Wolf vs Drake

So in a moment of madness I decide this is a day I want to play in my Wolf. Note that this post has been in draft a long time and was prior to the Assault Frigate buff. The Wolf is a ship I want to love so dearly but never seem to have tamed it and broken it to my will. One thing is certain the Wolf does not love Kirith.

I went out roaming and just two systems from my home system of Hevrice I found a flashy -10 Drake ratting in Costolle. I can't quite believe that it's ratting, surely a trap being flown by a flashy -10 pirate type? Though perhaps they are trying to improve their security status.

I do some quick research on Battleclinic that yields little except that this pilot does fly Drakes and doesn't have a solo kill to their name. All their Drake losses to date have been buffer fit.

True to my own decision making style I decide what the heck and warp in, landing shows me that he is indeed ratting. I swiftly establish point and begin hammering him with republic fleet EMP s and Gremlin Rage Rockets (Yes I know they're now Mjolnir). I make excellent progress through his buffer. His missiles are barely hurting me with my small armor repairer soaking it up nicely. I get a warm glow inside owing to the knowledge of an explosion about to happen until suddenly.....

Falcon.....

Of course I'm jammed straight away and now start taking some fire from the Falcon too. Decision time, I plump for attacking the Falcon and burn over to him. Still perma jammed and tanking the damage just fine I settle into a comfortable orbit around him waiting for a jam to fail. After carrying on for several minutes the missed jam just isn't coming. I've asked on comms and intel for an assist but sadly none is forthcoming so with some disappointment I warp off an move on.

My first suddenly Falcon moment, I've done well in avoiding having come across this before and consider myself well overdue for the experience.

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!

November 2011 Character Review

Hi again, still working through my backlog of blog topics whilst adding some to the list. It feels like it’s been a quiet month for me with limited in game time, there has definitely been a big sense of anticipation and excitement over the Crucible expansion deployed this week.

Let’s take a look at the statistics from November first:

25 Ship kills (15 Solo)

7 Pod kills

4 Ships lost (All Solo)

0 Pods lost

138,489,544 isk income from ships destroyed

13,000,000 isk received from ransoms

102,819,227 isk cost of losses

48,670,317 isk ‘Profit’ for the month

A far better month than last, achieving a fair profit. The beginning of the month was much busier than the latter half, due to me having low game-time which I was fully expecting. I lost two Jaguars, a Bellicose and a Rifter.

I’m still not loving the Jaguar; one loss was to a Rapier as I got entangled in an asteroid belt whilst chasing another ship. The other Jaguar to a Wolf who was waiting for an agreed fight with a corpmate and caught me as I was trying to warp out to leave them be.  I lost the Rifter being overconfident in attacking a Crusader, really not expecting a web instead of point. The Bellicose, well I decided to fight a Rapier who had uncloaked nearby despite the fact that I was already aligned and ready to warp, not the best plan tbh but I got bored J.

This is how my skill distribution looks at the moment:

 

Continued dedication towards the ‘Rifter Plan’. Acceleration Control V, Thermodynamics V & Energy Management V completed. Still on course to have completed the Rifter Plan by the end of the year. Thank you to all those who commented on my last post about what to do next, no decisions reached yet.

I still toy with the idea of buying a Fleet Stabber & Scythe, but as yet haven’t done anything about it.

My alt accounts continue to do excellent work on my behalf. 526m isk profits made from station trading. Contract trading on a single contract slot is sporadic at best, but when I get a buy/sell I make a bonus 10m isk for negligible effort. Skill training swapped back from my Prober to my mission alt this month who has been padding those social skills to make maximum benefit of LP gains. I’ve been looking again at the option of a Carrier and don’t feel that it’s necessary at the moment so may go for something mission busting like a passive Rattlesnake.

June 2010 Character Review

It's a couple of days late, for which I apologise.

June has been a weird month for me, it kicked off with the Alliance Tournament which seems like oh so long ago. Then I was swept up with the Dramiel whirlwind and destroyed a host of ships with it. Since the loss of the Dramiel though I have struggled to find the inclination to fly. Tonight for example I was determined to get out there and fly. And I did just that, but only for 25 minutes. In that 25 minutes I managed to lose Blog Moar!, the Wolf which I have talked about a couple of times. It was lost valiantly tackling a Myrmidon whilst a corp mate attacked it with his Ishtar. Now I am logged off again feeling a bit "Meh, can't be arsed". The biggest factor in this for me is that June also saw my trusty laptops graphics card overheat and completely wreck my laptop. I have been attempting to fly on my desktop PC but I just can't get my mojo using a desktop. Fortunately though my new laptop is scheduled to arrive on Monday so I should be back to my pillage & plundering ways soon enough.

After some catch up on the Rifter plan for having diverted to the Dramiel I had three level V skills to catch this month before getting myself into the interleaving of plans. Motion Prediction, Rapid Fire & Sharpshooter are now all resplendent at level V, Hull Upgrades V has only two days remaining now. 229 days remaining on the Rifter plan. I don't expect much progress on that plan through July as I will be getting Medium Projectile Turret to V along with Medium Autocannon Specialisation to IV. Maybe just squeezing out one or two Rifter skills.

I have purchased my first Cruiser hulls already in anticipation. Five Ruptures & Stabbers, Two Bellicose & Cyclones and a single Hurricane. A drop in the ocean in numbers as I will have another five Ruptures, eight more Cyclones & nine more Hurricanes joining them soon. Moving them is a logistical "challenge" but I do like to keep a very well stocked hangar.

PS. I also plan to buy a Scythe for my comedy collection.

Kirith sits at 16.3m SP right now, major gain in the month is clearly to Gunnery. I did have to train Target Painting up for the Tournament, but other than that blip things went to plan.


My trading alts profits dropped again this month to 104m from 138m the previous month which is disheartening. Following the "free" 100,000 SP's from CCP (Thank you)I chucked a load into trading skills for my Hulk pilot to make him a much more effective trader. It early days of course as this was only a few days ago, but early signs are good. My probing alt as has been mentioned previously has now finished getting his skills to a good standard so i have moved onto my Freighter alt which again is an isk sink to train up even without the actual purchase of the Freighter!

Some stats:
Tuskers: Rank 20 on Battleclinic
Kirith: Kills 678(188 in June), Losses 108 (4 in June)
Kirith: ISK Destroyed 18.9Bn, Lost 1.1Bn

Boom Boom Pow

Well, it was bound to happen at some point almost guaranteed in fact. After nothing short of an amazing performance totally exceeding my expectations my first Dramiel "The Evil Bastard" has been lost. The little beasty died attempting tackle on one of a pair of Genos Tengus in Hevrice a few days ago:

Lossmail here

It's not been a busy week for me in terms of playtime so I don't have so much to write about. The loss of the Dramiel has put me into the saddle of the Wolf 'Blog Moar! It's not fit the way I normally choose to fit my Wolves but on the recommendation of a reader I am going to give it a try.

First blood has been spilled by the Wolf, I caught a fellow pirate ratting in his Caracal last night. I managed to take advantage of his shields having been weakened by the rats to swiftly take it down into hull. He attempted to burn out of range keeping me webbed, though through overheating my AB and Scram he could not escape. Disaster looked like it had struck though as he managed to get a jam off on me with his T2 Multispec Jammer with a sliver of hull remaining. I don't know how though but he popped just after the jam landed. Maybe projectiles have a delayed flight time effect? A nice loot drop of about 10m isk, not a bad start to this Wolf's career I hope.

In other news, I start training towards Minmatar Cruisers tomorrow, so in preparation I have bought 5 Rupture & Stabber hulls, along with a couple of Bellicose. I even contemplated a Scythe for lols but wills ave that for another day. As I am a sucker for temptation and was feeling flush I bought 2 Cyclones & a Hurricane too! My probing alt is now finished with getting decent probing skills (all IV+) so onwards I go to getting another alt into a Providence Freighter.

The Wolf

I've been able to fly Minmatar Assault Ships for a couple of months or so now, first I tried the Jaguar and was left dissappointed. Second I tried the Wolf, and again was left feeling dissappointed.

I would really like to love flying these ships but somehow they just don't do it for me. My most fundamental reason for the dislike stems from the lack of the Rifter hulls tracking bonus. Throw that on them and they would go up no-end in my estimations. However, they are what they are unless CCP changes them.

I have lost three Wolves thus far I think, two of them them against possibly the worst type of ship for them to fight against, Arbitrator & Pilgrim. The other I lost trying to solo a Drake. Typing those sentences makes me realise that perhaps my expectations of this Frigate hull have been perhaps rather high!

I have only been running a single fit on my Wolf thus far, which is as follows:

[Wolf, KD: 125mm & rep]

4x 125mm Gatling AutoCannon II (Republic Fleet EMP S)
Rocket Launcher II (Foxfire Rage Rocket)

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I

Damage Control II
Small Armor Repairer II
Gyrostabilizer II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Small Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

My skills:
8560 EHP
860 m/s
227 dps
Runs the rep for around a minute

I am determined to keep testing Assault ships as I really do want to like them, perhaps the changes in Tyrannis to insurance will make this mission a bit easier on the wallet.

Johnny Two Jags

Kirith can now fly Assault Ships, he's actually been able to fly them for a week or two and now has lost two Jaguars in that time. They have been my two most expensive ship losses to date, though that is always to be expected from T2 ships. I have yet to form an opinion on them aside from noting their high cost as I do not feel that they have had a decent road test in either my "Solo" or "Gang" variants. This post is also where I thought I'd post the initial Jaguar fits I am using:

Solo:

Rocket Launcher II (Foxfire Rage Rocket)
3x 150mm Light AutoCannon II (Republic Fleet EMP S)

Medium Shield Extender II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
J5 Prototype Warp Disruptor I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

2x Small Core Defence Field Extender I

[Statistics - Kirith Darkblade]

Effective HP: 9,733
Tank Ability: 34.89 DPS
Damage Profile - (EM: 25.00%, Ex: 25.00%, Ki: 25.00%, Th: 25.00%)
Shield Resists - EM: 78.13%, Ex: 56.25%, Ki: 47.50%, Th: 65.00%
Armor Resists - EM: 91.50%, Ex: 23.50%, Ki: 36.25%, Th: 72.38%

Capacitor: Lasts 7m 30s

Volley Damage: 349.96
DPS: 152.66

Gang:
[Jaguar, Kirith: MWD]

5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
3x 125mm Gatling AutoCannon II (Republic Fleet EMP S)

Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I
Phased Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters

Damage Control II
Gyrostabilizer II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

2x Small Core Defence Field Extender I

Effective HP: 9,111
Tank Ability: 31.78 DPS
Damage Profile - (EM: 25.00%, Ex: 25.00%, Ki: 25.00%, Th: 25.00%)
Shield Resists - EM: 78.13%, Ex: 56.25%, Ki: 47.50%, Th: 65.00%
Armor Resists - EM: 91.50%, Ex: 23.50%, Ki: 36.25%, Th: 72.38%

Capacitor: Lasts 24s

Volley Damage: 255.63
DPS: 125.93

My first Jag loss was completely my fault, losing a Caracal on my overview and wheras I thought it warped out it was merely off my overview screen which was heavily crowded with NPC ships which for the record also had full room agro on me. It was destroyed before you could say "boom" having gotten precisely zero kills with it.

The second, I lost my Solo setup while part of a gang. I should have brought my gang setup I know though I dount I would have done any better in it. I just didn't think about it when we set out. I used it very effectively to hold down a Drake comfortably while waiting for bigger hitters to arrive by merrily speed tanking, I was involved in three Drake kills before I lost it. The actual loss occurred while we were trying to bait an enemy gang which ended up with egg on our faces losing my Jaguar and a Stiletto to a Stiletto, Taranis, Drake, Rapier, Hurricane & Apocalypse while we were trying to get a decent warpin on the Apoc.

I'm not done with Jaguars, I'd like to give them a fair chance before writing them off so I am sure there are more chronicles to come. What I am looking forward to road testing is my Wolf which is sat in Station, man that thing looks impressive. I'll detail my Wolf fit in another post.

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.

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!.

Avast ya swabs, I be having me some Tech 2 Auto's

Well as of yesterday morning I am very pleased to say that I am now able to fit and use T2 Autocannons. I had hoped that yesterday evening I would get opportunity to slap a trio of them on my current rusty steed Nero and give them a taste of first blood but unfortunately I found no suitable targets on my short roam.

This morning I came across a Cormorant shortly after logging in, choosing the range to fight it at was a nightmare as it had both blasters and railguns fitted. It was a reasonably close run thing as by the end of the fight I had only 25% armour remaining but once the shields were gone on the Destroyer it went down quickly along with its pilot's Pod.

These latest kills renders my officially an Outlaw at -5.66 Security Status which is something else I can check off the to-do list.

Unfortunately tonight my long serving (for me) rusty steed Nero bit the dust. I had the bit between my teeth chasing down a hauler warping between belts when the hauler and I warped into a belt which had a Vexor and Wolf in it, needless to say Nero did not make it out alive.

Tomorrow I can look forward to strapping some weapons rigging to the Rifter for even more punch. The downside to all this T2 and upgrading the bog standard Rifter is of course the cost. Including rigging a fresh out of the box Rifter will be coming in at 3.5-4m isk rather than the 800k that it did a couple of weeks ago.