Flying with the Wolfpack

As I've alluded to previously, it is important that the corporation you're in is the correct match for you. For me, joining The Tuskers meant that I was in a group of people who had first hand experience of the realities of solo and small gang PvP in Eve Online.

If you want to become good (or even excellent) at solo and small gang PvP, join a corporation that specializes in it and by specializes, I mean only flies <10 gangs when there are only <10 pilots on. The feedback and ideas you get during and after engaging enemy gangs with a few gangmates is truly invaluable, this is one of the reasons I like to write After Action Reports (AARs) after major fleet fights such as this one recently - they give you a real chance to examine what went wrong and how you can prevent it from happening again.

Corporations that are willing to set upper limits to fleet sizes are truly rare but will typically encounter much more PvP than corps that only fly larger gangs, simply because more enemy fleets will engage them. The majority of gang fights are consensual - both gangs scout each other out and move to engage each other. If you find yourself having to titan bridge to get fights, this should be an indicator that your gangs are getting too large for the optimal amount of pewpew available in your local area.

Now, how to find such corporations? Most of them do not openly recruit, instead recruiting through word of mouth. Thus, your best chance of finding such a corporation is to ask decent PvPers you know of any corporations they respect and then chat to their recruiters about policies etc. whilst flying in gangs with them to make sure they are "the real deal" - there are a ton of corporations (even pirates!) that advertise they are all about small gang PvP and good fights which actually translates to hours of gatecamping then docking when a challenging fight comes along.

Having a good look at killboards is the best way to figure out what kind of gangs they fly in - generally you want at least 10-15 kills a day, with most of them being in small gangs (<10 or so) or solo.

Most of these corporations typically recruit in batches - for example The Tuskers keep recruitment open until we feel we have met our target goal (X total members typically) then we close recruitment again. However, we recognize that people are looking for corporations throughout the year and keep recruitment open for a select few - typically those with references within the corporation.

A useful starting point for these corporations is below:

• The Tuskers - we're currently recruiting after all! Mostly fly <5, with the vast majority of our kills in <10 fleets. 
• Shadow Cartel - gangs are typically on the small side <10), with organized fleets being much larger (<30) 
• PODLA - infamous for their nano Drakes, these guys are the real deal. 

Even if you don't feel like changing corporations to further your PvP, you should consider joining such corporations public channels - often a hub of activity related to PvP, ranging from the latest FOTM to new fittings and tactics etc. "The Tuskers Public Channel" is ours and plays host to some fantastic discussions regarding anything from solo frigate fittings to solo Battleships.

P.S. It was my birthday yesterday, hence the delay for this post. Any gifts would be appreciated - I am currently space poor after a string of investments and any donors will receive their 15 minutes of fame on this blog.

Just a Number...

One of the most common questions I'm asked is how much SP do I have. For some, there seems to be an idea that a player requires a certain fixed value of skillpoints after which one can successfully "solo" with, typically around 30M or so.

In reality, nothing can be further from the truth. Several Tuskers and indeed, other PvPers I've flown with have started PvPing with naught but a few thousand skillpoints on them. The key however, is to ensure that you get maximum bang for your buck.

Choose a ship class that you want to solo in. If you're just starting out, I suggest T1 frigates. All races have viable fits, but I suggest either the Punisher, which can have a relatively large tank, requiring less micromanagement than other frigates, or the standard - the Rifter, which is the most well rounded T1 frigate currently in the game.

Next, decide upon a fit. I suggest consulting Failheap Challenge for fits rather than Battleclinic, which tends to be bloated and have some truly terrible popular fits on it. Now, train all supporting skills related to that ship to Level IV, with the exception being Gunnery - training for T2 turrets is crucial for the long range ammunition which will then become available - Barrage/Null/Scorch.

At this point, based off skillpoints alone, you should lose most fights with similarly fitted ships since most players will have more skillpoints than you. In reality, skillpoints matter fair less than people think - it's fairly rare that I have a close fight to structure for example in 1v1s. This is due to other factors coming into play such as actual PvP experience, with solo and small gang experience being much, much more important than large gang experience.

For this reason, budding PvPers can often kill a few tacklers of larger enemy gangs in their frigates - they are often looked down upon for their low skillpoints and "cheap" T1 frigates so the tacklers get complacent and slip up, often helped by the fact that they've had almost no solo PvP experience to speak of, meaning that they're not used to what to do when they have no gang backing them.

Beyond that, skillpoints do start to matter more - however only for the options they provide. Some gangs for example cannot be kited and instead must be brawled down, such as gangs featuring heavy Recon support.  Battlecruisers require more skillpoints just to fit T2 guns, but the key is to ensure that you only fly ships once you can fly them competently - all IVs and T2 guns typically. This is the standard that I expect from anyone participating in my fleets as an side note.

As for the people asking, I currently have just under 45M (Eveboard link is here, password is "tuskersbro"). As you can see, most of my skillpoints are in support - Drones, Navigation etc. for which I have almost all Vs. For 1v1 encounters, they are most of the time pretty overkill, but really come in handy when engaging larger gangs solo!

The amount of ships I can fly well is actually fairly limited compared to similiarly SP players - I can only competently fly Amarr up to Battleships and Minmatar up to Battlecruisers (Arazu aside), with no missile skills whatsoever.

Interestingly enough, around about 30M skillpoints, you should have nearly all support skills trained to V, after which it's a fairly easy train to get into ships and fly them well. However, since you can only fly a single ship at a time, beyond that skillpoints have a fairly diminishing role - my Recon V is completely useless when I'm flying an Battlecruiser, same with Logistics V. For this reason, many older pilots ask what to train next, looking for anything to train, most of the time it never being used (Capitals for example)

So, how many skillpoints do you have?

Credentials

I was originally planning on writing an single blogpost or two about the tips & tricks of solo PvP , but after chatting with a few people ingame I've been...encouraged to write a series of blogposts, covering the entire range of solo and small gang PvP, right from the very basics to the highest levels of solo and small gang PvP in Eve Online going on, in all gang formats I've seen - Armor Brawler, Black Ops operations, Shield Nano, with logistics, without logistics etc.

So, to begin this enormous topic, where to start? Simple, my credentials so that you, as the reader are able to judge, for yourself, whether or not I have the experience to actually write about this subject without writing effectively bullshit.

Rusty as Hell II

So, onto the next 2 losses. They are slightly better than the previous losses, although they still make me facepalm!

Number 5 - I hate Falcons (and Dramiels!)

With the majority of my ships back in Hevrice, I decided to go on a roam to Syndicate, specifically through TXW (Rote Kapelle home system) in my Shield Harbinger. Whilst it was fairly dead, a few jumps out I found a decently sized gatecamp for me to try my luck on with my alt - an Arazu, Brutix, Daredevil, Drake and a Sabre. Unfortunately, by the time my main arrived on the scene they had docked up.

Moving on, I found an Dramiel + Sabre camping a gate. Whilst they refused to go for me, I decided to hang around, unfortunately this would prove to be my undoing. The Dramiel suddenly was raring to go for me and I was happy to oblige, deliberately getting caught in a bubble. Whilst I was making slow but steady progress through his tank with the combination of my drones + guns, assisted by my small neut.....suddenly Falcon!

I managed to set my drones on him before he acquired a lock and jammed me, but his medium EMP smartbomb soon dispatched them, whereas he was keeping me perma-jammed and the Dramiel was whittling through my tank. Commenting in local at how low they were going, the Falcon pilot gleefully replied that he was fit with all Amarr jammers, just for me.

Ruining good fights, the dreaded Falcon

With no chance of getting my ship out, I initiated self destruct. Whilst I am normally loath to do so, the use of Falcon was abhorrent - practically any other ship I would have been content to battle to the death, satisfied that I could at least do something.

In the end, I managed to self destruct successfully and leave the system in my pod. Unfortunately, my way out was barred by another gatecamp just one system over. Deciding to double back and leave that way, I jumped back in and was greeted by the sight of the Dramiel and Sabre sitting on the gate, with the Sabre bubbling the gate. Consigned to my fate, I tried to burn back to the gate but was effectively one volleyed by the Sabre. Bye bye Low Grade Snakes :(

Number 4 - Hero Myrmidon + Bad Awareness = Death!

When Valgore, a fellow Tusker reported a Vagabond sitting on a wormhole one jump away from Hevrice, I grabbed my Myrmidon and checked it out, with Valgore in his Shield Hurricane. Once I was on the scene, his alt slipped into the wormhole and started checking it out, finding a Tengu running sites along with an salvaging Noctis. With no way to get into the wormhole without the Vagabond giving warning, we were forming up to go in for the kill when we discovered Angor Mau, ex-Tusker and CEO of Lucifer's Hammer had already slain the Vagabond and departed!

The Myrmidon, one of my favorite ships for brawling

 Moving into position anyway, we hoped that the inhabitants would come out to investigate. Eventually they did, with a Blackbird, 2 Drakes, 2 Hurricanes and a Ferox. After about 5 minutes of trying to drag them off the wormhole and thus prevent them from running when they were in danger, I finally managed to scramble the Ferox 40km from his friends and he went down.

With the Blackbird present, there was no way we could hope to combat them directly. Me and Valgore decided to change fittings - I would replace my second Capacitor Booster for a midslot ECCM module whereas he would replace a Nanofibre in his lows for a lowslot ECCM backup array.

Refitted, we headed back out, waking up another Tusker Tsubutai who tagged along with his Shield Hurricane, Our eyes inside the wormhole revealed they were camping with the Blackbird, Cerberus, 4 Drakes and a Hurricane, whilst at the same time a Chimera was sitting inside their POS. When me and Valgore jumped in, they scattered back to their POS before we could secure points. In any case, we were better prepared this time and setup a drag bubble on grid with the wormhole, setup to grab any of them that warped to the wormhole from their POS.

Whilst it was onlining, their Cerberus warped in at 100 and tried to snipe down Valgore's Hurricane. I bounced off a planet and attempted to land ontop of him, unfortunately that failed to work and he managed to warp off.

After hanging around the bubble for a while, our eyes on their POS reported them warping to planet 1, which if they warped to the wormhole from, would not drag them into our bubble. Getting ready for a rumble, they all landed at 0 to the wormhole and us - 4 Drakes and a Myrmidon. Valgore was soon forced to jump through, followed by Tsubutai. As I hoped, with only me on the field, they decided to focus fire and I was soon tanking all 5 of their Battlecruisers, forced to rely on careful micro management of modules as well as popping my Exile pill.

One by one, I ground through them, in which case they jumped back to our side where the rest of our fleet was waiting, Tsubutai and Valgore in Hurricanes along with Arc in his Malediction for fast tackle. As they ping-ponged back to either side to escape, we kept them boxed in and eventually killed 3 of their Drakes and their Myrmidon with no losses of our own, with our own Brutix joining in at the end.

Whilst looting up, we spied several more Battlecruisers on scan, as well as a Hurricane or two, but they weren't at our target's POS. Soon, a Drake landed 30km off us, the new arrivals corporation name revealed - Aquila INC,  a fairly well known roaming wormhole corporation specializing in nano BCs.

Interested to see what would happen, we started giving chase to the Drake. As predicted, he started kiting us as the rest of his gang landed and an Arazu decloaked. Suddenly, it was a good old 4 v 5 fleet fight (Arc had gone AFK), with them having recon support. Their warpin was fairly bad and we managed to tackle both of their Hurricanes before they could open up distance, scrambling them both with my Myrmidon and Rael's Brutix.

Carving through their first Hurricane, he went down fairly quickly. The second followed him quickly after, but Rael's Brutix finally succumbed to their incoming DPS, which took a while as the Hurricane I had tackled decided to try and scare me off rather than aim for Rael.

Just as Rael popped, I was in half structure with my low slots overheated. Grabbing their Arazu who drifted into my scrambler range for some reason, we popped him very quickly.

Realising the battle was lost, they tried to clear off but we grabbed another Drake who went down nicely to our DPS with returned Arc's help, with the other Drake escaping. 4 kills for 1 loss in a 4v5, not bad!

Scooping the new loot, we hanged around, hoping the residents would reship and come back in for Round 3. After a while, it was clear that they wouldn't, just as another Aquila INC Hurricane appeared 200km off the wormhole. Arc went to tackle him and we tried to pin him down. Eventually, I managed to almost tackle him 70km off the wormhole just as their reshipped gang arrived - 6 Drakes along with the Hurricane already on the field.

With us having only 4 combat ships, 1 of which couldn't contribute meaningful DPS (Arc's Malediction), I gave the order to retreat as I burnt back to the wormhole with my overheated MWD whilst tanking their 7 Battlecruisers. Focusing on my capacitor and tank as the Hurricane neutted me, I stopped paying attention to my mids and my MWD burnt out as I was 12km off the wormhole. Immediately I started slowing and popped just 300m outside jump range. Everyone else made it out.

Thankfully, the Arazu loot was enough to replace our losses, with a little bit extra for all those involved. Still, was a great fight!

The rest of my losses weren't anything special, therefore I am considering just skipping them and heading back to normal content. For example, I've had some Evemails asking me to discuss my tactics, ship fittings etc. which I think could be quite useful for the majority of players out there. What do you think? Reply in the comment section below, or send me an Evemail ingame.