First let me preface this by stating that the 20 Frigate Plan is not something that I can take any credit for coming up with but I have not seen it mentioned on these Forums yet and I’d hate to see a good idea die out.
What is the 20 Frigate Plan you ask?
The basic premise of the 20 Frigate Plan is that you go buy 20 of your favorite Frigates fit them all out exactly the same and then head out and ‘lose’ them.
Go to Low-sec (or Null-Sec) and lose twenty of your favorite Frigates or lose Frigates until you can kill 4 pilots in a row with the same fit without dying.
After each engagement try to document it with an ‘After Action Report’ with some of the following information in it:
Overview, Goals and Objectives:
An overall summary of the fight. Was the range dictated? What was the fit you used? Was that fit effective against your opponent?
Analysis of outcomes:
What worked? What didn’t? Did your Pod escape?
Conclusion/Summary and Post Action Thoughts:
Did you forget to overheat? Did you miss noticing your opponents drones? What could help improve your survivability in the future? Do some research and see if you can find your opponents fit on zKillboard.
After every fight think about sending a message to your opponent and thank them for a good fight. Tell them you want to get better at PvP and ask what you could do to improve. Some will respond, some will not, some will send you ISK and the fit they used, some will send you some pointers, others will send salt and scams but just take it all in, send thanks when appropriate and move on to your next fight.
If you’re brand new to EVE the best part of this ‘After Action Report’ documention is that your pilot will end up having a good combat log that can be submitted with an API to a PvP Corp. Most will enjoy the read about your evolution into a combat pilot.
This doesn’t necessarily need to be done with 20 Frigates, you could do this with 20 Cruisers or 20 Battleships or 50 Frigates but for the newer pilots sticking with 20 Frigates will be fairly inexpensive while giving you an introduction to PvP in EVE, a solid lesson in loss and hopefully a number of ‘good fights’ that will get your heart pumping.
Instead of fitting 20 ships exactly the same, I would recommend to start with an afterburner fit, preferably brawl, with as much tank as it can muster.
The longer you last, the more time you have to judge your mistakes and the various details of a confrontation.
When you die, take the time to take a look at the opponents ship information. Notice its bonuses, its base stats like speed, drone bay, utility highs.
Before taking a fight, play with the habit of aligning out from a distance (something easy to do while inside a complex in faction warfare space) and take a look at a ship’s speed as they accelerate towards you. When you get comfortable with establishing what is a moderately safe distance, take a ‘Look at’ their ship and see if you can tell what weapon system they have on those hardpoints. If you’re prealigned you can warp away at any moment.
What damage are they doing and bonused towards?
What damage are you doing, and at what range?
What’s your/their tank like? Buffer, active, limited cap or cap injector supported?
Details you can only build by experience. It can take 20 ships to get that, or it can take you less if you just take a moment to find a safespot and pull the ship information from a quick market search on any ship you’re not familiar with.
Don’t linger too much on your weaknesses. Spend first more time understanding an opponent’s strengths rather than modifications to your own ship to improve something that may not help at all.
Who knows, you might even learn how to counter fit and, even better, do bait counter fits and actually get more fights.
75mm Gatling Rail II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S
75mm Gatling Rail II, Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Infectious Scoped Energy Neutralizer
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Hobgoblin II x5
5 milions including drones. Your buffer will let unexperienced pilot at least understand what is going on instead of immidiate pop with active tank. Keep at range 5 km and try to apply all your high slots and drones on any brawler, that will attack you. Learn how to sling shot kiters - you have buffer for at least 2 attempts.
I feel like maybe 10 brawlers, then 10 kiters then 10 neut focused would be the way to go.
I tried with kiting tristans with this and struggled to get positive results. I then went to more of a brawl fit (well… an 8km Tormentor that didn’t need to focus on range much) and it was much easier. when I came back to the Tristan that was easier too.
If you are in a group, fit for a mix of tank and dps. Use a Merlin, a Punisher, or an Incursus. Something that will likely not get primaried or called as the first target. Your higher dps will make you that much more useful.
If you have poor turret skills, go for a drone ship, as drones have better consistent dps and there is no drone tracking skill you have to train, just dps and a full fight. That 75mm rail Tristan is not too bad. I prefer the 125’s with a 200mm plate. Better range and dps with antimatter.
I originally fitted a art rifter, with 38km range on its guns I very quickly learned how to kite people, but more importantly, though my loss mails I also learned how to deal with it.
Also I had a blast, I would be able to fight off against ships like algos, or navy vexor, may not be able to kill a vexor in my T1 arty rifter, but blowing up his drones made me feel alive.
Should be 20 cruisers. The price difference is negligible and your engagement profile is much higher. Many more “fair” fights roaming solo with a t1 cruiser than a t1 frig.
@Hudson_Brindle - the best thing about this is that you can adapt this plan how ever you like, if you’ve got the disposable ISK it could be 20 battlecruisers or 20 battleships or 20 dreadnoughts - using those bigger ships will give you much different engagement profiles and types of engagements which can provide some fantastic learning opportunities.
But with that said for brand new toons just getting into PvP I think sticking with 20 frigates is the way to go, you can keep the cost of a fitted T1 frigate below 10mil which when you’re brand new can seem like a lot of ISK.
I began my pvp training with 5 thrashers plan. Why only 5? Its a quantity I can carry in my mammoth. I brought them near lowsec enter system and mowed home station there. So after couple of fights i wanted to improve my fit. And fit was changed a lot of times. First i stick to kitty arty thrasher. Then i tried brawl one shild buffer. Than armor buffer scram and webb. One thing does not change - desire to have pvp fun.
