The Republic Fleet Firetail

Is a fun but expensive ship for what it is. This is my conclusion after having owned one for the last month. I don't know if I will replace it once I lose it, I suspect however that I probably will as I can be a sucker fun having something different to fly.

I have been running with a fit that differs from any other that I have seen, every loss mail for a Firetail that I have seen runs some variation that has a Medium Shield Extender in the mids. I don't really like shield buffer/passive recharge setups on small ships. That's not to say that there is anything wrong with them but I like to feel like there is at least something I can do when watching my tank being depleted, be that through cycling an armour rep, shield booster etc. At least then I feel like I have thrown everything to the wall to try and save the ship should it go down.

This is the fit that I have been using on "Private Pile", my Republic Fleet Firetail:

2x 150mm Light AutoCannon II (Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S)
Rocket Launcher II (Foxfire Rage Rocket)

1MN Afterburner II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Scrambler II
Small Capacitor Booster II (Cap Booster 150)

Small Armor Repairer II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II

2x Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

===========================

Effective HP: 5,237
Tank Ability: 40.28 DPS
Damage Profile - (EM: 25.00%, Ex: 25.00%, Ki: 25.00%, Th: 25.00%)
Shield Resists - EM: 12.50%, Ex: 56.25%, Ki: 47.50%, Th: 30.00%
Armor Resists - EM: 66.00%, Ex: 23.50%, Ki: 36.25%, Th: 44.75%

Capacitor: Stable at 46.18%

Volley Damage: 301.07
DPS: 119.45

The main downside is that it has pretty low DPS for my liking, however it looks really cool in my opinion and I have fun flying it. It also has the added bonus that people always expect you to be shield tanked and usually shoot you with the least optimal damage type!

What's in your Hangar?

This is the question asked at EVOGANDA

The question has two parts to all intents and purposes:

Q1. Do you follow a naming convention, if so what is it?

A1. Yes, I like to try and follow themes. Occasionally I'll throw in a wildcard but I tend to follow a theme. I started naming my ships after Dangermouse characters but soon found that I ran out, I'm currently naming ships after well known cartoon characters and thinking of naming them after Pokemon next for a laugh. I need to keep themes with plenty of names as I do tend to get through rather a lot of ships due to the nature of the piracy beast.

Q2. What's in your hangar right now?

A2. Lots of ships

Betty Boop - Rifter (Artillery fit), plus two un-named spares.
Calvin - Rifter (Gank fit)
George of the Jungle - Thrasher (Armour tank), plus un-named spare.
Grape Ape - Jaguar (Gang fit), plus un-named spare.
Green Giant - Rifter (Artillery fit).
Grimm - Rifter (Gank fit), plus fourteen un-named spares.
Hagar the Horrible - Jaguar (Solo fit), plus un-named spare.
Heckle & Jeckle - Rifter (Cookie Cutter), plus two un-named spares.
Hello Kitty - Thrasher (Shield Tank).
Hobbes - Rifter (Gank fit).
Homer Simpson - Wolf.
Huckleberry Hound - Thrasher (Shield tank), plus two un-named spares.
Imperial Navy Slicer - Un-named as I can't actually fly it.
Private Pile - Republic Fleet Firetail.
The Grinch - Thrasher (Artillery fit), plus un-named spare.
Zephyr

These are spread amongst three hangars with the majority being at home base. All my ships including spares are fully fitted and rigged.

I hate to fly a ship when I don't have a spare of the same fitting. Hopefully another Wolf will be in my hangar soon.

So, what's in your hangar?

The Big Three Oh

Last Friday I reached the grand old age of 30.

I felt I should really buy Kirith a birthday present or two on my behalf, but decisions on what to buy. There are three options that come to mind:

1. A Dramiel, all the rage at the moment. I’d need to do quite a lot of training for it in terms of Gallente Frigate V and about a months Drone skills for me to be happy flying it. This would be fine though, as I will need the drone skills for my upcoming Cruisers & Battlecruisers.

2. A Republic Fleet Firetail, feels a bit like a poor mans Dramiel or a rich mans Rifter with an extra midslot. Whilst the trend is to shield tank these, I like the idea of trying and beefed up version of my cap-boosted Rifter. EDIT: Since drafing this I have received one as a gift!

3. A Wolf, again more skills than I have planned would need to be trained to fly this in the form of Assault Ships to at least IV (probably V).

I haven’t yet decided, other than that I should buy him something.

Some words of thanks must go to my corp-mates who have been very generous with birthday gifts. Gift-wrapped for Kirith have been:

· A Battlecruiser of my choice
· Exotic Dancers
· Jaguar
· Offers to have Happy Birthday sung down Vent, kindly declined :P
· Rifters
· Spirits

Certainly none of this has been looked for, but it’s really nice nevertheless especially considering that I haven't been a Tusker all that long. The camaraderie I see every day is truly something that sets EVE apart from other MMO's that I have played.

Topping the Campaign boards

I'll start by saying, what a week! Achieving 30 kills in a single week and all solo has got to be good going.

- 10 Pods
- 9 Frigates
- 3 Cruisers
- 2 Battlecruisers
- 2 Destroyers
- 2 Noobships
- 1 Industrial
- 1 Interceptor

All these kills have now put my on top of our current campaign scores & kills, sure I may not stay top scorer for long but getting there for me is probably a one-off that I'm really pleased to have done. Ordinarily amongst such successful pvpers I don't stand a chance of getting to the top of weekly scorers or killers. I would like to get 100 kills in the campaign, just as a personal objective. Thats going to be tough to achieve though.

I've had my share of losses this week too though, lost a ship to a POS (don't ask!) and lost a couple in fights with a Republic Fleet Firetail, the first fight saw us both bumping into a station and getting screwed over. The second fight at a planet was totally epic, my Rifter tanking over 6000 damage during the fight. It came down to a fight over Structure which I lost. I believe following talking to the Firetail pilot after the fight that his ship had faction/deadspace fittings so that makes me feel somewhat better, it was such a close fight though.

My alt I mentioned last week has been doing well for me with her trading in Rens, up to 37.5m ISK profit for me now which is very pleasing. I have also taken out a 21 day trial account to see if I can make a decent amount of ISK in those 21 days through mission running for around an hour per day. Currently the trial character has a net worth of around 18m so things are looking good, at the end of the 21 days all ISK will go back to the Darkblade crime family.

I'm going to stop posting about each fight, at least for this week as it would take too long and you probably aren't that interested in the more mundane ones. Thus I am going to select my personal highlights from the week. Although I have bagged two more Battlecruisers they were really easy kills so don't deserve any further mention.

First Interceptor Kill
This was the pilot of the Caracal last week who had wanted revenge on me but got ganked in the process. We danced around the system a while and whilst i could get to his location he was reluctant to engage me. He said that me chasing him worried him because he thought I knew I could kill him. After several meetings he jumped system with me hot in pursuit and again we danced around the system. Eventually though he engaged me and was doing a nice job of orbitting and keeping range slowing eating my shields. I decided to attempt to break orbit with some manual pilots and overheating of my mids, well it worked and i caught him just enough to shut down his MWD, it was quickly game over from there.

Smacky Pilots
I've had the misfortune this week to run into some pilots who felt the need to smacktalk in local following loss of their ship or indeed during the fight. I am a Tusker and I will not rise to it, though it has to be said that if you smacktalk me don't expect to have the offer of a Pod ransom. Here follows the rollcall of shame:

1 - Kreagan Longstrider
2 - Tysirus Hayden

Dual Rifters
The last time I fought two Rifters I died without killing either, yesterday however I fought a couple and killed both and podded one (who couldn't afford the ransom). The fight was also pretty comfortable for me, meaning no disrespect for my opponents. No overheating or micromanagement was required. I take this to mean that my specialisation in Matari Frigate combat is starting to pay off.