Moments ago I was replying to post over at the EVE Online Forum asking if it was possible to learn PVP in Big ships like Battleships and Battlecruisers.

You probably know that my typical advice to those wanting to learn is to start with Frigates. The stuff you learn in them will help you with every ship in the game and they are cheap so you can afford lots of “lessons.”

This guy however has a few billion ISK to spare and doesn’t care for frigates, so I told him how to solo PVP with Battleships fairly cheaply using tank as the disengage tactic.

The Ability to Disengage is CRUCIAL to solo PVP. Chances are you will be blobbed in most fights and you need to be able to escape when it’s unfavorable.

Frigates do this with speed, dual propulsion, kiting, and by isolating very well. But for most big ships that’s not an option because unless you’re in a Macherial, you’ll likely be one of the slowest ships of the field.

That’s where tanking comes in…

There are two basic tanking strategies:

1. Buffer Tank – This is where you increase your ships EHP (Effective Hit Points) to very large numbers (typically 100,000 to 300,000). Doing this makes it very slow for anyone to kill you, which gives you time to de-aggro and jump or dock to escape.
2. Active Tank – An active tank uses either a Shield Booster or Armor Repairer to repair damage, hopefully more damage than you are receiving. This requires more effort, management, skill, and experience to do well, but it can be a VERY good way to go.

Alone these strategies do well in many types of encounters, however to be able to disengage you MUST fight on a Gate or Station!

To be successful in Solo PVP you need to always expect to be blobbed (you will be right 90% of the time). Therefor you must plan for it and have a counter.

The one used here is docking or  jumping through a gate after the Aggro Timer has expired.

What is the Aggro Timer? It’s a hidden timer in the game that starts counting 1 minute every time you commit an aggressive act on another player. This includes warp scrambling, webbing, ewar, shooting, drones, etc. Each time you aggro your timer is reset to 1 minute. During that minute you cannot jump or dock.

So the trick here is knowing when to “De-Aggro” (stop aggressing) in order to have time to allow the timer to expire and escape. You really need to think about this ahead of time and throughout the fight because it is your most important decision.

Ideally a fight would go down like this…

You warp to a gate with 3 Battlecruisers in your Buffer Tanked Abaddon (200,000+ EHP) and begin engaging them. They think they can win because they have 3 times as many ships as you and shoot back. Moments later you destroy one BC and move to the next.

BUT then Directional Scan shows incoming. It looks like 8 more BC’s are on the way. You immediately stop aggroing and orbit the gate at 500m (to avoid being bumped).

The hostile fleet lands and you spam jump as your Armor begins to melt… 90%, 80%, 50%, 30% then you finally jump and escape on the other side because they focused everything on one side instead of covering both sides.

The key here is knowing when to disengage, which takes some practice and planning.

Go out and give this a try and see how you like it, it can be very fun and in many cases the fact that fights happen slower than with frigates means you will have more time to make decisions.

To see this entire Article GOTO: Tanking as a Solo PVP Tactic

Face it, you can’t PVP if you can’t find targets…

Which is why I’ve been focusing on Scanning Videos more recently. However in the past videos, some of my example footage wasn’t as clear and easy to understand as I wanted it to be, so I wanted to do another quick example for you to make sure you got it.

In this video I show you how I scan out a Drake and Maelstrom in a Anomaly at high speed and warp in on them. You will learn how you can do this quickly as well. (I highly recommend my other scanning videos too, just search for “scanning”)

Remember to watch full screen at 720p

To see this entire Article GOTO: Quick Directional Scanning Example

In the past I’ve talked about Misdirection and how important it is take advantage of your opponents mistakes.

In this article I want to talk about a trick you can use to encourage your opponent to over extend himself and make mistakes you can exploit.

When your opponent believes he’s winning, he’s more likely to take more risks and further commit himself to a fight.

Let’s look at two example scenarios…

First:

You and your small gang are attacking a Drake in Null Sec Space. His tank is rock steady and you’re making almost no progress, so you decide to disengage because he has just killed one of your Cruisers.

Bait Tankin’ Scenario:

You and your small gang are attacking a Drake in Null Sec. His tank is dropping steadily and he’s right at 20% Shield, you’ve lost one of your cruisers, but you know most drakes go down very fast once they pass peak shield recharge (about 30% shield), so you stick it out and tell your gang to “OVERLOAD!”

Unfortunately, his shield holds steady and he continues to drop your gang, one ship at a time. Only as you are tackled and dying do you see the Shield Boosting effect on his ship and realize it was all a trap.

This is just the beginning. Another example is an opponent or gang that is scared to engage you. They fire at you from range but never come in close and commit. If your tank holds steady they will never engage.

However, should you be in a Brutix and they see you in low Armor, they are likely to run in close to try to finish you off. When they do, you secure your tackle and turn on your Dual Armor Repairs.

This Is Misdirection

…And it’s one aspect of EVE that very few games have to this degree. Things like this raise PVP from just “lock target and shoot” to a full on battle of minds.

Because so many fights are “Voluntary” in EVE you MUST learn misdirection to get people to fight you.

If you fly a Thrasher, almost no frigates will fight you, because they know they will likely lose.

If you fly a Moa with small blasters and a web + scram, a lot more frigates will fight you and most of them will die.

If you want to radically improve your PVP, get more fights, and win them, you need to start thinking of how you can use misdirection.

To see this entire Article GOTO: Bait Tankin – Encouraging Mistakes

I spend A LOT of time roaming Null Sec space. That means I come across ratters all the time and most of those tend to be in Cosmic Anomalies and not Asteroid Belts.

In the past I would do an anomaly scan, then start with the most valuable anomalies and work my way down. Basically making vague guesses at where they were.

This strategy rarely worked and it was very slow and annoying.

Then I realized that you could actually see the anomalies on the Solar System Map. This changed everything!

Because if I can first find the anomaly runners ship on directional, I can use the direction and angle relative to my position and a celestial object to figure out where they are.

This could be said in very complex geometric terms and all that but in the end it’s just:

• “OK, he’s showing as above planet 6 on directional”
• “Which anomalies are above planet 6?”
• “There he is!”

Using this method I am able to find anomaly runners just as fast or even faster than belt ratters.

Watch the video below to see this method in action…

Watch in Full Screen at 720p

To see this entire Article GOTO: How To Find Anomaly Runners Instantly With The Directional Scanner

Most of my EVE Career has been spent fighting outnumbered. First as a PVPer in an Industrial Alliance fighting off a large Pirate Alliance, then as a small group of PVPers living in IT (BOB) Space outnumbered 100 to 1 most the time, and finally against Test and Goons 10k members.

To survive against massive numbers like this you have to find ways to leverage what you have. One fun way to do that is with “Ambush Tactics.”

At it’s most simple this is something like we would do when Test would camp our Station with 20-50 pilots. Usually we only had 5-10 players online so we had to be creative.

The solution was Bombs! We would get one of our guys to undock and get them aggroed, then we would use some creative bookmarks to do a bombing run while they were all aggroed.

We would let the bombs loose, our bait would dock, and then we would watch as the enemy fleet melted to our bombs.

You can see some footage I took of this in my video Timebomb

You can take this a step further by luring a enemy fleet into a trap.

Think about it, if you’re a blob chasing an easy kill (a non cloaky Tengu or something) and it makes a obvious warp to a planet, would you have your fleet follow it?

Of course!

Now what if that Tengu actually warped to a Safe Spot 300km off the warp in to the planet and there was a Mobile Warp Disruptor Bubble anchored at Zero?

The Tengu bait would land safely off bubble while the entire enemy fleet would land in the bubble (even if they warp to 100).

Now what if there were 8 Bombers sitting there ready to bomb? And they released bombs the moment the first enemy came out of warp?

BOOOOOM!!! is what will happen!

You would have forced a very large fleet of “fish” into a tight little barrel and then blown it up with dynamite. Much better than shooting fish in a barrel!

In this example, the larger your enemies fleet, the better, because more ships mean more kills for you.

This is just one of the many ways you can fight out numbered and still embarrass large blobs!

Learn more about fighting out numbered and getting Crazy Solo Kills in The Frigate PRO PVP Guide

To see this entire Article GOTO: It’s an Ambush!

In the above video you can see a real world example of EVE Online Elite Level PVP…

Imagine there is a 100 strong herd of BattleCruisers passing by your small fleet of 10 Battlecruisers.

There’s no way you win this fight is there?

Actually there is!

You just need to Isolate one or even several of the herd like the Cheetah did.

One of my favorite ways to do this is to sit at a “tactical” safe spot 200-400km off the gate they are coming in through.

Then as they start warping off, you warp a interceptor down to the gate at zero.

The Inty then tackles one of the last targets to warp away and the rest of your fleet (which was aligned) warps in for the kill.

The targets “herd” is in warp and can’t stop to help their friend… They must first exit warp on other side of the system, re-align, and then warp back across the system.

By the time they do this you will probably have not only killed the target but looted and salvaged the wreck just for laughs.

If you want to learn more about PRO Level PVP and Isolation tactics, check out my Free Videos by Clicking HERE

To see this entire Article GOTO: How to Hunt Herds Like a Cheetah

After over 4 months of hard work it’s finally done!

The Frigate PRO PVP Guide is over 4 hours of hardcore “teach you to kick ass” video PLUS added text guides and audio.

All of EVE will remember this day, when hordes of EVE Pilots took their PVP to the PRO level faster than ever before…

Learn more here: http://www.eveproguides.com/frigate-pvp-pro-guide/

To see this entire Article GOTO: JUMP JUMP JUMP – The Frigate PRO PVP Guide is LIVE!!!

As I write this article the release of my much anticipated Frigate PRO PVP Guide is just over 24 hours from being released.

Never before in the history of EVE Online has there been such an effective, powerful, and fast way to learn PVP.

Before if you wanted to learn, you were pretty much stuck reading for hundreds of hours to try to pick up a few decent tips, then dying for months on end as you learned every hard lesson your self.

And that’s just for the lucky people! Most people quit long before they experience the pure rush and thrills of PVP.

I faced this same problem when I started. I spent well over a year trying to learn, but there simply wasn’t any good teaching material available!

PVP videos helped but for some crazy reason everyone sped them up, hid their mouse cursor, and put in loud music. The only way to learn was to get a video editor and play the videos in slow mo!

And guess what?

That’s exactly what I did!

I put in thousands of hours, maybe even 10′s of thousands of hours studying the best pilots in the game. The amount of work needed to pull out just one good tactic was extreme!

Fast forward to today…

I told my self back then, that when I became a PRO I would go back and make things right. I would create the things I wished existed back when I was learning.

I would create VIDEO (not worthless text) so people could SEE what I did.

I would TALK over my videos so people could hear what I was doing and learn from them.

I would illustrate and teach with my videos, NOT make them all about “Look at me! Look at me! I’m PRO!!!”

And that’s EXACTLY what I did with the Frigate PRO PVP Guide!!!

I’ve created close to four and half HOURS of instructional video. (and I’ll probably add more in the future)

All of that video is focused on teaching you in detail every part of PRO PVP. The Tactics, the fits, the mindset, EVERYTHING!

This is all about taking YOU from where ever your are right now and rocketing  you to a PRO level as quickly as possible!

You will learn Low Sec PVP, Null Sec PVP, High Sec PVP, Bubble Camping, Camp Busting, and more!

And here’s the best part…

You will learn in hours what took me years and thousands of hours to learn!

If I could go back and get this type of video when I was starting I would pay a fortune for it because it would have saved me sooo much time and effort. But most importantly it would have made my time in EVE much much more fun over the years.

The Frigate PRO PVP Guide will be released on Thursday March 1st at 12:01am Eastern Standard Time (that’s GMT -05:00).

Everyone who orders on day 1 will get a special invite to an exclusive PVP Class and Q&A with me a few days later. This will give you the opportunity to get direct feedback and accelerate the whole process for you. But ONLY those who order on day 1 will be invited, so don’t miss out.

If you would like to get access to the FREE Preview Videos and get notified on Launch day click here: http://www.eveproguides.com/free-pvp-video-series/

To see this entire Article GOTO: March 1st – The Day PVP In EVE Online Changed

OK…

When I was a kid I was decent at drawing… That skill seems to have gone away with age. But I still managed to create a pretty cool and fun video that teaches a “PRO” PVP tactic.

Once you see this video you will probably have an “AH HA!” moment, it’s that cool.

To watch it you need to go to our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/EVEProGuides

Once you get to that page click “Like” and you should see it right there on top (if you are doing it within a few days of this article), otherwise you may have to go into the videos section to see it.

This video’s pretty cool so don’t miss it.

Link again: http://www.facebook.com/EVEProGuides

Make sure you Click “Like” while you’re there.

To see this entire Article GOTO: FREE Guerrilla PVP Lesson on Facebook

“Give it some heat!”

I’ve found my self saying that many times in fleets. Maybe I’m the only FC that talks like that, I’m not sure. What I mean by “heat” is for the fleet to overload their guns.

Whether Solo or in Fleet, using your overload properly could easily mean the difference between winning and losing.

The reason is because it allows you to increase your effectiveness by 15% or more depending on what you’re doing.

Most Guns and Missiles will get a 15% boost to Damage Output. Shield Boosters and Armor Repairs get a 10% boost and Microwarpdrives get a 50% bonus to speed!

Here’s a secret that the Super PRO PVPers don’t talk about: The secret to pulling off insane victories is often just a few percent.

The more effective your modules are the more likely you are to win your fights. Think of it as increasing your probability. Loading the dice.

Every little bit of extra performance, whether it’s more damage output, better tank, or whatever, increases your probability of victory and loads the dice a little more in your favor.

This is why so many of the Super Elite PVPers use implants, drugs, command link bonus alts, etc. They know that to fight at a insane level they need to load their dice as much as possible.

This doesn’t mean you can discount skill though, because a bad PVPer with every possible advantage will still make bad choices and perform badly. These things simply magnify the skills you do have.

Overloading can load your dice heavily and it doesn’t cost you a billion ISK in implants.

In this Video Guide you will learn not just how to overload, but more importantly when to overload and how to get the biggest possible advantage from your overloading.

Remember to watch in 720p on Full Screen

If you want more even cooler PVP Lessons and Guides, you can get them here: http://www.eveproguides.com/free-pvp-video-series/

To see this entire Article GOTO: Overloading Video Guide