A Month of Amarr Faction War

About a month ago now I posted about my PVP “dry spell” of sorts. Since then, I've joined an Amarr faction war corp with the goal of pvping in an area of space I've never really visited—pretty much the entirety of Minmatar/Amarr low sec. A month in and I'm having a blast.

So far, I've found this area of space quite welcoming for the solo PVPer, if subject to more fluctuations in activity than areas like Placid and Black Rise. Avoiding only Amamake, I've found more solo fights and less blobs than back in Gallente/Caldari space, while also a bit more periods of complete inactivity. I typically don't have much stomach for faction war—too many targets I can't shoot. Amarr FW is especially bizarre, in that some groups will consider you an awoxer if you shoot lore-friendly targets like CVA (the only Amarr RP group I happen to know). The farmers are also a constant annoyance. Some farmers, contrary to perception, are not new players, but alts of PVP characters in FW. As I recall from stints in Gallente FW, some players strongly disliked other FW players who killed Caldari farmers, as some of those farmers were Gallente alts making isk on their second account. I wish FW were more of a FFA—or at least that there was a pirate based militia that did not punish killing members of one's own militia—as it isn't in my personality to do things like kill friendlies, spy, or do other sorts of meta-gaming, yet I also can't stand seeing purples in local. As much as I want to like FW, this is essentially why I've spent the majority of the past year as a pirate.

It has been a month of learning and firsts:

I've learned just how common stealth bombers are in faction war space when that faction is at T3/T4, and I've learned just how expensive some of them can be, with 100-200m fits quite common. I'm still working on my skills for killing these farmers in stealth bombers.

In my quest to solo at least once in every combat-capable ship in EVE, I've just about completed the Amarr destroyers and Amarr T1 frigates, with only a few ships left to lose. I've learned a lot about how versatile lasers are in their tracking and range, as well as how frequently ships like the tormentor are underestimated.On the whole, I'm up to around 70 kills total in the tormentor.

I've also scored my first solo kills in the lowly punisher, the ship everyone seems willing to fight. With the recent boost to the punisher's powergrid, you can now fit crazy combinations like a 400mm plate, an ancillary armor rep, and a small nosferatu all at once. Kiters love to attempt to warp into a plex on top of a punisher, and the nos helps it avoid typical counters such as neuting ships, double-neuting-firetails included (it's a thing).

I've also learned just how strong neutralizers are, particularly neut-bonused ships like the dragoon. The dragoon is, well, insane, so long as someone fights it. I've come to like the 400mm plate version with three neuts and a microwarp drive personally. This ship has led me to many fantastic fights, including my first daredevil kill ever and my second ever worm kill, not to mention the joy of killing a player with only 17 losses to 1k+ kills in one.

Among other firsts include my first solo worm kill, my first experience flying the rifter (I'm only a decade or so too late here!), my first successful solo fight against a remote-rep gang, my first solo kill of a HAC, and my first kill of an Orca, solo to boot—that's a lot of my EVE-virginities taken in one month!

Up next month are the Minmatar T1 frigates and then some of the remaining T1 frigs I haven't seriously flown.