PVP Basics (Hydra Fleet)

Introduction

In order to learn how to fight back, the student of PVP needs to realize that Eve Online combat is incredibly rich and diverse. It requires not only character skill points but also a good amount of player skills. The difference between a lost encounter and a won encounter is more often the player skills than the character skills. 

The lessons taught in PVP-BASIC are fundamental to Eve combat and make a starting platform for the study of tactics, strategy and dynamics of Eve PVP. These skills are applicable to all kinds of Eve combat, regardless of whether you’re defending your mining fleet from Pirate attacks, or stalking lawless space in search of targets of your own. 

The goal of PVP-BASIC is to provide you with the basic skills and confidence required to fly as part of a successful PVP gang, as well as being an introduction to combat in low and 0.0 space. 

This class is aimed at players who are new to PVP, or with limited PVP experience. (excerpt from Agony Unleashed 2012)

Preparation

-Make sure you have the skills to fly the ships for the fleet

-Have your overview setup and can see Tags (We can provide an overview if needed)

-Buy and fit at least 2 ships and move them to the course location
***Fits found in game chat “Hunter’s Hall”***

-Come on Discord and make sure mic and headset are working

-Make sure you DON’T fly with any expensive implants

-Start reading the class information

Voice Coms in PvP

Battle Comms: FC calls this asking all members to listen and be quiet

Break Break: Someone has urgent information

Recon: Will be followed my important information from Scouts

Slide: Go through the acceleration gate into a site

You, Me, and I: Don’t use these words. Refer to yourself by game name

Jump: Jump is an order to be given by the Fleet Commander only. Don’t say “did we jump?” Jump only applies to going through a stargate/wormhole into another system

Friendly Out/In: Lets FC know the gate flash is friendly and its not a potential target going through gate

Going Through a Gate: When you approach a gate, the Fleet Commander will give you your orders. If he’s busy and doesn’t give orders, the default instruction is to Hold on Gate, meaning you should orbit at 500m/1000m (i.e. well within jump range, which is 2500m). If you don’t hear any orders, go with the default. If

you think you missed or aren’t sure you heard the order, ask “orders on the

gate?”. Other orders your FC is likely to use are:

Jump on contact – go through the gate as soon as you are out of warp

Jump and hold cloak – go through the gate immediately but do nothing to break your cloak on the other side. That means don’t move or cycle weapons/ewar. The priority is keeping your cloak up so that you don’t betray the fleet’s position.

Fleet Duties

XO – Executive Officer. A second in command who deals with administration, squads, damp/track groups etc. This frees up the FC to think about tactics. Takes over if FC goes down. XO duties for Hydra fleet at end of Material

Scout, Recon, Skirmisher – these guys all do different things depending on their ships and skills but, for our purposes, they are all eyes in other systems finding us targets.

EWO- Electronic Warfare Officer. If the Fleet is big enough you might have one of these who coordinates the ewar groups for the FC.

360 Scan – A pilot or two will be assigned the duty of constantly scanning for threats. Everyone should be doing this on a regular basis but by assigning the duty, the FC is just making sure he’s always got someone scanning for targets/threats. They will use D-scan and Local Chat

Rear Guard – A pilot assigned to follow the gang last through a gate. He’s kind of the herder to bug you if you’re slow to go through and to tell the FC when everyone is in the next system.

The Hydra Principle

A frigate fleet is not simply a blob of people in frigates. Blobs are

disorganized, often poorly fitted mess of ships that rely on sheer numbers to

win. This is a mistake in judgment made by many and repeated by those

who have never flown in a proper fleet. The tech one frigate fleet properly

configured would utterly destroy a frigate blob of the same size.

For the purposes of PvP, T1 frigates can be divided into a five categories:

Combat frigates-Punisher, Tormentor, Merlin, Kestrel, Incursus, Tristan, Rifter, Breacher

Electronic warfare frigates-Crucifier disruptors, Griffin ECM, Maulus damps, Vigil painters

Astrometric / scan probe frigates (not for class)

Fast tackler frigates-Executioner, Condor, Atron, Slasher

Mining frigates- (not for class)

Fitting Your Ship

Low Slots: Damage control, Overdrives and Nanofibers (for speed), Micro Auxiliary Power Core (if needed) We are speed tanking so no armor plates

Mid Slots: Afterburner is a must! NO MICROWARP! All other slots are for Ewar Webs, Scrams, Tracks, Damps, Jammers (griffins only) No Target painters on frigs-destroyers

` High Slots: Weapons and ammo choice that will hit out to 6-10KM range (No blasters)

Rigging: Optional but do not fit rigs that compromise your speed or signature radius.  

Ammunition: 1000-2000 rounds of ammunition per frigate 

Griffins: Fit racial jammers, not multispecs 

Basic PVP Mechanics:

Tracking and Orbiting

Do not burn right at a target. They will be able to hit you easily for max damage. Instead spiral at them. We will discuss how to do this in class. 

Take a look at your ship modules (gun range, scram, web, etc) to determine your best range to orbit your target. You can set a custom default orbit in game to quickly orbit your target at optimal. For this fleet default should be set around 6km. 

Since this fleet is speed tanking we need to be moving at all times. Standing still means dead.

Electronic Warfare

Stasis Webifers- Slow opponents movement

Warp Disruptors- 1 point at stopping a ship from warping, Range 20-24km

Warp Scramblers- 2 points at stopping a ship from warping. Shorter 8-10km

Tracking Disruptors- Affect targets tracking speed and or optimal range. Can use scripts, Only affect turret based guns not drone or missiles

Remote Sensor Dampeners- Make it more difficult for enemies to target you. Make it longer to target you or their ability to target at range. Can use scripts

ECM-Prevents someone from locking anyone but you. (only fit on ships with bonus to ECM) Multispectral vs Racial discussion in class.

Note: Bring meta 1 or 2 named variants – these are usually better than plain t1 and easier to fit, while being similar in price.

Bubbles: Null sec and wormhole space mechanic that can pull ships out of warp and prevent them from warping away. To escape burn your ship to the closest edge and burn out before trying to warp. 

Useful Shortcut Keys:

F1-F8: Activate modules

CTRL+Left Click: To lock targets, Spam it heps when they are coming off station or uncloaking

D+Left Click: Dock or Jump Gate

W+Left Click: Orbit at set range

Q+Left Click: Align or approach

SHIFT + Click on module: Overhead Module

V: Runs a D-Scan

C+click: Look at something, Useful for scanning

SHIFT+F: Launch Drones

Shift+R: Return Drones to Drone Bay

F: All Drones Engage

How to Repair Standings:

Concord:

  1. Purchase the proper clone soldier tag depending on how bad your standings are
    https://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/sectags/
  2. Once you have your tags double click on one then “show security offices” to open the map and see locations where you can turn them in
  3. Fly to the nearest location, avoid dying along the way (Interceptor helps with this), Dock at the station listed as DED and select the security office in services.
  4. Drag the bar over and pay the fee to fix standings

ORRRR…..

You can kill NPC pirate ships in low/null sec space. 

Faction (Caldari, Amarr, Gallante, Minmitar)

Sisters of EVE (SOE) “Blood-Stained Stars” Epic Arc: 52-mission storyline. It offers ~0.7 faction standing boost, ~16M ISK, and is completable in a T1 destroyer in ~3-4 hours. The arc is repeatable every 90 days

Upcoming Classes (being worked on)

Jintoo’s Thrasher Gang: Simple but specialized fleet capable of taking on much larger targets. DScan, 

WolfPacks: Destroyer based hit and run tactics

Logi Basics: Cap chain, Broadcasts, Shield vs Armor

High Sec & GateCamps: Timer mechanics, Station Games, War Dec Mechanics

FC Training: How to form a fleet, Look for fights, Fittings on a fleet level, Web based tools

ECM: Advanced ecm tactics

XO Notes /Duties

-Organize fleet members into appropriate wings

-Check member fittings and make corrections as needed

-Take over if FC goes down

  -Ballance EWAR among fleet members: 

for a 10 person fleet (~20 mid slots)

4 warp disruptors

3 warp scrams

5 stasis webifiers

4 tracking disruptors

4 Dampeners

Be aware of stacking penalties on targets 

1st=100% 

2nd=87%

3rd=57%

4th=28%