Crusader v Rifter

The hunt:

I was working my way around the Istodard cul de sac when I spotted a Rifter ratting in a belt. It was a 2009 character, though, so despite his T1 hull I expected that he would be a tough pilot to beat, and if he had a web I would simply have to hope I could burn through his tank before he burned through mine.

Of course, if he had no web then I might be able to avoid most of his damage by flying in his falloff. As he was ratting, the odds of him having no web were fairly decent.

I warped into the belt, landing about 30km away from him. Seeing this, I assumed that he would just warp out, but I burned towards him anyway, hoping that my cunning ship name - Asteroid (Veldspar) - would allow me to avoid notice for a short time. It all depended on how he set up his overview.

Increadibly, I managed to reach him and land my point! I set my orbit to 7km, and opened fire, burning through his shields. As his armor began to melt, it became clear that he could not tank my damage for long, and he had not even switched his fire from the rats to me yet.

Unfortunately, while I had know that my own speed would throw my 7km orbit out wide, I had neglected to consider just how fast a Rifter can move when it wants to. Whether by accident or design, the pilot accellerated away in the opposite direction of my own movement, and our relative speed moved him out of point range. I moved to correct, but it was too late; the Rifter warped out.


Post battle review:

The pilot convo'd me after the fight and we started talking. It seems that although the character was 2009, he had been inactive for most of that time; the pilot was essentially new to Eve. We chatted, and I gave him some pointers about surviving in low sec, starting with ratting in more lucrative belts and properly setting up his overview - it turns out he had not seen me until I opened fire.

Friendly chat aside, the loss was entirely down to my piloting. I'm not used to a) trying to kite, or b) flying at those relative speeds. My natural inclinations, backed up by my time in the Punisher, is to get as close as I can and latch on like some kind of demented bulldog, trading blows at blank point range, and basically refusing to die.

None of that means that I should not try to improve my kiting/high speed skills, but it's clearly not something that comes naturally to me.


Lessons for the future:

It upsets me more to let the enemy get away than it does getting blown up. This suggests that I should commit more heavily to my fights.

Crusader v Iteron Mark III

The hunt:

While running the Molden Heath loop, I noticed an unfamiliar industrial on D-scan. When you consistently move through the same territory, you start to recognize the non-combat ships that are parked permanently behind force fields; this was not one of them.

Quickly using the D-scan to find the industrial, it appeared, unbelievably, to be sitting in a belt. I would have thought it was bait, except there was no obvious backup in the system. Still, there was always the possibility that help was on the other side of the next gate.

The opportunity was too good to pass up, however, and I immediately jumped to the belt at zero. As I landed I spotted the Iteron about 25km off the warp-in point, so I overheated my point and afterburner and hit approach. The Crusader responded beautifully, it's engines roaring into life, and the distance quickly narrowed.

As I approached I was able to examine the target more closely. He actually appeared to be mining in the belt, and did not seem to be pre-aligned. As the distance between us plunged, I established point and opened fire.

With backup possibly on the way, and the ever present risk of warp stabs I immediately overheated my guns and settled into an orbit that kept me within optimal for Multifrequency and well within my tracking bracket. I then kept a careful eye on local, which remained quiet.

For all my concern, the ship did not seem to be bait or to have warp stabs equipped. It also had no tank to speak of, and soon popped.

2011.05.12 17:03:00

Victim: Kajisora Thiesant
Corp: Center for Advanced Studies
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Iteron Mark III
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 2064

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -2.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2064

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold I, Qty: 2
Radiant Hemorphite, Qty: 59 (Cargo)
Mexallon, Qty: 136 (Cargo)
Golden Omber, Qty: 1332 (Cargo)
Zydrine, Qty: 64 (Cargo)
Tritanium, Qty: 1477 (Cargo)
Pyerite, Qty: 591 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Miner II
Expanded Cargohold I
Isogen, Qty: 481 (Cargo)

Up until now I have avoided targeting pods, even when they have sat before me, afk and mine for the taking. Largely, this is because I had not wanted to deal with the drop in sec status, but a few things had changed.

First, I now had a basic hauler alt trained up. This made dealing with the sec hit much less intimidating. But I was also running low on cash, and ransoming pods could potentially be a source of income. I was also conscious that I had a target of 25 campaign kills to meet.

Of course, this pilot was not afk, and I knew going into the fight that I would have to be fast to catch the pod. The Crusader's impressive lock time would help, but I had gotten my pod out of enough fights to know how hard it could be to catch someone who was serious about escaping.

Fortunately, FNG has written a fantastic guide to catching pods here. So right before the Iteron exploded, I killed my speed and had my finger hovering over my scrambler hotkey. As soon as the pod appeared on my overview I activated my scram and locked him down.

I contacted the pilot and asked if he was interested in saving his pod. His response was negative, and very rude, which left me no choice but to send him back to his clone vat - my first pod kill.


Post battle review:

For whatever reason, I don't seem to be finding "fights" right now, and I have fallen into the role of a ganker. This is not an intentional shift, and I hope that changes soon.

Still, the Crusader's ability to cover distance swiftly probably earned me a kill that the Punisher would have missed. Equally, the excellent lock time probably helped me catch the pod. I'm certainly enjoying this additional performance.


Lessons for the future:

I managed to pull off a pod kill on my first attempt - largely due to FNG's guidance. I need more practice at this, but it seems an auspicious start.

Crusader v Ibis & Station Guns

The hunt:

This was another one of those "fights" that arose because of the challenge presented by the circumstances rather than the challenge presented by the actual target.

In this case, I had spotted an Ibis that was afk outside a station. If I were to engage, the station guns would destroy me, but the smug complacency of the pilot irritated me, and I found myself wishing that I had a larger ship nearby just to teach him a lesson about low sec.

As I did not have a larger ship nearby, however, I needed to improvise. In other words, I rammed him. Over and over again.

By using the approach command alternately on the Ibis and the station I was able to ping-pong between them. Every time I hit the Ibis his speed would spike to about 450km/s, and he would drift a good kilometer or so.

For reasons known only to the programmers, sometimes I would miss my target, despite the fact that I was not doing anything different; there are only so many ways to hit the "approach" button.

Eventually, however, I managed to push the Ibis outside the range of the station guns. Feeling rather pleased with myself, I blew him up.

2011.05.11 20:55:00

Victim: BON Argos
Corp: EvilMoon Nations
Alliance: Shadow of xXDEATHXx
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Ibis
System: Skarkon
Security: 0.0
Damage Taken: 385

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 385

Destroyed items:

Civilian Miner
Civilian Gatling Railgun

Dropped items:

Tritanium (Cargo)


Post battle review:

Again, not much of a battle, but a cute little technique for those AFK station huggers you just have to kill. A bit time consuming, and I certainly wouldn't bother doing it again for a rookie ship.

Nice to know it works, though.


Lessons for the future:

Another tool for the tool box.

Crusader v Jaguar

The hunt:

I had been feeling a little unsatisfied with my recent fights. None of them had really let me get to know what the Crusader was made of. I needed to throw it against a wall and see what the pieces looked like.

So when I saw a Jaguar at a belt I was happy to warp in on him and pick a fight - a fight I fully expected to lose.

I started by making my orbit as tight as possible; the Jaguar has range bonuses so there was no point trying to kite him, but my tracking was much better than his.

I started chewing into his shields. It was a predictably slow process thanks to his natural resists, and he soon returned fire, stripping away my own shields and starting into my armor. I overheated my guns, and turned on my nos/repper.

At first, he had trouble landing solid hits. I'm not sure he expected me to get so close, and his own move towards me made my life a bit easier. It did not take him long to realize his mistake, though, and his web allowed him to pull range again, and get the tracking under control.

After that it was just a matter of time.

2011.05.09 20:25:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Crusader
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 2567

Involved parties:

Name: AcidMar (laid the final blow)
Security: 4.9
Corp: Desperate Venture Company
Alliance: RED Citizens
Faction: NONE
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2345

Name: Angel Defeater / Archangels
Damage Done: 222

Destroyed items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II
Small Energy Metastasis Adjuster I, Qty: 2
Small Armor Repairer II
Heat Sink II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Scorch S (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 3
Damage Control II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 4
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II
Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)


Post battle review:

Feeling much better, I had a long think about the fight. I was actually fairly impressed by the Crusader, as it had managed to reduce a shield tanked assault frigate with an innate 75% EM resist to about 20% shields before popping. I had not expected to do that well.

That said, it was clear that the Crusader was going to have trouble against anything with a web - at least as long as I fit it to fight within web range. As the Crusader relies on speed, anything that slows it down is going to hurt it pretty badly.


Lessons for the future:

As a general rule, webs are bad news for speed tanked ships. It sounds obvious, but I've not really flown a speed tanked ship before.

Crusader v Hoarder

The hunt:

Sunday morning is a special time for Eve players.

All across New Eden, PI players send their little hauler alts to customs offices deep in low sec to collect their loot, confident that the vast majority of pvpers are still snug in their beds, hung over from the carnage of Saturday night.

And largely, they're right. But occassionally, when my schedule permits, I like to get up early and log on to play with the haulers. This was just such a Sunday.

The big pve pocket in Molden Heath is the Istodard cul de sac. With only one way in, and that being only a single jump from high sec, the pve corps have a pretty easy time keeping tabs on the pirate gangs, and from time to time I have even seen them fleet up to break a gate camp. As carebears go, their low-sec game is pretty decent.

But I don't fly in a gang.

And so it was that I was able sneak into one of these systems and wait patiently. This was before I was flashy, you see, and so my name in local was not the warning light it is today.

All at once, three haulers entered the system, and I gave them a few moments to start warping to their destinations. Scanning one of them down to a particular cluster, I immediately jumped to the customs office at zero.

2011.05.08 07:37:00

Victim: Reginald Nachtewolfe
Corp: Pator Tech School
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Hoarder
System: Half
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 1918

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 1918

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold II, Qty: 3

As he exploded, I quickly jumped away from the customs office so that a destination scan by one of the other haulers would not give them any warning. Unfortunately, this backfired on me - another hauler landed just as I hit warp.

He saw the Crusader. He saw the wrecked hauler. I saw a system empty so fast you'd think they were all flying interceptors. With the locals on the alert, the morning's fun was over.


Post battle review:

Another fight that did not really stretch the Crusader, although I do have to say that I am loving the increased warp speed and excellent lock time. Being able to virtually insta-lock targets that have no intention of sticking around is very, very nice. And warping to your target before they have time to finish their business is also very useful.


Lessons for the future:

Not much to take away with me here, except perhaps that you can sometimes cover more ground by staying where you are. It irks me that the second hauler got away.

Crusader v Ibis (breaking a safe)

The hunt:

I was out roaming the Molden Heath loop when I saw an Ibis on scan at an obvious safe spot. In the ordinary course of things I would not have bothered scanning down an Ibis, but in this case the safe spot was between two celestials.

I had never tried to break a safe spot without a scanning ship, and I was interested in giving it a try. After narrowing down the range to the Ibis I began jumping from one celestial to another, dropping bookmarks.

Here, the Crusader's speed was strangely detrimental. With a warp speed 9 AU/sec, it is pretty difficult to drop a bookmark with any precision. Instead, I would drop as many as I could and then warp to the bookmark closest to my target range. From there I would warp to a bookmark on the other side of the target, dropping more bookmarks. Rinse and repeat.

After about 20 minutes of this I was within about 2000km, but slight differences between our starting points meant that he was no longer between me an a celestial. Warping would get me no closer, and the remaining distance had to crossed the old fashioned way.

At this point I became greatful for the extra speed the Crusader brought with it. The last 500km, where I was on grid with the Ibis, were the most tense - all he had to do was look at his overview and warp off to make the last half hour a waste of time.

Instead, he remained oblivious right up until I opened fire on him. And at that point, it was already over.

2011.05.07 19:34:00

Victim: RANDY2007X
Corp: State War Academy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Ibis
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 335

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 335

Destroyed items:

Civilian Miner
Tritanium (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Civilian Gatling Railgun


Post battle review:

While there was not much of a battle per se, I was pleased that I was able to break the safe without a scanning ship. With a bit of practice I could probably do it much faster, and I would want a mwd ship for the last leg of the journey.


Lessons for the future:

Until I appeared on grid with him, casual use of the D-scan would not have told the pilot that I was looking for him. In that sense, it can be dangerous to rely too heavily on the D-scan for protection if you are in a safe spot that can be broken by a pilot with a little bit of time on his hands.

Crusader v Rupture

The fit:

Gatling Pulse Laser II x4 (with Navy Multifrequency & Scorch)

Afterburner II
J5b Warp Scrambler

Small Armor Repair System II
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Heat Sink II

Small Energy Burst Aerator
Small Energy Collision Accelerator

In line with my preferred approach to combat, I have eschewed the usual (and very effective) mwd + long point Crusader in favour of something with a bit more brawl. I have a second hull ready to go that is fit with tracking rigs - I really want to try that out on some drones at some point.


The hunt:

Opportunity presented me with the chance of a rematch; I saw the Rupture that had destroyed Punisher 20 sitting in a belt, so I decided to jump in and say hello.

Now, I had been looking at all the advice that people give about fighting drones, and something that I wanted to try was widening my orbit (which would increase my speed). Apparently, this causes the drones to trail behind you a bit more, which makes tracking easier.

Unfortunately, when I jumped in I set my initial orbit a little too wide, and the Rupture's main guns were able to land a couple of glancing hits.

In a Punisher I would probably just have shrugged the damage off, but the Crusader, for all it's other strengths, is no Punisher. The hits took me deep into armor before I had even engaged the drones. With a web killing my speed, I decided it was time to try and bail out.

Impressively, the Crusader did that quite handily, even under a web. I took another hit on the way out, but the repper kept me together long enough that I was able to warp out with my structure intact.


Post battle review:

Clearly, I made a mistake when setting my initial orbit. In part, this is because the additional speed of the Crusader forces my orbit to be much wider that the orbit I select. This is an issue with all ships, and pilots simply compensate for that when selecting an orbit. However, the effect is far more pronounced with faster ships, and I was still unused to the Crusader's additional speed.

It's also obvious that I am going to need to make decisions far more quickly. The Crusader's speed let me disengage from a fight the Punisher could never have escaped, but only because I decided to abort within the first few seconds of the fight. That's about all the time the Crusader will give me.


Lessons for the future:

Against medium and large turrets I think I am better off starting with the tightest orbit I can manage and then slowly working out from there. Getting the orbit right is too critical to guesstimate on the initial approach.

Despite the added tank, the Crusader is still fairly frail compared to the Punisher. I'm going to have to take that into account when choosing and approaching targets.

Eve University

For the past few days I have been getting an increasing amount of traffic from the Eve University forums. Naturally, I backtracked the link, but it leads to the private forums, and I (obviously) don't have a password.

So, assuming it's not super-duper top-secret, is there anything of interest that my Eve Uni readers would care to share?

As an aside, I actually applied to Eve Uni before I came up with the Punisher Plan. Along with Red v Blue, Eve Uni is one of the most commonly recommended places for new pilots to get a start.

However, the University was at war when I applied, and their standing rules of (wartime) engagement would not permit me to fly solo during a war, and I could not learn the skills the Tuskers required flying in a fleet. So I never ended up going for my interview, and I embarked on the Punisher Plan instead.

For those that dream of null sec wars, on the other hand, I suspect Eve Uni is the perfect place to start.

The T2 Tour

As I mentioned in my last post, I want to start flying T2 frigates. Flying the Punisher for so long, however, has made me realise that some ships are just better fits to a particular pilot than others. If I'm going to fly another ship as heavily as I flew the Punisher, and actually work on getting all the relevant skills to maximum, I want it to be the ship that I enjoy flying the most.

Accordingly, I'm going to take a little tour of the T2 frigates available or of interest to me. I'm going to try and arrange this "tour" in a way that makes the transition from one ship to another as easy as possible.


The Tour Schedule:

Crusader: Starting with the Crusader makes sense because it relies heavily on the skills I have already invested in with the Punisher. I can just focus on getting my interceptor skill up to a reasonable level and fly it fairly well.

Malediction: With my interceptor skill already trained up, I can then focus on actually building some missile skills. I expect a bit of a slow-down here as it will probably take me a month or so of training to make this work.

Vengeance: As I should already have the missile skills at this point, I can simply work on my assault ship skills and any other support skills that are still weak.

Hawk: My first racial cross-train! With assault ships and missile skills already trained, I can simply train to Caldari Frigates V and hop into the Hawk, Of course, my shield skills could use some work.

Purifier: This does not really build on any of the above, but being able to fly a bomber seems fairly important.

When I first came up with this concept I thought I would dedicate a particular number of hulls to each ship - say four hulls each. However, as I have actually started to fly them, I have realised that my goal is not a certain number of hulls, but to get a feel for each ship. If I lose a ship quickly, I may want more hulls so that I still have time to become familiar with the ship. Equally, if I find I dislike a ship, I don't want to have to slog through more hulls than I care to.

This is not about becoming expert in each ship, but about deciding which ship I want to become expert in.

I may also modify or end the tour early if I find that I fall in love with a particular ship. This is especially true if the remaining ships require heavy training. Falling in love with the Crusader will almost certainly mean I don't move on to the rocket ships (although I might bring in a Slicer or another turret based ship), and falling in love with the Vengeance might mean that the Hawk gets a miss.



Theme of the Tour:

I know that I like to fly within certain parameters:

• I like to pack a decent tank. More importantly, I want that tank to regenerate in some way. On long roams, often without stations nearby, I don't want to have to avoid fights just because I need to repair my tank. I also don't want to avoid larger targets just because I do not have the endurance to weather low grade but persistent damage.
• I prefer to fly with a speed of between 1-2km/s. Too much faster than that and I simply become uncomfortable with the reaction time required to properly pilot a ship in combat.
• I like mid-range weapon systems - I have no interest in kiting at extreme ranges but I equally dislike being forced to work up close under all circumstances. As both rockets and lasers offer decent range, I do not see this last point being problematic. It would exclude most hybrid boats, however.

This means that I will be fitting and evaluating each of the ships on the Tour through the lens of my preferences. Feel free to comment on my fits, but don't expect me to suddenly start flying differently.


Why not cruisers?

I have been surprised by the sheer number of people that have commented or emailed me recently asking or encouraging me to do a cruiser plan.

While this was unexpected, I can certainly see why the interest is there. Although I love frigates, most pilots dream of something a little beefier, and a cruiser plan would be particularly relevant to new pvpers with aspirations in that direction.

However, I don't see myself running cruisers at this time, largely because the T1 Amarr cruisers do not inspire me. The Omen is unable to balance tank with gank, the Arbitrator - while an excellent ship - simply does not enthuse me (possibly because I associate it with my mission running days), and the Maller, probably the best fit for me, is primarily a bait ship.

If I were to do a cruiser plan I would have to take a serious look at the Caldari cruisers, which seem more interesting. But that means I would be starting from scratch with my weapon and tanking skills!

So for now, cruisers are out. I want to be virtually maxed out in the T2 frigate of my choice before I start down the cruiser road. It will happen, just not right now.


My goals:

As my reader's probably know by now, I really like goal setting, so here are some goals to keep me busy.

In the short term, I want 25 kills on the Molden Heath campaign, which finishes at the end of June. I can't say that I'm loving Molden Heath, but I like finishing the things I start, so I'll stick it out. I'm not too proud include shuttles and the like - Molden

In the medium term, I'd like to make piracy sustainable. That means ransoms, or winning fights against lucrative opponents. I have a little bit of a buffer, but buying and losing T2 ships will use that up before too long.

In the long term, I want to get into the Battle Clinic top 10k pilots, and I want to win one of the Tusker's solo kill of the month competitions.


My expectations:

I expect that the T2 Tour is going to be rough. I'll constantly be flying ships that I'm not really skilled for, that have different capabilities than I am used to, in a place that I don't feel is conducive to soloing. My efficiency is going to nosedive as I start losing ships that are worth three or more times what I am used to flying. I'm going to make mistakes, and it's going to cost me.

On the plus side, however, I'll also have a much better understanding of how different classes of frigate fly, and I will (hopefully) also have found an "endgame" ship that I can really focus on skill building for.

Punisher Plan: 4th Quarter Review

I had one major goal coming out of my last review - to destroy more ships than I lost in the last quarter of the Punisher Plan.

I acheived that goal, destroying 12 other ships on my own, and another two as part of a team. Critically, three of my solo victories were above class kills. This allowed me to acheive another of my major goals - to join the Tuskers before their recruitement drive ended.

It's been a very good five Punishers.


Was it worth it?

With 20 Punishers behind me, I am now able to take a look at the Punisher Plan as a whole and ask myself if the process was worth it.

And, in my view, it exceeded all my expectations.

The Punisher Plan:

• encouraged me to look critically at what I wanted from my ship, and come up with a fit that balanced those (often conflicting) criteria.
• pushed me to develop the character skills that are most important in pvp - fitting, dps and tanking skills.
• pushed me to develop the player skills I needed to find and win fights.
• helped me learn the roaming skills that let me travel and hunt comfortably in low sec.
• earned me a place in an awesome pvp corp.
• gave me the confidence and self sufficiency to know that I don't need a corp to pvp.

However, I use words like "pushed", "helped" and "encouraged" for a reason. The Punisher Plan is not some kind of magic formula - buying and suiciding 20 T1 hulls over the course of a day will probably teach you very little. It is very much a case of getting out what you put into it. I put in four months of solo roaming and critical self evaluation, and I am happy with where that got me. The mileage of others may vary.

All that aside, however, I am also a far different player than the one that started down this road, and I'm not referring to skill points. My whole attitude towards pvp has changed; it is no longer something I am trying to do, but something that I'm trying to do better. I see New Eden differently; I play the game differently.

And I mean that in a good way.

I would very strongly recommend a similar approach to any other new pilot trying to learn pvp - providing their motivation is high enough. They would not have to use Punishers, of course. They could do something similar with most T1 frigates - or even T1 crusiers. At the end of the day, the "Punisher Plan" is more about the plan than it is about the Punisher. It's about having a goal and working towards it. 


So, what would I do differently, if I were to do it all over again?

As happy as I am with the results, I now know enough about pvp to recognise that I have a particular way that  like to fly and that I probably started with the wrong ship.

I love tank, especially active or regenerative tank, but I also like having a level of control over the range and speed of the fight. DPS is a secondary concern for me, and I dislike having to pay too much attention to my weapon system once the fight starts - I'm focusing more on cap and tank.

While the Punisher definitely offers tank, it is slow, and has no room for a web. I simplified my weapons as much as possible with the Gatling Pulse Laser (great tracking, zero falloff), but I have missed more than one smooth change over from Multifrequency to Scorch. I suspect that I will love missiles when I get there.

My Punisher fit was a series of compromises. I lacked the tank of other Punisher fits, but could hit over 1000km/s with overheat, and my lasers required less attention than autocannons would have. I would certainly not recommend my Punisher fittings as a general build, and if/when I return to Punishers I will probably re-evaluate my fit.

Taken together, I probably should have started with something Caldari. I may still end up flying Caldari at some point, but right now I lack the skills to do so, and the Amarr T2 ships are beckoning.


What next?

Flying only one ship for several months has taught me a great deal about pvp, but it has left me with a pretty narrow skill set. I now want to mess about with a number of T2 frigates, each building on the new skills needed by the previous ship, to get an idea of what I want to be flying full time. I'll post more on that tomorrow, however.

Punisher 20

The hunt:

My instinctive reaction to drones - to try and race their damage - was formed in the early days of the Punisher Plan. Back when I was still hurling myself at mining cruisers I found that my poor gunnery skills could not land a single hit on even the slowest of drones, and I quickly gave up trying. I've not tried to shoot them since.

However, my gunnery skills are now much better than they used to be. I wanted to find a fight that would give me the opportunity to re-test my ability to shoot at drones.

By happy coincidence, I soon found myself scanning down a ratting Rupture. Jumping into the belt I quickly got under his guns and started shooting at his Hobgoblin I's.

And shooting. And shooting.

While I definitely did better than I had ever done before - getting one drone to half health - it was still a pretty pathetic display.

With my cap gone (despite the nos), and the writing on the wall, I attempted to disengage, but that only hastened my end, as it allowed his autocannon to actually land some hits, which soon finished me off.

2011.05.03 17:48:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Illamur
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 3016

Involved parties:

Name: Krab701 (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.8
Corp: Native Freshfood
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 3016

Destroyed items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 3
Damage Control II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Armor Repairer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
1MN Afterburner II
Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)


Post battle review:

Well, I got the test I wanted, but I did not like the results. If I'm going to solve my drone problem then I either need to dramatically improve my tracking (probably through rigs) or find a solution that is not tracking based (such as smart bombs or rockets).

Outside of the typical drone issue, the fight went as well as could be expected. I got under his guns and managed to stay there.


Lessons for the future:

Well, the Punisher Plan is officially at an end. I will write up a fourth quarter review and start setting some goals and plans for the next phase of my pvp career. That probably means that the next few posts are going to have less pew-pew in them than has been typical of the last couple of weeks.

Punisher 19.8

The hunt:

I was on a roam through Molden Heath when I was joined by fellow Tusker Kishin Hattori. He was flying his Slicer, and he wanted to collect some loot from out of system, so we left Molden Heath struck out across low sec.

On the way, we spotted a Hawk and an Ishkur on scan. Two different locations, but in the same system. Kishkin narrowed the Ishkur down to a belt and we agreed that we would jump in and take the Ishkur, but that we needed to be fast - the Hawk would almost certainly jump in on us once the fight started.

As we were jumping in from different parts of the system we had to stagger our jumps to land at the same time. We actually made a pretty good job of it, and we landed together. However, the Ishkur was 20+ km from the warp in point. Kishkin's mwd Slicer crossed the distance in a flash, while I overheated my afterburner and tried to catch up.

The fight was well under way when I reached them. I pointed the Ishkur and opened fire, overheating my guns. In return, he turned his attention to me. Kishkin asked me if we should take out the drones first, or try and burn the Ishkur down.

I had about half a second to make a decision, and the deciding factor was cost. On our journey we had been talking about Kishkin's Slicer, and he had mentioned that a properly fit Slicer cost about 40 million. On the other hand, I knew my Punisher was worth perhaps 5-7 million. If the Hawk jumped in on us, Kishkin was set to lose far more than I was. This needed to be fast. I told him to burn down the Ishkur.

The Ishkur was entering armor when the Hawk jumped in. He decided to help finish me off first, but I am a little fuzzy on the details. I think he webbed me, and this then allowed the Ishkur to start doing MUCH more damage with his blasters. My range control had not been great throughout the fight - I had rushed in too close trying to catch up - but it had been reasonable, and I had been tanking the damage reasonably well while my cap held.

Not any more. The Ishkur was entering structure when my hull gave out.

2011.05.02 14:29:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Wiskeber
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2443

Involved parties:

Name: ChongDM (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.2
Corp: Rodents of Unusual Size
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Ishkur
Weapon: Light Ion Blaster II
Damage Done: 2443

Name: DeMogg Chong
Security: 0.0
Corp: Rodents of Unusual Size
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hawk
Weapon: Rocket Launcher II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 2
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2
Scorch S (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Control II
E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Small Armor Repairer II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S
1MN Afterburner II
Scorch S, Qty: 2 (Cargo).

Both ships turned their attention to Kishkin as I warped my pod out. I really wish I had been able to stick around, because what happened next must have been some pretty fancy flying.

Kiting both the ships Kishkin proceeded to finish off the Ishkur and drive the Hawk into structure before his cap gave out, causing his point to drop. Taking advantage of this last minute reprieve, the Hawk waped out, trailing smoke and engine fire.

2011.05.02 14:29:00

Victim: ChongDM
Corp: Rodents of Unusual Size
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Ishkur
System: Wiskeber
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3156

Involved parties:

Name: Kishin Hattori (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Imperial Navy Slicer
Weapon: Medium Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2786

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -1.6
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Damage Done: 370

Destroyed items:

Small Energy Neutralizer II
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 106
Damage Control II
Small Trimark Armor Pump I
Light Ion Blaster II, Qty: 2
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II
Nanite Repair Paste, Qty: 93 (Cargo)
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 9634 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 1514 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 212
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Light Ion Blaster II
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 4 (Drone Bay)


Post battle review:

After the fight Kishkin scooped my loot and the loot from the Ishkur. He very generously gave it all to me, which meant I was not significantly out of pocket for the fight.

I was hugely impressed by the Slicer, but even more so by Kishkin's flying. I would be happy just to survive a 2v1, and Kishkin was beating himself up for letting one get away.

Welcome to the Tuskers, kid.


Lessons for the future:

The truth is that I got frazzled and got too close to the Ishkur for too long. I might actually have outlived the Ishkur if I had not taken that initial dose of blaster to the face.

I am also determined to come up with a better solution to drones. They are my bane, and I'm tired of dying to them. I appreciate that I'm hardly alone here, but I need to come up with an answer. I was determined to try a different approach with my next Punisher.

Punisher 19.7

The hunt:

I was roaming solo through Molden Heath when I spotted a Rupture sitting on a gate. The pilot seemed to be afk, and certainly did not respond when I orbited him and then rammed him.

Now, at first I assumed this was bait, and I went on my way. Coming back through the system some time later, though, the Rupture was still there - and now the only other person in system.

Of course, I could not engage him as things currently stood - the gate guns would destroy me instantly. I tried repeatedly ramming his ship to push him out of gate gun range, but after 10 minutes I had only moved him about 10km and I decided I needed backup.

So a call went out over the Tuskers corp channel, and I was soon joined by Eshnala in her Hurricane. Eshnala soon broke the Rupture into little pieces, but not before I got a few shots in while Eshnala tanked the gate guns.

2011.05.01 09:37:00

Victim: colpunisher
Corp: Warriors in Number5
Alliance: Dragoons.
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rupture
System: Illamur
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 8850

Involved parties:

Name: Eshnala (laid the final blow)
Security: -7.1
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 7764

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -1.5
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Damage Done: 1086

Destroyed items:

Dual 180mm AutoCannon I
Phased Plasma M, Qty: 155
Damage Control I
Gyrostabilizer I
N-Type Explosive Hardener I
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 13
EMP M, Qty: 313
Heavy Missile Launcher I
800mm Reinforced Steel Plates I
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 157
Warp Scrambler I
Nuclear S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Carbonized Lead M, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Depleted Uranium M, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Tracking Disruptor I (Cargo)
Small Armor Repairer I (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M, Qty: 1614 (Cargo)
Proton M, Qty: 7340 (Cargo)
Small Energy Transfer Array I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Medium Capacitor Booster II (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Dual 180mm AutoCannon I, Qty: 3
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 13
Stasis Webifier I
Heavy Missile Launcher I
800mm Reinforced Steel Plates I
Target Painter I
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II (Cargo)
Titanium Sabot S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Phased Plasma M, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Republic Fleet EMP M, Qty: 144 (Cargo)
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 44 (Cargo)
250mm Light Artillery Cannon I (Cargo)


Post battle review:

This is the sort of thing that makes being in the Tuskers so great. It's not that all of a sudden I stop roaming solo, it's that sometimes you see something that you can't quite handle in the ship you are in. Corpless, you have to just let these things go, but when you have corpmates nearby it's often not too hard to put together something that works.


Lessons for the future:

While I have no real desire to fly battlecruisers, it certainly is nice to be able to call one in as backup.

Punisher 19.6

The hunt:

Often, while roaming through low sec, I see scanning ships. Sometimes they are on my D-scan, and other times I meet them at a gate. It's largely a waste of time chasing after these ships because they usually have warp stabs and cloaks.

If it's been a bit of a slow day, however, I often try warping in right on top of them, or wherever I think they have warped to, so that I can uncloak them and try blowing them up. It rarely works, but from time to time I get lucky.

This happened to be one of those times. I saw an Anathema enter the system, so I warped to the sun at zero. I don't know whether I got their first and he landed on me, or whether he was there and I landed on him. Either way, we were within a few thousand metres of each other, so I immediately pointed him and opened fire.

Once I had him in structure and it was clear he had no warp stabs I forced myself to switch off the guns. I was a pirate, right? I needed to try for my very first ransom.

I convo'd the pilot and greeted him politely. After a quick discussion with some Tuskers on corp channel, I had decided to ask for 25 million. I knew that his T2 hull was about 20 million (less the insultingly low insurance), and his scanning mods would easily be more than another 5 million, assuming he had Sisters of Eve equipment.

The other pilot then counter-offered 20 million, explaining that he only had 23 million in the bank. Regardless of whether or not he was lying, I was happy with 20 million so I accepted his offer.

Then, nothing happened for what seemed like far longer than it should take to transfer some ISK. I kept pulsing my lasers to keep him in structure, and I told him he only had another 15 seconds to pay up. His response?

"Bye".

And that's when the Loki jumped in.

I knew immediately that I was in trouble, but I still had time to wonder at the silliness of the Anathema pilot. Any backup was highly unlikely to be able to lock me and destroy me fast enough to prevent me from killing him - and my ship was worth a fraction of his! Hardly a win for him. Since he clearly wished to get blown up, I overheated my guns and obliged him. I had to let the pod go, though, as I had other things on my mind.

2011.04.30 22:26:00

Victim: Fredrick Kalirande
Corp: Universal Star
Alliance: HELM Alliance
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Anathema
System: Meildolf
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 3212

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.3
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 3212

Destroyed items:

1MN MicroWarpdrive I
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Expanded Cargohold I
Analyzer I
Sisters Core Scanner Probe, Qty: 4
Codebreaker I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Core Probe Launcher I
Salvager I
Small Shield Booster I
Expanded Cargohold I, Qty: 2
Sisters Combat Scanner Probe, Qty: 8 (Cargo)
Core Scanner Probe I, Qty: 8 (Cargo)


The Loki had landed right on top of me, so I turned into a tight orbit and prepared myself to go down fighting. My guns started chewing into his shields and his guns...

... did not a whole lot, actually. I think it dawned on us at the same time that by jumping in at zero the Loki had let me get under his guns, and while my ability to kill him was in doubt, he clearly did not have the ability to kill me.

As my guns pulled him down to about half shields I start asking for backup in the corp chat, explaining that I had a Loki pointed. The response came back, and a couple of nearby Tuskers started moving in.

Around about the same time, the Loki pilot starts freaking out. Perhaps he's only just noticed my corp patch or something, because he has definitely changed his mind about this encounter. I starts manual piloting at top speed in all kinds of directions, trying to shake me. I respond by manual piloting to stay in range.

Then, all of a sudden, I take some actual damage. A lot of actual damage. When that thing does hit, it hits HARD.

My overview told me that he had finally managed to pull some range, and that's when I belatedly realized that my afterburner was off! With everyone jumping in on top of me I had not needed to turn it on, and in the excitement I had forgotten to do so later.

With the damage starting to pile up, I knew that I did not have a chance to get back under his guns; I was barely faster than he was, and he was too far away. Instead, I overheated my afterburner and moved away, breaking his point.

That was apparently good enough for the Loki, as he warped out of there even faster than I did - fast enough that I was even able to scoop the Anethema's loot.

With great sadness, I told my fellow Tuskers that the Loki had escaped.


Post battle review:

Finding the Anathema was a little bit of knowledge about exploring and a whole lot of luck. I made a pretty rubbish go of my first ransom attempt. I lost control of negotiations and gave him far too much time to arrange backup. I have since seen that other Tuskers have personal ransom channels with default instructions to speed things along. I shall have to look into that.


Lessons for the future:

That night I upgraded the afterburner on my Punisher to T2. It allows me to hit over 1km/s overheated. I'm not letting something like this happen again.

I'm also going to completely revise my approach to ransoms. I'm going to give this some more thought, though.

Punisher 19.5

The hunt:

After being accepted into the Tuskers, I immediately packed my bags and returned to Molden Heath, where the Tuskers were campaigning. I swiftly settled into the campaign headquarters and went out for a roam.

Along the way I ran into fellow Tusker nalathil, who, flying a Rupture, asked if I wanted to roam together. This was a new experience for me, but I was keen to get to know my corp mates, so I happily agreed. We wandered around the Molden Heath loop, looking for trouble.

At some point we noticed a Tristran following me. In fact, he had challenged me to 1v1 a few systems back, but as I was chatting with my new corp mate it took me a while to notice.

We quickly agreed that I would wait at a belt for the Tristran to find me, while nalathil waited in the next system. It did not take long for the Tristran to jump in, and the fight was on.

Now, because I was expecting a Rupture to jump into the fight at any minute, I simply pointed the Tristran and turned on my repper. Opening fire was almost an afterthought. However, I soon learned that, compared to frigates, cruisers are SLOW. In fact, there was a real risk that the Tristran would kill me before the Rupture landed. I turned my full attention to the fight, overheating my repper and guns.

The Tristran and I entered structure together, just as nalathil landed. As a result, his opening salvo finished the Tristran, and we both wished him a "gf". He returned the comment, but noted that the fight would have been better without the Rupture.

2011.04.30 21:05:00

Victim: HalbaradKenafin
Corp: Janitors For Hire
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Tristan
System: Illamur
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 1724

Involved parties:

Name: nalanthii (laid the final blow)
Security: -0.2
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 475

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -1.2
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: Punisher
Damage Done: 1249

Destroyed items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 106
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Light Neutron Blaster II
Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 24
Small Armor Repairer II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Dropped items:

Damage Control II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 24
Nanite Repair Paste, Qty: 20 (Cargo)
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 320 (Cargo)
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 80 (Cargo)


Post battle review:

The Tristran's last comment stung. After all, had I not had similar feelings from time to time? Should I have offered him the 1v1 he wanted?

Time, though, has given me a different perspective. First, he was a 2009 character looking for a 1v1 against a 2011 character. Any sense of an "equal fight" goes out the window right there. And second, he jumped in on me. You take your victims as you find them. In this case, his victim had a friend nearby. It's a risk we all take when we solo.


Lessons for the future:

I must not get into the habit of fighting carelessly just because I have help on the way. I was very close to going under in a fight that I probably could have won fairly handily 1v1 simply because I got complacent. I need to bring my "A game" to each fight.

Punisher 19.4

The hunt:

Another day, another mission runner.

Well, not quite. A transport that made the mistake of being afk in a safe spot.

2011.04.26 18:41:00

Victim: Reuben J Cogburn
Corp: Arcturus Inc.
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Iteron Mark III
System: Avair
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2230

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.2
Corp: Strategic Conflicts Incorporated
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2230

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold II, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Expanded Cargohold II


Post battle review:

Not much to say about this one. I scanned him down, jumped in, and that was the end of him. Too bad for me there was nothing in his cargo hold.


Lessons for the future:

Nothing of any real value. Just a kill of opportunity.

Punisher 19.3

The hunt:

Hoping to build on my earlier success in scanning down mission runners, I roamed from mission hub to mission hub, knowing that a scanning ship was never more than a jump or two away.

Using this technique I was able to scan down a Kestrel, and I jumped into the fight as soon as I was back in my Punisher. This was my first fight against a shield tanked frigate, and I was interested to see how it differed from fighting against an armor tank.

I was surprised to find that I was able to control the range. With no plates to slow them down, I assumed that sheild tankers would rig for speed. This was apparently not the case here, though, and I settled into a wide orbit; the extra speed would help keep his missile damage down.

His tank was impressive, and I said as much to him during the fight. I knew this would be, in part, because the local rats also do EM damage, so the Kestrel would have been a fool not to plug his EM vulnerability. For a while it seemed that I might not be able to break his tank, but as he was having equal difficulty against my armor, I stayed where I was and waited to see what the result of this apparent stalemate would be.

Then, all at once, his shield started collapsing. It was so fast that I realised the Kestrel must have been active tanked, and without a nos (and the Punisher's impressive capacitor reserves) he simply lost the cap war. Moments later, the Kestrel disintegrated.

2011.04.26 18:03:00


Victim: Brent Layton
Corp: Active Fusion
Alliance: Cold Fusion.
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Kestrel
System: Avair
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 4020


Involved parties:


Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -0.9
Corp: Strategic Conflicts Incorporated
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2258


Name: Paradise Cruise Missile / True Power
Damage Done: 1762


Destroyed items:


Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I, Qty: 3
Viscoelastic EM Ward Salubrity I
Small F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 19
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Small C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 476 (Cargo)
Warp Core Stabilizer I


Dropped items:


Upgraded 'Limos' Standard Missile Bay I, Qty: 4
Beta Reactor Control: Reaction Control I
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Languid Phase Inversion ECM I (Cargo)
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 57


Post battle review:

Another really satisfying battle against an opponent with teeth. I've been very lucky recently, as I have not found it necessary to subsist on shuttles and haulers in quite some time. We each gave each other a "gf" in local, which is unusual for a carebear. He was a good sport and I wish him well.

I'm pleased that I was able to adapt easily from fighting turrets (try to get into falloff or under their tracking, depending on the turret) to fighting missiles (maximise your speed). It's not a weapon system I have much practice fighting. Of course, the strong optimals on lasers make that fairly easy.


Lessons for the future:

Heavy use of scanning ships has opened up a whole new set of targets for me. While, as I mention in my previous post, it is no guarantee of a fight, it has certainly helped recently.

It's also worth noticing that I won that fight because my cap was better than his. In my focus on gunnery and tanking, my capacitor skills are not what they could be. I should probably work on that.

The things I don't say

Many times, now, I have been contacted about this blog, pvp, or Eve generally. Each player that contacts me has their own story, views and enthusiasm - I am happy to hear from all of them.

Often, these players tell me that they have found their current lives in New Eden unfulfilling, their old pleasures having become stale with time. My blog - evidence that absolutely anyone can engage in solo pvp - inspires them to try something similar. I wish them the very best of luck.

However, these budding pirates often find the road hard going; harder, at times, than they expected. In part, this is my fault. Although I have worked to keep this blog as honest as I can, and I have not intentionally hidden anything about my fights, like any storyteller I focus on the parts of the story that actually matter, and I skip the days and hours of irrelevance.

So over time these pilots sometimes become disheartened by the long and winding road of the solo pvper. My blog can be read in an afternoon, which can lead readers to forget the months it has taken me to make even modest progress. I'm going to take a moment, therefore, to talk about mundane realities; the challenges that I face daily, but which rarely make it into this blog.


Targets are hard to find

I'm a low skill point player, on my own, flying a frigate. I can roam all day, or all evening, and not find anything I can attack. Sometimes this is because everyone seems to be docked up or behind their forcefield. More often, though, their battlecruisers and battleships simply outclass my little frigate. Equally, many corps never seem to move through low sec in groups of less four or five. I like a challenge, but I'm not stupid.


Fights are hard to provoke

When you do find a fight, it is very important to engage on your own terms. This requires a certain intentional or unintentional cooperation from your target. There have been a number of occasions, for example, where I have encountered Eve University anti-pirate fleets/ships that I would have engaged if only they had either jumped off the gate or engaged me on the gate.

Hello, EveUni! I'm a pirate! Shouldn't you be engaging me? Apparently not, unless you have the gate guns on your side.


Many fights simply fizzle out

Even after a target has been found, and you have them where you want them, things still may end without a blaze of gunfire. Too many times - FAR too many times - I have scanned down a mission runner and switched back to my frigate only to warp in as they were warping out, their mission completed. Just today I scanned down a Cyclone and jumped in on him, only to find him 40+ km off the warp in point. As I burned towards him he simply warped out, abandoning his mission.

And of course, let's not forget warp stabilizers. You can anticipate your opponent perfectly and land right on top of that cloaked covert ops ship, or land right at zero on that hauler, only to have them slip your point and leave you with nothing but a GCC.


There is no money left

Some pirates are able to make a living out of their piracy. I certainly can't, though, and I'm using the cheap ships. While that may come with time where pillaged wealth sustains me, at the moment I am constantly short of cash.

What's worse, it is very difficult to go back. Those moments of excitement - those fights you do find - are addictive; I can't bring myself to grind ISK after the experiences I've had. I have not run an exploration site in weeks. All I can do is try and lose fewer ships, spend less money, and hope that the ISK starts rolling in at some point.


What does this all mean?

It means that I spend a great deal of time on this game laying the groundwork for what works out to be a few minutes of intense excitement.

I don't get those hours back. They are part of the price I pay to fly the way I fly.

And I pay it gladly. There is no doubt in my mind that it is worthwhile. There is nothing in this game I would rather be doing. But new solo pvpers should be prepared to pay this cost before they start.


Is there nothing that can be done?

By and large, no. It's a way of playing, and cause follows effect the way night follows day.

That said, joining the right corp really helps. The empty hours fly by much faster when I'm following friends in corp chat and on ventrilo; one part of my mind distracted while the another part focuses on my D-scan and my roam maps.

And nothing lifts the spirits like seeing a corp mate cross your path, another lonely hunter roaming the endless night. A wave, perhaps, or a salute, but nothing more before you both plunge back into the void, leaving only emptiness behind you.

It's not the easiest way to play this game, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Punisher 19.2

The hunt:

After a number of unsuccessful roams, I decided to have another go at scanning down mission runners.

At first, this was no more fruitful than my roams, largely because targets that I could reasonably expect to stand a chance against on were typically running level one or level two missions, which don't last very long. By the time I had fetched my scanning ship, scanned them down, and got back into my Punisher, and then warped into the mission, they had usually disappeared.

That changed, however, when I hit upon the simple plan of buying multiple scanning ships and leaving one near each mission hub that I liked to visit. A Magnate with cloak and combat probes runs to less than 200,000 ISK, so buying a handful of them was trivial.

With a scanning ship nearby at all times, I had a much better response time, and I was soon able to scan down and jump in on a Thrasher. Activating the jump gate, I found myself coming out of warp just over 10km from him. Turning on my afterburners, I was able to tackle him almost immediately after landing.

I had known, jumping in, that I was not going to be able to out range or out track the Thrasher and this would be a straight up battle of damage against tank. I moved into an easy orbit around the Thrasher and turned on my nos to maximise the effectiveness of my active tank. I also immediately overheated my guns to maximise my dps.

The Thrasher began targeting me, and wiped away my shields almost at once. However, he then ran into problems, probably because the rats in Amarr space tend to be weak to EM, which is the best resist on my armour. His damage reduced, he soon fell to my guns.

2011.04.25 18:21:00

Victim: Genix Permafrost

Corp: Republic Military School

Alliance: Unknown

Faction: Unknown

Destroyed: Thrasher

System: Avair

Security: 0.4

Damage Taken: 9852

Involved parties:

Name: Corpior Devoter / The Blood Raider Covenant

Damage Done: 6920

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)

Security: -0.8

Corp: Strategic Conflicts Incorporated

Alliance: NONE

Faction: NONE

Ship: Punisher

Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II

Damage Done: 2932

Destroyed items:

Dual 150mm Railgun I (Cargo)

Stasis Webifier I

Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Medium Beam Laser I (Cargo)

EMP S, Qty: 8377 (Cargo)

Flameburst Light Missile, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

1MN Afterburner I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)

Microwave S, Qty: 2 (Cargo)

Carbonized Lead S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Ultraviolet S (Cargo)

EMP S, Qty: 318

280mm Howitzer Artillery I

Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Small Remote Armor Repair System I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)

200mm Light Carbine Repeating Cannon I, Qty: 4

Radio S (Cargo)

Guristas Copper Tag (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Warp Disruptor I (Cargo)

Standard S (Cargo)

Small Hull Repairer I (Cargo)

Civilian Shield Booster I (Cargo)

1MN Afterburner I

Small EMP Smartbomb I (Cargo)

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I (Cargo)

Thorium Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Multifrequency S (Cargo)

Small Armor Repairer I

EMP S, Qty: 242

Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

280mm Howitzer Artillery I

Medium Shield Booster I

200mm Light Carbine Repeating Cannon I

Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Post battle review:

A short, hard fight where things went pretty much as expected. No tricks or subtlety here, just brute force against brute force. Thinking of my last fight, this would be another example of where a tracking disruptor in my (non-existant) third midslot would have been far more useful than a web.

Lessons for the future:

Although I like to centralize my assets, having utility ships in key areas can clearly be very helpful. I suspect that this is something I will repeat when I re-settle; it costs me virtually nothing and offers me targets I would not otherwise be able to reach.

Punisher 19.1

I have a greater backlog of fights and posts than I need, so I will be upping the post rate for a while.

The hunt:

I had recently been contacted by Dian Lung and we arranged to run into each other for a fight somewhere on the Milal loop. We were both some distance from the loop, so we spent time chatting about fits and what not. She new I would be in a Punisher (of course), but I did not know what she would bring.

After a few circuits of the loop (still not having run into Dian) I noticed a Dramel on scan. I asked Dian where she was, and she was only a jump or two behind me, heading in the same direction (which is why we hadn't run into each other).

I asked her if she thought she was fit to take on a Dram if I could lure him out, and she thought she was, if she had help. Accordingly, I warped to the sun and waited for the Dram.

Apparently, though, my Punisher is pretty terrifying, even when I'm the only other person in the system, because the Dram did not fancy his chances. Instead, he fled the system.

Letting Dian know, I started heading back up the loop towards her. After a jump or so I spotted a Jaguar sitting in a belt, and guessed it must be Dian.

Now, this was not a fight tilted in my favour, in large part because of the Jag's natural resists. However, with some additional rat aggro, this might be something that I could overcome. I jumped in.

I landed fairly close to the Jag and immediately tackled it. I opened fire and began to orbit.

At first, my shots were landing squarely, thanks to my decent optimal. However, I soon noticed my damage fall off a cliff. As we had been talking about the benefits of a web v a tracking disruptor in a third midslot, I was immediately alert to the possibility of a disruptor, and a squint at my overview confirmed this (why do they make such critical icons so small?).

I adjusted my orbit to get in closer, but Dian was now no longer deep into falloff and started doing significant damage to me. On the other hand, I was now within nos range, so I began regenerating some cap for my repair system.

As I had hoped, Dian had some aggro from the belt rats, but it was not enough to make any real difference. Dian may have felt differently, however, because she opened up her orbit to maximise the effectiveness of her tracking disruptor.

At this point, I knew the fight was lost and I turned my mind to finding an escape. With Dian moving at high speed, I waited until she was on the backswing of her orbit before powering forward and overheating my afterburners. Our combined speed was enough to pull me out of point range, and I managed to warp out, leaving a trail of burning fuel behind me.


Post battle review:

Well, Dian certainly made her point about tracking disruptors. Given that she already had the ability to dictate range, a web would simply have been wasted. The disruptor effectively improved her tank, which was far more useful.

That said, I would not have been able to escape if she had been packing a web instead. So it looks like there are some tradeoffs to be made. I would suggest, though, that if Dian had not tried to maximise the disruptor at the end of the fight (when it was clear she would be winning the damage race any way) I would not have been able to get away either.


Lessons for the future:

The results are in, and they are conclusive - T2 ships are bad news for my Punisher. I think I'll avoid them in future.

And when I have a third midslot, I'm trying a tracking disruptor.

Punisher 18.6

The hunt:

Looking at my various region maps I realised that there were large swathes of Amarr space that I had never really visited; my roams usually focus on Domain and Tash-Murkon. This being the case, I decided it was high time to branch out, so I planned a roam through the Kor-Azor region.

As I was jumping through low sec I spotted a Navy Slicer on scan, and I quickly narrowed him down to a belt. However, I was pretty sure that the Slicer would be fit for speed and range, neither of which my Punisher could deal with.

I did not want to make assumptions, though, so I asked what  to expect in the Tusker Public Channel, and received confirmation from the other pilots that I would simply be kited to death. Suleiman, on the other hand, pointed out that if I could pilot in such a way that his orbit kept running him into asteroids then I might have a shot.

That's about as good odds as I could reasonably hope for, so I warped to zero. The Slicer was busy with a high level rat, so I a was able to get close and point him. Unfortunately, he was afterburner fit, so this did not kill his speed.

We both started hammering away at each other while I tried my best to prevent him getting range. I overheated my afterburner and lead him towards large asteroids whenever I could.

It was clearly going to be a close fought battle. He was more fragile than I, but had far higher damage. I also missed a switch from Multifrequency to Scorch for a few moments because of my focus on manual piloting, which lowered my overall dps. Not by much, but enough to make a difference in a fight this close.

Finally, as we both entered into structure, he pulled out of range. However, he was rapidly approaching one of the rat wrecks in the belt, so I quickly bookmarked the wreck and warped to the sun.

I used the time in warp to repair my armour back to full. As soon as I landed I re-warped to my bookmark. I had no idea if he would have lingered near the wreck, but it was worth checking.

Landing on the wreck, I was disoriented, so used my overview to approach my target. As my Punisher aligned and began speeding towards him was surprised to see that there were some drones in the belt. Slicers don't carry drones.

And that's when my ship evaporated.

Post battle review:

Apparently, between me warping out and warping back in, a ratting battleship had warped into the belt (and the Slicer had naturally fled).

I then warped in and hit approach without checking the identity of my target. The battleship, seeing a flashy outlaw warp in and burn towards him, quite reasonably decided to blow me out of the sky. And as I had no transversal velocity, he managed that quite handily.

Obviously, if I had checked the identity of my target before approaching the second time I might have escaped with my ship - a silly error on my part - but I don't want to get too hung up on that point.

Instead, I was pretty pleased that I went up against what is considered by some to be the best frigate in the game with a Punisher and managed to get out with my hull (even if I did immediately get myself blown up by someone else). Equally, I very nearly managed to pull a win. If I had not wasted some damage in the transition from short to medium range, I might well have earned a killmail.

So all in all, I'm not terribly displeased. As far as losses go, it was a pretty good one.

Lessons for the future:

Most of my base skills are pretty solid at this point. What I really need to work on is juggling them all at once. I largely know the correct answers to the theoretical questions, but applying them all at once while under pressure still gives me trouble.

Flying as a Tusker.

I've never made any secret of the fact that I generally post a week or two in arrears on this blog. Largely, that's to smooth out the postings; I know from my own blog reading that I'd much rather read blogs that post according to a schedule than in bursts. Of course, my play time does not always work like that, so I like to have bit of a buffer in case I'm kept out of New Eden for a week.

Today, however, I'm going to jump forward in time to the present and confirm that I posted my application to the Tuskers the same day I posted my solo Drake kill. My application was accepted, and I joined the Tuskers that weekend. I immediately packed my bags and went back to Molden Heath, where the Tuskers are currently campaigning. That night I scored my first solo kill as a Tusker and also worked as part of a small fleet for the first time (apparently, my Punisher makes decent bait).

What this means, though is that while I will go back to my usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday posting schedule, the next few fights will have happened before I joined the Tuskers. I hope that doesn't confuse anyone.

Equally, I'm going to be making a concerted effort to actually ransom ships where I can now (I don't need the kills any more), and you might actually see my try for some pods - I finally trained up a hauling alt to do my shopping, so my sec status can fall as far as it likes.

Finally, in accordance with the Tusker code, I no longer feel I can accept the 1v1 requests I have been getting through the post. However, I hate avoiding good fights, so if you convo me in game I'm always happy to let you know where I'm currently roaming. If you head my way in a T1 frigate or cruiser, you stand a good chance of getting your fight.

Until then, good hunting.