My Best Ransom Evah!

Last night started slow, very slow. I had just destroyed a noob Catalyst a few jumps from Hevrice when a corpmate mentioned that he had been engaged by an Ishkur. I asked if he would like me to burn to his assitance. My offer accepted I set off, though as I jumped into Hev he signalled that it had been destroyed. Cue sadface.

It was long however before a gang of Sentinel, Jaguar & Rapier entered Hev space. I was sat at a tactical close to a belt as the Jaguar landed with Incognito's Ishkur. I warped to his aid as the Sentinel landed. Expecting the Rapier who had also been sighted to be inbound, ItsMe brought out his Cynabal. We called the Jag primary (which in hindsight was a mistake), realising our error we switched to the Sentinel and quickly dropped it, swiftly followed by the Jaguar. They went down just in time to save 'Blog Moar!' the Wolf which was fulled capped out from a sticky end.

Back at my tactical repping up and waiting out GCC a second Ishkur lands at zero on the belt, I report it to Incog & Itsme and engage calling point as I land. The Ishkur literally dissolves in front of my eyes at astonishing speed, the fit tells the story here. Following the Assault ships demise I attempt ransom of the pod after a quick check of his age (2006 I think).

Here follows a copy/paste from my activities last night from out ransom board which tells the story:

Date: 27.06.2010
Location: Hevrice
Vessels ransomed: Pod
Pilot: Kaobserver4
Amount: 635,323,037.92mil
My Share: 211,774,345.97isk

Involved Pilots:
Incognito
ItsmeHcK1
Kirith Darkblade

Fun as follows:
EVE System > Channel MOTD: Hello, one or more members of The Tuskers are prepared to destroy your vessel. Should you wish to pay a ransom to save your ship, please do the following immediately:

1. Turn off all modules (including guns, missile launchers, webbers, scrams, etc.) and recall all drones. Stop your ship.

2. From the time a ransom amount appears below, you will have 30 seconds to pay the amount specified. Right-click the picture of the pirate stating our demands and select "give money" to do this.

If you do not comply immediately, we will re-open fire on your vessel. If we get nervous for any reason we will re-open fire on your vessel.
Kirith Darkblade > hi
Kirith Darkblade > 100m to save your pod please. pay to me
kaobserver4 > lol, hi
kaobserver4 > Allow me to get to a station and I'll send it.
Kirith Darkblade > you can send it here
kaobserver4 > Yeah, but there's the chance of you scamming me.
Kirith Darkblade > then you will be freed
ItsmeHcK1 > There's a chance of you scamming us too.
Kirith Darkblade > we honor ransoms, guaranteed
kaobserver4 > lol. True, true.
Kirith Darkblade > viewforum.php?f=35
Kirith Darkblade > quickly check that link
Kirith Darkblade > if i scam you, i have to repay it and get kicked form corp
Kirith Darkblade > thus i wont scam you
kaobserver4 > 70mil sound fair then? It's about all I have atm.
Kirith Darkblade > agreed, please pay to me
Kirith Darkblade > you are free to go
kaobserver4 > There's 700 for bein' an awesome pirate. :D
Kirith Darkblade > :D ty
ItsmeHcK1 > :D
kaobserver4 > Your Corp is based on piracy then?
Kirith Darkblade > It is
kaobserver4 > Is it recruiting?
ItsmeHcK1 > oh god :D
Kirith Darkblade > Recruitment is indeed open atm
ItsmeHcK1 > Dude, I love you. :P
Kirith Darkblade > viewforum.php?f=2
kaobserver4 > Love who?
ItsmeHcK1 > You.
kaobserver4 > Oh.
kaobserver4 > Why?
ItsmeHcK1 > 700M! :D
kaobserver4 > Yah. :D
kaobserver4 > I was eating god damnit, lol, I'm dead the next second. It was awesome.
Kirith Darkblade > :D
lncognito > it's been an awesome last 15 minutes actually
lncognito > so much action ;3
kaobserver4 > Yeah, I'd be interested in joining. The one I'm currently in is really really boring-
kaobserver4 > You guys have a vent?
Kirith Darkblade > we have
Kirith Darkblade > I was like, guys i have an Ishkur pointed.
Kirith Darkblade > Then, he died :(
ItsmeHcK1 > And we were like 'WE ARE IN ON THIS SPLIT!'
kaobserver4 > xD..
lncognito > ;3
kaobserver4 > c.c
lncognito > EVE System > Channel MOTD: Guests may join us on Ventrillo. Presence in this channel is no guarantee of free-passage from the Tuskers.Hostname IP: texas.ventriloservers.biz<br>Port Number: 3840<br>Password: walrus
ItsmeHcK1 > I noticed him, I get a share! :P
lncognito > What type of corp was your old corp?
lncognito > I notice thats your first loss mail in a while
lncognito > recently resubbed?
kaobserver4 > About two months ago.
kaobserver4 > Rusty as hell. c.c
Kirith Darkblade > Kaob, just to confirm that you accept that I am keeping this ransom payment of 635m isk?
kaobserver4 > No give it back.
Kirith Darkblade > I'm not giving it all back
kaobserver4 > lol, I'm on vent you oblivious tards.
Kirith Darkblade > >.>
ItsmeHcK1 > We know. :P
kaobserver4 > "No, no, kick him!"
ItsmeHcK1 > Still. :P
kaobserver4 > I'll plug in my mic once I finish eating.
kaobserver4 > once*
Kirith Darkblade > Can I keep it then? :D
kaobserver4 > yeah.
Kirith Darkblade > \o/ you're a gent
Kirith Darkblade > :)

Because I'm real nice I split the ransom three ways with the corpmates who had undocked to take out the Ishkur!

Boom Boom Pow

Well, it was bound to happen at some point almost guaranteed in fact. After nothing short of an amazing performance totally exceeding my expectations my first Dramiel "The Evil Bastard" has been lost. The little beasty died attempting tackle on one of a pair of Genos Tengus in Hevrice a few days ago:

Lossmail here

It's not been a busy week for me in terms of playtime so I don't have so much to write about. The loss of the Dramiel has put me into the saddle of the Wolf 'Blog Moar! It's not fit the way I normally choose to fit my Wolves but on the recommendation of a reader I am going to give it a try.

First blood has been spilled by the Wolf, I caught a fellow pirate ratting in his Caracal last night. I managed to take advantage of his shields having been weakened by the rats to swiftly take it down into hull. He attempted to burn out of range keeping me webbed, though through overheating my AB and Scram he could not escape. Disaster looked like it had struck though as he managed to get a jam off on me with his T2 Multispec Jammer with a sliver of hull remaining. I don't know how though but he popped just after the jam landed. Maybe projectiles have a delayed flight time effect? A nice loot drop of about 10m isk, not a bad start to this Wolf's career I hope.

In other news, I start training towards Minmatar Cruisers tomorrow, so in preparation I have bought 5 Rupture & Stabber hulls, along with a couple of Bellicose. I even contemplated a Scythe for lols but wills ave that for another day. As I am a sucker for temptation and was feeling flush I bought 2 Cyclones & a Hurricane too! My probing alt is now finished with getting decent probing skills (all IV+) so onwards I go to getting another alt into a Providence Freighter.

Acts of Hero Tackle & Lunacy

I have been thinking that it has been too long since I last talked about actual combat experience and encounters. What I hope to do is every week pick a few fights that I have gotten myself into in and write a little about them. Whether I manage to keep it up I don't know but I certainly hope so.

This week I'm going to pick a few (3) fights that have gotten the old adrenaline going. In all of these fights I am flying my Dramiel, I haven't gotten into any other ship but this Dramiel since June 2nd! Yes I am aware it is now offically doomed having made that statement. In my previous post about the Dramiel I talked about perceptions of Godmode, well I have perhaps taken this a bit far biting off challenges that would be considered maybe acts of lunacy.

First up we have an Ishtar, said Ishtar was in a system neighbouring Hevrice. I had been roaming around looking for things to shoot, I can't remember if I had actually killed anything. I watched as a new Faction Warfare mission opened up whilst I was mid warp, checking the D Scan there's only an Ishtar in space that I can see. Exiting warp I jump to the beacon and use the acceleration gate. Emerging inside the complex the Ishtar is 90km off. I overheat the MWD hit approach and scream towards it at around 7400m/s, 20km off and he warps out. Dammit. I warp out of the plex to a safe and can see that he has docked up. Just two other Tuskers are online so I report the intel to them and move my prober into the system where the Ishtar is docked too. I leave him cloaked and off the acceleration gate. Ishtar undocks and arrives at the mission so I pursue with Kirith (dual screens ftw). Kirith goes through the gate and the Ishtar is 80km off and warps out before I can even approach. This time I take Kirith out of the system into Hevrice and keep watch with the prober. Waiting on the gate I see him back at the mission, jump in and warp. Then, yep he warps out again! Arrgh. Leaving Kirith on the gate I attempt a logoff trap, sure enough he's back so I log in so he warps out again. Bugger am I ever gonna catch him? I warp out to safe and by the time I land he's back on the gate. I warp to him he warps off. This time I'm going to wait and he warps back to me. Woohoo, tackled I call over comms "jump and warp to Kirith". My corp mates are in warp but holy cow I'm melting scrammed and webbed. I tell my compatriots this and attempt a GTFO hoping they will land and catch him. Overheated AB and I'm free due to the Ishtar having a short point I escape with 40% hull. The first ship lands points him, but he manages to escape, stabbed I assume or fail pointing. The pilot links a picture of Nelson from The Simpsons in local "HAHA". Props to him for a good fight and mounting a fierce defense. Well that's one that got away :(

Second up we have....another Ishtar, maybe they are on discount at the moment or something? I probe out his mission and it looks like Blockade as I warp the alt into it to have a look. T2 Sentries are out from the Ishtar. I warp Kirith in, overheat MWD and cover the 90km to him, I take a few hits from the Sentries on the way in but nothing scary at all. Tackled \o/. Keeping the MWD on (not overheated) I comfortably pewpew away taking no damage from his Sentries or the latter deployed T2 lights as I orbit him. He's armour tanked and I am gradually chewing away getting him down to 40% with the help of 4 NPC BS's. Then he deploys 5 EC-600's so I think, shit :(. I started attacking them but it's only 10s before they have me jammed and he's away. I bookmark the mission and warp to repair the heat damage. I warp to and from the mission a few times not able to catch him until I warp to the mission and burn 300km out. I wait for him and he comes back, I warp to the closest wreck I could find to him and tackle again. This time Warrior II's are out and I'm pointed and webbed, ouch ouch ouch ouch goes my little ship, I wait for my AB to deactivate and attempt GTFO with overheated MWD, screaming out to 50km from him quicktime I give thanks to the fact it was a disruptor not a scram and warp out in 30% armour. I commend his performance in local and move on. Another one that got away, maybe I should quit chasing Ishtars? I somehow doubt it :P

Finally we have a missioning Raven & Dominix. The pilots belong to a corp I'm very wary about engaging and especially as these two were in the system next door to their home and probably 20 friends who were logged in at the time. As a corp mate had spotted them I probed them down quickly and a small fleet of three of us formed up. Bomber & Hurricane they brought and refit to AB's. I went in for point, first room empty with wrecks that appeared to be from the Mordus Headhunters L4 mission. I burned the 60km to the next gate quickly and jumped through, I landed 10km from the Raven and tackled it. The Dominix warped out shortly after while I maintained point and started laying into the Raven. I had notified the gang that I had point and they were slowly crossing the 60km between gates. Once the Domi, which seemed to have been tanking some of the rats had warped out however a bunch of rats took a dislike to me, specifically two webbing frigates. My speed reduced to about 300 m/s the Raven and other rats really started pounding on me, as my shields went past 10% remaining two things happened. I considered warping out and the Raven's shields vanished. I decided to stay and watched the Raven explode, wasting no time I warped out with 40% armour remaining. The Cane & Bomber reached the gate as it popped (sorry chaps) and so were denied the killmail. Fortunately the bomber jumped in a recovered out ill gotten loots. Talking to teh Raven pilot afterwards he told me that he hadn't lost a Battleship in a mission for the previous couple of years even in Low-sec but on that day he had lost three! Clearly not his day.

Please let me know if you'd like to see more of this type of post

Blog Banter 18: Devolution

Welcome to the eighteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com.

On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who've been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has you gaming style evolved through the years or months since you've started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance - say manufacturing. Let's hear your story!

I Am the Way I Am
As Kirith approaches a year old in a couple of months, not a lot has changed since I started playing. Inspired mostly by Ka Jolo's blog, this blog was started as I created Kirith. You can read back to his very beginnings on the blog if you have the time.

I have always been a pirate in Low-Sec and I cannot see that ever changing. I love the playstyle. It may sound very obvious, but with my experience under the belt I can say that you become a more successful pirate with experience, not necessarily better per-se. Situational awareness, how to spot a trap, when to ransom or Pod, when to GTFO etc. These are the things that experience develop and hone.

To date I have only flown Frigates, Assault Ships & Destroyers, not being skilled and thus able to use bigger or more widely varied ships. When I struck out with Kirith I designed "The Rifter Plan" skill training programme to fly a maximum possible skill Rifter. Afterall most of the skills I pickup have direct benefits to bigger ships & different hulls. I have stuck to this plan for the most part only going off piste to pick up Destroyers IV, Assault Ships IV, Gallente Frigate V and all relevant light drones skills to IV. There are only 18 skill levels to go now before the plan is finished, though that weighs in at another 245 days. Of course the desire for different hulls to play in is strong and so I am now interleaving skill plans in the following order of priority:

1, Minmatar Cruiser
2, Minmatar Battlecruiser
3, Minmatar Interceptor
4, Blackbird
5, Heavy Missile Drake
6, Minmatar & Caldari Stealth Bombers
7, Sabre

From the outset Kirith was going to be a solo pirate, and this is one thing that has changed. Due to a change in RL circumstances I became able to use voice comms, which meant that I could look at joining a pirate corp. There were a few options that I considered. VETO Academy, The Tuskers & M34N Corp. Having followed Jolo's blog for a long time even before I started playing EVE I knew if I was going to give Kirith a home in a pirate corp it really had to be The Tuskers. I was thrilled to be accepted, and I have not looked back since. I fly with what I can only describe as some of the most excellent pirates I have had the honour to meet in EVE.

The only other change that I can think of since Kirith was created is the creation of his support network of alts, some market traders for passive income, a probing alt, a miner and soon to be a Freighter alt. The prober proving extremely useful.

So, that's mine, what's yours?

The Alliance Tournament

The Alliance Tournament is well underway now, with this coming weekend we will see who walks away with the coveted honour and prizes of victory. So far I have watched every match, mostly live and some in retrospect. I have also taken part in one match, which at 15m SP and less than a year old I feel is one hell of an accomplishment:



What I hope to share with is my "Tournament Experience".

It all started back around March 2010 where a poll was taken asking who might be interested in taking part in the coming eighth Alliance Tournament along with The Bastards. Interest was deemed to be good and plans were progressed to get confirmed names etc. By the end of the process 16 Tuskers had expressed a desire to participate along with 18 Bastards. Wheels started turning and the Alliance name was agreed and formed with just our two mighty Corps. A tourney war chest started to be assembled.

Prior to the creation of the alliance our two Corps had never/rarely had any interaction with each other, perhaps the odd shot across the bows of each other in low-sec. This changed once the Tusker Bastards Alliance was formed as we started to get to know one another and how we operated in order to build trust and cohesion among the pilots. Joint roams were organised out of various bases of operation in assorted configurations. During the process Captains, Leaders & Organisers were appointed to keep things rolling. Joint forums were created for sharing of ideas and enhancing communication between corps.

Doesn't this all sound idyllic so far? Well it does sound it but the best laid plans seldom go off as planned and unfortunately the AT was no exception. For multiple reasons things seemed to stall for a while. Eventually however, thanks to some sterling work by a number of parties the involved parties were roused and put to practice. Practices were a combination of both fleets and gangs on TQ and organised practice sessions on SISI where blowing up a ship lots of times doesn't matter two hoots.

We generally had organised practice three times a week where we would attempt to have two full teams of 10 able to face off against each other. Sometimes this wasn't possible for many reasons. One of which being that it's hard to pull a career pirate off TQ to shoots his Alliance mates on SISI. Huge thanks must go to those individuals who had not signed up for the Tournament but gave up their time to assist with testing. Our practice sessions when in full swing were fairly effective, though as a couple of small low-sec pirate corps we didn't have the vast resources of pilots & isk that many of the big 0.0 alliances have. We certainly made the best of what we had and put things through their paces.

The first match was soon upon us and we were up against a tough draw in HUN Reloaded, they were known to the tournament scene and a certain to be tough adversary. For the match a team composition of our flagship Bhaalgorn (Don Pellegrino' Boat) along with two Apoc's, two Rooks, Guardian & Daredevil were chosen. This was not our most tested fleet composition but in tests that we had conducted it performed exceptionally well. The match came and the alliance members not in the team eagerly awaited the match on vent, unfortunately we did not prevail and were taken down very swiftly by the HUN team. Congratulations to them. The biggest factor to our team in the match though was just how powerful ECM drones can be in sufficient numbers despite our ships being fitted with ECCM modules.

Onto the next match we rolled, and we put in a couple more practice sessions and decided to field a slight variation on our most tested team. It was looking like I would get to fly in this match too. We discovered a few days before the match that we were up against Dead Terrorists, another tough adversary. (why couldn't we have one of the comedy smartbomb teams to fight?). Determined to put up a respectable fight we formed up on the day. Due to RL circumstances though we lost a couple of pilots and made some last minute changes. Ships, implants and modules were distributed to our pilots, Kirith receiving a can containing his Dramiel for the day. It's not how I would have fit it by any means, but the AT isn't like low-sec pvp on TQ. Following a strict timetable we were formed and ready in fleet in Hevrice V station and before long we were teleported to the arena. Our FC gave the command to warp to a Team beacon (A,B,C or D). Once in place we aligned to the arena where we would be fighting and warped to our ranges. BC's to 30km, Others to 50km. Being extra careful not to move and incur a HP penalty we waited for the countdown. I was watching and listening to the live broadcast on a second monitor while sat there in the arena, surprised that the broadcast has a slight delay as our match had started before the broadcast came up. Any nerves or other concerns that may have been going on immediately dissipated and we set to business. Dramiels went after their Frigs and the BC's after the Mach's as at this point it didn't appear that they had logistics. It didn't take long before we found out that their Proteus was logistics. We tried in vain to break them but to no avail, we managed to catch a bomber by some swift target switching but alas that was the Terrorists only loss. With our Scimitar heavily damped and forced to get to very close range to deliver some reps we lost a few ships until we reached breaking point and knew that we could not claw back a victory. It's always easy in hindsight to say what we should have done differently, but it is pointless & futile in my opinion. I think it's fair to say that for the most part everyone enjoyed taking part in the match, I did anyway. Nicely Done Dead Terrorists, good luck this weekend.

All in all it was a great experience to have had, as for would I do it again. No chance, I much prefer proper non-consensual low-sec pvp!

Oh yeah, I lost my first Dramiel in the match. However I don't think that counts as a real loss. Not in my book anyway :)

An audience with the Roughnecks

Earlier this week some myself and some fellow Tuskers had some great fun. A number of us had noticed as were passing through the Aeschee solar system that there were more than the regular number of Roughneck battleships in space, it was also apparent that a lot of Roughnecks had GCC. They were shooting a POS, a POS belonging to Devious Decorum. Devious are some of our neighbours, a fellow pirate corp who we lock horns with frequently. Anyway, we didn't have the numbers to do anything about a battleship fleet so we just kept tabs on them.

A little while after the POS bashing had been noticed a member of Devious had convoed a fellow Tusker and we agreed to lend some assistance against our mutual target The Roughnecks. Most Tuskers shipped into BC's where possible except for Noir & myself who either can't fly (me) or didn't have one ready to go (Noir). Joining with the Devious fleet the fun commenced. We warped in, Noir and I charging around the field getting points. A few of the BS's escaped as only really had two tacklers at the start. It wasn't long before we had laid waste to the field, however a number of the Roughnecks reshipped and returned to the field at range. Burning out across distances of 100km to get points Noir & I were like blue arsed flies charging around and holding them in place while the BC's blew them to pieces for us. I had a dicey moment with a Tempest where I was completed neuted, webbed & scrammed with drones on me. Into 50% armour and logistics saved me \o/. We got a few Pods too which was cool. Roughnecks deployed a Nidhoggur Carrier to the field and Devious escalated themslves dropping Killer Chick's Nyx Supercarrier onto the field which absolutley destroyed the Nid in a incredibly quick time. A smaller number of the Roughnecks returned to the field again and were summarily despatched. Praise where praise is due must go to the Devious logistics pilots who did an excellent job.

After the fight, Devious had lost two BC's, Tuskers lost nothing \o/ and Roughnecks lost 21 ships/pods to the tune of 4.4bn isk as you can see in the report below:

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=6821680

Fun times!

In other news, my Dramiel is still kicking ass 58 kills according to our killboard in it so far, not sure if that includes pods :)

On the subject of killing Pods, I have passed the landmark of 200 podkills. In a rare moment of not podkilling yesterday I obtained a ransom of 100m isk from a 2007 player who i had releived of his Ishkur.

AT8 round 2 this weekend, day 1 some some shockers (two smartbomb teams and Erebus no show) and some of the commentating is just so bad from the newer presenters :(. Tusker team is up again this afternoon vs Dead Terrorists with hopes of doing better than last week, I wish the team good luck, may your Mega-pulses strike true.

All in all it's been a good week!

You are now entering...Godmode

It's not often that I am at a loss for words, but I think simply "wow" suffices.

You all know that I have been working towards getting into a Dramiel. Well, Gallente Frigate V is finished and I stepped into one a few days ago. Since then it's been just insane. In just a few days I have used this little frigate to destroy 742m ISK in ships & modules. That's three quarters of a billion! Sure not all were solo, some small gang work is in there but the ship was certainly capable of soloing them all given the opportunity. I'm not going to share my fit with you just yet but rest assured it will be coming soon.

Undocking in the Dramiel feels to me like entering something of a godmode. You feel indestructible and uncatchable. Of course I am neither of these things but it is the sensation that i get from flying it. I daresay that my current feeling for the ship will fade and it will become normal and all other frigates will seem subpar.

I think it is that my current 15 million SP specialised into Matari Frigates matches perfectly with the Dramiel to make such an insane craft. The ship isn't as good as it is hyped and can be killed but it inspires such confidence in the pilot that almost anything is worth a shot especially given the terror with which other pilots hold it when it is baring down on them. The Dramiel is truly terrifying to most Frigate pilots.

I will be interested to see how long my first Dramiel lasts, it will indeed be a sad day when it is lost.

In other news,

A quick big thanks to Trony and he I am sure will know why.

AT8: The Tusker Bastards Alliance Team unfortunately lost their first match, well played HUN and good fight. We claimed some points from HUN Reloaded and hope to make the cut after our second match this Sunday against the Dead Terrorists. Will be interesting to see if the Apoc's do any better this time. I had a great time watching the matches live and listening to the reactions on Tusker vent.

Chewing my way slowly through some Rank 2 Gunnery skills at the moment which will make the Dram even more evil.

My Bounty went up to over 30m iskies \o/. Now I really hope not to be podded!

Rifter Loadout: MSEMWD

I thought it about time that I updated on one of the Rifter loadouts that I have been trialing.

This loadout I bought three of a few weeks back and haven't lost one yet. I am pretty pleased with the fit although it does have one pretty substantial flaw which is fighting other pvp fit frigates. This fit pretty much is guaranteed to lose against them. Fortunately this is offset by some very handy positive points.

Pros
Very fast
Decent EHP
Cap stable with everything running

Cons
Vulnerable to scrams/other pvp fit Frigates

The fit as I have been testing is as follows:
H: 125mm Gatling Autocannon II x3
H: Rocket Launcher II

M: 1MN Microwarpdrive II
M: Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler
M: Medium Shield Extender II

L: Nanofibre Internal Structure II
L: Power Diagnostic System I
L: Damage Control II

R: Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer
R: Small Core Defence Field Extender
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator

Vital Stats with my skills:
113.4 dps with Faction ammo
Cap Stable at 27.92%
3255.25m/s
5210 EHP

Assuming that your opponent does not have a scram then you can maintain a very fast orbit around the target without having to pulse the MWD. In gangs this is a very fast tackler with decent EHP and staying power. The main bonus I find with this ship however is against Faction Warfare plex/mission runners as you can quickly catch them before they realise how fast you are closing on them and manage to warp out.

May 2010 Character Review

263 days remaining on the Rifter plan. Perhaps not as much progress this month as I perhaps had hoped at the start of the month, but I guess that the way the cookie crumbles when you start eating into those longer skills and interleaving two skill plans at a time.

June is upon us and that means a few things to me. First and as I stated last month in the not too distant future this month I will be behind the wheel of the Dramiel, which I have been looking forward to for some time now. I really hope that it lives up to my expectations. I have two fitted and ready to go in the hangar but am doing a stirling job of resisting the temptation to fly them until I am properly skilled. The two that I have are both fitted differently, one with something of a controversial fit. There are two fits that I also want to try, the classic fit and I want to try an utterly bizarre fit that will need me to get Shield Upgrades V to fit. The latter will have to wait a while I think.


June also means that the Alliance Tournament starts this coming weekend. The Tuskers and The Bastards formed an Alliance for the purpose of entering. I have been doing bits here and there to help out with practice and will be cheering our team on from the bar & big screen TV in Hev V. Hopefully Mr Snypes ladies will be coming along to provide entertainment between matches. Good luck fellas.

Finally June will see the first true steps into bigger hulls and bigger guns as I start training for a Rupture. Minmatar Cruiser will be taken to V before I get into one of course and that will be the last skill on the plan that I train to avoid temptation to take one out for a spin.

Up to 14.7m SP now, and this months big gains are made in Drones, with some padding in Spaceship Command, Gunnery & Navigation. Drone skills should be fine where they are for a while, Navigation is nearly maxed out for me too. Next months gains will predominantly be in Gunnery & Missiles.



The main hangar is still well stocked, due to a further supply run bringing in a couple of new Rifter flavours to try and limited play time reducing my losses. I think I have around 55 ships in Hev right now with plenty more scattered about the universe.

Funding this are my hard working alt team. I don't know whether it's just me but this month station trading has been poor, bringing in 138m isk to the coffers which is well down on last month. I have "lost" an alt from station trading to being my prober which has an impact, especially as I have invested quite a bit of isk into his Covops, skill purchases & implants. Given time I should be able to get him to earn his keep. My afk miner is resplendent in a Hulk too which has eaten up a chunk of isk. Overall it's been an expensive month given the reduced level of income.

I should probably save the months stats update for following the MEME started by Romeo but I'll give a brief summary here as normal:
- Tuskers Battleclinic rank is all over the show lately, so we'll see next month when hopefully it settles down.
- Battleclinic is also broken at the moment, but Kirith is upto around 590 kills for 104 losses. I have been having a bit of a laugh with Slasher & Burst frigates recently so expect to see them die in a fire on Battleclinic soon!