PvP basics
Key point 1: You're going to have to invest some PEDs, but it may not be as much as you think...
Key point 2: If you keep your PvP gear separate from your hunting gear, you'll have it for a long-time (think about it, you'll probably die in about 2-hits, taking the decay of 2-hits, as opposed to hunting where you absorb hundreds of hits).
Lets look at what you're up against (the enemy):
1) Big guns
2) Thick armor
3) Lots of HP
It is likely you're going to be fighting avatars who got more skills and gear than you, but don't worry you're not that far behind. So lets see how you can exploit some items in the game to give you a fighting chance to beat the enemy.
*Warning: How to aim tips are beyond the scope of this tutorial
1) Surviving big guns
DON'T GET KILLED IN 1-SHOT
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Damage types and why we want certain armors:
You're going to get shot by every type of weapon from laser, blp, plasma, explosive, and even mind-force (which I am not going to cover). Each type of energy has certain characteristics easily found in all weapon item info UIs. Below are the energy source (weapon type) vs. Major Damage types. Minor types of damage are like acid, impact, etc. however they are quite low typically completely absorbed by many armor types.
Major Damage types:
Laser - Burn
BLP - Penetration
Plasma - Burn
Explosive - Shrapnel
This is important when looking into ARMOR. Armor is going to give you a significant advantage; effectively "increasing your HP" by the means of Major Damage type protection. The other significant advantage is not dying in 1-shot, which is a critical success factor when fighting bigger enemies.
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You will want to gear up in two ways:
- Armor Platings
- A complete "PvP" armor Set
*Notice I said two (2) ways listed above, but only if you want this to work.
Armor Plating
This should be your first investment, as you can install them on an existing armor you have.
mark.6A (11 pen, 12 burn)
It has low MU and they move through auction a lot. Another advantage is it has both pen and burn protection, both popular types of stuff that will be coming your way.
There are bigger plates that maybe harder to find, but 6A is very good for the price. Also there is a plate called mark.3E (L), it has no penetration protection (bad for BLP) but has 24 burn protection (excellent against Laser).
Armor Pieces
Here is a list of popular (L) type PvP armor:
- Hermes (45 pen, 45 burn)
- Infiltrator (48 pen, 49 burn)
- Eon (52 pen, 45 burn)
Should you do auction research, you'd find that Hermes has the lowest MU. If you're patient, you can build a full set of Hermes (M,L) for under 200 PEDs; by purchasing low TT items at or below current MU.
Lets see your protection after gearing up with plates and armor...
Hermes + 6A = 56 pen, 57 burn protection
What this means is that if you get shot by a BLP gun (pen), you'll absorb 56 damage!! If you get shot by a Laser gun (burn), you'll absorb 57 damage!!
So if you have 100 hp, you effectively added 56-57 hp!! That means a person must inflict greater than 156 damage to kill you in 1-shot.
2,3) Killing the enemy
DON'T FORGET THE AMP!!
*Be Aware: the majority of PvP avatars have a lot of HP, 150 - 200+ HP!!
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Since the armor your enemies will be wearing will be upwards of 56 or greater (tiered up) protection, you obviously need to inflict more than that. If you just started the game or still have low skills, the fastest way to PvP is to skill-up and chip-up LASER.
[Unless you have 10-20k of ped to buy a "kickass" unlimited BLP Rifle and lots of BLP dmg/hit skill chips or a Tango/Plasma splurge...just continue following these instructions.]
Why Laser over BLP to start?
Laser = High Damage, Low Rate of Fire
BLP = Low Damage, High Rate of Fire
Lets compare some low level PvP guns at the same skill level to use them:
Isis LR41 Laser (stock): 70 burn damage
Isis CB21 BLP (stock): 49 pen damage
At that same level with BLP, you can only do a MAX of 49 damage!! You're just going to be doing 1.0 damage to the enemy, NOT GOOD. With the Laser, you have a chance to do upwards of 13 damage!!
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High-tier LR41 <-- Your first real PvP gun, anything below this is for hunting mobs.
This is the minimum sized Laser carbine you want to start off with, anything above this gets better and better. What we want is the MIN damage of your gun to be greater than your enemies max protection, so that you can start draining their HP as fast as possible in as little shots needed.
Critical success factor when purchasing an LR41: High Tier Rate or already tiered up
You want to aim for at least Tier 7, because this brings you to the point where you'll be able to 2-shot or 3-shot most people (kill them in two or three hits). This is all relative to TT value and tier rates. Tier rates of ~1200+ are great/excellent; and when you have at least 100 PED left of value, you should reach Tier 7 with some TT left having mostly ~2000 tier rates. Rough spots like a rate of 300 at the level of -[example] tier 5- is bad news, likely you'll never get to tier 6.
Energy Amp
As mentioned, don't overlook this key component in your arsenal. An amp can significantly increase your Major Damage type.
Here are the ones you may want to consider:
E-amp 15 - 19 burn
XR80 (L) - 20 burn
and if you're rich:
Pro600 - 30 burn
Pro700 - 35 burn
Pro900 - 45 burn
The advantage of the E-amp 15 is that it is repairable. The advantages of the XR80 (L) are 1 more burn damage and it is cheaper per shot or "more eco" especially when the MU is low.
*Tip: How do you know the max amp you can use? The max sized amp you can use is based on the Min damage of the gun you attach it to. Your weapon's baseline Min damage (no tiering) must equal or exceed the amp's total damage rating. Example: In order to use an XR80 (L) to its full capability on your gun, the gun's minimum damage must equal or exceed 22 damage; because the XR80 (L) does 20 burn + 2 pen damage = a total of 22 damage.
Fleshing out your PvP death machine
1) Stock LR41
MIN = 35 burn
MAX = 70 burn
2) Tier 7 LR41
Damage enhancer = +10% = 70 burn * 0.10 = 7.0 additional burn damage
Enhanced damage = 70 + (7.0 * 7)
MIN = 59.5 burn
MAX = 119 burn
3) Tier 7 LR41 + XR80 (L)
MIN = 69.5 burn
MAX = 139 burn
See the second setup, it does a MINIMUM of 59.5, that means 2.5 damage against Hermes+6A: So that comes out to a net damage MINIMUM of 2.5, MAXIMUM 62.
With the third setup you're getting in a MINIMUM of 10 damage and a MAXIMUM of 82 against Hermes+6A, a big leap in MAX damage because of a simple amp, amp, amp, amp!!
NEXT STEPS:
1) Acquire these goods
2) Ask the PvPers for tips and tricks or even try to join a PvP soc
