User:Hellbento/Fleet PvP Skill Training Guide

Fleet PvP Training Guide

So You want to get into Fleet PvP

Well you have come the right place (or at least one of them). Eve University runs regular (or at least a lot of) PvP fleet roams, both the specific beginner Noobs on Patrol fleets and others, and everyone in our fleets will be willing to help you find your feet once you are in space. To actually contribute to a PvP fleet, start by training the ship skills you want to use (even at frigates 3 you can be part of a fleet), the general fitting and tanking skills. You should also choose a role to fulfill in a fleet, and fit a ship to do this. Most pilots will start out as a hero tackle or a DD (Damage Dealer) frigate or destroyer, and then branch out from there, but in the uni we are generally fairly flexible.

The general fleet roles are DD, Tackle, Ewar, Logi and Scouts.

• DD: actually apply the damage to the enemy and need ships, guns, and related skills at a decent level.
• Tackle: pilots use modules to keep the targets from getting away and to slow them down, so they need the propulsion jamming skills, and usually skills to help them fly faster to catch the targets.
• Ewar: use electronic warfare modules to reduce the targets' effectiveness and make it easier for everyone else to do thier job, and need the electronics skills for the type of Ewar they are using.
• Logi: are the guys that heal us and keep your ship alive, and make you more effective, and need the remote repairing skills, and usually capacitor transfer and management skills.
• Scouts: are the people that range ahead of, or follow behind, the fleet to find us targets and make sure that no-one who will make us targets warps in on us, they often fly Covert Ops ships so they can cloak and not be seen, and carry combat scanners so need the scanning skills as well.

Everyone who is going to fly in PvP should also make sure they train thier fitting and tanking skills, and it is useful to have people with the leadership skills trained, if not absolutely necessary.

Joining Fleets and general fleet guides

Once you have the starting skills for a fleet role you should try to join fleets as soon as possible, but first read The Rookie's Guide To Fleet Ops and try to attend, or at least listen to, Fleets 101. Even if you are a minor contributor in your first couple of fleets while you get used to fleet communications, different commands and how to be part of a larger group, you will learn, and you will contribute, even if it does not feel like it at the moment. The most important things are to listen to the FC and the other leadership, and to do your best, the rest only comes with a little experience.

T1 Frigates and fittings are available to uni members for free from the Corporation Hangar, either pick one up from Pator Tech School, or if you don't have the Freshman title yet ask in corporate chat and often someone will be able to grab one and pass to you.

Eve Uni fleets tend to leave from either Aldrat/Hek, or from Stacmon near LSC, so have you PvP ships near these places so you they are handy when a fleet starts forming. It is probably best not to keep all of your PvP ships in Aldrat, or in the Hek Trade Station (Boundless Creation) as if war targets we want to kill park outside these stations it can make forming a fleet a lot harder, so usually keep PvP ships in a couple of stations nearby (if you want to have more than one) and then wherever they blockade we will have some people who can get out and form a fleet.

General Skills (Everyone should have them)

If you want to get into PvP, no matter what role you have, you should make sure to get the basic fitting skills to a decent level (3 is an absolute minimum, but getting these skills to 4 or 5 is a priority), so you can fit all the modules you want onto your ship, and make sure it as capable as it can be. As a general rule in Eve it is better to be good at what you can do, than to be mediocre at doing a lot of things. You also should be getting the tank skills to level 4 as soon as practical, you want to be able to fit a tech 2 tank as soon as possible as this means you will be more likely to survive. The other skills that should be trained by all pilots are the propulsion module skills, being able to use an AB is almost compulsory. Every pilot should also try to train navigation and warp drive operation, as this means you can keep up with faster ships, and you don't cap out when you have to make a long warp; navigation and warp drive operation are not quite as important but still a good Idea to get up when you can. As a special note, try to make sure you train the skill in the ship you are using to at least 3, and preferably 4, before you are flying, as the bonuses on the ships for ship skill often give you more than any other individual skill towards your effectiveness.

Fitting Skills

Fitting skills will let you fit better modules on your ship, and make you more effective. CPU and Power Grid management should be trained to Level 5 as soon as you are able to, the others only have an effect on specific types of modules so are less critical, but still worth getting to 3 as soon as you can. Advanced Weapon upgrades is probably not worth getting immediately due to needing Weapon upgrades to 5 first, but it is very useful when you can get it. If you want to know more about fitting ships, read Fitting Guidelines. While I am discussing fitting skills I would also suggest everyone who wants to fly ships gets a fitting tool like EFT so you can work out your fits outside of the game, and without having to buy the modules first.

• CPU Management: 5% more CPU per level
• Power Grid Management: 5% more powergrid per level
• Weapon Upgrades: 5% less CPU need for weapons per level
• Shield Upgrades: 5% less powergrid need for shield extenders, shield rechargers &c
• Electronics Upgrades: 5% less CPU need for signal amplifiers, co-processors &c
• Energy Grid Upgrades: 5% less CPU need for most of the modules listed under "Engineering Equipment"
• Advanced Weapon Upgrades (requires Weapon Upgrades V): 2% less powergrid need for weapons per level

Tank

Every PvP ship (and every other ship in fact) should fit a tank to ensure you can survive as long as possible. For PvP it is best to build a buffer tank, which means to ignore any repair modules and just fit to have as many EHP as possible. All PvP ships also should if possible be fit for an Omni-Tank, which means that you should build to be able to resit all damage types equally, because you do not know what damage types you are going to be faced with in PvP combat. Generally if you have Logi it is a good Idea to fit your tank to have as much of the tank based on resists as possible so the logi heals are more effective, but don't sacrifice (much) actual EHP for this, the most important thing is to be able to survive as long as possible. More information can be found at Smurfprime's Guide to Basic Tanking, it could use a little cleaning up at the moment but the information there is quite good. Most PvP fleets will try to fit 1 type of tank (either shield or armor) to match the logi that is coming along on the fleet, but for noobs on patrol and other beginner fleets it is not as much of a concern as we often do not have logi. Most Caldari ships shield tank, Gallente and Amar Armor tank, and Minmatar often can do either.

Shield

Shield tanks use shield extenders (often more than 1), and active resist modules, to add EHP. Getting shield skills to 3 is generally enough to get started, but you will want to train to 4 as soon as you can so you can fit a Tech II tank. The resist bonus skills only apply to passive modules, and are often ignored because of this, so leave them for now. The important skills are:

• Shield Management: Adds 5% per level to the amount of shields on your ship.
• Shield Upgrades - Allows use of shield extenders and passive resist modules. 5% less powergrid for shield upgrade modules.
• Tactical Shield Manipulation - Reduces chance of damage bleeding through to armor when shields are low. Allows use of shield hardeners.

Armor

Armor tanks use Armor Plates for more HP and either Energised Plating or Resistance Platings to add Resists. There is also layered plating to add a % boost to HP, which is usually only worth fitting to larger ships. Armor resist bonus modules are more often trained, as they apply to the most commonly used armor resist modules. Armor modules will slow you down slightly and make your ship less agile, so dont fit plates that are too large or it may slow you too much to be effective. Again getting to 3 in Hull upgrades is probably enough to start, but aim to get to 4 and get the other skills as soon as you can. The important skills are:

• Hull Upgrades - 5% per level to armor hit points. Requirement for fitting most of the armor modules.
• Armor Layering - 5% less mass penalty per level for armor plates, means you don't get slowed down as much.
• EM Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to EM resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings
• Explosive Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to Explosive resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings
• Kinetic Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to Kinetic resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings
• Thermic Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to Thermic resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings

Capacitor

In eve Cap is life. Building your capacitor skills is vital for any pilot type, cap lets you run further when you warp, lets you use active modules for longer, and generally keeps you alive. Projectile and Missile ships tend to be at least a little less cap dependent, as you can at least DPS once your cap runs out, but even they want to have some cap for repairs, propulsion, and other active modules you will run. I would suggest getting the basic cap skills to at least 3, and the cap skills for any modules you intend to use a lot (if they exist) to the same. Warp drive operation is important to cap as you want to not be drained more significantly when you arrive at an engagement, so even for short jumps using less cap for the jump is a positive for a pvp fleet.

The most important skills for cap are:

• Capacitor Management: 5% bonus to capacitor capacity per skill level.
• Capacitor Systems operation: 5% reduction in capacitor recharge time per skill level, required for cap boosters.
• Warp Drive Operation: 10% reduction per level in capacitor use when initiating warp
• Energy Grid Upgrades: Required for the use of most capacitor modules, 5% reduction in CPU needs of modules requiring Energy Grid Upgrades per skill level.

Navigation & Propulsion

Getting the basic navigation skills to at least 3 will make you far more able to move around in space, which makes you harder to hit, and makes it easier to get away when and if you need to. The basic Navigation skills are:

• Navigation: Skill at regulating the power output of ship thrusters. 5% bonus to sub-warp ship velocity per skill level.
• Evasive Maneuvering: Improved skill at efficiently turning and accelerating a spaceship. 5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.
• Spaceship Command: The basic operation of spaceships. 2% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.
• Warp Drive Operation: Each skill level reduces the capacitor need of initiating warp by 10%. Means you can make long jumps in 1 hop rather than capping out.

Everyone who flies a PvP ship should also be able to fit at least an AB, and have the cap to use it. Microwarpdrives are very useful when they are called for, but for many ship fits the increase to signature radius will get you killed, and MWD uses a lot more cap, and reduces your overall cap available, so only fit an MWD when you know you should be using it and need to have the extra speed. The important skills are:

• Afterburner - 5% reduction to Afterburner duration and 10% reduction in Afterburner capacitor use per skill level, Required to fit AB.
• Fuel Conservation - Improved control over afterburner energy consumption. 10% reduction in afterburner capacitor needs per skill level.
• High Speed Maneuvering - Skill at using MicroWarpdrives. 5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level, Required to fit MWD.
• Acceleration Control - 5% Bonus to Afterburner and MicroWarpdrive speed boost per skill level.

Leadership

Leadership skills are about providing bonuses to your squad/wing/fleet mates. The leadership skills are not needed to be in a role as SC/WC/FC (Squad/Wing/Fleet Commander), but if you don't have the skill to a large enough level to command the squad/wing/fleet size you are in charge of they will not get boosts from your level of leadership or any higher levels. As such leadership skills are something that you will not need to start out, but once you have the time to train them they can make you more useful in a fleet as having more Squad Commanders, Wing Commanders and Fleet Commanders who can pass on boosts is very useful. It is generally considered to be best to train the Leadership (for SC) to 5 and then WC to 3 first, as it is more important to be able to pass on bonuses than to grant them yourself, as only the best of the squad/wing/fleet booster is passed on. The skills for PvP are as follows:

• Leadership: Allows command of a squad of size up to 2 members per skill level, up to a maximum of 10 members. 2% bonus to fleet members' targeting speed per skill level.
• Wing Command: Allows command of a Wing up to operate 1 Squadron per skill level, up to a maximum of 5 Squadrons.
• Fleet Command: Allows command of a fleet of up 1 Wing per skill level, up to a maximum of 5 Wings.
• Armored Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' armor hit points per skill level.
• Information Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' targeting range per skill level.
• Siege Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' shield capacity per skill level.
• Skirmish Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' agility per skill level.

Roles in PvP Fleets

When you build a ship for a PvP fleet, you should have a role in mind, and you should fit first to fulfill that role as well as you can (including fitting tank etc to make sure you survive to do what you are doing), then fit other things around it to do a bit of something else. The general roles are listed below, the skills that are important are listed so you know what is important to train. Like with fitting, always train first to fulfill your role, then to do other things. You will be a better asset if you are able to do your role well than if you are able to everything a little bit. That being said, everyone should have at least some basic gun skills to apply a little DD, and a DD pilots will often fit 1 or 2 modules that do something else to add a little depth to a fleet.

Tackle

Tackling is the art of using points (Warp Disruptors) and Scrams (Warp Scramblers) to stop targets warping away from a fight and webs to slow them down. You should make sure you fit some tank, and some weapons, but your first priority should be to be able to lock your targets and then hold them in place for the DD to kill. Hero tackle refers to using a basic frigate to run in, and apply a point (and usually a web, occasionally ECM instead of Webs) to a target. Tackle Frigates are usually the first to be targeted by the guys you are shooting, as they will go down quickly and are what is keeping them from getting away from the damage. Flying a hero tackle you can expect to be hit a lot and to lose some ships (you won't always lose your ship but expect it to happen often). This is not the end of the world as relatively speaking Tackle Frigates are cheap to fit. Heavy tackle refers to cruiser and larger tackle ships, which come in after the Heroes have got a target on the ground to keep them there if the Frigates do get killed. This is one of the most common entry points to PvP, and even the largest Null Sec Alliances generally can use some hero tackles, so it can be a good skill to learn. Fast tackle generally is used to refer to interceptors (and occasionally speed fitted Assault Frigates) that can get in even faster than a basic frigate and can usually stay alive longer due to the better tanks and speed in tech 2 ships. While there is only really 1 skill for tackling itself, all tacklers should make sure their targeting is up to snuff, you need to target something fast enough to tackle before it can get away, and being able to fit an MWD is highly encouraged to allow you to close to your targets fast.

The important skills for tackling are:

• Propulsion Jamming -- 5% Reduction to warp scrambler and stasis web capacitor need per skill level, required for points, scrams and webs.

Damage Dealer(DD)

Damage Dealer (DD) ships focus on fitting guns, and modules that make their guns hit harder, reach further, and track better. A good Heavy DD fit will usually also include some targeting modules to ensure that you can lock smaller ships in a reasonable amount of time, and of course a tank. Most fleets only consider a ship useful as dedicated DD if the ship is a destroyer or larger, although there are exceptions, because most basic frigates don't have the high slots, or the turret/launcher slots, to fit a large weapon load out. You will need to focus on your gun skills, and the skill supporting these. It is worth noting that it is generally considered to be better to fit for Turrets than for Missiles, as the delay in missiles reaching the target reduces your effective DPS, both because you need to wait before your DPS is applied, and because you will have volleys in space when something blows up which will also be wasted. These drawbacks of missiles usually mean although they may have higher paper DPS they have far worse applied DPS except in certain specific circumstances. If your chosen weapons are Projectiles or Missiles you can ignore controlled bursts, as these weapons don't use cap, but make sure you train the other gunnery support skills up as soon as possible. Also remember if you can fit a point, or some ECM in a spare mid-slot, or can fit fit a neut or nos in a high slot you can make yourself more useful and add depth to the fleet by providing some back up for the Tackle and EWar pilots.

The important skills for Turret DD pilots are:

• <Racial Ship Skills>: Give you bonuses for each ship type, usually a damage bonus and something else.
• <Racial Small/Medium Guns>: Gives you bonus damage for the gun type, at 5 you can train skills to fit tech 2 guns.
• Gunnery: 2% Bonus to weapon turrets' rate of fire per skill level.
• Motion Prediction: 5% bonus per skill level to weapon turret tracking speeds.
• Rapid fire: 4% bonus per skill level to weapon turret rate of fire.
• Sharpshooter: 5% bonus to weapon turret optimal range per skill level.
• Surgical Strike: 3% bonus per skill level to the damage of all weapon turrets.
• Trajectory Analysis: 5% bonus per skill level to weapon turret accuracy falloff.
• Controlled Bursts: 5% reduction in capacitor need of weapon turrets per skill level (only needed for Hybrids and Lasers)

The important skills if you want to go for Missile DPS are:

• <Racial Ship Skills>: Give you bonuses for each ship type, usually a damage bonus and something else, Required at 5 before you can train T2 Missiles&Launchars
• <Missile Type Skill>: 5% Bonus to light missile damage per skill level, Required at 5 before you can train to use T2 Missiles.
• Missile Launcher Operation: 2% Bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per skill level.
• Missile Projection: 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum velocity per level.
• Rapid Launch: 3% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level.
• Target Navigation Prediction: 10% decrease per level in factor of target's velocity for all missiles.
• Warhead Upgrades: 2% bonus to all missile damage per skill level.

E-War

There are four types of E-War, ECM, Sensor Dampening (Damps), Tracking Disruption and Target Painters (TP). Generally they all have their advantages and disadvantages, although the usual wisdom is that due to how situational the usefulness of TP can be, it is usually not a good option for a kitchen sink fleet like NOS. ECM has a percentage chance of completely jamming the targets sensors, making them unable to target and therefore completely neutralizing them. Sensor Dampening reduces the max targeting range of a target, and also reduces their scan resolution, meaning they will have to get closer to target you and take longer to lock targets when they do. Tracking Disruption reduces your target's tracking speed and optimal range to make them hit less. Target painters increase your target's signature radius, while this is useful in some doctrine fleets, a lot of the time the effect of this will be negligible, so it is often not worth having a TP ship in a kitchen sink fleet. ECM Burst is an AOE ECM attack, this should not be used in fleets outside Null Sec, as accidentally hitting gate guns or other ships can lead to concordokken. Capacitor Neutralizers (Neut) or Energy Vampire (NOS) high slot modules are also considered to be E-War modules, these modules reduce enemy capacitor reserves, a NOS also recharges your CAP, although takes less away from your opponent.

ECM

ECM has a chance of completely blocking someone's ability to target anything. It is specific to the type of sensors a ship uses, gravimetric for Caldari, Guristas & Mordus Legion, ladar for Minmatar and Angel ships, magnetometric for Gallente, Serpentis, ORE and SOE ships, and radar for Amarr, Blood Raider and Shansas. The Modules are color coded to match the show info window, Gold for radar, Blue for Magentometric, Grey for Magentometric, and Rust coloured for Ladar. There are also the "Rainbow" universal ECM jammers, which affect all 4 slightly more weakly than the specifics. Generally most pilots will run a rainbow module. The chance of ECM working is based on your jammer strength, and the strength of the target's sensors, multiple jammers will increase your chance by stacking penalties do apply, so it is usually not worth focusing more than a few ECMs on one target.

ECM is the most effective E-War when it works, but it is not guaranteed so in some circumstances other ECM types will be better.

Discuss skills for ECM

Discuss why not to use ECM burst when starting out

Tracking Disruption

Discuss Tracking disruptors and their uses, and what skills to train to use them

Sensor Dampening

Discuss Damps and their uses, and training into them

Target Painters

Discuss TP and it's uses, why it is so situational, and training for it.

Neuts

Discuss capacitor Neutralizing and its uses, and how to train/fit for it.

Logistics

Logistics (Logi) ships are the space priests, it is all about healing your fleet mates, and restoring their cap, so they can fight longer and do more. I have not done logi, so don't know as much about it, but from what I have been told the entry level skills are just to have the appropriate remote repair skill to 3, and capacitor skills to allow you to logi for longer. I would suggest if you want to logi you should get your cap skills to a higher level than most pilot types, as repairers use more cap than even lazors, so you can cap out a lot more easily than other ships, and a lot more entry level logi ship fits I have seen use cap boosters rather than rechargers to try to max your cap recharge and allow you to heal more.

Scouts

Scouts are the people who range ahead of, and follow behind, the fleets to let us know what is out there for us to hit, or that is going to hit us. A good scout (or three) is important for every fleet. I honestly don't know enough about scouting to tell you much about how to do it, it involves going places, seeing what is there, using DScan, combat probes and sometimes just jumping from place to place, to find what is in system and where. Genuine scouts will always be in cloaked ships, usually cov-ops frigates, as a scout should not be engaging enemies, or be able to be found to be engaged. I hope someone writes something more comprehensive here about scout skills and how it is done, but this is about as much as I know so will have to do for now.