EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

As most pilots know, a ship is more in danger of destruction while traveling than at any other time. This is true of ships specialized in combat and non-combat roles. Even a good portion of pilots that are actively seeking out PvP will meet their end fighting a hopelessly asymmetrical battle against gate camps, rather than while fighting real PvP targets.

This guide has five handy tips for traveling safely. They are intended to be useful no matter what area of EVE Online you make your home at. Happy trails!

5. Don't Rely On Scouting

Scouting is less reliable than you might think. There are several reasons for this, the most important being that outside of high-security space, almost any ship can potentially turn into an entire fleet through the use of a cynosural field module and a titan or black ops battleship. This module allows either of the aforementioned ship classes to turn themselves into temporary gates, whose fleets can then jump directly to the ship with the "cyno" open.

Getting from point A to point B is fraught with peril, even in supposedly safe areas of space.

Alternatively, any ships that you scout can have backup logged off right where they are, but ready to log in and fight within seconds. This is most common with falcon "alt characters" that are useful for their ECM. They can disable multiple ships at once, potentially turning the tide of battle completely.

In high-sec, there is the ever-present complication of neutral characters assisting your enemies with remote repairing or even suicide ganking on their behalf. Thus, scouting is inherently unreliable no matter where one travels.

4. Warp Core Stabilizers Are Good

A warp core stabilizer adds a point of "warp core strength" that increases the number of warp disruption points needed to prevent your ship warping off. A normal warp disruptor only has a single warp disruption point. The shorter-ranged warp scrambler has two. Finally, a warp disruption field generator with a focused disruption script has an infinite number of points.

For stopping ships from escaping, most ships rely on just a warp disruptor. Thus, even one warp core stabilizer has good odds of preventing a single tackler from stopping you leaving. Fitting several gives good odds of escaping any gate camp in high- or low-sec.

3. But Speed Is Often Better

Warp core stabilizers may prevent you from being tackled, but they will not prevent fast ships from ramming you to knock you as you are aligning for warp-out, nor will they prevent your ship from being destroyed instantly by the first volley of weapons from your enemies. The latter is especially likely in the case of tech one industrial ships, that are often used without a tank due to necessity or carelessness.

Additionally, outside of high- and low-sec there are area of effect warp disruptors. Against these, warp core stabilizers can offer no help. These are generated by ships using interdiction spheres, un-scripted warp disruption field generators, and mobile warp disruptors. Any of these will completely prevent any warping within their radius, warp core stabilizers or no.

Under such circumstances it may be better to try to warp out faster, before your enemies can lock onto you, rather than trying to counter warp disruption. In such cases you can fit agility-boosting modules like nanofiber internal structures or inertia stabilizers. The former are perhaps the best general remedy, while the latter have the unfortunate drawback of increasing your ship signature radius, making other ships lock onto you fast. Thus, it is a good idea to use inertia stabilizers if you can take a few hits, though nothing precludes using them in tandem with warp core stabilizers.