Hey again space fans!

Nice to see a few familiar faces in the comments of the last post. Hey guys (&gals).

I should probably do an update on September as the scores are now in and I could also do a character review I guess. That said I'm using a computer at work during my lunch break to pen this so I don't have the information handy. Next time perhaps if you lot of filthy pirates are still interested?

So what can I tell you about thhat's happened this last week....?

Well, I moved about 25 ships from Hevrice to a new staging system (Dastryns). One day I'll return the isk investement in that carrier! Choosing what to take is tough though, blimey. I'm indecisive enough at the best of times. I've tried to cover lots of bases with what I took but as I'm still re-learning so who knows if I've taken a good selection!

I've blown up lots of space pixels, both my own and other peoples. Got my first Tengu kill (I think), yes I know they've been around years now. Caught him in a mission/escalation with a Vengeance and held him while a corp mate in an Ishtar squished him.

Had some great conversations with some new players, one of which put up an awesome fight in a Thorax yesterday morning: Thorax Kill

Bought some new hulls to play with like a Hookbill, Comet and Kestrel. We'll see if I can break my habit of losing expensive faction hulls this month.

When I left, battleclinic ranked my 434, well my inactivity has seen that drop down to 1,238 so I have a lot of catching up to do. Best get the game face on!

Oh, and another thing. What happened to bounties? I was sat on a 200m isk bounty when I went away and now it's gone. Where did the iskies go? Anyone know?

Until next time, when I have more time to write . . . . o7

August 2012 Character Review

August heralded the arrival of a new PC for me. This meant that I no longer was playing on a two year old laptop which struggled mightily with heat issues. The new PC has allowed me to actually play Eve on something other than the lowest graphics settings and also has allowed me to start live streaming on Twitch.tv, something which I've wanted to do for some time but that the laptop couldn't cope with.

I don't know whether it is the addition of streaming to my gameplay that's changed it but I've been finding myself in a lot more fights, granted I've been losing quite a few. I think there is an element of wanting to engage as much as possible for the sake of good TV.

Here's are the kill/loss stats for August:

51 Ship Kills (33 Solo)

9 Pod Kills (9 Solo)

10,113,817,303 Isk Cost to victims (216,033,025 Isk received in loot drops)

9 Ships Lost (282,557,175 Isk cost of losses)

66,524,1500 Isk Loss in the Month

So, yeah 10 billion Isk in damage done in a month, that's got to be a record for me! These are the ships which I lost:

Crow. I lost this while interfering in a fight going on between an Enyo and a Drake. I wasn't the only one to interfere however as a Thorax also came to get in on the action. I ended up bouncing off an asteroid into the scram of the Thorax which was curtains.

Rifter x 2. The first I lost when I yellow boxed a Proteus on a gate. He agressed then 20 of his mates in T2 ships of assorted classes plus about 7 Battleships jumped through to kill me. The second I lost to a kiting Atron in a plex and his friends.

Thrasher. Lost to an Incursus & Atron duo, managed to take the Atron down with me. This Thrasher was arty fit and had zero tank.

Jaguar. Lost this when I engaged a Hookbill, paying the price for an MWD fit, subsequently got scrammed and kitied to my doom.

Prophecy. Left over from an old roam and with insurance about to expire it was lost to "damn" ECM and a 9 man goons frigate swarm. Tanked like a boss for a long time.

Stiletto. Lost to a Nighthawk whilst the gang was en-route, Nighthawk died though!

Dramiel. Lost to a Vexor and Jaguar combo. Landed on the Vexor quite by accident and paid the price for thinking it was  noob ratting Vexor.

Drake. Lost to a very close fight with a Cyclone on the way back home from Heimatar. My favourite fight of the month, closely followed by the Prophecy vs frigate gang.

Here's what Kirith's skills look like today:

This is what Kirith has been training in August and the skills he's completed:

Electronic Superioty Rigging I
Electronic Superioty Rigging II
Electronic Superioty Rigging III
Electronic Superioty Rigging IV
Combat Drone Operation V
Explosive Armor Compensation I
Explosive Armor Compensation II
Explosive Armor Compensation III
Explosive Armor Compensation IV
EM Armor Compensation I
EM Armor Compensation II
EM Armor Compensation III
EM Armor Compensation IV
Kinetic Armor Compensation I
Kinetic Armor Compensation II
Kinetic Armor Compensation III
Kinetic Armor Compensation IV
Thermic Armor Compensation I
Thermic Armor Compensation II
Thermic Armor Compensation III
Thermic Armor Compensation IV

At the end of the month Drone Interfacing V was training with nearly two weeks to run. It's part of my finishing off drone skills plan. As with last month there is always the temptation to cross train weapon systems but my will is remaining strong despite wanting to participate in some Tusker gangs which primarily are Armour HACS at the moment with the Deimos & Zealot being favourite, obviously neither of which I can fly.

I have continued station trading with my alt in August with a totally changed product list from the months before. It's certainly paid dividends, which is great as I've been losing lots of ships. PI has been inactive as I've preferred to get out in space and shoot things.

I haven't been in game the last week, nor done any streaming as my new PC developed a problem with the graphics card fan causing it to permanently run at 79 decibels. It has now been fixed so I'll be back in space in the coming days.

Total Ransoms Received: 632,360,662.30 Isk received in ransoms (22 million received in August) Battleclinic Rank: 433 (+5)
Bounty: 210,125,000 Isk (+15,000 Isk)

July 2012 Character Review

With work being busy in the run up to and start of the summer holiday period I've found little time to actually play our beloved internet spaceship game. My lack of activity in game shows through in the killobard stat's.

12 Ship Kills (6 Solo)

3 Pod Kills (2 Solo)

2,210,866,868 Isk Cost to victims (76,549,436 Isk received in loot drops)

0 Ships Lost

76,549,436 Isk Profit in the Month

A pretty nice profit for such a low activity month. The fact that I lost no ships was a great bonus, a trend which hasn't continued into August I would have to say (I lost two ships yesterday)! Sadly I was only able to get in game on six occasions in the month to actually undock in anger. I'm hoping for some more activity in August.

Here's what Kiriths skill distribution looked like at the end of July:

Kirith has completed theses skills in the month:


Heavy Drone Operation V
Remote Armor Repair Systems IV
Biology I
Long Range Targeting V
Shield Compensation I
Shield Compensation II
Shield Compensation III
Shield Compensation IV
Shield Compensation V
Drone Sharpshooting V
Energy Pulse Weapons II
Energy Pulse Weapons III
Energy Pulse Weapons IV

Another Drone skill was training to V at the end of July in my long term goal of maxing my drone skills, I'm not doing it in a single push and am interspersing other skills from other plans I've had for ages. I was surprised that I'd forgotten to train Shield Compensation so maxed that in July. I do have a temptation to train blaster boats but for now I think I'm happy slowly diminishing my hangar stock rather than introducing a whole new line of ships for me to put in it.

Station trading with my alt continued in the month but has been changed as I headed into August, streamlining the range of modules I'm trading. As with the previous month I generated a profit of around 200 million from this income stream. I haven't done any PI at all during the month as I preferred spending my time undocking to kill things where I could.

The character who has been training for a Thanatos has now actually been able to fit and fly it and whilst it'll seee most action as a giant space truck she'll be a highly trained triage pilot when the plan is complete, not that I actually need one! I did enjoy my first Cyno experience, as an aspect of the game I'd never seen before but am sure that novelty will wear off.


Total Ransoms Received: 610,360,662.30 Isk received in ransoms (No movement)
Battleclinic Rank: 438 (-2)

May 2012 Character Review

Is it just me, or did the last month fly by seemingly very quickly? Straight down to business then with the statistics for the last month:

50 Ship kills (31 Solo)

16 Pod kill (13 Solo)

2,559,261,053 Isk cost to victims (140,637,816 Isk received in loot)

8 Ships Lost

0 Pods Lost

211,192,519 Isk lost in value of ships destroyed

(70,554,703) Isk lost for the month

As you can see from the kills & losses above I've been far more active in game this month than I was the previous month, something I'm very pleased with. I have also flown far more recklessly which shows in the losses. Despite losing isk in the month when comparing kills & losses I've had a lot of fun in the process and that's what matter ultimately to me.

The ships I lost were:

1 x 400mm plated Rifter, a great 1v1 against a Merlin. In an effort to streamline my hangar I've been flying some ships with old fits that have been gathering dust. Despite this I've found some great fights, like this one.

1 x Suicide thrasher, a took a little part in the early stages of Hulkageddon. Actually I lost three Thrashers but 2 don't count in Corp as they were killed by Concord. I can't say I "enjoy" ganking but it was an interesting change for a day or two.

1 x Hawk, I engaged a Prophecy in a belt and whilst the brain said he's likely bait I wen't for it anyway. My Hawk died swiftly to him.

1 x Hurricane, Going back for revenge on the Prophecy I land with him, unfortunately for me he calls in a couple of Tornados to help leaving me buggered. Can't blame him and a fun twist.

1 x Vengeance, my first outing in the Vengeance was with a potential new Tusker, we roamed down to Heimatar where we ended up in a 7 vs 2 engagement. This tough little nut amazed me and we didn't go down without one of the best fights I've had in recent memory.

1 x Rupture, lost in when I managed to land right on top of a Talos. Quick and messy loss.

1 x Vigil, pretty lolfit. One evening a few of us went out in frigates for fun and I decided to try and lose this contraption which I did by getting one-shotted by a Thrasher.

1 x Stabber, on a long roam I ran into an EVE University gang in Heimatar. Jammed scrammed then deaded but this Cruiser amazed me by taking out an Enyo!

Here's what Kirith's skill chart looks like this month:

These are the skills that Kirith has completed training of this month:

Gallente Drone Specialization IV
Minmatar Battleship IV

Minmatar Battleship is still cooking and gets finished on Friday, right on cue for the roam I hope to take out. Might even buy something silly to lose on it, it's only isk right? Anyone have any thoughts on Fleet Tempest & Machariel fits out there.....?

After Minmatar BS V completes it's on to Heavy Drones all the way to V which will take me just about into July all being well.

I haven't prioritised trading this month, netting just 66m in profits. The market scene is still all over the place I find when not looking at it daily. My future capital pilot diversified into PI some more and has trained for an Iteron V to make the process easier. Now done with that she's back to training for the Thanatos. Speaking of which I've taken the first steps towards acquisition of the ship so more on that one day in the future. PI though is my carebear activity of choice and I'm pleased with the returns I'm getting which is the main cause of my lessened focus on station trading.

Total Ransoms Received: 555,360,662.30 Isk (5m Isk received in the month)
Battleclinic Rank:  447 (+25) 

April 2012 Character Review

Starting with the statistics for last month:

5 Ship Kills (All Solo)

2 Pod Kills (Both Solo)

89,257,837 Isk cost to victims

No Ships Lost

4,335,266 Isk income from ships destroyed and as such profit due to no losses sustained.

Whilst it is again nice to turn a profit, the kills above really demonstrates the level of activity. With the launch at work I've had very little time in space. Thankfully having sustained no losses makes this bearable.

These are the skills trained by Kirith since the previous month. I decided to train all racial BS skills to III, the mood simply took me that way.

Large Autocannon Specialization IV
Gallente Drone Specialization II
Gallente Drone Specialization III

Large Artillery Specialization II
Large Artillery Specialization III
Large Artillery Specialization IV
Cybernetics IV
Amarr Cruiser I
Amarr Cruiser II
Amarr Cruiser III
Amarr Cruiser IV
Caldari Cruiser IV
Minmatar Battleship I
Minmatar Battleship II
Minmatar Battleship III
Energy Pulse Weapons I
Gallente Cruiser I
Gallente Cruiser II
Gallente Cruiser III
Gallente Cruiser IV
Amarr Battleship I
Amarr Battleship II
Amarr Battleship III
Caldari Battleship I
Caldari Battleship II
Caldari Battleship III
Gallente Battleship I
Gallente Battleship II
Gallente Battleship III

Quite a number of skills trained with Gallente Drone Specialization IV now done in May with Minmatar Battleship IV with V in the cooker.

Trading saw some attention in April generating 389m isk and the alt continued to train for a Thanatos, though that alt has temporarily diverted into PI skills this month to revisit the Thantos in a month or so. The market has gone a little haywire this last week by the looks of things in some respects so I will keep an eye on how that settles.

Total Ransoms Received: 550,360,662.30 Isk (No Change)
Battleclinic Rank:  472 (+11)

March 2012 Character Review

Let's start with the statistics by month:

27 Ship kills (25 Solo)

 

10 Pod kills (9 Solo)

 

701,368,381 isk cost to victims

 

3 Ships lost (All Solo)

 

0 Pods lost

 

97,245,748 isk income from ships destroyed

 

37,260,615 isk cost of losses

 

59,985,133 isk ‘Profit’ for the month

 

Turning a nice profit for a successive month is very satisfying, As advised last month I have changed the way I choose my roaming ship, flying the ship which is about to come out of the insurance period. Admittedly I lost more ships than I would have liked, 3!

This is how the skill split is looking as of this morning:

These are the skills finished since the last review:

Interceptors V
Cynosaural Field Theory ILarge Projectile Turret ILarge Projectile Turret II Large Projectile Turret IIILarge Projectile Turret IV
Large Projectile Turret V
Cybernetics II
Cybernetics IIILarge Autocannon Specialization I
Large Artillery Specialization I
Cybernetics IV
Gallente Drone Specialization I
Large Autocannon Specialization II
Large Autocannon Specialization III

Currently training T2 projectiles to IV before Gallente Drones to IV. Just bought myself my first Tornado but have yet to use it in anger.

I picked up my trading again in March and have done well. Managing to make 478 million isk from station trading. Training towards my alt's Thanatos continues, but is many months from completion.

Total Ransoms Received: 550,360,662.30 (~)
Battleclinic Rank: 483 (+6)

February 2012 Character Review

Sorry, to those who like to read these I've not done a review since December.

So, let's start with the statistics by month:

January

47 Ship kills (33 Solo)

17 Pod kills (14 Solo)

2,640,531,584 isk cost to victims

5 Ships lost (All Solo)

0 Pods lost

208,972,228 isk income from ships destroyed

113,552,109 isk cost of losses

95,420,119 isk ‘Profit’ for the month

February

34 Ship kills (25 Solo)

16 Pod kills (13 Solo)

9,050,229,138 isk cost to victims

0 Ships lost

0 Pods lost

188,448,608 isk income from ships destroyed

61,666,666 isk received from ransoms

No losses

250,115,274 isk ‘Profit’ for the month

Looking back at the last couple of months and turning a nice profit every month is very satisying, especially February where a profit of 250 million was achieved coupled with having no losses in the month. Admittedly I lost more ships than I would have liked in January! I've now altered my undocking habits a little and having so many ships to choose from have decided to only undock the ships I currently have insured as I have a bad habit of losing uninsured ships.

This is how the skill split is looking as of this morning:

These are the skills finished since the last review:

Assault Ships V
Caldari Frigate V
Amarr Frigate I
Amarr Frigate II
Amarr Frigate III
Amarr Frigate IV
Amarr Frigate V
Destroyers V
Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing II
Electronic Warfare Drone Interfacing III
Interceptors I    
Interceptors II
Interceptors III
Interceptors IV
Launcher Rigging II    

Currently training Interceptors V. Next up I'm going to slot in Cyno Theory as a just in case before ploughing into Large Projectiles up to T2. Since I've finished cross training for Amarr & Caldari ships I've further expanded my hangar with Assault ship & Interceptors so again I've got over 100 ships sat in my Hev V hangar!

I've not done any Trading at all since January, however I did manage to make 332 million isk in January from station trading. It's likely that this will be a sign of things to come and station trading will be an occasional bonus.

Total Ransoms Received: 550,360,662.30
Battleclinic Rank: 489 


Hopefully next months review will be on time.

November 2011 Character Review

Hi again, still working through my backlog of blog topics whilst adding some to the list. It feels like it’s been a quiet month for me with limited in game time, there has definitely been a big sense of anticipation and excitement over the Crucible expansion deployed this week.

Let’s take a look at the statistics from November first:

25 Ship kills (15 Solo)

7 Pod kills

4 Ships lost (All Solo)

0 Pods lost

138,489,544 isk income from ships destroyed

13,000,000 isk received from ransoms

102,819,227 isk cost of losses

48,670,317 isk ‘Profit’ for the month

A far better month than last, achieving a fair profit. The beginning of the month was much busier than the latter half, due to me having low game-time which I was fully expecting. I lost two Jaguars, a Bellicose and a Rifter.

I’m still not loving the Jaguar; one loss was to a Rapier as I got entangled in an asteroid belt whilst chasing another ship. The other Jaguar to a Wolf who was waiting for an agreed fight with a corpmate and caught me as I was trying to warp out to leave them be.  I lost the Rifter being overconfident in attacking a Crusader, really not expecting a web instead of point. The Bellicose, well I decided to fight a Rapier who had uncloaked nearby despite the fact that I was already aligned and ready to warp, not the best plan tbh but I got bored J.

This is how my skill distribution looks at the moment:

 

Continued dedication towards the ‘Rifter Plan’. Acceleration Control V, Thermodynamics V & Energy Management V completed. Still on course to have completed the Rifter Plan by the end of the year. Thank you to all those who commented on my last post about what to do next, no decisions reached yet.

I still toy with the idea of buying a Fleet Stabber & Scythe, but as yet haven’t done anything about it.

My alt accounts continue to do excellent work on my behalf. 526m isk profits made from station trading. Contract trading on a single contract slot is sporadic at best, but when I get a buy/sell I make a bonus 10m isk for negligible effort. Skill training swapped back from my Prober to my mission alt this month who has been padding those social skills to make maximum benefit of LP gains. I’ve been looking again at the option of a Carrier and don’t feel that it’s necessary at the moment so may go for something mission busting like a passive Rattlesnake.

October 2011 Character Review

Hello,

Contrary to my position last month where I was at somewhat of a loss for topics to blog about, I now have a list of topics I plan to blog about. I'm not going to dilate this post with them as I prefer to keep my posts generally clear and about a single subject.

Time to assess some statistics, as an accountant in real life I do like playing with numbers, oh and spreadsheets! We'll leave the spreadsheets to one side though shall we.

27 Ship kills (17 solo)
9 Pod kills

6 Ships lost (4 Solo)
0 Pods lost

57,056,451 Isk income from ships destroyed
0,000,000 Isk received from ransoms (Sadface (again!))

154,078,063 Isk approximate cost of losses

97,021,612 Isk "Loss" for the month

Apparently its not been a very efficient month for me, the main reason being my two Drake losses, both PODLA type Drakes and both of which lost in fleet engagements. The first was a small Tusker BC gang versus a gatecamping BS gang and the second against a Brutal boosted Hyperion that annihilated three Tusker Drakes. November is going to be fairly quiet with limited in game time so I don't expect too much activity in the coming weeks.

I have some more experimental ship fits waiting for me in Hevrice, nothing ground breaking and I saw one of my experimental fits quoted on someone elses blog the other day, it's only a couple of Jaguars but I really want to love flying Assault Ships and it just never happens for me. I've also bought a replacement PODLA Drake along with a replacement artillery Thrasher. I lost an arty Thrasher yesterday and were it not for an error on my part (DERP: switched off guns!) would've won, so I've decided to replace and try again.

This is how my skill spread looks as of this morning:


More work towards the Rifter plan sees Tactical Shield Manipulation & Missile Projection V finished, Acceleration Control V is currently cooking. Another good chunk of skill points added to the pool, further enhanced over the norm by the recent addition of three +3 implants. I upgraded from my +2's to try and ensure that my Rifter plan completion target of December 31st 2011 can be achieved. It's going to be a close run thing!

I'm still toying with the idea of buying a Fleet Stabber or Fleet Scythe, but haven't settled on fits I'm sold on so we'll see how the month goes.

My alt accounts are still doing a sterling job. Only 383 million isk contribution this month from station trading, although I've only operated just over half the month so I guess that tells the story. I've decided against building and selling a character as an isk generator for now, as I was considering it last month. I have started doing a little contract trading, using just a single contract for now. In the next week, skill training should switch back from my prober to my combat alt to start the process of skilling her up for a Carrier. Which Carrier to go for I'm not sure. Archon seems the best mission tank, Thanatos for some versatility or a Chimera/Nidhoggur incase I am asked for helps repping a POS? Anyone able to offer some opinions?

Anyway, that's enough for now. Might get to go ingame soon.

September 2011 Character Review

Hello again,

I haven't blogged in a little while. I've not had the muse to find a subject to blog about and rather than witter on about nothing in particular I decided to wait for a more structured post. Like this one.

So another month has gone by, first let's take a look at the stat's:

25 Ship Kills (16 of which Solo)
10 Pod kills

1 Ship Lost (1 of which in a Solo encounter, Cable I'm looking at you!)
0 Pods Lost

107,666,853 Isk income from ships destroyed
0,000,000 Isk received from ransoms (Sadface)

6,018,788 Isk approximate cost of losses

101,648,065 Isk "Profit" for the month

Clearly it's been a very efficient month for me, nearly a clean sheet were it not for that single Rifter loss at the beginning of September. Although my time in game nowadays is a total shadow of what it used to be I have found that generally on every occasion that I do get to log in as Kirith I manage to get a kill. My target selection is relatively careful in that I tend not to engage members of other large local corps on the basis of risk of being ganked. With such limited in game time I tend to base myself out of Adirain on the boarder of the high-sec Arnon system from where the first Epic Arc starts, although Hevrice remains my true base of operations.

The level of profit for the month too I find very satisfying given the few number of kills, and it's a nice top up to my other income sources. Sadly I don't get opportunity to participate in any formal gang operations due to how their timing works with my availability.


Missile Launcher Operation & Gunnery have seen the biggest change in skill points. I finished off Warhead Upgrades V and as mentioned last month runded off the skills I needed to use ECM drones. I'm still cracking on with the Rifter plan with around 96 days to go to finish it off and be able to fly a max skill Rifter. I also love how these skills will instantly affect practically everything else I will ever fly. Tactical Shield Manipulation whilst not an amazing skill by any means is currently training. I hope that my willpower remains strong and that by the end of the year the Rifter plan will be as good as nailed.

I didn't really try any new ships in September other than having fun with one of my Scythes which I had in my hangar already, the Scythe has paid for itself already after having claimed the lives of two Rifters and a Thrasher. I've thought about buying some of the Caldari ships that I'm not so well skilled for for something different but yet to commit. Perhaps I'll try the Scythe or Stabber Fleet Issues for size.

The alt accounts are still doing very well for me, particularly in station trading with profits of 585 million isk even after having nearly a week where I didn't do anything. Always keen to find further ways to expand my isk resources I'm looking at building a character for resale at the moment. Otherwise I'm thinking along the lines of an Archon for one of the alts.

August 2011 Character Review

So I must've been back in game for a month already! Time flies. It seems like I've hardly been active but when we look at some stats it appears that I've achieved more kills than I thought:

26 Ship Kills (22 of which Solo)
13 Pod kills

4 Ships Lost (1 of which in a Solo encounter)
2 Pods Lost

35,444,059 Isk income from ships destroyed
15,000,000 Isk received from ransoms

80,672,210 Isk approximate cost of losses

(30,228,151) Isk "Loss" for the month


This month the main benefactors of SP gain have been Electronics & Gunnery skills. I have trained up Long Range Targeting to make better use of my Drake and Hurricanes, Electronic Warfare so that I can eventually get access to ECM Drones and the big skill that was Trajectory Analysis to V from the Rifter plan. Currently ticking over at the moment and again from the Rifter plan is Warhead Upgrades to V at around 19 days. After that I will top up Electronic Warfare before doing another Rifter plan skill.

In the month I've become quite taken with the Drake and not just the PODLA fit, I really enjoy flying them and am slightly ashamed to say that I've seldom been in a Rifter. I have just bought a new Dramiel though and am itching to Assemble it and hop aboard as it only got delivered last night. I quite fancy taking a Cyclone out but somehow never find the inclination in game. I don't envisage that I will be sampling any other ships in September but we'll see I guess.

My alt accounts have been doing marvellously for me in August with profits exceeding 650 million Isk just from station trading. I think having this much Isk is a bad thing as I can't stop buying Kirith more and more ships. His hangar is just swelling!

July 2011 Character Review

As promised, I present my latest character review. Nearly a year after the last! Sadly I cannot regail you with massive increases in SP as the account was inactive for a long stretch.

In the week since reactivation I've played little although I have just 1 kill and 1 loss recorded. I did try and pick a fight with a Navy Comet this morning but after a couple of logoffski's and gate hugging he went back to hi-sec.

I'm using EVEmon now instead of EVEHQ so my skill disposition pie chart looks different:



Since the last review I've jumped nearly 5m SP. The big benefactors being:

- Missile Launcher Operation mainly through the training of Heavy Missile V and the associated specialisation for my Heavy Missile Drake.

- Navigation due to High Speed Maneuvering V.

- Gunnery the big winner with Advanced Weapon Upgrades V & Surgical Strike V.

I'm just rounding out Heavy Missile Specialisation IV and Guided Missile Precision to IV to get my Drake to a good level before I throw in Propulsion Jamming V from the Rifter Plan. I quite fancy a Broadsword you see.

Shipwise, I'd just crawled into Minmatar Cruisers when we last reviewed and was looking forward to Minmatar Battlecruisers. Well, now I have both Autocannon & Artillery Hurricanes in my hangar with a few cyclones sitting unfit. I also have Drakes ready to undock. Like I said a moment ago, I'm thinking Broadsword next but equally could go in other directions. Playing casually certainly seems to make the longer skills pass quicker.

My alt accounts income had stopped last review, now I am glad to have that back up and running. Rebuilding start up capital is the name of the game at the moment and it's coming along nicely. I'm nowhere near filling my 125 available orders yet but making steady progress with 119 million isk profits made and reinvested so far. Reading my last review, it seems I wanted the alt to be a plex buster in a Tengu. I'd forgotten that until reading so that hasn't happened!

Hopefully I'll have more meaningful information to post in due course.

o/

August 2010 Character Review

Well hello there! It's been a while hasn't it. Kirith is still very much alive, but not so much kicking right now.

Following on from July, which as I noted in my last post was my least active month spent in game at that time August has been even less active with me recording under 1 hour of time spent in game in the whole month. When I did log in I jumped in my surprisingly long living MWD Jaguar and tagged along with a few Tuskers harassing the neighbouring systems. Unfortunately no kills were had but still it was good to be on vent with the guys, meeting up with some of the new blood that had joined since my play time dropped dramatically. It's been a very busy time in real life for me which has led me to look at and rebalance how I'm spending my time, needless to say I'm really enjoyin the way life is right now though I do miss the banter with my Corp mates.

It's a bit late in the day to be writing my overdue August character review, so I'm going to bring you up to date with where Kirith is up to today in some respects, although I did export the graph below at the end of August so apologies that things are going to be a bit disjointed.

Kirith has now completed Minmatar Cruiser V and has all the support skills in place to make these things deadly when flown in anger. Being so rigid on working towards the ultimate Rifter of course means that all those support skills scale really well when shipping up. My bigger hulls really will kick out the hurt. Kirith is also now over the 20m SP bar and boy that seems to have happened fast. Small Autocannon Specialisation V is cooking as I type before I get onto interleaving the skills to fly one incredibly badass Hurricane. The shortest skills I have left on the Rifter plan come in at just under 12 days each with the longest at 23 days!

Here's how Kirith's skills broke down at the end of August:

No play time to speak of means that all other things not mentioned, including my trading income have halted. I have kept up skill training on the alt account, I aim to get one of my alts into a plex busting Tengu in time.

I would like to pick up my blogging again and get back into the saddle, even if it's just once a week but we will have to see how that goes. Now I need to get some fittings for my cruisers shipped down to Hev!

Remember my motto my fellow pirates; take a chance for you never know what you and a Rifter can achieve!

July 2010 Character Review

July must have been my least active month to date in terms of time spent in game, as reported previously I have a lot of things happening in the big world of real life. In the last two weeks I have hardly gotten any online time aside from a very occasional 20 minute session.

At the beginning of the month I replaced my deceased laptop with a spangly new one which really is sweet, meaning running two accounts at once on two different computers was a breeze. However it seems that the arrival of the laptop coincided with the drop in play time so I have barely used it.

This month saw the proper beginning of training towards Medium Minmatar Hulls, taking Medium Projectile Turret to V aswell as rounding out a couple more support skills to V. I'll get a couple of missile support skills maxed in August and be well on the way to Minmatar Cruiser V by the time the month is out. So September will be the month I fly a Minmatar Cruiser in anger. Fourteen skills remain on the Rifter plan before I am max skilled in all aspects of it's performance.

I've continued to Stockpile Minmatar Cruisers & Battlecruisers throughout the month, admittedly I only have hulls stockpiled at the moment so during the course of this month I will ship down a heap of fittings for them. Unfortunately I lost my second Dramiel in the month, however I'll post about that another time when I review it's performance.

Now sitting at over 18m SP my skill plans have been followed to the letter this month. Kirith will be a year old in August. It feels like so long ago that I was starting out as a fledgling pirate.


Kirith's bounty has gone up another 10m isk since last mentioning about it exceeding 100m isk. Some find it strange that I like to have a sizeable bounty, I can't say why I do like it so much. Maybe it's status, perhaps it brings people to fight you to claim the bounty and maybe it's just because it's fun to mention it to Kishin from time to time.

My trading alts profits picked up well this month to 196m from 104m the previous month which considering that I haven't logged in on half the days this month is encouraging. My probing alt has been mostly gathering dust in the month. My Freighter alt which has been an isk sink to train up can now ably fly a Providence Freighter! I have been fortunate enough to be loaned one by a friend who has suspended his account for a while.

Some stats:
Tuskers: Rank 14 on Battleclinic, up 6 places!
Kirith: Kills 720 (42 in July), Losses 111 (3 in July)
Kirith: ISK Destroyed 20.6Bn, Lost 1.2Bn

June 2010 Character Review

It's a couple of days late, for which I apologise.

June has been a weird month for me, it kicked off with the Alliance Tournament which seems like oh so long ago. Then I was swept up with the Dramiel whirlwind and destroyed a host of ships with it. Since the loss of the Dramiel though I have struggled to find the inclination to fly. Tonight for example I was determined to get out there and fly. And I did just that, but only for 25 minutes. In that 25 minutes I managed to lose Blog Moar!, the Wolf which I have talked about a couple of times. It was lost valiantly tackling a Myrmidon whilst a corp mate attacked it with his Ishtar. Now I am logged off again feeling a bit "Meh, can't be arsed". The biggest factor in this for me is that June also saw my trusty laptops graphics card overheat and completely wreck my laptop. I have been attempting to fly on my desktop PC but I just can't get my mojo using a desktop. Fortunately though my new laptop is scheduled to arrive on Monday so I should be back to my pillage & plundering ways soon enough.

After some catch up on the Rifter plan for having diverted to the Dramiel I had three level V skills to catch this month before getting myself into the interleaving of plans. Motion Prediction, Rapid Fire & Sharpshooter are now all resplendent at level V, Hull Upgrades V has only two days remaining now. 229 days remaining on the Rifter plan. I don't expect much progress on that plan through July as I will be getting Medium Projectile Turret to V along with Medium Autocannon Specialisation to IV. Maybe just squeezing out one or two Rifter skills.

I have purchased my first Cruiser hulls already in anticipation. Five Ruptures & Stabbers, Two Bellicose & Cyclones and a single Hurricane. A drop in the ocean in numbers as I will have another five Ruptures, eight more Cyclones & nine more Hurricanes joining them soon. Moving them is a logistical "challenge" but I do like to keep a very well stocked hangar.

PS. I also plan to buy a Scythe for my comedy collection.

Kirith sits at 16.3m SP right now, major gain in the month is clearly to Gunnery. I did have to train Target Painting up for the Tournament, but other than that blip things went to plan.


My trading alts profits dropped again this month to 104m from 138m the previous month which is disheartening. Following the "free" 100,000 SP's from CCP (Thank you)I chucked a load into trading skills for my Hulk pilot to make him a much more effective trader. It early days of course as this was only a few days ago, but early signs are good. My probing alt as has been mentioned previously has now finished getting his skills to a good standard so i have moved onto my Freighter alt which again is an isk sink to train up even without the actual purchase of the Freighter!

Some stats:
Tuskers: Rank 20 on Battleclinic
Kirith: Kills 678(188 in June), Losses 108 (4 in June)
Kirith: ISK Destroyed 18.9Bn, Lost 1.1Bn

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!

April 2010 Character Review

Now down to 279 days to go on the Rifter plan, it's reassuring to continue to watch it gradually diminish and I am happy that I continue to make progress despite the increasing temptation to fly other ships.

The next goal is the Dramiel, I will train up Gallente Frigate V once the remaining three Drone skills of Drone Durability, Drone Interfacing & Minmatar Drone Specialisation are at IV. I anticipate that we will be in June however before I am behind the controls of the aforementioned Dramiel.


The most significant increases in skill distribution this month are seen in Drones, Navigation, Engineering & Electronics. Aside from the Drone skills it is slow going as the Rifter plan skills are all level V's left to train with minimum train times of just under 8 days.


Kirith's main hangar was restocked this month, at a cost of around 120m isk. There are now just under 40 fitted ships in Hevrice with more in other locations. I have steered away from the T2 Assault Ship hulls this time as I am finding myself disappointed with their performance. Instead of the T2 hulls I bought 10 Rifters with a loadout I want to test, I'm sure I will lose quite a few before I get a true feel for them. I will post the fit in a future post.

My alts are doing a sterling job of station trading still this month, station trading alone this month has brought in 252m isk. Not bad for 20 minutes spent per day I feel. Less than a week now until the afk miner is into a Hulk.

Updated Battleclinic stats:
- The Tuskers are ranked 36th, up one place on last month.
- Kirith has 498 kills for 95 losses.
- Accumulated assets destroyed total of just under 10.5bn.

March 2010 Character Review

This month has seemed to run along quite slowly, I'm not entirely sure why as it's been an interesting one.

I've now been able to upgrade my secondary jump clones implants to +2's so I don't feel frustrated jumping into it and losing training time and I've started taking a peek at some hardwiring, dang they can be pricy! As we stand, there are 308 days remaining in my Rifter plan. As per last month I have continued to diversify from the Rifter plan. The Thrasher plan has been completed and I can now fly Thrasher nicely with all relevant skills at least to IV. I also picked up and trained Assault Ships which also is now at IV.

The next goal is the Dramiel once I have my Drone skills done in a couple of months, followed by Rupture and then on to the Hurricane. As I am relucant to let go of the Rifter plan I will be interleaving skills from these other plans by doing for example one Rifter skill, one Drone skill, one Rifter skill etc. Yes I am fully aware that I am delaying flying the bigger ships, but I feel that if I put down the Rifter plan it will never get finished.

Increasing Kirith's SP's this month by 1.5 million the most significant gains have been to Mechanic, Gunnery, Spaceship Command and making a start on Drones. Drones V completes tomorrow.


After spending practically the Darkblade family's net worth this month on restocking the hangar with Thrashers, Rifters and a smattering of T2 frigs cash resources have bounced back nicely, especially after my recent good fortune on the market recently, even to the extend that I bought a Jaguar for Kirith hangar in Aralgrund.

I am making use of all my alt slots, the four non-training alts are station trading on their basic 5 buy/sell orders and my Miner alt is chugged away towards a Hulk in just over a month. Trade alts total income generated so far 253m ISK.

Updated Battleclinic stats:
- The Tuskers are ranked 39th, up one place on last month.
- Kirith has 411 kills for 72 losses, My busiest month ever for both kills and losses.
- Assets destroyed soars to a total of just under 8bn this month.

February 2010 Character Review

I write this post as I am on my holidays, doing my annual "UK Tour" to see friends and relatives. I'm just outside Manchester right now and seem to be convincing, without trying I might add my friend to play EVE.

I bought some +2 implants a little while ago after I was podded (for the second time) and they shaved a huge chunk off my training plans (note plan"s"). As we stand, there are 332 days remaining in my Rifter plan. The last few days though I have diverted to the Thrasher plan. Advanced Weapon Upgrades is ready to be injected, though maybe once the remaining 11 days of the Thrasher plan are done. My Thrasher plan only has five skills on it, so nothing too bad. Though I will be taking all of the following to IV:

- High Speed Manouvering
- Shield Rigging
- Shield Upgrades
- Destroyers
- Energy Emission Systems

Once comfortably flying the Thrasher I will train towards the goal of a Hurricane, which will give me the flexibility that will help the corp more than I can in my Rifter. After that I will consider expanding my piloting portfolio or returning work on Rifter combat prowess. Though it has to be said that I am tempted by many ships. I could consider buying a T2 Frigate to see how it goes but I'm not sure.

Increasing Kirith's SP's this month by 1.4 million the most significant gains have been to Spaceship Command, taking both Spaceship Command & Minmatar Frigate to V followed by increasing some gunnery skills like Weapon Upgrades to V. A few days ago I passed the landmark of 10m SP's.


After buying 5 Thrashers in anticipation my wallet ballance has taken a dive to only 35m ISK which is a bit sick, Morathi is doing well on trading however and has now exceeded 100m ISK in profits. Fortunately I am well stocked with Rifters for now so hopefully my balance will improve.

Updated Battleclinic stats:
- The Tuskers are ranked 40th, up two places on last month.
- Kirith has 270 kills for 51 losses, its been a busy month of kills.
- With a couple of Capital Ship kills Kirith has now been party to the distruction of 5.3bn of assets.

January 2010 Character Review

Yes, another month has gone by and it doesn't feel like it. I guess being extremely busy OOG contributes a lot.

372 days remaining on my training plan sees that every skill remaining to train is currently at level IV, just a single exception is Advanced Weapon Upgrades which I have yet to commence training due to not yet having Weapon Upgrades, its prerequisite at V yet. Having all my skills at a minimum of level IV certainly show through in combat performance. Rarely are my losses of late down to another ship out-lasting me, usually pilot error!

I keep being tempted to train for something bigger, mainly so that I can be useful to Battlecruiser roams. I think my first Battlecruiser will be the Drake when I do eventually take the plunge. Heavy Assault Missile or Heavy Missile fit I don't yet know. My willpower is still holding fast though for now.

Kirith's total SP's have increased by a shade over 1.5m this month and conversely to last month his Gunnery skills haven't changed at all this month. Instead the rest of the skill trees have been worked on to give a much more even spread of SP's.



I have looked at swapping implants up to +2's from +1's but I haven't yet as I have the distinct feeling I am bound to get podded the moment I undock with them and I just don't have the isk to throw away like that. Also, as I jump clone a lot I would want to put the same implants in all my clones. Perhaps I will upgrade them the next time I get podded.

Wallet balance still sits at just over 100m isk at 104m isk.

In terms of Battleclinic stats, some notes:
- The Tuskers are now ranked 42nd, up 10 places in the last month!
- Kirith has 202 kills for 42 losses, my kill:loss ratio dropping this month.
- Kirith has been involved in the destruction of over 2.4bn of assets.

My Corp mate Noir Avlaa posted a similar character review last month, I hope he continues this as I find it extremely interesting comparing our two characters skill sets, Noir is just a couple of months "older" than Kirith.