Joining fleets

Most PVP happens inside 'fleets'.  These fleets can warp together and do great things as a unit.

To use world of warcraft terminology: While a corporation is a bit like a guild, and an alliance is a bit like a group of guilds, and a faction is a bit like a group of a group of guilds, fleets are a bit more like groups in other games.  These groups can be a two person fleet for a cyno chain, or a 250 mega blob of battleships to destroy a keepstar.  Or anywhere in between.

You can join fleets by going to your Neocomm | Social | Fleets.  I recommend clicking and holding the fleet button down and moving it onto the bar on the left hand side.  You just have to do it once.

Once you've joined a fleet, the Fleet Commander aka FC, will tell you do things, warp places, align to things, and shoot things.  This helps your group of players do all the same things, causing a predictable outcome of boom things die.

Most of these instructions below are Pandemic Horde specific, of which I'm a member.  I have made this site to help Horde players mostly, but fleet instructions are very specific to your group.  Talk to your corporation how these reflect for your organization!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is7mtHYcM9A has the horde onboarding that covers parts of this.

If I get demand, I'll fill this out more, but our onboarding and your corporation should help you more than most things.

Doctrine support ships in Horde

If you didn't know, there is easy shipping from jita. Watch this gif https://imgur.com/gallery/1WynqCb has how it works and https://www.pandemic-horde.org/forum/index.php?threads/industry-buyback-freight-megathread.3759/  has the shippers. I would ask in channel who people use. If a full blown jita alt is too much, fly to Paala in a shuttle and remote order it.  Stuff will show up generaly next day.  NEWBIES, DO NOT HAUL IT YOURSELF

You need at least one of a doctrine ship of the appropriate ships in f4R2 and MJ-5.   You should be using a shuttle to move a jump clone to f4R2.

If you cannot fly the mainline DPS ship, with the required T2 guns, don't try to halfass it.   Pick a support ship.  Tons of easy support ships.

https://www.pandemic-horde.org/forum/index.php?threads/official-horde-doctrine-list.3308/ 

"But Kismeteer, I can't fly a xxx ship, I can't come!"  Please!  Come in one of these lesser required skill ships.

Armor doctrines - Paladins, Tempest fleet issues, Zealots

Dragoon, Confessor, (Auguror less used)

Shield doctrines - Rokh, Sleipnirs, Ferox Navy Issues

Kirin, Svipul, (ospreys less used) Mix of t1 t2 gun options.

Or, you can just train for a support ship on EVERY fleet:

Keres (armor or shield), Hyena (armor or shield), Raptor, most interceptors, Interdictors (sabre for casuals)

Train one of these and you can easily join every fleet.  We give out free ships, forever, by asking in Newbeans in game.  However, you need to be READY to be there for the fight, and lack of preparation means you are not prepared for war.

Be Ready for all Doctrines

It's your Eve Tip of the Day.

If you want the best chance of a fight or fun in eve, it is always best to have ships fitted, ready to go, with rigs on, ammo loaded. You might wait on insurance on your first undock, but if you know you're going to try to lose it in inside 12 weeks, 3 months is a long time for platinum insurance. If you think we might 'move' soon, which isn't the case right now, you can hold off on rigs till last minute. but DO NOT forget to put them on.

This way, when FCs call for those doctrine switches, you can jump in those ships immediately and ready to go. This takes isk to play, of course, but it's typical of any MMO. Arm yourself for the chance of a fight, which is the reason I play this game, at least.

There are a bunch of ships that are 'utility' that are useful in almost every single fleet doctrine, and it's better to fly those well than it is to half-ass a muninn. The exception is logi, whenever you can logi4 something, do it. Logi are always helpful, even if you don't know what you're doing, because they can teach you. I really like the dictors, only because they're needed on almost every doctrine.

If you're doing the same ship type that is squishy, I tend to have a multifit of those dictors ready to go, usually 3-4. If I lose one, and I'm expecting similar fits, i'll import another set. This will tide me over till the next SRP run. Which can be a little chaotic sometimes. And if you're poor, try to stay on top of them.

For NBIs, have one of each of the combats so you can easily load them. I personally find the maulus the best for small gang, just because it is so flexible - range damp ships so they can't operate at long range, scan res damp scimitar/basilisks to prevent reps, range damp tackle! The Griffin is great if you have a known ship type target that you can outrange. The Crucifier is great against thrasher/muninn/eagle fleets, but can't do anything against caracals/cerbs, so it can be a mixed bag.

Listen to the FC

Greetings, this is your Eve Tip of the Day.

Listen to your FC. This is a simple thing, and hard to get people to do.

For DPS ships especially, if your FC says to stop shooting, stop shooting. This will allow your next shot to alpha through things. If they say unlock, that means unlock, and that means if you have a clear lock list, your next shot is more likely to alpha through their shields. You always always shoot the primary, never the secondary. Always leave all your guns stacked unless told otherwise. Your ship has to be the cookiecutter style that your FC picked, don't drop a gun or change out a module unless told specifically. If it doesn't fit, ask if there is an acceptable modification or switch to another ship. Or train more shield upgrades or advanced weapon upgrades, which is the more common problem.

If you are in a tackle or a snowflake, you can think for yourself a bit, but there are a couple commands that are more important than whatever else you're doing.

1. If you hear 'get out of bubbles', that means get out because your FC wants to get out.

2. If you hear 'hold' that means you don't go through the gate. A single scout can go through sometimes, but there might be a full fleet on the other side that could alpha anything.

3. If you hear align, try to align as soon as you can, more important than shooting stuff.

4. If you are struggling, talk in fleet chat or join the newbeans channel and we can help you. If you are told to keep fleet chat clear, then keep it clear.

5. If your FC is busy calling targets, you can -1 in fleet, but never talk about dying if things are busy. If things are relaxed, and you're dying somewhere, can often tell the FC.

6. If you are tackle, you tackle at the beginning of the fleet, and at the end. Wait at a perch, waiting for the FC to call for that tackle. Surviving to the end is good too because then you can loot.

You'll learn these things through practice more than anything else! 🙂