User:Hellbento/Fleet PvP Skill Training Guide

Fleet PvP Training Guide

So You want to get into Fleet PvP

Well you have come the right place (or at least one of them). Eve University runs regular (or at least a lot of) PvP fleet roams, both the specific beginner Noobs on Patrol fleets and others, and everyone in our fleets will be willing to help you find your feet once you are in space. To actually contribute to a PvP fleet, start by training the ship skills you want to use (even at frigates 3 you can be part of a fleet), the general fitting and tanking skills. You should also choose a role to fulfill in a fleet, and fit a ship to do this. Most pilots will start out as a hero tackle or a DD (Damage Dealer) frigate or destroyer, and then branch out from there, but in the uni we are generally fairly flexible.

The general fleet roles are DD, Tackle, Ewar, Logi and Scouts. DD actually apply the damage to the enemy and need ships, guns, and related skills at a decent level. Tackle pilots use modules to keep the targets from getting away and to slow them down, so they need the propulsion jamming skills, and usually skills to help them fly faster to catch the targets. Ewar use electronic warfare modules to reduce the targets' effectiveness and make it easier for everyone else to do thier job, and need the electronics skills for the type of Ewar they are using. Logi are the guys that heal us and keep your ship alive, and make you more effective, and need the remote repairing skills, and usually capacitor transfer and management skills. Finally scouts are the people that range ahead of, or follow behind, the fleet to find us targets and make sure that no-one who will make us targets warps in on us, they often fly Covert Ops ships so they can cloak and not be seen, and carry combat scanners so need the scanning skills as well.

Everyone who is going to fly in PvP should also make sure they train thier fitting and tanking skills, and it is useful to have people with the leadership skills trained, if not absolutely necessary.

Joining Fleets and general fleet guides

Once you have the starting skills for a fleet role you should try to join fleets as soon as possible, but first read The Rookie's Guide To Fleet Ops and try to attend, or at least listen to, Fleets 101. Even if you are a minor contributor in your first couple of fleets while you get used to fleet communications, different commands and how to be part of a larger group, you will learn, and you will contribute, even if it does not feel like it at the moment. The most important things are to listen to the FC and the other leadership, and to do your best, the rest only comes with a little experience.

T1 Frigates and fittings are available to uni members for free from the Corporation Hangar, either pick one up from Pator Tech School, or if you don't have the Freshman title yet ask in corporate chat and often someone will be able to grab one and pass to you.

Eve Uni fleets tend to leave from either Aldrat/Hek, or from Stacmon near LSC, so have you PvP ships near these places so you they are handy when a fleet starts forming. It is probably best not to keep all of your PvP ships in Aldrat, or in the Hek Trade Station (Boundless Creation) as if war targets we want to kill park outside these stations it can make forming a fleet a lot harder, so usually keep PvP ships in a couple of stations nearby (if you want to have more than one) and then wherever they blockade we will have some people who can get out and form a fleet.

General Skills (Everyone should have them)

If you want to get into PvP, no matter what role you have, you should make sure to get the basic fitting skills to a decent level (3 is an absolute minimum, but getting these skills to 4 or 5 is a priority), so you can fit all the modules you want onto your ship, and make sure it as capable as it can be. As a general rule in Eve it is better to be good at what you can do, than to be mediocre at doing a lot of things. You also should be getting the tank skills to level 4 as soon as practical, you want to be able to fit a tech 2 tank as soon as possible as this means you will be more likely to survive. The other skills that should be trained by all pilots are the propulsion module skills, being able to use an AB is almost compulsory. Every pilot should also try to train navigation and warp drive operation, as this means you can keep up with faster ships, and you don't cap out when you have to make a long warp; navigation and warp drive operation are not quite as important but still a good Idea to get up when you can. As a special note, try to make sure you train the skill in the ship you are using to at least 3, and preferably 4, before you are flying, as the bonuses on the ships for ship skill often give you more than any other individual skill towards your effectiveness.

Fitting Skills

Fitting skills will let you fit better modules on your ship, and make you more effective. CPU and Power Grid management should be trained to Level 5 as soon as you are able to, the others only have an effect on specific types of modules so are less critical, but still worth getting to 3 as soon as you can. Advanced Weapon upgrades is probably not worth getting immediately due to needing Weapon upgrades to 5 first, but it is very useful when you can get it. If you want to know more about fitting ships, read Fitting Guidelines. While I am discussing fitting skills I would also suggest everyone who wants to fly ships gets a fitting tool like EFT so you can work out your fits outside of the game, and without having to buy the modules first.

• CPU Management: 5% more CPU per level
• Power Grid Management: 5% more powergrid per level
• Weapon Upgrades: 5% less CPU need for weapons per level
• Shield Upgrades: 5% less powergrid need for shield extenders, shield rechargers &c
• Electronics Upgrades: 5% less CPU need for signal amplifiers, co-processors &c
• Energy Grid Upgrades: 5% less CPU need for most of the modules listed under "Engineering Equipment"
• Advanced Weapon Upgrades (requires Weapon Upgrades V): 2% less powergrid need for weapons per level

Tank

Every PvP ship (and every other ship in fact) should fit a tank to ensure you can survive as long as possible. For PvP it is best to build a buffer tank, which means to ignore any repair modules and just fit to have as many EHP as possible. All PvP ships also should if possible be fit for an Omni-Tank, which means that you should build to be able to resit all damage types equally, because you do not know what damage types you are going to be faced with in PvP combat. Generally if you have Logi it is a good Idea to fit your tank to have as much of the tank based on resists as possible so the logi heals are more effective, but don't sacrifice (much) actual EHP for this, the most important thing is to be able to survive as long as possible. More information can be found at Smurfprime's Guide to Basic Tanking, it could use a little cleaning up at the moment but the information there is quite good. Most PvP fleets will try to fit 1 type of tank (either shield or armor) to match the logi that is coming along on the fleet, but for noobs on patrol and other beginner fleets it is not as much of a concern as we often do not have logi. Most Caldari ships shield tank, Gallente and Amar Armor tank, and Minmatar often can do either.

Shield

Shield tanks use shield extenders (often more than 1), and active resist modules, to add EHP. Getting shield skills to 3 is generally enough to get started, but you will want to train to 4 as soon as you can so you can fit a Tech II tank. The resist bonus skills only apply to passive modules, and are often ignored because of this, so leave them for now. The important skills are:

• Shield Management: Adds 5% per level to the amount of shields on your ship.
• Shield Upgrades - Allows use of shield extenders and passive resist modules. 5% less powergrid for shield upgrade modules.
• Tactical Shield Manipulation - Reduces chance of damage bleeding through to armor when shields are low. Allows use of shield hardeners.

Armor

Armor tanks use Armor Plates for more HP and either Energised Plating or Resistance Platings to add Resists. There is also layered plating to add a % boost to HP, which is usually only worth fitting to larger ships. Armor resist bonus modules are more often trained, as they apply to the most commonly used armor resist modules. Armor modules will slow you down slightly and make your ship less agile, so dont fit plates that are too large or it may slow you too much to be effective. Again getting to 3 in Hull upgrades is probably enough to start, but aim to get to 4 and get the other skills as soon as you can. The important skills are:

• Hull Upgrades - 5% per level to armor hit points. Requirement for fitting most of the armor modules.
• Armor Layering - 5% less mass penalty per level for armor plates, means you don't get slowed down as much.
• EM Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to EM resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings
• Explosive Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to Explosive resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings
• Kinetic Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to Kinetic resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings
• Thermic Armor Compensation - 5% bonus per level to Thermic resistance for Armor Coatings and Energized Platings

Navigation & Propulsion

Getting the basic navigation skills to at least 3 will make you far more able to move around in space, which makes you harder to hit, and makes it easier to get away when and if you need to. The basic Navigation skills are:

• Navigation: Skill at regulating the power output of ship thrusters. 5% bonus to sub-warp ship velocity per skill level.
• Evasive Maneuvering: Improved skill at efficiently turning and accelerating a spaceship. 5% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.
• Spaceship Command: The basic operation of spaceships. 2% improved ship agility for all ships per skill level.

Everyone who flies a PvP ship should also be able to fit at least an AB, and have the cap to use it. Microwarpdrives are very useful when they are called for, but for many ship fits the increase to signature radius will get you killed, and MWD uses a lot more cap, and reduces your overall cap available, so only fit an MWD when you know you should be using it and need to have the extra speed. The important skills are:

• Afterburner - 5% reduction to Afterburner duration and 10% reduction in Afterburner capacitor use per skill level, Required to fit AB.
• Fuel Conservation - Improved control over afterburner energy consumption. 10% reduction in afterburner capacitor needs per skill level.
• High Speed Maneuvering - Skill at using MicroWarpdrives. 5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level, Required to fit MWD.

Leadership

Leadership skills are about providing bonuses to your squad/wing/fleet mates. The leadership skills are not needed to be in a role as SC/WC/FC (Squad/Wing/Fleet Commander), but if you don't have the skill to a large enough level to command the squad/wing/fleet size you are in charge of they will not get boosts from your level of leadership or any higher levels. As such leadership skills are something that you will not need to start out, but once you have the time to train them they can make you more useful in a fleet as having more Squad Commanders, Wing Commanders and Fleet Commanders who can pass on boosts is very useful. It is generally considered to be most to train the Leadership (for SC) to 5 and then WC to 3 first, as it is more important to be able to pass on bonuses than to grant them yourself, as only the best of the squad/wing/fleet booster is passed on, but training the boosting skills is still at least a little useful before you get Leadership 5. The skills for PvP are as follows:

Leadership: Allows command of a squad of size up to 2 members per skill level, up to a maximum of 10 members. 2% bonus to fleet members' targeting speed per skill level. Wing Command: Allows command of a Wing up to operate 1 Squadron per skill level, up to a maximum of 5 Squadrons. Fleet Command: Allows command of a fleet of up 1 Wing per skill level, up to a maximum of 5 Wings. Armored Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' armor hit points per skill level. Information Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' targeting range per skill level. Siege Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' shield capacity per skill level. Skirmish Warfare: Grants a 2% bonus to fleet members' agility per skill level.

Roles in PvP

Tackle

Discuss general tackling information and skills

Hero Tackle

Discuss what this means, and what to train to do this

Heavy Tackle

Discuss moving into a heavy tackle ship

Fast Tackle

Discuss Fast Tackle ships (interceptors etc.)

Damage Dealer/DPS

Discuss how to fit and train for effective DPS,

EWar

Discuss general EWar tactics, and differnt types of Ewar

ECM

Discuss ECM and its uses. Discuss skills for ECM Discuss why not to use ECM burst when starting out

Tracking Disruption

Discuss Tracking disruptors and thier uses, and what skills to train to use them

Sensor Dampening

Discuss Damps and thier uses, and training into them

Target Painters

Discuss TP and it's uses, why it is so situational, and training for it.

Neuts

Discuss capacitor Neutralising and its uses, and how to train/fit for it.

Logistics

Discuss Shield, Armor and Cap Logi

Scouts

Discuss scouting in covops, and non-covops +1 scouts etc. Discuss out of corp scouts, and that the uni does not use them.