Annotated Index to PvP

This page is an annotated index to the many PvP combat sources that can be found in this Wiki. It complements the PvP page category, which is an alphabetized list with no annotations but does include a wider range of entries.

When you edit this page, please try to keep text to the minimum needed to describe the link you are adding.

Common to All PvP

These include information that applies whether you are doing PvP solo or in a fleet.

Forums and Chat

Forums

• Combat Fleets Every fleet is announced here - included beginner fleets and E-UNI courses. The announcement includes the date/time of departure, the kinds of ships needed, and the general goal of the event.
• Classes All E-Uni classes are announced here ahead of time.

Chat

The EVE University Chat Channels page lists channels that might be of some use if you want to discuss PvP. Here are the ones most useful to beginners:

• EVE University (E-UNI): channel is open to the EVE public and people there can try to help. Preface questions with "Q."
• Questions (EVE Uni): questions channel for EVE University members. Preface questions with "Q."
• Community Channels: each of the E-UNI communities has a channel, and it is not unusual to find discussions of PvP events or problems related to the community.

Most E-UNI chat channels are password protected for privacy. You can acquire these passwords from this E-Uni forum post. You need to be an E-Uni member to access this post.

Members might also find the #fitting-chat and #eve-uni-general channels in the University Discord helpful; non-members can ask questions in #eve-uni-public-help, which is open to all.

Killboard

• zKillboard: E-Uni losses and kills are automatically posted here.

Timers

• Timers: log-off, weapons, remote assistance and other timers that affect your ship's status during combat.

General Introductions

These give general descriptions of PvP organization, strategies, tactics, ships, skills and so on, but without digging into the nitty gritty details. Each may cover a variety of topics.

• Support skills: key skills which boost the performance of lots of equipment.
• Rules of Engagement: who you can shoot at, and when.
• Safety Settings: how not to shoot people by accident.
• Safety Tips for Operating in Low Sec: low security space is dangerous; be aware, be prepared.

Tactics

Ways to find fights, win them, and manage their risks.

Hunting

• Identifying war targets in Local: includes how to set up a watch list.
• Directional scanning: use the built-in beyond-visual-range sensors on any ship to find trouble, or to avoid it.
• Probe scanning: transfer basic exploration techniques to PvP and use them to hunt targets.
• Bookmarks: useful in scouting, and in setting up safe spots in systems.
• Cloaking: the mechanics of EVE's stealth systems.

Combat

• Targeting: methods and time considerations.
• Tackling: the central act that starts most PvP combat in EVE—stopping a target from warping away.
• Overheating: get max performance from a ship by pushing modules to their limits.
• Electronic warfare ("EWAR") in general. EWAR interferes with enemy ships to decrease their effectiveness in battle.
• Electronic Countermeasures ("ECM", "jamming"): a powerful subtype of EWAR that breaks enemy target-locks.
• Capacitor warfare: make opponents helpless by draining their capacitors.

Dealing with losses

• Insurance: insure to ensure you can afford to lose your ship.
• How to save your Pod: know how to preserve your capsule ("pod") if your ship is lost.
• Ship Replacement Program: (for EVE University members only) get reimbursed for ship losses during University fleets.

Ships

Capabilities, uses, comparisons.

• E-UNI EVE Ships Matrix: an easy-to-use collection of links to every ship available in EVE.
• Ship Class Tactical Overview: brief description of each, organized by class.
• List of PvP Ships by Bonus
• Signature Radius: every ship has one; it determines many aspect of weapons targeting and damage.
• Drone-capable ships: includes bay size, bandwidth, etc.

Hardware and Software

Weapons. Ammunition. Fittings.

• Fitting ships: general principles for fitting.

Weapons

• Turrets and turret mechanics: general treatment of turrets, and the details of their workings.
• Missiles and missile mechanics: general treatment of missiles, and the details of their workings.
• Drones and drone mechanics: drone types, and nitty-gritty details of their workings.
• Bombs: unguided area-of-effect weapons for use in nullsec and wormhole space.
• Smartbombs: area-of-effect weapons centred on the user's ship.

Defense

• Tanking: detailed treatment of tank types and tanking techniques.

Fleet PvP

• E-UNI Forum: Combat Fleets All planned' E-Uni fleets are announced here, with the date/time of departure, the kinds of ships needed, and the general goal of the event.
• The Rookie's Guide To Fleet Ops: comprehensive introduction to fleet operations.

Fleet Organization and Doctrine

For members

• Overview Guide How to set up your Overview Window as required for participation in E-UNI fleets.
• Fleet Squad Member Duties: ways that you can contribute even as a basic squad member in a fleet.
• Fleet terminology: lists the terms used by fleet members.
• Fleet interface: windows you need to use, and sometimes leave open.
• Fleet Watch Lists: keeping track of nearby ships.
• Doctrines: consistent doctrines create effective fleets.

For commanders

• Forming fleets in EVE University: not official policy, but thorough checklist of recommended actions.^[Verify]
• Fleet Command Guide: "Fleet Command in EVE is as much a task of psychology as it is a task of military preparedness and skill."

Roles

• Logistics: essentially, EVE's PvP "healer" role.
• Scouting: detailed treatment of covert ops scouting in high and low security space.

Tactics

• Gate camps: trapping enemy ships at warp gates, and how to escape from such traps.
• Pipe Bombing: trapping an enemy fleet travelling through nullsec with an interdiction bubble and using smartbombing battleships to destroy them.
• Spider tanking: a fleet tactic in which ships use remote armor repair modules to repair one another

Solo PvP

• Solo PvP: collection of general information on common ships and contexts for solo PvP.
• Directional scanning: the standard tool for finding targets and spotting threats in solo PvP. See especially offensive scanning.

Other

Please add to this category any links that do not fit above.

E-Uni wars

• Wartime Operations in EVE University: important information if E-Uni receives a war declaration and you are operating in highsec space.
• Principles of War: mass and economy of force, unity of command, maneuver, surprise, security, center of gravity.

Factional warfare

Factional warfare ("FW") is a PvE/PvP hybrid whereby players join teams and perform PvE missions in an environment that encourages PvP. Factional warfare is generally seen as a "stepping stone" to full scale PvP.

IMPORTANT: EVE University has to begun participate in factional warfare via Direct Enlistment

• Faction warfare: full discussion of factions, objectives and rewards.
• Faction warfare strategy and tactics: choosing a militia; mission mechanics.
• Faction warfare missions: enemies, ships, strategies.
• Faction warfare standings: keeping your standings in balance.

Other Indexes

• PvP page category: automatically collects the links to all wiki pages that include the "PvP" category tag.

Frequently Asked Questions

To move beyond these FAQs, ask in one of the Uni chat channels, on Discord, or on the Uni forums.

What is the best ship for PvP?

EVE has no perfect combat ship: every ship has weaknesses, and all ships are weak to being swarmed by greater numbers of pilots. Furthermore, the more effective a ship is, the more it will cost. To compound the complexity, once a player knows what they are doing it becomes quite hard to impose PvP on someone, and so it sometimes pays off to surprise opponents with sub-optimal and counterintuitive ships or fits. Flown well and used in the right circumstances, cheap, low-SP hulls can defeat ships which are an order of magnitude more expensive.

For these reasons, it might be better to ask:

• "What can I fly well with my current player and character skills?"
• "What can I afford to lose at my current scale of ISK earnings?"
• "What will function well in the type of space where I plan to fight?

For PvP fleets, there will typically be a pre-stated doctrine, or at least general guidelines such as "fast shield-tanked ships cruiser-sized or below", which will give you some starting-points, and in the case of a doctrine, a set of pre-made fits. Correspond with the FC ahead of time if you want to clarify whether flying a particular ship/role would be all right, or to ask whether they have any options for characters with your SP level.

For solo PvP, it is worth watching videos and studying the fits of successful players, which will both show you what some workable fits look like, and fill you in on the current "meta".

How do I fit my <ship class> for PvP?

First, know the rules of thumb for fitting.

If you are going to be flying in a fleet with a declared doctrine or comp, there will be pre-existing fits to use.

Beyond that, you can explore several avenues:

• Read up on your ship in the Eve ship database. Attend carefully to its bonuses and its slot layout.
• Ask around on Uni Discord and in-game for help coming up with or refining a fit. Don't be afraid to ask what seems to be a simple or dumb question: fitting ships well is hard to do, and everyone knows that. Everyone loves their favorite fits, and they are usually willing to talk about them.
• Survey recent losses for the ship on zKillboard. Don't take any one loss as a definitive fit, and look at the contexts (did this die in mass fleet combat or solo?), but generally if you've reviewed the fits of 20 ship losses, you will begin to get a sense for what common fits are.

While there is often a fairly tight set of optimal fits for a ship in PvP, there is no single perfect fit. A ship's equipment interacts tightly with a pilot's skills, experience and psychology, and a sub-optimal fit can sometimes be worth it if it offers you abilities which will take opponents by surprise.

How do I find a solo PvP fight?

Main article: Solo PvP

If you are very new and want a gentle introduction to solo flight, EVE Uni hosts, at the time of writing, "Fight Club" events where players can practise solo PvP in friendly duels with ship and fitting limits to keep a fairly level playing field.

Solo PvP can be found in any area of the game outside highsec space.

Lowsec is the area most associated with introductory solo PvP, because the mechanics of the factional warfare complexes found in lowsec allow you to moderate the ship types that you fight. One time-honoured approach to learning solo combat is to fit a stack of cheap Tech 1 frigates, and work through them in lowsec combat. The downsides of lowsec are that the security status loss and gate gun interventions cramp your style somewhat, and that most people in lowsec are there to fight and are very well-prepared, so don't neglect the possibility of fighting elsewhere.

Wherever you choose to roam in search of combat, you'll likely have a better time if you fly cheap and small ships. Doing this will limit your exposure to losses; small ships also let you cover more ground in any given length of hunt, which gives you a better chance of finding content. There are larger and/or higher-cost options which can work well in solo PvP, but they normally require more player knowledge and skill to bring out their potential, and stepping into them without experience of the fundamentals will just generate costly lossmails.

How do I join a PvP fleet?

As an EVE Uni member, you are eligible to participate in any Uni fleet for which you are qualified and in which there are places available. Many fleets in the University especially welcome players without PvP experience and have pre-prepared ships ready for characters with limited SP. Scheduled fleets will indicate the expected experience level in their announcement.

Every scheduled fleet is pre-announced in the E-UNI Combat Fleet Forum. You can also find the fleet announcements listed in the E-UNI Calendar.

If you are based in a part of the University which operates in dangerous space, such as the Null-Sec Campus or the Wormhole Community, there will also be more free-form, unexpected opportunities to join in "quick-response fleets" when danger arrives.

Recommended Reading:

• The Rookie's Guide to Fleet Ops

Fleet requirements:

• Mumble access: make sure you have Mumble sorted out and operational.
• Have your Overview set to the E-Uni standard.
• Be prepared to lose your ship! (Covered by E-Uni Ship Replacement Program.)

Several groups in EVE host regular publicly-accessible PvP fleets which anyone can join. EVE University members are welcome to fly in such fleets provided they do not shoot structures or people blue to the University. See public fleets for more details.