Eyes in the Sky

As time marches on, I notice that the regular faces I see in my Sunday Night Fleets change as people move on and new people fill in the spots. This is fine, this is EVE, and change is the only constant. And its always a big deal when an old familiar face comes back for a roam in Black Rise.

But one upshot of this phenomenon is that sometimes I find myself without a reliable scout as the fleet starts up. Last night I was trying out my Worm frigate and decided that I was tough enough and fast enough to be the scout for the Destroyer and Frigate Kitchen Sink fleet.

Man, scouting takes me back a decade or so. Being the eyes of the fleet was the first real role in PvP that I learned to do besides being an F1 key presser. Looking for bad guys, reporting numbers and ship types and alliances all before the advent of copy paste scan results into website parsers. And getting that hero tackle on that fleeing ship we proceed to gank... heaven.

I didn't do too much hero tackling last night and most of the kills were from two pilots from the Imperium who kept bringing bigger ships against us despite knowing we outnumbered them considerably (so props to them for providing content), but it was a good time and nice to feel the space dust of low sec in my face again.

And I love the Worm, what a nice little tough frig.

Tripping Up In The Algos

Last night the wife said "I'm calling my mom" which is code for "going to chat for half and hour or more so entertain yourself".

"Excellent," says I, "time to fool around in Eve."

I logged in and decided to give that new Algos a trial run. I undocked from Heydieles and headed towards Tama. Felt nice to be in space in a new ship again. Dear CCP, time for those new Battleships to fill out the lines.

Anyways, I jumped in Hasmijaala and found a neutral in a Daredevil there with me. I started to head back to the gate wondering if this neutral would engage a little old criminal anarchist like me. Sure enough he came right at me. I tried to give a good fight but the drones and blasters were not enough damage in time before my armour melted under the Daredevil's big damage.

I went back to Heydieles vowing to come back for revenge. I reshipped to a Worm and went looking for that Taek'il. It took a few minutes of searching but finally found him in Eranakko. This time I had the drones out and rockets blasting but I forgot to start the shield booster early and forgot to overheat it and ultimately it did me in as I exploded with the Daredevil in structure.

We exchanged more "gf"s in local and pleasant conversation about how close it was, then I docked in system and logged as my wife was off the phone and we had some Survivor to watch.

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Just before bedtime I figured I would move my pod back to Heydieles so I would be ready for the next impromptu roam. As I pulled into my home station I saw local spike with a wave of orange. The Caldari had arrived. I counted at least 17 hostiles. I debated going out in something to see if I could run into some stragglers. Then local spiked again but this time it was friendly purple. A fight was brewing... or in progress. Colour me interested...

I jumped onto Teamspeak and saw the fleet in a channel. I also noticed Marcel Devereaux was FCing the fleet. I joined up and got the low down that tht fight was happening at the sun over a strechted out battlefield. I needed something with range and defences. My Oracle. Perfect.

I warped to the sun and joined the fight. It was hectic fun and we held the field at the end. I was primaried once but the enemy lacked tackle and my armour held up and I was able to warp out. I came back and got on a few more killmails. It was great and made up for the earlier losses.

Once again Marcel is my hero.

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.

Shopping Spree

I was going to blog about the decent night of PvP I had last night, working solo and with a fleet in my favourite ship of the moment, the dual prop Dramiel, but there was nothing spectacular so I'll spare you the gory details. I will say though that I mistook an Executioner for a Crusader and a Crucifer for a Sentinel at different times. Need to bone up on Amarrian ship class names apparently.

Instead I'm going to talk about the ships I purchased in a shopping spree with my very last EON Magazine paycheque (except the Harpy which I got from trying SOMERBlink lotteries, my only win on 150 million worth of tickets, making it one expensive assault ship).

Many of these ship setups I stole from various sources which I will credit here.

Guristas Worm Frigate

This I plan to use as a brawler in small gangs where someone else is fast enough to get the initial tackle. Teh Worm has impressive drone DPS and a good sized tank to be the second ship in. I stole this fit from the infamous Nashh Kadavr.

Minmatar Vagabond Heavy Assault Cruiser

I stole this ship previously from Kovorix from Bringing Solo Back podcast fame (please come back guys!) and had fun with it until I lost it to Sansha rats on a gate during an incursion (doh). I wanted to give it another spin so I bought it again. Dual propped for maximum flexibility in determining engagements (or gtfo), big tank from the booster until charges run out, and nice DPS with good tracking and range (compared to blasters).

Caldari Ferox Battlecruiser

You'll notice a theme in a lot of these ships: Ancillary shield boosters. They are perhaps too good. This Ferox is my own creation and is a pretty simple PvP ship designed to take on cruisers and destroyers that stray too close to my webs and scram. Because its a Ferox, people sometimes underestimate it and let it get closer than they should. Plus it looks badass.

Caldari Harpy Assault Frigate

I usually fit my Harpys with blasters and go full on DPS, but I decided to try a kiting ship this time that wants to fight outside of scram range. Not sure I can pull it off but I'm willing to give it a whirl.

Gallente Incursus Frigate

I haven't had a chance to try and Incursus since the upgrade so after I lost a Rifter to a Tusker pilot frying one, I decided to scout out killboards and stole this fit from a Tusker killmail. Afterburner fit means its not a fast tackle but if it can get a hold of something, the scram should keep it close unless its a target with afterburner and webber. Once in range, the blasters and drone do an impressive amount of damage and the dual reps should keep the Incursus in the fight.

Minmatar Sleipnir Command Ship

Ever since I foolishly lost my Sleipnir at the end of August, I've been aching to get a new one to replace it as my flagship PvP battlecruiser sized vessel. I have an Astarte that has gank but not an impressive tank making it good only for gang situations close to home. This ship boasts the best of both worlds with a good amount of cruiser tracking DPS and a nice solid tank thanks to the ancillary shield booster and the ship's native bonuses.

When putting it together I inserted a few faction mods here and there that I had lying around. We'll see if I can prevent myself from losing it foolishly this time.

* * * * *

I expect comments from this post will include people telling my why one or all setups suck. I welcome such criticisms as I have no illusions to my ability in PvP in this game. 

FInally, these posts always have someone asking which program I am using. Its is called Pyfa and can be found here. I highly recommend it.