Solo PvP or getting blown up by people most of the time

Once again real life in the form of University work along with more time spent in game that doesn't involve station spinning has led to the blog not getting as much love as it should. However I intend to rectify this by giving feedback on the various solo engagement I've been having lately.

To put this blog into context I've been wanting to get better at understanding the capabilities of other frigate class ships so I know when I can take an engagement and when not too, not only for solo fights but also to know when to disengage when tackling for a fleet. This was spurred on by several members of The Tuskers who have been very helpful on the E-Uni forums and along with the fine people at Agony Unleashed have been great supporters of getting new players to try their hand at solo and small gang PvP.

For the following fights I've been using a variety of Incursus fits, either single or duel repped but all utilising Ion Blasters, the later ones the T2 variant. The first fight I got was something of a one sided affair for my opponents, yes there were two of them, although initially I engaged a Republic Fleet Firetail I just couldn't pin him down so my fire was highly ineffective, to add injury to insult his friend in a Jaguar then turned up and melted my ship in short order. Suffice to say I didn't learn much as the engagement was over very quickly.

Lesson 1: When you can't get in range abandon trying to kill him and just get out if you can.

My next engagement was a couple of days later, this time I encountered a Retribution which was around 40km from me when I landed at the Factional Warfare complex, the speed with which he shut me down was crazy and not something I was expecting from a PvP frigate as most people seem to recommend an Afterburner fit, due to reduced capacitor use, the ability to keep moving when Warp Scrambled and the fact afterburners don't reduce your capacitor capacity like a microwarpdrive. As you can see I tried experimenting with Railguns and whilst the range was good the lack of damage really turned me off to them.

Lesson 2: Never make assumptions about an opponents fits and always fit a local rep.

My next fight was straight after the previous loss, deciding that Amamake wasn't for me that day I tried somewhere else and found a Tristan inside a FW complex, the target wasn't flashy so was going to leave them be but they decided to agress allowing me to fire back without loss of security status. This time I tried using a fight given to me by a fellow member of E-Uni's Low Sec Campus, it was the first time I had tried using a capacitor booster along with a repper, suffice to say it was a little bit of information overload. Again the lack of T2 guns, not overheating at the start of the fight and my unfamiliarity with cap boosters left me in a pod and making for home.

Lesson 3: Drones are not great when you have to orbit a target closely and not cause them to move much, also overheat your guns at the start of a fight as you can always turn the overload off.

The next engagement was a chance fight and right in my own backyard, a former Unista  flying an Incursus who was always need the top of the Uni killboards when I joined the Uni came looking for a fight. After he dispatched a fellow Unista I asked if he wanted to go again and happily let him dock up for repairs. Upon his return I had what was to this point my closest fight but my DPS couldn't overcome his local rep. After the fight I got some great advice and fits that I started to put together.

Lesson 4: Don't be afraid to ask for advice about what you could do better, humility while learning will help you go far and also helps you get over fits, ideas and theories you think are good, sometimes they aren't.

After now losing several Incursus to a variety of ships I was now thinking that I'd try to limit my engagements to other Tech 1 frigates, my theory being they would likewise have holes in their tanks, holes that Tech 2 ships tend to have patched to some extent. Once again I went over to Amamake, Old Man Star and Hevrice with no fights to be had I started heading home however took a chance in Old Man Star a FW plex and found an Incursus, he wasn't suspect so was about to leave when he engaged. What followed was a very odd fight, his larger more powerful Neutron blasters unable to break the reps of my single repairer whilst his was very variable due to an Ancillary Armour Repairer, the new module introduced in the latest patch. By the end of the fight my guns were around 75% damaged due to the overheating however I was victorious.

Lesson 5: Void rounds may appear to give a great on paper DPS however the tracking penalty meant there were enough misses to let me live, Faction Antimatter, Thorium and Plutonium seem to be better all round ammo types.

And my last fight was against one of the infamous Tuskers in their home system no less, I happened to undock at the same time as a Merlin  and decided to take a chance and engage the perma-flashy pirate before me. Although I managed to get through his armour and even cause a little structure damage his local shield rep was keeping him in the fight and as my own repper couldn't keep up with the damage the writing was on the wall.

Lesson 6: Making sure you have the right rigs to support your fighting style is very important, in this case the lack of an Auxillary Nano Pump meant there was lost repping power which could have kept me in the fight a little longer.

So that's my first 5 Incurus losses in the solo PvP arena and with only 1 kill but many good fights I hope this shows anyone new to PvP that you need to start somewhere and ships will explode, hopefully sometimes they'll be your opponents. I've already fitted a few more ships and am hoping to try out some Neutron Blaster fits once I get Advanced Weapons Upgrades trained to a respectable level.

Until next time, go forth and explode ships :)

Mia

Staying the course

So as some of you may remember from a previous blog entry I talked about how I was going to spend a while rounding out my fitting skills as they are key to letting you properly fit larger and more advanced vessels, suffice to say my original 30 day plan to fix these things has grown into a monster 80+ day effort to get them done before I commit to a remap specifically for training Ships, Guns and Missiles, but has it been worth it?

To answer that question I've been looking at the things I've trained and trying to determine if it was right to push so many of those support skills as high as I have. First are the essential prerequisite skills for further training, Evasive Maneuvering to Level 5 so I can train Interceptors being an excellent example, to me these are a given and whilst several had to go to Level 5 to allow me to best maximise my training for many advanced ship types without a need to rely on remapping to train them effectively in the future or worse still train them on a completely non optimal remap.

The next set of skills are the essential support skills, those which are not required to unlock further modules or skills. These are mainly Capacitor and Tanking skills and as such are two areas I was keen to ensure weren't lacking especially as larger ships (such as Battlecruisers and Battleships) whilst having larger capacitors tend to have more toys to use it up and better fitting options allow to live longer (in theory at least).

The last set of skills are what I like to call "nice to have" and is an area where I've trained some skills to low levels (3's in most cases) to allow me to assist a force by reshipping into a Tech 1 Logistics ship (either shield or armour), many EWAR types (all except ECM oddly) as well as numerous ancillary skills to reduce capacitor use for specific related modules and their optimal ranges etc.and additional Leadership skills. This final category has perhaps added  around two weeks to my training but the sheer versatility has been fantastic, I'd encourage everyone to get at least basic skills to allow for some varied play and let you appreciate the intricacies that they bring to field, who knows you may like it so much you dedicate a future part of your training plan to becoming a specialist.

As I currently sit as plan plus 32 days I have to say it has been worth it, especially I can see from my existing ships how much better their tanks are, the need for less fitting rigs and better tanking or weapon rigs in their place but perhaps the best thing has been my ability to fly with different pilots such as the famous Logibros, getting some valuable experience about boomarking and fighting aligned with the EWAR guys, all in very helpful especially as I plan to take my first steps into small gang warfare soon and feel this experience lets me better understand the capabilities of the ships that may join such a force.

In conclusion then, I didn't stay the course and stick to my original plan but I'd like to think that this has opened my eyes to other playstyles and the challenges each specialist role faces in every engagement and as a result I've become a better player for it, again I guess only time will tell though.