William DeMeo
Gallente
The Scope
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Posted - 2009.03.22 00:23:00 -
[1]
Edited by: William DeMeo on 22/03/2009 00:30:33
Edited by: William DeMeo on 22/03/2009 00:26:01
Hello! First an introduction:
I'm William DeMeo, often labelled by my friends and foes alike as the "Lion of the North" (After King GUSTAVUS II ADOLPHUS of Sweden), I have vast PVP experience (thus the nickname) and have been known to fly with such great pvp'ers as CHED (IRC might know this guy) and NEXUS KINNON who also is a regular poster on these very forums.
Anyway, today I thought I'd let you guys in on a little trade secret that has given both me, CHED and NEXUS KINNON many good kills and helped us win many exciting PVP encounters. Namely, FLANKING!
Flanking is a commonly overlooked tactic in PVP, not often mentioned in patch notes it is a feature that dates all the way back to 2003, to the release of the game. Long thought to be broken, through vigorous testing me, CHED and NEXUS KINNON have confirmed that flanking is a working and viable tactic.
But, why should you flank?
Many EVE players don't know, but on the side of the EVE ships all the vital components (such as the engine, warp drive, stra***ometer, hydraulics and oxygen tank) are located. Therefore, if you position your ship in a 90 degree angle from the opponents ship and fire straight into his side the game will register every hit as hitting a "critical part" of your enemies space vessel. In plain English; every hit will register as a "critical hit".
This, of course, will increase your DPS output CONSIDERABLY. CHED's rifter has been known to put out OVER 600 dps (overloading). Not only that, but every hit will also slightly hurt your enemies capacitor (because the capacitor turnpike gravimetric consumption engine, CTGCE, is located there). The loss of capacitor power can be simply be explained by this formula:
C = H X 2
Namely, with each HIT from your guns the enemy loses TWO points of capacitor. This may seem like a small amount, but it can be very useful in long, drawn out frigate fights, and here's the kicker - Against battleships this cap loss is increased by 500%!
By now you're probably thinking "all this difficult math sure seems wonderful, but how do I apply it in combat?"
Simple!
STEP 1.
Hit CTRL + Q. A common misconception is that ships in EVE can't be controlled with the WASD keys. CTRL + Q will take your ship out of boring "point and click" mode and put you in fun, fast-paced WASD mode. This is absolutely VITAL when positioning yourself in that perfect 90 degree angle you need to get the flanking bonus.
STEP 2.
Buy and fit a "Brotherhood's Scan Probe Launcher". You cannot find these on the market but they are farmed from complexes and are relatively cheap, I personally sell them so convo me if you need one. So what will this scan probe launcher do? Well, it will react with your ships CTCGE and hydraulics system engaging the SHARPSHOOTER system which works by automatically sending out 1000-2000 small, invisible, probes that help your targeting system locate the vital spots you want to hit on your enemies ship. Due to the hydraulics system, it will also make your ship bounce (spacebar).
STEP 3.
FIND A TARGET! - I don't think I need to explain this one, but a suggestion would be to load up your Brotherhood's Scan Probe Launcher with Xzibit probes for easy and fast scanning.
STEP 4. Manually position yourself in a 90 degree angle on either side of your enemy's ship, once you reach a 90 degree angle you will start to notice the damage increase. This may take some practice, so I suggest practicing this with your friends before you try to do it in a REAL PVP combat engagement.
STEP 5. Sit back, relax, and enjoy watching yourself pwn every killboard in the galaxy.
Sidenotes:
Mods, I think this is the first guide on flanking in PVP, could this be stickied?
And any donations will obviously be accepted with a big smile 
Sincurely yours, William DeMeo.
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