Solo PvP

Solo PvP is said to be a thing mostly abandoned by the greater Eve community, for myriad reasons and circumstance, some of which I am familiar with, and others that I am not. I don't buy that. As such, this article shall outline basic skills and tactics as they apply to solo and small gang PvP in lowsec, with an emphasis on frigate piloting.

The key is to find your fights, instead of waiting for them. This means fighting on your terms, as an aggressor. If you feel that you're compromising your optimal circumstance in order to fight a fight, there's a good chance you'll lose.

If you are a member of Eve University, please be aware of The Uni's Rules of Engagement, and uphold them while soloing.

Why

Learning to solo PvP helps you develop a skillset that any FC will appreciate. You will become competent with using your d-scan, comfortable flying as a +1 skirmish or scout, and have a situational awareness that only comes from doing PvP. The losses you suffer are worth the ISK price you pay to become a better PvPer. Many players also find solo PvP very rewarding as your kills and losses are based on your own abilities, and not that of the fleet.

Ship Choice and Fitting

A frigate is a cheap and versatile ship. Flown well, it can pose a serious threat to other frigates, cruisers, and the occasional battlecruiser.

When your frigate explodes, you won't be so readily dissuaded from PvP, as they're easy to replace. The Uni runs a t1 frigate ship replacement program, which means that if you insure your ship, you'll not only receive a new one from the Uni hangar, but also a good chunk of ISK you can spend replacing your modules.

T2 frigates are also excellent for solo pvp. Though the hulls are quite a bit more expensive, assault frigates and combat interceptors do remarkably well in solo and small gang PvP. The combat interceptor has the benefit of a 9au warpspeed, which allows for quick movement across and throughout systems. There are times where you'll give chase, and arrive at your targets destination before they do. Which is EPIC.

If you're looking to get the most bang for your buck, arguably the best choice for a solo PvP ship is a t1 destroyer. These ships are specialised frigate killers, and even with relatively low skills they're capable of taking on any t1 or faction frigate (as well as many t2 frigates) with a good chance of coming out ahead. You might need to be slightly more careful when fighting larger ships with your destroyer, since their slightly lower speed and larger signature radius makes it harder to evade cruiser-sized guns than it would be in a frigate.

Once you've chosen the hull you'll be using for PvP, you'll obviously need to fit it. Afterburners and active tanks reign supreme, in the authors estimation, for a few reasons.

Afterburners do not make your signature radius bloom, nor do they become deactivated by warp scramblers. If you're flying a frigate, you'll usually be fighting inside of scram range, and the extra speed that an afterburner offers is very welcome, as is a teensy signature radius. The reason is simple. The monstrous DPS that your hypothetical enemy possesses only works if they can hit you. Speed, combined with a close orbit and small signature bloom, turn the eft warrior's paper DPS into a much smaller number.

Active tanks allow for prolonged engagements, and reduce the likelihood of you dying to frigates that fight outside of scram range. Frigates that fight outside of scram range and apply kiting tactics usually do little dps, and instead rely on their ability to whittle you down. If you're repping it back, you're more survivable. If you're buffer fit, you're screwed. Sometimes a kiting enemy will become frustrated with your tenacity, and enter your scram range in order to hit harder. BOOM, now they're fighting on your terms.

Look for fits in the Eve University ship fitting database, located here. Yet another decent spot to look for fits is Battleclinic. Also check out Scrapheap Challenge, though it's a bit hard to navigate. (broken link) Remember, try to understand a fit before you fly it, and your chances of success are greater.

Directional Scanning

Directional scanning is an amazingly useful thing to know how to do, and I will venture to say that it's your primary lowsec soloing skill. Knowing how to d-scan allows you to find your fights, instead of waiting for your fights.

It's assumed that you've taken the time to utilize the Overview Guide. A properly arranged overview is crucial to your ability to fight engagements. That being said, the Uni overview does not lend itself well to scanning, as by default, most of your brackets are turned off. We'll remedy that.

To supplement the standard Uni overview, you can create a new preset in which near everything is selected. Planets, belts, etc... Any object that you believe an unsavory pilot may have reason to visit. Save the preset as "Bracket" or a similar naming convention. Now, in your overview settings, you can set your bracket profile so that all brackets pertinent to scanning are showing. The brackets don't clutter up your overview, but simply give you celestial objects to scan towards while you're in space.

Typically, when entering a system, you'll scan at 360 degrees to see what's close by in space. If a ship of interest appears on d-scan, start narrowing your scan towards various celestials (Asteroid belts are typically where you’ll find ships in lowsec).

Once you've reasonably narrowed your scan towards the celestial where you suspect your target is, warp to it at whatever distance you're comfortable with. The idea is to only warp to a fight you think you'll win, so this means you'll oftentimes be warping in at 0km.

Watch this video if directional scanning remains ambiguous ---> Goonswarm d-scan tutorial. Do not be discouraged if you don't get it right the first time, as it takes practice.

Being able to quickly scan down potential targets is crucial. Hit hard, hit fast, and don't give your enemy time to rally the cavalry. Again, what you're attempting to do is destroy that wonderful advantage called choice.

If your narrowed directional scans produce no result, but you can still see your enemy on a 360 scan, try your system scanner as a last ditch effort. Sometimes pirates and the like will rat in anomalies, and you can make their ratting experience loads more thrilling. The nice thing about anomalies is that if you happen to catch a pilot inside one, there's a fair chance that he's already drawn aggression from the rats.

Further reading exists on the Eve University wiki here ---> Directional Scanner Guide

Gate and Station Guns

Unless your target is an outlaw pilot, aggressing within sight of a station or a gate will provoke sentry fire, as you’ve earned yourself a Criminal flag. In a frigate or cruiser sized hull, this whittling hail will quickly demolish you. Be aware of this, and favor only attacking outlaw pilots if attacking anyone at all.

As a neophyte PvP solo pilot, it’s best to avoid fights that take place on stations. There are peculiar mechanics involved, and they boil down to the fact that your target has a homefield advantage.

By attacking a pilot that is hugging a station, you're delegating the choice to engage to your target. Once you’ve aggressed them, they can dock up if the fight isn't favorable, or pound the hell out of you if it is. There is also the possibility that the target has friends inside of the station who will happily undock once you’ve aggressed, as in aggressing, you’re disallowed from entering the station for a full minute.

Fighting on gates... is not as risky for aggressors as fighting on stations. The likelihood of new enemy elements appearing is diminished (though not absent). The same rules apply to stations in that once you’ve aggressed a target, you will not be able to go through the gate for a full minute.

It is ideal for a solo PvPer to wait for outlaw pilots to engage first when on grid with stations of gates, as you'll earn the sympathies of sentry guns, and once again the choice to engage has become yours. A powerful thing.

Gatecamps

They happen. If you're in a frigate, you'll usually be alright. Sometimes you won't. If you jump into a gatecamp, there's a few things you can do to survive.

Spam your warp button and hope that you get into warp. If your ship pops, since you're spamming that button, chances are your pod will warp merrily away. Another option is to burn back to the gate you just came through. Wait for your session timer to expire, then head back to the gate with your prop mod pushing you along. If they web you down, you probably won't make it.

Gates that lead from highsec into lowsec are good candidates to suspect of a gatecamp. Sometimes, the highsec side will have someone in local screaming "GATECAMP IN HAGILUR!!! JUMP AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!"

Plexes

Plexes are those celestial beacons that you’ll sometimes see in your overview, with names like “Gallente Control Bunker”. They come in many flavors, some being Faction Warfare objectives, and others being anomalies that have been spawned by pilots.

Plexes are a strange environment to fight in. They allow for microwarp drive usage, but once inside the plex, you cannot warp within it. This means that if you're tackling something for your fleetmates, they'll have to slowboat the entire distance to you once they've entered the plex. For this reason, pilots will wait in plexes for ships to appear, knowing that they can engage and disengage before the rest of the fleet can get to them.

Hunting Grounds

Barring yourself from doing certain things until you feel you meet certain prerequisites is a good way to hold yourself back. Let's skip that part. If you want to live with others, try the Low-Sec Camp. Alternatively, find a good lowsec pocket with highsec access, and move there. Immediately. Opportunities for solo and small gang abound when you live in lowsec.

This article was originally written by The Black Sheep - because only one can be the best.