June 2012 Character Review

It feels like its been a quite month on the Internet spaceships piracy front this month.

Lets get to business with the statistics:

20 Ship Kills (18 solo)

6 Pod Kills (all solo)

2,004,769,562 isk cost to victims (497,630,539 isk received in loot drops)

1 Ship Lost

156,281,608 Isk cost in value of ship destroyed.

341,348,931 Isk profit for the month.

As can been seen I've not been particularly active in the month and although I turned a profit, were it not for the great event by Drackarn and the Drake kill which I got I would have made a loss again in the month. I have continued to fly when I can pretty recklessly, so I'm pleased about that. The big isk loss was a Tempest I undocked to a trap which I wanted to spring in Hevrice as I didn't know what my enemy would bring out of their wormhole.

Here's what Kirith's skill split looks like at the end of this month.

Kirith has finished training these skills in the month:

Minmatar Battleship V
Remote Armour Repair Systems I
Remote Armour Repair Systems II
Remote Armour Repair Systems III
Heavy Drone Operation I
Heavy Drone Operation II
Heavy Drone Operation III
Heavy Drone Operation IV

Heavy Drone Operation V was training at the end of the month and completed a few days ago giving me access to Tech 2 Heavy Drones. With Minmatar Battleship V completing I did take out that roam I mentioned and managed to safely get my Tempest Fleet Issue home safely. I'll write a post about that in the future.

This month probably won't see any notable skills trained as I get some shorter ones done. I have noticed that I'm missing an important skill for active shield tanking so I'll get that to V. I have a few plans in EVEmon and haven't decided which to do next, I guess it'll probably be my Drone maximisation plan but interspersed with some other skills.

I did a bit more station Trading in the month than in the previous one, but still low activity netting a little over 200m isk in profit. I'm finding that I don't need the isk drastically and that I don't have much time so why bother? My PI character has also scaled back the PI but done what she does do more profitably using buy & sell orders in Jita. Her Thanatos training continues apace and in about three weeks she can sit in the Thanatos that awaits her.

Total Ransoms Received: 610,360,662.30 Isk received in ransoms (55m Isk received in the month)
Battleclinic Rank: 436 (+11)

Experiment 99H

In my last post I mentioned the Ferox I'd been flying a Ferox, dubbed Experiment 99H mainly as it's insurance was next to expire. I shan't lie, I wasn't looking forward to the prospect and did not have any high expectations at all. I'd bought it on a whim ages ago when I was first able to fly Caldari Battlecruisers and thought to myself why not.

To say that I have been astounded by this underdog really is an understatement and doesn't go far enough. Sure it doesn't stand much of a chance against the likes of a Hurricane but still it's proved a tough little nut.

The fit I used was as follows:

6 x 220mm Vulcan Autocannon II
1 x Medium Gremiln Power Core Disruptor

2 x Large Shield Extender II

1 x EM Ward Field II
1 x Warp Disruptor II
1 x Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive

1 x Damage Control II
1 x Tracking Enhancer II
2 x Gyrostabilzer II

3 x Medium Core Defense Field Extender

5 x Warrior II

Does a modest 385dps, but with 92k EHP with a fairly consistent resist profile. I can't use blasters, hence the AC's, but that tank takes some chewing on.

It's insurance expired without it having been destroyed so it's to the back of the queue it goes until it's time comes around again. Maybe I'll have trained blasters by then, who knows.

Here's a few highlights that come to mind when I think about this ship's exploits:

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=12847006 Extremely close fight against a dual web Drake.

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=12849004 Decided to attack this under sentry fire as he jumped through a gate, also a close one against his impressive tank and T2 Hammerheads.

To date has destroyed 378 million isk in 15 ships & associated modules destroyed and earning drops of over 41 million isk.

Unexpected Escalation

Some time ago, before I lost it I was flying around in Mallet's Mallet, my Cyclone.

I had located a missioning Talos and brought in my probing alt to find me a warp in. Within minutes I had a warpable hit and my Cyclone landed within 10km of the fearsome Gallente Battlecruiser.

I gained point on my unsuspecting prey and started to quickly take it down whilst taking little damage myself. Then something I didn't expect occurred....

First, a Helios decloaked right next to me followed within moments by a Drake. Not wishing to look a gift-horse in the mouth I locked up both of my new companions whilst I finished off the Talos. My point was then applied to the Drake with my drones and guns on the Helios which practically instapopped.

The Drake wasted no time tackling and engaging me. My active tanked shield boosting Cyclone tanking his damage fairly well with him making maybe 5% progress past what I could repair back with each volley. I reloaded to EM ammo in my guns and launchers after polishing off the Helios and set about his inevitably buffer fit Drake.

Progress was slow but steady through his shields, overheating my invuln to stabilise the progress he was making against my active tank. The overheat paid dividends and I was soon well in control of the damage restoring comfortable tanking of his damage. My cap booster was nowhere near running out of charges so I became confident that I was going to emerge victor.

Soon after his Drake was a smouldering ruin and the pilot sped his pod to safety. I had the old adrenaline shake back and savoured its short lived effect. I had though to myself when the Drake landed oh crap I'm gonna die but the much underrated Cyclone proved her mettle despite my low expectations.

Threat Assessment

During my life as a pirate many people have implied that I just drop lucky with targets and/or comment along the lines of why they "don't find those targets".

Well over the course of time I think that I have stumbled across an answer.

You see, I don't believe at all that they don't find the targets or certainly that they don't come across them.

I do believe that when they do find that Hurricane in a belt they have a penchant for believing that it's a trap or that the pilot will have fit their ship effectively.

I on the other hand rarely assume a ship is bait, though I obviously understand some are and I usually will assume that most people have not fit their ship very well. As a result of this I'll generally engage that Hurricane in my Rifter, or that Navy Dominix in my Jaguar and I'll either get the kill, escape or sometimes lose my ships in a good fun fight.

So many times someone will assume that X target isn't worth engaging in Y or that something is bait or a trap. Stupidity is highly prevalent in EVE pilots, take that chance unless you are certain and don't be led by assumption.

Whilst I have identified many people who overestimate or are over cautious in Corp there are some, like me who are crazy enough to take those chances. Here's looking at you Valgore!

Without this approach I never would have engaged a Drake last week who was ratting in Heydielles, right next door to Old Man Star. Smells & looks like bait/trap but totally wasn't and succumbed to my Merlin (eventually).

I've had this post drafted now for a long time, reading a recent blog post by Azual Skoll reminded me to actually publish it, as it seems he's experienced something along similar lines.

A Tale of Three Russians

Putzing about in and Hevrice as per usual, in a Frigate this time I happen upon three battleships acting very oddly in Murethand. The three of them are doing what I can only describe as repeated formation warps to the control bunker in the system and then back to their POS.

Intrigued, I place my probing alt in the system to keep an eye on them while I take Kirith back to Hevrice to get a bigger ship. My biggest ship at the time when this occurred was a battlecruiser, thus I plump for a trusty Drake.

I ask in intel channels if anyone is interested in catching them with me, however everyone is either deaf or afk. Feeling somewhat frustrated I attempt to convo Itsmehck1, a former corpmate who always tends to be up for shooting against what would normally be considered as unwise odds. He's akf too, meh!

Checking again on my prober I notice that they've stopped formation warping and have entered a faction warfare beacon, a Gallente Major Complex. This again is weird as they are not a faction warfare corporation. I observe them clear the site and subsequently loot and salvage all of it. Maybe the tags are worth a fair bit of isk?

During this time Itsme responds and I give him the low down. He's well up for it so makes best speed to my in another Drake. Meeting up in Melmaniel just a minute too late as the battleships warp out of the beacon and towards a gate. Seconds later though our frustration turns to delight as they've warped to the gate we're on the other side of! So now the conundrum is do we engage three neutral battleships in 2 Drakes, after all battleships are nasty and they'd have the sentry guns on their side too to boot.

Gate fire. They jump into us and of course as pirates we perhaps foolishly engage. Just two battleships decloak along with . . . . a Mackinaw! We light up the Mackinaw who goes down super fast, I get my point on the Typhoon as it does so. The Phoon has heavy neuts and my capacitor is swiftly drained offlining my hardeners, MWD & point. Through careful timing I get my point restablished. The other battleships escapes through use of EC-600's and neuts against Itsme, our own drones have been wiped out by the Phoon's smartbomb.

Now taking fire from the sentries and the Phoon with offlined hardeners were both looking worse for wear. The Phoon is going down though and explodes just as his buddy in the Mega arrives back on the scene. Thoroughly expecting the Mega to jump and run he surprises us by engaging much to our delight.

We both linger on the gate laying into the Megathron, without the pressure of neuts on us we're able to activate our mods long enough to take him down.

We offer gf's in local and warp to safety. With our shields recharging we warp back and loot up what we can. One of the victims returns to his wreck in a Wreathe which smartly jumps to the next system as we arrive on the scene.

Waiting out our GCC Itsme probes down a Hurricane next door which we pop not long before a Talos jumps into us, again promptly destroyed.

I tend to find that you can always rely on Itsme when faced with silly odds.

Wolf vs Drake

So in a moment of madness I decide this is a day I want to play in my Wolf. Note that this post has been in draft a long time and was prior to the Assault Frigate buff. The Wolf is a ship I want to love so dearly but never seem to have tamed it and broken it to my will. One thing is certain the Wolf does not love Kirith.

I went out roaming and just two systems from my home system of Hevrice I found a flashy -10 Drake ratting in Costolle. I can't quite believe that it's ratting, surely a trap being flown by a flashy -10 pirate type? Though perhaps they are trying to improve their security status.

I do some quick research on Battleclinic that yields little except that this pilot does fly Drakes and doesn't have a solo kill to their name. All their Drake losses to date have been buffer fit.

True to my own decision making style I decide what the heck and warp in, landing shows me that he is indeed ratting. I swiftly establish point and begin hammering him with republic fleet EMP s and Gremlin Rage Rockets (Yes I know they're now Mjolnir). I make excellent progress through his buffer. His missiles are barely hurting me with my small armor repairer soaking it up nicely. I get a warm glow inside owing to the knowledge of an explosion about to happen until suddenly.....

Falcon.....

Of course I'm jammed straight away and now start taking some fire from the Falcon too. Decision time, I plump for attacking the Falcon and burn over to him. Still perma jammed and tanking the damage just fine I settle into a comfortable orbit around him waiting for a jam to fail. After carrying on for several minutes the missed jam just isn't coming. I've asked on comms and intel for an assist but sadly none is forthcoming so with some disappointment I warp off an move on.

My first suddenly Falcon moment, I've done well in avoiding having come across this before and consider myself well overdue for the experience.

The Darkblade Crime Family

I talk about my alts pretty frequently. Though I'm not sure that I've ever said what each of them does despite being asked on occasion. Time to put pen to paper.

I use a total of five alts across two accounts:
 

1. On the same account as Kirith. Back when Kirith went outlaw, which lets face it didn't take long! I needed someone to haul ships and supplies to low-sec. This alt was made to do just that with a Hoarder. Since being in The Tuskers & since flying larger hulls I haven't needed or been able to use the Hoarder, tending instead to use corpmates logistics or my own Freighter which another alt flies. She now mostly sits in a station doing station trading with very few market orders.
2. Also on the same account as Kirith. This one sits in Jita 4-4 and very rarely undocks. This character can only fly basic frigates. Used predominantly to buy and sell for Kirith. When loots get shipped to Jita she receives and sells them and conversely she buys the ships and supplies for Kirith being sending them to him. In her spare time she station trades with the basic number of market orders.
3. On my second account and originally intended to be of all things a mining alt! It's even trained too fly a Hulk and has one too, the theory was to mine whilst afk. Even afk I found this pretty tedious especially when I had to frequently log out to my prober. Plumping for a far more passive source of income I retrained him as a station trader operating out of Rens. He's been docked there ever since. His trade skills are one level from maxed on a single skill though I only use around 70 orders daily. All he does nowadays is station trade and the odd contract trade.
4. On the second account and operates as my prober. Contrary to popular belief does not fly a boosting ship! All I do is probe with it, though I really would benefit from maxing out his probing ability one day.
5. Last one on the second account. She flies my Freighter when needed which is occasionally at best. Otherwise she runs Caldari Navy level 4 missions in a Drake when I'm unable to pirate due to real life circumstances. She's pulling together the isk for the Thanatos she's training for.

Hope that clears things up

Solo Roaming in Battlecruisers

Kirith is for the most part a solo-pirate, rarely working in gangs. It's certainly not that I don't like to, I just don't have the opportunity to be online when they are are taking place. A fair proportion of Tusker Fleets that do terrorise the spacelanes include Battlecruisers and they are lets face it, a staple of low-sec piracy.

Kirith spends most of his time sat in Frigates, not Battlecruisers but nevertheless keeps a stable of them dotted around various systems. By spending most of my time in small ships I feel/know that I am missing out on some targets.

When I exclusively flew Frigates I always felt that bigger ships were really slow and cumbersome and to this day I have always been reluctant to fly them as I perhaps mistakenly was convinced that I would constantly be getting caught on gates.

I now feel that I want to start flying Battlecruisers more in solo situations and doing more roaming. But that then poses the question of which one and with what loadout?

This is where I hope that you, my pretties can help me. Which Battlecruiser do you think is the 'best' for solo roaming in low sec and why?

Personally I fly Minmatar and Caldari Battlecruisers and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I preferred the Drake of the BC's that I do fly , I don't believe though that the Drakes I fly are optimal as solo boats so I'm trying to work up a better loadout.

Anyhow, any pointers greatly appreciated!

First Day Back

So this evening upon getting home from work I got my home pc and laptop setup to play eve. After that was done I was left with only 90 minutes to play spaceships. Less time than I would like, but that frequently tends to be the case!

So I log back in and am in Adirain. Sat in station in my Breacher (of doom!), I have three other ships in station. All BC's which is odd as I normally only keep one in Adirain along with a Rifter & Cruiser. I notice I need a clone upgrade and decide to do that later.

Local is busy but everyone is docked in station with me. I decide now is a good time to move my prober back to low-sec from Villore. Before my absence I made the mistake of allowing my sisters combat probes to time out in space and had needed to buy more.

Villore being next to Old Man Star I jumped in. Now being I a Covops I expected to be safe....

Wrong! Whether I failed/lagged or was too close to one of the campers when I jumped through I don't know. I selected my warp to target then  my cloak broke after I activated it. Instantly locked an popped, I was amazed to get the Pod out tbh.

So I turned around and went to Dodixie to replace my Covops in exchange for 30m iskies. This time I headed back to low-sec via a different route! Safely!

Anyway, back to Kirith. After my prober shenanigans are done I undock in a Drake, Adirain is busy but little in space. A Sentinel, Rifter, Thrasher, Arbitrator, Tristan are all in system at different times but I fail to nuke any of them.

The arbitrator warps away as I land with him. the Tristan swiftly pulls range, picks on a Warrior II and then warps off in armour. The Thrasher pulls range as I attack him on station and escapes.

Other notable(ish) events in Adirain were being yellow boxed by a neutral Hurricane on the high-sec gate until he got bored and jumped out as BC vs BC with gate guns on their side isn't a fight I'd choose! And I blew up a Covetor and his Pod.

I eventually decided to return to Hevrice to downsize ship. On my way one system out I cross jumped an 8 man gang coming the other way. Lucky timing! Docking up I switched to a Thrasher as another small gang jumped into Hevrice.

Undocking I warped to a watch point on the Jov gate to get eyes on their fleet and fed back their fleet composition over vent as Sulei had formed a BC fleet to counterattack. The gang jumped from Hev to Jov and then on into Aeschee. In Aeschee the two enemy gangs engaged each other. Sulei put the Tusker gang in Jov on the Aeschee gate and jumped in to the two gangs. Meanwhile I was busy reshipping to a Drake and making my way to the Tusker fleet.

Sadly by the time I arrived the gangs were broken and had scattered and I missed out on the mails.

So, not the busiest or most explosive of evenings but it's good to be back.

'Cane vs Drake

First, happy Christmas everyone. I'm still without broadband and using my IPhone's personal hotspot facility in a non-3G area.

Just 4 days left before Kirith finishes his Rifter plan, I'm excited at this thought!

I've had this post lined up for a long time, just never gotten around to posting it.

For ages I've been of the assumption that the match up of Hurricane vs Drake is a matchup that would end in stalemate, and as such I've avoided it.

A quick look at the loadouts and vital stats of typical 'cane & Drake fits that I use:

The Drake

Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Power Diagnostic System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II

Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
[empty high slot]

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Warrior II x5



470 DPS before heat, 1136m/s and 82,959 EHP. 


The Hurricane

Tracking Enhancer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Damage Control II

Large Shield Extender II
Invulnerability Field II
Warp Disruptor II
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive

425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
425mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP M
Medium Energy Neutralizer II
Medium Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I

Warrior II x5
 
674 DPS before heat, 1311m/s and 49,515 EHP. 

Although the DPS output of the two ships is quite different with the Hurricane massively outclassing the Drake, the sheer EHP of the Drake combined with the speed differential being fairly small means that the 'cane is going to have to run it's MWD to keep effective range. By having to MWD so much the sig. radius bloom is going to favour the Drake's missiles. Based mainly on these assumptions I had avoided the matchup, until recently when I found a flashy Drake and I happened to be in my shield gank cane (above).

The Drake was on the undock of the station , I landed around 25km off him, him quickly locking me up and starting to hit me with his missiles. This was just the situation I feared, I needed to close range to 3-5km so I had to burn my MWD to get there, overheating my MWD i pulsed it towards him to reach him with the least amount of MWD use possible. Missile damage spiked as I did so, but I quickly closed on him and applied staggered neutralisers to try and remove any shield hardeners and opened fire, a second MWD activation was needed to get to the desired range, very suprised at the progress I was making through his shields which further increased as I hit my optimal and overheated my 425's the Drake quickly crumbled, indeed my shields were only at around 50% by the time it exploded.

This exercise proved to me that it does pay to challenge your assumptions from time to time.

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.

My First Ever T3 Kill

The title says it all really, I would add however that it was a solo kill too.

The pilot was doing a mission/complex in Adirain when I probed him down. Admittedly I was quite surprised that I managed to probe him down given how popular 'unprobable Tengus' are. Once I had him probed I warped in, in my Drake convincing myself that he must be stabbed.

To my delight I found that he wasn't. Woohoo, game on. Now unfortunately and not what you want when fighting a shield tank my Drake was out of Thunderbolt Heavy Missiles. Yes, out of Navy, Fury and regular after spewing copius volumes at another Drake the day before! Thus I set about him with Scourge Fury. As soon as I got point I advised my corpmates in vent, several making best speed to me.

The Tengu was dieing fast until he hit about 35% shield and made something of a last stand, I assume overheating. The last stand didn't last long though, just five seconds or so and after that the phrase "The quarterback is toast" did sound across vent. He was down.

Apologising to my corp mates for having killed him before they arrived I set about salvage and looting. Checking the killmail it turns out that it was a pretty poor fit, not even rigged and with twin shield boosters! Still it doesn't take anything away from this being my first ever T3 kill.

The curious case of the Sleipnir

This last weekend I found myself online for a few hours. During the course of the day I managed to get a few kills. It all started with Grumblecub 2, my Rifter finding an Omen ratting in Adirain which was little challenge as the pilot had fitted shield and armour tanks along with a mix of lasers, artillery & missile launcher. Sometimes I feel like I should tell the pilot about how to better fit their ship, however they never seem to want to hear about it after their prized posession has been destroyed.

Next up, a call went out that a small BC gang had been seen a few systems from Hevrice. Three Tuskers including Kirith in BC's plus one in a Dramiel set off in search. We eventually lost them as we were a few jumps behind, however our scout found a Hurricane and we caught him as he jumped through the gate, the dual webs on my PODLA Drake thwarting his efforts to reach the gate we destroyed him in short order.

Heading back towards Hevrice I was trailing behind the gang and caught sight of a Catalyst ratting in Costolle. His warp core stabiliser failing to save him as two volleys of heavy missiles were sufficent to destroy him before he could warp away.

Much later in the day I was cruising around in my Dramiel (can't remember if I said I'd bought another?) and saw a Retribution and Sleipnir slowboating away 450km off the Hulmate gate in Onne. I advised the Corp of my sighting and moved on. Back in Adirain and a Brutix had jumped in seemingly afk from Arnon, knowing that time would be of the essence I jumped into a Drake and made best speed to the gate. He must have come back at some point during my missile bombardment as he returned fire and started telling me to stop in local. It didn't take long before his Brutix was destroyed and swiftly after his Pod too.

While waiting out my GCC for popping the Brutix, Corp chat picked up on my comment about the Sleipnir and a small force assembled to engage it. Running the gate guns our response force waited at the Onne gate in Aeschee. As soon as the Sleipnir had been tackled we jumped in and quickly took it down with the Retribution swiftly following. We were surprised with the speed the Sleipnir dropped and the lack of bling loot contained within. During the process of dealing with these two a Rupture was found in local and swiftly dispatched.

We still have no idea what the Sleipnir was trying to do just slowboating off into space.

All in all, quite a fun day

For Laughs

This Sunday I had some time in game and that time turned out to be great fun.

There were some fun a frollicks with a Dominix & Drake combination who seemed to come to Hevrice looking for a fight. Three BC's from The Tuskers formed up and took up the offer of a fight, Kirith in a Drake. Turns out the Dominix was active shield tanked and it happily shrugged off the kinetic damage from our three Drakes. The Drake working with the Dominix landed some 50km off and I went for point on it, which unfortunately took my dps off the Dominix. My Drake vs the hostile Drake, both HML fit we spewed misiles at each other with gleeful abandon as I was a long way away from the Dominix and out of range. Unfortunately whilst we were have our own little head to head one of the Tusker Drakes went down against the Dominix. My fight with the Drake was pretty even but as we both were close to being broken I (over)overheated my launchers and managed to melt them. Warping out to repair my heat damage and regen shields our opponents fled the field and left system, it was a fun fight but I have to learn to better manage my overheat. gf's exchanged in local.

Later on I switched to Grumblecub 2 and jumped in to the neighbouring system, Jov. I spotted a Mantcore in a faction war mission and warped in. The Manticore was about 170km away but I burned for it anyways, I got within 26km before they warped away but not before they had fired a couple of very ineffective Torpedo volleys at me. I warped out and then warped back to the mission where I waited patiently. After a short while the Manticore lands with me and is destroyed in very swift order, the best part of this was having no GCC as he'd agressed me earlier. Over the course of the afternoon I kept checking to see whether I could catch them again as they came back to try and finish the mission, sadly to no avail.

Back in Hevrice, I spot a Rupture in space. It didn't belong to anyone in The Tuskers so I dock and reship to one of my own Ruptures. By this time he's left system so I set off in pursuit towards Aeschee. In Aeschee he's flitting about and I'm not sure what he's doing. I know who the pilot is but can't fathom his random warping. Eventually I pin him down to a belt, warp in and destroy if swift order. I had hoped for a more challenging fight but was satisfied to have gotten a kill in a Cruiser as I don't fly them very often.

Back to Hevrice and I decide that I'm a little bit bored. I get into one of my Scythes, this is one of the hulls which I mentioned the other week that I wanted to have a laugh with. Undocking I'm fearful that I'll be laughed out of space but set off in search of targets.

A few systems from home I park in a belt trying to act like a good little miner and it isn't long before a Rifter pilot tries his hand like a moth to the flame that is a miner in low-sec. He lands and I'm upon him determined not to let him get away. I engage and literally within the blink of a eye he's toast and warping his Pod out. I literally laughed out loud and couldn't stop giggling. I had destroyed him before a corp mate could even land in the belt, it was so so fast! Again no GCC.

Within minutes of securing my loot I'm back in my belt "mining" and another Rifter lands with me, another dance and another dead Rifter. This one did better though taking me into 80% armour and trying to make a run for it. Through careful overheat of propulsion, point & guns he doesn't make it out. No GCC again.

I can't see this tactic working for long before people get wise to it, but at the moment its hilarious!

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!

The One That Got Away

Some elements of my play last night were quite sad. For example taking delight and being pleased with myself for destroying a Catalyst undocking from a station with my Drake. I had been feeling that low after losing three ships (Jaguar, Rupture & Hurricane) in a row that any kill of any description felt good! Adding to the hardly exciting or meaningful kills were an Executioner in a belt & an Iteron undocking from another station. I did manage to snag all three Pods though which I was rather impressed with as I was in a battlecruiser. So all in all my evening was not a waste but not terribly exciting either.

That is until I noticed a Hurricane arrive in top belt in Adirain, he killed the single rat in the belt and sat there. Could this be a second trap of the day for Kirith to spring? I kind of sensed that it would be, but I figured i'd have a go. Warping in with my Drake I landed 13km from him. Lock, missiles away, point, close the distance, double webs. Unsure whether he's armour or shield tanked I'm using navy scourge heavy missiles, his shields are gone in a couple of volleys and then I hit armour, looks like he's triple trimark armour tank soo this'll take a while. Cue, local spike by about 8. I align out and overheat MWD, his fleet of cruisers & battlecruisers lands and I'm burning away. I notice an Ares with them too and think I'm not getting out. 30km from the Hurricane bait ship and my warp drive engages. Suprised much? Yes me too! Sadly lost five drones but I saved the ship

I dock up and log as it's time to pick up the girlfriend. So, what have I been thinking since? Could I have taken any of his fleet down and survived? I firmly beleive that had the Ares not been there then I could, unfortunately he was so I can sleep soundly knowing that I did all I could, saved my ship and got away from the trap.

So far my opinion of the PODLA setup Drake....pretty damn good thank you very much.

Back to what I enjoy most in EVE

Long standing blog followers may remember that I used to have a knack of finding and destroying poorly fit Battlecruisers with my humble Rifter. Well earlier this week I managed to lure one out to fight me after scaring his Scythe in a belt. After a little banter between us he was convinced that his Hurricane would have no problem destroying my Rifter and warped to the belt I remained in. It soon became clear once we were committed that he had underestimated the power of the little Frigate. I offered him the chance to pay a ransom to keep his ship, he declined saying he didn't have enough isk. Of course that meant that I had to destroy his ship. Snagging his capsule afterwards he was in no mood to pay a ransom on that so I transported him back to the clone vat. Apparently he's going to quit EVE don't you know?

Well, he didn't as since then he appears to have lost even more ships.

On unrelated news today I took delivery of my new Battlecruiser stock, Seven new hulls and fittings for six new and untested loadouts. Four Drakes, two Cyclones and one Hurricane. I've now fit them all and look forward to taking them out.

Also, given my new fitting ability post learning skill removal I've bought a single new Rifter with a untested fit to have a play with. Grumblecub will see you in space soon.

EFT Warrioring

So when time in space is limited, one's attention turns to EFT. The perpetual question of what to do with some of those unfitted hulls that are in my hangar comes back to mind. A multitude of Vigils, Breachers, Scythe & Bellicose bought in a moment where I thought "one day i'll come up with some miraculous fit for those" but didn't...

Quickly getting bored of trying to find a viable PVP fit for any of the above, bar the Bellicose which met with more success my attention swings back to Hurricane, Drake & Cyclone loadouts. Before long I've input 3 new Drake fits I wan't to try, 1 Hurricane fit and a Cyclone fit.

Of course now having theorycrafted the fits I want to buy them, and of course replace that Drake I lost last week. So after spending close to 200m iskies in Jita on hulls & modules I await the next transport bringing new shiny & rusty toys to low-sec.

Hopefully I shall regail you with tails of their dominance in due course.

Pop!

It's not been the busiest few days, getting on for just a few hours of an evening this week. It's had its low points, like where I landed on gate just as a gang of 10 or so faction frigates did in my Drake resulting in me losing not only my Drake but also my Pod and along with it my bounty which was up to over 110m too.

Last night though, saw my most enjoyable moment since returning. Typically, and doesn't it always happen when you need to log off to go or do something? Just before I needed to head out to collect my girlfriend from work I land off of a belt in Adirain. It was busy in system and I'd been chasing around after various craft in my Rifter. Eventually a Black Rebel Rifter Club pilot arrives. We start closing with other, until at about 70km a second Rifter arrives causing the Rebel pilot to bug out after I assume fearing a TARP! I sadface in local and he suggests meeting for a 1v1. I mention that I have to log to collect the girlfriend, so we will settle that score another day. As we are talking the second Rifter is closing on me until at about 20km I decide to engage him. I have friends in the system but this is serious business of Rifter v Rifter combat! So they are aware of my engagement and wait looking for other targets. So our two Rifters are engaged, and aside from me forgetting to activate my web for the first minute I'm having the better of things. I see ships on 360, a bunch of frigates so I overload everything and pop him just after his friends arrive. I thought I was a goner until I hear warp drive active and escape at 88% structure and a sliver of repped armour. Repping up in a safe I have to go to dock so that I can log out without the risk of agression in space, braving the sentry fire I dock and log wishing my fellow Tuskers good hunting. Based on the killboard it seems that they did.

I do beleive that I have reignited my love of the Rifter....

Settling Back In

This weekend I've been online a fair bit both days whilst my girlfriend has been at work. I'm glad to say that I've gotten a few shots off in anger this weekend, which has been very satisfying and helps in blowing away some cobwebs. I really need to rid myself of the newbie nerves and as much as the adrenaline high is and was a great thing, the last thing I need right now is anything to distract me from performing at optimal.

I'm not sure if it's me or the times at which I have been online, but the space lanes have been very quiet with few potential targets to be had. I have managed to probe down a few vessels but they were very alert and either warped out as I arrived on scene or cloaked up.

Saturday was the more lively day for me, even though it commenced with me getting bored enough to get GCC for popping a Velator & Pod on the high-sec gate in Hevrice. In the afternoon a bunch of us formed up in BC's to spoil a triple battleship group running a site in a nearby wormhole, though sadly they had left by the time we were ready. Deciding against wasting the small gang if BC's we took a short jaunt towards Intaki managing to catch this Hurricane on the way out, and this Arbitrator on the way back.

Sunday was a much quieter day, albeit the day which I managed to probe down some nice targets I only managed to lay waste to a ratting Caracal. There was an afk Hyperion, again on a high-sec gate who unfortunately woke up while we were bumping him off gate.

Hopefully next time I immerse myself I'll see some more action. I've decided against going for a Heavy Interdictor for the time being, sticking with some of my existing plans for now.

Having undocked and flown my Drake & Canes around over the weekend I feel that I'm getting a nice feel for them and am enjoying them. I was a bit disappointed with my Drakes tank against sentry guns, expecting it to be rather uber. I'll be looking to create a better fit for this purpose.

Time for my dinner, so I'll speak to ya'll again soon.