Commin' back...

I miss EvE. Little wonder. I like spaceships. The question is: how long can I resist?

Farewell roam...

I have finished EvE. Not forever but for a long time. Three months at least. But who knows.

Yesterday was the last day of my subscription so I decided to go for a last solo roam in a Daredevil. Yep, roam like a Boss. 90 million ISK will pop for sure.

It was my best roam ever. First of all: Daredevil is a true devil. I have found a BS NPC and it popped surprisingly fast so I was sure: there were no problem with firepower if I will be able to go and stay close and tank damage.

I started to move to Agoze, it is around 30 jumps. Checking the sysytems as usual, too populated ones ignored, concentrating only on the ones where only a few capsuleer was on local. Checking FW sites, belts.

My first target was a Vigil doing a FW site. I don't know why but he did not run away the very moment I arrived just burned away from NPCs. With AB I was able to follow him but the 100 kms were too much to do anything. Then he engaged. Don't ask me why. As he reached scram range, scram and web activated and then there was one and only one question: would I be able to catch his pod? Got him two times.

Then I was on GCC. And under -5.0 sec status again. There were another players in the system and I have found a Rifter sitting 370 kms from a planet. It was strange, because after I arrived to the planet I was able to see him but after 10-15 seconds he disappeared but I was able to see him on 400 km directional scan. I don't know anything about grid and being off-grid but I feel that something related to this was behind this. Never mind, I knew what direction he is so I started to fly that direction hoping he will appear and hoping he is AFK. He appeared and did not move. Did not move until I reached 30 km range. Or around that, I cannot remember. This was the most cruel thing someone did me in EvE. 5 minutes of flying for nothing.
I found him again, near to sun. Warp to sun. He is 150 kms away. Tried the trick vlew suggested, I warped to a planet behind the guy then warp back to 100. He was 150 kms away again. Damn! Last chance, if he disengage again I will change system. Flying there. 50 kms, 40 kms… A Jaguar arrived to sun. Nice… Then a Rifter arrived between me and the another Rifter. Very nice… My ship will explode here. Burning towards the Rifters. They did the same. One is in scram range, scram web. He had better tank than the Vigil. What a surprise. Shield is done. I mean my shield. The Jaguar… It does not move or just slowly. Just a voyeur…? It doesn't matter, I have to concentrate the guys near. My armor is on half, one Rifter down. Switching to the other. My armor down. His… I don’t know if the web, scram and the guns work well, I have to concentrate on my nosferatu and repairer. Overheat. Hull on 20%. One circle, I have a tiny layer of armor again. One more circle. More armor. There is hope. Then I popped. It was close but something missed. I forgot to overheat my guns in the beginning. That was a big mistake and I can blame myself and blame the NPC BS. It went down so fast that it gave me the confidence that the performance of the blasters on ship is insane. It is, but it is more insane if I overheat them.

GF-s went and I have to say: this was a very, very fun farewell roam.

And now I know why I fed up with EvE: because I was involved in moving stuff from here to there and then there to another there. And meanwhile I was not do the only thing really fun in EvE: fly and attack without hesitation. You can loose your ship but nobody is able to steal the adrenaline from your veins. This is the reason I do not leave EvE forever. I'll be back in a few months.

Dancing around...

It was fucking boring. Dancing around the system, waiting the other fleet to engage. Waiting them to attack our bait which was obviously a bait. They won't, for sure.
I got bored, left the system and started to kill rats. After a half an hour I have checked the fleet chat. The same waiting game. I decided going back to the fleet and die.

Warped to a belt and flying away from it. My Rifter is not a bait. Or at least not as obvious bait as a Ferox sitting in a belt. It will pop in seconds, so there is no danger jumping on me. The opposing fleet had a Stabber FI, a Cane and a Hookbill. I had to stand for 10-15 seconds while my fleet enters warp. With a bit of luck my mates would be able to catch a ship. This was my plan.

And the plan started to work. They jumped to the belt where I was. 150 kms. Me burning away. They chasing me. 140 kms. 130 kms. The Hookbill warps away. 120 kms. The Stabber is damn fast! Hookbill arrived, right on the top of me. I have to ask the guy how he did it...
Stay allive, stay allive! I don't know how, but I tanked the rockets. The big boys arrived, I had to turn to make my traversal as big as possible.
Warp to me, warp to me!
Alarm rings rang. Align to sun, warp warp warp! Ship's gone, pod in warp bubble. Arriving Sun, Hookbill on close range scan. I am not surprised, midwarp I have chosen the station I will dock right after arriving sun. Warping again, waving a goodbye to the Hookbill. My part is done, let's see, how the corpmates do their part.

As they arrived to the Rifter's wreck, they have found there the remaining part of the enemy fleet. No more dancing around for the Cane. To be honest I don't know, how the Stabber survived. If I have to guess, all of the guys scrambled the Cane.

The final part was fun. But the long "hunt" before… I hate this part. EvE is full of traps and overkill, I really know that this "I am afraid to attack, what happens if it is a bait?" attitude is acceptable and needed. But it kills fun.

Last thoughts:

• There were "This is Rita's kill" in fleet chat again.
• A Rifter for a Cane is a good deal.
• We did not use Ventrilo. The last phase would be easier for me if I could just yell int my mic the Warp to me! sentence.

Hero of the day...

I had a lot of stuff to sell so I went to Dodixie. I have chosen one of my Taranises for this purpose. Taranis, because it is fast. As I am under -4.0 I will be harassed by gate guns and police officers in the last 4 systems, so I need align speed and agility. Jurney went well, the usual "Criminals are not welcomed here"-stuff was OK for me. Docked, sold the stuff then bought a Vengeance. And fit. And ammo. Lot of ammo. You will see… Undocking. Airlock gate opens, ship enters space. Look to the overview to locate the gate I plan to warp to. Ships around. As usual. The Vengeance starts to turn. Slowly, as Vengeances used to. Ships around. Red ships. Flashy red ships! Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Station camp in highsec? It cant be… No matter what happened, the alarm sound in the ship informed me that my ship is under fire. Nononono…! Rep overheated and heading right to the station, spamming the Dock button. Late. Let's save the pod. Dock-spamming. That was a mistake.

Medical facility in Agoze, cloning area

Something went wrong, terribly wrong. Lost the ship, that is 20m ISK around. Lost my body including implants. Another 30m. This is at least 50m loss and I don’t know the reason. Additionally this is my first pod loss, as far as I remember.
As a polite person I opened convo with the guy who laid the final blow.
Rita Morel: - I did not expect the spanish inqusition. Gf anyway.
Magistrate Aribeth: - I did not expect you to be red. :P
Red... Me? Red? They were red, not me. ... ... Then the moment of enlightenment.

One day earlier

I tried combat scanning. I was bored and I wasn't in a go-to-a-long-roam mood. Manned my Imicus, warping to a safe, dropping the probes, activating the cloak, put some music into the jukebox. Then waiting, repositioning probes, waiting, repositioning the probes, wait... and chatting with corpmates. After a few minutes - or a few ten-minutes, who remembers - I found something. An Ishtar. In the middle of nothing. Calling back probes, calling backup and changing pants ship. An Ishtar, whoho! A fleet formed quickly.
I warped to the bookmarked position. Three acceleration gates. And Ogre II-s in dirscan. Sweet. I have chosen the middle gate. NPCs only. With heavy neuts. God, I need another set of pants… Warped away and midwarp reported the result. The result about my scouting and empty cap, not the non-empty pants. Top gate has been reported as an area full of wrecks. The bottom gate is the one with the Ishtar.
When I warped back the Isthar was tackled and hammered heavily. He dropped out Ogres II-s, then called them back to bay then Hobgoblin II-s, then calling back them. Very strange strategy, he should be scared and surprised. His shield went down slowly then the armor and the ship destroyed in few seconds. Pod escaped.

If you look at the fit there will be answers and questions. At first sight it is a strange fit. But if you remember what was in the other side of the middle gate… Doing that neuting-fest room is only possible with this shield tanked monster. This is the reason we had to spend our time breaking the shield but the armor went down fast.
The lack of weapons… That is a question. Maybe he was not able to fit weapons. He does not really need them tho, the drones could kill the NPCs for sure. Pirates, that is an another story.

After the battle there were "several good catch, Rita"-s in fleet chat and yes, that was a good and lucky catch. I was the hero of the day.

Medical facility in Agoze, cloning area

Yep, I was the hero of the day for sure. But that day was yesterday. Today I am the moron of the day. The kill dropped me under -5.0. My status was Fire at sight! in empire systems. As I left the station they immediately attacked me, so they went to red. Red for me, but not for the CONCORD since I was a criminal under -5.0. The Magistrate was laughing after I told him the story. Me too, but my laugh was a bit bitter.

I am an Outlaw. At the moment I write these lines my sec status is around -4.9 so I would be able to enter empire again. But I won't. That days are over. I am a pirate and empire is not my second home anymore.

And the last thought: when lose, do not dock. Align with the ship to something far away then warpwarpwarp. Warping is instant in the pod, docking is not.

Addiction...

Last night I was waiting for my taxi after drinking with friends. I had time to think about important things, such the meaning life and similar things. But the only thing came to my mind was that Ahhh, the training has been finished. I can fly a Vengeance! This is the major strength of EvE (aside from sandbox). You should not be online to progress in skills. I like love this.

Amnesia...

I had two losses in the past week.

The first one was the usual: ratting in a belt, Gaizka jumped on me. After his decloak I would have enough time to but... His sec status was not low, so no flashy red on overview. This made me more brave than I should be. So I checked what type of ship arrived. Then I was scrambled. Orbiting the  NPC, sucking the capacitor from it, overheating the repper and waiting for the drones. They arrived and it was over. I have talked about the fight with Gaizka. He was surprised about how long I was able to keep my ship in one piece. Yep, I can make fights long. But win them... That is another story.

I cannot say anything about the second loss. Seriously, I don't know when and how it happened. There are some impressions deep in my mind and I am sure that this loss made me thinking about the question: do I really want to use blasters in the future? The decision: I will make my plans more simple than before. I won't fly Taranis. I will fly Vengeance only. So no need to max out Gunnery skills, I can go directly to Missile Operation side. And armor tank and capacitor and targeting and... But before I will take 12 days with learning all the relevant Gunnery skills to lvl 4. I will fly Rifters until I feel myself confident about Vengeance and flying Rifter requires those Gunnery skills.

I had also wins in the last week. A Thorax and a Vexor in a M.E.A. roam.

Summarizing the last week...

From now on I won't comment on every kills or losses in separate posts but I will write the cause of the fights and the answers for the questions: What was done well?, What should be changed? and What new trick has been learned?

So I have one kill: a Rifter and two losses: an Incursus and a Vexor.

About the kill I cannot say any important. It was a fair duel with Artwig. We agreed about a month ago in a revenge for his Incursus loss. He did not learned Thermodynamics and he had some crap T1 ammo loaded so he did not have a chance to beat me. He started with 90% shield but that one does not matter, I was highly overDPS him. See ya in one month!

The Incursus loss was a semi-duel. We were almost alone in the system, and atanV started to search me in a Jaguar. I warped to 70 kms to a belt and I started to move away. He jumped to 0, and started to follow me. MWD on and a headshake on local. He asked me whether I want him to change to a Rifter. I was curious about this setup so I told him yes. He changed and I lost.
This fight is a very important one. He was 3-5000 meters away and I could not get closer. It would be a different story if I would use AB instead of MWD. Another factor is the gun-ammo combination. If I would be able to use T2 blasters with Null ammo... Maybe that one could turn the tides of the fight. My drone was the only damage dealer from my side.
Why this fight is so important? Because if I wanna go to Taranis I will have the same fights. Blaster boat with buffer tank. My DPS would be higher than with the Incursus but only if I could reach my opponent. My MWD has been killed at the very first moment of the engagement so I have to test AB fitted Incursus too. As I heard dual-prop Taranis could be a viable path. MWD-only is not, I am sure.

The Vexor loss was a disaster. I was in a radar site, fighting with NPCs. They hit me hard and then the Stabber FI and the Rifter arrived. I cannot tell for sure that they scanned me. I was checking close range dir. scanner frequently but the result was full of NPCs and drones so it is possible that there were scanner probes but I didn't notice them. Or maybe there were no scanners but the site was scanned before and it was checked periodically whether a moron starts it or not. I don't know. I can ask anyway.
The new trick I have learned: pre-scan a Radar site and use that as a bait. It could work.

Kill 12: The Roam

We went a roam with vlewandowski. It started as a short journey and to be honest I did not plan to stay online for a long time, I was (as usual) tired. The first trip through 4 systems were fruitless, so we decided to try a longer roam.

As we reached Vlillirier we have seen a lot of pilots on local but nobody was in scanner range except three AFs, which I located at one of the planets. Three non-negative sec status players. They did not want to engage my Rifter and soon they disappeared. There were a missioning Thorax in the system also but without a scanner ship we could not locate him. As I warped to the next gate I have seen a Rifter on scan. He was sitting at the gate. Yellow guy, so I turned back and warped to zero to a nearby belt. He did the same. I informed vlew about the event, then I locked, scrambled, usual stuff. What was unusual that I did NOT forget to overheat. I told to vlew that I do not need help, my opponent has lost the half of his armor when he finished with my shield. And I am armor tanked, so I was sure about the final result of our fight. As my guns started to aim the finishing volley vlew arrived and pulled the trigger, so the final blow is not mine.

Literally it is not a solo kill, but practically it is. I told Jason a gf and he said it was gf if the Jaguar wasn't my mate. He was but I think it was a good and fair fight. The result was clear before vlaw arrived and if I were vlaw I would pull the trigger too. He did not know anything about the status of my ship, so he wanted to be sure.

The remaining part of the roam was lacking any events, we went home then I started my Ishkur-disarament  project. It includes one Thorax too, in the beginning I was planning to use cruisers. Now the ship and its fit is useless, so I sold that too.

Moral

As I said, I did NOT forget to overheat, this should be the key parameter of the fight. On the other hand I DID forget to turn it off. I don't know much about how the guns behave if overheated too much, I have to collect information about it.
I did not informed my fleetmate about my and my opponents status. My in-fleet communication seems to be poor.
After the fight Jason asked me about the Jaguar arrived. I have told him that he is on my side. This is an error. I have to pay attention to being silent on local. With confirming that we are in fleet I was a friendly, social player, yes, but I was an intel idiot at the same time. Silence on local! No waves, no chatting!
And finally: the Rifter is a good PvP frigate, I like it.

The Invite

After the duel the spectator guy opened a convo at me and asked whether I am a pirate trainee or not. I answered him that I am collecting PvP experience without any care about my security status. He invited me to their corp. Beginner-friendly pirate corp and... I cannot remember the other benefits he told me. Invite has been thanked and a No has been answered.

My original plan was to apply to the Tuskers after I finish my learning. Plans change. M.e.A. is the perfect corp for me. Seriously casual, I described with these words to the guy. I will know all of the active members in a few weeks, since this is a really small corp. Like a family. They do not give me benefits. On the other hand I do not need benefits, I do not need ship replacement program, I do not need training roams.

I need a few friendly voices in the space, nothing else.

Plans

Decisions has been made: I will fly two ships: an Interceptor and an Assault Frigate.
The Interceptor is quite obvious: Taranis. It has a measurable punch, cheap and looks cool.

The AF part is a bit more complicated. I have three options:

The Jaguar

Pros:

• I have Autocannon Specialization.
• Damage type can be chosen.
• In shield config it is not too complicated ship, I have to choose the right ammo and good range then push the trigger.
• I know Minmatar frigates 5.

Cons:

• I don't have shield skills. And I don't want to have them.
• There is an armor build for this ship but in this case I have to find something useful to the extra mid slot. Something EWAR, and this makes things more complicated.
• Misses the tracking bonus Rifter has.

The Ishkur

Pros:

• Armor tank.
• Damage type change by drones.
• I know Gallente frigates 5.

Cons:

• Drones can be killed.
• Damage type change by drones... Before leaving the station.
• Have to train Drone-related skills.
• Operating drones and the ship parallel is hard to master.
• Blasters or rails?

The Vengeance

Pros:

• Armor tank. But what an armor tank!
• Rockets. Damage type can be chosen.
• Rockets. It would hit.
• Rockets. Needed for stealth bombers.
• Perfect slot layout.
• With armor resist plates not so slow.
• Great bonuses for Frigates and for AFs.

Cons:

• I have to learn Amarr frigates to 5.
• I have to learn Rocket skills.
• Slower than Jaguar.

I have decided: it will be the Vengeance.

At first place it means I have to sell my Ishkurs and some of the drones. A few is still needed for the Taranises.

After that I have to start learning skills by concentrating my two goals: Taranis and Vengeance. It won't work in parallel. I will start with Taranis skills and(!) support skills. One week for the 'ranis, one week for the supports. As I calculated I will be able to effectively fly a Taranis in 1-1.5 months. After that I can change to Vengeance and I would be able to fly a Vengeance in December.

What will I do meantime? This 1-1.5 months will be done by Rifters and Incursuses. I have a great stockpile of those ships. Rifter is for fun, Insursus is for learning the tactics will be used by Taranis.

My learning queue has been planned. I have to concentrate one thing: not to leave this path.

But what about Malediction...?

Loss 19: The Brick

As I decided to try Vengeance I thought it would be useful to try Punisher, to get the feeling. I have made a mistake, I concentrated on tank. Punisher is a great tank, isn't it? So I put a 400mm plate, ANP II, DC II and Small Armor Repairer II to lows. And a Small Trimark Armor Pump into one of the rigslots. Small ACs to the high with a nos. AB and scrambler to mids and two powergrid rigs to be able to operate this... brick.

It has moved like a brick in homey. It has tanked like a brick. It was a brick. Anyway the Jaguar killed me.

It was a strange fight anyway. The guy asked me where the f.ck I am. Where...? I have entered to the system by the same gate he left it. He jumped back at the moment he saw me enter. It was obvious that he is hunting me. So where the f.ck should I be? I told him i am at sun. He pointed out that it is not true. Of course it wasn't true, I've seen him and one of his corpmates on local. He asked for 1v1. Checking his bio, first line: We honor 1v1s. Let's believe him. Fleet formed, we were 3 in. The Jag and the corpmate. Khmmm... Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. He is in just in case I plan some nasty thing. I didn't really care, I am sitting in a cheap ship, the single Jag will kill me, it does not matter if someone else is watching. Nothing nasty happened. The Punisher tanked well, but this is the only one positive impression. I do not like Punisher. Yea, I did fly it a very strange way, but the fact is a fact: I did not like it.

So sold the Punishers, moved the ACs and other usable fit tho the station container called Rifter fit.

Vengeance...

This weekend had a very important income: one of my corpmates mentioned Vengeance. Before I did not pay any attention to non-gallente and non-minmatar ships. Amarr, lasers. *puke* Caldari, shield tank. *puke*
And now... Vengeance. Armor tank, but what an armor tank! And rockets, which I want to learn anyway. And cap stability. And cheap. ... And looks killer!

So long term plan: Vengeance. Maybe before I max my drone skills for Ishkur.

Loss 18 and kill 11: The Roam

I have joined to the corp called Mise en Abyme. They (we) are... players, nothing serious thing. No EvE is your second job, man! shit.
I cannot say this is a pirate corp. It is a lowsec PvP corp with the exact same attitude that I have.

We had roams before and the FC always followed the same strategy: jump into system with the whole gang, spread out and try to find someone fast. I have a little problem with this strategy: if there is only one potential victim in the system, then if 4 guy from the same corp jumps in the same time can cause a local spike. And if I were this neutral I would move to a safe immediately. On the other hand if the one neutral does not flee he could be a bait and a fail for us. Anyway in a system 10+ people on local 4 new guy isn't as frightening sight.

In one of this roams we re-entered Agoze and spread through belts. I jumped right on the top of a Drake.
Lock, point, orbit.
- Warp to me, I've got a point on Drake!
- Who is 'me'?
Drake opens fire, sends Hobgoblin IIs against me.
- Rita, it is Rita.
- Warping.
Shield, armor, structure dropped very fast. Good bye, my Rifter! As my pod warped away there were two questions in my mind:
Will the guys arrive in time to re-tackle the Drake?
Will they be able to kill her?
The answers are two yeses. It took about 10 minutes for the three AFs but finally the Drake popped. We lost the Rifter and one Jaguar. My Rifter doesn't had a chance I had to keep that Drake where she is until my corpmates arrive. The Jaguar loss was a late warp-away.

This is my first kill without a single bullet fired. The guys said a Good tackle! and I think, yes, this was a good tackle. I cannot tell anything about the kill, I was sitting in my pod 3 systems away waiting GCC to expire.

Loss 17: ... ... Krim

Our last two fight with Krim weren't real 1v1s. First time the NPCs distracted me, second time the Curse was the - for me - unwelcomed guest.
Krim and me were curious about how the Ishkur would perform against a single Rifter so we agreed in a 1v1.

I have lost that one. I did not expect the Spanish inqu... neut. I expected vampire, but this time Krim used a passive shield tanked Rifter. That one does not require much capacitor, so he could live without my stolen energy. Moral: I have to concentrate on support skills. I mean cap skills. On the other hand Ishkur was fitted with CCC rigs. It resulted a long fight. Krim told that it seemed to be 20 minutes.

He also told me that our first fight was shorter. I don't think so. In this fight the total damage taken was 5100. In the first fight I tanked 12518. I was under fire by him and the NPCs too. On the other hand I was able to suck energy from NPCs, so my cap could hold longer.

Overall moral: I won't use T2 frigs in the next 2 months. It will be hard, since I have 5 Ishkurs, 13 Taranises and 5 Vengeances in my hangars. On the other hand I have 10+ fully fitted Rifters, 5 Incursuses and 9 Punishers.

Loss 15 and 16: Krim

It will be long...

Last Sunday I was doing some exploration. I decided to try to clear a combat site. Drones in there, no problem with Ishkur. During the fight I checked close range directional scanner frequently and I observed Combat Scanners around me. I was far from the point where the acceleration gate would drop the incoming opponent so I was checking the scanner to see what arrives and in case it is something beatable, I engage otherwise I flee. It was a Rifter. The site was clear so I moved to the next gate. The Rifter and... 6 new NPCs arrived. Ouch!

The fight has been started. Krim orbited me at around 5000 meters and he started to kill my drones. My drone skills aren't - and Krim's tracking skills were - high enough so the drones popped quickly despite the fact I put a tracking disruptor on him with tracking scripts. Meanwhile I ran my tank. I don't know how long the fight took, Krim has to know, he frapsed it. It felt minutes. Finally the Ishkur popped. The total damage taken is 12518. If we take a look at the killmail we will see that the majority (76%) of the damage has been dealt by the NPCs. I was pretty confident that without NPC help a Rifter cannot kill my Ishkur.

After Ishkur went to dust my pod has been caught. I was distracted by the NPCs and forgot the align-warp-warp-warp-... part. The usual BMC ransom question. Then I informed Krim that we know each other, we had joint kills in the past. So he decided letting me without ransom. I gave him 16M anyway, that is the cost of my implant as far as I remember. It sounded correct to pay the price of my amateur behavior at the end of the fight.

After the fight I was thinking a lot of about it. It seems obvious that the major problem was that I made the NPCs pop in by going too close to the next gate. During the fight the scanner probes were on my directional scanner so Krim has to have an scanner alt or mate. Noone else arrived to help him so without the NPCs it would be a fair 1v1.

And there goes my plan... I thought that this scenario could be copied again. Me in a combat site behind an acceleration gate. He scan me, warp in in. If it is a Rifter I stay there and try how the fight goes. I suspect a tie, because he will pop my drones, stay away my blaster range and I would be able to tank his damage. If he warps in an another ship (I mean Cane.), I simply warp away. To this plan I changed the Tracking Disruptor to web. Slowing him down is essential, maybe if I sit close the entrance point I could catch him at 1000-200 meters and from that distance my blasters could deal with him. Or not, but worth to try. This was the plan.

Lets see the application of this theory! I have made a mistake, I played bait in a non-acceleration gate site, so the I know where is the entry point part was risky, but who cares? The worst scenario is a tie, since he is a freelancer nowadays.

There were an another BMC member in the system but I thought she won't engage, Krim would think the Rifter would be enough.

Scanners arrived then a Rifter in close range scan. Here we go! He was too far away, the 5000-6000 meters as last time. OK, it will be a tie then. Drones started to pop, then... A Curse arrived. *sigh* Align to-warp-warp-warp-... So much for my tie worst case scenario. Krim explained that he thought I will call corporate help in our 1v1 this is the reason the Vivien arrived.

If we check the new killmail we will see that this time the Curse was the damage dealer, the Rifter was only a tackler. I am still confident that a Rifter cannot beat an Ishkur.

If I were lazy the last sentences would be the moral of this post. In fact I am lazy but...

I have to compare these losses with my loss against the Ishkur and the Comet. Both were blaster setups with drones, like me yesterday and I was sitting in a Rifter like Krim did yesterday. I failed to survive the encounters in my Rifter but Krim did (and with outside help he won). I have to ask the question: why? The answer is simple and I knew it before: against a blaster boat you have to keep distance. Now I have seen this in life and I can start to practice.

Bad news: the I am afraid you call for help so I call help first attitude is dangerous. As I operate mostly solo it means that from now on I will engage less. It means less fight. It means boredom. I wanted to avoid this but I cannot.
This is not carebearing. I don't care about my Ishkurs. I miss the opportunity to learn something in practice. It is a quite obvious lesson that a Rifter and a Curse beats an Ishkur and I don't need obvious lessons. The majority of my kills are the same, to be honest. A rookie in an Incursus won't beat a Rifter or Ishkur. There were only a few fights where I felt: Yes, this was good, I have learned something new, something worth the time spent! Some of these fights were win, most of them loss, and one tie.

This last two with Krim weren't that type. I have learned to be cautious, which will help me to survive... by not going into fight. And this is bad.

Kill 10: The Fresh Flesh

Bought an Ishkur in Dodixie and moved that home. Menwhile I was checking the systems just in case... Found an Incursus in a belt, warped there, we attacked each other and I won.

Moral: nothing, it was a routine fight and an overkill.

Kill 8 and 9: Faction Warfare

In a Rifter after a long time. Found a Manticore uncloaked. It means a fighting Manticore. Quick check in Overview and yes, there is a faction warfare site. Warp there, scram, web, kill. Wasn't a big deal after I got her. I scrambled the pod too but she was slow in accepting chat request and the NPCs started to hit me hard so I had to (Not really had to but my finger has shaken on the trigger.) pop the pod.

During looting the NPCs has killed me, so I had to embark an Enyo and run in for the stuff. As it was a kill after my opponent died I do not count it as a loss.

Moral: nothing in tactical point of view. If I catch a stealth bomber uncloaked it will die. The catch part is the important, but it is highly fortune-dependent.

Kill 7: My Ishkur

I was roaming in my Ishkur, just killing rats until I can learn Interceptors to move my Taranis fleet to lowsec. 7 days...

On the other hand if fight comes to me I won't flee. First I have met a Tusker in a Navy Slicer. Other Tusker were in the area so I... fled... but stayed close just in case. Other Tusker went to another system so I warped back to the belt and we started to reach eachother. It was a long jurney, since he was 180 kms away. When we met... It was funny. He had a longrange kiting setup but I did not have optimal scripts to my disruptor. So I put the tracking one and kept angular at max. Meanwhile I was repairing. My drones could not touch the Slicer, but he was able to kill em, so I called them back. This time I had no capacitor problems despite the fact that my energy vampire could not suck his capacitor from 20 kilometers. I had CCC rigs... One time I forgot to command my ship manualy just hit orbit which resulted a chasing scenario without angular. That did hurt, I went to structure. Overheat the repairer and voila. The Tusker decided this is a tie and warped away. First impression about Ishkur: wow!

I had time to think about nex steps during the encounter and I have made the best decisions. I had no chance to catch him and I survived the battle. That was good fight.

The same (I am ratting and fight finds me.) repeated a few systems away except my attacker was a Merlin. It was a long fight but this time close range so I had the chance to use my guns, suck the capacitor, dictate range. I feel that sargblei did not plan to disengage but it does not matter. I won.

Loss 13 adn 14: The Fair Duels

Went home after a ratting session (boring as hell). Dalikah asked me whether I want to do a 1v1 against her Ishkur or not. I was sitting in an Enyo so told her a yes and changed to Jaguar. Meanwhile I was a bit afraid, she is member of Muppet Ninjas and I did not expect fair fight from them. But what could happen? it is just a game... Fleet formed, I warped to her and I was able to orbit on 5.000 ms. Which is great, I can Nos, I can shot at her but she cannot shot at me with the blasters effectively. The tracking disruptor with optimal script worked well.
The pilot (that's me...) did not work well on the other hand. I started to shot at the... drones. OK, shooting drones is a good idea but the 200mm AutoCannon - with Barrage - has bad tracking. So I changed to the Ishkur. Or I planned but I pushed too early the F1 button, so no fire on the ship. When I noticed this mistake it was too late.
And now as I checked the killmails... 5000 faction ammo and 6000 Barrage in cargo...?!? Am I an idiot?

OK, ship went down but I felt I have to try again, I did not do my best. Asked Dalikah about a next 1v1, she told me it is OK.

Changed to another Jaguar, warped... to zero. And I was not able to gain distance. I should change to tracking script and orbit immediately in this kind of situations next time. I was trying to diverge but the whole process ended with a straight line movement without any angular speed. Smart guy, that is what I am.

Anyway until she popped me I was able to elliminate her shield and around 80% of her armor.

Worth to note:

• there are Ninjas who you can trust in.
• using advanced tools (tracking disruptor, for example) needs using advanced tactics. I am not a master of advanced tactics yet so I have to use simple tools. A hull-tanked Taranis will be a good start.

Loss 12: I Have Time

I was ratting because I have 8 days to learn Evasive maneuvering for 'ceptors and then I will be able to move my Taranis fleet from Stacmon to lowsec. And I was curious how fast an Ishkur kills rats. While I was shooting at the NPC I was constantly checking close-range dir scanner to be able to spot incoming players early. A Vaga appeared and I was sure a pirate is trying to locate me. 10.000.000 kms... I have time... and big ships lock slowly. So I did not warp away. Vaga came, locked, scramble, shot the shit outta me.

Moral: run if you can and have to.

Kill 6: The Self-confident

After Loss 11 gf-s went on local and Draek offered me a Rifter vs Rifter 1v1. I had to pick up a new Rifter and meanwhile I was thinking about how I will beat the guy. I decided to change my scrambler to a Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, so with a close orbit I will be able to dodge his projectiles. The second (and I think most important) choice was to use Republic Fleet Fusion ammo so after breaking his shield (And I have to break it fast.) I will abuse the Rifter's resistance hole against explosive damage in armor. The tactics has worked.


It is far easier to fight when you know you will fight and you have minutes to think about the how part. When you scan down someone you have secs to decide and create a tactic. In the begining I have to do as much 1v1-s as possible to learn and to make the short decision making timeframe of a real encounter long enough.

Loss 11: The Why Not?

KILLBOT500 has dropped a 1v1 can at the station in Stacmon. I thought: why not? I was curious how long my tank will take, what will be the income of the fight. I was popped quite fast. That's all, no moral.

Loss 10: The GF

The major problem with the Rifter, with learning piracy, with being noob and not having enough skillpoints: I have to choose my targets very carefully. There are a lot of ships I cannot beat and there are few I can but if this few is commanded by an old capsuleer I can easily find myself at the wrong side of the dick.
As I read back my logs, I have to say my losses would be preventable if I run away. But... This is not the reason I play this game. I want to explode ships of others, not running away. Schizo...

Anyway, I have dir. scanned a Federal Navy Comet. Another ship from the you cannot beat list. But there were something else on the scanning list: three drones. T1 Hobgoblins. T1 means the guy is beatable. Maybe. So I engaged. He started to run away. Not warping, just running. So he wants to fight. He locked me and sent three Hobgoblins. 3/4 of my shield gone but the drones too. Web and autocanon, good combo. Then he engaged and three more drones arrived. Without the web I could not kill the drones, so I webbed the drones and started to kill em. Without web the Comet could reach me. Catch 22.
Ahhh, I nearly forgot: I had capacitor problems again. And one more think: overload! There is no reason to spare your guns for the opponent.

Overall this fight was fun and I think that a Comet is beatable with more practice.

Loss 7, 8 and 9: Be serious, mon!

About the first two loss I don't have anything to say. I was careless, ratting and enjoying the Enyo. First time a Cynabal jumped on me, I warped to the next belt and checked the guy. He had 2,9 security status so I decided he won't attack me. He followed me and attacked. This is the story of this fight.
Second time again ratting, a Merlin found me this time. With the blasters and without a web I was not able to hit he.

The last loss... I went home and picked up a Rifter. Rifter is the king of the T1 frigs, isn't it? After arriving Dastrynis I started to warp between belts to make Bai attack me. During the warp-here-and-there session it would be nice to check the Merlin's specification. I did not do that. Rifter is the king of the T1 frigs, isn't it? We met at some belt, both engaging and then I was surprised. OK, this guy is shield tanker. But what the fuck is happening? No real damage on him and I am on half of my armor... Desperate attempts to tank the Merlin without success.

Of course I analyzed the fights. With the Enyo I had no chance after scrambled. So if I use Enyo, I have to focus on not to be engaged.
With the Rifter... This is another story. Bai told me that I need "those skills". Yep, I need skills. Ingame and player skills too.
The ingame part is straightforward. My damage and tanking ability was not enough.
The player skills:

• Merlin is shield tanker, so I have to use EMP against it.
• Merlin has insane resistances. I could easily check it before fight but I did not so I went in with Barrage armed. This time gf ment: What did you expect, moron? I am affraid. Against Merlin I should use EMP. Period. I suspect an EMP shild hardener (or whatever its name) on the Merlin but the EMP would be the biggest enemy of her for sure.
  
• I decided to go a 6 km orbit with AB. The idea was the very sophisticated I will be too fast for the missiles to scratch me. As I reconstructed I was not fast enough and additionally the AB sucked my capacitor (Missing skills, right?). So no tank. The vampire... I forgot to overheat and Bai sometimes moved out of range and I forgot to reapply.

Intel, moron, intel! It is a game, yes, but I want to win!

Loss 6: Ishkur vs. Rifter

Scanned down Aeron Llyr. Ishkur... Who cares, I will die but I am curious about the how part. How? Fast. I have told Aeron that although we said gf it was not a good fight, I went too close, with a 6000 meter wide orbit I would negate the effect of his guns. But it does not matter, the drones would have killed me.

Loss 5: The Tank

Just bought an Enyo. It does not make any sense to use an Enyo but I could not help. Bought that one and searched a usable loadout. After fitting I went to kill some rats. Big ones, just to see, how well blasters operate on that little monster. They operates well and the Enyo is really a monster. It erases rats sooo fast... That you will fuckin' forget to check the nearby are by 360º directional scanner. So a Rapier jumped on me. Of course it should be cloaked while warping to me, but the fact stays fact: I did not check the scanner.

Sorry, what is the question? Yes, it was a Muppet Ninja.

Well, what's done is done. Lets fight! I had an alive rat, five T2 small drones around me and a Rapier around 6000 meters away. What could I do? Die. But not so fast. I used the rat as capacitor battery, so my repper could permarun. Tank part done. I won't be able to reach the Rapier, I have to focus on the drones.

Enyo is a piece of shit for PvP, lacks one midslot for web. The drones were orbiting me 700-1000 meters, high speed. Enyo has bonus on tracking. This bonus depends on the Assault frigate skill. I had (and have) this skill on lvl1. As far as I remember the next level is 2 hours of training. If I could have tanked for that long... I missed the drones. I mean my gun was not able to hit them.

Second chance would be to use my drone against the others. I had minimal drone skills and one single Hobgoblin I. It was not enough.

So the Rapier killed me. As usual GFs went and tsocheff karma has told me I was tanking "prety well". Yep, this fight was a loss but I felt in love with the Enyo. Tough bastard.

It is worth to mention that I bought and similary fitted an another Enyo and I went to a short ratting session with it, killing only rats 100.000+ bounty on them or Shadow ones. One Shadow targeting computer has been dropped: 70-80 million ISK. It is about 4 Enyos with the similar fit.

Of course for PvP I will use an Ishkur instead. But this is an another story with a lot of training.

Loss 4: Stupid, stupid me

Usual roam, duel with Artwig. It was a good way to check how blasters are working against my Rifter.

Then... I have scanned two BCs (a Myr and a Cane) chasing each other and Fizixx. Again. I should decide to move to another system, but I did not. Warped to a belt where Fizixx with his Ranis sits. He was 250 kms away. I was stupid enough to forget that it is enough distance for warping to me so I had a false safe feeling. He warped to me. And then... a fleet invite from the Cane pilot arrived, a nice popup in the middle of my screen, I pressed Yes (Why not, just remove this shit, I cannot see my opponent!!!). A new popup, the fleet window. ... Nice distracting... And the Rifter is gone.
In fact iIt was gone at the fucking moment I did not left the system after the Ranis appeared on my scanner.

Loss 3: The Duel

Yesterday I planned to do my "usual" roam from home to Hevrice. In Agoze I scanned a... guess what... a Muppet Ninja at Ostingele gate in a Harbinger. Too big but he won't catch me at gate, so I warped and jumped.

A few players in Agoze. Tuncan followed me to this system, which was not a comfortable feeling. Anyway, I did the usual stuff, checked belts then the sun... The Harbinger was there. One more check. 50m³ drone bay. No way I engage this pilot in my Rifter. On the other hand I knew how boring a roam could be, so I warped to 100 km to him just to see what happens.
Well... An another Rifter appeared, that happened. As I mentioned earlier I have a feeling that Muppet Ninjas are not roaming alone so I was suspicious. On the other hand a Rifter sound beatable at least more beatable than a Harbi. So I jumped to my safe at top belt. The Rifter jumped too to the belt. I warped to 50, he warped away. I warped to sun then warped to safe. He warped back to the belt.
Sounds boring? It was. So I warped to 50 again and I started to disengage the Rifter. If he moves away from the belt it will prevent that someone jumps right on our head during the fight. Xi 'xar has followed me and after some kilometers I decided to engage. Xi is an old char, so he had better damage dealing and/or tanking skills. I just realized after checking the lossmail that I had Rep. Fleet Fusion armed, not Barrage, but the main reason should be age-difference of the two chars. I have lost my ship. His ship was in half armor at the time I decided to save my pod.

GFs went and Tuncan asked about the result of the duel in local. Then I went home and offline.

Lessons of the fight:

• I am able to find ships by directional scanner. This is positive.
• I engage opponents if I know well that I cannot win. This is negative.
• I am afraid that a roam won't be successful, so I engage instead of serching another opponent. This is negative.
• I forgot to overheat repairer. This maybe could save my ship.
• I disengage too early. With a more aggressive manner (and an overheated repper) I could win. Most likely not but running away is not a good habit... On the other hand forcing a fight against all odds is another bad habit. Have to find the balance.
  

Battleclinic ban

IP-banned from battleclinic. I put a link to every kill and loss pointing to the according blogpost. They decided it is a spam. So be it! Moved to eve-kill.net.

Kill 4 and 5: The first real victory

A 9 jump roam and a Muppet Ninja blob again.

After entering Melmaniel I jumped to the belt safe for the top belt. My directional scanner showed an Incursus and a Hobgoblin I so I decided warping to zero and engage. Well... There were nothing to engage. Just few dead and unlooted rats and a poor Hobgoblin I.
First toughts: the pilot is ratting and he jumped to the next belt so I did the same. Nothing.
Midwarp an another idea came into my mind: the guy forgot the drone so he will jump back to it. I jumped back too. The guy was there but too far and he warped away. I did it too to a nearby safe and I permascanned the belt. The guy jumped back, he must love that drone. Let's assume he warped to zero! So did I. Gotcha! He was 2800 meters away. Lock, scramble, nos, net, orbit. He went down without any problems. After the ship destroyed I realized that my orbit was 6000 meters and the distance between the pod and me is too high to scramble. Lock, turn on guns and push aproach. The capsule disappeared and I was not happy loosing a kill by a stupid mistake.

I did not check the killmails so just today morning did I notice that the pod disappeared because it was killed.

Now I am not able to enter 1.0 systems.

Loss 2: The Taranis

It was a long roam. I cannot say it was boring. It wasn't. I was able to directional scan an Ishkur. At that point I was sure I would be able to find another opponent so I just warped to him to see what is he doing. He was ratting. Then I warped back to the safe and then I was lucky to see a Muppet Ninja blob causing a local spike, jumping right on the top of the Ishkur and raping him.
When I write blob I mean 20+ HACs and some similar shit.
I checked the Ishkur's wreck just in case but nothing has been left behing for the jackals.

I continued the roam and Costolle I have scanned a Taranis which seemed to be moving from moon to moon. I was (too) confident. I was sitting in a Rifter, if I am able to keep distance nothing bad could happen. I found him, warped to him and then... I was not able to keep distance. At least I recognised the undodgeable explosion so the good ol' align and warp-spam trick saved my capsule.

Kill 3: The Iteron at sun

The guy was sitting at the sun. Lock, scramble and shoot. And then the guy has ejected before I could have explode the Iteron. It was surprising, so I lost a second in hesitation. Lock was too late and the scrambler was on cooldown so the pilot escaped. I cannot fly an Iteron so I had no choice.

Kill 1 and 2: The AFK Iteron

Short roam, AFK Iteron in an asteroid belt. License to die. And die.

Loss 1: The Myrmidon

I was just arrived to Placid and went to a short roam hoping some target appears.

Warped to zero to an asteroid belt. Red on overview. CTRL-clicking on it and meanwhile checking who is it and what kind of ship. It took a few secs more than it should, so he locked and warpscrambled me. A Myrmidon commanded by a Muppet Ninja. Those guys are very common seen in the neighborhood. Pirate/PvP corp which runs blobs frequently. Back to my battlecruiser opponent... Myrmidons are stuffed with drones in normal case so I knew my ship is lost. I targeted the sun and clicked align then 2465623 times the warp to zero button. The reason is simple: if my ship aligns to the sun then after it pops my capsule will align to sun. And a well-aligned capsule goes into warp in a split second so the Myrmidon won't have a chance to lock and scramble me.

Ship exploded but capsule saved.

Intro

So I wanna be a pirate in EvE Online and this is my logbook to store memories about battles.