Faction warfare strategy and tactics: Difference between revisions

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While it's possible to make a decent income from FW, it's recommended that you stock up on a few ships (including fittings, ammunition), and have enough ISK (or other ways of making ISK) to cover your losses while you get your bearings. Also, it's a lot less frustrating to just jump into a new ship and keep flying if you lose a fight (rather than have to go back to a trade hub and first buy and then fit a new one). Start by bringing smaller ships (frigates and destroyers), and decide later if you want to start flying larger ships.

Keep in mind that, once you join FW, about ~~half~~ of [[empire]] space (including ~~two~~ of the four [[trade hubs]]) will be [[Factional Warfare#Permanent war|awkward to get to]]; this means that you won't be able to run missions in the "enemy" ~~half~~ of empire space, and that any ships or items you have stored in enemy empire stations will be hard to get to. Therefore, move all the ships and modules you think you want to use out of enemy empire space. Additionally, in the medium term, it may be worth having a [[trading]] or [[Creating an Alt Hauler|hauling]] alt to keep your FW character supplied.

Keep in mind that, once you join FW, about one quarter of [[empire]] space (including one of the four [[trade hubs]]) will be [[Factional Warfare#Permanent war|awkward to get to]]; this means that you won't be able to run missions in the "enemy" regions of empire space, and that any ships or items you have stored in enemy empire stations in high security space will be hard to get to. Therefore, move all the ships and modules you think you want to use out of enemy empire space. Additionally, in the medium term, it may be worth having a [[trading]] or [[Creating an Alt Hauler|hauling]] alt to keep your FW character supplied.

=== Choosing a militia ===

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Both the [[Star Map|in-game star map]] and out-of-game maps (such as [https://evemaps.dotlan.net/factionwarfare Dotlan]) are very helpful in this regard. Especially Dotlan and the in-game map can give you up-to-date information on what system is currently held by which faction, and where a lot of traffic and fighting is taking place (filter by "number of jumps" and "number of ships destroyed"). Additionally, your militia's [[#Militias and fleets|chat channel]] can be a useful source of intel.

Factional Warfare takes place in [[low-sec]], so there will be the occasional [[gatecamp]] on well-traveled routes (although fast frigates should be able to escape these, as there are no [[bubble]]s in low-sec). Also, roaming gangs of ships are a fairly common sight.

Factional Warfare takes place in [[low-sec]], so there will be the occasional [[gatecamp]] on well-traveled routes (although fast frigates should be able to escape these, as there are no [[bubble]]s in [[Corruption and Suppression#Corruption|non-corrupted]] low-sec). Also, roaming gangs of ships are a fairly common sight.

The directional scanner is an invaluable tool to either scout for threats ahead of you (eg use it to scan a stargate before approaching it to see if there are ships camping it) or to look for PvP targets.

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[[D-Scan]] and knowledge of the layout and mechanics of complexes can make a big difference when fighting in and around complexes.

All but the ~~largest~~ complexes have acceleration gates (which only let [[Factional Warfare#Complex_types|certain classes of ships pass]]). The most obvious advantage is that you can use a complex' size to pick what kind of ships you want to fight: if you're inside a ~~novice~~-sized complex, you will only be fighting Tech 1 and faction frigates (and will not have to go up against, say, destroyers or cruisers).

All but the Open complexes have acceleration gates (which only let [[Factional Warfare#Complex_types|certain classes of ships pass]]). The most obvious advantage is that you can use a complex' size to pick what kind of ships you want to fight: if you're inside a Scout-sized complex, you will only be fighting Tech 1 and faction frigates (and will not have to go up against, say, destroyers or cruisers).

The distance from the complex to its gate is always the same (about 1 million km), and so you can use D-Scan to watch for enemies coming into your complex, or to look for targets inside complexes.

* When defending a complex, set your D-Scan range to about 1.5 million km with a 360° angle, and scan every few seconds. Any ship which wants to enter your complex first has to drop out of warp at the acceleration gate, at which point you will spot it on your D-Scan, giving you a few seconds' warning to either prepare for a fight or flee. Additionally, since cloaked ships cannot use acceleration gates while remaining cloaked, you will be able to spot these as well.

* When defending a complex, set your D-Scan range to about 1.5 million km or 0.1 AU with a 360° angle, and scan every few seconds. Any ship which wants to enter your complex first has to drop out of warp at the acceleration gate, at which point you will spot it on your D-Scan, giving you a few seconds' warning to either prepare for a fight or flee. Additionally, since cloaked ships cannot use acceleration gates while remaining cloaked, you will be able to spot these as well.

* When looking for targets, you can use D-Scan with a narrow angle to scan the immediate surroundings of a complex' beacon (visible on the Overview) to see what ships are inside the complex. Note that you'll also pick up ships sitting at the complex' acceleration gate with this method.

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As illustrated by the graph on the right, a fleet will need to do about 4,000 DPS to destroy the I-Hub in under two hours (keeping in mind that's two hours of non-stop bombardment), 7,500 DPS to do it in an hour, and 14,000 DPS to do it in half an hour. To make these numbers more concrete, a [[stealth bomber]] does about 300-400 DPS, and a [[battleship]] (or a tier 3 [[battlecruiser]]) does about 600-800 DPS. Therefore, you would need over twenty stealth bombers (or ten battleships) firing non-stop for an hour to destroy an I-Hub.

Keep in mind that while your fleet is busy destroying the I-Hub, you also have to prevent enemy militia pilots from not only attacking your fleet, but also from capturing complexes in the system (as if they [[Factional Warfare#Capturing systems|capture enough complexes]] to bring the system from "vulnerable" to "contested", any damage you have done to the I-Hub is reset). Medium-sized corporations will usually swarm an I-Hub with stealth bombers, while larger corporations can afford to send in a fleet of battleships (supported by smaller vessels, as battleships on their own are very vulnerable). Some corporations will attack I-Hubs with [[dreadnought]]s - while this is the quickest way to destroy them (a dreadnought in siege mode can do about 5,000 DPS), it requires a large supporting fleet to protect the valuable capital ships (not to mention the resources to even field multiple dreadnoughts!).

Keep in mind that while your fleet is busy destroying the I-Hub, you also have to prevent enemy militia pilots from not only attacking your fleet, but also from capturing complexes in the system (as if they [[Factional Warfare#Capturing systems|capture enough complexes]] to bring the system from "vulnerable" to "contested", any damage you have done to the I-Hub is reset). Medium-sized corporations will usually swarm an I-Hub with stealth bombers or other high DPS ships, while larger corporations can afford to send in a fleet of battleships (supported by smaller vessels, as battleships on their own are very vulnerable). Some corporations will attack I-Hubs with [[dreadnought]]s - while this is the quickest way to destroy them (a dreadnought in siege mode can do about 5,000 DPS), it requires a large supporting fleet to protect the valuable capital ships (not to mention the resources to even field multiple dreadnoughts!).

Therefore, as destroying I-Hubs requires a non-trivial amount of resources and organizations, star systems will often be left "vulnerable" until a large force can be mustered, which will then usually destroy a number of I-Hubs in the course of a few hours.

Therefore, as destroying I-Hubs requires a non-trivial amount of resources and organizations, star systems will often be left "vulnerable" until a large enough force can be mustered.

{{expansion past | Prior to the addition of the Frontlines system in Uprising (2022), it was not uncommon to drive the contested level of multiple systems to vulnerable or near vulnerable, then assemble a large fleet to destroy multiple ihubs and flip multiple systems over the space of a few hours.}}

== Making money ==

Even though blowing up enemy player's ships and running missions rewards you with small amounts of ISK, the bulk of the income from Factional Warfare comes from earning loyalty points (LP) with your militia corporation, using it to buy items from the corporation's LP store, and then selling those items for ISK.

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 While it's possible to make a decent income from FW, it's recommended that you stock up on a few ships (including fittings, ammunition), and have enough ISK (or other ways of making ISK) to cover your losses while you get your bearings. Also, it's a lot less frustrating to just jump into a new ship and keep flying if you lose a fight (rather than have to go back to a trade hub and first buy and then fit a new one). Start by bringing smaller ships (frigates and destroyers), and decide later if you want to start flying larger ships.
-Keep in mind that, once you join FW, about half of [[empire]] space (including two of the four [[trade hubs]]) will be [[Factional Warfare#Permanent war|awkward to get to]]; this means that you won't be able to run missions in the "enemy" half of empire space, and that any ships or items you have stored in enemy empire stations will be hard to get to. Therefore, move all the ships and modules you think you want to use out of enemy empire space. Additionally, in the medium term, it may be worth having a [[trading]] or [[Creating an Alt Hauler|hauling]] alt to keep your FW character supplied.
+Keep in mind that, once you join FW, about one quarter of [[empire]] space (including one of the four [[trade hubs]]) will be [[Factional Warfare#Permanent war|awkward to get to]]; this means that you won't be able to run missions in the "enemy" regions of empire space, and that any ships or items you have stored in enemy empire stations in high security space will be hard to get to. Therefore, move all the ships and modules you think you want to use out of enemy empire space. Additionally, in the medium term, it may be worth having a [[trading]] or [[Creating an Alt Hauler|hauling]] alt to keep your FW character supplied.
 === Choosing a militia ===
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 Both the [[Star Map|in-game star map]] and out-of-game maps (such as [https://evemaps.dotlan.net/factionwarfare Dotlan]) are very helpful in this regard. Especially Dotlan and the in-game map can give you up-to-date information on what system is currently held by which faction, and where a lot of traffic and fighting is taking place (filter by "number of jumps" and "number of ships destroyed"). Additionally, your militia's [[#Militias and fleets|chat channel]] can be a useful source of intel.
-Factional Warfare takes place in [[low-sec]], so there will be the occasional [[gatecamp]] on well-traveled routes (although fast frigates should be able to escape these, as there are no [[bubble]]s in low-sec). Also, roaming gangs of ships are a fairly common sight.
+Factional Warfare takes place in [[low-sec]], so there will be the occasional [[gatecamp]] on well-traveled routes (although fast frigates should be able to escape these, as there are no [[bubble]]s in [[Corruption and Suppression#Corruption|non-corrupted]] low-sec). Also, roaming gangs of ships are a fairly common sight.
 The directional scanner is an invaluable tool to either scout for threats ahead of you (eg use it to scan a stargate before approaching it to see if there are ships camping it) or to look for PvP targets.
@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 [[D-Scan]] and knowledge of the layout and mechanics of complexes can make a big difference when fighting in and around complexes.
-All but the largest complexes have acceleration gates (which only let [[Factional Warfare#Complex_types|certain classes of ships pass]]). The most obvious advantage is that you can use a complex' size to pick what kind of ships you want to fight: if you're inside a novice-sized complex, you will only be fighting Tech 1 and faction frigates (and will not have to go up against, say, destroyers or cruisers).
+All but the Open complexes have acceleration gates (which only let [[Factional Warfare#Complex_types|certain classes of ships pass]]). The most obvious advantage is that you can use a complex' size to pick what kind of ships you want to fight: if you're inside a Scout-sized complex, you will only be fighting Tech 1 and faction frigates (and will not have to go up against, say, destroyers or cruisers).
 The distance from the complex to its gate is always the same (about 1 million km), and so you can use D-Scan to watch for enemies coming into your complex, or to look for targets inside complexes.
-* When defending a complex, set your D-Scan range to about 1.5 million km with a 360° angle, and scan every few seconds. Any ship which wants to enter your complex first has to drop out of warp at the acceleration gate, at which point you will spot it on your D-Scan, giving you a few seconds' warning to either prepare for a fight or flee. Additionally, since cloaked ships cannot use acceleration gates while remaining cloaked, you will be able to spot these as well.
+* When defending a complex, set your D-Scan range to about 1.5 million km or 0.1 AU with a 360° angle, and scan every few seconds. Any ship which wants to enter your complex first has to drop out of warp at the acceleration gate, at which point you will spot it on your D-Scan, giving you a few seconds' warning to either prepare for a fight or flee. Additionally, since cloaked ships cannot use acceleration gates while remaining cloaked, you will be able to spot these as well.
 * When looking for targets, you can use D-Scan with a narrow angle to scan the immediate surroundings of a complex' beacon (visible on the Overview) to see what ships are inside the complex. Note that you'll also pick up ships sitting at the complex' acceleration gate with this method.
@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 As illustrated by the graph on the right, a fleet will need to do about 4,000 DPS to destroy the I-Hub in under two hours (keeping in mind that's two hours of non-stop bombardment), 7,500 DPS to do it in an hour, and 14,000 DPS to do it in half an hour. To make these numbers more concrete, a [[stealth bomber]] does about 300-400 DPS, and a [[battleship]] (or a tier 3 [[battlecruiser]]) does about 600-800 DPS. Therefore, you would need over twenty stealth bombers (or ten battleships) firing non-stop for an hour to destroy an I-Hub.
-Keep in mind that while your fleet is busy destroying the I-Hub, you also have to prevent enemy militia pilots from not only attacking your fleet, but also from capturing complexes in the system (as if they [[Factional Warfare#Capturing systems|capture enough complexes]] to bring the system from "vulnerable" to "contested", any damage you have done to the I-Hub is reset). Medium-sized corporations will usually swarm an I-Hub with stealth bombers, while larger corporations can afford to send in a fleet of battleships (supported by smaller vessels, as battleships on their own are very vulnerable). Some corporations will attack I-Hubs with [[dreadnought]]s - while this is the quickest way to destroy them (a dreadnought in siege mode can do about 5,000 DPS), it requires a large supporting fleet to protect the valuable capital ships (not to mention the resources to even field multiple dreadnoughts!).
+Keep in mind that while your fleet is busy destroying the I-Hub, you also have to prevent enemy militia pilots from not only attacking your fleet, but also from capturing complexes in the system (as if they [[Factional Warfare#Capturing systems|capture enough complexes]] to bring the system from "vulnerable" to "contested", any damage you have done to the I-Hub is reset). Medium-sized corporations will usually swarm an I-Hub with stealth bombers or other high DPS ships, while larger corporations can afford to send in a fleet of battleships (supported by smaller vessels, as battleships on their own are very vulnerable). Some corporations will attack I-Hubs with [[dreadnought]]s - while this is the quickest way to destroy them (a dreadnought in siege mode can do about 5,000 DPS), it requires a large supporting fleet to protect the valuable capital ships (not to mention the resources to even field multiple dreadnoughts!).
-Therefore, as destroying I-Hubs requires a non-trivial amount of resources and organizations, star systems will often be left "vulnerable" until a large force can be mustered, which will then usually destroy a number of I-Hubs in the course of a few hours.
+Therefore, as destroying I-Hubs requires a non-trivial amount of resources and organizations, star systems will often be left "vulnerable" until a large enough force can be mustered.
+{{expansion past | Prior to the addition of the Frontlines system in Uprising (2022), it was not uncommon to drive the contested level of multiple systems to vulnerable or near vulnerable, then assemble a large fleet to destroy multiple ihubs and flip multiple systems over the space of a few hours.}}
 == Making money ==
 Even though blowing up enemy player's ships and running missions rewards you with small amounts of ISK, the bulk of the income from Factional Warfare comes from earning loyalty points (LP) with your militia corporation, using it to buy items from the corporation's LP store, and then selling those items for ISK.