Logging in, I was rather bored. I was sorting through my inventory and finding stuff that I didnt need or had extras of that I could sell for a quick blink of my wallet. Sard Caid comes in and asks for a 1v1 frig fight, so I offer myself up.
Landing in the plaex at 30km, I approach. As Im getting situated with range, a Russian wartarget lands in a harpy in the plex as well and begins shooting me, along with Sard. Needless to say, it wasnt much of a fight and my Punisher was quickly destroyed. I warped the pod out, with the Russian not even attacking Sard at first. I soon get a convo from Sard saying something about how he thought the additional guy was part of my alliance. After a quick update on how r1der accepts and honors all 1v1's, I made Sard feel like an ass for thinking Id broken our 1v1. At which point, he pointed the Russian and let me know to come back if I had a frigate.
Well, I didnt have a frigate, but I had an Arbitrator. I had already undocked in it and was in warp when Sard called point. I hadn't planned on teaming up with him for my revenge kill, but Ill take any help that comes my way against a wartarget. Landing on grid, I quickly lock him up and apply my scram, zooming into a 3km orbit of my target. With drones out, I set the neuts on our opponent as well. He goes down fairly easy, even giving the ruskie version of "fuck you" in local after I give a gf. As a side note, somehow Tavis got on the killmail as well as Sard, so it ended up showing as a 3vs1 kill. And Ill take a 12misk loss for a 50misk kill any day of the week!
I warp out, forgetting my drones behind, but Sard is kind enough to not loot the wreck or take my drones, so I come back for them. I dont bother shooting Sard in his frigate, I feel that'd be somewhat disrespectful. Pirate honor and such I guess. I dock up and refit to run some PvE things, but get distracted talking in channels for abit.
Anyhow, I notice a guy in local I had chatted with a bit earlier in the day, who had chased me around in a stabber. Piping up in local, we agree to a 1v1, cruiser sized fight. Undocking and warping in, I scramble to find my point, which I have no luck of doing since it isnt equipped. Well, this is some horseshit, I say to myself. Im AB fit, no web or scram and plenty of tank. My enemy is a stabber, regular version moving pretty fast around the field, so I assume he's MWD fit. I decided not to chase him around trying to close range and instead, leave it to my drones to break him down.
At one point, he gets within point range and I light him up with some null, adding to my drones dps. Unfortuneately for me, without a scram, he easily increases our distance and we're back to orbiting around 30km. He shoots a couple of my drones down, but I recall the hurt ones and launch fresh ones repeatedly. This goes on for about 5minutes before I warp out and dock to refit for pvp. Neither of us will kill the other this way, I tell him. We talk a bit about why he kept distance and him hoping Id mess up, which I didnt other than bringing a pve fit to a pvp fight.
Redocking and refitting to a pvp fit with mwd and scram, I re-engage my target with an OH'd MWD. Sadly, the arbitrator, even shield fit, is super slow compared to a stabber. I almost burnt out my ASB had I OH'd the MWD for another cycle or two, but I was watching, so was in no danger of making that mistake. At some point, I was reloading the ASB because I was down to 4 charges with plenty of range between us that I could spare the 60 seconds of no tank. Well, around 30 seconds into my reload, we close range finally and I can apply the scram! No mwd for him, but no web from me, so the stabber is still much faster. He stays in range long enough to go down to 30% shields, with me dropping to 10-20%. I had forgotten to pulse my ASB during this close fight.
Well, that was a mistake he was waiting for me to make, but not enough dps was applied during my momentary laspe and when the shield alarms hit, I re-activated the ASB and quickly had 100% shields again. Sadly, the stabber being the faster ship opened range again. At this point I just warped out and called it a draw. I couldnt break his tank and he wasnt able to break mine anytime soon. Had I stayed around for awhile more, I would have eventually run out of charges, but the stabbers tank wouldnt have been able to hold me down long enough for that to happen. So, I did the only logical thing and left. GF's were exchanged and we chatted a bit about our two little skirmishes.
Ive found that the Arbitrator is definately a fleet based ship, with its lack of applied dps to ships in its own class or bigger, I dont see it being a viable solo vessel for myself fighting the ships I want to fight. I mean, I can fight AF's, cruisers, and frigs all day in my Vengeance, so why would I do it in my cruiser? I dont camp gates, and I dont bait people into a fight; as Taurean said in his post, so I will probally be refitting the Arbitrator to a more suited fleet fit and using it more often in that capacity as my fleet leadership skills develope.
In the meantime, Ive been playing alot of Somer Blink lately and not really winning like I used to be, so Im going to be taking a break from that minigame / isk sink for awhile. This will probally open up alot more ISK for me to spend on some more ships as I explore other solo options in the medium sized ship class.
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