EYES ON: Intro and Index
EYES ON
A GUIDE TO KNOWING YOUR ENEMY
The Story So Far:
I began playing Eve in 2012. A good friend of mine, Alex, played it way back in the early days and I loved his stories of running around in Rifters and tearing people up. The freedom to do what you want, how you want, to whoever you want was very liberating.
Then I started playing. It was like an accounting class, wikipedia, and Battlestar Galactica had a weird night in Mos Eisley. It was beautifully intimidating because so much was there to be learned, all set against a galaxy of danger and mystery. I was hooked.
But as I found out repeatedly, the strongest weapon in EVE is knowledge. So I dug into blogs looking to arm myself. I found Crossing Zebras, Jester's Trek, Sand Cider and Spaceships, EVEOGANDA, and Azual Skoll. All of them made me better, but Azual had a really solid guide detailing ship classes, fits, how to fly them… and kill them. It was a turning point, because knowing what your opponent is likely to do can let you know what you need to do to get a victory. I ate it up, and started winning.
Time marched on, ships got added, others got modified, and instead of being a random victim of pirates, I was now one of them. One night in discord, I asked the Pirate Lord of Lowsec, Rixx Javix, if he had ever thought about whether a ship guide would be useful. By the end of the night a bunch of us were discussing it, and we found out that most of the guides were either a decade out of date, or completely shut down.
So here I am, taking up a torch passed across the years; writing a guide to help you gain a basic understanding of the ships in Eve, what they can do, and hopefully help you win fights as the greats did for me. There are more in depth guides out there, to be sure, but as a quick reference to familiarize yourself, I think it will help.
Guide to the Guide
This will be primarily aimed at people learning PvP in EVE. Whether new to Eve, or an old player just trying out PvP for the first time, this quick reference will help build the knowledge you need to fly successfully.
With Factional Warfare changes coming SoonTM, I am going to cover the ship classes first which are most commonly seen in those areas of space. The guide will be broken down into headings with the name of the Plex, and subheadings for the ship classes that can fit into it. This is not strictly for FW lowsec use, but those size restrictions should make it easier to prepare for our loyalist friends. Look up the Novice Plex heading, and you will have the 4 or 5 empire articles, as well as Pirate and Faction ships in it. If you know you will be flying in Novice plexes, that's the one to study first. For everyone else, enjoy the reading, there will be plenty!
A Note on Roles
Ships all have different bonuses, and that largely determines how they are fit and flown. I have noted in the guide the primary and secondary roles you generally find ships performing. These are not hard and fast roles, but rather what are generally seen, as well as ways to counter them.
BRAWLING: Favors close range weapons, scramblers and/or webs and as close an orbit as possible. Very high damage, but also has to totally commit to the fight. Countered by kiting or scram-kiting, thus staying out of their damage range, EWAR, or in some cases energy neutralizers to shut off those high damage weapons.
SCRAM-KITING: Similarly to brawlers, generally use close range weapons, but with the aim of staying at the edge of scrambler range, around 8-11km from target. This prevents a lot of brawlers from applying dps, and gives an easier escape if needed. Countered by brawlers if they can close range, kiting if they can stay at range, and drones.
KITING: Operates at disruptor range of 20-24km using long range weapons. Very hard to counter, but generally has high speed, extremely thin tank and lower dps, so if you can catch it, you can kill it. Countered by scramblers (especially range bonused ones) and good flying. Learning how to slingshot someone kiting into your web range will spell their doom, but takes a lot of practice. I’ll make or link an article on that SoonTM.
TACKLE: Often used by fleets, and has two roles: keep the target from warping off, and don’t die. I’ll let you guess which one is easier. Anything can be used as tackle, from Supercarriers with fighters to a T1 frigate, but the best ships for it are either fast and evasive, or able to tank heavy damage. Some ships, like Interceptors and Heavy Interdiction Cruisers are bonused for it quite heavily. Countered by EWAR, energy neutralizers, and in the case of frigate tackle, drones.
SNIPING: Not seen as much these days, due to speed creeping up on most ships, but simply put, you use long range weapons to shoot from 80-150km, where no one can do anything about you. Lower dps, and your target can flee, but if they die in a few shots, it doesn't matter. Countered by speed, Micro Jump Drives, or EWAR.
EWAR: Electronic WARfare is its own unique niche. By itself you can’t kill anyone with it, but adding it to fleets can take an enemy ship partially or completely out of a fight. Dampeners reduce lock range and speed, Tracking or Missile Disruptors reduce application and range of their respective weapon systems, Target Painters make it easier to apply damage to the target ship (Torpedoes applying 5k volleys to cruisers anyone?), and ECM has a chance to make an enemy ship unable to target anyone but the jamming ship for 20 seconds. Countered by a module with opposite effects (Tracking Computer against Tracking Disruptor) or by killing/outranging the EWAR ship. Most EWAR platforms are relatively fragile for their ship class, so they aren't hard to kill or drive off… if you can do it through the EWAR. Drones are usually a good bet, since other than ECM, nothing affects them, and they’ll stay on the EWAR ship til it dies or leaves.
LOGISTICS: Logi are the healers of EVE. They restore shield or armor hitpoints to friendly ships (or enemy ships on occasion…oops) and can make a fleet last a very long time when properly flown. Some of the most powerful force multipliers, they are also some of the highest priority targets in game. You WILL be the primary target of your enemies if you fly Logi. Also, you will collect oceans of tears when you make a fleetmate just. Not. Die. There are 3 basic types of logi: Shield, with short range, but long falloff, and restoring hitpoints at the start of a cycle while using a lot of cap. Armor is long ranged, but short falloff, and restores at the end of the cycle with lower cap use. Triglavian logistics uses Mutadaptive Remote Armor Repairers, which restore armor at the end of the cycle, have very long range, no falloff, and restore more armor with every cycle. Only downside, is that repair resets if they switch targets or lose target lock. Countered by EWAR, capacitor warfare (logi hates the Curse) and just plain clubbing them to death as fast as possible. Most of them aren't very durable, so the last part is easy if you can actually catch them.
The Guide
Updated as I Finish Articles
Novice FW Plex Ships
(T1, Navy, Pirate frigates)
Miscellaneous Tech I Frigates
Navy Faction Frigates
Pirate Faction Frigates
Small FW Plex Ships
(T2 Frigates, T1 and T2 Destroyers)
Coming SoonTM
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