Killed by a Firetail

Another day, another Stratios gank:

Caracal: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23432601

Hardly worth mentioning to be honest. He wasn't even a PvPer by the look of things. I even caught his pod despite the enormous cruiser lock time.

Pod: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23432602

I spent a while looking for fights in the 250mm rail Thorax but nothing doing. Eventually I jumped back in the Comet and murdered a kiting Slicer by keeping him interested long enough to slingshot him. I have found that by delaying use of the armour repper until I am nearly in hull sets the hook deep in a kiter. And then they die if I manage to land a scram:

Slicer: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23448297

Then I got my comeuppance in the form of a Firetail. Yes, a Firetail killed my Comet:

Loss, Police Pursuit Comet: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23448481

Well, I didn't think that was possible with the Comet reps. I can't remember the last time a Firetail killed my Comet and, to be honest, I didn't take it seriously.

Needless to say I am now interested in the Firetail again, despite the scorn I poured upon it a few posts ago. Unfortunately, I didn't record the fight but he used 150mm autos and a vamp. Also, I couldn't pull range even with overheated afterburner and an attempt to sling away. It was almost certainly a double web fit and this meant that my tracking was rubbish. Finally, I noticed that it was active armour. So that pretty much limits things to something like this:

[Republic Fleet Firetail, 150mm dps]

Gyrostabilizer II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Damage Control II

1MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II

150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
Small Nosferatu II

Small Projectile Ambit Extension I
Small Projectile Metastasis Adjuster I
Small Projectile Burst Aerator I

Rigs are more or less to flavour but I figured I would want a bit of extra reach (ambit) for when I was scram kiting and a bit more tracking (metastasis) for close orbits and drones. I am going to lose a few fits like this before deciding on the Firetail (again). Anyway, Jita prices just crashed through my long term low buy order so I now have hundreds of them! The Minmatar farmers are still driving prices down so I'll probably have them for a while, too.

Zappity's first miner gank

I had just finished posting in a thread entitled “Random Kindness in EVE”, saying that I was usually kind to noobs in lowsec because I didn’t want to scare them away, when a call went out for people to go and gank a Hulk in our 0.5 highsec border system, Usi. I was only three jumps out so I hastily changed the route back to Ish. I had a few Catalysts fitted in station (not specifically fitted for ganking but close enough) so I put them up on corp contract and joined the correct fleet.

Now, I have never ganked anyone before (not unless you count farmers) but have always wanted to at least once to get a bit of perspective. It was with excited anticipation that I formed up on the gate and waited for the order to jump into highsec. Ugh…highsec. I don’t like the nasty “You are a criminal so bugger off” message that pops up when I jump in. And I REALLY don’t like the fact that I can’t just shoot whoever I feel like.

Except just now, of course :)

We held cloak and were fleet warped onto the target. Really, four Catalysts was overkill for this Hulk but they are cheap at just over a million each so who cares? I tackled him and started firing! He exploded long before the rozzers showed up. Unfortunately I missed his pod but easily got my own capsule away.

Hulk: https://zkillboard.com/kill/39845875/

Whew, that was a rush! But I can’t imagine it holding my attention too long - it wasn't even as challenging as killing a farmer. Anyway, I did manage to capture my first gank for posterity:

Video: http://youtu.be/qqKugHn4h5Q

A cloaky gank

I'm back in the Thorax, looking for someone to kill. There are a surprising number of cruisers about but the only solo ones I see are navy or faction. I'm starting to see a trend here. Finally, I get sick of hunting and foolishly engage a Vexor Navy Issue. I died in about 10 seconds, despite having both reppers overheated.

It was a useful fight. I reviewed the logs and figured out what went wrong: his heavy drones broke straight through my reps. Insane DPS. I want some! So I fired up PYFA (I converted from EFT a while ago) and played around.

Well, for a start my Heavy Drones skill is rubbish. But that, evidently, is what Geckos are for! +600 DPS is quite achievable. But it still doesn't overcome the problem of the nasty suspicious and deceitful minds that my fellow lowsec denizens tend to have. They won't want to engage a Vexor Navy Issue because a) they will lose, and b) they will suspect reinforcements.

So I bought a few Stratios hulls. And promptly lost the first one to a gate camp when my stupid Function key wasn't enabled on the keyboard. I was still uselessly jamming F6 to try and cloak when they broke me. Actually, I often do that with F1 at the start of a fight and then notice that my guns aren't doing anything. Maybe I should get a different keyboard. Or just remember to press the button. Or use a scout when flying an expensive ship.

Anyway, the fit:

[Stratios, Zappity’s cloaky gank v1]

1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
10MN Afterburner II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Gecko x2
Nanite Repair Paste x50

DPS is about 170 from guns and 500 from drones with my skills. 42k EHP.

The next time I took one out I remembered to turn the Function keys on. I made it a few jumps out of Ish when I spotted a Caracal, Arbitrator and Firetail on scan. Even better, a corpie, Spocria Charante, was in system  his rail Comet (a marvelous ship, by the way).

They were loitering at the Large plex. I must admit to being a bit nervous! But this is exactly what I had bought the bloody thing for so what the hell. Anyway, Spocria is apparently an avid reader of the thread and was evidently waiting for me to do something. Then he said that the thread was part of the reason he moved to lowsec (op success) and before I knew it I was in cloaked warp, range 50km.

I landed about 15km from the Arbitrator with the Firetail about 40 away, close to the beacon. The Caracal had disappeared which suited me just fine since I was a bit worried about multiple webs forcing me out of electron range.

I approached the Arbitrator. At about 12km I decloaked, hit the MWD for a single cycle and locked him up. I then switched to afterburner and went into a close orbit.

I immediately saw that he was fit with double reps. Oh well, let's see how it goes. The scram and double web combination held him tightly enough that my Geckos were able to hit hard. Sure enough, I was able to chew his hull away between rep cycles and after what felt like hours but in reality was just under one minute, he popped.

Arbitrator: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23402967

By this time the Firetail had closed and was doing something nasty to me (to be honest I had been pretty much ignoring him up to now apart from locking him). So I switched everything to him. He died really fast.

Firetail: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23402968
And then Spocria podded him! https://zkillboard.com/kill/40149608/

I warped out just after the Caracal landed. Stealth gank! I wonder if I could have killed him, too? But let's not get greedy on the first outing. Also, shouldn’t that Arbitrator have had a tracking disruptor? Was it a rubbish fit? I checked in EFT and was comforted to see that, despite the anti-frigate high slots, it had a decent active tank - it repped hard at nearly 500 dps with the nanite charges in the AAR.

And now I am left to ponder my own fit. First, do I need dual prop? In retrospect it seems somewhat pointless in lowsec since the cloak can get me to the edge of scram range and there are no bubbles. Maybe I'll drop the MWD for a cap booster in case of neuting. Or maybe a drone tracking whatsit.

And what about the double web? I like the idea of being able to control the range of a couple of ships, at least partially. I also like being able to get under the guns of my target by orbiting. But most cruisers will be MWD fit so the scram plus a web would take care of that. And come to think of it, I can probably fit Ions on instead of Electrons.

To the test server!

Learning more about cruisers

I'm back in the Thorax, looking for someone to kill. There are a surprising number of cruisers about but the only solo ones I see are navy or faction. I'm starting to see a trend here. Finally, I get sick of hunting and foolishly engage a Vexor Navy Issue. I died in about 10 seconds, despite having both reppers overheated.

It was a useful fight. I reviewed the logs and figured out what went wrong: his heavy drones broke straight through my reps. Insane DPS. I want some! So I fired up PYFA (I converted from EFT a while ago) and played around.

Well, for a start my Heavy Drones skill is rubbish. But that, evidently, is what Geckos are for! +600 DPS is quite achievable. But it still doesn't overcome the problem of the nasty suspicious and deceitful minds that my fellow lowsec denizens tend to have. They won't want to engage a Vexor Navy Issue because a) they will lose, and b) they will suspect reinforcements.

So I bought a few Stratios hulls. And promptly lost the first one to a gate camp when my stupid Function key wasn't enabled on the keyboard. I was still uselessly jamming F6 to try and cloak when they broke me. Actually, I often do that with F1 at the start of a fight and then notice that my guns aren't doing anything. Maybe I should get a different keyboard. Or just remember to press the button. Or use a scout when flying an expensive ship.

Anyway, the fit:

[Stratios, Zappity’s cloaky gank v1]

1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
10MN Afterburner II

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I

Gecko x2
Nanite Repair Paste x50

DPS is about 170 from guns and 500 from drones with my skills. 42k EHP.

The next time I took one out I remembered to turn the Function keys on. I made it a few jumps out of Ish when I spotted a Caracal, Arbitrator and Firetail on scan. Even better, a corpie, Spocria Charante, was in system  his rail Comet (a marvelous ship, by the way).

They were loitering at the Large plex. I must admit to being a bit nervous! But this is exactly what I had bought the bloody thing for so what the hell. Anyway, Spocria is apparently an avid reader of the thread and was evidently waiting for me to do something. Then he said that the thread was part of the reason he moved to lowsec (op success) and before I knew it I was in cloaked warp, range 50km.

I landed about 15km from the Arbitrator with the Firetail about 40 away, close to the beacon. The Caracal had disappeared which suited me just fine since I was a bit worried about multiple webs forcing me out of electron range.

I approached the Arbitrator. At about 12km I decloaked, hit the MWD for a single cycle and locked him up. I then switched to afterburner and went into a close orbit.

I immediately saw that he was fit with double reps. Oh well, let's see how it goes. The scram and double web combination held him tightly enough that my Geckos were able to hit hard. Sure enough, I was able to chew his hull away between rep cycles and after what felt like hours but in reality was just under one minute, he popped.

Arbitrator: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23402967

By this time the Firetail had closed and was doing something nasty to me (to be honest I had been pretty much ignoring him up to now apart from locking him). So I switched everything to him. He died really fast.

Firetail: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23402968
And then Spocria podded him! https://zkillboard.com/kill/40149608/

I warped out just after the Caracal landed. Stealth gank! I wonder if I could have killed him, too? But let's not get greedy on the first outing. Also, shouldn’t that Arbitrator have had a tracking disruptor? Was it a rubbish fit? I checked in EFT and was comforted to see that, despite the anti-frigate high slots, it had a decent active tank - it repped hard at nearly 500 dps with the nanite charges in the AAR.

And now I am left to ponder my own fit. First, do I need dual prop? In retrospect it seems somewhat pointless in lowsec since the cloak can get me to the edge of scram range and there are no bubbles. Maybe I'll drop the MWD for a cap booster in case of neuting. Or maybe a drone tracking whatsit.

And what about the double web? I like the idea of being able to control the range of a couple of ships, at least partially. I also like being able to get under the guns of my target by orbiting. But most cruisers will be MWD fit so the scram plus a web would take care of that. And come to think of it, I can probably fit Ions on instead of Electrons.

To the test server!

Vengeance for a Vengeance

A blaster-fit Comet had viciously killed a corpie's Vengeance earlier in the day. Thoroughly uncalled for. I hunted him for a while and he eventually gave a fight. It was very close! I warped into the plex and he was waiting, drones and all, for me on the beacon. I felt the full brunt of his DPS while I slowly pulled range out to 7.5 km. And then I killed him while watching dscan for a small incoming T1 frigate gang.

Comet: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23292551

These guys were clearly hunting from plex to plex: Condor, Incursus and Rifter. The Incursus appeared first and although I was in poor shape I waited for him to come in, confident that I could outrun him if necessary. I checked for a suitable celestial (away from the beacon), aligned and locked him up. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to kill him before the Condor landed so I pulled out of scram range and scarpered.

I docked, repped and refilled the AAR before heading back out to chase them. The gang had already moved on but it didn't take me long to find them. The Condor and Rifter were loitering on a gate, evidently waiting for the Incursus, who was in a plex, to call them in.

The Condor unwittingly wandered into my scram range while I was holding cloak and I only just remembered the gate guns in time before pressing the button! Instead of dying in such a foolish manner I warped to 20 to a plex next to the one which held the Incursus. I then aligned back to the gate, hoping that the Condor would warp in at range.

But they were either disciplined or had no initiative and they just waited on the gate until the Incursus warped over and tackled me. Or was tackled by me, if you prefer! The Condor and Rifter appeared on short scan when I was halfway through the Incursus' armour. Happily, the Condor landed on top of me (he DID warp at range, although 'at range' would have actually been the gate at this stage) so I scrammed him and switched all DPS. He died quickly:

Condor: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23292552

I then switched back to the Incursus while locking up the Rifter. I expected him to run but he clearly wanted blood after the destruction of his colleagues! He stayed, so I killed him too.

Incursus: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23292553
Rifter: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23292554

I was in pretty bad shape by now but was happy with the last five minutes, even though the last three were clearly noobs. My only disappointment was that I didn't catch a pod! I probably could have caught one during the fight but was concentrating on the ships.

Video: http://youtu.be/g84KlAgc_ME

A little while later I was innocently sightseeing in the local systems when I saw a suspiciously new character in a Rifter at a plex. The killboard informed me of a ship plus pod losses which only steeled my resolve to make an example of the farmer. I docked, swapped my web out for a second scram, and warped in. An Atron decided to interrupt the proceeding when I was halfway through the Rifter’s armour and tackled me. The Rifter died quickly (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23297313) but the Atron’s arrival was a decidedly unhappy turn of events since I did not have a web. But I couldn’t do much about it and tried to keep him at range as best I could. Surprisingly, he died! He could have disengaged at will or orbited me very effectively with his neutrons:

Atron: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23297312

Anyway, the really interesting bit happened just as I finished killing the Atron. An Incursus, piloted by a familiar name, landed on grid. Discretion, I’m afraid, was the better part of valour in this instance so I warped to the sun like a cowardly cuss where I was delighted to see the Rifter pilot’s pod! As I started locking him up the Incursus pilot landed next to me. Uh oh.

Unfortunately, the Incursus was piloted by a competent Cara Forelli who had followed me to the sun. I really should have used the emergency warp tab to pick a more obscure celestial. Before I could warp away I was tackled and dead. And what’s more, it was my own Incursus fit! The cheek of it!

Comet: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23297051

Good fights all round :)

Daring to lose. As usual.

“Pleeeaaase can I have some Daredevils?”, Zappity asked her cousin in marketing.
“No! You’ll just go and do something stupid with them - I know what you’re like!”, he responded.

But Zappity won out in the end. After all, what is all the ISK for if not to be exploded?

[Daredevil, Rails ab]

Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Coreli C-Type 1MN Afterburner
Federation Navy Stasis Webifier
Faint Warp Disruptor I

150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
[Empty High slot]
150mm Railgun II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I

I had every intention of being careful with this ship, and not jumping into obvious traps and the no-win situations that I thrive on. Ahem. Well, things started out alright when I finally caught a Slicer we had been chasing around the system. He had aggression, warped to a gate to escape and I think he panicked at not being able to jump. I caught his pod, too, although perhaps he just wanted a fast trip home:

Slicer: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23284798
Pod: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23285927

And then we saw a Tengu on scan, warping from plex to plex. Now this was OBVIOUS bait and we even commented as such. But Zappity has a short memory and had already forgotten the discussion with her cousin in marketing. Ten seconds later the Tengu was scrammed. Twenty seconds later Zappity was warping away in her pod with her tail between her legs. A few short cycles of the Tengu’s Neutron Blaster Cannon II had done the job on a Daredevil that foolishly didn’t get into a tight enough orbit.

Daredevil: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23285919

And it was a good drop for him! Well, not one to take defeat lying down, Zappity was soon in a very hastily assembled Crucifier and winging her way back to the system to get point and apply tracking disruptors for the corpies. This loss wasn’t quite as humiliatingly rapid as the Daredevil loss due to the tracking disruptors. But it was still pretty bad! The Tengu had astonishing tracking. I am going to have to take a closer look at blaster Tengus.

Crucifier: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23285923

We gave up after that, not having enough people online to take him down. Oh well. This may have been the fit:

Tengu: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=16857223

Zappity still hasn’t told her cousin in marketing.

Thorax of Doom!

I thought I might have more luck finding a solo cruiser outside FW regions so I jumped into a wormhole which took me to a lowsec region in the Forge. It was disappointingly empty.

I meandered my way along a lowsec chain and before long found myself at the top of the Amarr/Minmatar zone. I set a long route back to Ishomilken and started on my way, watching for potential victims in every system.

Before long I spotted a Merlin and Maller. They were clearly together but not one to be deterred by anything sensible I thought I'd have a go anyway. I was concerned about getting double webbed and not being able to reach either of them with my Electron blasters. But you can't worry about every little thing! Actually, my cunning plan was to web the Merlin back and hopefully have my Valkyries chew him down:

[Thorax, Dual rep brawler v2]

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Medium Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

Damage Control II

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Medium Armor Repairer II

Stasis Webifier II

Warp Scrambler II

10MN Afterburner II

Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800

Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Heavy Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M

Medium Hybrid Burst Aerator I

Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Medium Nanobot Accelerator I

Valkyrie II x5

As it happened, I was worrying needlessly. I followed the Maller from a gate to the Sun but actually landed on the Merlin! The Maller must have chosen a nearby celestial and I just happened to stumble onto the frigate. Maybe they were luring me to the sun and the Mallee mis-clicked. I slapped a web on the Merlin and before he knew what was going on he was toast:

Merlin: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23285928

I had just opened the wreck up when the Maller landed next to me. So I closed the wreck and went for him, keeping a close eye on local for any reinforcements.

I messed around a bit during this fight, interested to see how effective the close range orbit was against his guns - you can see it in the video. Sure enough, I hardly took any damage while in orbit but started getting hammered when I switched to Keep at Range, although it wasn't enough to break through my reps.

He made a mistake in not targeting my drones - a weakness of the Thorax is a small drone bay - but I didn't tell him that. I just waited patiently for his armour to drop.

Maller: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23285929

Ha! He commented afterwards that he had indeed landed too late, and that their plan WAS to control range with webs on both ships. Very sneaky, these lowsec types. But I foiled them!

Video: http://youtu.be/I1Zhs4xN7Yc