Monday, November 12, 2012

Early Worm Catches The Bird

It had been a few weeks since I had last logged in due to a terrible bout of tonsillitis, and I had not logged in since the changes to faction warfare plexing when live in the October Surprise, so I was not sure what to expect but knew I wanted to get some fights.

There was no fleet up to join so I figure I was in for some solo roaming. In honour of Nashh Kadavr I decided to use a Worm frigate setup that he claimed to love.

I'm not usually a fan of going with an afterburner when flying alone. It can often be too difficult to get fights with faster enemies when you can't catch them. But I figured it deserved a chance to show off its decent DPS and solid tank.

There is not a lot to report. In one system a Griffin pilot who was defensive plexing tried to use ECM and NPCs to kill me but my drones drove him off, and in another system a Rifter pilot with MWD teased a fight but never got within the requisite 13 km of my webber to let me lay into him before he disengaged.

But finally it was in Hikkoken as I was at the sun looking for a war target in local that a neutral non-flashy Merlin pilot warped in 80 km away.

I began to approach, curious if the Merlin pilot wanted to fight. He did not warp off but rather set up a perpendicular angle. His speed was faster than me, and thus I suspected he was rail fit and looking to kite me. This was going to be tricky.

I knew from experience that he had to get around 20 km to do some damage, so I meandered around try to pull him in closer while keeping my drones in bay. I didn't want him to warp off prematurely. We got to the range where he started hitting me so I started planning my rope-a-dope.

One direction. Look at his orbit. Wait... and turn afterburner overheat! 15km.... not enough. Pull directly away... turn 90 degrees afterburner overheat... 13 km! WEBBER!!!!!!! YES.

With the overheated stasis webifier grabbing hold my ship covered the 3 extra kilometers in mere seconds for my warp scram to engage. Then it was rockets, neutralizer, drones, and orbit for the kill.

It may not be the most impressive kill of the month, but it counts.

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