Yesterday, I jumped back to Amarr for some reason that I cant remember right now. Something to do with blueprints that I left behind, I think. Anyhow, I had my brother log in and help me and I convinced him to go on a roam with me and attempt to find a retriever to gank. Sadly, this roam was a bust, 15 jumps and not a single retriever or covetor. A group of 4 Macks and an Orca were in an icebelt, but meh, I didnt want to risk shooting it and not killing at least one in my Thrasher.
Being a busted roam, I distracted my bro with the pretty backgrounds and explained that the nebulae way over there was where Amarr is and its where we we had our base. He was in awe. I then explained that we werent too far from the EVE gate and he could check out the history on it and maybe even go there someday. Thats his goal for tomorrow. Small step towards playing more, woo! Also found out he wants to be an industrialist. Somewhat sad, but I explained the steps involved and the skills he would need to work towards. Also showed him a bit of exploration, but my probing skills arent top notch, so I pointed him towards a few videos. Now that the wasting of time is over with....
After waiting literally all day for my jump clone timer to go away, I jumped back to Heild and got into my Anathema to go probe down some missioners a few systems over. I didnt get far into probing (Bosena), as someone said a caracal was in Heild now. Well, I want an above class kill, so I hurried back to Heild and got in my Vengeance. The moment I undocked, I got the update that the Caracal disappeared from scan and left system. Well shyt.
Being lazy right now since several people in system, I warp straight to the plex and run into another Vengeance. He was a lil bit away and I didnt feel like slow boating it. Warping to the sun at 100km and aligning back to the plex, I pulled up his kb. 30-ish wins, 10-ish losses. Not a bad record, but none of his losses that I saw were a Vengeance. Maybe I just didnt look far enough, I just pulled up the first killboard I saw in google search. Yes, I dont know the best way of doing this yet, but Im working on it.
Noticing he warped on grid, I just warped to the plex again. I wasnt done reading about my soon to be opponent. A little bit of excuses given in local to buy me a moment extra, I allow him to scan me back at the plex and he warped in at 50km. We slow boat to each other, me practicing my manual flight, no shits being given. (thanks Jester). I know the tank of a Vengeance is a tought nut, so I wasnt worried bout mine or his. I was worried if I had enough ammo to outlast his supply.
As we lock horns, webs and scrams were traded. While making my approach, I pre-heated my launchers. With Thermodynamics 4 trained, I am able to let them go quite a bit longer now. Eating into each others shields, I win the race hitting his armor first. It seems he is havign trouble getting mine and I notice he's not using rockets, but autocannons. Well, that'd be why he wasnt hurting my armor at all. Being the sporting person that I am, I close range and stop manual flight, setting orbit to 500km. This keeps me at roughly 1500-1800m with my AB going and him orbiting also. Lazy, I know, but w/e.
This did two things; both of which I wanted practice against anyways. It kept me within his nos range and allowed him to do more damage to my armor, letting me practice pulsing my repper. My cap skills are pretty decent, and my fit is very much cap stable, so for me at this time, it was a "practice this and get it right" moment. With my guns overheated, I get him to about half armor, and they are 30% damaged. I needed to outlast this guy, so I turned off the OH and he repped to full surprsingly quick. Guess he overheated his repper =P
Then came the fun moment: A Rifter jumped in at 70km. Well, he wasnt my friend, so I assumed my opponent had called in backup. I then did the same, asking for a friend in corp chat to come. Luckily, the Rifter was far enough away that I had plenty of time and wasnt too rushed. I also wasnt too worried about the additional dps the Rifter would put out. I felt it'd be good practice with module management. Soon enough, the Rifter was within range, shooting me. Another surprise moment in this fight was when my opponent in his Vengeance turned off his nos and put it on the Rifter. His guns also stopped shooting me and I was getting shields back, even though the Rifter was shooting me.
Well, this changed things! Too late though, as my corpmate was already undocked and on the way. Switching my launchers to the Rifter also, I turned up the heat and blew him away. I had a lock on the pod and I hit the scram, but damnit all, he still got away a split second after. Lol'ing at him local for joining on a fight only to be teamed up on, he docked up.
With the distraction disabled, our teamwork was now finished and we started firing back at each other. Sadly for my opponent, my corpmate was on his way in his Rifter. And this time, there wasnt going to be a mutual unspoken agreement to kill the interloper. With the added dps from the second R1fta pilot, my opponent eventually succumbed. GF's were had in local and nice pirate-y words exchanged. Good fight imo, but had I not had assistance, I would probally still be fighting this guy. The tank on both our Vengeances is just that good when fighting an equal opponent. During our after fight local convo, I found out my corpmate was not going to engae at first, but rather watch. That is, until he got fired at; the he joined in.
Things I learned here: Its more fun to be on the winning side of someone calling in help. I feel bad for doing so, but only because the first interruption wasnt a friend of his. I made a call for help when I felt it required to even things out a bit. Had I not called for help, I dont know how the fight would have gone had they both teamed up on me instead of us on the rifter, but I think I didnt think before calling for assistance. I dont want to rely on that if shit hits the fan, so I need to asses my situation better during the heat of a fight. On a good note, the rush of comabt is an amazing high and I am able to focus on the fight while in this state now. Not completely, obviosuly, but enough to multitask with things outside the fight, like smack talk in local and call for help in corp.
I need to be looking for an above class kill though. Ive been limiting myself to looking only for other t1 and t2 frigates. For now though, Ishkurs are on my ignore list of fighting.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Double Feature
I know I already posted today, but heres a double feature post. Ive been super active and I feel if I hold these smaller fights back, they will be way old news. And they are actually, these happened over this previous weekend. Plus, Im sssuuuuupppppeerrrr bored right now. =P
Part 1
I jumped into a fleet with a few corpmates to kill a couple missioning Maelstroms and Nidhoggur. As soon as the tackle jumped in on them, they warped out. Yay for pre-aligned, insta warping!
Anyhow, they warped off to a PoS. Warping in, our covops tackle didnt last long due to a wolf jumping into the foray. Luckily, they made a fatal mistake. I warped in with the rest of the gang and dispatched the Maelstrom. He didnt have PoS rights, so he just bounced off the shields while his friends watched him die. I tried for the pod, but he got away before I finished locking.
Not much to learn here, as all the probing was already done and all I did was warp in and apply 8% of the total damage dealt. For us, it was a lucky kill due to the mistakes of their PoS person. Make sure if youre missioning in low sec space, pre-aligned to your PoS for safety; that ALL your fleet members have access to get inside the shield! I dont care though, I remembered to loot this time, but forgot to bookmark the PoS for future bashes. Oh well, maybe next time =P
Maelstrom storm!
Part 2
So I was sitting at the sun like I normally do due to laziness and the fact that Heild was pretty busy atm. I was scanning down a jag at a cluster of belts, and casually asked who's it was. Come to find out, he was scanning me also, and it was a corpmate. Woops. As I was warping out to go jump around a bit, a Rifter lands. Oooo, as warp ends, I turn around and go back at it. Im not above fighting a t1 frigate who comes to me.
Apparently he warped there for a 1v1, as I found out mid warp. Well, Ill just watch from 100km off then. I land and there's one rifter and a wreck. What do I do? I steal his loot, of course. Gotta make that money somehow, even scanvenging. Well, as I grab his loot, the rifter comes into range. Meh, ok, Ill blow him up, I say to myself.
Not so much. Soon after locking and blasting into the Rifter, an Ishkur and wolf soon join the fight. And out pop the drones. Needless to say, those things blasted through my armor like a hot knife into butter. As I hit hull, I aligned and spammed my warp key. Only...I didnt warp. My client froze on ship explosion and caused my pod to pop also. Worst part of this whole fight isnt that I lost 60 misk in implants, it was that I used my first booster and it did absolutely nothing to help in this fight, maybe even made it worse. Second worst part? The failure to move my clone to the Molden Heath Region somewhere and the 20-ish jumps back from Amarr. Follow the link and you can also find my pod lossmail.
Ship lost!
Things I learned: Dont fight someone I clearly am able to see 2 or 3 of his corpmates in same system. They were outside my scan range when I engaged, so I didnt see the ishkur. The wolf didnt bother me as I wanted to fight it instead of the Rifter anyways. Also, those drones freakin hurt. Hammerheads I think they were, but that seems off. Maybe Hobgolins, I dunno. Either way, there were 5 of them and I died before I could even kill one of them.
My win to a 1v3 the other day has been equaled out to a death in a 3v1 today.
Part 1
I jumped into a fleet with a few corpmates to kill a couple missioning Maelstroms and Nidhoggur. As soon as the tackle jumped in on them, they warped out. Yay for pre-aligned, insta warping!
Anyhow, they warped off to a PoS. Warping in, our covops tackle didnt last long due to a wolf jumping into the foray. Luckily, they made a fatal mistake. I warped in with the rest of the gang and dispatched the Maelstrom. He didnt have PoS rights, so he just bounced off the shields while his friends watched him die. I tried for the pod, but he got away before I finished locking.
Not much to learn here, as all the probing was already done and all I did was warp in and apply 8% of the total damage dealt. For us, it was a lucky kill due to the mistakes of their PoS person. Make sure if youre missioning in low sec space, pre-aligned to your PoS for safety; that ALL your fleet members have access to get inside the shield! I dont care though, I remembered to loot this time, but forgot to bookmark the PoS for future bashes. Oh well, maybe next time =P
Maelstrom storm!
Part 2
So I was sitting at the sun like I normally do due to laziness and the fact that Heild was pretty busy atm. I was scanning down a jag at a cluster of belts, and casually asked who's it was. Come to find out, he was scanning me also, and it was a corpmate. Woops. As I was warping out to go jump around a bit, a Rifter lands. Oooo, as warp ends, I turn around and go back at it. Im not above fighting a t1 frigate who comes to me.
Apparently he warped there for a 1v1, as I found out mid warp. Well, Ill just watch from 100km off then. I land and there's one rifter and a wreck. What do I do? I steal his loot, of course. Gotta make that money somehow, even scanvenging. Well, as I grab his loot, the rifter comes into range. Meh, ok, Ill blow him up, I say to myself.
Not so much. Soon after locking and blasting into the Rifter, an Ishkur and wolf soon join the fight. And out pop the drones. Needless to say, those things blasted through my armor like a hot knife into butter. As I hit hull, I aligned and spammed my warp key. Only...I didnt warp. My client froze on ship explosion and caused my pod to pop also. Worst part of this whole fight isnt that I lost 60 misk in implants, it was that I used my first booster and it did absolutely nothing to help in this fight, maybe even made it worse. Second worst part? The failure to move my clone to the Molden Heath Region somewhere and the 20-ish jumps back from Amarr. Follow the link and you can also find my pod lossmail.
Ship lost!
Things I learned: Dont fight someone I clearly am able to see 2 or 3 of his corpmates in same system. They were outside my scan range when I engaged, so I didnt see the ishkur. The wolf didnt bother me as I wanted to fight it instead of the Rifter anyways. Also, those drones freakin hurt. Hammerheads I think they were, but that seems off. Maybe Hobgolins, I dunno. Either way, there were 5 of them and I died before I could even kill one of them.
My win to a 1v3 the other day has been equaled out to a death in a 3v1 today.
Rifter vs Firetail
I know I said I wasnt going to do so, but I app'd to the Black Rebel Rifter Club. After fighting a group of them, I felt I knew them. That whole "you dont actually know someone until you fight them" thing. Or something like that. Either way, since I apped to R1fta, I figured tonight I would fit one out and fly it. As seems custom in this area, most people fly Minmatar ships. Being that I dont fly Rifters regularly just yet, I felt in the mood to piss people off. It sorta worked.
I saw a few people in Autocannon fighting and one was of The Hatchery. If you dig, you can see that I fought Aeth of The Hatchery awhile back also in a prior life. Good people, honorable pirates. Not the type that would enjoy fighting my Rifter tonight. Anyhow, he killed some cruiser in his Republic Fleet Firetail, so I offered up a 1v1. He was busy in one already, so I waited while warping around. Getting an invite to fleet and an offer to warp to his safe, I obliged. Warping in at 20km, we charged at each other.
With no AB, I was unable to control range during this fight due to his ability to weave in and out from 6km to 12-ish km. However, as he ate through my shields, I popped on my surprise: ECM. He did not like that at all. I let it cycle once, because being perma jammed sucks, and I wasnt doing anything with him out of my range. Had to lure him back in.
It worked, but not for long. My armor was gone soonish. Popped the ECM again, repped up to full armor, turned it off. And again, he brought my armor down, shedding sunlight on some of my structure as well. At this point, I said "fuck honor!" and turned on the ECM once again....And warped out. Sadly, I didnt get any mean comments attempting to hurt my feelings and honor.
Things I learned this fight is that a non-AB Rifter is slower than my Vengeance. Thats sorta bad since its tank is not even half of what Im used to. The only reason I escaped this fight is due to my ECM, whereas most people rely on their speed for gtfo-ability. I mean, I couldnt perma jam my opponent, the Rifter's cap and regen isnt nearly good enough to pulse a repper and keep the ecm on while I shoot it AND keep within distance to do acceptable damage. I learned I dislike the Rifter.
Meh, its one fight. Its a t1 ship with meta mods instead of a full t2 fitting. Ill give it more chances, adjusting my fit around for next time. Tbh, this fight wasnt long, but I did notice that manual flight is important while being kited. Im not experienced enough to pull off more advanced techiniques to get an experienced pilot like Michael Harari to get closer than he wants to; but eventually, I will be. Right now, not so much.
No killmail, yet no lossmail. It doesnt feel as good as it did before when it happened, so Im going to consider this fight a draw. I didnt lose much except for a little ego for running away, but I still have my Rifter to live and fight another day! Which is a true pirates attribute afterall.
Also, in case you missed it, I was accepted into R1fta. An updated photo with my new black jacket below.
I saw a few people in Autocannon fighting and one was of The Hatchery. If you dig, you can see that I fought Aeth of The Hatchery awhile back also in a prior life. Good people, honorable pirates. Not the type that would enjoy fighting my Rifter tonight. Anyhow, he killed some cruiser in his Republic Fleet Firetail, so I offered up a 1v1. He was busy in one already, so I waited while warping around. Getting an invite to fleet and an offer to warp to his safe, I obliged. Warping in at 20km, we charged at each other.
With no AB, I was unable to control range during this fight due to his ability to weave in and out from 6km to 12-ish km. However, as he ate through my shields, I popped on my surprise: ECM. He did not like that at all. I let it cycle once, because being perma jammed sucks, and I wasnt doing anything with him out of my range. Had to lure him back in.
It worked, but not for long. My armor was gone soonish. Popped the ECM again, repped up to full armor, turned it off. And again, he brought my armor down, shedding sunlight on some of my structure as well. At this point, I said "fuck honor!" and turned on the ECM once again....And warped out. Sadly, I didnt get any mean comments attempting to hurt my feelings and honor.
Things I learned this fight is that a non-AB Rifter is slower than my Vengeance. Thats sorta bad since its tank is not even half of what Im used to. The only reason I escaped this fight is due to my ECM, whereas most people rely on their speed for gtfo-ability. I mean, I couldnt perma jam my opponent, the Rifter's cap and regen isnt nearly good enough to pulse a repper and keep the ecm on while I shoot it AND keep within distance to do acceptable damage. I learned I dislike the Rifter.
Meh, its one fight. Its a t1 ship with meta mods instead of a full t2 fitting. Ill give it more chances, adjusting my fit around for next time. Tbh, this fight wasnt long, but I did notice that manual flight is important while being kited. Im not experienced enough to pull off more advanced techiniques to get an experienced pilot like Michael Harari to get closer than he wants to; but eventually, I will be. Right now, not so much.
No killmail, yet no lossmail. It doesnt feel as good as it did before when it happened, so Im going to consider this fight a draw. I didnt lose much except for a little ego for running away, but I still have my Rifter to live and fight another day! Which is a true pirates attribute afterall.
Also, in case you missed it, I was accepted into R1fta. An updated photo with my new black jacket below.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Vengeance vs 2x Republic Fleet Firetail and Rifter
Look at the title. I know, right? Totally scary. To me it is, considering the pilots are all Black Rebels and well, they're scary.
Anyhow, After jumping my 29 jumps from Jan to Heild last night, I didnt find much in the way of a fight. A few ships, as in mostly dramiels, that I knew would just kite me, I wasnt going to engage. Several others, I saw and they had a few bigger friends, so meh...I just didnt fight a battle I knew I would lose.
So today, I log in, jumping around Molden Heath and someone calls out for a 1v1. I and another ask what and where. Me being in my one and only vengeance within 25+ jumps, I was pretty limited. He wanted a t1 frig, so meh, I let the other guy have it; but I did let it be known in a casual manner that I was sitting at the sun in Bosena and Heild. Soon enough (10 or so mins later), I had a friend warp in at 100km.
A Republic Fleet Firetail. Oooo, perdy faction ship. So flying towards him, I adjust my trajectory to assist in keeping transversal high for him. Autocannons track pretty damn well as is and a quick look at the firetail info showed they get a bonus to tracking. I needed all the help I could get on this. I was pretty sure my opponent was using an AB due to the 1k-ish velocity showing in my overview. Once I got within 30km, I adjusted to an upwards angle for transversal. I assume he was using the approach command, because he continued straight at me.
Now within range, I activated my web and scram. Avoiding the orbit button, I kept within range of him, but it seemed pretty easy; maybe he was orbiting me? However, as his shields melted (yay t2 thermal rockets), another Firetail popped on my overview. And then a Rifter. I was like, "Omg, how many friends is this guy gonna bring?!" My next thoughts were going to make or break this fight for me. Should I stay and fight or try to escape? Well, with three attackers, I need an escape plan either way. With three webs, I wasnt going to run anywhere. I say fuck it, overheat my AB and align. They wont have any issue keeping up with me, but Im not going to just give them a flying brick, Im going to take one of them down too!
Targeting the second Firetail and Rifter, I adjust my flight again to keep in missile range. And then I watch my overheated rockets finish off the first Firetail. Ignoring the pod that popped up, I start firing at the second one. The rifter is a danger, but being a t1 ship, Im not too worried about his damage as I am the faction ship's output. I get him to low armor and guess what happens....Come on, take a guess.
Yeah, BOTH my AB and scram burnt out. I think I may have OH'd my scram also at some point to prevent them getting out of my 10km range. So with both my ab and scram burnt out, the Firetail turns tail and warps out. I continue firing on the Rifter with OH'd launchers and drop him to structure. Then he warps out. Omg, I just survived a 3v1!!!
I dont care that I didnt get all three and after the first popped, I tried to escape. Turning back and keeping them in range, messing up my warp out alignment just felt greedy trying for the kill and is not something I should do often, but I was no where near being hurt; I dont think my armor dropped below 50%. Not bragging or anything, but at the same time I am. I freakin survived a 3v1 against one of the better pirate corp members. Yes, I am going to let this go to my head for the weekend!
Anyways, what did I learn this fight? Well, I learned that I really need to not OH my AB or scram unless either myself or my opponent are running away. With their speed, I think they would have had me if I wasnt able to web them, causing my rockets to do less, or little, damage. I also learned that even though it was a 3v1, my Vengeances tank is insane. Im not there yet, but maybe soon I will consider switching out my rigs for more offensive ones. Looking up the Firetail, I noticed it has an explosive hole, as most Minmatar ships seem to have. With that in mind, I should have switched my missiles, but that reload time was just too much considering how fast the shields fell.
And finally, the killmail. Only one out of three due to burning out my scram, but like I said, "fuck it, I lived through a 3v1!!" One thing I do need to do though, is loot the freakin wrecks. I forgot to this time, but in the future, I need to make an attempt to get the loot. One comment on his fit however, because he had fit a TD. Lucky for me tbh, as those have no effect at all on missiles, causing him to have a wasted midslot that could have been used to increase something else. I dont know what though, so w/e.
Firetail Fired!
Anyhow, After jumping my 29 jumps from Jan to Heild last night, I didnt find much in the way of a fight. A few ships, as in mostly dramiels, that I knew would just kite me, I wasnt going to engage. Several others, I saw and they had a few bigger friends, so meh...I just didnt fight a battle I knew I would lose.
So today, I log in, jumping around Molden Heath and someone calls out for a 1v1. I and another ask what and where. Me being in my one and only vengeance within 25+ jumps, I was pretty limited. He wanted a t1 frig, so meh, I let the other guy have it; but I did let it be known in a casual manner that I was sitting at the sun in Bosena and Heild. Soon enough (10 or so mins later), I had a friend warp in at 100km.
A Republic Fleet Firetail. Oooo, perdy faction ship. So flying towards him, I adjust my trajectory to assist in keeping transversal high for him. Autocannons track pretty damn well as is and a quick look at the firetail info showed they get a bonus to tracking. I needed all the help I could get on this. I was pretty sure my opponent was using an AB due to the 1k-ish velocity showing in my overview. Once I got within 30km, I adjusted to an upwards angle for transversal. I assume he was using the approach command, because he continued straight at me.
Now within range, I activated my web and scram. Avoiding the orbit button, I kept within range of him, but it seemed pretty easy; maybe he was orbiting me? However, as his shields melted (yay t2 thermal rockets), another Firetail popped on my overview. And then a Rifter. I was like, "Omg, how many friends is this guy gonna bring?!" My next thoughts were going to make or break this fight for me. Should I stay and fight or try to escape? Well, with three attackers, I need an escape plan either way. With three webs, I wasnt going to run anywhere. I say fuck it, overheat my AB and align. They wont have any issue keeping up with me, but Im not going to just give them a flying brick, Im going to take one of them down too!
Targeting the second Firetail and Rifter, I adjust my flight again to keep in missile range. And then I watch my overheated rockets finish off the first Firetail. Ignoring the pod that popped up, I start firing at the second one. The rifter is a danger, but being a t1 ship, Im not too worried about his damage as I am the faction ship's output. I get him to low armor and guess what happens....Come on, take a guess.
Yeah, BOTH my AB and scram burnt out. I think I may have OH'd my scram also at some point to prevent them getting out of my 10km range. So with both my ab and scram burnt out, the Firetail turns tail and warps out. I continue firing on the Rifter with OH'd launchers and drop him to structure. Then he warps out. Omg, I just survived a 3v1!!!
I dont care that I didnt get all three and after the first popped, I tried to escape. Turning back and keeping them in range, messing up my warp out alignment just felt greedy trying for the kill and is not something I should do often, but I was no where near being hurt; I dont think my armor dropped below 50%. Not bragging or anything, but at the same time I am. I freakin survived a 3v1 against one of the better pirate corp members. Yes, I am going to let this go to my head for the weekend!
Anyways, what did I learn this fight? Well, I learned that I really need to not OH my AB or scram unless either myself or my opponent are running away. With their speed, I think they would have had me if I wasnt able to web them, causing my rockets to do less, or little, damage. I also learned that even though it was a 3v1, my Vengeances tank is insane. Im not there yet, but maybe soon I will consider switching out my rigs for more offensive ones. Looking up the Firetail, I noticed it has an explosive hole, as most Minmatar ships seem to have. With that in mind, I should have switched my missiles, but that reload time was just too much considering how fast the shields fell.
And finally, the killmail. Only one out of three due to burning out my scram, but like I said, "fuck it, I lived through a 3v1!!" One thing I do need to do though, is loot the freakin wrecks. I forgot to this time, but in the future, I need to make an attempt to get the loot. One comment on his fit however, because he had fit a TD. Lucky for me tbh, as those have no effect at all on missiles, causing him to have a wasted midslot that could have been used to increase something else. I dont know what though, so w/e.
Firetail Fired!
Friday, January 6, 2012
The Week in Review
Im thinking this is a good ending trend for each week. It keeps me consistent on content and helps me set a goal for the next week while also allowing me to look back and see if I actually succeeded in the previous weeks goal or not. This prior weeks goal was to practice manual flight.
With this in mind, I dropped a can in a high sec safe and practiced keeping it within certain ranges while manual flying. Pretty simple excercise, considering the can doesnt move. I made it fun by switching back and forth between 2km and 6km, without going over 7.5km; the range on my rockets that I feel comfortable reaching to ensure they hit. At least until I max out the range skills, putting me at about 9.1km.
I need to work on those skills as well, any extra range my rockets can get is good. Currently, all missile skills that have an effect on rockets are level 4, excluding warhead upgrades, which is level 3 (going into level 4) and should be finished training later today. Ive got a plan for a "maxed" Vengeance that is done in 45ish days. I say "maxed" because Im probally not going to train the long 10+ day level 5 skills for a 2% bonus anytime soon. Im making an exception for the Assault Ships 5 (at 15 days) because more resists and a small boost in cap regen are both great for active tanking.
So manual flight isnt mastered, but Ive gotten to an acceptable level while pushing everything else in combat to the "white noise" part of my brain in combat. The next weeks goal will be to continue manual flight and adding in the overheating of modules and not burn any out, while getting as much time in OH mode as possible. This will be helped a little bit when I get Thermodynamics to 4 over the weekend, finishing late Sunday night.
I look forward to the AF buffs coming eventually, but as other people have stated, Im not sure on the mwd role bonus. I think a regular 4th bonus without CCP pushing ships into a specific role would be a better idea. The way the changes are looking at this point in time though, I know I will be switching to the Wolf if they go through. Luckily, my gunnery skills are average and will take a minimal amount of time to get to 5s and t2 projectile weapons. I may even do this once my Vengeance is maxed just to fly something new, but I really want to fly a Sacrilege in pvp; so thats a high priority after the Vengeance Plan.
Also, as many people know, CCP allowed us to get a 60 day trial key per account we have and give it to a friend. I took advantage of this and made a new account. Since I had two accounts, I gave my other key to my brother; who btw is really slacking on his skill training and doing it wrong. I tried to show him EVEMon and EFT to get an idea for a ship and mods he would like to get into, but he just doesnt understand the need for 3rd party tools such as these. I should have expected as much though, he never liked using ACT for EQ2 and upping his dps. So w/e, I just added his api to my evemon and I sneak on his account to edit his skill queue to get him to the ship he wants to fly: Hurricane. Unfortuneately, as short as the plan is to get into the ship with t1 modules, he still wont be able to get the BC skill until he switches to a regular account. Not sure if that will happen if he never logs in to fly a Rifter or Punisher with me. Roaming is rather boring solo.
Speaking of which, Ive logged in and looked for a few more fights, but in my area of space (Jan, Hakonen, Lonetrek) Im not finding acceptable targets at the times I log in. I also dont have the patience to jump through several systems looking for a fight and not finding anything, even when letting people know my location in local. I noticed R1fta is recruiting, and as tempting as it is to apply, I dont want to join another pvp focused corp and not be up to par with the small amount of time I am active each week. I did see they fight each other though, so perhaps that may be a good idea. Especially with future plans to jump into a Wolf =P
Anyhow, goals for next week are to continue working on manual flight while watching my overheated modules and keeping range control in fights. The Vengeance is probally a poor choice to maintain range control, but Ill still make an attempt. I should also expand my selection of targets towards just getting a ship blown up, whether its mine or theirs. This includes popping the obvious bait I keep seeing and possiblely even ignoring the amount of people in the persons corp in local. Looking back, if theres been more than 25-30 people in local, I just dont bother looking for a fight due to the chance of interruption. I need to work on reducing my risk aversion activities and just get blown up.
With this in mind, I dropped a can in a high sec safe and practiced keeping it within certain ranges while manual flying. Pretty simple excercise, considering the can doesnt move. I made it fun by switching back and forth between 2km and 6km, without going over 7.5km; the range on my rockets that I feel comfortable reaching to ensure they hit. At least until I max out the range skills, putting me at about 9.1km.
I need to work on those skills as well, any extra range my rockets can get is good. Currently, all missile skills that have an effect on rockets are level 4, excluding warhead upgrades, which is level 3 (going into level 4) and should be finished training later today. Ive got a plan for a "maxed" Vengeance that is done in 45ish days. I say "maxed" because Im probally not going to train the long 10+ day level 5 skills for a 2% bonus anytime soon. Im making an exception for the Assault Ships 5 (at 15 days) because more resists and a small boost in cap regen are both great for active tanking.
So manual flight isnt mastered, but Ive gotten to an acceptable level while pushing everything else in combat to the "white noise" part of my brain in combat. The next weeks goal will be to continue manual flight and adding in the overheating of modules and not burn any out, while getting as much time in OH mode as possible. This will be helped a little bit when I get Thermodynamics to 4 over the weekend, finishing late Sunday night.
I look forward to the AF buffs coming eventually, but as other people have stated, Im not sure on the mwd role bonus. I think a regular 4th bonus without CCP pushing ships into a specific role would be a better idea. The way the changes are looking at this point in time though, I know I will be switching to the Wolf if they go through. Luckily, my gunnery skills are average and will take a minimal amount of time to get to 5s and t2 projectile weapons. I may even do this once my Vengeance is maxed just to fly something new, but I really want to fly a Sacrilege in pvp; so thats a high priority after the Vengeance Plan.
Also, as many people know, CCP allowed us to get a 60 day trial key per account we have and give it to a friend. I took advantage of this and made a new account. Since I had two accounts, I gave my other key to my brother; who btw is really slacking on his skill training and doing it wrong. I tried to show him EVEMon and EFT to get an idea for a ship and mods he would like to get into, but he just doesnt understand the need for 3rd party tools such as these. I should have expected as much though, he never liked using ACT for EQ2 and upping his dps. So w/e, I just added his api to my evemon and I sneak on his account to edit his skill queue to get him to the ship he wants to fly: Hurricane. Unfortuneately, as short as the plan is to get into the ship with t1 modules, he still wont be able to get the BC skill until he switches to a regular account. Not sure if that will happen if he never logs in to fly a Rifter or Punisher with me. Roaming is rather boring solo.
Speaking of which, Ive logged in and looked for a few more fights, but in my area of space (Jan, Hakonen, Lonetrek) Im not finding acceptable targets at the times I log in. I also dont have the patience to jump through several systems looking for a fight and not finding anything, even when letting people know my location in local. I noticed R1fta is recruiting, and as tempting as it is to apply, I dont want to join another pvp focused corp and not be up to par with the small amount of time I am active each week. I did see they fight each other though, so perhaps that may be a good idea. Especially with future plans to jump into a Wolf =P
Anyhow, goals for next week are to continue working on manual flight while watching my overheated modules and keeping range control in fights. The Vengeance is probally a poor choice to maintain range control, but Ill still make an attempt. I should also expand my selection of targets towards just getting a ship blown up, whether its mine or theirs. This includes popping the obvious bait I keep seeing and possiblely even ignoring the amount of people in the persons corp in local. Looking back, if theres been more than 25-30 people in local, I just dont bother looking for a fight due to the chance of interruption. I need to work on reducing my risk aversion activities and just get blown up.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Kestrel/Vengeance vs Rifter/Taranis
Tonight started out slow, asking for a 1v1 in the RvB channel didnt pan out as I had wanted, even starting out in a Kestrel. So I jumped over to Jan looking for trouble. There were a few ships on scan, so I did what anyone looking for a fight would do: Sit at the Sun.
Ive wised up and learned some tricks over my time of reading other people's experiences though, so I warped in at 100 and started flying straight up. Soon enough, a Taranis and Stabber jumped in, 130 km away though. With my ship aligned already, I started up the warp drive and left; letting out a hearty "pft, bring a good fight instead of gank" in local. To which I was told "Fair enough."
Warping back from a different angle after they had disappeared from dscan, I activated the AB and aligned. After a few minutes, a Rifter popped up in the overview. Flying towards each other, I adjusted my angle as we closed in to cause a little transversal issue with his guns. But its a Rifter, so that is difficult to do =P So began the dance of death. Practicing my manual flight with my Kestrel, I knew I was going to die quick and have to be aligned fairly fast with my pod. As soon as my shields went down, I aligned and awaited the inevitable while my overheated launchers did their thing to the rifter. Well, maybe next time Ill put some tank on my ship instead of all gank and maybe Ill win?
Kestrel Down!
Anyhow, after warping my pod out to Autaris to reship, I started up a convo with my opponent for my after combat evaluation from his side. He informed me my fit wasnt that bad but did need some tank; to which I agreed. The fight had gone so quick and I was focused more on keeping within 5km while manual flying, I didnt notice his armor dropped down to 40-50%. That made me happy knowing I had some pretty good dps in a kestrel fit for nothing but gank. Possible fleet ship?
With a few words exchanged and thanks given from both sides for not bringing in friends, we agreed to run into each again; this time me in my comfort zone of armor tanking and him in his Taranis. I was hesitant at first tbh, fighting an interceptor, because I had thought they were fast, kiting ships. A quick look on his fits in BC corrected me though and showed that he would most likely use blasters. Well, that made me scared due to the buff they received with Crucible. Oh, how silly I was to be scared of blasters when there were much deadlier things hidden in the depths of that ship.
You probally already know, but I wasnt expecting some drones. Warrior II's at that. Only two of them, but they hurt! Chewed through my shields, unsurprisingly, but also ate through half my armor before I dispatched them. I really do owe thanks to Taurean for the insight into how important it is to dispose of drones as quickly as possible in a fight like this. He seemed to have issues with them during his travels at first, and I appreciate that he shared those experiences.
So with the drones dispatched, I focused back on the Taranis. I feel my manual flight may have messed up some here, or I was just doing it completely wrong. I would try to go towards him as the range increased from 2-3km to 5-6km, but as I did, I would almost fly past him, as if he had turned around to play chicken. I think its called slingshotting (what he was doing), but I caught it each time it was attempted and got my ship turned quickly enough to prevent my opponent from exiting missile range. Or maybe Im just not used to flying as fast as I was since he wasnt webbing. Lucky me?
Since the drones were gone, I was getting armor back to the higher levels of comfort and didnt need the overheat anymore. With things calmer now and myself letting the adrenaline subside, I continued focusing on the interceptor and keeping range low. It seemed like forever, but it was only a few seconds until his shield bled away and the armor was peeled back to reveal the hull, which also exposed the pod in a violent explosion of beautiful fireworks.
Taranis Deaded!
Pretty good fights imo. Yet again, I continued my convo with my opponent about the fight and our fits. It turned out he was using the wrong ammo when he wanted to be using antimatter. I understand that mistake tbh as Ive done it before too. I feel I lessened his pain a bit by explaining I have 82% or higher in all resists, so it would have made little difference what ammo he used =)
And with these two fights, I also made two new friends (my opponent and his RL friend in same corp) and was invited along on a roam to a system a couple jumps over. I accepted and soon enough was on dscan duty to locate a Russian Drake. Sadly, my new fleetmate hasnt had much experience in probing, so we were always one step behind. Oh well, another time perhaps, because I had to log out with only 3 hours before I had to be awake again to take my kid to school!
Ive wised up and learned some tricks over my time of reading other people's experiences though, so I warped in at 100 and started flying straight up. Soon enough, a Taranis and Stabber jumped in, 130 km away though. With my ship aligned already, I started up the warp drive and left; letting out a hearty "pft, bring a good fight instead of gank" in local. To which I was told "Fair enough."
Warping back from a different angle after they had disappeared from dscan, I activated the AB and aligned. After a few minutes, a Rifter popped up in the overview. Flying towards each other, I adjusted my angle as we closed in to cause a little transversal issue with his guns. But its a Rifter, so that is difficult to do =P So began the dance of death. Practicing my manual flight with my Kestrel, I knew I was going to die quick and have to be aligned fairly fast with my pod. As soon as my shields went down, I aligned and awaited the inevitable while my overheated launchers did their thing to the rifter. Well, maybe next time Ill put some tank on my ship instead of all gank and maybe Ill win?
Kestrel Down!
Anyhow, after warping my pod out to Autaris to reship, I started up a convo with my opponent for my after combat evaluation from his side. He informed me my fit wasnt that bad but did need some tank; to which I agreed. The fight had gone so quick and I was focused more on keeping within 5km while manual flying, I didnt notice his armor dropped down to 40-50%. That made me happy knowing I had some pretty good dps in a kestrel fit for nothing but gank. Possible fleet ship?
With a few words exchanged and thanks given from both sides for not bringing in friends, we agreed to run into each again; this time me in my comfort zone of armor tanking and him in his Taranis. I was hesitant at first tbh, fighting an interceptor, because I had thought they were fast, kiting ships. A quick look on his fits in BC corrected me though and showed that he would most likely use blasters. Well, that made me scared due to the buff they received with Crucible. Oh, how silly I was to be scared of blasters when there were much deadlier things hidden in the depths of that ship.
You probally already know, but I wasnt expecting some drones. Warrior II's at that. Only two of them, but they hurt! Chewed through my shields, unsurprisingly, but also ate through half my armor before I dispatched them. I really do owe thanks to Taurean for the insight into how important it is to dispose of drones as quickly as possible in a fight like this. He seemed to have issues with them during his travels at first, and I appreciate that he shared those experiences.
So with the drones dispatched, I focused back on the Taranis. I feel my manual flight may have messed up some here, or I was just doing it completely wrong. I would try to go towards him as the range increased from 2-3km to 5-6km, but as I did, I would almost fly past him, as if he had turned around to play chicken. I think its called slingshotting (what he was doing), but I caught it each time it was attempted and got my ship turned quickly enough to prevent my opponent from exiting missile range. Or maybe Im just not used to flying as fast as I was since he wasnt webbing. Lucky me?
Since the drones were gone, I was getting armor back to the higher levels of comfort and didnt need the overheat anymore. With things calmer now and myself letting the adrenaline subside, I continued focusing on the interceptor and keeping range low. It seemed like forever, but it was only a few seconds until his shield bled away and the armor was peeled back to reveal the hull, which also exposed the pod in a violent explosion of beautiful fireworks.
Taranis Deaded!
Pretty good fights imo. Yet again, I continued my convo with my opponent about the fight and our fits. It turned out he was using the wrong ammo when he wanted to be using antimatter. I understand that mistake tbh as Ive done it before too. I feel I lessened his pain a bit by explaining I have 82% or higher in all resists, so it would have made little difference what ammo he used =)
And with these two fights, I also made two new friends (my opponent and his RL friend in same corp) and was invited along on a roam to a system a couple jumps over. I accepted and soon enough was on dscan duty to locate a Russian Drake. Sadly, my new fleetmate hasnt had much experience in probing, so we were always one step behind. Oh well, another time perhaps, because I had to log out with only 3 hours before I had to be awake again to take my kid to school!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Vengeance vs Vengeance
Its been awhile, but screw it; new year, new oppurtunities. I feel that Ive been slacking quite alot with rarely posting and not sticking to my planned posting. So with this in mind, Im writing things as I do them, but stockpiling them for a consistent stream of reports.
From other people's fits and experiences, I decided to go with a cap stable fit for starters. Stable at 49% that is. This gives me enough regen to suffer through one or two nos or neut. I think. Im using the Coreli A-Type currently, but I have several Centi A-types that drop my cap stability to 40% and boost my armor regen by about 20 points. We'll see if the difference between them gives a noticeable change or not. I have also played around with an MWD fit, but I dont really like it much. I dont want to fly interceptors and flying with and mwd makes me feel like Im a gimp one of those. Other than that, any tips on this fit would be welcome.
[Regular]
Internal Force Field Array I
Coreli A-Type Small Armor Repairer
Energized Thermic Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Small Anti-EM Pump I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
One of my problems is that I live in high sec now. Ive looked into several places, both low and nullsec space. Also had a look around RvB and its tempting. Havent really decided where to go though. Anyhow, while scouting out one of my potential new homes, I got into a fight.
This guy was probing me out in a Pilgrim. Im not one to fight a ship like that at this point in time solo, so I just kept warping around the first system in my pocket making safe spots. Eventually, he got bored and offered to 1v1 in the high sec system next door. I obliged and dropped a can at the top planet.
I didnt bother asking what frig he'd bring, it didnt matter really; a fight is a fight if its a same class ship. He brings a vengeance and my first thoughts are "Oh shit, he's gonna stomp me with my favorite ship!" While waiting for him to slowboat to the dropped can, I open a convo to see if he'd be having a neutral remote rep come in. Most people would open up BC to check their opponents history and I know he'd see my loss to a Harbinger before. Makes sense for me at least ask =P Btw, this guy has a few hundred wins and only 19 losses. I was scared! Anyhow, after settling into a nice little 10km orbit around my can, I waited for him to go flashy red before aproaching and start firing rockets in his direction.
I decided that for each fight, I would practice a certain aspect of combat, while the other things stay in the background, but still important. I wanted to practice manual flying this fight. So, I start my clicking and camera movements and I was doing pretty good. I got into a nice groove, and my shields hit 30%. Started the repper and OH'd my launchers. We both ate through each others shields rather quickly, an expected result of an Amarr vessel of course. What surprised me, however, is how well we stood against each other at that point.
I assumed he had an active fit, as did I. As my cap reached about 60%, I started trying to pulse my AB just to add something extra into my manual flight practice. I occasionally glance at my overview for transversal, but its not really needed since rockets always hit. I slowly switched to looking at the velocity instead to make sure my rockets would keep up with his ship. It took me a minute to remember to look (even though they are right next to each other), but he was only disabling me with a scram, no web. By this time, my guns were about 50% burnt, so I figured I would turn them off for a possible boost later in the fight.
Yeah, that didnt work out so well. The stupid overheat button on top of the modules definately needs changed. Yes, I know I could have also hit the overheat rack button. Or the shortcut key (that I promptly found out about after this fight). The launchers were still overheated and because I was working on my manual flight, I didnt even notice they all had burnt out until he was regening shields. Well, shyt!
Luckily, he didnt have me webbed, so I shot off into a random direction, with an overheated AB now. Quickly realizing this mistake, I aligned to a gate and warped out. My opponent was thoroughly confused, so I felt the need to explain how "special" I had been during our duel. He felt it was a win for him, but I feel more that it was a draw, for a couple reasons.
Neither of us dropped below 90% or so armor. Neither of us were having cap issues since neither were using a nos or neut. I do feel I had the advantage being cap stable with my one repper while he was using a cap booster with dual reps. This advantage wouldnt present itself until he was out of charges, but I dont know how long that would have been or if either of us would have had enough ammo to reach that point.
So, my viewpoint is that it was draw because I didnt lose my ship. =)
From other people's fits and experiences, I decided to go with a cap stable fit for starters. Stable at 49% that is. This gives me enough regen to suffer through one or two nos or neut. I think. Im using the Coreli A-Type currently, but I have several Centi A-types that drop my cap stability to 40% and boost my armor regen by about 20 points. We'll see if the difference between them gives a noticeable change or not. I have also played around with an MWD fit, but I dont really like it much. I dont want to fly interceptors and flying with and mwd makes me feel like Im a gimp one of those. Other than that, any tips on this fit would be welcome.
[Regular]
Internal Force Field Array I
Coreli A-Type Small Armor Repairer
Energized Thermic Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1MN Afterburner II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket
Small Anti-EM Pump I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
One of my problems is that I live in high sec now. Ive looked into several places, both low and nullsec space. Also had a look around RvB and its tempting. Havent really decided where to go though. Anyhow, while scouting out one of my potential new homes, I got into a fight.
This guy was probing me out in a Pilgrim. Im not one to fight a ship like that at this point in time solo, so I just kept warping around the first system in my pocket making safe spots. Eventually, he got bored and offered to 1v1 in the high sec system next door. I obliged and dropped a can at the top planet.
I didnt bother asking what frig he'd bring, it didnt matter really; a fight is a fight if its a same class ship. He brings a vengeance and my first thoughts are "Oh shit, he's gonna stomp me with my favorite ship!" While waiting for him to slowboat to the dropped can, I open a convo to see if he'd be having a neutral remote rep come in. Most people would open up BC to check their opponents history and I know he'd see my loss to a Harbinger before. Makes sense for me at least ask =P Btw, this guy has a few hundred wins and only 19 losses. I was scared! Anyhow, after settling into a nice little 10km orbit around my can, I waited for him to go flashy red before aproaching and start firing rockets in his direction.
I decided that for each fight, I would practice a certain aspect of combat, while the other things stay in the background, but still important. I wanted to practice manual flying this fight. So, I start my clicking and camera movements and I was doing pretty good. I got into a nice groove, and my shields hit 30%. Started the repper and OH'd my launchers. We both ate through each others shields rather quickly, an expected result of an Amarr vessel of course. What surprised me, however, is how well we stood against each other at that point.
I assumed he had an active fit, as did I. As my cap reached about 60%, I started trying to pulse my AB just to add something extra into my manual flight practice. I occasionally glance at my overview for transversal, but its not really needed since rockets always hit. I slowly switched to looking at the velocity instead to make sure my rockets would keep up with his ship. It took me a minute to remember to look (even though they are right next to each other), but he was only disabling me with a scram, no web. By this time, my guns were about 50% burnt, so I figured I would turn them off for a possible boost later in the fight.
Yeah, that didnt work out so well. The stupid overheat button on top of the modules definately needs changed. Yes, I know I could have also hit the overheat rack button. Or the shortcut key (that I promptly found out about after this fight). The launchers were still overheated and because I was working on my manual flight, I didnt even notice they all had burnt out until he was regening shields. Well, shyt!
Luckily, he didnt have me webbed, so I shot off into a random direction, with an overheated AB now. Quickly realizing this mistake, I aligned to a gate and warped out. My opponent was thoroughly confused, so I felt the need to explain how "special" I had been during our duel. He felt it was a win for him, but I feel more that it was a draw, for a couple reasons.
Neither of us dropped below 90% or so armor. Neither of us were having cap issues since neither were using a nos or neut. I do feel I had the advantage being cap stable with my one repper while he was using a cap booster with dual reps. This advantage wouldnt present itself until he was out of charges, but I dont know how long that would have been or if either of us would have had enough ammo to reach that point.
So, my viewpoint is that it was draw because I didnt lose my ship. =)
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