Tormenting a noob

I just had an exciting experience. With my freighter! Not exactly a typical Zappity story, I know but I bought a freighter for my alt. Ishomilken borders the highsec system Usi and I am terribly lazy. So I bought a freighter for my alt to bring my hulls in with. Since I am EXTRA lazy, I have been getting the hulls public couriered to Usi, meaning that I don't have to endure many freighter jumps.

Anyway, I jumped the freighter into Ishomilken and set up a limited engagement with Zappity before decloaking for the warp to the station dock bookmark. As soon as it decloaked Zappity locked and double-webbed it. The freighter entered warp instantly - that really is a cool trick. Rinse and repeat on the way out after using the insta-undock bookmark. Anyway, not very exciting for you guys but quite satisfying and filled with tension for me! At least it was the first time I did it. I’m already bored with freighters (it really doesn't take long) although they are extremely useful.

And because you read this far, I will also tell you about a noob I killed in a Tormentor. My interest was aroused by the name on his ship: "#2 of 6". I initially thought it was an attempt to scare off potential killers by suggesting there were other ships waiting in the wings. Naturally I took no notice of this and went for the throat regardless. A very odd fit:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/39186722/

I chatted with the pilot in local and asked what went on. He was a new PvPer and was planning on learning by trial and error. His first task was to lose six Tormentors, each with different fit styles. Great stuff! So I killed him again:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/39186757/

I sent him 20m and left him alone after that, not wanting to scare him off. Next, I came across a Hawk who clearly wanted a fight. I gave him one for the minute it took for it to become clear that I couldn't quite break his shields. So I cheated and summoned a corpie in another T1 frigate who happened to be in system at the time.

A neutral Executioner arrived as we were breaking him down. Those things can have nasty DPS if they are fit for scram kiting so I watched him closely, ready to switch to him if he was too aggressive. I was pretty confident I'd be able to punch through his defence if he was damage fit. But he scarpered to 30km immediately, leaving me to wonder what he was there for.

The Hawk died. It was tremendously satisfying for some reason:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/39187298/

Oh, and what was in the freighter at the outset? A stack of Thorax and Vexor hulls, of course!

Busy not liking the Firetail

I’ve decided that I don’t much like the Firetail. I think it is underpowered for solo work. Two of us, both in arty Firetails, had a Vengeance tackled in a plex. After a couple of reloads we had to warp off due to incoming damage - we just couldn’t break him. Two of us!

Next, I found an arty Firetail who wanted to fight my Comet. I was in armour and halfway through my nanite charges in the repper when the controls stopped responding. You know that sinking feeling when you realise you have disconnected and it is just a matter of time before 'socket closed' pops up? I was sure that my pod would be popped (ouch) but hastily logged back in anyway. When I saw that the login screen was showing me as still in the Comet I thought it was just a cruel taunt.

But as grid loaded, there was the Firetail, still plinking away at my hull! I turned the repper back on, loaded Spike and drove him off. And then I killed him when he emerged from the station in an Atron. And I got his pod. I think he panicked instead of just redocking. Haha.

Atron: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23025067
Pod: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23025066

Having said that, this Firetail (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23025065) had some nasty DPS. If this fit had something better than the nanofiber things may have ended differently.

Anyway, I think it is time for a change. Gallente Cruiser V is rapdidly ticking along so I am going to bring some new hulls in.

A bait Merlin farming fit

If in doubt, fire! Unless there’s a Daredevil around. In which case discretion should be the better part of valour. Unless you are Zappity, in which case go back for seconds!

There were two Merlins in the system, named identically and evidently farming to their hearts’ content. I jumped into a plex after the first, watching short scan for the second to appear. Just the sort of sneaky trick a nasty farmer WOULD play. But, to my surprise, a Daredevil appeared.

My Comet was hitting the Merlin pretty hard, but I still aligned out away from the beacon to ensure a timely getaway when the Daredevil arrived. He landed just as the Merlin hit hull which I found intensely annoying. I warped off and waited in my safe until the Daredevil disappeared and farming again ruled the day.

Rinse and repeat. Well, almost repeat since this time I stuffed up my align and the Daredevil landed a scram. I said goodbye to my Comet, thinking that I could at least take the Merlin with me. And then he warped off!

A bait Merlin farming fit! I couldn't help but be impressed as I limped home in my Velator. And annoyed that I fell for it. I will get my revenge!

Loss: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=22981986

A strange Harpy

So, a Harpy. I can take him in a rail Comet, can’t I? Um, sure... I am even less convinced when I finally get eyes on him and see that he is rail fit. I certainly wouldn’t be kiting him effectively. But what the hell, let’s go.

I jump on him and land a scram and web. I disable the scram as soon as I see he is afterburner fit (I figure he won’t run from a little Comet) and set my distance to 7500m, chipping away at his shield. He is hitting me pretty hard so I dive into a close orbit and turn my guns off, leaving the job of attacking to my drones. He spots this and immediately switches his web and guns to my hobbies, making short work of them. As he does this I switch back to range and start pounding him again.

His shield is dropping pretty fast and I expect his repper to kick in any second. But then he drops into armor, just as he starts firing at me again. That’s strange! I unleash my second flight of three drones and keep hammering away, hoping to beat him down before he kills me (or remembers his reps).

And then his armour jumps up! Even stranger! Needless to say I am VERY interested in seeing his fit now so I keep up the damage until he pops.

Kill: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=22981839

I don’t know what to say. It just goes to show: if in doubt, fire! 

Messing about with a SFI

A Stabber Fleet Issue was stalking me around the system while I was tootling about in my Algos. I guess he wanted some attention so I decided to give it to him in the form of an Enyo:

[Enyo, Zappity’s vampy ions]

Magnetic Field Stabilizer II

Small Ancillary Armor Repairer

Pseudoelectron Containment Field I

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

1MN Afterburner II

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

Light Ion Blaster II, Void S

Light Ion Blaster II, Void S

Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

Light Ion Blaster II, Void S

Light Ion Blaster II, Void S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I

Small Processor Overclocking Unit I

I undocked to find him waiting for me on the docking ring. I told you he was stalking me. Since I don't like station games I used my insta-undock before making my way to the Medium plex. He must have guessed my intention because he landed at the same time on the acceleration gate.

We were only 10 km apart so I went straight into a 500m orbit after turning everything on. He landed a single solid hit on me with his guns which destroyed my shield but that was the only time his guns were relevant. And then he launched his drones, five Warriors which I instantly targeted and started blapping with my blasters. He didn't notice until I had killed three in quick succession. He then pulled the remaining two before launching a fresh set of five. So I started killing them, too.

His drone DPS was pretty good and my repper was running hot, slowly burning up. Unfortunately, my cap was going in the opposite direction and starting to look worryingly low by the time I judged up could give the repper a break. He pulled his last two drones back just in time and I immediately turned the repper off to let my cap recover. Just in time!

And so we settled down to it. I reloaded and repaired my repper, switched to Void and tried to break his tank. He dipped into structure but then started repping immediately. And again. And again. And again.

And again. Stalemate! I considered logging an alt in to neut him out but decided that it wouldn't be particularly satisfying after such a good fight. He had turned his scram off, either to conserve cap of to encourage me to leave I can't say. So I waited until my orbit was roughly pointing in the right direction and warped back to the station. I complimented him on his tank (which I suspect was dual repper) and we parted ways.

So no kill mail for your perusal, unfortunately. However, it was probably something like this earlier loss:

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=22423499

Tanky enough for my 346 DPS. A shame - it would have been a nice kill. Still, I successfully managed my tank, heat, reloads, repairs and cap as well as the opponent’s damage. Quite satisfying despite the lack of a kill.

I land on a Novice acceleration gate in my rail Comet and spot a Tristan sitting at 140km. I can’t catch him at that distance so I jump into the plex and open the scanner window. I choose an unopened plex 20AU away and warp to it at 10, hoping the Tristan's curiosity would get the better of him.

When I land I immediately align back to the Novice and check short scan. Sure enough, a Tristan soon appears. He drops out of warp about 30 km from me (warped to 50 I think) so I overheat the burner and manage to land a scram. I don't know if he tried to get away - I suspect not.

This was a very close fight. Far too late I realised that a significant amount of damage was coming from his guns. I tried to increase my range from 5 up to 8km but was just about capped out. I hit structure and shut down the scram and burner for a couple of cycles, hoping my drones would finish him. We crept down in structure together, our reps delaying the inevitable for one of us.

And then I capped out. I hate that audio. "Your capacitor is empty." I manually activated the rails for one last attempt and happened to land a lucky shot, wrecking his hull! I was at 24% structure.

A sizable chunk of errors on my part meant this was a close fight. But against a very capable pilot, so what the hell!

Kill: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=22970757

I lost a Comet today. Sigh. There I was, innocently trying to murder a ratting Hurricane, when he neuted me out and killed me!

How rude. Don't people know they are supposed to bring rubbish PvE fits into our home system?

Actually, I think he WAS farming. It's just that his targets were silly noobs like me instead of little red crosses!

Loss: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=22947000

THIS is what people should bring to asteroid belts:

Thorax: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23016170

And then block my convo attempt when I realise that my victim is a noob. That's probably why I could kill him in my Incursus. I traded him his loot back when I noticed him in the same station anyway, for which I received a terse "thanks" email. I sense some butthurt. I don't like chasing people away from lowsec.

Anyway, I reshipped and headed out for a wander. Shortly afterward I was landed on by a small gang of frigates while I was trying my best to dispatch one of their corp mates. I am still not very good at this sort of thing so I will describe exactly how I died.

First, I aligned to a celestial in roughly the opposite direction from the gang. Correct so far. I was instantly tackled by a kiting Slicer but only webbed by a single Incursus.  So I killed the Incursus and then switched to Spike and Warriors for the Slicer. Too late. I think I should have burned away from the Incursus first.

Loss: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23014739