AFB: Workloads Increasing

Figured Id toss out a quick note. Not gonna be posting anything for awhile. Real life and work and all that fun stuff of working to live.

Losses and More Losses

Here are some big losses I recently had; Not in the mood to post the few wins I did have.

After roaming around in my Merlin with Peri's weekly roam and grabbing a couple of pretty ships, I was disappointed that I didnt lose the ship. Rushing to setup my Merlin, I didnt notice I put on a thermic rigging for Armor, instead of Shields. Woopsy. Anyhow, I rushed into a fight and my first Merlin went boom against a Rifter!

I dont really remember how this fight went down. I think there was a call about some big ships around Heild, so I said fuck it and brought out my Legion. Being that the ships we were going to be fighting were BS's, I chose to not use a web; I went full on tracking disruption. Looking back, I should have fit a prop mod to help the TDs do their job, but I didnt. I also drpped all of my normal faction shinies, because I knew in my gut that the chances of losing my ship in this battle was extremely high. Again, hindsight is a bitch, and I think had I kept my bling, I may have been able to tank the stuff longer.

Eventually though, we would have succumbed because the outgoing dps from our small fleet was not enough to actually hurt the BS's. My Legion lasted quite a long time under fire, Im thinking due to the weak hits that were coming in from the Abaddon. However, once the Typhoon focused is fire on me as well, I was slowly slipping behind in damage race. When I noticed that the Abaddon was able to rep my dps easily, I switched fire to the Typhoon. When I popped, he was at 50-70% armor. I think had I shot the phoon first, with all 3 td's instead of two, we would have taken him out first. Oh well, live and learn.

My next loss was against a few other people who joined in near the end of my Legion loss. The second Merlin was trying to scoop loots I think as I was promptly shot and chased off field in my pod. At least the rigs on this one were right....

And finally, I lost another Vengeance this time, to Wensley of all people in his Thrasher. I had just woken up and saw him lecturinng the E-UNI guys in Heild. I offered up a 1v1 and it was accepted; tossed a fleet inv and undocked. Warped to him, but he was going like 2km/s or so and wasnt letting me closer than 25km. Well, I go to hit my prop mod, but I didnt have one fit! I had forgotten to drop one of my dual webs for an mwd. Woopsy. So I warped back to station to refit and caught some flak from Wensley being cowardly and other such things. I quickly refit and explained in reply to his taunts that I had no prop mod, couldnt catch him, so had to fix that problem. Apparently he thought I was part of EUNI, which I promptly corrected him on.

Anyhow, returning to the fight, I was easily able to catch Wensley now that I could go similar speeds. I OH'd my mwd to catch him with an OH'd web, which was then caught in an OH'd scram! Luckily, I only needed to OH my mids for one cycle. Launchers OH'd and shooting, I was missing him alot, he was just at the cusp of my rocket range, so I hit approach. This was a terrible mistake and he chewed through my armor like a hot knife to butter. I was taken totally by surprise by the amount of dps output on this thrasher; I wasnt even aligned out and Im sure he could have caught my pod had he wanted it. GF's were exchanged and I reshipped with my ctype nos's that had arrived while I was out fighting!

Although these losses had many mistakes by me, either underestimating my opponents or just being wrong, all of them were fun to lose.

Fleeting Chains of Events

During this time, Ive been slowly taking out my Legion for more and more fights. The targets are just presenting themselves, and I dont fly battlecruisers, so the most logical sized ship to use is a cruiser. Works for me. I join up in a fleet with Aliak and our new recruit, Ivan. I think Miss Carry joined as well, but was a jump or two over; or just missed the first engagement, Im not sure. Cargo probed out a plex for us to run and then he logged off, but we didnt get any loot from the plex. Stupid PvE junk.

So I fit up my Legion for probing now because Im too lazy to buy and fit a probing Anathema and no one else had probing ships available. I need to work on probing anyways. So Im probing ships and this group keeps moving around, cant get a lock on them. Moving from my sun safe, I move to a belt safe, while trying to get a lock with the probes. And soon, I dont need a lock; they land in the belt with me. They stay in each location for a minute or so, long enough for me to get a lock but gone by the time I land where they should be. But since they landed, I can call in the fleet to land on 0 in the belt. As they are midwarp, I uncloak and warp as well to 0, with us all landing around the same moment.

Locking down the Arbitrator first, due to the drones and other nasties possible from it, we must make it the primary. With everyone else using their webs and scrams on him, I toss my dual webs and scram on the Rupture that I am 3km from. This works out well, because the Arbi is only 8km from me, well within my range to hit with HAMs. After a moment, the Amarr cruiser explodes. With the drone and ewar threat downed, Ruppy was called primary. I made an attempt to snatch the Cheetah that was on field as well, but he was well out of my range to grab at 50km out. With dual webs and scram on the Rupture and me orbiting at 6500, he wasnt going anywhere. With all firepower focused on him as well as my awesome Legion armor tank, the Rupture went boom as well.

Calling to grab the pod, we were so close, I had only a second left on my countdown, we still missed the pods of both pilots and the cheetah got away. Not bad kills, imo, but Im not sure what the Rupture pilot was thinking with having literally zero tank. Was he thinking a fit similar to a nanocane perhaps? I dont know, I dont fly Minmatar ships. Either way, we offered GF's in local, but I dont remember if they were returned. Im gonna give beenfit of doubt and go with yes they were.

Looting and waiting out GCC, Miss Carry either joined the fleet at this moment or finally said something in corp/fleet chat. I dunno, I was tabbing out alot right now. Anyhow, after a few minutes, before GCC was even gone, a Proteus showed up on scan. I quickly located him with dscan/probes and got a warp-in for the fleet.

Duel webs and Scram put on the Proteus allowed me to pretty much have 100% range dictation from the start of the fight. He tried to run away, OH'ing his AB, but it burnt out a little while after the rest of the fleet arrived. I was extremely concerned that this solo proteus pilot had some friends nearby and was expecting them to come to his rescue quickly, resulting in me losing my legion. With these thoughts, the rest of my fleet landed and applied their dps.

When they landed, I did a quick check info on the proteus to find the best ammo to shoot at him. I already had Nova(explosive) loaded, and from the resist profile, looked to be the right kind of ammo to shoot. Just hopefully, he didnt plug his hole. By now, he was 75% armor, but I know Gallente hulls; they have large amounts of structure. I was hitting him for decent amounts of damage as well as the other guys adding their dps in, we broke through his armor at a decent pace, but I still had a fear of his friends coming in. I really love this fear, gets the adrenaline going. 20% armor.

My armor tank is holding up well, but now Aliak lost his rupture! He got his pod out and reshipped to a Cane super quick. He was back on field when the Proteus was 50% or so structure, which with the cane on field now tossing its dps on it, was quickly reduced to zero.

Not a bad kill, and his friends never showed up. I was not disappointed with my Legions dps output, it was as expected; slow. However, I feel I can drop some tankage and add in a BCS maybe. The dual webs definately aided my missiles in doing full damage against the other strategic cruiser. Not a bad half hour or so of late night fun times in Heild!

Reaper vs Legion

Thats right ladies and gents, the Minmatar rookie ship vs a damn Legion!

Well, sort of. I had my jita clone in perimeter and needed to pick up a skill book in jita that wasnt available where I was. There was some others a few jumps out, but meh, I needed to get back to 4-4 for some contract setup stuff anyways. I also wanted to see if the rookie ship would be able to evade the navies that would undoubtedly be chasing my flashy red ass.

I made it all the way to the station, in my reaper nonetheless. I landed and Scotty said I was getting docked in. Then, my ship exploded. Well fuck me! I spam the dock button and get the session changing timer error thingy. Then, Im not in space anymore and Ive returned home to Heild. Definately not where I want to be. Here would be the result of that loss....

Now, here's where it gets fuzzy for me. Ive always thought if you killed a pod in highsec, concord would get you and you would take a sec status hit for such actions. Its why flashy reds fly around high sec in their pods, they're still "safe". Did these rules get changed? If not, the Legion guy took an exspensive suicide for a shiny killmail like the one I gave. If you can shoot flashy pods and not suffer the consequences of suicide ganking, I didnt know this and these specific mechanics are news to me.

These rules must be news to other people too, because as I write this, I am moving my empty pod from Heild to Amarr, sitting at each and every gate that has a combat ship near it to see if anyone will pop my flashy pod. So far, no one has, and Im only a few jumps from Amarr now.

Im not mad bout this loss, but I am irritated by it that I didnt dock when I should have. Ive only given up 1 pod loss related to combat since Ive had this character and this loss bothers me since it wasnt even combat, just due to some ganker. Ill probally rebuy my +5 implants, but I wont make the mistake of going to Perimeter and back to Jita again. =P

Vengeance, Firetail, & Punisher vs Firetail, Thrasher, Kitsune

Sitting in the plex in Hrober, I was waiting for it to respawn. With the local population glitches, I wasnt watching local very well. Was chatting in the different channels I have available, actually. Well, a Punisher landed inside the plex. I approached with the MWD active and caught point and web. OHd the launchers and began spewing my death upon him. As he entered structure, I aligned to the sun as I saw a Kitsune and Firetail both on dscan now. As the punisher exploded I hesitated, I wanted this pod. I was too slow though and the pod got away. Immediately realigning to the sun, I entered warp. Just at the last second as I left grid, I saw the Kitsune and Firetail both land inside. Guess I got out just in time.

Landing at the sun, I was only a few m from the pod. And damned be all the gods, I missed his pod again. Oh well. I went back to the plex for a bit and didnt get much in the way of loot. Corp chat relayed the pod was in Heild, followed by the Firetail and Kitsune. Well, fuck it, I say to myself, lets go kill them. They obviously want to fight. So I toss up an advert for my fleet and have people join up. Both Alaric and Staxed joined up, I gave directions to Staxed to try and get point, having them engage and we would join in when called. Well, after a bit of cat and mouse, we finally got to engage at the sun in Heild.

I called the Firetail primary, and as he was relieved of his vessel, the Kitsune and thrasher showed up on the overview. I knew the Kitsune was a huge concern and I immediately called it primary, but then quickly saw my fuck up and re-called the primary to the thrasher. The Kitsune was 50km out, and I didnt think my crew would reach them in time before either of them were exploded, both the firetail and the hero tackling punisher. It was a costly mistake on my part as the destroyer class Thrasher made quick work of both my corpmates in their frigates. With both of them out of the field, I was the only one left. The only one left to take the full on fury of the ECM'ing Kitsune 50km away. I couldnt even catch him due to the webs on me and the scram preventing MWD.

This pissed me off greatly. It took these guys a terriblely long time to kill my ship. I couldnt NOS anyone due to not being able to target shit, so my capacitor took a shit on me eventually. Once that happened, they took at least a minute and half to kill my armor, then my ship exploded quickly after that point.

I was aligned out for a long time, cussing up a storm in local due to the dishonorable ECM usage. Alaric tried to give a "gf", but I quickly put a stop to that bullshit. When a small gang of 3 fights another small gang of 3, and ECM is involved, its not a good fight, at all. Two of three of my team was cockblocked from even doing anything, by a ship 50km out. Bad call on my part to not go after him, but I doubt there was much we could have done tbh.

You want to kill me cuz of my shinies, go ahead, I dont mind that reason. But to come to my home with ECM and think youre skilled and actually got me? Go fuck yourself. Come back with your three non-ECM ships and my crew will kick your face in. Bring your Hawk. Bring your shitty Rifter. And even bring your favorite Firetail. We'll bring us and you will be lucky if you get out with your pods because we'll be aiming to make you pod goo.

Vengeance vs Firetail, Rifter and Hawk

And there I was, kiddos, sitting at the sun safe, minding my own business chatting away in corp with a new rebel prospect. I was working on my tan, mind you, not really looking for a fight. In fact, I had setup a 1v1 for my new prodigy with another in a Rifter hull and was patiently awaiting for the parties to meet and watch the outcome. These plans came crashing down, in a blaze of fucking glory as I will soon tell you.

So there I was, sitting at my safe sun spot working on the tan. Local wasnt too busy, roughly 7 or 8 people, but only a few were actually undocked. The computer mentioned something about a Firetail on scan, but I ignored her. The only thing I care about from here is if Im out of capacitor. And that bitch doesnt tell me that anymore. She's learned better than to do that. Smart ship I have. With the way Im positioned under my exotic dancer, I can still pretty easily see my overview screen if something changes on it. The exiles are pretty strong today. Even though they're spose to be standards, I think someone slipped something extra in for me, considering how much I buy from them. Damn my habit is exspensive. Oh well, its worth it, I dont suffer the side effects much anymore, consistent use and all Im thinking.

Anyhow, a red line showed up on the overview screen. Amused by this visitor to my sun, I adjusted to see what it was. Hm, that Firetail wants a fight, but hes 200km off in the distance. Well, Im not gonna chase the man. If he wants a fight, Ill sit still here for him. The range closes pretty quickly, down to 140km after a few seconds. Man, those 'tails are speedy. I did a short warp out of my safe towards the sun, hoping to land closer to the firetail. I ended up about 40km from him, to which he responded by doing a short warp to his safe on grid also. Hm, slick little devil he is. By now, local had jumped up to 11 or 12, and I assumed a couple of them were his friends that he was holding off for. I didnt expect a firetail to actually break my tank.

Eventually, he warped off grid. Meh, guess I was wrong bout his friends showing up. Well, he got me excited for nothing, but I had noticed a Hawk on scan while chasin him around. Now, dont get me wrong, but Im not a fan of fighting a Hawk. I lost Blondie to a Hawk pilot. I miss Blondie. Plus, I needed revenge on this ship. I wasnt going to let it explode this new ship of mine. Amazingly, as if the pilot knew what I was thinking, he landed on grid as I was narrowing down his location on scan.

He was about 30km from me when he landed, so we approached each other. My mwd made this distance quickly covered and put me into web and scram range. The Hawk is a fast little ship, but I assumed he was mwd fit as well due to the speed he approached me as well with how fast it dropped once I had scrammed him. Lucky for me, he wont be avoiding much of my damage. And then his friends showed up! That fuckin Firetail pilot, then a Rifter pilot right behind him.

Now, Im not one to normally judge the stupidity of people, however, these guys have no clue how to fight a Vengeance pilot. You dont come at him in a 500m orbit. You dont just NOS him, you need neuts also. You dont sit there and expect him to not call in his own friends. Well, friend. No one in R1fta was nearby except 3D. Thats right, the newb prodigy of mine who was coming to Heild for his 1v1 I had arranged. Sorry bud, Im gonna have to steal you away for a few minutes! Well, he's one jump out, and Im not doing enough damage to this Hawk fast enough.

Overheating my repper now, I turn my attention from the hawk to the Rifter. It puts out decent dps for a ship of its class but its also fragile. So I make him priority number 1. The Firetail is a threat, but also able to escape quickly if needed. The Hawk can put out considerably dps at a long range, but is also pretty tanky sometimes. This Hawk pilot kept trying to stay closer than 5km though. I dunno why, but Im not too worried bout it. I just set my orbit of him to 6500 and keep myself outside his nos range. Switching my web and scram to the Rifter, I begin to explode him. Sadly, he got out of my range and ran off in structure! One down, two to go!

Switching web and scram to the Firetail, 3d lands on grid. I first call the 'tail as primary, but quickly notice the distance increasing between us. I re-order 3d to fire on and get point on the Hawk while mine cycles through the deactivation process. The Firetail escapes in deep armor. I re-heat my launchers and go full-on crazy on the hawk pilot, hitting approach and applying the web and scram. With my attention focused now, I notice the Hawk is TDing me. "What an idiot," I say to myself, "tracking disruptors wont help you avoid my rockets, kiddo!"

With the added dps of 3d's Rifter, the Hawks shields soon dropped past the optimal regen section. He was trying to escape, even webbed, the Hawk is a fast ship. Luckily, he didnt have a faction scram like myself and he was outside his scram range while I closed range again with my MWD; preventing his escape from us! GFs were exchanged in local while I was being accused of not using a scram and being dual web fit. This irritated me somewhat, because I knew these guys were idiots who were being sore bout getting curb stomped on my front porch, so I hastily linked my fit to show I wasnt fit as they said. Not that I care bout sharing my fits, but I shouldnt have given free info like that. Im sure they were salty at the killmail they lost though with their failed attempt at killing me!

Anyhow, with me surviving and getting a killmail from a 3v1 (+1 for hero tackle 3d!), Im pretty happy. 3d seems to be a competent pilot who can follow orders, which Im thankful for. The Hawk pilots friends pretty much fled when 3d landed on grid, they didnt even bother sticking around to take a loss with their friend when they saw a second R1fta tag show up on grid.

So basically, dont fuck with me, bitches! You interrupted my sun bathing!!

Somer Blink! And you....Oh, and ME!

So Im sure most of you have seen this amazing side game of EvE Online called Somer Blink. If you havent, definately check it out in the in game browser or out of game once youve set it up with some funds to play. Anyhow, to the point...

I win blinks, quite often. I win high value blinks often when I play them. To prove this point with some skeptics in my circle of in game friends, we played a game of pretend blink where we would call numbers we would play and wait to see which ones would on each blink. It so happened that two rorqual blinks came up and on both, I called the winning ticket being part of my set of tickets I would normally buy on such a blink. That would have been 7 billion isk right there with a total investment risk of 1.5 billion isk. Not a bad payoff, in my not so humble opinion.

How much isk have I put in compared to how much have I won? Well, Ill put those down below....

Isk deposited into Blink funds = 31,303,133,138 ISK
Value of items in ISK won = 95,788,000,000 ISK

Thats roughly triple the amount won. Neither of these include how much of that has been transformed into liquid isk in my wallet, nor how much I turned back into blink credits (which doesnt count towards how much deposited btw) and also excludes how many of my wins have been just delivered for me to use (quite alot actually).

So, whats the point of this post? Well, Im going to gamble for you. You give me your ISK and I will gamble with it. Theres no guarentee I will win it back for you. However, if I happen to win, I will return your deposit to me as well as 50% returned. Why would I return such a large amount of isk? Well, high risk, high rewards are the name of the game. I will setup some rules and other crap for myself to follow to give some comfort to those who are skeptical this isnt a scam, but Im way too lazy to do a scam that involves anything less than 100 billion isk tbh. I need something large enough to live out my EvE career in quite peace blowing up other peoples ships in low sec. Anything less than that isnt worth my reputation tbh. And even then, I would have self conflict in taking 100bisk worth of iskies from people who trusted me with their funds.

So yeah...Not a scam. So why would you put your faith in me to win your money and not just say I lost? Well, Ill keep a weekly track record in my wallet. Ill post up screenshots of my beginning wallet balance (will make it 0 to start) each week on Mondays. As for payouts, Im thinking a bi-weekly payout will be acceptable for most people. I play blink alot when Im online, but I do resort to other things in EvE.

What do I get out of giving you 50% of what you win as well as your deposit back? Well, more blink tbh. I love playing blink and they are almost at the 200 trillion point. New features are coming up and I can see a way to give a service to the not so lucky capsuleers out there. Ive got the support of a few people and Im sure if they're willing will post of my credibility to buy their honesty =D

Invest in a brighter tomorrow, today; by investing in me to win for you!