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.

Caldari & Amarr Frigate V

Quite some time ago now I chose to round out my racial frigate skills by getting both Caldari & Amarr frigate to V. The main rationale for this was to access the Hawk & Vengeance as I'm unable to use lasers or hybrids.

The Hawk & Vengeance pair very well with my skills follwing the completion of the Rifter plan as I maxed my unguided missile skills. It shows to me how long ago I did this as it was prior to the Assault Frigate buff.

In addition to the Vengeance & Hawk I'd also acquired a Caldari Navy Hookbill. At the time I really fancied flying the Hookbill, sadly though that desire has waned now before I've even undocked.

So it was that I bought myself a couple of Hawks and fitted up my Hookbill. Typically once I'd got the ships & fittings in Hevrice the Assault Frigate buff had been delivered too and my loadouts were somewhat sub-optimal. I'd thrown a Merlin into the mix too as I'd had some close fights with them and fancied tring one myself.

Here's the loadouts I've ended up with, I consider them highly developmental so please bear that in mind:

Raven Guard, my Hawk:

Ballistic Control System II
Damage Control II

1MN Afterburner II
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Rocket Launcher II, Trauma Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Trauma Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Trauma Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Trauma Rage Rocket
125mm Gatling AutoCannon II, Barrage S

Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Kirith spits out 253dps in this little machine and it rolls with over 9k ehp.


Pookie, my Vengeance

[Vengeance, Pookie]
Ballistic Control System II
F85 Peripheral Damage System I
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Small Armor Repairer II

X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Rocket Launcher II, Mjolnir Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Mjolnir Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Mjolnir Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Mjolnir Rage Rocket
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

Kirith spits out 212dps in this tough nut, again over 9k ehp but this time with an active tank that can perma run without the neut.

I've lost the first of each now and would have to say that I vastly prefer the Vengeance even if it is a bit on the slow side. I've never been much of a speed demon anways. Any tips or critique?

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) 

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.

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.