The pillars of PvP:

1. Build & Loadout

2. Skill Use & Manouevring
3. Situational Awareness
4. Team Coordination

Build & Loadout

• Half the battle is won before the first shot is fired

• There are at least 2 or 3 good "mainstream" PvP builds for each class/ship
combination. Experiment with them, find your favourite, and then tweak/improve it
to personal taste and style
• While you do not have to stick to the "preferred" ship for your class, and there are
other effective combos (Eng/Escort, Tac/Cruiser, Sci/Anything), they simply cannot
quite match the synergy between a class and its associated ship type. Therefore it
is highly recommended to stick to this orthodoxy, at least when starting out - it
requires a degree of mastery to create hybrid builds.
• Fit your ship to emphasise its strengths, never to cover or compensate for its
weaknesses (min maxing, synergy). Ie. Use Cannons and +turning engines on an
escort, resistance tanking and shield capacity boosting consoles on a cruiser.
• All damage types are valid, but stick to one (also Escorts = Cannons, anybody who
says otherwise is misguided or inexperienced)
• In general higher capacity shields are better, as the effect of higher regen will only
be felt over the course of a very prolonged fight, and even then can be marginal.
• Choose Science consoles and deflectors that compliment primary Science BO
skill(s), ie. +Deflectors for Science Team.
• Remember that lower tier Captain Skills give greater returns for Skill Point
investment, so aim to max out as many Tier 1/2 skills as applicable to the
equipment and Bridge Officer abilities you want to use. Picking up as many power
level-related skills as you can manage (Efficiency, Management, etc.) is also very
useful in PvP as they will buff a wide variety of ship characteristics and abilities in
one fell swoop.
• Never be afraid to change or experiment
• Understand game mechanics and be able to theorise the impact of build changes
(theorycrafting)

Skill Use & Manouevring

• Know all your skills, their stats, effects, cooldowns, and skills/powers they are
altered by.
• Use skills in synergistic combinations (ie. Stacking self-damage buffs, or resistance
debuffs, combining healing powers like Engineering Team, Hazard Emitters, and
Polarize Hull)
• Manage cooldowns intelligently and minimise overlap (Skill chaining, ie. Multiple
RSPs, with well-planned and timed resistance buffs to fill gaps between cooldowns)
• Rank 3 skills are your most potent abilities, but you only have room for a couple;
choose them wisely as the foundation of your build, and base everything else
around them.
• Every skill should be getting used at least once in a battle - if it is not, drop it from
your build and replace it with something more useful.
• Use a stacked toolbar setup with skills placed in sensible groupings, ie. All healing
skills on CTRL+ hotkeys. Acquire muscle memory of every skill/hotkey in order to
maximise your effectiveness.
• Also bind shield redirection/balance controls to easy-to-reach hotkeys. Use them
constantly (ie. Balance Shields on "1"), just a sliver of energy redistributed to a
drained facing may save you from a fatal High Yield torpedo or Tricobalt.
• Use EPS consoles, batteries, or Engineer skills to adjust power levels quickly when
using a skill whose effectiveness is tied to a ship power setting, ie. Maxing out
Auxiliary when firing off most Science skills, Shield power for Extend
Shields/resistance tanking, Engines for Evasive Manoeuvres, or Weapons for alpha
 striking.
• Maneuver with WASD, not mouse. Always maximise DPS potential of weapon arcs
and bear in mind some skills also have narrow frontal arcs (eg. Viral Matrix).
• When engaging in 1v1 "turn wars", remember that a ship turns best at half
impulse, and a well-timed, quick reverse-thruster maneouvre (a "two-point turn" or
a "Maverick") can often catch an opponent by surprise and give you the favourable
position. (see Appendix: Combat Maneuvers)

Situational Awareness
• Definition of SA, importance.
• Use the camera constantly, and to your advantage. Close-up chase camera view is
the worst angle for situational awareness as it encourages tunnel-vision. Keep the
camera comfortably zoomed out and rotating regularly on both axes. Close chase
view only when "going in for the kill" on a target.
• Take a couple of seconds' pause after each kill or during mid-fight lulls (ie. When
an opponent pops RSP or you have an attacker Sensor Jammed) to assess the
battle space around you, both your immediate situation as well as the overall flow
of the battle.
• Try to make quick mental notes of all the major factors influencing the battle:
which target are your team-mates focusing on? Which friends are taking fire and
need healing/target support? Are there enemy reinforcements inbound? Is an
escort setting up for an attack run on yourself or an ally?
• Prioritise the factors and act accordingly: if an ally has an enemy low on hull but is
in trouble himself, pop him a heal and help him finish off the target quickly. Pre-
empt incoming escorts and interrupt their alpha strike with Science skills
(Jam/Scramble Sensors, Gravity Well, Tyken's Rift, even Viral Matrix), then attack
them first. If an enemy is coming after you and your allies don't have any other
targets low on health (75% or less), then self-defence takes priority: turn and fight
for yourself.
• Also a dual or multi-monitor setup helps a lot with SA by giving you a wider field of
view! Bigger-screen = better awareness. Although it's an elitist view, it's a fact that
a dedicated and competitive gamer will use good PC equipment to help give
themselves advantages - a fast graphics card for solid rendering with no slowdown
in battles, a large monitor to see more (and cut down UI clutter), and even a
gaming keyboard to allow greater ease of control and faster reactions.

Teamwork
• Know your role: this is based upon your ship, and preferably you are a
complimentary class to maximise the effectiveness of that role. Also everyone is a
healer! Eng/Cruiser - Tank/Primary Healer, Sci/Sci - CC/Secondary Healer,
Tac/Escort - DPS/Tertiary Healer. Aka the "Holy Trinity". Just as synergy between
build and ship makes a better PvPer, synergy between ship roles in a team is what
wins battle. A good player must understand the dynamics and nuances of that
synergy.
• Communication is key! In an organised group, Ventrilo/voice comms is a must, as
text is simply too slow and cumbersome to use in a fight. It is your responsibility to
talk and listen to your allies; say when you are receiving heavy fire, call for heals,
warn allies of incoming attacks, and note targets of opportunity. (see Appendix:
Standard Signals). When calling for heals, it can also be helpful to say whether you
would prefer shield or hull (there is no point people healing your shield if you have
RSP up)
• Leadership: a team's effectiveness is enhanced by leadership. This does not only
mean having a commodore co-ordinating tactics; it also means each member of
the team taking initiative and making tactical suggestions. You are not just a
soldier or a pilot; you are a starship captain, a master and commander. Your
tactical insights should always carry value. If you spot an enemy who is vulnerable
(is CC'd, RSP an heals are on cooldown), call them as a target. Sci Officers using
SNB, etc. However if there is a designated team leader, their decision should
always be final, and orders followed. There is time after a battle to discuss, dissect
and acknowledge any command mistakes. Debate has no place in a fight;
indecisiveness invites disaster.
• Cross-healing: Everybody has the capability to heal and should use it to the fullest.
Even an Escort should have Science/Engineering Teams to throw on allies. However
the strongest heals come deeper in Eng and Sci: Extend Shields and Transfer
 Shield Strength are the best ally heals/protection. Resistance tanking currently the
best form of survivability; a couple of cruisers throwing these skills on an
endangered ally can hit 75% resistance and give them nigh-invulnerability from all
but the severest focus fire. Check your allies' status as part of your regular SA
routine and heal where necessary; pay extra attention, or focus fully upon, any
team-mate who has called in being under fire.
• Formation: you need to be within 5km of an ally to receive full cross-healing
capability (range of resistance abilities), so try and stay close together. It is your
responsibility to stay within range of your allies, but also that of the healers to
position themselves within close range of an ally who has called for healing.
• Focus Fire. As a general rule everyone should have the same target, though there
are exceptions. Team leader or primary escort should call targets, use SA and
assist macro/bindings to follow. If a target hits RSP and is above 25% hull, switch
target for 15 seconds. Otherwise attempt to finish with shield bleedthrough
damage (Beam Overload helps a lot with this, especially if it crits). If the target is
receiving too much cross-healing to break through with focus fire, your team must
identify the ships producing the healing and distribute DPS to create "healing
pressure". This is still tactical "focus fire", just on multiple ships. Ie. Three of your
team continue targetting the first enemy while two attack the ship healing it. The
second ship will be unable to keep up the required healing levels on its friend and
itself simultaneously, and one or both will die.
• Always prioritise the targeting of Escorts first, followed by Sci Ships and then
Cruisers. Escorts especially represent the most immediate threat to you and your
team, as well as being the easiest targets to destroy if they are not receiving cross-
healing. If the Escorys receive too much healing, then it is time to move up the
targeting chain to the healers, and temporarily try to ignore the escorts (Sci Ships
can CC and generally harrass them while Cruisers and Escorts focus on the enemy
healers.
• Alpha Strikes. The combination of weapon abilities and damage buffs which
generates a ship's highest burst DPS. Since these buffs tend to involve long
cooldowns (Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical Fleet, etc.) they must be used tactically.
Co-ordinating the alpha strike of several ships at once can produce devastating
DPS that can destroy unprepared targets in a couple of seconds. It is especially
important for escorts to try and synchronise alpha strikes - the Defiant-R is the
perfect ship for this, arguably the best Federation escort for teams when deployed
in cloaked pairs. Escorts should alpha strike with Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical
Fleet, Tactical Team, Go Down Fighting, and a Weapon Battery, as damage buffs
(second Attack Pattern of choice or saved for "beta strike"), and any combination of
Cannon Rapid Fire, Beam Overload, and High Yield Torpedo as weapon "spikes"
(though at least one should be Rank 3). Cruisers and Science Ships must use as
many of the above as they are able to with their available Tactical BO slots.
• The best teams, ironically, have minimal communication, as it is unnecessary. The
members know each other well enough and trust each other to automatically cross-
heal and mutually support as appropriate. The only talking is simply a succession
of called targets.
• At high-level PvP, when fighting premade teams, the battle essentially becomes a
contest of a complex web of healing pressure and counter-pressure. DPS may have
to be highly distributed across three or more targets in order to force a "crack" in
the enemy's cross-healing which can then be exploited by quickly focusing
maximum DPS on the vulnerable target. A good player learns to recognise what
heals an enemy is using, notes their duration and cooldowns, and is able to
calculate when a healing "gap" will occur. This is the only way to defeat heavily-
tanked and cross-healed opponents. Therefore in this type of PvP you must be
prepared to constantly shift targets and memorise the status of two, three or more
enemy ships and what heals they have used, etc.
• Reference for visual effects of major heals?
• Dealing with runners: in Capture & Hold there is no point in chasing an enemy
attempting to flee using Evasive Maneuvers. However in Arena kills count, and if
the enemy is low on hull strength and can be quickly and easily finished off (or if
there are no other enemies remaining) then you should pursue if possible.
Otherwise you should let them go and stick with your team (but keep an eye out
for them returning to the fight). Good escort captains will attempt to use such "hit
and run" tactics to draw off opponents and isolate them from their team. When
should you run yourself? Only in the most desperate situations when your team is
incapable of providing you with sufficient healing and you would otherwise die. If
 you can draw off one or more enemies into chasing you, and even turn and kill one,
then so much the better. Either way it is your responsibility to get back to your
team ASAP, not theirs to follow you.

Appendix: Combat Maneuvers

Appendix: Anatomy of a 1v1

Appendix: Standard Combat Hails

Targeting
• "All attack <x>" - team to target designated enemy
• "<x> attack <y>" - designated team members to target designated enemy
• "Prep alpha on <x>" - team to activate alpha strike skills and fire on designated
target immediately thereafter
• "Target at will" - individual discretion to be exercised in selecting targets
• "Subnuke on <x>" - designated target to be immediately hit with Subnucleonic
Beam by a Science Officer
• "Bleed out <x>" - designated target low on hull strength but protected by Reverse
Shield Polarity, kill with shield bleedthrough damage
• "RSP switch to <x>" - current target high on hull and protected by RSP, switch to
designated secondary target target for 15 seconds and then return to firing on
primary target once RSP has ended.

Healing
• "<name> taking fire" - indicates you are being targeted by at least one enemy and
receiving light to moderate damage. You are able to tank with self-heals for now,
but your allies should pay extra attention to your status and cross-heal if you are
low on hull strength.
• "<name> taking heavy fire" - indicates you are the target of multiple enemies
and/or receiving serious damage. Your allies should prioritise you for cross-healing.
• "<name> going down" - your ship is seconds away from a fatal warp core breach.
All allies should immediately use all available cross-healing on you regardless of
any other priorities.
• "<name> need hull/shield heals" - you are currently in a non-critical state but
require one or two supplementary heals for your shields or hull from an ally.
• <name> RSP up" - you have been forced to activate Reverse Shield Polarity, shield
healing is unnecessary for 15 seconds but allies should ensure your hull strength
remains topped up.
• "<name> healing <x>" - reports or confirms that you are currently diverting all of
your available healing capabilities towards the designated ally.

Support
• "<name> need assistance" - you are under attack by one or two enemies and
request one or two of your allies switch to target them.
• <x> enemy on your six" - alerts the designated ally that an enemy is preparing to
make an attack run on them.
• "<x> incoming" - the designated enemy is preparing to enter the battle, allies to
pick up their visual scanning and be aware.
• "Regroup on <x>" - the team has drifted too far apart and lost coherency. All allies
should proceed to reform with immediate haste within 5km of designated ally.
• "<x> pull close to <name>"