Roles in Incursions

The information presented here represents how we do things in the EVE University Incursion Community. It does not represent the best or only way to run Incursions. We make some compromises when it comes to efficiency for the sake of additional safety to create an environment where anyone can step up and learn a new role.

Main roles for Incursions

Below are the main roles for incursions, damage dealers and logistics, what their functions are and what you can do to improve them. The finer details on more specific roles are covered in the next section.

The suggested skills are listed in order of importance, from the skills having the most impact on your efficiency on top, to those that help but are less critical at the bottom. See minimum skills for more information about what skills you're expected to train.

Damage dealers

By spreading webs the fleet won't end up putting all webs on a single target, while still having more than one web on a target.

Primary function:

• Doing damage.
• Supply the dronebunny with combat drones.
• Applying webs.

Secondary functions:

• Backup capacitor transmitters (formerly known as energy transfers) and remote shield boosters (formerly known as shield transporters) if your ship has utility highslots.
• Backup logistic drones.
• Target painting.

Ways to improve

Skills:

• Tech two weaponry (increase your damage projection).
• Ship or subsystem skills (most ships have combat-related bonuses tied to the hull bonus).
• Gunnery support skills (increase your overall efficiency through increased tracking, range and damage).
• Target Management and Advanced Target Management (to be able to lock up more targets).
• Drone skills for tech two drones (increase drone damage) and maintenance bots (as backup).
• Cybernetics to be able to use implants to improve performance.
• (Optional) In some extreme cases Biology is trained to increase the duration of drugs.
• See honing your skills for more information.

Ships & modules:

• Trade in your old ship for a better one (look for ships with two damage bonuses).
• Upgrade tech two damage and utility mods to faction mods (improve efficiency).

Gameplay:

• Listen to the fleet commander and target caller (follow tags and target calls).
• Lock up all primary and secondary targets as you land on grid (figure out order after).
• Set your drones to assist the dronebunny as quickly as possible, they usually type "DDD" when ready. This can often be done while you're waiting for the locks to land.
  • Make sure your drones are properly set to assist the dronebunny (hover over them in the drone window, says "assisting" in addition to whether they are idle or fighting something).
  • Let the dronebunny know if your drones are idle (ask them to cycle guns).
• Improving your applied damage.
  • Keep pre-locking targets throughout the site (always have max number of enemies locked). This way you'll be able to have incoming locks filling up your maximum locks all the time and never have to wait for targets to lock before shooting.
  • If you're unable to shoot the primary target due to range, shoot the next best thing until the primary target gets into range.
  • Add the "Angular velocity" columns to your overview. This value won't take into consideration the signature of the Sansha, but it will show you what targets are easier to hit (the ones with a lower angular velocity). So if you don't have tags to follow and the commander calls for Niarjas and Tamas first, you can kill the Niarjas in order of angular velocity, then the Tamas in order of angular velocity. This will result in much better applied dps.
    • This is especially useful in "free fire" mode when you're supposed to shoot all the remaining ships and you have no tags, just shoot them in order of how easy they are to hit for greater efficiency.
  • When the Sansha rats spawn at a distance, they'll use their microwarpdrives to burn straight at you until they hit their preferred orbit. If you can lock them fast enough while they are doing so, you'll have a ship with a blown up signature and no transversal (very easy to hit even for battleships).
  • Note that the best targets to shoot might not necessarily coincide with the targets you're webbing. Sometimes it's more ideal to web something else, which means you'll have a different set of targets for shooting and webbing.
• Improving your usage of target painters:
  • Generally target paint what you shoot, we normally don't have enough painters to worry about spreading them around. The same goes if you only have one web, put it on the target you're shooting.
• Improving your usage of webs:
  • A simple but surprisingly effective method of utilizing your webs is just to put your web on whatever you're shooting. If you have multiple webs, spread them out on the secondary and tertiary targets. That way they are slowed down before you start shooting them and you'll land much better hits on them.
  • A more advanced method is to add the "Velocity" column to your overview and web the primary targets that aren't slowed down yet. This requires a lot more from the pilot, but will improve the damage output of the entire fleet better, as no webs are being wasted on already webbed down targets.
    • There's one exception to this, the Schameels and Renyns are much harder to hit and benefit from being double-webbed even by Vindicators.
  • You can also keep an eye on whatever target the drones are shooting at and apply your webs on that.
  • Either way, an unused module is a wasted module, so make sure yours is put to use.

Logistics

Primary function:

• Keeping the fleet alive with repairs and logistic drones.

Secondary functions:

• Capacitor transmitters if required (Basilisks and Guardians).
• Adding utility through remote sensor boosters or remote tracking computers.

Ways to improve

Skills:

• Logistics Cruisers V (to be able to fit 5/1 instead of 4/2, use more utility midslots etc).
• Support skills like Shield Emission Systems, Remote Armor Repair Systems, cap skills).
• Utility skills like Capacitor Emission Systems if you use capacitor transmitters, Sensor Linking if you use remote tracking computers.
• Droneskills (to be able to use light and medium tech two maintenance bots).

Modules:

• Upgrade to tech two remote shield boosters or armour repairs.
• Upgrade to tech two remote tracking computers and sensor boosters, perhaps even faction variants if you feel comfortable with the cost.
• Swapping capacitor power relays for power diagnostic systems is an option if you end up with excess cap. That way the excess cap can be turned into a little more shield and powergrid.
• Consider faction power diagnostic system modules, they have increased powergrid bonuses and shield hit point bonuses.

Gameplay:

• As soon as you enter a site, start orbiting the beacon that sits in the middle of the fleet (for vanguards; note that the beacon may not be visible if you use a custom Overview-setup), or the anchor (assaults and up).
  • For vanguards, set a manual orbit range of 4,000 m - 4,500 m so that you orbit just outside the cluster of friendly ships. Have your afterburner on, if you have it.
    • With this orbit you won't risk bumping your fellow fleet members.
    • You'll be close enough to the fleet's emergency remote shield boosters and capacitor transmitters.
    • If the enemies orbit you, they will only marginally be pushed out a little further in their far orbit, instead of potentially being pushed out several kilometers away from the fleet and outside web range, which would be the case if you set your orbit too wide.
  • For assaults and up you can allow yourself some further range, up to 7,500 - 10,000 m orbits to take full advantage of your speed.
• Keep in mind some people might call capacitor transmitters (CT) "energy transfers" or "ET" for short, as that was the name of those modules prior to the Odyssey expansion.
• Remember that your ship warps much faster than battleships, so remain stationary when you land on gates, don't align with the battleships. Just remember to align with the rest of the fleet when leaving the site.
• Make sure your logi buddy is always next to you landing on a gate, or arriving on a site.
  • Immediately let the fleet know if, for whatever reason, you'll be late on grid. Whatever you do, do not wait and see if you get stuck or not. Every second counts to get maintenance bots out and get emergency capacitor transmitters in place.
  • Similarly, if you don't see your logi buddy on grid, call out on mumble right away. Don't wait and see what happens. Get confirmation that the other logi is coming.
• Always prioritize your fellow logistics before anything else when repairing. If a logistics ship goes down, the entire fleet risk going down.
• On Guardians and Baslisks, even without incoming capacitor transmitters you have enough cap to run one remote shield booster or armour repairer indefinitely, possibly two pending on your skills. Remember that.
• If the one taking primary aggro is taking damage rapidly as you land on site, put one or two reppers on them before sorting out the capacitor transmitter chain (then apply the rest of your reppers if needed).
• Pre-lock everyone in Vanguards (Advanced Target Management III allows you to lock all 10 members).
• Locking from the watch list is incredibly fast and efficient using CTRL + LMB.
• Have your fleet members on your overview, so you can see if you have members in the fleet that you haven't locked up (the icon will tell if it's a locked fleet member or not).
• Use only as many reppers as you need, don't over-repair because then you'll be too slow to respond to shifting aggro.
  • Make sure you use enough reps to initially fully repair all damage taken, stagger the reps if you have time.
  • Once the reps are under control, start taking reps off if they are no longer needed, but continue to fully repair all damage. This will allow you to quickly change repair focus without leaving your former recipient with unrepaired damage.
  • Drop reps at the end of each wave, don't tie them up on someone who isn't taking damage anymore. This helps to avoid pulling aggro from the new wave as well.
• If you are jammed, always call out "<name> jammed, CT down" (leave out the CT down part if you don't have one).
• Keep an eye on the jamming icon over your hud-display, you're not always jammed until all Niarjas are dead, sometimes it's only one of them who are jamming you and you get unjammed long before all Niarjas are down.
• Always turn off your capacitor transmitters if your energy transfer buddy is jammed and pending on the situation request backup cap from your damage dealers.
• Keep the capacitor transmitters up and let them drop automatically when the fleet warps out of the site (that way you and the recipient will drop at the same time and neither will risk capping out).
• Pay attention to the watch list and your locked fleet members. You should be able to spot incoming damage even without broadcasts. Remind people who take damage to broadcast for repairs (if possible, hold off reps until they do so they learn ... but don't risk the safety of the fleet).

Specific roles

Below are roles you should assign to different people. By delegating these roles everyone will be able to focus on their role without being distracted. These roles and definitions are based on how we run incursions within the EVE University Incursion Community and may not reflect that of public communities.

Anchor

This role is only for moving fleet, so usually assaults and up and not for vanguards.

Primary function:

• Carry out your basic role in the fleet.
• Be the point of orbit for the fleet.
• Move into a specific position for sites and/or waves.

Requirements:

• Anyone can fill this role, preferably non-logi.

Ways to improve

Gameplay:

• Some fleets will have a single anchor, usually called "AAA" while other fleets might have additional anchors, separating them into sniper anchors called "AAA" and brawler anchors called "VVV" (based on the popular use of Vindicators as brawlers).
• Learn where to go so you can move on your own, but always check your current fleet commander's preference.
  • It helps to post "AAA" or "VVV" in fleet at the start of the site or when you start moving after having stood still for a while. That way you remind people who the anchor is and that you're moving.
  • For "VVV" brawling anchors, it helps to call the number of cycles you burn on coms.
  • Adjust your speed so as not to outrun the fleet if you're in a fast ship.
• If you see someone not following you, call them out and get them moving.

Dronebunny

Primary function:

• Carry out your basic role as a damage dealer.
• Direct all combat drones on the field (maintenance drones cannot be set to assisted).

Requirements:

• Any non-logi can fill this role.

Ways to improve

Previous recommendations for damage dealers apply to the dronebunny as well. Being the dronebunny doesn't mean you should sacrifice your regular damage dealing capabilities.

Ships & modules:

• Never down-ship or compromise your ship's combat effectiveness in an attempt to be a better dronebunny (the ongrid booster is a good choice for dronebunny).

Gameplay:

• In vanguards you'll only have one dronebunny, but in assaults and headquarter sites you'll need to use multiple dronebunnies. It is common for a normal dronebunny to be called "DDD" while the dronebunny handling heavy drones is often called "HHH".
  • Post "DDD" or "HHH" in fleet chat when it's time for people to launch their drones and assist them to you.
  • In Override Transfer Arrays you should wait until all the eysturs have spawned before you call it. Perhaps even call out on mumble when it's time, since you delay in launching drones for that site.
  • In the other sites, just post "DDD" or "HHH" when you land on grid and start locking things up (not before, as you cannot assist drones to someone who isn't on grid).
• Pay attention to the fleet commander's target calls (they sometimes ask the dronebunny to hit separate targets). The order is situational, see utilizing drones and flexible dronebunny for more information.
• Try to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the drones you command.
  • Use webs to increase the damage potential up close, target painters at range.
  • Group your weapons and stagger them if your cycle time isn't fast enough, or simply leave one gun ungrouped to turn on and off to re-focus drones.
  • Keep in mind the drone control range, so if there's room for selective targeting pick the ones closer to the fleet to avoid problems.
  • When you have several tagged targets it could help to work in reverse order so the drones stay on a single target for as long as possible, reducing the time they fly between targets. This increases their time firing and thus their effectiveness.
• Keep an eye on idle drones.
  • Assisted drones react to any offensive module being activated (turrets, launchers, webs, painters etc). So turn off and on your weapons a few times at the start of a site, to catch drones assisted to you after you last activated an offensive module.
  • Remember that not everyone has the same drone control range, so turn off and on weapons as enemies approach if you started shooting at a distance (most will have around 45km while some can have up to 60km drone control range).
  • Showing drone brackets in space is an easy way to keep an eye on drones. If you have a cluster of drones sitting still near fleet members, those are probably unassisted. Speak up in Mumble if you still see idle drones after recycling your weapons to catch newly assisted ones.
• Don't forget to manually control your own drones (or assist them to another damage dealer), they will not automatically follow you since you're the dronebunny.

Fleet Commander

Primary function:

• Carry out your basic role (preferably a damage dealer).
• Keeping it all together.
• Making sure all roles are filled.
• Be the single voice of command when needed.

Requirements:

• A working mic.
• Fairly good at multitasking.
• Knowledgeable about Incursions (or have a backup who is, if you're in training).
• Decisive (be able to make a decision, not necessarily the best, in any kind of timely fashion).

Ways to improve

• Delegate what you don't need to do yourself, so you can focus on the rest.
• Be proactive to prevent things from spiralling out of control.
• Be decisive, make clear commands and target calls.
• Repeat important commands.
• Require confirmation for separate commands (like ore runner, specific drone targets etc).
• Always know your fleet composition (engagement range, emergency energy transfers and maintenance drones, boosts, etc.) so you can make educated decisions.
• Know your enemy (differences between the NPCs, what they can do, what danger they pose).
• Some ships are easier to hit than others (signature, resists, speed and prefered orbit). Tamas for example as much easier to hit than Schmaeels, Renyns and Eysturs. Romis, while having higher resists, are easier to hit than the close orbiting Augas, but at the same time the Augas come closer and if sufficiently webbed can be taken down much faster.
• Decide whether you want to reduce the DPS as soon as possible or if you'd rather want each ship to fire at the most suitable ship in order to be as effective as possible in the long run.
• Don't forget the broadcast target functionality for when you want people to focus on a specific target with short notice or out of sequence. It is usually faster and easier to do it like that, instead of (re)tagging.
  • A good example of that is the Slave or Citizen NPC in the last wave of the assault-site Nation Commander Stronghold.
• For a more comprehensive guide to leading an incursion fleet, see Anatomy of Incursions.

Hacker/Scout

Not all communities use dedicated hacker/scouts, to avoid having more people than necessary in their fleets. But for us it's an excellent excuse to incorporate more people into our fleets, especially low skilled pilots who are still training. It also allows our logistics to focus solely on providing remote assistance instead of wasting valuable midslots on hacking modules.

Primary function:

• Find empty sites and broadcast them for the fleet before they finish their current site.
• Hack the logistics tower in the Override Transfer Array sites.

Requirements:

• Knowing how to use the onboard directional scanner.
• Data Analyzer I (or II) and a Microwarpdrive fitted (minimum skills required)

Ways to improve

Skills:

• Train Hacking to IV or V (to improve Virus Coherence and enable the use of Data Analyzer II at Hacking V).

Ships & modules:

• While you need a Data Analyzer I (to start the hacking minigame, see hacking in OTA for details), you should use a Data Analyzer II if you can (more Virus Strength simplifies the minigame by a lot).
• Fitting 2x Small Memetic Algorithm Bank I in your rig slots is a cost efficient way to gain 20 Virus Coherence.
• You gain very little by excessively fitting a hacker/scout, use a cheap Exploration Frigate like the Heron.

Scout gameplay:

• Remember that scouting is done from outside the actual site, by scanning where the beacon and acceleration gate is. You only go into the actual sites when you perform the hack, see Hacking gameplay below.
• Bounce between sites and actively use your directional scanner, often referred to as "d-scan", to scan down the sites to see if they are available.
  • A convenient setup is to set your distance to 100 000 - 200 000 km and 360 degrees angle. This will allow you to scan down even the larger multi-room headquarter sites without risking overlap with nearby objects or sites.
  • Be sure to check the "All" box or use an overview tab with ships and wrecks visible.
  • With this setup, ships on the directional scanner means there's either a fleet inside or one just about to land on the beacon. If there are wrecks on the scan, that means at least some of the Sansha has been killed already.
  • While the beacon disappears when a site is finished, the gate always remain. So if you see wrecks but no ships on a site, double-check the beacon.
    • No beacon - Regardless of what your directional scanner says the site is gone, move on.
    • Wrecks but no ships - If the beacon is still there the site isn't finished, so go ahead and take it.
    • Ships but no wrecks - They just started, ask the fleet commander about competing, otherwise move on.
• Once you've scanned a site, either sit on it if it's available or go find a new one if it's taken (or gets taken).
  • Should someone show up and take the site before your fleet arrives, or if it's taken already, simply tag the beacon with an "X" and go find another site.
  • When your fleet arrives and starts the site, tag the beacon with a "Z" to distinguish it from sites taken by another fleet, then either hack the site before finding a new one or scurry off right away if no hacking is necessary.
  • Tagging serves as a way for you to identifying taken sites, making life much easier for you as a scout.
    • There's no point tagging a site as available, as that can change over time.
    • What tags you use has little consequence, but since we sometimes use letters to tag sniper targets (starting with A) it's best to use tags in reverse alphabetical order, like "X", "Y" or "Z". Also remember to tag while you're sitting on the beacons, as you cannot tag something at a distance.
  • You can also use the tags to optimize the way you pick new sites.
    • You can pick sites closer to where the fleet is, to minimize the warp time between sites. You can also help avoid competitions by staying as far away as possible from competing fleets, picking sites they are less likely to take.
• If you run across another fleet, report the fleet composition to the fleet commander. That way he knows what he's up against and can make better decisions on what sites to prioritize, whether to actively seek out competitions, among other things.

Hacking gameplay:

• Wait until the fleet has taken the site and engaged before activating the gate, then as soon as you land in the pocket start burning to the tower and hack it.
  • The fleet commander can tell you when to come in, or you could wait for the logistics pilots to jump into the site before taking the gate from a stand-still.
  • Remember to turn off the microwarpdrive once you reach the tower (usually one cycle is enough). Right-clicking your microwarpdrive and selecting the option "Set auto-repeat off" is a good way to make sure you only run one cycle of the microwarpdrive, thus avoiding capping out before you can finish hacking the tower.
• The control tower to hack will be available as an interactive object (much like a mission container) in a repeating clockwise-pattern starting with the left-most tower. See the hacking portion of the Override Transfer Array page for more information.
  • Completing the hack adds a graphical glow on the remote logistics station and a popup saying "Local Sansha logistics systems subverted. Hostile logistics disabled."
  • Warp out as soon as you've hacked the tower to avoid being targeted by the next wave.
• The hack lasts for about six minutes and is usually more than enough for a decent fleet to finish the site. Fly back to the gate in case the fleet isn't fast enough to finish the site before the tower becomes functional again. Otherwise proceed and scout for the next site.
• This role isn't paid by game mechanics, but rely on manual payouts to be compensated for their work.

Ongrid booster

While it's certainly possible to run Incursions without ongrid boosters, it's slower, more dangerous and downright inconvenient to do so. See running without ongrid boosts for more information about how things change without boosts.

Primary function:

• Provide the fleet with command burst bonuses.

Secondary function:

• Carry out your basic damage dealer role in the fleet.
• Applying webs.
• Applying target painters.

Requirements:

• Minmatar Command Ship (preferably the Sleipnir).
• Command Ships IV (for the command burst strength).
• Republic Fleet Command Mindlink implant (requires Cybernetics V)).
• 4 command burst links (2 skirmish + 2 shield).
• See the vanguard incursion fits page for the specific fit we use and the ongrid boosts section on Anatomy of Incursions for more details.

Ways to improve

Skills:

• Train Command Ships V.
• Improve your gunnery skills.

Ships & Modules:.

• Upgrade tech two damage and utility mods to faction mods (improve efficiency).

Gameplay:

• Ensure that boosts are active.
  • Stop your command burst at the end of the site, so you can be ready to manually turn them back on as you land on the next gate. That way you'll ensure everyone have fresh boosts starting the site. Call out "Boosts are good!" after you've verified that the boosts hit everyone in fleet (you get a message saying how many fleet members it affected).
  • Coordinate with the fleet commander when people come ongrid late, so you can stop and be ready to apply the boosts again once they are ongrid and locked. Just be sure not to wait too long, leaving the rest of the fleet without boosts.
• Combines well with the role of dronebunny.

Ore runner

Primary function:

• Carry out your primary role (usually a logistics).
• Run the ore in Nation Mining Colony sites.

Requirements:

• 306 m3 room in your cargo hold for the Lyavite (255 units).
• Able to fullfill their role while moving 50km+ away from the fleet (no unbonused energy transfers with 9km range to or from you).

Ways to improve

• Make sure your stack is exactly 255 units of Lyavite, no more, no less.
• Fit an afterburner or a microwarpdrive (the faster you are, the better).
  • The logistics fits we use in our community have afterburners for this purpose, which is enough.
  • You can also fit a microwarpdrive on one of your regular damage dealer battleships and have them run the ore (not used in our community).
• Make sure that you always have a stack of ore in your cargo hold (ask others to drop a new stack for you at the beginning of a site).
• Start running the ore according to your speed and how fast the fleet completes the site.
  • Ideally a logistics ship with an afterburner is used and then you can start moving after initial aggro in the last wave. If you don't have a propulsion module you might have to start at the end of the first wave or middle of the second, depending on how fast your fleet is.
  • Move to the Asteroid Colony, which is the left-most object of the refinery structure closest to the battletower. The Nation Ore Refinery object (shows up as a container) that spawns when all the enemies are killed in the third wave will then be within dropping range.
  • Pull your own shield maintenance bots from the other logi and remind them vocally on coms to do the same. Otherwise they'll risk being left behind when you warp out of the site (or force the fleet to wait while they cover the 50-60km back to their drone bay).

Picket

This role is only needed when the university is at war; public communities don't have anyone picketing.

Primary function:

• Warn the fleet about the presence of war targets and individuals with terrible standing (-10) to the uni.
• Warn the fleet about the presence of griefers, suicide gankers, etc (groups of catalysts, thrashers, hecates, vexors, taloses, tornadoes, stealth bombers or similar ships).

Requirements:

• A microphone and the ability to maintain focus on local.

Ways to improve

Ships & modules:

• Keep the ship cheap (shuttle, rookie ship, cheap frigate at the most).
• Fit a cheap cloak if you have the skills, to allow you to sit cloaked on the gate.
• The recommended  Heron for the hacker/scout role can be fitted with a cloak for increased flexibility.

Gameplay:

• Pay attention and promptly report any war target or large group of gankers coming through.
  • Should you find yourself losing focus, just say so and remove yourself. No harm, no foul. It's just that we'll count on you looking at local. If you just need a temporary break, or something came up in real life, notify the fleet commander. Someone can man your post for a few minutes until you return, but it's important that you don't leave without the commander acknowledging that they heard you or you leave the fleet open to war target attacks.
  • If a war target shows up in local, immediately call out "Break! Break! War target!". Repeat if necessary until the fleet commander acknowledges you.
  • If you see an individuals with terrible standing (-10) they are war target alts and should be reported to the commander as well (even if they can't do anything but keep eyes on us). Same goes for large groups of gankers flying catalysts, thrashers, hecates, vexors, taloses, tornadoes, stealth bombers or similar ships to pose any real threat . Reserve the "Break! Break!" for actual war targets though, report this as general intel as they do not pose an immediate danger.
  • Out of corp alts will need to set the current war targets to something easily identifiable in local, such as bad standing (-5) or terrible standing (-10). Reload the message of the day and click the Ivy League link and the War History tab to see our current war targets.
• While you can sit docked in a station to picket, ideally you should sit 200 km off of the gate so that you can see both local and ships going through the gate (so that you can safely align and still be well over 150 km away and able to warp back to the gate).
  • If you don't have a cloak, you can either sit docked in a station with the local window up, or in the same spot 200 km off of the gate. Alternatively sit at a safespot.
  • With a cloak you should sit on grid with the gate but at the above mentioned distance, to combine both local and a visual on the enemy. That way you can give the commander more information about fleet composition etc, should they need it.
• Rearrange your local window to give you a better overview of everyone in your system.
  • In the settings buttons immediately under the local chat window title, the icon with three heads links to show compact member list This can be clicked to allow more names to be seen at once. This is useful for busy systems. See Identifying War Targets in Local for more information.
  • A useful technique for watching local in busy systems is to SHIFT-click to highlight all names currently in local, alternatively just use CTRL + A to select everyone currently in local. New arrivals to the system will appear a different color.
• (Optional) Depending on your ability to multitask, feel free to offer to do the role of waitlist manager as well.
• This role isn't paid by game mechanics, but rely on manual payouts to be compensated for their work.

Sniper

This role is not needed for vanguards, only for assaults and headquarter sites and to some lesser extent, the mothership site.

Primary function:

• Carry out your primary role as a damage dealer.
• Engage targets at long range, up to 120+ km.

Requirements:

• Able to lock and shoot targets up to 100 - 120 km away.
  • For assault and headquarter sites the requirement is at least 120 km.
  • The mothership site has a much lower requirement with roughly 100 km range needed (which can usually be filled by most regular damage dealers fitting long range weaponry like tachyons, railguns or artillery, even with short range ammo).

Ways to improve

Previous recommendations for damage dealers apply to the sniper as well.

Ships & modules:

• Try to aim for as much optimal range as possible, although not more than needed.
  • If your optimal is above 120 km, try to use a different ammo type with less range and more damage and tracking, or swap out tracking enhancers for direct damage modules.
  • If you cannot get your optimal high enough, try to at least get your optimal plus half your falloff to 120 km. With an optimal of 100 km and a falloff of 40 km for example, you'll perform at around 75% efficiency.
  • Bring short range ammunition as well, as you will be shooting normal targets once the sniper targets are dealt with.
• Some ships will have better base locking range than others, consider running your sensor booster unscripted if you get enough range without the targeting range script. That way you'll get a minor boost to your locking speed as well.

Gameplay:

• Pre-load the correct scripts before every site and wave.
  • Remember that you only need to keep the targeting range script in the sensor booster to have ships locked up at range. If you've swapped to scan resolution for faster locking speed during short range waves, you can pre-load the range scripts once you've locked up all the ships in the wave, in preparation for the next wave.
• Most fleet commanders will tag sniper targets with letters, "A" through "Z".
  • Don't confuse "J" (Juliet) as a sniper target, it is a common tag for things you're not supposed to shoot.
  • Once you're done with primary sniper targets, swap to short range ammo and follow regular numeric tags.

Tagger

Primary function:

• Carry out your basic role as a damage dealer or logistics.
• Tag enemies for the fleet.

Ways to improve

• Tagging is used to coordinate the fleet's damage as per the Fleet Commander's orders, focusing fire to take down ships more quickly.
  • If your Fleet Commander hasn't told you what to tag, ask them what order they want ships tagged.
  • Learn the order of each Fleet Commander you fly with, so you can tag on your own without having to wait for orders.
  • Remember that not all Fleet Commanders have the same targeting order, or stick to the same order in all circumstances. So pay attention to your current commander's preference and any corrections they might make while running.
• Tag smart and effectively.
  • Put up the first few tags as you land in a pocket, before anything else, so people know what to shoot. Then start locking up primary and secondary targets before continuing to tag the rest. That way you'll be able to start shooting faster, while still giving people initial tags to follow. While the fleet go through the first few tags you can start shooting yourself and continue tagging the rest.
  • A common way to avoid too much tagging is to only tag one of the two, or two of the three primary targets, leaving the last one untagged (and thus last in order). This is commonly referred to as "lazy tagging" and used when there's a lot to tag to avoid having multiple tags of the same number on the field. There's no need to use "lazy tagging" if you only have to tag a handful of enemies as a full set of tags is easy to follow for the fleet and is less likely to causes confusion.
  • If someone arrives on-grid late, re-tag one of the ships. This will refresh all tags and make them visible to the newcomer.
• Larger fleets sometimes have multiple taggers, one person tagging brawler targets while another tags sniper targets.
  • Brawler targets are usually tagged with "0 - 9" numbers.
  • Sniper targets are usually tagged with "A - Z" letters.
  • The "J" (juliet) tag is often used to tag enemies you don't want killed.
• If you see split aggro, call it out and remind people to follow tags.
  • Some split aggro might be intentional, if for example the dronebunny has different orders than the rest of the fleet.

Waitlist manager

Primary function:

• Carry out your basic role in the fleet (if you're ongrid with the fleet that comes first, waitlist second).
• Advertise the running fleet in the ingame chat channel and keep track of the people wanting to join the fleet.

Secondary function:

• Add people to the fleet and maintain the fleet's message of the day.

Requirements:

• Ability to multi-task and pay attention to administrative details.

Ways to improve

Gameplay:

• Remember that the role of waitlist manager comes second to any other role you hold in the fleet. If you're a damage dealer, logistics, ongrid booster, scout/hacker or picket, those duties come first.
  • If you find yourself overwhelmed you can leave waitlist duties for when a site is finished and you're warping to the next site. In most cases that'll give you more than enough time to update the waitlist and sort out any changes to the message of the day while warping.
• Routinely post advertisement in the incursions.e-uni channel every 5-10 minutes, so people are informed of the running fleet or their place in the queue.
  • One easy way of doing this is to post the advert between every site.
  • You can either keep a copy of the advert/waitlist in your ingame notepad (reliable, but formatting and auto-links won't copy over) or use the CTRL + ▲/▼ function to edit your previous messages on the fly (keeps font formatting but is limited to how far back it goes).
  • A concise waitlist message has the benefit of not spamming out everything else in chat. Some useful shorthands would be +l (dd + any logi), +s (dd + scimitar), +b (dd + basilisk) or just l/s/b (any logi or scimitar/basilisk only). If you're running assaults you'd also specify T3/sc (strategic cruiser), cs (command ship) and sn (sniper).
  • A short "SFWL" (shield fleet waitlist) abbreviation or just calling it "Vanguards" works for a shield fleet running Vanguard sites because that's what the Uni does most of the time.
• Before adding someone to the waitlist, check the following:
  • Check that the pilot is in the staging system and on Mumble. If a pilot x-up before they are ready in the staging system, tell them to x-up again when they arrive in the staging system. Priority goes to the people who prepared and are ready in system.
  • Check that the ship is properly fitted according to our fitting principles (feel free to ask your fleet commander if you're not sure).
  • Check that out-of-corp alts and alumni are not at war or have active kill rights on them, as that might endanger the fleet.
• Ask to be made fleet boss; this allows you to move people around and invite them to the fleet and update the message of the day.
  • Be sure to keep the commander updated when people are invited to the fleet, the goal is to keep the fleet commander informed and in control while removing administrative details.
  • The drag-and-drop feature is very handy for both fleet invites and for moving people into new position.
  • Be sure to enable free-move so people can move themselves in and out of positions when needed.
  • When a fleet pilot announces their retirement from a role ahead of time, get the replacement ready but don't invite them to fleet until it's time for them to actually come ongrid or replace one of the offgrids.
    • Simply ask the first person in the waitlist to x-up again to be invited.
    • If the first person in the cue isn't responding, keep them on the waitlist but skip them for this time and pick the next one on the waitlist. If they repeatedly fail to respond, feel free to drop them from the waitlist.
  • Remember to inform the fleet commander that you added someone to the fleet and who that person is as well as the role they'll take.
  • Keep the message of the day (MOTD) updated with the following information:
    • System the fleet is running in, fleet commander, logistics pilots, dronebunny as well as picket(s) and scout (and a reminder to tip the later two, see unpaid roles and manual payouts to offgrid roles below for more information).
    • (Optional) If you're running non-vanguards, like assaults, who the anchor is.
    • People who pay attention will know does what, as logistics "L"-up each site, the dronebunny "DDD"-up and the anchor "AAA"-up at the beginning of every site. Pickets and scout/hackers are in the offgrid squad in fleet etc. That said, it doesn't hurt to keep this in the message of the day, as long as it is kept up-to-date (as it allows quick reload and right-click on offgrids to tip or for newly invited pilots to quickly catch up).

Wing Commander

Primary function:

• Carry out your basic role as a damage dealer or logistics.
• Wing-warp the fleet.

Ways to improve

• Make sure people are aligned.
• Make sure you get paid before warping the fleet out, unless it's an emergency.

Unpaid roles and manual payouts to offgrid roles

Several roles like scouting, hacking and picketing are excluded from the ingame payout mechanics, so they will not automatically get paid as you're running sites. As such, we manually pay these roles 500k ISK per site for the service they provide because without them we wouldn't be flying if they are not being dual boxed by a alt of an ongrid pilot. It should be noted that it is typically customary to give these roles to newer EVE University players and then those on the waitlist rather than have a ongrid player dual box them in order to maximize the opportunities for participation as that is focus of our community rather than ISK per hour returns.

Practically this means that whenever you or any of the people filling offgrid roles leave the fleet, check your wallet (shortcut is Alt + W to open the wallet) and count the number of site payments you've received. It's easiest to pay out all the offgrid roles whenever one leaves or joins, so that you don't miss paying someone and to make it easier (as you'll pay everyone for the same amount of sites since last you paid out or joined the fleet).

Example using the minimum of 3 offgrid roles (2 pickets and a scout/hacker):

People ongrid will earn 9,6 million ISK per site, then pay the offgrid people 500k each totalling 1,5 million ISK. This means people ongrid will earn 8,1 million ISK while people offgrid will earn anything between 4 million - 5,5 million ISK per site depending on whether the fleet is full or running a little light.

Example using as many as 4 offgrid roles (in case we need 3 pickets):

This means people ongrid will earn 7,6 million ISK (a little less) while people offgrid earn the same 4 million - 5,5 million ISK as in the first example.