Ninja 101 (Part 1: Overview and Scanning)

I'm bored and my internet is being too uncooperative to play EVE so I thought I'd start a guide to everything in EVE that I know how to do, starting with ninjaing.  I know I'm not gonna get called out by my corp-mates because, lets face it, not that many people read this blog at the moment.  Anyway, mylootyourtears.com gets more hits and Khalia, Paul and Aiden give everything away!  So here goes:

Ninja 101 Overview

This guide is going to be a multi-part, mostly complete overview of the art of the Ninja Salvager.  This introduction piece will hopefully tell you which skills you will wish to train so that you are optimized for Hunting, Baiting and Killing your targets.

Part 1: Scanning

Scanning is probably one of the most essential skills for a ninja to have, crucial if they want to operate solo.  Scanning is not just task that requires Skill Points, but it also requires a real finesse and eye for scanning marks as well as knowledge of how to set up, resize and manage probes.  Since the release of Incarna, it has also been exponentially harder to scan in EVE.  This means you need every advantage you can get, so train all your support skills to the recommended level [RL: __] shown below next to the skill name.  You should also look into some implants if you plan on ninja-ing regularly, or at least scanning regularly.

Essential Skills to Train:
Astrometrics [RL:IV] Increases maximum number of probes by 1 per level, max probes 8 at level 5
Astrometric Pinpointing [RL:IV] Reduces Max. Scan Deviation by 10%
Astrometric Acquisition [RL:IV] 10% Reduction in Scan Time per level
Astrometric Rangefinding [RL:IV] 10% Increase in Scan Probe Strength per level
Covert Ops [RL:IV] Skill at using covert ops ships, gives a bonus to scanning
Racial Frigate of Choice to Level V Allows use of a covert ops ship, winmatar is optimal for Orca as it is the smallest covert ops ship.  Also allows easy training to Jaguar assault ship for baiting.

Implants:
[Slots 1-6:] Low-Grade Virtue Set Pros: Greatly increases scan probe strength.  Cons: Cost (1.6 Billion ISK), low attribute enhancement (only +2 points)
[Slot 6:] Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPF-1 or PPF-2 Reduces Max Scan Deviation by 6% or 10%
[Slot 7:] Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPG-1 or PPG-2 Reduces Scan time by 6% or 10%
[Slot 8:] Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPH-1 or PPH-2 Increase Scan strength by 6% or 10% 

Items:
Covert Ops Ship: Cheetah, Helios, Buzzard and Anathema are all covert ops ships, a must have for any ninja.
Combat Probes and Expanded Probe Launcher: Allows you to scan down ships
Sister's Scanner and Combat Probes: Grants additional bonuses to scan strength, not as necessary for the average ninja, especially the probes.  Launcher is always a plus.


Technique:

Your scanning technique will depend a great deal upon your skills and implants.  I currently don't have implants or great skills, but here is the technique taught to me by another ninja who is an excellent scanner (can scan a system at a rate to keep 2-3 active ninja's happy + self).  He has all the recommended skills and the prospectors (cannot afford virtue set) along with a covert ops ship and sisters probes/launcher.

Here is the ideal layout:

Click to Embiggen

From this position, you will probably not get a direct 100% hit on any ship unless it is a marauder or some MWDing battleship.  For the most part you will have to move your probes (press and hold shift while left clicking  and dragging on any of the arrows) along the x, y, and z axis; resize (click a probe in scanning window, hit "control" + "a" and right click to resize); and move your formation inwards or outwards ("alt" and left click on any of the arrows and drag mouse) so that you have an overlap once more in the middle of your formation.

It is fairly straightforward once you get the hang of it, but play around and start to learn the little tags (The boxes on the overview are the same as in scanning) and what size ship the correspond to.  Also, you may wish to adjust your filters so that you can skip over certain ships.  I personally avoid industrials and barges, but that's me.

This same technique can be used to scan down anything else, provided that you change your probes (core probes for looking for things like wormholes and exploration sites).  Learning to scan opens up a whole (hehe... cause you can find wormholes) new dimension to EVE giving you lucrative new careers to pursue.

Part 2: Baiting coming soon


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