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.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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.
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:
Pros:
Pros:
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...?
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.
- 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.
Pros:
- Armor tank.
- Damage type change by drones.
- I know Gallente frigates 5.
- 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?
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.
- I have to learn Amarr frigates to 5.
- I have to learn Rocket skills.
- Slower than Jaguar.
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.
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.
Monday, September 19, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
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.
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.
Friday, September 9, 2011
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:
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.
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.
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.
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