The simple PvP Mantra™ to get anyone started
Quite often we see newbro guides for PvP that seem way too overcomplicated and confusing for an actual new player, or to whom PvP 'actions' are completely foreign. End of the day, making another spacecraft explode is a fairly simple procedure; shoot it until it blows up. Of course the deeper one delves into it and more skilled/experienced one's opponent is, the more complex getting to the simple situation becomes. But this cute little mantra to repeat will not only get you started, but will remain with you no matter how deep you decide to get into it.
MOVE - SHOOT - MODULES
Let's break it down:
MOVE: Make sure your spaceship is moving the way you want it to move. Sounds simple, no? It sounds simple because it is, whether you are brawling or kiting, approaching, orbiting, whatever it may be you have decided is the best option for the engagement ahead, first step is always to move.
SHOOT: Again, very simple, yet quite often overlooked in the panic of first encounters. Lock the target, cycle your weapons, engage your drones and make sure you are applying the damage from your chosen weapon systems. Prechecking your engagement ranges ties to the MOVE part of the mantra.
MODULES: Now that you are moving and applying your damage, it's time to check you have activated your modules. Here is when you make decisions about overheating and/or which modules to activate/deactivate. (Are your reppers running? tackle? do you need to prop? are you heating? should you be heating? is anything overheated and burning out?)
After the initial run through of the mantra, you quite simply go back to the start, repeating it constantly:
MOVE turns into positioning and piloting decisions: are you in your engagement range, should you maximize your damage or mitigate opponent's damage, push, pull, keep doing what you're doing?
SHOOT turns into making sure you are indeed applying your damage, ammo selections, making sure your drones are on the target. Also here is where i personally check if i am winning or losing the engagement damage wise, informing the decision making in the other parts of the mantra.
MODULES turns into making sure to check overheat situation, should you stop heating to not burn out, which modules you can and should 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 decycled automatically). This part of the mantra is very much the 'managing your ship' part of piloting.
The more experienced and skilled you become, the deeper each part of the mantra becomes, but the base layering of decision making will remain the same. Especially in one's first encounters, its incredibly easy to forget to shoot, tackle, move, and essentially make mistakes that seem really 'stupid' when you look back to them in the station you found yourself looking at the lossmail, but in the stress of the moment, well, it is really easy to blank out. Thus repeating this fairly simple mantra might just help you to keep your wits about you 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.
