Hey again space fans!

Nice to see a few familiar faces in the comments of the last post. Hey guys (&gals).

I should probably do an update on September as the scores are now in and I could also do a character review I guess. That said I'm using a computer at work during my lunch break to pen this so I don't have the information handy. Next time perhaps if you lot of filthy pirates are still interested?

So what can I tell you about thhat's happened this last week....?

Well, I moved about 25 ships from Hevrice to a new staging system (Dastryns). One day I'll return the isk investement in that carrier! Choosing what to take is tough though, blimey. I'm indecisive enough at the best of times. I've tried to cover lots of bases with what I took but as I'm still re-learning so who knows if I've taken a good selection!

I've blown up lots of space pixels, both my own and other peoples. Got my first Tengu kill (I think), yes I know they've been around years now. Caught him in a mission/escalation with a Vengeance and held him while a corp mate in an Ishtar squished him.

Had some great conversations with some new players, one of which put up an awesome fight in a Thorax yesterday morning: Thorax Kill

Bought some new hulls to play with like a Hookbill, Comet and Kestrel. We'll see if I can break my habit of losing expensive faction hulls this month.

When I left, battleclinic ranked my 434, well my inactivity has seen that drop down to 1,238 so I have a lot of catching up to do. Best get the game face on!

Oh, and another thing. What happened to bounties? I was sat on a 200m isk bounty when I went away and now it's gone. Where did the iskies go? Anyone know?

Until next time, when I have more time to write . . . . o7

Seeing a Prophecy Through

I haven't actually posted about when and why I own a Prophecy, but yesterday I lost it. It's turn had come around when it became the next ship with insurance due to expire.

So solo roaming around in this rather elegant battlecruiser and finding little of interest I entered Melmaniel, a system a few jumps from my home base of operations in Hevrice and see an Enyo on scan. He can only be at a Faction Warfare plex which my ship can''t enter. I resolve to warp there anyway and find him at the gate.

I waste no time in locking him up and swiftly get him to 20% armour before a Kitsune arrives and jams me, A steady escalation ensues which see me engaged by eight ships. My ship was doing a grand job of tanking, but with the jams there's nothing I can do until a corpmate warps in and scares the Kitsune off. He manages also to take out a Dramiel as I go down and pays for it with his Retribution too.

It was good fun, and I was blown away by the active tank of my Prophecy, certainly an unusual fit but I had great fun.

Credit to the Goons for a good kill! GF.

Next ship out of insurance is my Fleet Tempest, hmm maybe I won't go and derp that one just yet...

Farewell Dear Penfold

A sad occurrence has befallen me, a truly black day. My dear little Breacher, that unassuming T1 Minmatar Frigate known by me and by many by the call sign "Cor Blimey Chief" has passed into my hall of legend. Now just a picture on my cabin wall in the Hevrice station which Kirith calls home.

A case of preoccupation with the slow podding of a Thorax ilot diverted my attention from local scanners allowing a Jaguar to land atop my humble craft. The mediocre (read: non-existent) tank of the Breacher crumpled like paper in mere seconds and my adversary walked away with the deadspace MWD contained within.

Many a glorious kill had been achieved during its service and it will be sadly missed but cannot ever truly be replaced, to do so would be a slur upon its memory.

I share with you now the loadout of this fine and noble space-steed

3 x TE-2100 Light Missile Bay

Warp Disruptor II
Coreli C-Type 1MN Microwarpdrive

Overdrive Injector II
Ballistic Control System II

3 x Capacitor Control Circuit I

Farewell dear friend for you shall be missed.

December Kill of the Month

A while ago I made a post about defeating an Arbitrator with one of my Breachers, well this wa sback in December and this solo kill was my entry into the Tuskers monthly solo kill contest.

I was delighted to find out that I was voted the winner against some tough competition. The normal prize is a faction frigate of choice, but as it was Christmas, Decembers award came with some bonus prize options.

The prizes which I selected from a generous list were:

• Caldari Navy Hookbill hull, I have fitted this one ready for battle but have yet to undock it.

• Cruor hull, Although I can fly this one I do not yet have lasers trained at all, I still have the Slicer I won ages ago sat packaged in my hangar for this same reason.

• Cynabal hull, I don't have Gallente Cruiser trained at all at the moment so will be adding this skill to the to-do list for this year.

'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.

The etiquette of the good fight “gf”

Lots of bloggers talk about combat etiquette in EVE; it’s a topic that comes up regularly. It is general practice for the dastardly pirates that are members of The Tuskers to offer a good fight (gf) after any fight. The preceding fight may not have been good but good etiquette calls for some recognition.

I might congratulate an opponent on attempting to withstand an overwhelming assault, likewise the same to an opponent who has defeated me. Of course if you or the opponent is podded, gf is generally challenging to offer in local! Though it has been known to be sent in the mail afterwards.

Recently I was chilling in my Rifter in Adirain, a favourite hotspot of mine. I see another Rifter on scan, I know who the pilot is as I recognise him from around and about the area who likes to fly pvp fit Rifters. Clearly he’s seen me on scan too. He is bouncing from place to place and settles at the sun. He’s been there around 30 seconds when I decide that he’s indicating that he wants a fight by not having moved off.

I warp to the sun and sure enough he’s there. We engage each other and before long his Rifter is destroyed. It wasn’t a close fight but I offered gf in local. I was somewhat surprised then when the pilot said in local that it wasn’t at all a good fight and that of course he didn’t stand a chance against a pilot with superior skill points.

Tuskers are forbidden from engaging in local smack talk so any statement in local I make always tries to be well thought through before being said. Therefore I had to consider what I said carefully if I was going to respond. I felt that I needed to say something. After a few moments pause I asked why knowing that I was in space that he had chosen to wait at the sun and also chosen to engage me when I landed at the sun. Unfortunately the pilot didn’t want to justify his comments and simply left system but not before the following parting statement…

“It’s always the fucking Tuskers”

I actually took that as something of a complement to our Corporation.

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.

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.

Breacher solos PVP fit Rifter

No I am not making it up, this did happen last night. Fortunately it's not an embarrassing tale of how I lost a Rifter to a Breacher, but how using one of my 'fitted for the lols' Breachers I killed a properly pvp fit Rifter, it wasn't even the Breacher I had fitted with a faction mod (which I've yet to undock).

The killmail is here:

http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_det ... d=10801083

And here is how it happened:

I have GCC following blowing up an Imicus and am chilling in a scan spot waiting it out in Adirain, not daring to try and dock with GCC in a paper thin Breacher. The Rifter is on scan in system. A Wreathe then comes on scan at the planet 2 customs office so I warp in at zero. On my way in the Rifter appears on scan with the Wreathe and the Wreathe leaves scan. I think oh crap I'm going to die so try to warp out on landing with the Rifter. I get tackled by the Rifter, by the time I lock him up and engage I'm at 70% shields. I immediately overheat my highs and my AB. There is no way I can dictate anything much in this fight being properly tackled so it's in the lap of the gods, reallistlicy I know I'm going down so am just waiting to warp my Pod out. I'm pretty surprised that I'm clinging on and hanging in there and the race through hit points begins. It's ends with a blue flash and me being in 40% hull. Hooray for the Damage Control II!

Total madness, I still can't work out how I did it!

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!

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.

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....

What's with all these entertaining fights lately?

It seems that this last week has been one of the best in my EVE experience as a pirate. I've had some very fun and interesting fights. A small showcase below:

Rifter & Thorax
I had warped to the gate after spotting a lone neutral Rifter sat 10km away, I was trying to get him to aggress me but he was having none of it, as I was merrily orbiting him a second flashy Rifter piloted by Eviwyn, of Hellcats notoriety landed and locked me up and engaged, just after she engaged a non-flashy Thorax landed and also locked me up and engaged. Yikes! Unlocking the neutral Rifter to avoid getting accidentally gate-gunned I set about the Rifter and made good progress in destroying it. By the time the Rifter was down I was into around half-armour, I switched focus to the Thorax and his drones. Without the added pressure on my tank of the Rifter I was able to effectively speed tank the Thorax and his drones taking him out efficiently.

Busting a small low-sec ratting gang
Entering system, this gang were at the only belt immediately on scan, by the time I had warped there they had left, so using the gold old pirate initiative I selected the next belt I thought that they would go to and warped to zero. Landing amongst a Kestrel, Tristan & Caracal I decided to take out the fastest first. So the kestrel went down, followed soon after by the Tristan. The Caracal had not warped out to my joy and was trying to avenge his corp-mates by spamming Heavy Thunderbolt missiles at me. He didn't last long with my fire switching to him. I bet they must have been scratching their heads wondering wtf just happened afterwards. PS. Ignore the Osprey on related kills, I found that later.

OPM Holdings
I'm sat safed in Adirain and see a Kestrel ratting in a belt. I warp in pop it, and pod the pilot. Return to safe spot to wait out GCC and the pilot returns in a Stabber, goes to the same belt again so I warp in pop the ship and pod him again. Return to safe to wait out GCC. Pilot re-enters local in a Stabber with a friend in a Rupture, I warp in pop the Stabber and his pod but am gallantly gunned down by the Rupture. Fortunately I jettisoned my loot at my safe before engaging. I return to base to reship. I return to Adirain again to find him back again! Ratting, again! This time he's in a Rifter so of course I go in, pop his ship and pod him again. Way too funny.

The Typhoon 50 jumps away
Bourreau, a corp-mate says on vent that he got a Typhoon tackled piloted by a three month old. Problem is that he's 50 jumps away! In for the long haul Bourreau sets to work. I decide to jump clone to Aralgrund, jump in a Rifter and speed for his location some 11 jumps away. Bourreau notes that another pirate has entered local. I eventually arrive after probably ten minutes and rendezvous with my friend in his Jaguar. We soon have the Typhoon in low armour as a Rapier decloaks 175km away and starts to MWD towards us. Bourreau bugs out to save his Jaguar but I want this guys ship killed so I hang in as the Rapier closes. As the Rapier gets within 17km from me the Phoon explodes and I align out only to be webbed, pointed and have Warrior II's sicked on me. I shoot down a number of the Drones and the Rapier bugs out \o/.

Another Corps low-sec op ruined by Kirith
So last night I'm minding my own, cruising around look for something to pewpew. I sight a gang of four ships ratting together. A game of cat and mouse ensues and I eventually land amongst them and catch their Thrasher while the rest of them bug out, I pod him too as there's another Thrasher looming. Once my GCC is up I set off in search of the other three, two systems out I find them but see a Brutix on scan too. Hmm, I drop off my loot at a station then undock to go for no guts no glory kamikaze style madness. I warp in on the Rupture, Rifter & Caracal. Boom, Rifter goes down first then the Rupture and his Pod, finally the Caracal. Battle report here. As I finish off the Caracal the Brutix appears and a Dramiel is on scan. I align out and burn away from the Brutix escaping before returning to loot the field.

The Rifter truly is a ship to fear in the hands of a madman who does not care so much about losing it! Who said solo piracy is dead!

Thrasher

And so, recently I completed training my skills to fly a Thrasher to level IV across the board. I boldly then boarded the noble craft and headed out of Aralgrund station in search of booty and conquest, Yarr! At first impression she aligns and accelerates seemingly slower than the Rifters I am used to but nothing too serious.

This is the fit I’m using right now:

H: 7 x 200mm Autocannon II
H: 1 x Small Energy Neutralizer II

M: Medium Shield Extender II
M: 1MN Microwarpdrive I
M: J5b Warp Scrambler

L: 2 x Gyrostabilzer II

R: 3 x Small Core Defence Field Extender II

Puts out about 250 dps with faction ammo.

On my first trip out I found a few targets upon which to test my wrath, entering Wiskeber the local population was high and warping to a scan spot I notice a mix of frigate and cruiser hulls from the same corp. Decided not to test my chances on them I moved to Mateber and sighted a Merlin in a belt. As I warped in the Merlin warped out as a Malediction interceptor landed with me, was this a TARP? I certainly thought so at the time, valiantly trying (and failing) to catch the Interceptor I noticed I had forgotten to bring any Barrage S as local spiked heavily, as I was chastising myself for ineptitude a Cheetah appeared in the belt who died incredibly fast to my guns as I don’t think I even pointed him. I aligned out of the belt as the ships I had seen in Wiskeber descended around me, at one point I had 5 points on me, but thankfully no scrams. Then I was perma-jammed, with nothing else I could do I overheated the MWD and very nearly burnt it out before I got out of range and lived to fight another day.

On my way to Todifrauan I normally swing through Brin & Halgatlid (typo?), In Brin there’s a Stabber and a Punisher, the Stabber is new player, the Punisher is an outlaw. Sighting the Stabber at a belt I go in and engage, but wait, whats this he has a Scram! Pretty unusual for a Stabber. So I’m stuck against a faster ship unable to close range. We are tearing into each other when the Punisher lands. I align out and it seems that the Stabber has the same idea, I escape with around 120 structure, the Stabber in armour. My shields recharge quickly and the Punisher is still in space so I go and sit at a nice obvious Planet. Soon the Punisher lands and it’s game over for him before he really knows what hit him, he perhaps thought I would be a soft target with zero armour and practically no hull. Turns out when talking about the fight in Corp chat that my victim was the room-mate of one of my corp-mates!

My last fight of the evening, other than nuking a macro pilot’s pod on a gate was against a Harpy that was at zero on a planet. A fellow pirate, we engaged as I landed and it was pretty close. I emerged victorious, though with just 10% shield remaining. Feeling very pleased with the Thrashers performance I headed home with my hold full of booty, optimistic about the adventure the ship and I are sure to have.

Achievement unlocked, 20 points

This week I killed something which I had been wanting to do since I became an ebil piwate, I killed a Retriever mining in low-sec. Yes I know I’m easily pleased but it was awesome and I was very chuffed.

Other than this rather entertaining kill it has been another bloodthirsty week in the life of a pirate, feels like loads of ships have been helped to go back to their nature as micrometeorites and space dust. Battleclinic says I have now podded over 100 pilot’s too!

This week notably I had three fights against Ishkurs, Don, a corp mate of mine advocates that you should never kill the drones on a Ishkur and just concentrate on the ship itself. I do disagree on this and to date I have always chosen to kill the drones first. In a Rifter there really isn’t an alternative otherwise you die in a fire. My chosen method is to burn away from the Ishkur keeping him out of range and shoot the drones down as they come, granted this is easier when those drones are not Warrior II’s! In the three fights I have been fortunate that I have not been alone for the whole fight. In one fight I did lose my Rifter but in the other two I prevailed with a combination of overloading repper & AB while shooting the Drones, until my corp mates arrived anyway. The Ishkur is certainly a fearsome opponent for a Rifter. Sure while I kite the Ishkur and it’s drones I lose point and the Ishkur could warp off, but I tend to find that their bloodlust seems to make them not notice this, bonus!

This week I have lost a lot of ships including my first Thrasher loss, a lot more than I have in any week since I started playing I think, current tally sits at 7 since last Sunday. Quite an entertaining loss was to Trony, who said after the fight that he had come to Hevrice to kill me after reading the blog, surely my writing can’t be that bad ;D. Good fight again Trony and nasty Taranis you have there schooling both my corpmate Kishin and then me as I warped to his aid.

If you haven't already seen, Romeo Blackstorm has started a series of interviews of Tusker pilots, they are a great read and I thoroughly recommend them. You can see his latest interview with Tusker Director Ronan Jacques here.

Back in the saddle

Well, my week away is over and its back to work tomorrow. Holidays do fly by too fast and I now feel like I would benefit greatly from another week off work to recover if you will.

As I have been away my posting has been rather less than I normally aim for. Given that my playtime this week has been very low I have little for my weekly update.

Wolf
This is my most satisfying kill of the week, the pilot was working on capturing a Faction Warfare complex after having cleared the rats. Whilst his fit wasn't spectacular it was a very close run fight. His wreck contained nearly 12,000 rounds of Barrage S ammunition so that should see me for a long while. I had the confidence to go after this Wolf after I had engaged one before I went away in Onne and were it not for the untimely intervention of a neutral drake and it's T2 light drones I would have without doubt destroyed it as it survived the fight with just 15% structure. My modules and ship took a severe battering in this fight, here's a screenie of my Rifter after the dust had settled:



I'm getting somewhat of a reputation in The Tuskers for taking out Battlecruisers in my Rifter. In the last couple of days I have upheld the reputation by despatching another Hurricane. The pilot of the Hurricane was unfortunate enough to lose his Pod to me aswell after messing around with ransom negotiations, my patience does ultimately have limits, especially so when sat in a system with many potential hostiles. I did find another pilot ratting in a Drake, but unfortunately was not able to break his tank. Always embarrassing!

As I mentioned in a previous post, the time has come for me to fly something bigger and more useful to the Corp. Along the way I have decided to train for the Thrasher, which I am currently working towards. Picking up the skills to use MWD's, Neuts, Shield Rigs and Shield Extenders which I'll need for the bigger "stuff" on the way. I always save the skill to actually fly the ship to last to make sure I have all the ancillary skills I need to fly it well. All being well I should be behind the wheel? of a Shield buffer fit Thrasher at Destroyers IV on Friday (which also happens to be my 30th birthday!). Might have to go lose the five sat in my hangar on the day to celebrate!.

Tuskers kill another Carrier

Yes, earlier this week the Tuskers killed another Carrier, this time a Thanatos was brought low by The Tuskers.

I was minding my own business in Hulmate after having tried and failed to take out an Arbitrator in my Rifter, kudos to the Arbi pilot for having a nasty setup to take on my Rifter with along with a flock of horrible Warrior II's. Following a recent small gang roam I was the only one left in a Vent sub channel when Proxxxy came into the channel, stated that they had a Carrier tackled in Muetralle and told me to haul ass and come in the biggest ship I had.

Not needing to be told twice I shot from the system, running the fearsome game guns with my GCC, I had one dicey moment in Jovainnon where I took two volleys from the sentries but otherwise made it to rendezvous with the fleet. Given that I was at the time in my biggest ship (Rifter) I didn't need to stop off in Hevrice to reship. First order of the day for Tacklers was hold point on the Thanatos and take out drones whilst doing so. His drones & fighters fell swiftly each time they were launched. I had to warp out once when I had a viscious swarm of 13 Hornet II's after me.

The fight was fairly plain sailing and was nowhere near the difficulty of killing the Archon a week or two earlier and so it wasn't long before the mighty Capital ship was destroyed. The pilot, after messing about with ransom attempts refused to pay and was summarily despatched. Looking at the fit I do wonder why he had three sensor boosters fitted, any ideas?