Murdering a Moa

Well, I changed my fit and got more DPS and tank. Told you it wasn't going to be hard. Mostly because the last fit was rubbish but never mind that. Here is the new fit:

[Thorax, dual rep electrons 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

It will tank 420 dps sustained and has stable cap as long as the charges last. 300dps with electrons and 420 with drones, Now I just have to find myself another Moa to fight. So I set off west into the heart of the Cal/Gal zone with a route up north planned out. I spot a Scythe Fleet Issue on scan a few jumps out and excitedly warp off to a safe to scan him down. Unfortunately the ship was skulking at a POS with a pilot.

Two jumps later, I see a Moa on scan. And there are only two pilots in system, reducing the chance of getting horribly blobbed. He isn't at a plex so I wander off to a Medium and barely have time to get settled in when I spot him on short scan.

I am nervous and completely stuff things up when he warps in. First, I target the plex beacon and get a pop-up asking me if I really want to attack the thing. No, of course I don't. Then I try to target the Small plex next door (slightly out of targeting range at 3 AU). I finally get it right and target him, set an orbit and set my drones on him.

I don't start by overheating my guns, wanting to reserve the extra damage to break through his peak shield recharge more quickly. Overheating my normal repper handled most of the damage and I only had to use the ancillary for a few cycles.

His shield broke pretty quickly when I started overheating and he died, just like that. I snaffled his loot and made my escape. Ha! My first kill in a cruiser!

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23103998

If I ever have a nemesis...

If I ever decide to have a nemesis, it will be Patrick Kasper, my first ever killer:

Incursus: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=18739317
Pod: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=18739318

In my earliest of RvB days I spotted a suspect frigate on the gate in Nomaa. "I'll have him!", I thought. It didn't end well. I was such a noob that I hadn’t even read the “You should never get your pod killed” lecture. Anyway, things have changed somewhat and I thought it was about time to get into cruisers. As beginner’s luck would have it I found a Vexor ratting in a belt as soon as I undocked:

Vexor: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23065307

Sure, an interesting kill with those faction smartbombs but not exactly the next peak of PvP experience that I was hoping for. I didn't even have to turn my repper on.

Anyway, the next time I set out I was determined to find a worthy adversary for my Thorax:

[Thorax, Zappity’s brawly Thorax]

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
800mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Medium Armor Repairer II

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 800
10MN Afterburner II

Heavy Electron Blaster II
Heavy Electron Blaster II
Heavy Electron Blaster II
Heavy Electron Blaster II
Heavy Electron Blaster II

Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I

Is that a good fit? Eh, I dunno. Whatever. The idea was to get under the guns of the opposition and stay there until he wilted pathetically under my deadly fire. Or something like that.

It took me nearly an hour to find a suitable fight. I almost snared a Vexor in Asakai but he ran away. And when I followed him to the sun he ran away again. I took the hint, if only because I wasn't agile enough tto catch him. Then I found a Stabber Fleet Issue who also snubbed me. So I continued south, heading toward the Min/Amarr zone. Actually, I was hopeful that the intervening non-FW space would be more fruitful for solo cruisers.

I successfully avoided a gate camp at Nisuwa by waiting a moment for the inty and Curse to jump ahead of me. The Rupture and Stabber who stayed behind foolishly neglected to lock me until they saw me aligning out. Ha! Suckers! But it did force me to detour, so I headed back on a circuit through Stay Frosty's old stomping ground of Hevrice.

And then i found a lone Moa piloted by a Tusker. Now, I know that Moa's have a reputation for a fearsome tank. I also know that Tuskers are typically pretty damn good. But I was desperate after nearly an hour of roaming and would happily have taken on a gang of the things. So I scanned him down to a belt whilst in warp to a Medium plex that I opened just to give him the idea. I then warped to his belt and landed just as he entered warp. He was heading for the plex. Fight!

Scram, web, orbit at 500, overheat guns, start killing. It all went (surprisingly) according to plan. For a while. What an astonishing tank he had! My cap boosters were going strong and my reppers were keeping up with the damage until they started getting too hot. After I switched the heat off I was no longer able to handle it and was slowly broken down.

I had him down to about 1/3 shields when I died. Sigh. Very disappointing. But very fun!

Loss: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=23108370

I'll play around with some more fits. I want more gank. And tank. How hard can it be? Below is probably the Moa fit. We chatted for a while after the fight and he mentioned three extender rigs and an invul:

Moa (probably): http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=22221287

While we were chatting I realised that his name was familiar. And then I remembered! Patrick Kasper! My first loss! I linked the lossmail and we had a chuckle about my first ever loss. I'm glad the fit wasn't too atrocious, even though I never fly dual rep Incursus now. Props - it was a good fight.

I want more. Cruisers, here I come.

Catching a sleepy Worm

I logged in and spent a few minutes lazily wandering from system to system in my Comet until someone posted in fleet chat that there was a Worm in Uuna, one system over. I was naturally interested given the recent buff, thinking that a lot of incompetent pilots would be trying them out. Unfortunately, when I jumped into Uuna I was dismayed to see that the Worm was sneakily hidden at a safe spot. I decided to bring a probing alt in.

Now, I used to play around in wormholes so I understand (more or less) how these things work. But I am terribly rusty. I’ll include the times to give you a chuckle.

[22:47:24] Cervantes Marovinjun d-scanned him to somewhere near Station V. I brought my alt in, added him to fleet, warped to a safe after dropping my probes, clustered them on Planet V and hit scan. Damn! 97%! I quickly reduced range and scanned again.

[22:51:31] I warped to the hit and saw the Worm 100km away, burning at 3km/s. Bugger. But hang on, he’s aligned to the sun!

This is where is gets embarrassing. It took me FIVE MINUTES to land a decent short bookmark. I am really out of practice. For those of you who don’t know what I mean this is the practice of warping back to a bookmark from the aligned celestial. You can either land at 100km range (of limited value when the target is moving quickly) or drop a bookmark while you are slowing from warp.

[22:56:35] The Worm is burning straight for my cloaked Cheetah, 100km away. I started the warp to the Cheetah, only to see him 34km away. In the wrong direction. I had miscalculated how long it would take me to drop out of warp and he just burned past my warp in.

There may have been a mild obscenity uttered at this point. I warped Zappity away and started again. The good news was that the guy was clearly AFK and oblivious to my bumbling attempt to snare him.

[23:01:22] Deleted the wrong bloody bookmark, didn’t I! Let’s try again.

[23:02:16] Yeah, that’s how it’s done. Less than a minute this time. I’m on grid and back in the groove! Get ready for the www guys!

[23:02:25] 150km off and burning in fast. Zappity enters warp. Cheetah leaves grid. Zappity lands with the Worm 45km off but heading straight in at 3km/s. “www”, I type.

I barely have time to overheat everything when he hits 10km. Scram! Web! Guns! Drones! By the time the first corpie lands on grid he is already in hull so I stop my damage, figuring that they had been very patient and deserved something for their trouble:

Worm: https://zkillboard.com/kill/39375882/
Pod: https://zkillboard.com/kill/39375891/

The pod wasn’t too expensive. But it wasn’t too cheap, either. Whew, what a rush! VERY satisfying to finally get it right! I don’t think that he will be very happy when he gets back to his keyboard, do you? But a 2011 character should know better than to be a) AFK, and b) aligned for a celestial. So there. Actually, I’m going to add that to the lecture!

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.