MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Andrew Wallace has written part one of a basic guide to PvP in EVE Online, giving players not familiar with the system a few tips and poinnters for survival.

I may claim to be a deity of many things, but PVP is not one of them. Despite that, I've picked up a lot of useful information in my time and decided to put together a selection of PVP tips for this article. It's not a definitive list, but some of the main things that I think are important to know for running a PVP gang, and mostly centred on the small scale warfare I've been involved with in the last few years. Let's open with another one of the golden rules of EVE:

Fly what you can afford

Not just a PVP tip; it's difficult enough to make money from your victories, and flying ships and fittings that you can easily replace will help you PVP for much longer.

Read PvP Guide Part One

Nice basic intro - straight forward and concise.

A complete guide to the directional scanner would be nice or maybe I just need more practice - ranging seems to be my big tripping block with the scanner.

Originally posted by MMO-Rogue

Nice basic intro - straight forward and concise.

A complete guide to the directional scanner would be nice or maybe I just need more practice - ranging seems to be my big tripping block with the scanner.

Scanner can be pretty versitile. You need to setup your over view states first...you know like WAR and travel ect. So you can use the "use overview sttings" check box. Now unless Im probing poor suckers down I leave the scan range at max (14.4au) by filling it with 9's and it will default to max setting. Then you just have to use the scan angle for what your doing. For example when warpping between gates or any grid load really I use 60 degrees looking straight through my ship. This tells my what Im about to land on from 14.4 au away...this allows you some seconds to determine fight or flight. I also use 360 degree when sitting at a gate, for whatever reason, or if Im safespotted to see 14.4 au in all directions. You should always be using the scanner.

Nice basic info on EW. Was thinking of going either EA frigs or covert ops after assault ships.

Cheers.

If you are going to go EW then go all the way for best results. The Kitsune I have used extensivly in 0.0 roaming/small gang stuff and it is an excellent EAS. They cost about as much as a Ferox and if you kit them with best named and T2 mods it costs alot more. This is why I say if you are going to go with EW go all the way in skills so you can be uber at it. Otherwise your going to be going through alot of isk cause if you don't get the jam your toast as you will be primary. A little trick to remember is to not warp with fleet if you can help it. Warp and land on grid about 3 to 4 seconds after the fleet lands so the opposing side has already picked the primary/secondaries and you may even go unnoticed.

Additionally there is the Blackbird(cruiser), Scorpion(Battleship) and the king of all EW ships IMO the Falcon(recon-I think). These different levels will provide you an increase in jam range and lock speed(with sensor booster mods) as well as more slots for different jammers. Low slots on these can be used to increase jam power but these can be used on the Kitsune as well. One would think each ship would provide you with an increase in defense but the reality is once you are detected you will be called primary and then no amount of armor tank will standup to a whole gang/fleet. There have been exceptions indeed but 90% of the time if you dont warp you pop and pop fast.

If you need info on the other races I am not the guy to talk to. I know enough about damps, disrupters and painting to defeat them but I don't really have any experience using them. Good luck and fly deadly.

Nice general intro to fleet PVP, it may serve for the buddying pilot to choose which role he would like to start with, keeping in mind that specialization is always important for good results.

It may help to point out that "traditional" fleet PVP is quite different in various respects from small gang PVP and from solo PVP, as much as to notice that there are various ways to build a "specialized" fleet which possibly won't use all the roles listed, but this kind of info may come with the next parts of your article OC and it's maybe a bit too confusing for a starter.

I only have a small note to do on scouting and scanning... the covops and recon ships are the kings in this area, and a good covop/recon pilot is a very worthy asset to a fleet, maybe as much as a good FC I'd dare say...

A covop with a scan probe launcer can point out the exact location of enemy fleets and ships anywhere in a system (even in safesposts) within a few minutes, and recons can do the same with added EW potential that allows them to tackle good targets long enough for the flet to catch up and even to act as anti-tackle if need be.

To expand on covops and go beyond what you've already said, the most fun about them is that they're the ultimate ambush tool.  Once you've probed out your target, you can safely warp to them STILL CLOAKED, and suddenly your entire fleet just warped in at 0km from the opposing fleet.  This is particularly devastating against snipers, and even moreso if you're in a blaster-heavy fleet (there are few things I'd like to run into less than a Blaster-Megathron at close range, maybe a Thorax but that's because I fly a lot of Interceptors, lol).  Do this in 0.0 with an Interdictor or Heavy Interdictor and they're doubly screwed.