EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Introduction
One of the most perplexing things about EVE Online has to be the fact that although the game is essentially designed around PvP, a lot of players avoid it entirely. In this new series of articles, I will explain PvP from the bottom up, with a particular focus on helping anyone that has always wanted to give EVE's high quality PvP a try but wasn't sure what to do. In this first article, I examine the different types of PvP available in EVE Online and suggest ways to get involved in them even if you're just finishing the 14-day trial.
Types of PvP:
In most MMOs, PvP means organised battleground matches or one versus one player duels. For those games lucky enough to have open world PvP, the options are a lot more varied. In EVE Online, the exact right combination of factors come together to create what on a good day I can only describe as the best PvP experience I have ever had in a computer game. Rather than just being something fun to do, PvP in EVE arises as a natural consequence of normal play, used by players to push forward their own agenda in a harsh, dismal space-borne society.
Continue reading as I help you choose which type of PvP suits you the best and suggest ways to get involved in it.
PvP in EVE can be split into five main distinctive groups: Piracy, 0.0 warfare, empire war declarations, faction warfare and suicide attacks. Each of these groups offers very different styles of PvP and finding the one that appeals most to you is important if you want to have a lot of fun. This list of groups is by no means definitive, there are various other niche PvP styles such as corporate infiltration and aggressive market competition among traders is often described as "market PvP" or "economic warfare". Since I covered suicide attacks extensively in a previous article, I'll concentrate on the other four groups in this guide.
Piracy:
The idea of being a space pirate, sailing the space-seas and holding ships to ransom is appealing to a lot of people. At its heart, piracy is attacking unsuspecting ships and either destroying them for the loot or asking for a ransom fee. As attacking players unprovoked in high security space will cause the police to destroy your ship, piracy is largely restricted to low security space and 0.0. In low security space, piracy at stargates and stations is also limited somewhat by the presence of powerful sentry guns that attack agressors. Because of this, many pirates have taken to camping stargates in groups of large ships that can tank sentry guns for hours on end to kill anyone coming through.
Piracy as a profession has changed a lot over the years due to game mechanic changes like the warp-to-zero change and the hitpoint buff. Perhaps the biggest change has been the drop of profitability for mining in low security space, giving very few targets here for roaming gangs to attack. This has led to a lot of corps switching from small roaming gangs to camping gates or moving their operations to 0.0 systems. Some more experienced players have even taken to using probes to hunt down players running missions. Getting into piracy and learning the ropes can be tricky and the most established corps have high skillpoint requirements. If being an outlaw is your cup of tea, it is highly recommended that you find a pirate corp willing to train new players in PvP.
