher, this would probably work well with any T1 frigate, destroyer or cruiser (assuming it is suitable for pvp).