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.
You can kill some assault frigs in a T1 frig but not a properly fit Jag, I think. Also the third midslot is what allows you to control range against 2-mid assaults such as Wolf and Enyo so I guess the Punisher won't work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the write-up, Taurean, it's always interesting to see fights from the other side's perspective. There was one bit about the tracking disruptor that I hadn't thought of when we discussed it earlier. Not having a web to keep people in range also means you don't have the option of disengaging by webbing someone long enough to burn out of their scram range. Not that you have that option on a Punisher anyway, of course, but it can make a difference - I had one fight with a Hookbill that I probably could've at least escaped from if I'd fitted a web instead of using a TD against a missile boat.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that the Jaguar's resists gave me an advantage against both your primary damage types and any rat aggro I might've gotten - I did consider the rat aggro, but it actually didn't occur to me that I'd tank you more easily (I blame never flying Amarr). Most of the reason I chose the Jag, though, was simply that it's what I normally fly. Sometimes it works out well, like in the fight with you. Other times, it works out incredibly badly.
A Hookbill was probably the dumbest thing I could've engaged in my Jaguar - highest damage vs. my weakest resist (kinetic), enough mids for a web to slow me down, and lol at using a TD against a missile boat. Of course, I didn't exactly have the option of saying, "oops, I'm in the wrong ship, can you wait for a bit while I switch for something more suitable?". That's just the fight I happened to get. (If it's any comfort, that was actually the same Jaguar I engaged you in, later the same evening. You're not the only one who runs into ships that seem designed to kill theirs. :P)
Unrelatedly, if you haven't already seen it, Miura's just put a guide up to roaming in Black Rise - the area he describes is practically where I live, if you're interested in having a look.