Sustainable Solo Piracy

Prompted by some recent posts by fellow bloggers and also by a couple of conversations I've had with other players in game on the question of whether solo piracy can be self sustaining I figures I'd talk about it a little.

I've always held aspirations for Kirith to be self sustaining, well that overstates it actually. It would be better to say that when I started out with Kirith I wanted him to be self sufficient. For the first eight months he actually was. Somewhat coincidentally this change in sustainability occurred around the time I joined The Tuskers!

As I've said before, out of EVE I'm an accountant which tends to result in me wanting to create a spreadsheet for pretty anything EVE related. Therefore it probably wouldn't surprise you that I maintain a log on a spreadsheet of every ship I've flown which links directly to the kills it caused and the isk efficiency of every ship. Sad, yes. True, also yes.

Overall Kirith's efficiency when we look at the cost of losses versus the income generated from module drops from those I've destroyed it appears that my piracy career has cost me around of 800 million isk, this while my actual lifetime efficiency is incredibly high at around 95%.

So what useful conclusions can be drawn from all this information which I have at my disposal?

Statistics by hull type:
Assault Frigate: 92% efficiency, Isk loss of 382 million
Battlecruiser: 98% efficiency, Isk loss of 133 million
Battleship: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 156 million
Cruiser: 0% efficiency, Isk loss of 167 million
Destroyer: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 35 million
Faction Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk loss of 136 million
Frigate: 95% efficiency, Isk Profit of 155 million

Kirith doesn't really fly ships with added bling, so very few faction or deadspace modules have formed part of this isk sink. I consider that I fit ships fairly frugally albeit not as much as I once did, but still I mostly fit a meta scram over T2 on the basis of cost vs benefit.

Kiriths drop into negative efficiency occurred when I started flying T2 frigates, by the third Jaguar loss all my months profitable flying had been undone. Granted, I state a cost to me of 800 million isk which is not the truest reflection as it ignores the ransoms of over 600m which I've received over my career.

There are other pursuits which a soloist can do while actively hunting. A couple of examples being ratting and anomalies, the rewards while certainly not high are reasonable and are an excellent way of getting people to fight you.

When I first set out as a pirate I needed all the isk I could get, I meta 2 fit my Rifter and they cost me less than a million isk each. I also ratted despite originally not actually being able to destroy a Battleship rat in my low skilled Rifter. In addition I looted everything, including making return trips if necessary. None of these secondary income streams are reflected above.

Now that I have other income sources I'm far less concerned with sustainability almost to the point where I don't think about it at all. If I wanted to be more sustainable and efficient I would stick with fleets and gang work. This strays from my heart which is more of a soloist and as I like to fly with some degree of reckless abandon it would change the way I play the game significantly.

Can piracy be self sustainable? Simply put, yes it can but with some considerations:

• Fly T1 hulls, preferably small ones.
• Carefully fit your ships and don't spend where you don't need to.
• Balance the risks when considering your targets.
• Some ratting doesn't hurt, when you find yourself with a Battleship rat pop it for an easy 500k isk.

Factoids

• Most profitable ship: S&M Freak, an armour tanked Thrasher bringing home a profit of 61 million isk.
• Biggest loss: Duellist, an active tanked Tempest I took out to spring a trap which got swiftly overwhelmed losing me 156 million isk.
• Most efficient ship: A cheap meta fit cookie cutter Rifter which took down 257 million isk total in five  ships back in 2010, achieved efficiency of 96.3% as it only cost me 955k isk in hull plus fittings!

Any stat's you'd like to know, shout out

Insurance

I'm sure that I'm not alone in the situation as a pirate when I'm faced every day with the question:

"What shall I fly today?"

Currently Kirith has in the region of 100 fitted ships in Hevrice. Choosing one can be a pain especially when coupled with my natural indecisiveness.

As my play time has diminished I have found it increasingly difficult to keep ships insured as they don't get exploded often within the 3 months that insurance lasts. Should I then fly ships that are uninsured or find an alternate solution.

When faced with this conundrum months ago I decided that I'd fly the ships in my hangar which has its insurance expiring soonest. I did think that it would be a boring way to play, but boy have I been pleasantly surprised.

This kicked off with my armour tanked Thrasher, it really did me proud and it's not a ship I fly often though I guess the same can be said about any of my ships.

Here's some stat's about S&M Freak the aforementioned Thrasher:

37 kills (13 Pods)
Caused 480m isk in damage
81m isk in drops from kills
Efficiency score of ~96%

Since the demise of this Thrasher I've been flying ships in order of insurance expiration. After the Thrasher I moved onto a Ferox. Would you believe that the Ferox didn't get exploded before its insurance expired, despite my aggressing on gates and fighting opponents it should have died to!

I feel that this exercise has also made me a better pilot as being thrust into ships which you wouldn't otherwise fly makes you learn how to fly in different styles.

So the question I pose to my readers is twofold. How do you cope with many ships in your hangar and insuring them? And what drives your choice of what to undock and roam in?

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) 

First Day Back

So this evening upon getting home from work I got my home pc and laptop setup to play eve. After that was done I was left with only 90 minutes to play spaceships. Less time than I would like, but that frequently tends to be the case!

So I log back in and am in Adirain. Sat in station in my Breacher (of doom!), I have three other ships in station. All BC's which is odd as I normally only keep one in Adirain along with a Rifter & Cruiser. I notice I need a clone upgrade and decide to do that later.

Local is busy but everyone is docked in station with me. I decide now is a good time to move my prober back to low-sec from Villore. Before my absence I made the mistake of allowing my sisters combat probes to time out in space and had needed to buy more.

Villore being next to Old Man Star I jumped in. Now being I a Covops I expected to be safe....

Wrong! Whether I failed/lagged or was too close to one of the campers when I jumped through I don't know. I selected my warp to target then  my cloak broke after I activated it. Instantly locked an popped, I was amazed to get the Pod out tbh.

So I turned around and went to Dodixie to replace my Covops in exchange for 30m iskies. This time I headed back to low-sec via a different route! Safely!

Anyway, back to Kirith. After my prober shenanigans are done I undock in a Drake, Adirain is busy but little in space. A Sentinel, Rifter, Thrasher, Arbitrator, Tristan are all in system at different times but I fail to nuke any of them.

The arbitrator warps away as I land with him. the Tristan swiftly pulls range, picks on a Warrior II and then warps off in armour. The Thrasher pulls range as I attack him on station and escapes.

Other notable(ish) events in Adirain were being yellow boxed by a neutral Hurricane on the high-sec gate until he got bored and jumped out as BC vs BC with gate guns on their side isn't a fight I'd choose! And I blew up a Covetor and his Pod.

I eventually decided to return to Hevrice to downsize ship. On my way one system out I cross jumped an 8 man gang coming the other way. Lucky timing! Docking up I switched to a Thrasher as another small gang jumped into Hevrice.

Undocking I warped to a watch point on the Jov gate to get eyes on their fleet and fed back their fleet composition over vent as Sulei had formed a BC fleet to counterattack. The gang jumped from Hev to Jov and then on into Aeschee. In Aeschee the two enemy gangs engaged each other. Sulei put the Tusker gang in Jov on the Aeschee gate and jumped in to the two gangs. Meanwhile I was busy reshipping to a Drake and making my way to the Tusker fleet.

Sadly by the time I arrived the gangs were broken and had scattered and I missed out on the mails.

So, not the busiest or most explosive of evenings but it's good to be back.

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.

100!

Another 100 landmark reached and exceeded with Kirith last night. I finally reached 100 losses.

Now most people know that I fly my ships pretty damn wrecklessly so to hear that I have hit 100 losses won't be a surprise. Indeed some people probably think I have lost way more than that.

For the tale of that hundreth loss I would love to regale you all with some spectacular story of getting blown up in blaze of glory. The truth however isn't so interesting sadly. Feeling quite chuffed with delivering revenge to some pilots who had earlier in the evening killed another "Doomed Wolf" of mine I cheerily went on into Lisbaetanne with my Thrasher, spotting a Rifter sat in a belt I threw caution to the wind and dived in (that's my style) and fairly quickly despatched it. However all was not well as an Ishkur, Dramiel & Rifter landed on me and proceeded to blow my poor Thrasher to pieces.

So, roll on 200.


I am therefore running a competition to see who can correctly guess the ship type that will be my 200th loss. The prize will be 50m isk (I don't have loads of liquid iskies ya'know) paid upon the death of my 200th ship as listed at Battleclinic.

To enter this fun contest just drop me (Kirith Darkblade) an in-game EVE Mail with the subject "200 Competition" with the ship that you think will be my 200th loss. I'm looking for specifics like:

Federation Navy Comet NOT Frigate. However Pod is of course valid.

Entries are open until midnight May 31st EVE time. Be aware that the prize may not be awarded for a long time as it depends how long it takes for me to lose 200 ships! In the event of a tie for the correct answer the prize will be split evenly.

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?

A Tale of Two Pods

Both mine.

It was one of those times when you wonder if the world is conspiring to take you down a peg or three. I am fortunate in so much as I don't fly with expensive implants or perhaps the urge to "ragelog" would have been greater, but a couple of days ago I had an evening where everything I touched or did seemed to go horribly wrong.

The culmination of the fail-cascade was me being podded twice within an hour of each other. First I engaged a Claw in my Rifter and lost, I got the message that my Pod was warping and then watched it get destroyed. Landing in a fresh clone some 50 low-sec jumps away I renewed my clone, plugged in some cheap +1's jumped into a Thrasher and set off back to Hevrice. I had gotten to the Heimatar Faction Warfare area. I was warping out to the next gate as a Punisher snagged me just as a Faction Warfare gang landed on the same gate and made very short work of my ship and pod. Waking again in Aralgrund I decided I was going to take the "safer" short route across high-sec in my Reaper after renewing another clone and plugging in some more +1's. This trip was fortunately uneventful, though the Faction police managed to relinquish my Reaper of shields, armour & a chunk of hull before I got back to Hevrice.

Thinking back to why this happened, I conclude that I have become guilty of complacency. I seem to have become overconfident in my abilities and have paid the price. I hope now that I fully appreciate the lesson I have received. Confidence is a good thing, Over-Confidence only sets you up for a fall.

March 2010 Character Review

This month has seemed to run along quite slowly, I'm not entirely sure why as it's been an interesting one.

I've now been able to upgrade my secondary jump clones implants to +2's so I don't feel frustrated jumping into it and losing training time and I've started taking a peek at some hardwiring, dang they can be pricy! As we stand, there are 308 days remaining in my Rifter plan. As per last month I have continued to diversify from the Rifter plan. The Thrasher plan has been completed and I can now fly Thrasher nicely with all relevant skills at least to IV. I also picked up and trained Assault Ships which also is now at IV.

The next goal is the Dramiel once I have my Drone skills done in a couple of months, followed by Rupture and then on to the Hurricane. As I am relucant to let go of the Rifter plan I will be interleaving skills from these other plans by doing for example one Rifter skill, one Drone skill, one Rifter skill etc. Yes I am fully aware that I am delaying flying the bigger ships, but I feel that if I put down the Rifter plan it will never get finished.

Increasing Kirith's SP's this month by 1.5 million the most significant gains have been to Mechanic, Gunnery, Spaceship Command and making a start on Drones. Drones V completes tomorrow.


After spending practically the Darkblade family's net worth this month on restocking the hangar with Thrashers, Rifters and a smattering of T2 frigs cash resources have bounced back nicely, especially after my recent good fortune on the market recently, even to the extend that I bought a Jaguar for Kirith hangar in Aralgrund.

I am making use of all my alt slots, the four non-training alts are station trading on their basic 5 buy/sell orders and my Miner alt is chugged away towards a Hulk in just over a month. Trade alts total income generated so far 253m ISK.

Updated Battleclinic stats:
- The Tuskers are ranked 39th, up one place on last month.
- Kirith has 411 kills for 72 losses, My busiest month ever for both kills and losses.
- Assets destroyed soars to a total of just under 8bn this month.

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!.

Podded...

Yes that's right. For the second time in my immortal Capsuleer life I got podded. This time I only had a bounty of 80,000 ISK on my head.

The podding itself wasn't a big issue to be fair, the inconvenience of being shot 38 jumps back to my clone vat was perhaps more frustrating. What it did give me though in a positive note was the opportunity to splash out and fit some +2's (Cutting 17 days off my Rifter plan). I also realised I needed more ships in this neck of the woods so it also made me restock and try a new Rifter loadout. All around a pretty good outcome from a something which can really upset some people.

So, armed with four fresh Rusty Rifters in the hangar, a new clone paid for and some +2's I set out on the 38 jump journey home. It was a reasonably eventful trip bagging two kills on the way and also one once I arrived back in Hevrice.

Only two fights worthy of specific mention this week. The first I fought a Thrasher who was at a Moon, so much for no Frigate can fight this setup and win. If he had used a Neut instead of the Nos then he may have won. The result was that I killed him by going in close and overheating everything and came out the other side with 75% structure remaining. The killing of this Thrasher seemed to result in me being stalked by an ever increasing Omega Vector Gang, that culminated in them coming into Hevrice then realising they were outgunned and running away to highsec, which was probably a wise choice!

The second worthy fight was against two Rifters, well, it became two Rifters. The first I was engaged with a Hellcat Eviwyn who I had read about in Mynxee's blog, we were having a good exchange when a second Rifter engaged me. I managed to take out Evi whilst taking very heavy damage myself. Bleeding into structure a lot. I eventually went down to the second Rifter and was podded but had him at 60% structure by the end. An awesome fight.

One Small Step, One Giant Leap

And so, as alluded to in my last post where I was thinking of taking the first steps to getting into something other than a Rifter I have taken the first important steps. I have bought and injected some skill books, namely:

Destroyers
Minmatar Cruiser
Battlecruisers
Medium Projectile Turret
Drones
High Speed Manouvering
Shield Upgrades
Shield Rigging

And a couple of others that I can't quite recall

What the eagle eyed / regular followers will notice is that this doesn't include training for an Armageddon as noted last post. I figure that I can be useful enough for the time being in a Battlecruiser. My first port of call is going to be the Thrasher once I finish training Weapon Upgrades to V and Advanced Weapon Upgrades to IV.

After I have trained to fly these ships to an acceptable standard I hope to return to the maxxing of my skills to fly the Rifter. Time however, will tell.

First Fleet with the Tuskers

The last few days had been spent placing jump clones in the required places and setting up the hardware in some of those locations. That done I decided to go and have a poke around to set up some safe spots etc. While creating some bookmarks in Hevrice I scanned a Catalyst down to a belt, on warping in he had gotten himself trapped amongst the 'roids, he was around 20km away but couldn't escape for bumping off rocks. I saved him the trouble of getting himself out of the belt by taking away two of his obstacles, his ship & his Pod and thus giving him an express trip straight back to his cloning facility. Not wanting to get stuck between the rocks myself I stopped 5km away and just blew him to bits.

Afterwards I joined with an ad-hoc fleet of Tuskers. I spied a Drake at a FW complex and upon reporting it to the fleet the FC he instructed that we go and pay him a visit. He was quickly tackled and pulverised, I'm not sure whether he primaried me but I was just into armour when it popped. He paid the ransom to save his Pod and was bade farewell. There was mention of moving to a neighbouring system so I warped to the gate, forgetting about my GCC my Rifter got smashed to bits by the gate guns. Fortunately a corp mate was able to recover the few modules that survived (thank you).

Returning to the station I got into one of my stash of "Cheap & Expendable Ships" (Meta 2 fit with no rigs), until finances allow my T2 fit Rifters will have to be just for solo work. Can't really afford to lose them to gate guns like that. All my isk does tend to come from Piracy, perhaps with a few rats killed here and there to try and get some nice faction drops. Thus my isk supply is very scarce, were talking a balance of less than 5m normally.

The gang moved on and on our travels we found several ships, some were destroyed by the gang before I could even lock & shoot! but I did manage to get on a few killmails. Though I missed the Merlin KM, I got in on the Pod's. I completely missed a Thrasher & Pod kill but did manage to get on another Catalyst & Pod mail. My evening ended playing cat & mouse with a Taranis at a FW mission warp gate. I was designated to tackle him, which although I did the contents of the mission decided they took umbrage to me and I went down very quickly. I'm thinking that a heavily tanked cheap Rifter could be worth looking into, maybe with no offensive capability? I headed home after the Taranis nuked my ship but was pleased to hear that the fleet destroyed the Taranis after I had gone down.

My first Tusker fleet was what I expected it to be I think, excellent, especially considering that the FC was FC'ing for the first time. I was pleased to be a part of it and am sure that I'll be in a lot more to come.

Going to Clone Jump again soon I think to roam my normal space lanes and hopefully make some isk. I have a few erm, controversial Rifter fits in Heimatar that really need testing. There's probably a good reason you never see the fits I am testing anywhere but we'll see how they go and you can all laugh at them when they show up on killmails. I have a couple of cheap fit ones to learn in with Meta 2 gear and no rigs and a couple of T2 ones once I hopefully work out how to best fly them!

100 kills!

Without further adieu I announce that i have reached 100 kills, pretty much all of them solo apart from i think two.

My fights today were pretty nice against a couple of Rifters who were well fitted. One player was older, and one younger than I which was dictated in the quality of the fights. Against the older player we were pretty evenly matched until low shields when i took the lead. Although i ended the fight at 50% armour I wasn't permanently running my repper as I didn't feel i needed to so I was rather pleased. The second Rifter I found waiting out his GCC at a Moon, he wasn't paying attention as I landed but i soon got his attention. He went down easy and I don't think i even went into armour. I snagged his Pod too and was about to pick on a Thrasher in system when another pilot destroyed it (the pilot of the earlier Rifter I had killed), he was in a Rupture this time and i knew he had a good fit so I stayed away and unusually for me utilised caution!

Although my application to EACS (see previous post) has gone in to get my jump clones it hasn't been processed yet so perhaps it'll get done tomorrow.

Kite Kill

It's been a few days since I posted anything. So I'll do a little bit of an update.

First, I lost a Rifter the other day to an Incursus. Granted the pilot was older than me but I thought that I would have put up a better fight than I did. Pursuing the pilot through a couple of systems I scanned him down to a planet. When I landed he was roughly 40km away, I started my approach as did he and at 20km I was pointed. The Incursus pilot maintained his orbit around 14km-20km and pounded me with his Railguns, I thought for a while that I would be able to tank it, but that did not prove the case. I wasn't able to eat into his orbit either as he would MWD out of range if that ever looked like a danager and overheated his modules at just the right time to ensure that I wasn't flying out of this one in my Rifter. Kudos to him, gf's exchanged in local and it set me to thinking whether an artillery Rifter was worth a go. I have knocked one up on EvE-HQ that I might try. Does anyone have any experience in them?

Targets have been scarce as I have mentioned a few times. Today I roamed into a system with a Myrmidon and Thrasher. They were in conversation, and when I appeared my bounty caught their eye. They seemed to be discussing ratting and killing me, how rude! I chased the Thrasher around for ages and nearly caught him once but fell just a tad too short and he warped out. I then pursued him out of the system and then back into it again! finally catching him in a belt, looting. He had a nasty fit and soon removed my shields and half my armour before I took up a wider orbit to lessen his damage, this strategy worked a treat and from 5km I reduced the Thrasher to slag in a pretty explosion then locked and dispatched his Pod after he didn't want to pay a 20m isk ransom, maybe a little extortionate but that's besides the point.

I had been reduced to a single spare Rifter in the hangar so I bought another 7 in, complete with fittings. I had decided that I would try a new variant this time and see how it went. It just tops 100dps with my skills which makes it my most powerful Rifter loadout. The Thrasher today was it's first kill, but the lack of a Damage Control was apparent. We'll see how it goes though, I have three of them to test out.

Here's the fit:
H: 3 x 150mm Autocannon
H: Rocket Launcher
M: Afterburner
M: Web
M: Scram
L: Gyro
L: 200mm Plate
L: Small Armor Repairer
R: Small Projectile Collision Accelerator
R: Small Projectile Burst Aerator

An encounter with SUICIDAL Larsen

After a long roam yesterday I came across two newer players, both flying Thrashers. Both appeared to be docked up, sometimes launching only to redock again. I played the being patient game for around 20 minutes and decided to leave the system once both players appeared to have logged off. Entering the neighbouring system I discovered one of the pilots must have escaped without me noticing and had not logged off. The Thrasher was in a belt that could be scanned from the gate I had jumped through. Warping to him I landed and he was far enough away to warp out. Following his trajectory I landed at his destination and caught him. Both he and his Pod went down swiftly and without fuss.

Next, the other pilot who had logged off jumped into the system, again in a Thrasher. I was about to hurtle off after him when a Pirate who I had been wary of for a long time entered the system. I had pinpointed the Thrasher by this time but decided to hold position. SUICIDAL Larsen was his name and he was in a Claw Interceptor. I warped around a bit but maybe it's paranoia but I could swear he was after me. Locating the Thrasher again I decided to use him as bait, keeping him on scan until the Interceptor went for it which within a couple of minutes it did I warped in. Tackling the Claw I went through his shields quickly, however his armour tank was incredible and all my damage was repaired. Meanwhile I was taking plenty of damage and was soon cap dry. I escaped with my pod and exchanged gf, commending him on his ship & skills. That was one tough Interceptor and I consider myself lucky to have gotten my Pod out.

Tonight has been slow again as there are lots of big gangs out there. One gang I saw had 10 Drakes present and a whole lot of support too. I did manage to snag a Rupture and its pilot's Pod too a moment ago, which is always a nice thing to end an evening on. I took out his drones first, he had three with a mix of medium and light. He had a pvp fit, unfortunately most of the T2 fittings in it blew up with the ship. It's actually quite nice to take out a ship that's pvp fit rather than someone unprepared in a belt ratting ship.

Finally some action

Having yesterday finished my extended roam route, today I followed it. I managed to snag a new player in a Thrasher in one of my old haunts, he did about half shield damage to me by the end of the fight. I caught his pod too and sent him swiftly back to the clone vats as being so young he wasn't worth a ransom & I'm still working on getting the cherished -10.0 security status.

The main event of the evening was catching up with a player running cosmic anomalies in a Cyclone. Some research on Battleclinic showed that this pilot knew how to fit his ships well. The pilot had escaped me earlier in the evening so I decided that I would try my luck anyway. We fought in a system with Faction Warfare complexes and it was at a Large Complex that I found him waiting. Engaging each other I had a flight of horrible Warrior II'2 after me whilst being Nos'd & Neuted. I made the Drones my primary target but already at this stage knew how it would end. Every time I started damaging the drones they were recalled and relaunched. Some small mercy was that his 425mm T2 Auto's couldn't hit me, but alas that they didn't need to and the Drones were more than up to the task pretty smartly dropping me into my escape Pod. I warped out to fight another day. I had a nice conversation with the pilot afterwards and hopefully will fight again some other day.

One other event of the evening that is noteworthy is that along my new route I came across three gatecamps. Being 25, 15 & 8 ships. I don't know whether they were Faction Warfare pilots or pirates but I wasn't hanging around to find out. Being fortunate that there were no Interceptors present I was able to make good my flight from each without being locked. I certainly will be more wary in future.