Hey.

So in all my time of playing EvE (started in 2006, only actually been subbed for maybe 2 years of that...) I've done mainly PvE. The only PvP I've ever actually done is gang PvP with my corps.
So I've decided it's cool and fun to gang PvP but I want to learn to solo pvp, because I felt like I was just being carried doing gang stuff and I wasn't learning. It felt 'ingenuine' for me...

So I'm grabbing frigates and going to Faction Warfare places to fight, like Hysera etc.. The process of me finding stuff to fight goes something like this...

1 - Set route of waypoints in FW systems to bounce around in
2 - Choose a ship (this is hard for me, I'll explain after)
3 - when I get to system I'll check local to see how many of each militia / corp / alliance so I can see who is together, potentially
4 - warp to 100km from any complexes and D-scan inside of them. If there's a frig or something inside I check their ship name and decide whether to fight them or not. (I'm still not sure what exactly I can fight... because I just get raped by everything, atm)
5 - If no targets warp to next system, repeat from step 3

In fights I tend to try to D-scan to see if any of their buddies are coming in, but the fights rarely last long enough anyway.

The biggest problem for me I think is what ships to use...
I can fly Minmatar Frigates lvl 5 with T2 guns and T2 tank etc. Thermodynamics to lvl 3. I can't use boosters yet.

At the moment it just seems Minnie frigs aren't favored for this stuff, I tried to 1v1 an Atron in my Slasher earlier (tracking disruptor, orbit @ 500m and try to get under his guns?) and got my ass handed to me before I could get through his shields :P. I can fly Gallente Frigs lvl 4, but can't use T2 Hybrid turrets, my Small Hybrid turret skill is lvl 3... but when I fly Gallente ships (that seem to be favored) I still lose, because the other person is using T2 guns.
It seems the only kills I can get are on the farmers in cloaky ****-fits.

Has anyone had any luck with Minnie frigs doing this stuff? I'd try the Breacher but my missile skills are POOR

Whats the best Minnie frigate for this?

How does the Rifter fare nowadays?

Good Sir;

Just put two stabs on your rifter. Fight for a bit then warp away. You don't need a point since they will come after you. and the short range is what you want anyway.

Once you get bored of this (I never do) move on to the next phase.

your humble servent
SeaSaw

Don't warp at 0, you run the risk of getting stuck on the gate. When it is time to warp to the plex and go in warp at 10 (you will be in activation range and you won't get stuck on the gate).

But this also depends on what kind of ship you are flying. If you are using a scram kiter you want 10 but a close up brawler you probably want 0.

Unless you know that everyone else warps at 10 -- then, of course, these numbers are reversed.

Nope, then someone warping at 10 from the other side twice as far away.

Its all very arbitrary. Warping at 10 is safer, i do it a lot of the time.

Its just not required.

A bit of a twist on the above advice, but as someone who's trying to relearn solo combat in and around FW systems I've moved up to T1 cruisers as I found that frig fights seemed to end too quickly.

Not arguing against the "fit 20 frigates approach", just offering an alternative "fit 20 cruisers". Sure it means you can't go into the small and novice plexes but I'm having no problem getting fights and I find I have more time to calm down, assess and react to what's happening.

A bit of a twist on the above advice, but as someone who's trying to relearn solo combat in and around FW systems I've moved up to T1 cruisers as I found that frig fights seemed to end too quickly.

Not arguing against the "fit 20 frigates approach", just offering an alternative "fit 20 cruisers". Sure it means you can't go into the small and novice plexes but I'm having no problem getting fights and I find I have more time to calm down, assess and react to what's happening.

The difference is 20 frigates is about 200mil total. 20 Cruisers is 600mil. Also, Cruisers require more support skills to function as well as frigates. Cap skills play a much larger role, drone skills affect every cruiser out there, navigation skills are more important, etc.

I was getting kills in my handy-dandy Kestrel with only T2 guns. No T2 Shield Extenders, DCUs, cap boosters, Invul Fields, Adaptive Platings, etc. Cruisers need those T2 variants because they make a much much larger difference when numbers are bigger. 5% extra shields on a 1500 shield ship is hardly anything. 5% extra shields on a 5000 shield ship is a lot more.