One of the most common questions I'm asked is how much SP do I have. For some, there seems to be an idea that a player requires a certain fixed value of skillpoints after which one can successfully "solo" with, typically around 30M or so.
In reality, nothing can be further from the truth. Several Tuskers and indeed, other PvPers I've flown with have started PvPing with naught but a few thousand skillpoints on them. The key however, is to ensure that you get maximum bang for your buck.
Choose a ship class that you want to solo in. If you're just starting out, I suggest T1 frigates. All races have viable fits, but I suggest either the Punisher, which can have a relatively large tank, requiring less micromanagement than other frigates, or the standard - the Rifter, which is the most well rounded T1 frigate currently in the game.
Next, decide upon a fit. I suggest consulting Failheap Challenge for fits rather than Battleclinic, which tends to be bloated and have some truly terrible popular fits on it. Now, train all supporting skills related to that ship to Level IV, with the exception being Gunnery - training for T2 turrets is crucial for the long range ammunition which will then become available - Barrage/Null/Scorch.
At this point, based off skillpoints alone, you should lose most fights with similarly fitted ships since most players will have more skillpoints than you. In reality, skillpoints matter fair less than people think - it's fairly rare that I have a close fight to structure for example in 1v1s. This is due to other factors coming into play such as actual PvP experience, with solo and small gang experience being much, much more important than large gang experience.
For this reason, budding PvPers can often kill a few tacklers of larger enemy gangs in their frigates - they are often looked down upon for their low skillpoints and "cheap" T1 frigates so the tacklers get complacent and slip up, often helped by the fact that they've had almost no solo PvP experience to speak of, meaning that they're not used to what to do when they have no gang backing them.
Beyond that, skillpoints do start to matter more - however only for the options they provide. Some gangs for example cannot be kited and instead must be brawled down, such as gangs featuring heavy Recon support. Battlecruisers require more skillpoints just to fit T2 guns, but the key is to ensure that you only fly ships once you can fly them competently - all IVs and T2 guns typically. This is the standard that I expect from anyone participating in my fleets as an side note.
As for the people asking, I currently have just under 45M (Eveboard link is here, password is "tuskersbro"). As you can see, most of my skillpoints are in support - Drones, Navigation etc. for which I have almost all Vs. For 1v1 encounters, they are most of the time pretty overkill, but really come in handy when engaging larger gangs solo!
The amount of ships I can fly well is actually fairly limited compared to similiarly SP players - I can only competently fly Amarr up to Battleships and Minmatar up to Battlecruisers (Arazu aside), with no missile skills whatsoever.
Interestingly enough, around about 30M skillpoints, you should have nearly all support skills trained to V, after which it's a fairly easy train to get into ships and fly them well. However, since you can only fly a single ship at a time, beyond that skillpoints have a fairly diminishing role - my Recon V is completely useless when I'm flying an Battlecruiser, same with Logistics V. For this reason, many older pilots ask what to train next, looking for anything to train, most of the time it never being used (Capitals for example)
So, how many skillpoints do you have?
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Credentials
I was originally planning on writing an single blogpost or two about the tips & tricks of solo PvP , but after chatting with a few people ingame I've been...encouraged to write a series of blogposts, covering the entire range of solo and small gang PvP, right from the very basics to the highest levels of solo and small gang PvP in Eve Online going on, in all gang formats I've seen - Armor Brawler, Black Ops operations, Shield Nano, with logistics, without logistics etc.
So, to begin this enormous topic, where to start? Simple, my credentials so that you, as the reader are able to judge, for yourself, whether or not I have the experience to actually write about this subject without writing effectively bullshit.
So, to begin this enormous topic, where to start? Simple, my credentials so that you, as the reader are able to judge, for yourself, whether or not I have the experience to actually write about this subject without writing effectively bullshit.
Friday, 5 August 2011
Rusty as Hell II
So, onto the next 2 losses. They are slightly better than the previous losses, although they still make me facepalm!
Number 5 - I hate Falcons (and Dramiels!)
With the majority of my ships back in Hevrice, I decided to go on a roam to Syndicate, specifically through TXW (Rote Kapelle home system) in my Shield Harbinger. Whilst it was fairly dead, a few jumps out I found a decently sized gatecamp for me to try my luck on with my alt - an Arazu, Brutix, Daredevil, Drake and a Sabre. Unfortunately, by the time my main arrived on the scene they had docked up.
Moving on, I found an Dramiel + Sabre camping a gate. Whilst they refused to go for me, I decided to hang around, unfortunately this would prove to be my undoing. The Dramiel suddenly was raring to go for me and I was happy to oblige, deliberately getting caught in a bubble. Whilst I was making slow but steady progress through his tank with the combination of my drones + guns, assisted by my small neut.....suddenly Falcon!
I managed to set my drones on him before he acquired a lock and jammed me, but his medium EMP smartbomb soon dispatched them, whereas he was keeping me perma-jammed and the Dramiel was whittling through my tank. Commenting in local at how low they were going, the Falcon pilot gleefully replied that he was fit with all Amarr jammers, just for me.
With no chance of getting my ship out, I initiated self destruct. Whilst I am normally loath to do so, the use of Falcon was abhorrent - practically any other ship I would have been content to battle to the death, satisfied that I could at least do something.
In the end, I managed to self destruct successfully and leave the system in my pod. Unfortunately, my way out was barred by another gatecamp just one system over. Deciding to double back and leave that way, I jumped back in and was greeted by the sight of the Dramiel and Sabre sitting on the gate, with the Sabre bubbling the gate. Consigned to my fate, I tried to burn back to the gate but was effectively one volleyed by the Sabre. Bye bye Low Grade Snakes :(
Number 4 - Hero Myrmidon + Bad Awareness = Death!
When Valgore, a fellow Tusker reported a Vagabond sitting on a wormhole one jump away from Hevrice, I grabbed my Myrmidon and checked it out, with Valgore in his Shield Hurricane. Once I was on the scene, his alt slipped into the wormhole and started checking it out, finding a Tengu running sites along with an salvaging Noctis. With no way to get into the wormhole without the Vagabond giving warning, we were forming up to go in for the kill when we discovered Angor Mau, ex-Tusker and CEO of Lucifer's Hammer had already slain the Vagabond and departed!
Moving into position anyway, we hoped that the inhabitants would come out to investigate. Eventually they did, with a Blackbird, 2 Drakes, 2 Hurricanes and a Ferox. After about 5 minutes of trying to drag them off the wormhole and thus prevent them from running when they were in danger, I finally managed to scramble the Ferox 40km from his friends and he went down.
With the Blackbird present, there was no way we could hope to combat them directly. Me and Valgore decided to change fittings - I would replace my second Capacitor Booster for a midslot ECCM module whereas he would replace a Nanofibre in his lows for a lowslot ECCM backup array.
Refitted, we headed back out, waking up another Tusker Tsubutai who tagged along with his Shield Hurricane, Our eyes inside the wormhole revealed they were camping with the Blackbird, Cerberus, 4 Drakes and a Hurricane, whilst at the same time a Chimera was sitting inside their POS. When me and Valgore jumped in, they scattered back to their POS before we could secure points. In any case, we were better prepared this time and setup a drag bubble on grid with the wormhole, setup to grab any of them that warped to the wormhole from their POS.
Whilst it was onlining, their Cerberus warped in at 100 and tried to snipe down Valgore's Hurricane. I bounced off a planet and attempted to land ontop of him, unfortunately that failed to work and he managed to warp off.
After hanging around the bubble for a while, our eyes on their POS reported them warping to planet 1, which if they warped to the wormhole from, would not drag them into our bubble. Getting ready for a rumble, they all landed at 0 to the wormhole and us - 4 Drakes and a Myrmidon. Valgore was soon forced to jump through, followed by Tsubutai. As I hoped, with only me on the field, they decided to focus fire and I was soon tanking all 5 of their Battlecruisers, forced to rely on careful micro management of modules as well as popping my Exile pill.
One by one, I ground through them, in which case they jumped back to our side where the rest of our fleet was waiting, Tsubutai and Valgore in Hurricanes along with Arc in his Malediction for fast tackle. As they ping-ponged back to either side to escape, we kept them boxed in and eventually killed 3 of their Drakes and their Myrmidon with no losses of our own, with our own Brutix joining in at the end.
Whilst looting up, we spied several more Battlecruisers on scan, as well as a Hurricane or two, but they weren't at our target's POS. Soon, a Drake landed 30km off us, the new arrivals corporation name revealed - Aquila INC, a fairly well known roaming wormhole corporation specializing in nano BCs.
Interested to see what would happen, we started giving chase to the Drake. As predicted, he started kiting us as the rest of his gang landed and an Arazu decloaked. Suddenly, it was a good old 4 v 5 fleet fight (Arc had gone AFK), with them having recon support. Their warpin was fairly bad and we managed to tackle both of their Hurricanes before they could open up distance, scrambling them both with my Myrmidon and Rael's Brutix.
Carving through their first Hurricane, he went down fairly quickly. The second followed him quickly after, but Rael's Brutix finally succumbed to their incoming DPS, which took a while as the Hurricane I had tackled decided to try and scare me off rather than aim for Rael.
Just as Rael popped, I was in half structure with my low slots overheated. Grabbing their Arazu who drifted into my scrambler range for some reason, we popped him very quickly.
Realising the battle was lost, they tried to clear off but we grabbed another Drake who went down nicely to our DPS with returned Arc's help, with the other Drake escaping. 4 kills for 1 loss in a 4v5, not bad!
Scooping the new loot, we hanged around, hoping the residents would reship and come back in for Round 3. After a while, it was clear that they wouldn't, just as another Aquila INC Hurricane appeared 200km off the wormhole. Arc went to tackle him and we tried to pin him down. Eventually, I managed to almost tackle him 70km off the wormhole just as their reshipped gang arrived - 6 Drakes along with the Hurricane already on the field.
With us having only 4 combat ships, 1 of which couldn't contribute meaningful DPS (Arc's Malediction), I gave the order to retreat as I burnt back to the wormhole with my overheated MWD whilst tanking their 7 Battlecruisers. Focusing on my capacitor and tank as the Hurricane neutted me, I stopped paying attention to my mids and my MWD burnt out as I was 12km off the wormhole. Immediately I started slowing and popped just 300m outside jump range. Everyone else made it out.
Thankfully, the Arazu loot was enough to replace our losses, with a little bit extra for all those involved. Still, was a great fight!
The rest of my losses weren't anything special, therefore I am considering just skipping them and heading back to normal content. For example, I've had some Evemails asking me to discuss my tactics, ship fittings etc. which I think could be quite useful for the majority of players out there. What do you think? Reply in the comment section below, or send me an Evemail ingame.
Number 5 - I hate Falcons (and Dramiels!)
With the majority of my ships back in Hevrice, I decided to go on a roam to Syndicate, specifically through TXW (Rote Kapelle home system) in my Shield Harbinger. Whilst it was fairly dead, a few jumps out I found a decently sized gatecamp for me to try my luck on with my alt - an Arazu, Brutix, Daredevil, Drake and a Sabre. Unfortunately, by the time my main arrived on the scene they had docked up.
Moving on, I found an Dramiel + Sabre camping a gate. Whilst they refused to go for me, I decided to hang around, unfortunately this would prove to be my undoing. The Dramiel suddenly was raring to go for me and I was happy to oblige, deliberately getting caught in a bubble. Whilst I was making slow but steady progress through his tank with the combination of my drones + guns, assisted by my small neut.....suddenly Falcon!
I managed to set my drones on him before he acquired a lock and jammed me, but his medium EMP smartbomb soon dispatched them, whereas he was keeping me perma-jammed and the Dramiel was whittling through my tank. Commenting in local at how low they were going, the Falcon pilot gleefully replied that he was fit with all Amarr jammers, just for me.
 |
| Ruining good fights, the dreaded Falcon |
In the end, I managed to self destruct successfully and leave the system in my pod. Unfortunately, my way out was barred by another gatecamp just one system over. Deciding to double back and leave that way, I jumped back in and was greeted by the sight of the Dramiel and Sabre sitting on the gate, with the Sabre bubbling the gate. Consigned to my fate, I tried to burn back to the gate but was effectively one volleyed by the Sabre. Bye bye Low Grade Snakes :(
Number 4 - Hero Myrmidon + Bad Awareness = Death!
When Valgore, a fellow Tusker reported a Vagabond sitting on a wormhole one jump away from Hevrice, I grabbed my Myrmidon and checked it out, with Valgore in his Shield Hurricane. Once I was on the scene, his alt slipped into the wormhole and started checking it out, finding a Tengu running sites along with an salvaging Noctis. With no way to get into the wormhole without the Vagabond giving warning, we were forming up to go in for the kill when we discovered Angor Mau, ex-Tusker and CEO of Lucifer's Hammer had already slain the Vagabond and departed!
 |
| The Myrmidon, one of my favorite ships for brawling |
With the Blackbird present, there was no way we could hope to combat them directly. Me and Valgore decided to change fittings - I would replace my second Capacitor Booster for a midslot ECCM module whereas he would replace a Nanofibre in his lows for a lowslot ECCM backup array.
Refitted, we headed back out, waking up another Tusker Tsubutai who tagged along with his Shield Hurricane, Our eyes inside the wormhole revealed they were camping with the Blackbird, Cerberus, 4 Drakes and a Hurricane, whilst at the same time a Chimera was sitting inside their POS. When me and Valgore jumped in, they scattered back to their POS before we could secure points. In any case, we were better prepared this time and setup a drag bubble on grid with the wormhole, setup to grab any of them that warped to the wormhole from their POS.
Whilst it was onlining, their Cerberus warped in at 100 and tried to snipe down Valgore's Hurricane. I bounced off a planet and attempted to land ontop of him, unfortunately that failed to work and he managed to warp off.
After hanging around the bubble for a while, our eyes on their POS reported them warping to planet 1, which if they warped to the wormhole from, would not drag them into our bubble. Getting ready for a rumble, they all landed at 0 to the wormhole and us - 4 Drakes and a Myrmidon. Valgore was soon forced to jump through, followed by Tsubutai. As I hoped, with only me on the field, they decided to focus fire and I was soon tanking all 5 of their Battlecruisers, forced to rely on careful micro management of modules as well as popping my Exile pill.
One by one, I ground through them, in which case they jumped back to our side where the rest of our fleet was waiting, Tsubutai and Valgore in Hurricanes along with Arc in his Malediction for fast tackle. As they ping-ponged back to either side to escape, we kept them boxed in and eventually killed 3 of their Drakes and their Myrmidon with no losses of our own, with our own Brutix joining in at the end.
Whilst looting up, we spied several more Battlecruisers on scan, as well as a Hurricane or two, but they weren't at our target's POS. Soon, a Drake landed 30km off us, the new arrivals corporation name revealed - Aquila INC, a fairly well known roaming wormhole corporation specializing in nano BCs.
Interested to see what would happen, we started giving chase to the Drake. As predicted, he started kiting us as the rest of his gang landed and an Arazu decloaked. Suddenly, it was a good old 4 v 5 fleet fight (Arc had gone AFK), with them having recon support. Their warpin was fairly bad and we managed to tackle both of their Hurricanes before they could open up distance, scrambling them both with my Myrmidon and Rael's Brutix.
Carving through their first Hurricane, he went down fairly quickly. The second followed him quickly after, but Rael's Brutix finally succumbed to their incoming DPS, which took a while as the Hurricane I had tackled decided to try and scare me off rather than aim for Rael.
Just as Rael popped, I was in half structure with my low slots overheated. Grabbing their Arazu who drifted into my scrambler range for some reason, we popped him very quickly.
Realising the battle was lost, they tried to clear off but we grabbed another Drake who went down nicely to our DPS with returned Arc's help, with the other Drake escaping. 4 kills for 1 loss in a 4v5, not bad!
Scooping the new loot, we hanged around, hoping the residents would reship and come back in for Round 3. After a while, it was clear that they wouldn't, just as another Aquila INC Hurricane appeared 200km off the wormhole. Arc went to tackle him and we tried to pin him down. Eventually, I managed to almost tackle him 70km off the wormhole just as their reshipped gang arrived - 6 Drakes along with the Hurricane already on the field.
With us having only 4 combat ships, 1 of which couldn't contribute meaningful DPS (Arc's Malediction), I gave the order to retreat as I burnt back to the wormhole with my overheated MWD whilst tanking their 7 Battlecruisers. Focusing on my capacitor and tank as the Hurricane neutted me, I stopped paying attention to my mids and my MWD burnt out as I was 12km off the wormhole. Immediately I started slowing and popped just 300m outside jump range. Everyone else made it out.
Thankfully, the Arazu loot was enough to replace our losses, with a little bit extra for all those involved. Still, was a great fight!
The rest of my losses weren't anything special, therefore I am considering just skipping them and heading back to normal content. For example, I've had some Evemails asking me to discuss my tactics, ship fittings etc. which I think could be quite useful for the majority of players out there. What do you think? Reply in the comment section below, or send me an Evemail ingame.
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Rusty as Hell
Since coming back to Eve properly around July 17th, I have suffered 10 ship losses. Whilst the circumstances surrounding each ship loss aren't particularly facepalm worthy, together they represent what happens when you stop playing Eve for a while - you get rusty fast.
So, going through the losses incurred in and around Molden Heath (the first 5), let's see what happened:
Number 10 - The first one always hurts the most
This Harbinger was the original one I purchased when I first visited Molden Heath back in February, surviving dozens of fights. I was chasing a single Hatchery Drake running a mission into a deadend system. When I tried to leave, I found him barring my way, with the rest of his gang - a Hurricane, Sentinel and a Dramiel sitting on the other side of the stargate. Attempting to split them up, I jumped into the rest of their gang after the Drake aggroed me on one side, burnt back to the gate forcing the Dramiel to jump into the other side with the Drake before attempting to burn off and gun down the Sentinel whilst outpacing the Hurricane and warping off before the Dramiel could jump back in and pin me down. Whilst in theory this should have worked, I neglected two crucial facts, namely
a) Without the gangbonuses of my alt sitting in the next system, I was only slightly faster than the Hurricane and Sentinel
b) The Sentinel's Tracking Disruptor made it tricky to kill him.
In the end, I put the Sentinel in half armor before the Dramiel managed to scramble me 50km off the stargate, at which point I inevitably popped.
Number 9 - The ONI that could (have)
Without my shield Harbinger, I decided to go roaming in my Omen Navy Issue instead. In this ship, I managed to grab initial point on a Thanatos in Bosena which was camping stargates before losing it to an untimely disconnect whilst warping to the Bosena station at 100km. When I relogged, a Falcon decloaked 5km off me and webbed & scrambled me whilst local spiked. Fortunately he appeared not to have an Amarr jammer and I was able to apply my lasers, energy neutralizer and set my drones on him intermittently. Unfortunately, his jammers kept him alive - by the time his gang landed and made mincemeat of me he was in low armor.
Number 8 - Armor outruns shield, what?!
Not to be deterred (much!), I started roaming in my last Myrmidon. Finding a Gunpoint Diplomacy neutral Hurricane sitting on a stargate, I was hoping he would engage me, seeing as I could not initiate hostilities without taking sentry gun fire. Unfortunately, he decided to jump through and warp to a station. After giving him a few minutes to get his backup to arrive (another Hurricane I had spotted earlier), it was still clear that he wasn't willing to engage. As I made to leave the system, he finally made his move and followed me to the stargate.
Interested to see why he had a sudden change of heart, I jumped through the stargate once aggressed and came across his backup - the afore mentioned corpmate in a Hurricane, with another in a Tempest. Fearing the Tempest's heavy energy neutralizers and their effect on my armor repairers, I burnt back to the stargate and jumped through, but not before taking significant armor damage. At this point, I decided to try burning away from the stargate and hopefully outrunning the enemy gang. To make matters worse, once again my gangbonuses were in the system with the Tempest and thus, eventually I popped 300km off the stargate, but not before burning out most of my modules and going through most of my cap booster charges.
Number 7 - The power of Electronic Attack Ships
Often, Ewar such as Remote Sensor Dampeners and Tracking Disruptors are called ineffective. In reality, in small gang situations, they are often times incredibly effective, especially in small gang PvP. Roaming around in my brawler Crusader whilst my alt secured logistics to move ships back to Hevrice from Atlar as the Molden Heath campaign wrapped up, I found a Vexor in top belt in Bosena. Warping in, I was amused to see him attempt to kite me with medium railguns and deploying Hammerhead IIs. Easily getting him scrambled, with my Afterburner I had no difficulty remaining untouched by either his drones or his guns. After settling into a steady orbit, a Keres uncloaked 30km from me.
Abandoning the Vexor, I sensed an easy kill and closed in on the Keres. Unfortunately, he spotted me and damped me down to a lock range of 6km, hardly ideal. At the same time, a Vagabond and a Thrasher landed. Burning away with my Afterburner fit Crusader, I found myself unable to catch the Keres, who was MWD fit. However, at the same time I was able to outrun the Vagabond and the Thrasher. Burning away, I hoped that I could manage to drive the Keres out of capacitor, as Remote Sensor Dampeners as well as the MWD would use up capacitor by the bucket.
After a few minutes of this I kept trying to manually burn to catch the Keres out, using such manoveurs as the slingshot. Unfortunately, the combination of his bonused Warp Disruptor range, his Sensor Dampeners and superior speed allowed him to keep me at a comfortable range and eventually I got lax and the Vagabond managed to warp to his Keres friend and run me down with his overheated MWD before I could respond. I reshipped to an Armor Hurricane, but their gang scattered just as I was about to scramble the Vagabond.
Number 6 - The Scary Celestis
With the majority of my ships back in Hevrice courtesy of my alt and a bored freighter, all that was left was to head down there with my main. Grabbing my anti-frigate Celestis, I started roaming the 47 jumps back without my alt. The first jump out, I spotted an Damnation and Maelstrom running a mission. Without a prober, I decided to move on. A few more jumps out, I spotted a Rattlesnake in a safe spot near a stargate, with no other celestials on scan and only a single other person in local, who appeared to be a carebear.
Purchasing probes and a probe launcher from a nearby station, I refitted my Celestis, probed him down and swapped fittings back to full combat. Landing ontop of him, I was relieved to find him still there and started making my way through his considerable shield buffer, jokingly wondering if I could break his passive shield tank with my measily 200 DPS. After a minute or so of no response, the Rattlesnake pilot appeared to return to his screen and deployed drones which proceeded to bloody me and forcing me to run away with my tail tucked between my legs.
Continuing along the roam, it was dreadfully empty until I finally came to Amamake. Unfortunately, none of the Faction Warfare frigates would engage me and I somehow escaped a 20 man FW frigate fleet in my armor tanked Celestis. Eventually, I decided to suicide my ship into a Tengu and 2 Slicers, hoping to lure one into overheated web range, which occured, however the Tengu managed to annihilate me before I could finish off the Slicer.
Well, at least the trip back to Hevrice was made quicker - only 10 jumps via high sec in my pod!
Feel free to reply in the comments section with what happened when you came back to Eve and the dreadful, dreadful mistakes you made
So, going through the losses incurred in and around Molden Heath (the first 5), let's see what happened:
Number 10 - The first one always hurts the most
 |
| The Beast |
This Harbinger was the original one I purchased when I first visited Molden Heath back in February, surviving dozens of fights. I was chasing a single Hatchery Drake running a mission into a deadend system. When I tried to leave, I found him barring my way, with the rest of his gang - a Hurricane, Sentinel and a Dramiel sitting on the other side of the stargate. Attempting to split them up, I jumped into the rest of their gang after the Drake aggroed me on one side, burnt back to the gate forcing the Dramiel to jump into the other side with the Drake before attempting to burn off and gun down the Sentinel whilst outpacing the Hurricane and warping off before the Dramiel could jump back in and pin me down. Whilst in theory this should have worked, I neglected two crucial facts, namely
a) Without the gangbonuses of my alt sitting in the next system, I was only slightly faster than the Hurricane and Sentinel
b) The Sentinel's Tracking Disruptor made it tricky to kill him.
In the end, I put the Sentinel in half armor before the Dramiel managed to scramble me 50km off the stargate, at which point I inevitably popped.
Number 9 - The ONI that could (have)
Without my shield Harbinger, I decided to go roaming in my Omen Navy Issue instead. In this ship, I managed to grab initial point on a Thanatos in Bosena which was camping stargates before losing it to an untimely disconnect whilst warping to the Bosena station at 100km. When I relogged, a Falcon decloaked 5km off me and webbed & scrambled me whilst local spiked. Fortunately he appeared not to have an Amarr jammer and I was able to apply my lasers, energy neutralizer and set my drones on him intermittently. Unfortunately, his jammers kept him alive - by the time his gang landed and made mincemeat of me he was in low armor.
Number 8 - Armor outruns shield, what?!
Not to be deterred (much!), I started roaming in my last Myrmidon. Finding a Gunpoint Diplomacy neutral Hurricane sitting on a stargate, I was hoping he would engage me, seeing as I could not initiate hostilities without taking sentry gun fire. Unfortunately, he decided to jump through and warp to a station. After giving him a few minutes to get his backup to arrive (another Hurricane I had spotted earlier), it was still clear that he wasn't willing to engage. As I made to leave the system, he finally made his move and followed me to the stargate.
Interested to see why he had a sudden change of heart, I jumped through the stargate once aggressed and came across his backup - the afore mentioned corpmate in a Hurricane, with another in a Tempest. Fearing the Tempest's heavy energy neutralizers and their effect on my armor repairers, I burnt back to the stargate and jumped through, but not before taking significant armor damage. At this point, I decided to try burning away from the stargate and hopefully outrunning the enemy gang. To make matters worse, once again my gangbonuses were in the system with the Tempest and thus, eventually I popped 300km off the stargate, but not before burning out most of my modules and going through most of my cap booster charges.
Number 7 - The power of Electronic Attack Ships
Often, Ewar such as Remote Sensor Dampeners and Tracking Disruptors are called ineffective. In reality, in small gang situations, they are often times incredibly effective, especially in small gang PvP. Roaming around in my brawler Crusader whilst my alt secured logistics to move ships back to Hevrice from Atlar as the Molden Heath campaign wrapped up, I found a Vexor in top belt in Bosena. Warping in, I was amused to see him attempt to kite me with medium railguns and deploying Hammerhead IIs. Easily getting him scrambled, with my Afterburner I had no difficulty remaining untouched by either his drones or his guns. After settling into a steady orbit, a Keres uncloaked 30km from me.
 |
| Rarely seen, the Gallente Electronic Attack Ship |
Abandoning the Vexor, I sensed an easy kill and closed in on the Keres. Unfortunately, he spotted me and damped me down to a lock range of 6km, hardly ideal. At the same time, a Vagabond and a Thrasher landed. Burning away with my Afterburner fit Crusader, I found myself unable to catch the Keres, who was MWD fit. However, at the same time I was able to outrun the Vagabond and the Thrasher. Burning away, I hoped that I could manage to drive the Keres out of capacitor, as Remote Sensor Dampeners as well as the MWD would use up capacitor by the bucket.
After a few minutes of this I kept trying to manually burn to catch the Keres out, using such manoveurs as the slingshot. Unfortunately, the combination of his bonused Warp Disruptor range, his Sensor Dampeners and superior speed allowed him to keep me at a comfortable range and eventually I got lax and the Vagabond managed to warp to his Keres friend and run me down with his overheated MWD before I could respond. I reshipped to an Armor Hurricane, but their gang scattered just as I was about to scramble the Vagabond.
Number 6 - The Scary Celestis
With the majority of my ships back in Hevrice courtesy of my alt and a bored freighter, all that was left was to head down there with my main. Grabbing my anti-frigate Celestis, I started roaming the 47 jumps back without my alt. The first jump out, I spotted an Damnation and Maelstrom running a mission. Without a prober, I decided to move on. A few more jumps out, I spotted a Rattlesnake in a safe spot near a stargate, with no other celestials on scan and only a single other person in local, who appeared to be a carebear.
Purchasing probes and a probe launcher from a nearby station, I refitted my Celestis, probed him down and swapped fittings back to full combat. Landing ontop of him, I was relieved to find him still there and started making my way through his considerable shield buffer, jokingly wondering if I could break his passive shield tank with my measily 200 DPS. After a minute or so of no response, the Rattlesnake pilot appeared to return to his screen and deployed drones which proceeded to bloody me and forcing me to run away with my tail tucked between my legs.
Continuing along the roam, it was dreadfully empty until I finally came to Amamake. Unfortunately, none of the Faction Warfare frigates would engage me and I somehow escaped a 20 man FW frigate fleet in my armor tanked Celestis. Eventually, I decided to suicide my ship into a Tengu and 2 Slicers, hoping to lure one into overheated web range, which occured, however the Tengu managed to annihilate me before I could finish off the Slicer.
Well, at least the trip back to Hevrice was made quicker - only 10 jumps via high sec in my pod!
Feel free to reply in the comments section with what happened when you came back to Eve and the dreadful, dreadful mistakes you made
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