Post Rifter Plan

As followers of my blog will be aware I’ve been working on the Rifter Plan for practically my entire EVE career with the objective of flying a max skilled Rifter of my preferred loadout. My preferred Rifter loadout is what I have affectionately named Grumblecub and looks like this:

H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket

M: 1MN Afterburner II
M: Warp Scrambler II
M: X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

L: 200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates
L: Small Armor Repairer II
L: Gyrostabiliser II

R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

She belts out 162 (187) dps and goes 1097 (1424) m/s. In short she’s a monster and I love flying her.

Once I complete this goal in about one month time I will be at a point which I haven’t been in EVE before, ever! That point is wondering what to train next. I have a number of skill plans input into EVEMon and I’d be grateful for any constructive feedback or suggestions which I haven’t considered from my readers.

The main thing to bear in mind is that I usually fly solo, rarely being available for most organised fleets.

Here are the options:

• Max out the skills for all the ships I can currently fly. I do have the willpower to do this :P

• Autocannon/Artillery Tempest. Feels like more of an option that I would use in fleets but maybe could attempt solo in an AC Tempest.

• Torpedo & Neut Typhoon. I have heard that people solo in these, but aren’t torps supposed to be dreadful?

• T2 Large Projectiles to fly the Tornado & later BS’s. Certainly going to be flavour of the month.

• Stiletto, I really should have learned to fly Interceptors by now shouldn’t I? But again, it seems more of a gang oriented ship and whilst the Claw is a combat Inty it’s allegedly terribad.

• Max out sub-cap Drone skills (excluding Sentries). Other than being tedious I don’t see a negative aspect here.

• Tengu. Expensive but I imagine they’re very versatile. Also, are they that much better than a Drake?

• Blackbird/Falcon. Again, gang work screams out loud here, how about a solo cloaky Falcon though…..?

• T2 Heavy Assault Missiles. Application for the HAM Drake and maybe on the Cyclone too for up close brawling.

• Vengeance. My maxed missile skills would love this ship, but lots of folk are flying them.

• Stealth Bomber. Black Ops gang based, flimsy as hell. Definitely a nice to have but would I use it often?

So what do you think? Please let me know your opinions.

A Tale of Two Pods

Both mine.

It was one of those times when you wonder if the world is conspiring to take you down a peg or three. I am fortunate in so much as I don't fly with expensive implants or perhaps the urge to "ragelog" would have been greater, but a couple of days ago I had an evening where everything I touched or did seemed to go horribly wrong.

The culmination of the fail-cascade was me being podded twice within an hour of each other. First I engaged a Claw in my Rifter and lost, I got the message that my Pod was warping and then watched it get destroyed. Landing in a fresh clone some 50 low-sec jumps away I renewed my clone, plugged in some cheap +1's jumped into a Thrasher and set off back to Hevrice. I had gotten to the Heimatar Faction Warfare area. I was warping out to the next gate as a Punisher snagged me just as a Faction Warfare gang landed on the same gate and made very short work of my ship and pod. Waking again in Aralgrund I decided I was going to take the "safer" short route across high-sec in my Reaper after renewing another clone and plugging in some more +1's. This trip was fortunately uneventful, though the Faction police managed to relinquish my Reaper of shields, armour & a chunk of hull before I got back to Hevrice.

Thinking back to why this happened, I conclude that I have become guilty of complacency. I seem to have become overconfident in my abilities and have paid the price. I hope now that I fully appreciate the lesson I have received. Confidence is a good thing, Over-Confidence only sets you up for a fall.

An encounter with SUICIDAL Larsen

After a long roam yesterday I came across two newer players, both flying Thrashers. Both appeared to be docked up, sometimes launching only to redock again. I played the being patient game for around 20 minutes and decided to leave the system once both players appeared to have logged off. Entering the neighbouring system I discovered one of the pilots must have escaped without me noticing and had not logged off. The Thrasher was in a belt that could be scanned from the gate I had jumped through. Warping to him I landed and he was far enough away to warp out. Following his trajectory I landed at his destination and caught him. Both he and his Pod went down swiftly and without fuss.

Next, the other pilot who had logged off jumped into the system, again in a Thrasher. I was about to hurtle off after him when a Pirate who I had been wary of for a long time entered the system. I had pinpointed the Thrasher by this time but decided to hold position. SUICIDAL Larsen was his name and he was in a Claw Interceptor. I warped around a bit but maybe it's paranoia but I could swear he was after me. Locating the Thrasher again I decided to use him as bait, keeping him on scan until the Interceptor went for it which within a couple of minutes it did I warped in. Tackling the Claw I went through his shields quickly, however his armour tank was incredible and all my damage was repaired. Meanwhile I was taking plenty of damage and was soon cap dry. I escaped with my pod and exchanged gf, commending him on his ship & skills. That was one tough Interceptor and I consider myself lucky to have gotten my Pod out.

Tonight has been slow again as there are lots of big gangs out there. One gang I saw had 10 Drakes present and a whole lot of support too. I did manage to snag a Rupture and its pilot's Pod too a moment ago, which is always a nice thing to end an evening on. I took out his drones first, he had three with a mix of medium and light. He had a pvp fit, unfortunately most of the T2 fittings in it blew up with the ship. It's actually quite nice to take out a ship that's pvp fit rather than someone unprepared in a belt ratting ship.