Punisher 3

The fit:

3 150mm autocannon (EMP)

1MN Afterburner
Warp Scrambler 1

400mm Rolled Tungsten
Adaptive Plating 2
Damage Control 1
Small Armor Repairer

This is a fit I stole borrowed from FNG (you can find his blog in my blog list - it's worth reading), but he adds a small nos in the empty high slot. He needs to rig for extra power grid, though, and I'm not quite ready to sink that much ISK into a hull that will last about 15 minutes after being fitted.

I was pretty eager to head out, as I had Small Projectile Turrets 4 trained up, and my 5th level of Amarr Frigates. The fit came highly recommended, and was a huge step up from my previous builds.

However, as soon as I hit space I got the feeling that this was not the fit for me. With the 400mm plate the Punisher is even slower than usual, has very poor acceleration and (worst of all) has a very slow reaction time. I'm not looking to fly like a Rifter, but I felt a little too much like an under gunned cruiser for my liking.

Still, I wanted to give the fit a fair shake.


The hunt:

I set out to flip some cans in Tash-Murkon, and I spotted the same Osprey that I fought with Punisher 2. I was keen for a rematch, because taking on the same ship would give me a basis for comparing the fits. It would have been nice to have the nos, but the only thing it might have done is give me an extra cycle on the repper. I am realistic about how little difference that would make.

So I flip the can and wait for the neuting to start. I (ponderously) move in close, but this will not be a battle of maneuver; I am webbed at least once.

EMP starts to tear through his sheilds, while his drones start to whittle me down. Once I hit his armour, though, my dps drops right off. With no cap for the repper, it is clear where this fight is going.

However, it is clearly going to take a while, so I have some time to look around. I notice that the angular velocity of his drones is around .8 rad/sec, which is faster than even autocannons can track. I can clearly give up on trying to take out drones without some way of dropping their transversal (web/mwd/etc).

I also check out my overview. I know he is neuting me, but there is nothing on the overview that will quickly tell me that at a glance. I'll have to see if  can do something about that.

I toy with the idea of trying to get out of scram range, but with a top speed of about 40 m/s it's just not going to happen. Eventually I go boom, and I am left feeling dissatisfied. While the fight had finished like all my other fights, it had just been less fun.

Incidentally, it turns out that the Osprey pilot had read this blog. He convo'd me after the fight to tell me so - which felt really awkward! I felt like the local special needs kid throwing a tantrum while the neighbors nod understandingly. Sinister agent of destruction I am not! We had a good laugh, and wished each other well.


Post battle review:

A couple of things really jumped out at me about this fight, mostly relating tothe new fit. I hate it. 

That's not to say that it isn't a good fit. Despite my newbishness, it stood up to a flight of drones for quite a silly period of time. But I did not enjoy flying it, so I don't see myself using 400mm fits on a regular basis. I probably will give it another go, though, because it warrants a second try.

I was also not very happy with the autocannon, but I can't really put my finger on why. Despite the fight lasting much longer than my last encounter with the Osprey, and despite the cap-less damage, I actually did not feel like it did more damage to him than I did with my shorter lived laser build. Theoretically, the dps of the two systems should have been identical, so the greater time should have resulted in more damage.

I've always enjoyed lasers, and perhaps projectiles are just suffering from "not-laser" sydrome. I'll definitely give them some more time, though, to see if I get used to them.


Lessons for the future:

I need to try out a wide range of fits to find out what I enjoy flying. Then I need to make that fit work.