While I'm grinding my security back up I decided to finally finish editing this post and get it out, because my Merlins are languishing in Amarr out of my reach right now, so the "battle reports" will be a little late :( Also I apologise for the text heavy post, I couldn't find many pictures that would "fit in"
In solo PvP, every kill can be attributed to your decisions, as can every loss. If you lose a ship, 99.99% of the time, it was because of a mess up or minor mistake you made. Not the person you're fighting, just you. (That other 0.01% is for really extraordinary circumstances, like the internet deciding to stop working just to spite you) It's brutal, but I honestly prefer it because it makes you take full responsibility for what you did wrong, or right, and hopefully makes you a better player at the end of it all. This means you need to take every advantage you can get in a fight, because you're not doing yourself any favours otherwise. Enter intelligence...
No not that intelligence stupid ;) Intelligence as in information.
For me, there are three main forms of "intelligence" available to the solo PvP pilot, and they are Experience, D-Scan and what I call "Public data". I'll write a little about each one individually.
Experience
- Plain old "done this before" experience. This can cover anything from knowledge of how a certain ship is usually fitted or even having fought the said pilot before and knowing a little of his tactics/personal fit. It can even include intel from your corpmates and how they've seen him fight if you all tend to roam in the same area. This accumulates with time invested in PvP, and therefore you shouldn't worry massively about learning EVERY possible ship fit, or the general tactics surrounding them. It'll become ingrained after a while, and that's when you can start working on instinct (and it actually paying off instead of leaving you in a burning wreck).
D-Scan
- If you don't know how to use D-Scan and want to get into PvP in any capacity, stop reading this right now and go practice scanning with a friend. I cannot begin to explain how useful this tool is in PvP. Have it open all the goddam time while you're in LowSec, refresh it every ten seconds at a minimum, and refresh it again everytime you exit warp or enter a new system. Situational awareness can save your ship, and help you blow up other people. Knowing where the other guy is, what's near him, and who could come running to help him is all hugely useful in planning your attack.
- Have several filters set up on your overview to take advantage of D-Scan, and practise with it until you can scan someone to 15 degrees before your gate cloak runs out. If you can do that and be in warp before your target has a clue he's being hunted, you'll have a surprise advantage at the start of the fight while he scrambles to target you, get into range, load decent ammo etc etc.
- Even the name of the ship can provide intel on the pilot. For example, unless ships are renamed, they are given a "base name", like "Seraph Minayin's Bestower". Most experienced players find this annoying and rename it, (plus it gives away what they're flying). Newer players sometimes don't realise they can rename their ships (or forget to), and as a result they can be glaringly obvious on your D-Scan.
Public data
- "Public data" as I call it is pretty much anything you can find out about the other player that's been recorded in a public accessible area (obviously). In basic terms, this means killboards, corporation history, age of the player, forum posts, even Local chat. Most of this is easiest to find with an out-of-game browser, which is why I play EVE in windowed mode. It means I can keep a link to Battleclinic's killboards open, aswell as EVE-Who and a general Google page (you'd be surprised how useful some of Google's results are)
- There are a myriad of advantages to doing this, mainly in that you can quickly take a look a player's potential experience/ability/SP in comparison to your own, and make a guesstimate at your chances of winning. This might sound a little over the top to those of you who like to rush into a fight and PRESS ALL TEH BUTTANS, but in reality it's just like fitting a faction module, or training that particular skill for a few percent more damage. It all adds up.
So what?
For an example, let's say we see a ship on D-Scan called "Dr Awesomez's Drake". There is someone in Local called Dr Awesomez (important step here, the ship could be empty in a POS) A quick check of his corp history/age shows he's been in and out of several corps, most of which he's been in for only a few days, a week at the most. He's approximately two months old. Battleclinic shows three kills and eight losses. The kills are all with random corp-mates from the corps he's been in, and he appears to be frigate tackle for all of them. His losses are a few frigates, presumably from the same fights, but also two Drakes. A detailed look at the killmails shows both to be failfits (armour reps, for example) and they were both fairly recent. That's the important part. Yes he might have crap-fit a Drake a year ago, but if he hasn't lost one recently, don't assume he's still an idiot at fitting ships. Intel has to be relevant and recent. (Relevant as in, he might crap fit Drakes, but that doesn't automatically make his Hurricane terrible, though it makes it more likely. Be careful when using intel like this and be logical).
Judging from this minute or so looking at available intel, it appears this Drake is going to be an easy kill. D-Scan shows him to be in a nearby belt oblivious to your presence, and a flip through filters suggests he's ratting. You warp in, pew pew, kill him and get out. Pretty easy huh? But , if it was easy why bother with all the secret agent crap? Because it can save your ass before you even start a fight, that's why.
How?
In another example, let's take everything to be the same as the first, except this time, his killboard shows he's been on thirty or so killmails with a large group of corpmates, and both his Drake lossmails were heavily tanked with multiple points. This just screams bait, and therefore you shouldn't engage unless you like the idea of your ship getting filled with holes. That minute spent checking facts has just saved you an annoying death, and has left you alive to fight another day. Obviously you can't do this for every fight, sometimes they drop in on you, (literally) but for the ones that you have the time to look, it can give you that tiny advantage you need to walk away victorious, despite perhaps bleeding into hull.
So you can see why a small amount of time spent checking killboards and suchlike can be extremely useful. Another example would be all of his recent Drake fits are exactly the same, and therefore you can make a fairly safe assumption that this one is the same, and from that, you can build a plan of attack on how to kill him and gun for his lowest resist. Basically you make the fight easier for you, and more frustrating for the guy you're trying to pew to death.
I haven't covered everything you can find out about your opponent, and how it can be interpreted in this mini-guide, because frankly there are a hundred things you can find out and apply to fights to give you an advantage and I'm not going to insult your intelligence by explaining every little one. Always use your brain, and eventually you'll start winning more than you lose :P
Tl;dr Intel is a powerful tool, so take advantage of it!
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