Hey, thanks a lot for the effort you put in this thread!
And also for sharing these fits.
I started my pvp career on my alt ca. a month ago and I’m currently burning through a bunch of Kestrels in FW novice complexes to get the hang of it.
Right now I have no idea what I’m doing, where to look and everything is happening so fast… Boom…
But I have tons of fun!
I’d be grateful if you could share some insights on how to pick fights or engage in fights.
Like “should I stay in the novice and wait?” “orbit something there while waiting?” “better fight at the gate to the complex?” That’s where I’m struggling the most.
Alright, you asked for it!
Kestrel… pvp beginner…
Ok I think I have a good solution for you. Try to orbit at 7500m, and load Scourge Rage Rockets because you have dual webs. If you didn’t, you would load Caldari Navy Scourge Rockets. Because this is your alt, I assume you have relatively deep pockets. If this is the case, a Republic Fleet Medium Shield Extender is a very very good plan. Do prepare to lose every one of the first 10-20 fights you engage in. This fit is designed to be very micromanagement-forgiving. When people start to warp off or die to you, then you can move into fits with scrams like armor Kestrels, Breachers, and the more expensive Hookbill, Worm, and Garmur. Destroyers like the Talwar and Corax might be worth a shot, too.
The Fit:
Kestrel: “Damage and Control”
4 Highs:
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
2 Lows:
Ballistic Control Unit II
Ballistic Control Unit II
3 Rigs:
Small Bay Loading Accelerator II
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
But you don’t want just the fit, so let’s actually talk about the flight plan.
Undocking:
When you undock you are allowing yourself to be attacked. Even more so is this the case when you are at war with another corp or alliance, like when you are in a militia.
Make sure that as soon as you undock, you move your modules and windows around to create your optimal dashboard. If you have drones, make sure your drone window is accessible.
Make sure you know what ship you are flying, and before you go into lowsec, or out of your safe spot, make sure to preset all of your navigation hotkeys. For example, if you are flying the Kestrel above, you would preset your orbit to 7,500m and your keep at range to… whatever, missile ships don’t use keep at range.
I have lost rail comets because I forget to do this step. I ended up keeping at range 700m on an orbiting Breacher and it dunked me.
Anyway, also make sure you set up your overheat hotkeys. There is no default setup for this, so I generally have to reassign. I personally use “G” for overheat highslot 1, “P” for overheat midslot 1, and “R” for overheat midslot 2. These stand for “Guns”, “Propulsion”, and “Repair”, because that is where I put those modules.
Organization:
Highslots for me usually has grouped guns, then scram, then webs, then neuts/nos, then whatever other offensive module I have. These are activated with F1, F2, F3… hotkeys.
Midslots are organized prop, repairers, and then cap boosters. For dual rep I put armor before shield. These are activated for me with the 1, 2, 3… hotkeys (not default!).
Lowslots are all of the passive mods and resist mods. These go in the order of active resist mods, passive resist mods (starting with DCU), then damage/speed/cargo mods, and then capacitor mods.
Alrighty then, let’s get on to finding a fight:
If you are doing all of this just for the fights, you are going to have to find an active area to fight in. If you are using the LP from the sites as income, just wait for an engagement while you are farming. The Kamela-Auga-Kourmonen-Amamake area of Minmatar-Amarr lowsec is a fantastic place to find solo fights.
To find and prepare for a fight, use your dScan out to 14.3 AU at 360⁰ to scan around you for ships. Once you see a frigate on your dScan, narrow your dScan range to 1.0 AU (still at 360⁰) and wait for the frigate to appear there. Constantly spam the “V” key. If the frigate is not there after 4 1AU scans, pull back out to 14.3 AU and try to find out where he is to determine his threat level.
Once the ship appears on 1AU, he is (usually) on the acceleration gate trying to come in. If you do not want to take the fight, align out to a safe or celestial now. Warp when you see him on your overview. If you do, then get to your optimal, because it is time for…
The fight:
Established:
When you are already inside the plex, you have an advantage. You get to choose the range the fight starts at. When you see your opponent on 1AU-scan, preheat your weapons and repairers and get to your optimal positioning relative to the beacon that is the warp-in point for all ships entering. As soon as you see your opponent’s ship in your overview, click on him so that he shows up in that bar that shows “selected object”, defaultly placed above the overview on the right-hand side of the screen. Then, once he slows down, overheat your propulsion module, and spam the hell out of your keep at range/orbit button. When you have done that for a second, spam the hell out of the lock target button. When the lock starts, press all of the relevant highslot hotkeys (F1, F2, etc.), and they will start blinking. When the lock completes, you start firing/webbing/wreaking havok. This has taken about 8-10 seconds so far. Manage your reps well and unheat the prop mod about 40 seconds into the fight. Try to pull out past scram range and warp if you find you are doing bad. For your Kestrel, be prepared to orbit close if the opponent turns out to be rails/beams/arty (to get under their bad-tracking guns)
Entering
When you are trying to engage someong in combat, you warp to a novice or small complex at 50-100km. This will prevent fighting at the gate, which is something you do not want to happen. When you are entering, the person inside is already established at their preferred range, so you need to be alert. If you choose to use it, there is a 10s invulnerability timer after you land on grid. This can be used to gauge your opponent’s range and weapon type (“look at” command). Also beware of traps. Cloakies and friendlies can be lurking in system, a couple jumps out, or inside the plex itself.
As soon as you start moving, you are vulnerable. Therefore, the best course of action is to preheat your prop mod, start your maneuver***, and target in one tap and two/three clicks. Then preactivate your highslot mods.
***:
Against a long range ship (beams, rails, arty), double click in space in a direction that is perpendicular to the line between you and your opponent. (If you do not understand that, please let me know and I will make a diagram.) After their first shot, click your keep at range/orbit button.
Against a short range ship (pulses, blasters, ACs, rockets/missiles in general), immediately use your keep at range/orbit button.
Sorry about the rambling… hope this helped!
o7, hope to wreck your face sometime!
-Nujenif Talvanen
Alright today will be the Atron. This ship is fast, high-damage, and surprisingly tanky. Is has good hull buffer, and makes use of the powerful SAAR very well. Its main drawbacks are short range guns and small buffer.
Atron: “Looks Discusting”
4 Highs:
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
[Empty High Slot]
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
3 Lows:
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
3 Rigs:
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator II
Small Transverse Bulkhead I
Small Transverse Bulkhead I
This ship is fast, but is awful at fighting other blaster ships, AC ships, and dual web ships. The utility high slot is pretty much useless on this ship, and as such you end of flying a 9-slot frigate. All of the rest of them are 10. That still doesn’t keep this ugly nasty blob of metal from becoming the best attack frigate in the game.
Tomorrow will start on the classic Amarr line before coming back to the Tristan later.
So, today I got on my first km flying solo, and I died (of course) I was flying a breacher, fighting a Rifter. He engaged on the in gate to a novice plex, I was doing very well evading his damage. I forgot I was active tank fit, realized it when he broke my shield, promptly heated the aar, was repping a decent amount. I was about halfway through his armor and confident of victory when a Merlin showed up. He promptly blasted through my tank, and I exploded. I did get on the killmail once he killed the Rifter, which I am happy about.
Is there anything that I could have done to have had a better chance at survival?
I do not know why that Rifter wanted to engage you on the outside of the Plex unless he was baiting, which he wasn’t because that Merlin killed him too.
Overall, I am impressed with your piloting. You say you were tanking him just fine before the Merlin showed up? You were all T1 fit with T1 hobs and no DCU. You being ahead shows excellent piloting skills.
BUT:
Fit a Damage Control to every armor-tank or dual-rep ship you will ever build, pretty much without exception. This will give you a lot more buffer, an opportunity for Hull rigs, and more powerful reps.
Train to T2! Being able to fly T2 drones and rockets are a big difference in a fight. Also, I would recommend an Agency Hardshell dose II and a Synth or Standard Exile booster if you are going for tank. A T2 web also would allow you to control range better.
With the third partying…
As a Merlin entering onto a Breacher-Rifter fight, I will kill the Breacher. They are very dangerous ships. If you suspect a third party or enemy help to arrive when fighting outside a plex, try to pull range in this situation by double-clicking in space away from the acceleration gate, or align to a celestial or stargate. The Rifter cannot project damage as far out as the Breacher, so he will try to follow you. You being out to far scram range will put you in a position to disengage if things go south, and also puts you farther away from potential reinforcements. This would give you time to (hopefully) kill the Rifter and either leave or kite out the pesky blaster Merlin.
o7!
Thank you for the response! I have updated my fit a little bit, now with a dcu, compact web, scoped scram and another shield resist rig instead of 2 cpus. Would those be some good changes? I have about 10 days until t2 rockets as well.
Edit: the Merlin had been on dscan the whole time we were fighting, so I had no idea he was coming until he showed up.
Ah ok. That is reasonable (the Merlin being on dScan). For the fit, scoped scram is a VERY good idea. If your fitting skills aren’t maxed out yet, do that and try and slap a T2 scram or web on there. A fitting rig is generally a sign that a fit needs to be adjusted, especially on a frigate. I would go with training fitting skills as high as they can go, then using a T2 bay loading accelerator (2M), and 2 T1 transverse bulkheads (about 800k).
The Tormentor is a very strong T1 frigate, ranking third in T Sky’s excellent frigate guide. The most common is AB and beams, but pulses and no-point fits are not unheard of.
Here is my twist on the classic AB dual web Tormentor.
Tormentor “Gerroff me!”
3 Highs:
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
4 Lows:
Damage Control II
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Overdrive Injector System II
3 Rigs:
Small Energy Burst Aerator I
Small Transverse Bulkhead II
Small Transverse Bulkhead II
Squishy and annoying. Gives you a pretty good chance to keep range control. Try to avoid rails, beams, arties, and any launchers. Hookbills are a hard counter to this fit. Speaking of Hookbills… Hookbills are an exception to the “no fitting rigs” rule, as their PG on any high tank fit is going to hurt.
This here is a fit from a very skilled pilot from Minmatar-Amarr faction warfare space, Gah’Matar. I have no experience with this fit, but it is an impressive build.
Executioner: “Gah’Matar’s Executioner”
4 Highs:
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Standard S
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Standard S
[Empty High Slot]
Small Focused Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Standard S
Sorry for the delay, will be posting fits less often, but will still respond to questions.
Tristan. These are very very common ships in FW, and very strong as well. I hate flying them. The Tristan is a drone ship, and such is… well… versitile and not versitile at the same time. Tristans can project damage out to any range, with very good tracking, with any damage type, whilst using no cap or charges. They also leave all their high slots free for other pesky purposes. Good enough for me. However… nine slots? WHAT??! 3 Mids and 3 Lows just makes me cringe inside. There are no Tristan fits that can reliably fly double webs, and I ALWAYS FLY DOUBLE WEBS!!!
The Tristan has many, many flavors. Most common is the 3x Neut Cap booster fit. This leaves it with 2 mids and 3 lows for range control and tank.
Gross.
Other variants include the Kitey Rail Tristan and the Brawly Blaster Boat Boi. Neuts are the best, but are predictable. 2 mids though… >:(
Try to fit T2 neuts for the extra range. Make sure your fitting skills are up.
Tristan: “WalksWithALimp”
3 Highs:
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Quick tip: Avoidances
As you start FW, you will have no idea about different ships and their capabilities. A “Daredevil” looks the same on dScan to you as a “Slasher”. Make sure the ship you are fighting is a good matchup for you when you engage. Hopping in your abyssal Whiptail does not mean you are going to find many fights. For example, if you are in an arty RFF, you will want to check the zKill of your opponent in his Comet. You can fight the blaster, but will die quickly to the rail. Another example is you in your Slasher, Condor, Executioner, or Dramiel. Don’t fight ships like the Breacher, Hookbill, and Kestrel that are missile ships and can screw over your mitigation attemps, especially if you don’t have a guidance disruptor. Learn the basics of every ship before you fly any of them, and be aligned to your safe once that Jaguar appears on d-Scan outside your small.
Next quick tip: Neut ships.
Quick tip: Neut Ships
Neut ships are usually dedicated drone boats like the Tristan and Algos, and are also common on ships bonused for them, such as the Dragoon and Cruor. The Astero is also a pretty good choice for your neuts. Other than that, there are some specific and rare off-meta fittings that utilize neuts, and may even lose turret hardpoints for them. This can be found on some Catalysts, Coercers, Thrashers, Slashers, and Atrons, and can be very dangerous. When you are in a “heavy neut” ship (3 or more effective neuts), it is, IMO, best to fit an MWD and Scram. Kitey ships can get out of your range, and your neuts will turn off scrams in range very quickly, allowing range control. Also, you have plenty of cap. The very important part about flying neut ships is to make sure the neuts can do their work. As an MWD Scram Cap booster ship, you will only have range control once your opponent has been capped out of their webs and scram, Once that happens, all their blasters and lasers will turn off and you can nuke their guts at point blank range. If you get kited, make sure you overheat the scram, slingshot to the best of your ability, and spam the hell out of that scram hotkey.
When fighting a fellow neut ship, just hope for the best and look away.
idk what the next quick tip will be, or when.
7 Highs:
Festival Launcher, Various Fireworks x200
Festival Launcher, Various Fireworks x200
Festival Launcher, Various Fireworks x200
Festival Launcher, Various Fireworks x200
Festival Launcher, Various Fireworks x200
Festival Launcher, Various Fireworks x200
Festival Launcher, Various Fireworks x200
Thanks so much for the support! I love doing this, and am planning to start in-game d-Scanning 1 on 1 newbro lessons. It will probably happen in a month or two.
Just found this and I wanted to say I appreciate the effort and work you put into this!
I am pretty new and just recently started looking into PvP and am planning to jump head first to my (multiple) deaths in trying it out with an Alt specifically for this.
That being said, I am planning to theory craft a bunch of fits to try out different T1 frigates and I was wondering, do you have any recommended builds as a first PvP ship using only T1 equipment?
Mostly so I don’t have to wait too long for skills to train to try it out, and it’s not too expensive to fly.
Quick tip: T1 Modules
I can not really see the point of pure T1 gear. Always fly meta. These include “named” modules like the Fleeting Compact Stasis Webifier or the J5b Enduring Warp Disruptor or the 150mm Prototype Gauss Gun. Here is a comparison between all of the basic Warp Scramblers.
This shows that each meta “named” scram is outright better than the T1, at basically the same price. The Initiated Compact Warp Scrambler offers easier fitting in a CPU usage reduction, the J5b Enduring Warp Scrambler has a longer overheat time, enabling you to hold ships farther out for longer. The Faint Epsilon Scoped Warp Scrambler has extra base range, with a 0.75 km increase in range. The Warp Scrambler II extends that range bonus to a 1.5 km increase, at the cost of a little bit more ISK and a little more CPU requirement. Thus, each scram has its place on different fits, but the T1 variant is outright worse than every other module, other then possibly the T2 due to its high fitting costs. Even then, the range bonus on the T2 makes it always preferrable to the T1 when it is able to be fit.
As for a T1 beginner fit, try to go with missiles and mitigation, discussed above. Kestrel is a great choice. Dual web beam Tormentor also might be worth a shot. You can pick shield or armor on your Kestrel if you choose that.
Thanks for the advice! If I theory craft some fits for various ships that catch my interest, do you mind if I post them here to get your feedback? (And also possibly from others)