Hi all,
I own a Buzzard with Mastery Level 3 and I can Warp Cloaked.
But what is the best way to pass and Survive a camped gate in low sec or null ?
any procedures that you would like to share ?
thanks in advance !
1 Like
Fit for agility so you warp faster than they can lock you.
Find a way throuhg wormholes around the gatecamp.
Bring friends and destroy the gatecamp.
o/
2 Likes
This depends a lot on the situation. Let me write a little wall of text to try to cover all of them and fail while trying.
Situtation 1, No Bubble:
You jump in a sytem (e.g. Tama), gate is camped. Flashing cirminals all around you.
- Keep calm, you have 1 minute gate cloak that you can use to think.
- Look where the enemies are. How are they moving? How far away are they? If they move, wait until they are more than 11km away before you act. A standard T2 Scram has 10km when overheated and not on a bonused ship.
- Wait. If you are lucky another pilot will jump in to the same gate. So if you hear gatefire behind you and there is another one decloacing before you do, the campers will likely try to catch him. This is the moment for you to go for a run while the campers are disctracted.
- (a) Look for an exit. Do you have a celestial in the direction your ship is already aligned? (As @Cristl did remind me below) Choose any celestial you like because it does not matter:
- (b) But I recommend to warp at it at 70km. 70 because most people who can follow you will warp at 0 or 100km and could decloak you in the process. But if you cloaked right when warping you should not be followed anynway.
- Immidieatly hit cloak after warping.
- Hit your Microwarpdrives (MWD) at the same time IF - and only if - you need to make distance from other objects which prevent you from claoking up.
Situation 2, Gate is bubbled:
You jumped into a system in Nullsec and land in a bubble and can not warp without manouvering out.
- Keep calm, you have 1 minute gate cloak that you can use to think.
- Where are the enemies? Are there other objects which will prevent you from cloaking? Drones, containers, corpses? Avoid what could decloak you when you first choose the direction you want to make your run to.
- Waiting for another target for the campers is unlikely in the most parts of NullSec, waiting might not be a good option.
- Start your run in another direction than the “real” escape route to lead the campers who will try to decloak you on a wrong track.
A rout leading upwards in a bow has proven effective for me on a cloaking ship. - Activate MWD and cloak simultainously if possible.
- Get out of the bubble, warp to a random celestial.
Another option when jumping into a gate-camp can be to burn back to the gate. But be aware that this is very risky in a covert ops firgate because it basically has 0 tank. If there is anything bigger than frigates that can apply damage in the time you activate the MWD and cloak and burn back to the gate you came from, you are likely dead.
Situation 3, You warped to a camped gate:
If there is no bubble you should be able to just jump through. Often this leads to situation 1 or 2 on the other side. In this case beeing quick to claok up and warp before a bubble is launched can be key to survival. If you are too slow see steps mentioned under “Situation 2”.
Situation 4, You warped to a camped gate and into a bubble:
If there is a bubble and you warped from gate to gate, a good setup gatecamp has an object sitting at the spot you will land. Like a jettisioned can or drones, which will decloak you. In that case you deal with people who know what they are doing and you are probably dead.
To avoid this just don’t warp directly from gate to gate in null sec. Warp to a random clelestial first. Because most bubbles are setup to drag you from warp when you come from certain spots, like citadels or gates, you are much more unlikey to end up in them when you come from a different angle.
Remember that you can also see the gatecamp on DScan when you are closer than 14.3 AU. If the number and status of pilots on local makes you think that there might be a gate-camp, warp to a celestial near the gate and scan it before you warp there.
Some gates (those between constellations irrc) don’t have clestials in range of the DScan on them. This fact makes them a favoralbe spot of gate campers.
In this case warp to a celestial anyway then don’t warp to the gate at 0 but at 100km and look what’s there.
Sometimes citadels which are in DScan range to the gate but not on your overview can work as such “celestials” so look for them directly in space.
If you have an area which you fly a lot in, it is worth to set up tacital bookmarks on the gates. Those are usually more than 150km (I would recommend 300km) above or below a gate so you will be albe to warp there, check for hostiles and then warp right to the gate.
Nice to know:
- Afterburners (AB) increase your intertia, and by this your align time = bad when you want to warp. MWD increase your Signature radius making you easier to lock and increases your speed.
- Fit your ship for alignment, meaning intertia stabalizers in the low slots. Intertia Stabalizers are better than Nanofibers because those also increase your ships sub warp speed which has effect on how fast your ship is entering warp.
- You enter warp at 75% sub-warp velocity. The higher this velocity, the longer you need for acceleration.
- Any object closer than 2.000m from you will prevent you from cloaking. Stuff closer than 2.000m will also decloak you.
- You can activate cloak and any other module simultainously because the server works in “ticks”. Until the server realizes your cloak has to deactivate your MWD or other module, you will have already one cycle going. There is even this “Cloak + MWD Trick” often used on Industrials.
- You see a timer for your gate-cloak in the top left (blue circle). Waiting for the full extent can reduce focus of the campers you jumped into. They become unsure if they really heard the gate-fire of someone coming in and beome less concentrated.
- Overheating your MWD can give you the extra speed deciding between life an death.
- You can’t cloak when another pilot has locked you up. Only option then is to outrun them, good luck.
Summed up, you are very hard to kill when able to warp cloaked. But bubbles are your nemesis.
I hope that wall of text was a bit usefull to you.
tl;dr: Always be cloaked.
21 Likes
Many thanks Nora !! very very useful information !!! GREAT STUFF 
1 Like
This isn’t true because when you initially jump in you aren’t aligned to anything. Your ship is just a position vector with a null velocity vector, so you will align to any location in the same time. The graphics are a lie!
Just FYI
4 Likes
True.
I guess I do that because it makes me feel better when I pretend graphics would matter.
Edited initial post.
Great advice, even for non-cloakers
2 Likes
I don’t think it’s a vector unless it’s velocity and position. A “position vector” is just called a position, and a velocity without additional info like direction is similarly just velocity. Vector would be the combined information of for instance velocity and direction.
Basically in a Buzzard you just choose a destination and hit warp, about a second after that hit cloak. 9 times out of 10 this will be fine. If however there’s a bubble around you when you enter system you need to be a bit tactical about where you head. Remember you get one pulse of prop mod in the seconds right after cloaking so use it. Head in a direction that seems safe even if it isn’t toward a celestial, you can warp anywhere soon as you’re clear of the bubble. Instalockers are not actually all that consistently successful so you’ll be generally safe in a covert warping frig anyway, save for bubble traps and smart bombers maybe. In nul / wh space you might encounter bubbles between gates or stations etc so you need to do a few multi stage warps rather than just going direct gate to gate. Bounce off a celestial far off your gate to gate course so you approach the next gate from a direction that isn’t expected. Create warp markers several hundred km off gates you use regularly so you can move a bit faster, but do not just go gate to gate / wormhole to station / gate to station etc. In a small covert ops like a Buzzard you won’t have to worry about people decloaking you while you align, but in larger hulls this can be an issue. I almost lost my first Redeemer (black ops battleship) to a speed fit bumping cruiser while aligning cloaked, which is relevent though not strictly a covops ship.
For non covert vessels there is the “Cloak / MWD Trick” which can be used in a pinch. Google it but remember it’s cloak then MWD not the other way around 
There’s a lot of solid advice in this thread so far but I must say in a Buzzard you just need to get good at hitting that cloak the right amount of time after warp so it’s a different tick than the one you were gate cloaked during. You want to hit that cloak 1 second after you lose gate cloak. If you see a pop up center screen, immediately hit cloak again. Don’t spam cloak or you’ll hit it too many times and decloak yourself again 
just get into the habit of instantly hitting cloak again if you see a pop up center screen when you hit it first time. The pop up tells you you cannot cloak because it’s too quick after losing gate cloak or something, but all it really means is hit cloak again ONE TIME nice and fast.
Hope it helps. I love cloakies, get in touch if you wanna talk in more depth. For further reading I suggest reading about Drag Bubbles and the mechanics that surround their use.
5 Likes
This is a nice, concise description of game mechanics. But your vectors suck 
If I say a position such as point P (3,4) in 2D rectangular coordinates, it is equivalent to the position vector:
OP = r = 3i + 4j
where i and j are basis vectors in the x and y directions respectively.
See here:
Also, what you call velocity with no extra direction information is called speed.
1 Like
Also…
Before you decloak of gate. Look at warp to location in space where your ship has to do the least amount of alignment. Will also help warp out before they can lock.
1 Like
The straight line they’re talking about (vector) requires 2 points of information doesn’t it though?
Fair point 
If I get you right, I would recommend you re-read the other posts in this thread.
You might learn something.
thanks Keno ! great information ! 
This is incorrect btw.
I have a SECRET…
I will share this… openly… pay attention, I will only say this once.
Low sec:
I land at out gate in high sec. I note the number in local, scan thru ALL chars and note corp history, trying to identify either set standings to negative or known pirates… when you play often you will become familiar with who is around you. I jump… I load grid,i I note local count, check for standings fast. check d scan, warp… in warp i check d scan and local if it changes. Im d scan range from the gate. gate is clear, there is 12 in local. no known pirates. I land, jump asap… I wait, check d scan, clear, Warp… theres 25 local. I see a few neg standings and a few flashies in local, and 19 of the 25 locals are Code… I wait for d scan range of the gate. Ships on scan… I land at 0km… as Im AWAYS warping to 0km at the gate. I jump, they follow. on the other side theres 25 more locals and they are on grid. I let my computer catch up, check d scan. They have ceptors and destroyers and cruisers. What do you do?
I double click off in a direction. I cloak FIRST… then MWD a cycle ASAP after double clicking… BEFORE you cloak, BEFORE you mwd cycle completes, you want to then double click again in a direction. If you do it right and figure it all out before hand, you could be aligned to something… but you are cloaked and burning one cycle while the camp is scrambling to close the 5 - 10 km distance to your last known where a bouts… you can usually either just hang out and ensure that no one is 2km or less… if you need eyes that is, Or you can warp off…
most of the time I am safe here… I can go get coffee… most pilots burn straight to you, thing is you arent there…
do this vs double click off and mwd cloak, you can and likely WILL be decloaked and shot down.
That is the basics of that right there. the trick is to double click off in a direction, if you can in the direction that make it either difficult for hte fleet to get to you, or in a direction perpendicular to that which you wish to warp to or align to… and then change direction immediately before you cloak… it happens fast and usually they wont notice you changed direction from your original path…
null sec:
This is a lil more complex cause of the bubble… but basically same thing.
Some times I dont want to warp gate to gate in null sec… MOST of the time though I do… despite it being bad advice to do so. I do this for a REASON and Im not gonna share it just to keep the trolls guessing and not really hitting on it. Its a very good reason why and it works and I stick with what works for me. The only time I dont is if Im traveling with good in a shuttle… or if I already know there is a smart bomber there. as I said, use local, you will learn by doing, and then know if someone is in system or not. if a known SBr is in local, then obvious, use your ping… if you already HAVE pings… then use them if there is ANYONE in local besides yourself!!!
On the topic of bkmks… or pings… I dont like calling them pings btw. I have many types of pings. Consider these two:
Tactical: this is on grid with said object or celestial… what ever it is you are there and can SEE it. This is always more than 250 km for me but you can set your own distance. remember you need to be 150km or more away to warp to something
Strategic: these safes are NOT on grid but are in d scan range… I do not EVER ever make a bkmk in line with two points of warp. I never use a safe between two gates, or a gate and a station. use Trig to help you figure out how to get the best location. I wont tell you how. not publicly at least.
The basic idea is to give them information but have it be the wrong information… you tracking?> so when you cloak up and burn off, it looks like oh he is going for the out gate, so they kinda know where to double click, but then you had double clicked off that path and are now shooting straight up vertically… they miss most EVERY time…
hope this help you man! cheers
1 Like
Oh ME! ME! 
Is it because you use a nulified T3 / scout yourself around with a nulified T3 alt? (or other bubble imune hull)
1 Like
i hate you keno 
NO… not it.
BUT you know that is a GOOD point… and I didnt even think of it…
That’s why I don’t use gate pings. Slippery nulified cloaky T3 are better than ever these days.
you can easily loose a tech three to a skilled gate camp even with all that ■■■■… its slow, and larger sig makes you stupid easy to lock… so you cant cloak.
I just mean in comparison to a cov ops.
My common NS routes, every gate has two bkmks on them… strategic and tactical. on both sides… I almost always use them if there is anyone in local. Its just good practice me thinks.
Also missed out on mentioning known systems where SBing takes place. just use the ping. you can jump thru the gate and make it most the time.