In most games, ‘PvP’ means ‘player vs player’. In EVE, it’s more like ‘pain vs please for the love of all things good and holy, don’t kill me again’. This point was hammered home when we solicited stories of our community members’ first PvP kills, many of which were only earned after months or even years of lossmails.
We reached out to the same veteran community members to ask what they wish they’d known back then .What would’ve saved them from buying an annual pass for the pod express? What advice might’ve earned them that first killmail after a measly six months of trying? Their answers covered everything from a winning attitude to electronic warfare. Strap in, read on, and prepare to wreak your revenge across New Eden.
Learn from mistakes, economically
“If you’re actually flying your ship against somebody else, it’s one of the hardest things in gaming. Don’t sweat dying 100 times. Even the vets have to go through it every so often to get the rust off.” Melicien Tetro - original post
The best way to turn a loss into a lesson? Record it, and then analyse the footage.
“Learn your engagement profiles. Learn when to take bait and when not to. Learn the exact point you fell for a trap last time - it’ll be earlier than you think.” Melicien Tetro
“It’s very easy to spot mistakes when you’re watching someone else’s gameplay, like we saw with the armchair quarterbacks during the Alliance Tournament. You’ll notice where you went wrong and what caused you to take damage.” Brother Grimoire - original post
And it’s not only a technique for beginners and armchair analysts. Here’s EVEIL:
“There is always something you can improve on [...] Experienced players do it, so you should do it.” Original post
FUN INC goes as far as suggesting buying dozens of frigates and throwing them against the proverbial wall to see what sticks. They recommend the popular streaming software OBS which has the ability to locally record video files.
You can’t lose if you never play, but nor can you win. “The best way to get into PVP is to lose your fear of losing a ship.” FUN INC agrees. However, they qualify that agreement with some financial pragmatism: “don’t fly anything you can’t afford to replace.”
While on the subject of ISK, Melicien Tetro gives some great advice for anyone who thinks they can buy their way to victory.
“Don’t try to solve your PvP issues by throwing ISK at them. No, you don’t need a bigger ship. No, you don’t need an injector. You need to ‘git gud’. I could spend all day giving you examples of the most proficient killers in my neck of space, and they’d all use low SP (Skill Points), cheap fits, and high volume. “TL;DR: get the suck out before you throw money at it.”
Educate yourself, tactically
“Know your enemy. Learn basic meta and the difference between them - brawlers, scram kiters, kiters, etc.” FUN INC. Original post
As EVEIL points out, this isn’t always easy for newer players who don’t know what other ships are capable of, but “the more you do it, the better you’ll get.” There are plenty of resources to help you learn, too. Here are three ideas:
1. Ask your corpmates - “Join a starter corporation, get free skill books, free ships, and a wealth of experience. In EVE, they’re your support network and often financial backers.” FUN INC
2. Ask your killer - “If you’re really struggling to understand what happened in a fight, ask the other player. Most of the time, EVE players are more than happy to share knowledge.” EVEIL
3. Ask Just About EVE Online - We have a community full of helpful veterans busy producing helpful guides like this one for fitting brawlers.
Equip yourself, knowingly
“Use electronic warfare (EWAR). EWAR is a force multiplier on the battlefield. Webs, jams, tracking disruptors, damps, and more all make you a lot harder to deal with.” Brother Grimoire
FUN INC gave a list of research topics to wrap your head around:
“1. Know your mechanics. Understand bubbles and bombs if you’re in Nullsec. Understand gate or station guns if you’re in Lowsec. 2. Understand the implications of EWAR and cap warfare for your ship. 3. Understand the differences between a warp scrambler and a warp disruptor, and the implications they will have on your ship if you’re kiting. 4. Understand the different types of tank - shield and armour - and how to spot them.”
If you need help on that last point, our comprehensive EVE Online glossary unpicks and explains the different types of tank, as well as a host of other terms of in-game jargon. Understanding this will help you grasp the deeper wisdom of the great Kenny Rogers (not currently a Just About EVE Online member): “You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away and know when to run.” You must be able to recognise when you’re not going to overcome a target’s shields. Here’s FUN INC again, “If you can’t kill it, then you need to get out before someone comes to assist and kill you instead.”
But what if you don’t have the patience for all of this research? What if you’re a low-SP player who wants to vault the notorious learning curve and acquire a day-one kill without “losing hundreds of frigates in Faction Warfare”? EVEIL has a formula for achieving just that. It involves setting a trap at a wormhole and waiting for the right prey to come wandering through.
Prepare yourself, thoroughly
“1. Install PYFA (Python Fitting Assistant) and look at your fit before flying. Know your optimals, your ammo reloads, your speed with AB or MWD, and your speed without. 2. Get a PvP overview! Make sure you include the pilot’s name, distance to the pilot, velocity, and traversal velocity. And make sure you understand what these mean! 3. As soon as you undock, set up your HUD in the way you’re most comfortable with. I personally always have my prop mod on F1, EWAR on F2-F3, and guns grouped beyond that. 4. Ensure you’re repaired and reloaded. Don’t go into a fight with heat damage. If you need to overheat, you need to overheat. If you can’t, you may die.”
To the last point, Brother Grimoire adds, “Always check your ship. I can remember a few notable losses that could have been avoided if I had loaded paste and ammo beforehand.”
Define the battleground, definitively
“I’d always suggest asymmetric PvP as a place to start. This means looking for unsuspecting targets that aren’t in a position to fight back, or who you have the advantage against. “Why? Because whether your first engagement is an epic fight against a superior foe, a nail-bitingly even match, or slapping an exploration frigate into oblivion, you’ll get the adrenaline rush either way. And when you get the shakes, you get tunnel vision and make mistakes. Acclimatising yourself to the shakes whilst still getting kills will prevent you from getting discouraged and allow you to think under pressure when you come up against someone who puts up a fight.”
Counter threats, unflappably
Don’t be afraid to overheat. It’s a poor trade to choose dying when you could have overheated your guns by another 50%. “Heat is love; heat is life. If you’re going to go down, go down swinging. Just be sure you don’t burn out the modules.” Brother Grimoire
Keep an eye out for vultures and reinforcements. “Always D-scan and understand how it works. And always watch local.” FUN INC
Just keep swimming. There’s nothing like a moving target. “Always keep moving. A ship with zero velocity is a lot easier to hit than a ship in motion.” Brother GrimoireIf you need to close ground, don’t go straight at them. “Pay attention to where you’re moving. Flying straight at another pilot will allow their guns to hit easier and harder. If you need to approach another pilot, do it at an angle.” Brother Grimoire
In case those tweet-length pieces of wisdom are insufficient, here’s a short EVE PvP thesis by J1Tah explaining his EVE Online PvP equivalent to eat-pray-love:
The simple PvP mantra™ to get anyone started Quite often, we see newbro guides for PvP that are way too overcomplicated and confusing for an actual new player, or to whom PvP 'actions’ are completely foreign. At the end of the day, making another spacecraft explode is a fairly simple process: shoot it until it blows up. Of course the deeper one delves into it and the more skilled one’s opponent is, the more complex it becomes to enact that process. But this cute little mantra will not only get you started; it will continue to apply no matter how deep you dive. MOVE - SHOOT - MODULES Let’s break it down: MOVE: Make sure your spaceship is moving the way you want it to move. Sounds simple, and it is. Whether you are brawling, kiting, approaching, orbiting, or whatever you have decided is best for the engagement ahead, the first step is always to move. SHOOT: Again, very simple, yet often overlooked in the panic of first encounters. Lock the target, cycle your weapons, engage your drones, and make sure you’re applying the damage from your chosen weapon systems. Pre-checking your engagement ranges is a necessary step that ties into the MOVE part of the mantra. MODULES: Now that you’re moving and applying your damage, it’s time to check you’ve activated your modules. Here is when you make decisions about overheating and/or which modules to activate and deactivate. Are your reppers running? Your tackle? Do you need to prop? Are you heating? Should you be? Is anything overheated and burning out? After the initial runthrough of the mantra, you go back to the start, and repeat: MOVE deepens to positioning and piloting decisions. Are you in your engagement range? Should you maximise your damage or mitigate your opponent's damage? Should you push, pull, or keep doing what you’re doing? SHOOT turns into making sure you’re applying your damage and ammo selections, as well as ensuring your drones are on the target. It’s here where I personally check if I’m winning or losing the engagement in terms of damage, informing the decision-making in the other parts of the mantra. MODULES turns into checking your overheat situation. Should you stop heating to avoid burning out? Which modules can or should you overheat, if any? Are your modules running out of charges? How’s your capacitor situation? Is your tackle running (for example, if your opponent dipped out of web range and your webs de-cycled automatically)? This part of the mantra is very much the ship management aspect of piloting. The more experienced and skilled you become, the deeper each part of the mantra becomes, but the basic domains of decision-making remain the same. Forgetting to shoot, tackle, move leads to the sort of basic mistakes that seem obvious when you’re back in your station looking at the lossmail, but in the stress of the moment, it’s really easy to blank out. Thus repeating this simple mantra can help you to focus on those basics and retain your wits when the adrenaline hits like a sack of bricks, and you seem to forget where your overview is. I know it does for me. Keep it simple, because, well, it often is. Original post
We’ll leave you with a more laconic piece of wisdom from another galaxy. “Do or do not, there is no try.” Or as FUN INC puts it, “Commit to the fight or don’t commit. You can’t do both. You must choose.”
Further learning
If you want to keep studying, then we recommend you check out this great overview of EVE PvP for beginners by MacGybo. Original post
You may also want to check out its partner video, guiding players through Lowsec (where most PvPers earn their first stripes).NB Some text has been edited for grammar and brevity. You can find the submissions in full at the original bounty post.
Image Credit: Razorien on Flickr
Created at . Page last updated at .
