Scouting: Difference between revisions

The scout is the eyes and ears of a fleet. Without them, fleets would get surprised and destroyed by enemy forces much more often, and they would have a hard time hunting down a good fight.

Anyone can scout. Your first day in EVE, you can undock a frigate and scout for a fleet. There are ships which are better, or even essential, for some particular kinds of scouting, such as interceptors or covops ships, but for basic fleet scouting, all you need is the ability to fly a ship, some basic know-how, and the ability to use a few tools linked in this article.

Since scouts are a fleet role, it is important to familiarize yourself with fleet operations beforehand. Read through the [[The_Rookie's_Guide_To_Fleet_Ops | Rookie's Guide to Fleet Ops]] and that will get you started.

There are two basic types of scout mission: route security and hunting. Route security simply means making sure the fleet's planned route of travel is free of hostile forces that should be avoided and preventing anyone from surprising the fleet. Hunting means finding good fights for the fleet. All scouts provide route security, all the time, on every operation. If the fleet is looking for a fight, scouts are also responsible for hunting down a good fight for the fleet.

Pickets are the simplest (and most boring) of scout jobs, and some pilots do not consider it scouting at all. The picket's job is usually to sit at a gate and report specific types of ships coming into the system a fleet is operating in, or a nearby system. For example, incursion fleets use pickets to warn them of war targets. If all you are watching for is war targets, you can actually do this docked up safe in a station, since you can see them enter local. However, sitting 200 km + off a gate cloaked up is good, and allows you to report the details of ships coming into system.

+1s move one jump ahead of a the fleet to provide intel to the FC. If the fleet is simply traveling to a destination, then the scout's job is route security. You fly one jump ahead and warn the FC of war targets, gate camps, and any other possible dangers. In low-sec or null-sec space, individual ships may ask for a +1 to guide them into or out of dangerous areas.

When jumping into a new system, hold your cloak and immediately check three things. Check the grid on your overview for ships that might pose a threat to the fleet. Check local for war targets, flashy targets, criminals, etc. Finally, check D-Scan for ships sitting off grid. Report anything that might be a threat to the FC.

If the mission is finding good fights and there are other pilots in local, then the +1 will check out mission sites and asteroid belts with D-Scan to see if there are appropriate targets available.  

Why move one jump ahead? If a fleet jumps into a system, it spikes local and everyone in the system will know a fleet has come in. That puts everyone on alert. The scout moves in alone so as to not alarm anyone in the system. The fleet doesn't move into the system until the scout finds a good fight or the scout and FC determine that there is nothing interesting and the fleet will move through.

Good ships for the +1 role are tackle frigates. When you can fly them, interceptors and covops ships are usually better.

Hero tackle is an add-on role. Hero tackles are scouts already performing one of the other scout roles who find a target the FC wants to fight. With FC approval, and when the fleet is ready to jump into the scout's system, the hero tackle drops in on the target and tackles it in an attempt to hold it in place until the fleet can arrive to kill it. It is essential to communicate with the FC what is happening and to time the tackle to just before the fleet jumps into system. Have your fleet warp to you. Be mindful of the affects of mission sites; the fleet may have to warp to an acceleration gate first. Hero tackles often get blown up (hence the "hero" part), so interceptors and covops ships are not generally used for this purpose. Before you try to do this, [[Tackling_Guide | read up on tackling]] and practice a bit with a fellow corpmate.

'''-1s''' follow one jump behind a fleet to protect it from forces stalking the fleet and enemy scouts. -1s are not commonly used, but there are cases when the FC suspects the fleet is being followed or there is a high danger of war targets attacking. -1s need to pay attention to local and notice any pilots who seem to be following the fleet. -1s generally do not report unless they find or suspect they have found someone following the fleet.

'''T1 Ships''': Each race has a T1 frigate bonused for speed and tackling. These are usually the best T1 ships for scouting. Amarr: [[Executioner]]. Caldari: [[Condor]]. Gallente: [[Atron]]. Minmatar: [[Slasher]].

'''T2 Ships -- Interceptors''': Interceptors are T2 versions of the T1 tackle frigates. They keep the tackling bonus and are much faster. They are immune to bubbles, which is important in null-sec scouting. Each race has two versions of the interceptor, and one of them has additional tackling bonuses, which usually makes them the better scout interceptor. That said, interceptors are expensive, so you should think twice before using yours as a hero tackle. Amarr: [[Malediction]]. Caldari: [[Crow]]. Gallente: [[Ares]]. Minmatar: [[Stiletto]].

'''T2 Ships -- Covops''': Covert Operations ships are frigates that can fit a Covert Operations Cloaking Device, a T2 module that allows the ship full maneuverability while cloaked, including warping. Cloaked ships do not show up on D-Scan, which allows them to sneak up on other ships. In addition, each race has one version of a Covops ship which is the T2 version of their exploration frigate. These ships can use combat scanning probes to find ships and provide a warp-in to them. All of these abilities make the Covops ship an excellent choice for fleet scouts. However, Covops ships are somewhat fragile, so you should avoid using them for hero tackling.