FW: not as bad as some people say

A few well-respected pilots have complained about faction warfare being completely dominated by risk aversion which leads to few, if any, real fights.

My experience, however, has been quite positive.

I started FW with a low-skill character last fall to take advantage of the loyalty point fountain coupled with low prices. Doing it casually, I think I made a few billion ISK from plexing and a few billion more from FW-related speculation - buying popular cashout items and reselling them once the plug was pulled on LP store discounts.

I kept training the character and he can now fly minmatar frigates with reasonable PVP setups so recently I started flying him again, looking for fights rather than loyalty points.

And it works. Playing, once again, rather casually, I still got into a number of fights, won some, lost some and gained some experience flying and fighting the updated T1 frigs.

While some people do indeed warp out the moment they see you on close-range d-scan, others are willing to fight, often coming back for a rematch. I'd say more than a half of Amarr pilots I've met were willing to fight.

In total, I've been in at least 16 fights since restarting FW on March 24, which, measured against my activity, is quite good. It's definitely more than I got with Nursultan. Oh, and the LP gain from kills and plexes (you sit there anyway as you wait for fights) is a nice bonus that could keep one in well-fitted ships indefinitely.

Right now my default ship is the Slasher:

[Slasher, AB-TD]
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer I

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I,Tracking Speed Disruption Script

150mm Light AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet Fusion S
150mm Light AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet Fusion S
150mm Light AutoCannon II,Republic Fleet Fusion S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Nanobot Accelerator I

EMP, Phased Plasma, nanite paste and optimal disruption script in the cargohold.



Works reasonably well against turret-based ships, especially if you are inside a plex and dictate the starting range of the engagement. You either stay at range while disrupting their optimal (works best against blaster ships) or orbit close while disrupting their tracking (poor slicers).

Dies when successfully kited by MWD frigs. Takes forever to chew through a cap-boosted dualrep Incursus. I have yet to fight a buffer-tank missile ship, but I think it's going to be tough as you have no buffer at all and no way to mitigate missile damage (other than speed, so overheat your afterburner).

I usually turn off the auto-reload on the rep because at that stage I am usually in control of range and need minor repairs for rare volleys that get through or drone attacks.

I should probably get an MWD version as well to deal with those pesky kiters.