The fit:
3 Gatling Pulse Laser II (Navy Multifrequency & Scorch)
5W Infectious Power Malfunction
Cold-gas Arcjet Thrusters
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Inhibitor
2 Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II
200mm Rolled Tungsten
This fit was for a specific fight - a rematch with Major Thrasher's most recent Rifter. My last fight had gone poorly because I had happened to be flying a Dual Light Pulse build, and I couldn't track him. This fit should have no problems with tracking, and I decided to try a straight buffer tank so I could neut him down, shutting off his repper.
The hunt:
As with any pre-arranged fight, there is not much in the way of introduction. Equally, Punisher v Rifter fights don't involve much maneuver on the part of the Punisher. I flew in a straight line to minimise angular velocity, and he flew a tight orbit to maximise angular velocity.
Everything worked perfectly; I had no trouble tracking him, and I shut down his repper after capping him out (he had a nos, though, so there was never any real chance of forcing him to drop his point).
Despite my perfectly executed plan, I still lost. Convincingly. This post is not about what happened during the fight, it is about the realizations that followed it.
Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: Strategic Conflicts Incorporated
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Rens
Security: 0.9
Damage Taken: 1894
Involved parties:
Name: Major Thrasher (laid the final blow)
Security: -0.6
Corp: Angry Bipeds
Alliance: Guinea Pigs
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 1894
Destroyed items:
Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 2
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
Adaptive Nano Plating II, Qty: 2
Scorch S (Cargo)
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Dropped items:
Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Control II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2
Scorch S, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Republic Fleet Titanium Sabot S (Cargo)
Post battle review:
Post battle review:
Everything worked exactly the way it should have done. I tracked him and shut down his active tank. But I was utterly crushed. Why?
To find answers I turned to EFT. Major Thrasher had linked his fit to me earlier, so I plugged it into the fitting tool. I thought of posting his fit, but it is a total cookie cutter, with rigs to close a resistance hole, and to increase damage.
Turns out that with Vs and Hail, his ship does 127 dps. My fit, with Vs, does 78 dps. My fit, with my skills, does 51 dps.
Oh.
Equally, I was hitting his naturally high armor EM resistance of 50%, leaving me with an actual dps of about 25. My non-EM resists were about 68, giving him an actual (max) dps of 41. Even if I assume that his dps is only 90% of max, he was still doing about 37dps, which means I was doing only 67% of the damage he was doing, and he got a few cycles of the repair system in before cap became an issue. This is all before overheating, which (being multiplicative) favours higher damage weapons.
No wonder he had such a convincing win.
This was a real eye opener for me. Although I had started focusing on my gunnery skills, this fight forced me to realise that the limiting factor in my fights is no longer my player skill (although I still have a great deal to learn) but my character skill.
Lessons for the future:
I need to improve my character skills. While I'll cover this in more detail in my next post, I'm switching gears in the short term, which is why my post rate has dropped from once per day to three times per week. If it does not increase my dps or my tank, I'm just not training it right now.
You'll find that most Rifters (and autocannon uses in general) won't use Hail. It's still pretty poor even after T2 ammo changes compared to faction ammo and Barrage (though a close orbit means just using faction ammo).
ReplyDeleteI'm curious what your plans will be for the future in general once your last 5 punishers are gone, I'm guessing you'll cover this soon in either the next quarterly review.
some pointers:
ReplyDeletejust to change your fit to a second nano plating doesnt make it a good buffer tank.
you should consider autocannons again, it gives you more ship rescources for tank, does not need cap, has better tracking and you can change damage types
"that the limiting factor in my fights is no longer my player skill"
sadly this it not true (yet), if you duel someone, part of your player skill is to know that he will counterfit you (easy for him,since he knows what you will probaly use), and you have to do the same, as good as you can. be unpredicable yourself.
for example, its rather easy for him just to use em resistance against you.
the guy with the "can" with your name on it, did exactly that.
btw. sorry if i sound a bit harsh
ReplyDeletesome pointers:
ReplyDeleteto change your fit to a second nano plate does not make it a good buffer tank.
you should reconsider autocannons again, they have better tracking, you can change damage types, use less ship resources for a better tank or a damage mod.
"the limiting factor in my fights is no longer my player skill"
sadly this it not true (yet).
in a duel, part of that skill is to anticipate and counter fit the opponent. its rather easy for them, since they see your fits on your blog.
the guy with the "can" with your name on it, did exactly that, probably 400mm plate and em resistance to the max.
so try to counter fit and be yourself more unpredictable.
I disagree with anoagain. I don't feel this loss had to do anything with a lack in player skill since you pretty much did everything possible to maximize your DPS and tank. While I doubt he was using hail, Fusion still does a crap ton of damage, and he was probably using that or rep fleet fusion (because hail just has a such bad rep I doubt many people, if any, use it yet).
ReplyDeleteAs for guessing another player's fit, it's strictly impossible against this opponent, because as you mentioned, he experiments with fits regularly, so predicting them is like gambling, and you're not likely to win given all the ways even I know how to fit a Rifter, nevermind what he knows. I think the "look at" command will give you an idea though as you enter the fight: it's either autos or arties, and that should hint at a range and speed profile perhaps.