What Are You Trying to Do?

It’s the most basic question in Eve, but for some reason, folks tend to forget about it when they head out to PvP.  Too often, I see people trying to chase a Cynabal out of their space in an armor cruiser (it’s not fast enough).  Or an assault frigate hunting ratting Tengus solo (can’t do enough damage).  Or a gate camp that contains only one tackler, with the rest DPS ships (if your tackler gets popped…).

Or even a Sabre or bomber in low-sec.

The list of stupid things is endless.  While sole of them are obvious, some of them are less so.  A lot of times, people take excellent ships to do wholly inappropriate things with them.

Related to PvP, you need to ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish?”  By this, I mean, what sort of targets are you hunting, and is your ship suited to that task?  Sure, a Vexor has tremendous DPS potential, but unless you’re running a gate camp or manning a stop bubble, chances are you won’t be able to dictate range as much as you’d like.

Before undocking, you need to ask yourself two questions.  How will you force an unwilling pilot to engage you?  And once you successfully engage, how will you take that target down?

It’s great to run around in a triple-rep Dominix, but who in his right mind is going to engage that solo?  If you’re looking for an engagement, only the stupid will take that bait.  And if you’re counting on your enemy to be stupid, you’re going to have little real control on how your night goes.  Wouldn’t you rather base your chances of getting kills on your planning and skill, not a random passerby’s foolishness?

That’s part of the reason so many excellent PvP pilots fly T1 ships… they don’t look threatening.  They’re counting on knowing more about how to fly the ship than their opponent, based on experience and pilot skill.

And that brings me to the second question… how do you plan to take down your target?  I’ve seen dozens of frigates – both T1 and T2 – try to take down a ratting Tengu, only to be killed when they do.  Oops… it was HAMfit with faction missiles, and you died before you could realize you were in trouble and warp out.  Sure, that might work fine if you’re hunting Tornados, or Maelstroms.  What works in Angel space might not work in Guristas space, based on the ratting metas out there.  But going out in the wrong ship for your purpose is a complete waste of your time, and relies upon finding unintended, suitable fights for content.

The solution?  You need to fly a ship that gives your opponent hope of victory, but which you know how to fly very well and can be reasonably expected to kill him.  That could mean having a surprise in store.  Maybe that means a snake set.  Maybe fitting a tracking disruptor on your AF, or dual-web armor-fitting a Vagabond to kill tacklers.  Maybe you have an off-grid booster.  Which ever way you do it, you need to understand your opponent, including both his objectives and preconceptions.  Then, counter it.

One thing is certain.  If you walk around with an active grenade, no one’s going to fight you.  If you use a hammer to attack a tank, no one’s going to take you seriously.  You need to understand what your objective is, how to catch it, and how to kill it.