This is an old revision of the document!
Fighting in a fleet is a lot of fun, and it is, in many ways, the classic EVE experience. However fighting solo, or in a small group of 2 or 3 people can be just as fun, much easier to get set up, and importantly, is one of the best ways to develop your all-round PvP skills. Skills such as scouting, target calling and overall FC’ing are all very transferable from solo or small groups, right up to huge fleets. In EVE, many of the best FCs started out in solo or small gang situations, and many of them still roam solo when not leading fleets.
In Low and High Security space, taking hostile action against a pilot not flagged as a criminal, a war target or a suspect will result in a loss of your own security status. Therefore, engaging in regular PvP as described in this guide will inevitably reduce your security status. This is why Low Sec is often described as pirate space. Low security status can cause you to be attacked by faction police when entering High Security space.
If you continue to live in lowsec or nullsec, having a low security status is unlikely to affect you as you can simply use a hauler alt, or a hauling corporation to get ships and other supplies from Highsec to where you live.
Should you wish to retain the ability to travel back into High Security space at any time without restriction, you can always take actions to recover your security status, either by killing NPC rats, or by redeeming Clone Soldier Tags.
While fighting in Null-Sec, Wormhole, or even High Sec space is perfectly possible, the majority of small scale PvP is done in Low Security space. Specifically, those areas of Low Sec designated as “Faction Warfare Space”
Faction Warfare mechanics includes many features which are specific to corporations and individuals who elect to align themselves to one faction, as described in more detail in the Faction Warfare Wiki page. For the purposes of this guide however, we will only be considering those aspects which relate to all players, regardless of affiliation.
Faction Warfare space contains Factional Warfare Complexes (commonly known as Plexes which are effectively PvP arenas.
Ships for PvP in general are grouped primarily by their optimal range. All other things being equal, winning a PvP fight, whether solo, or when leading a huge fleet, usually means ensuring that you are in your optimal range, and your opponent is not.
In Low Sec PvP, as most fighting is in plexes where much of the engagement takes place around the fixed point of the beacon, it’s important to note that Micro-Warp Drives (MWDs) are generally not preferred, as they can be immediately de-activated by a warp scrambler, rendering you at an immediate speed disadvantage. While MWDs can be useful for Kiters, and some more unusual fits, the predominant propulsion module used is the afterburner. It should be noted though that in Null Sec PvP, without Plex mechanics, MWD fitted ships are the dominant force.
Brawlers use high damage, close range weapons, such as blasters or pulse lasers. Because of this, they rely on quickly getting into close range, and preventing opponents from pulling away.
Due to range being key, fast brawlers like the Atron or Federation Navy Comet are very useful here due to their raw speed, as well as the damage boosts to brawling weapons. An alternative is a ship which carries dual stasis webs, such as the dual-web armor Kestrel or the Caldari Navy Hookbill. These are relatively slow ships in general terms, however the double web effect applied to your opponent will remove the speed advantage of almost any other ship, and allow you to dictate range despite being the slower ship on paper.
An effective defence against a brawler is to fight from outside their optimal range, but still within warp scrambler and web range, normally between 7–9km. This is called “Scram Kiting”. At this point, brawling damage will be minimal, however mid-range weapons such as beam lasers, railguns or rockets can still hit an opponent for substantial damage.Once again, this tactic relies on relative speed to maintain range.
For this reason, scram-kite ships often still fit speed modules and rigs to try and maintain speed advantage. Common scram-kiters include Breacher, Tormentor and Incursus. The Dual-Web Kestrel and Caldari Navy Hookbill noted earlier can also be equally effective as a scram-kiter as rockets can deal effective damage up to 9km, while the dual webs maintain your speed advantage.
The other key factor in the meta are long range kiting ships. These will equip a warp disrupter to tackle at 20km+ ranges, and use long range weapons to fight well beyond the range of other ships. They are generally glass cannons, maximized for speed and damage. As they will not be able to apply a stasis web to their opponent at such long ranges, they usually rely on Micro-Warp Drives to maintain a speed advantage. However as a MWD can be switched off by a warp scrambler, if they can be closed down and tackled they will usually die quickly.
A good Kiting ship who is already inside a plex is very difficult to kill, as they will orbit the beacon well outside of scram range, and closing them down is very challenging. A ship such as a Tormentor with beam lasers can switch to long range ammo to damage the kiting ship at range, but without the ability to close range and get tackle, the Kiter is likely to simply warp away if they take too much damage. The primary disadvantage of a kiting ship is that they are very poor at attacking a plex, as any defending ship is likely to immediately scram and web them on the beacon and prevent them pulling range.
While very uncommon, snipers aim to sit at extreme ranges, with very high alpha damage weapons, and deal huge damage at long ranges as soon as an opponent lands on grid. They are extremely rare in the current meta in Low Sec, however they are more common in Null Sec, particularly in gate camps, and it is important to be aware of the possibility. They usually trade considerable tank and maneuverability for their high damage output, and as with kiters, if they can be closed down they will die rapidly.