How to start PvPing

"Buy a hundred frigates and keep throwing them until you get good" is one of the most often heard pieces of advice when people ask how to start their PvP career. Even putting aside the fact that it's simply not within a budget for a new player, it's like bashing your head against a brick wall and celebrating when it finally breaks. If you approach it in a smart way, you won't have to spend hundreds of millions of ISK on ships which lifespan can be counted in minutes. Let's get you prepared for your first PvP adventure!

Build a bank

There's one more ancient advice in Eve saying that "never fly something you can't afford to replace" - this one is worth sticking to. Build a comfortable budget reserve, that will let you buy at least 5 fitted ships you want to fly. Despite your best efforts, you will lose the ship so it's better to plan ahead and be prepared for that eventuality.

Select a ship

While there are many factors to consider, you should pay special attention to the following:

• Your skillset - see what your character is trained into and pick accordingly. While not mandatory, having access to T2 weapons and ammo enhances your tactical options and engagement profile

• Ease of use - starting with dual web, dual tank Hookbill may not be the best idea just because there are so many modules to manage. Start with a ship that is simple to use

• Panic buttons - while simple fits are great, it's also worth considering having few outs when the fight doesn't go your way. Energy neutralizers and weapon disruption can be used to turn around fights that aren't going your way

• Engagement profile - early on you are most likely not well versed in all the fits, matchups and the overall meta. That's why I'd recommend picking a ship with wide engagement profile, one where you can take a fight to many different ships, rather than one that excels at countering few specific fits

• Find the right size - some people find frigate PvP overwhelming given its incredibly fast pace. If you have the budget for it, try experimenting with bigger ships, as the increased HP gives you more time to act during the fight

To brawl or to kite?

Brawlers are ships fighting within warp scrambler range (up 8km but usually less), kiters are using the extender range offered by warp disruptors and usually keep about 20km distance between them and the target. For most players, recommend brawling as the go-to playstyle for the new players, given its perceived ease compared to kiting - you just click approach and hope for the best. The problem is, brawling is very committal - it rarely happens that you are given an opportunity to disengage when the fight is not going in your favor, and as a new player, you will be disadvantaged both with your SP and ISK put into the ship, making this a very risky approach. That's why I recommend taking the kiting road and dealing damage from safer distance. With micro warp drive and long range weapons, you can poke your target and assess whether it is a fight you want to take, or disengage and try your luck with another target. Also, due to their overall lower DPS, kiters give you more 'PvP time' per fight than the brawlers, letting you get more experience from each encounter.

Set your goals

Having goals will help you measure your progress and will focus you on specific activities to make sure you learn, rather than just throw your ships into random fights. Keep in mind these don't have to be strictly kill-related, as these may be hard to achieve early in your career. Here's a few examples to get you started:

• Capture a plex in a busy system (avoiding getting piled on by a hostile fleet is a good skill to have)

• Use directional scanner to find potential targets (even if you don't go for engagement, being comfortable with d-scan is one of the key PvP skills)

• Keep the target warp disrupted for given amount of time (focus on your positioning and get to feel how ships interact with each other when orbiting and approaching)

Find a community

Even if your goal is to become the best solo PvP pilot, joining a dedicated community will greatly increase your chances of succeeding. Having someone to review your recorded fights, share fits with or share experiences with will speed up the process of learning. It's hard to spot what you are doing wrong when you're just starting out, and a supporting crew will be more than happy to put you on a path to success.

Sample fits

Here is a list of few ships that I like to recommend to people starting their PvP adventures.

Brawl Neut Tristan (click the arrow to show the fit)

The brawling Tristan leans very heavily into 'panic button' territory. With triple energy neutralizer, it can cripple most brawlers in just few cycles, rendering them unable to deal damage and control range. Pick fights with ships that require capacitor to fire their weapons - most Gallente and Amarr hulls, along with some Caldari vessels won't be able to deal damage under heavy cap pressure. When in doubt, check if the ship has bonus to either Hybrid or Energy turrets.

Your game plan is to launch your drones at the target, then get in range of your neutralizers (orbit 3km) and stagger the neuts on your target - activate one neutralizer, then another one when the first is at 1/3 of its cycle, and then the third one with the same time interval. Keep it up until you see in your log that the neutralizers are no longer draining the cap, and switch to one or two neuts to keep them cap dry. If you don't like your odds, align to a warp spot and activate all the neuts you have, hopefully creating an opening where they don't have enough capacitor to activate their scrambler.

Kite Condor (click the arrow to show the fit)

The Condor is my go-to when it comes to entry level PvP. it has the speed, easy to use weapon system, and thanks to reduced cap usage of warp disruptor, can stay in a fight almost indefinitely. Weapon disruption (and with more fitting skills, energy neutralizer) provide tactical options when you get caught in brawling range.

As opposed to the Tristan, you want to stay at around 20km range with the Condor. Setting your orbit to 16-18km gives you enough leeway with the inertia pushing you further than you would expect. Rather than closing in when the targets start pulling away, overheat your warp disruptor to keep them from fleeing, and unheat it when your ship catches up to its intended range. Keep bashing them with missiles until they drop (or you realize you simply don't have the DPS to break them, which may happen vs some specific solo fits).

Summary

I have scored my first solo kill after 12 years of playing the game. I also celebrated with my corpmates their first solos scored within 3 days from creating their character. No matter where you are in your space adventure, there is no wrong time to start shooting other people. Be smart, be prepared, and be willing to learn from all the explosions - with the right attitude, you won't even notice when you will pass the 1000 killmarks milestone.