Focus on a single thing for any substantial amount of time leads to a high level of a mastery and understanding. Spend 1 hour a day doing anything and you will become great at it very quickly. This is the key to greatness.
In EVE that means, you should NOT change ships or fits every day or even every week. You should pick one ship, one fitting, and one tactical plan. THEN you should stay with it, refine it, and develop it to a level of mastery.
Come closer. Listen: I'm going to tell you about a Pirate I met early in my EVE Online Career (I forgot his name unfortunately). When I first met him he killed one of my corp members in a static plex, then when we attempted revenge, he killed more of us. Months later I fit out a ship JUST for fighting him, to exploit his ship and...
He beat me with ease!
This Pirate was unique because he only flew one ship... The Rifter. Over the course of thousands of kills he never once flew any other ships. He was the only "purist" I have ever met in EVE. Needless to say this guy was a bad ass in a Rifter. His focus made him great.
For a more personal example, I can tell you from experience that I see this effect every time I create a new PVP Guide. As part of the creation of the PVP Guide I will fly only one type of ship for weeks or even months. This usually amounts to hundreds of fights and individual experiences.
Usually the first few fights go poorly and I make stupid mistakes, then as time goes on I slowly become very good at flying that ship. I get an instinctual "feel" for the way it accelerates, how fast it kills targets, the tank, when I need to run or turn in, etc. By the time I'm done I can almost fly the ship without thinking, because I have done it so many times.
This effect continues to build over time, the more you train in your ship, the better you will get.
So my advice to everyone new or old is to resist the Shiny New Toy Syndrome and dedicate a few weeks to each ship you fly to give your self a chance to see the effects this focus will have, then should you find a ship you love, consider making that your primary ship. Study it's stats, how it performs against every target you can think of, what the best orbits are for different situations, what damage types to avoid, what implants compliment it the most, which boosters can improve your performance, and on and on.
This focus will lead you to a whole new level of PVP.
View Comments (10)
Definitely agree. My gang (a Jaguar, a Navy Comet, a Merlin and an Incursus -me) killed the same person 3 times (Jaguar, worst-fitted Vaga, and a dual-rep 220 vulcan Myrmidon) in 30 minutes. Then we switched to cruiser-battlecruiser gang( me in Thorax, a Ferox, a Cyclone, an Omen, and a tacklet-scout Condor), killed his Slepnir and ran away from his fleet (though we lost a Ferox who is fed up with the ship after he insured it) The poor dude's killboard shown that he is definitely switching from ship to ship
does the pro guildes cover the new nerfing and are they updated ?
my main skills are missile based does this exclude me from solo pvping?
Yes, the guides are all up to date. I spent all of December updating everything for the Retribution Expansion.
Missiles DO NOT exclude you from solo PVP. I have a preference for Turrets, but that doesn't mean they are always better. There are alot of Missile Boats that are very good at Solo PVP. Both my Wolf Guide and Hurricane Guide require you use Turrets, but the Frigate PRO Guide has some fits for Missile Frigates. Also the tactics in the Frigate PRO Guide are valid no matter what weapon type you use.
I agree that changing ships often leads to nothing. I used to jump from ship to ship whenever I would here that this ship is good or that ship is better. The important things are the tactics imo. How you use the ship is better than how big the guns are.
I have also started to use the Caracal as my main PVP ship. I use the same tactics shown in the Hurricane and Frigate guides and I have seen an improvement in how the engagements turn out. Still making some mistakes where ships get away when they are in low structure, but hopefully that will change soon.
I think missiles have a big range advantage against guns because there is no falloff. Do you have any tips i could use for the Caracal?
Good to hear... Watch your range and consider reducing your orbit or keep at range a few KM to avoid losing people.
Caracal is best used as a Kite, so I would use it much like you see me using the Hurricane in the Hurricane Guide.
Thanks for the advice. I took out a HAM caracal last night and ran into an Imperial Navy Slicer. I used the tactics for the Hurricane and let him chase me. I hit him with Javelin assaults and he backed off when he was is half armor. I should have turned into him at that point to finish him off. I didn't check local and his friend in a Dram showed up and tackled me. Dunno why but my med neut didn't stop him and the Dram owned me. The Javelins didn't do much damage to him either.
Instead of giving up I went back with another Caracal, was tempted to try another ship but stayed with the Cara just changed to Rapid Launchers. Found the Dram and took him on. He had another friend in a Dram who showed up during the fight and the guy in the slicer followed a minute later. Took out the first Dram (the one who killed me) and the Slicer. Had the other Dram in armor but he got away...couldn't chase because I ran out of cap.
Focus is good. I am learning the cans and can nots of the Caracal and the best tactics to use.
Took on a Ishkur about half an hour later had him in half hull. I more shot and he would have popped but his mates showed up and instapopped me with a Nado.
This is a long post but it proves your point, to me at least. And for all who think that Caldari are terrible PVP ships and missiles are blah, please keep thinking that :)
Thanks for all the lessons.
Very nice! Revenge is served...
Keep it up
With regards to selecting ammo, is it better to start with em for the shields then switch to explosive for armor (10 sec reloading time), or just start off with their weakest resists and stay with that? For example if going against expected shield tank then em all the way but if armor tank em then explosive?
Great example here, but after reading several pirate's blogs through the years I have to ask, would that pilot happen be Kirith Darkblade?
No, that's not it.