User:Uryence/Gate camps

A gate camp or gatecamp occurs when pilots gather to stay at or near ("camp") a gate, in the hope that potential targets will jump in through the gate and be unable to escape. Gatecamps vary in scale from a handful of pilots to relatively large fleets, and in duration from a minute's pause during a small gang roam to rolling, multi-day, cross-timezone lockdowns imposed by large nullsec alliances for strategic reasons.

The exact mechanics and tactics involved in gatecamping depend on whether the camp is in highsec, lowsec, or nullsec. Wormholes can also be camped using techniques similar to those used for nullsec gates.

Purposes

Groups gate camp for a variety of reasons.

A group being attacked in their own space by a roaming PvP pilot or gang might form a gate camp specifically to block or catch their attackers. Or a group might camp simply to generate Content for pilots with nothing better to do. EVE University sometimes gate camps because the format is a good way to introduce new pilots to some key PvP mechanics without the full complication of a roaming fleet.

Some players gate camp as a profession, to earn money. Given the risks involved, this must be done with care, weighing up how to achieve the most cost-effective ship and fit choices.

In player warfare, groups camp gates for strategic reasons: to close off access to a region to the enemy, for instance, or to plug a wormhole so that its defenders cannot bring in more pilots.

Mechanics and techniques

When a ship jumps through a gate, it spawns at a randomly selected spot 12 km from the edge (not centre) of the gate model. It has 60 seconds of gate cloak and invulnerability.

Gate models vary in size. Someone coming through a Minmatar border gate could spawn at roughly 50 km from a ship sitting at 0 on the gate itself. This means that some gates are harder to camp than others.

To defeat a gate camp, the ship must either warp off, or return to the gate and jump back through to the other side ("crash" the gate).

Warping

To enter warp, the ship must point itself towards its warp destination and accelerate to 75% of its maximum speed before the camp can apply warp disruption to it.

To prevent this, you can use ships with range bonuses to their tackle modules, such as interceptors or the Keres, and ships with local or remote sensor boosting to increase their scan resolution, reducing target locking time. Additionally, in nullsec, wormholes, and Pochven, the gate can be bubbled with a warp disruption field from an interdictor, a HIC, or an anchored bubble, and any ship which spawns within the bubble(s) will be unable to warp off unless it is interdiction-nullified.

Fast ships might be able to outpace their attackers, move beyond warp disruption range, and leave. Camps therefore often try to web such targets. To do this you can use ships with web range bonuses such as the Hyena, Cruor or Rapier, and/or ships with web strength bonuses such as the Daredevil or Vigilant. Ships with micro-jump modules fitted—potentially command destroyers and T1/T2 battlecruiser and battleship hulls—can also micro-jump out of a bubble or away from warp disruption; they cannot micro-jump if they are warp-scrambled. Campers therefore often try to warp-scramble such targets.

Crashing gate

To crash gate, the camped ship must travel 12 km back to the gate model without dying from the gate camp's fire. It can use defensive, tanking modules to do this, such as shield boosters or armour repairers, and it can use propulsion equipment to speed itself up, such as afterburners and MWDs. It should not' do anything which would give it a weapon timer, as a ship with a weapon timer cannot jump through a gate. This means that it cannot use EWAR including ECM bursts, EWAR drones (or any other kind of drone), or any weapons.

To prevent ships from crashing gate, campers can use warp-scrambling to shut down MWDs, webs to slow the ship's speed, energy neutralizers to shut down any active tank, and fast-applying burst DPS or alpha-strike damage to kill their target quickly.

Cloaking

- MWD-cloak ship

A ship which can warp cloaked, using a Covert Ops cloak, such as a covert ops frigate or a force recon cruiser, can then warp off while cloaked. If in a bubble, such a ship can slowboat to the edge of the bubble, and then warp off. If the ship also has an Interdiction Nullifier, the pilot should pause to plan and then, as fast as possible:

1. Break cloak by aligning
2. Start the nullifier
3. Cloak up
4. Warp

- decloaking inties & other ships

Avoiding camps

Aligning fast

- include MWD-cloak trick