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

Post Rifter Plan - Revisited

Firstly, thank you to those kind readers that offered feedback on the previous post. Very much appreciated.
 
The first skill plugged in was Assault Ships V which is now completed, true to form I went out to test it and lost a Wolf! It was a blessing to lose it in some respects as it was an heirloom from when my fittings skills were not what they are today and my next one will be something of a fire-breather in terms of deeps.
 
Next up we have Caldari Frigate V for the Hookbill and Hawk which will be followed by Amarr Frigate V for the Vengeance. This will then have me at all races racial frigate skills at V ready to train up the appropriate weapon skills.
 
Once this is done I expect I'll do either Interceptors or Destroyers to V.
 
Then the focus will shift to big stuff with me training for T2 large projectiles, opening up the Tornado and then on to Minmatar Battleship V.
 
It's probably best I don't commit to post Battleship at this stage in case I change my mind! I am sorely tempted by a Tengu or Loki though!

Post Rifter Plan

As followers of my blog will be aware I’ve been working on the Rifter Plan for practically my entire EVE career with the objective of flying a max skilled Rifter of my preferred loadout. My preferred Rifter loadout is what I have affectionately named Grumblecub and looks like this:

H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: 200mm Autocannon II, RF Phased Plasma S
H: Rocket Launcher II, Foxfire Rage Rocket

M: 1MN Afterburner II
M: Warp Scrambler II
M: X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

L: 200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates
L: Small Armor Repairer II
L: Gyrostabiliser II

R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

She belts out 162 (187) dps and goes 1097 (1424) m/s. In short she’s a monster and I love flying her.

Once I complete this goal in about one month time I will be at a point which I haven’t been in EVE before, ever! That point is wondering what to train next. I have a number of skill plans input into EVEMon and I’d be grateful for any constructive feedback or suggestions which I haven’t considered from my readers.

The main thing to bear in mind is that I usually fly solo, rarely being available for most organised fleets.

Here are the options:

• Max out the skills for all the ships I can currently fly. I do have the willpower to do this :P

• Autocannon/Artillery Tempest. Feels like more of an option that I would use in fleets but maybe could attempt solo in an AC Tempest.

• Torpedo & Neut Typhoon. I have heard that people solo in these, but aren’t torps supposed to be dreadful?

• T2 Large Projectiles to fly the Tornado & later BS’s. Certainly going to be flavour of the month.

• Stiletto, I really should have learned to fly Interceptors by now shouldn’t I? But again, it seems more of a gang oriented ship and whilst the Claw is a combat Inty it’s allegedly terribad.

• Max out sub-cap Drone skills (excluding Sentries). Other than being tedious I don’t see a negative aspect here.

• Tengu. Expensive but I imagine they’re very versatile. Also, are they that much better than a Drake?

• Blackbird/Falcon. Again, gang work screams out loud here, how about a solo cloaky Falcon though…..?

• T2 Heavy Assault Missiles. Application for the HAM Drake and maybe on the Cyclone too for up close brawling.

• Vengeance. My maxed missile skills would love this ship, but lots of folk are flying them.

• Stealth Bomber. Black Ops gang based, flimsy as hell. Definitely a nice to have but would I use it often?

So what do you think? Please let me know your opinions.

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.

August 2010 Character Review

Well hello there! It's been a while hasn't it. Kirith is still very much alive, but not so much kicking right now.

Following on from July, which as I noted in my last post was my least active month spent in game at that time August has been even less active with me recording under 1 hour of time spent in game in the whole month. When I did log in I jumped in my surprisingly long living MWD Jaguar and tagged along with a few Tuskers harassing the neighbouring systems. Unfortunately no kills were had but still it was good to be on vent with the guys, meeting up with some of the new blood that had joined since my play time dropped dramatically. It's been a very busy time in real life for me which has led me to look at and rebalance how I'm spending my time, needless to say I'm really enjoyin the way life is right now though I do miss the banter with my Corp mates.

It's a bit late in the day to be writing my overdue August character review, so I'm going to bring you up to date with where Kirith is up to today in some respects, although I did export the graph below at the end of August so apologies that things are going to be a bit disjointed.

Kirith has now completed Minmatar Cruiser V and has all the support skills in place to make these things deadly when flown in anger. Being so rigid on working towards the ultimate Rifter of course means that all those support skills scale really well when shipping up. My bigger hulls really will kick out the hurt. Kirith is also now over the 20m SP bar and boy that seems to have happened fast. Small Autocannon Specialisation V is cooking as I type before I get onto interleaving the skills to fly one incredibly badass Hurricane. The shortest skills I have left on the Rifter plan come in at just under 12 days each with the longest at 23 days!

Here's how Kirith's skills broke down at the end of August:

No play time to speak of means that all other things not mentioned, including my trading income have halted. I have kept up skill training on the alt account, I aim to get one of my alts into a plex busting Tengu in time.

I would like to pick up my blogging again and get back into the saddle, even if it's just once a week but we will have to see how that goes. Now I need to get some fittings for my cruisers shipped down to Hev!

Remember my motto my fellow pirates; take a chance for you never know what you and a Rifter can achieve!