Grumblecub Revisited

Although the first part of my EVE career was totally dominated with maximising my skillset to support flying the Rifter, I seldom find that I take to the space lanes in it. That's not to say by any margin that my skills have been wasted as the vast majority of the skills are totally transferrable to oither vessels.

Recently the Merlin & Incursus seem to have the edge over the Rifter thanks to their recent buff. Taking my preferred fit, the mighty Grumblecub out for a spin I found no Merlins nor Incursus but did run into other Rifters, proving that it popularity isn't totally a thing of history.

It wasn't until I did this that I quite realised just how at home I feel behind the sticks of the Rifter. The sheer firepower of this monster catches many by surprise. 198 dps from Grumblecub under overheat, a pity I can't edge it over 200...

It may now be outclassed and easily beaten, but it's akin to a blood relation to me and I really must fly it more often.

I Wish More Pilots Did This

A couple of days ago I cam across a pilot in Costolle flying an Caracal. I watched him for a little while and he switched to a salvaging Atron. Eventually he swapped back to the Caracal and was ratting in the ice belt. I warped in on him in a shield buffer tanked Rifter. Landing point I made swift work of him, until he started yelling "STOP" in local. I turned off DPS but noticed the damning signs of a disconnect, nothing I did was taking effect. Sure enough moments later the client closed, my internet died and I had to wait for it to reactivate and lot me log in. I was onvinced the pilot had gotten away in 20% structure which was all there was left when I had tried to stop firing. I was a sad panda. I log in and my Rifter is warping back following my insta warp. The Caracal isn't there anymore. The pilot is talking in local so I guess he got away. But, if he got away then his comments in local don't make sense. Sure enough I check the combat log and I popped the Caracal.

Moments later though the pilot wants to fight me again! Tusker policy is not to 1v1 so nothing is agreed, I simply wait in the Ice Belt. He warps in a Catalyst, which I swiftly destroy. I catch his Pod to ransom him and he asks to fight me again! Now, do I let him go and reship knowing he might not come back or do I pop the Pod. Beleiving that this chap is actually daft enough to return once more I let him go, he comes back in an Incursus! The Incursus dies really fast, it has dual small shield boosters fitted which its fair to say isn't an ideal way to tank one. Again I catch the Pod to ransom. He elects to be podded so naturally I oblige.

The guy is really friendly in local and genuinely seems to have enjoyed being involved in PVP, even though I wrecked three of his ships and one Pod. The fights weren't testing to be honest, but it was nice to meet him and hopefully encourage him to get more involved in PVP. It'd be great if more people had such a great attitude towards ship loss.

Hi....

It's been a while.

So, I have reactivated on the try Incarna for 5 days basis.

Getting reacquainted I undock in whatever I was sat in when I last logged in as I now can't see it due to seeing my avatar instead. It appears that I'm in Severina, a Rupture. Having done a complete reinstall of the EVE client I have only the default overview and setting, no shortcuts, nothing.

I hit the D-scan, hello little Incursus. I'm rusty but narrow him down to a belt, pleased with how quickly it all comes back to me.

Warp in, lock, point, boom. His pod escapes my slow lock time.

Adrenaline level.... I've got the shakes and the adrenaline of the first kill. Awesome!

Hello EVE, I think I'll be back.

Explosions, more explosions!

This entries title will probably bring a cringe from any WoW players out there as the cry from Grand Mekengineer Thermaplugg at the end of Gnomeregan! But anyway I digress.

It has been a busy few days in terms of explosions, I've both killed some and lost some and had some really exciting and fun fights amongst them, I think I have lost most of the fun ones though to be honest! I have now come to see the value in Thermodynamics and the ability to overheat modules, which has led me to bring forward my training of Thermodynamic a couple of weeks due to losing a few fights that I could have won if I could overheat. All I am missing to commence training is Engineering V which is now underway and Thermodynamics will be at III by next weekend well on its way to IV. I've also been doing some work on training plans for other ships after the Rifter, but thats for its own post I think at some point in the hopefully near future.

Lets summarise recent events then:

Iteron
The friend of mine who convinced me to start playing EvE has a couple of accounts and one of them took delivery of their covops frigate the other day. He brought it over to Verge Vendor and found me an Iteron in a belt while I was out of system, meaning I could warp straight in to the right belt. Not a great deal to say other than that it had three shield boosters fitted, not entirely sure why he thought that was a good idea. He declined the ransom and set his Pod to self destruct so I saved him the trouble.

Rifter & Griffin
Reports came over voice comms that a frigate gang was in our home system and had warped to a belt, many of us scrambled to the belt and I made for the system and belt as quick as possible. I managed to land when only this Griffin & Rifter remained, we Podded the Rifter pilot but I beleive all the others got away with the Pods.

Hyperion & Megathron
While we were engaged with the frigate gang (above) these two Battleships started firing on a corp mate as he undocked, once the frigate gang was despatched we headed back to engage in a mix of ships, we all had GCC though so I did not have great hopes for my Rifters survival. The Hyperion was about to go down as I landed so I headed to get point on the Megathron. I caught him easily and soon enough the rest of the gang had him pointed too, at this time though the Sentries started firing on me so I bugged out just in time with 40% structure!

Armageddon
This chap one of our probers found in a Wormhole remote repping his Tower, our gang dropped on him like a ton of bricks and toasted him. We managed to extract a sizeable ransom from him to save his Pod & Tower, which I have just bought and fit 18 Rifters with!

Catalyst
Not alot to say about this one aside from his peculiar behaviour. I don't know whether he knew that I was following him but he landed at the top belt, warped off then the same at the second. I assumed that he warped as he was ratting and there were non present but when he died and I saw the mining fit I did scratch my head.

Three in a Row
This morning I logged in to test my sound as I have been having issues with it recently. I undocked with no sound but an Incursus on scan at a belt, feeling it would be rude not to say hi and went in and killed him & his Pod. I then saw another Incursus and an Iteron on scan at a beacon together, making myself known I roasted the Incursus first then the Iteron and of course their Pods. Epic fail on the Iteron loot drops :(. The latter incursus pilot did tell me that he didn't want to fight in local, but hey what's a pirate supposed to when people make it so easy?!

As I'd only logged on for a few minutes I did force myself to dock up and log even though the system kept filling up with ships I could go shoot. My willpower taking control for once.

So onto the losses, I'll be quick as this is getting to be a long post.

I lost a Gank fit Rifter after a tangle with a Dramiel, the Dramiel broke off once I had toasted his Warrior II's it was just after that I sighted another Rifter in a belt and went for it. It was reasonably close but I didn't break through all of his armour (about 10% to go). I can only say in my defence that I hadn't recoved from the Dramiel and was flying a Gank fit Rifter which I still don't like. I think I only have one more to lose now :)

I lost a crap fit Rifter in a very exciting fight vs an older player in a Tracking Disruptor fit Rifter. This was very close and Thermodynamics would have won the day for me if I had the skill!

I lost a Rifter I had just picked up from Bosena when I fought the Rifter from loss 1 above, this was so close coming down to who got their volley in first. It was that close that I thought I had won when I heard the explosion! Sadly I was looking at my Pod, he confirmed finishing on 27% structure. I had capped out several times, so better cap skills or Theromdynamics would have saved the day.

The two latter losses were exhilarating fights which I really enjoyed despite losing.

I feel like I have missed covering a few things, but I can alwats write them up in another post if or indeed when they come back to me.

The Artillery PVP Rifter - Initiation

Yes, a strange post title and indeed combining the artillery and pvp in the same sentence. More on that later.

Quite a few kills in the last few days so a quick summary of them:

Vexor
I decided to jump clone back to Heimatar a for a 24 hour stint back in my "old stomping grounds" and looking in my hangar I remembered that before I headed off to pastures new with The Tuskers I had bought fit some PVP Artillery Rifters but had yet to test them. So I set off in one and eventually came across a Vexor in a cosmic anomaly. My heart sank a bit when he was 130km away and I was Afterburner fit. Worth a try anyway I deemed as there were plenty of rats closer than I so I might be able to close before I appeared on his overview. Keeping a close eye on him he was aligned to warp out but he either can't have seen me or assumed I had a short point fitted as I pointed him from 20km and settled into a wide orbit. My modest damage plus that of the rats was more then he could handle and he died quickly. I took out his Pod too when he wasn't paying the ransom.

Raven
I was missing my Corp mates so jumped back to Verge Vendor at the earliest opportunity. A Raven was spotted in a mission nearby, If I recall a 2006 character. A prober came a soon dug him out upon which we went in and took him out very quickly. His Pod went too when he was quite rude in our ransom discussions. I assume looking at the fit that he either must have been inactive some of his lifetime or that perhaps the character had been sold to another player. Triple tank type hull repairing Raven ftw amirite?

Rifter
Hevrice and its neighbouring systems are in Faction Warfare zone and there are quite a number of plexes and missions spawning. I decided to wait on one while doing some scanning and this little Rifter warped right onto the acceleration gate with me. I had advised the corp that he was inbound and two other fleet members landed to whore the killmail, unfortunately pirate willpower didn't hold long enough for the fourth member of the fleet to get on the mail and he got toasted no matter how much I kept asking for people to hold fire. He got away with his Pod though.

Myrmidon
Keeping my eyes on the scanner I saw this Myrm on scan before it docked up. I advised corp so they decided to undock a few ships on him as he undocked. Unfortunately as Rifters are not so good at tanking Sentry Guns I merely warped in to get on the Killmail and then warped out again. I look forward to the day I have something big enough to participate in.

Drake
Last night I logged in to find a T1 Frigate gate in action in Old Man Star. I headed out to join them as quick as I could. They had taken quite a toll on the locals by the time I arrived, listening to three ships being killed just while I was on my way! Unfortunately the killmails for two Incursus we got before this Drake that we killed are missing somewhere in the ether. This Drake and a Thorax were at a Faction Warfare mission that had spawned so we engaged, unfortunately it was a trap and we got obliterated, but not before taking the Drake down for the loss of three T1 frigs. Not a bad swap.

Imicus
I saw this on a gate and was certain it was bait for a trap so I jumped through the gate to have a looksee. Nothing on the other side so I jumped back through and killed it while the pilot must have been afk. I took out his Pod too so I guess he wasn't a happy bunny when he came back. I still have no idea what he was doing there though!

Rupture
This fellow was in Hevrice, I think the only unfriendly in the system at the time so I don't really know why he hung around. Heedless we proceeded to work on scanning him down and when we got very close to 100% he warped away. Not to worry though as within a minute or so a corp mate called point and warp to Romeo. A whole bunch of us blobbed him and saved Romeo's Exequeror from a sticky end (Cheer \o/) so the Rupture died fast. We snagged the Pod too when the pilot declined the ransom opportunity.

Merlin
I found this fellow in a Faction Warfare mission complex and discovered him 70ish km away. I reported it to corp anyway and a couple of corp mates were in the vicinity so tried to get there before I or he died. I was gratified to see him engage me, but it was a very close fight. I was capped out by the end and at 99% Structure but once I had broken his shield it was game over for him. Noir managed to get a single volley off at him but my other Corp mate didn't quite get a lock in time and I wasn't in a state to hold fire.

Catalyst
The final kill for this review is a 2 month old player in a Catalyst, frankly me getting this was pure chance as I picked up a Catalyst on scan as I left a gate. I knew he wasn't at the gate so took a guess at one of the belts on scan and warped straight there. I landed 3km from him and it was a quick death for his ship. I attempted a 5m ransom from him but he said had no money so I sent him via the Pod express.

To return to the title of this post relating to the Artillery Rifter, I can say that tracking is an issue. DPS is still reasonable as I think I get 93 from it. I will try versions with tracking rigs rather than falloff in future to see how much that helps. The trump to this ship will be Frigates with MWD's but they seem to be fairly rare. Of course the major weakness of this is the tank as it's paper thin but I'll lose a few and then decide whether to keep refining it or whether to ditch it for now like I did with the "Gank" Rifter.

In other news, yesterday was a sad day for The Tuskers. Wensley a long time and (in)famous? member left. The hole he leaves I am sure will be a large one but I wish him all the best in his 0.0 adventures. Although I didn't get to fly with Wensley, I'm sure those that have read his blog will feel like they have.

Kite Kill

It's been a few days since I posted anything. So I'll do a little bit of an update.

First, I lost a Rifter the other day to an Incursus. Granted the pilot was older than me but I thought that I would have put up a better fight than I did. Pursuing the pilot through a couple of systems I scanned him down to a planet. When I landed he was roughly 40km away, I started my approach as did he and at 20km I was pointed. The Incursus pilot maintained his orbit around 14km-20km and pounded me with his Railguns, I thought for a while that I would be able to tank it, but that did not prove the case. I wasn't able to eat into his orbit either as he would MWD out of range if that ever looked like a danager and overheated his modules at just the right time to ensure that I wasn't flying out of this one in my Rifter. Kudos to him, gf's exchanged in local and it set me to thinking whether an artillery Rifter was worth a go. I have knocked one up on EvE-HQ that I might try. Does anyone have any experience in them?

Targets have been scarce as I have mentioned a few times. Today I roamed into a system with a Myrmidon and Thrasher. They were in conversation, and when I appeared my bounty caught their eye. They seemed to be discussing ratting and killing me, how rude! I chased the Thrasher around for ages and nearly caught him once but fell just a tad too short and he warped out. I then pursued him out of the system and then back into it again! finally catching him in a belt, looting. He had a nasty fit and soon removed my shields and half my armour before I took up a wider orbit to lessen his damage, this strategy worked a treat and from 5km I reduced the Thrasher to slag in a pretty explosion then locked and dispatched his Pod after he didn't want to pay a 20m isk ransom, maybe a little extortionate but that's besides the point.

I had been reduced to a single spare Rifter in the hangar so I bought another 7 in, complete with fittings. I had decided that I would try a new variant this time and see how it went. It just tops 100dps with my skills which makes it my most powerful Rifter loadout. The Thrasher today was it's first kill, but the lack of a Damage Control was apparent. We'll see how it goes though, I have three of them to test out.

Here's the fit:
H: 3 x 150mm Autocannon
H: Rocket Launcher
M: Afterburner
M: Web
M: Scram
L: Gyro
L: 200mm Plate
L: Small Armor Repairer
R: Small Projectile Collision Accelerator
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator

Embarassment

The nights roam started off just dandy. Exiting my home base station a player a few months old is surfing the belts. I scared him away on my initial warp in, so after waiting a little while I warp back and catch him. It's a nice easy fight and he's soon down in a pretty explosion. I locked his Pod too, offer ransom but get no reply so wish him "byebye" and send him back to the clone vat.

The embarrassing antic was yet to come, some time later I arrive at a gate and an Incursus is there. I wait to see if the pilot will agress me and am cheered when after a minute or so that they do. I start an orbit as they approach and in a moment of not engaging brain tackle them, in my infinite eagerness to fight I have agressed them before they me thus incurring the horrible wrath of the sentry guns. Bidding farewell to Miss Boathook I warp away to a moon to lick my wounds and hang my head in shame. What a twit!

Feeling utterly demotivated I head back to home base and think on my foolishness to hopefully learn my lesson.

Why don't I join a Pirate Corp?

I've been asked this a few times, so I thought I'd address it here as it has been a slow news day in EVE as I didn't find anything to kill all afternoon. Finding an EVE University pilot in an Incursus this evening before log-out being my only kill of the day (He went down very quickly), his Pod although I locked it, I managed to scram his drone instead. Ah well, another one to learn from.

As an aside I'd like to thank the mysterious individual who increased my bounty who came forward yesterday and increased it again further. A satisfied reader of this here blog, you know who you are :)

So back to the question of why don't I join a pirate corp. Well it is fairly simple and there are only two reasons:

1. I will not use voice comms and all pirate corps that I would consider applying to require this for gang work.
2. I have always seen myself as the lone gunman, fighting sometimes against overwhelming odds. Not having wingmen to come to my aid.

There is some baggage that supports reason 1, Over a year back I played World of Warcraft (I hear you groan) for about three years, and I played it at a fairly reasonable level and fairly hardcore with raiding and such. Whenever I would raid I used voice comms, donned the headset and promptly ignored life outside the computer which included my Wife and other commitments. As you can imagine looking back with hindsight this was really stupid and now considering myself a rehabilitated MMO gamer I refuse to ever return to that level of ignorance and absorbption again.