Tuesday 17 May 2011

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.

6 comments:

  1. Lovely writeup.

    You should be ahead in ISK if you got all the loot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What do you put in that 4th high slot? I'm thinking a smartbomb may be effective against those drones at the cost of capacitor. It's tough to say however, mostly because you'll have to fit a small smartbomb, and you'd need to know if the drones orbit you inside of that smartbomb range before using it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really enjoy reading your tales and you have inspired me to start an alt and give him 10 Rifters to destroy in a similar manner. I doubt that I'll have as much luck (I have zero PvP experience) but it'll be fun while they last...

    Right now I'm wandering around the nearby low sec neighborhood in a rookie ship setting up some bookmarks while my skills build up. And reading everything I can find on frigate PvP and the Rifter...

    Thanks again for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ive been reading your updates, but been too lazy to log in and comment, but I wanted to on this one.

    I upgraded my ship to a slicer instead of staying with the punisher. I just got tired of running into dramiel's and other t2 ships that blew me to bits without even a chance to live. The Slicer fixes that issue a little bit, however, since I switched ships; I havent seen any dramiels and the 2 I have seen, warped off before I got in range =P

    So when youre done with the punisher plan, I reccomend trying out the Slicer Plan =)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the feedback, foksieloy. I'm never quite sure what it is that people seem like about my posts - which never seem as exciting as other people's blogs - but it's nice to know that, whatever it is, some people enjoy what I'm writing.

    As for the smartbombs, Truen1ght, I have seriously considered that. In fact, I have even gone so far as to buy and inject the energy pulse weapon skill. But as I am out of Punishers, I think I will put smartbombs on hold for the time being.

    Good luck with the Rifters, Jack. They are an excellent ship and should serve you well.

    I've considered Slicers, Axazia, but they are just not my style. I like tough brawlers, not fast kiters. Probably because my twitch reflexes are not great, so my manual piloting at high speeds leaves something to be desired. I'll inevitably give something like that a try, but not in something as expensive a Slicer.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Taurean, if you are looking for a tough brawler there is one ship class up from yours that you might try.
    This is a fit i am using atm, your millage might vary.
    Consider it the punishers slower, mentally retarded, but incredibly buff brother.
    Pop a exile pill for brutal tank. I tanked a camp consisting of Arazu, 2 hurricanes and 2 drakes in this, so it has staying power, as long as booster charges last.

    [Maller, Activo]
    Medium Armor Repairer II
    Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
    Armor Explosive Hardener II
    Damage Control II
    Gyrostabilizer II
    Medium Armor Repairer II

    10MN Afterburner II
    J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
    Medium Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
    [empty high slot]
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M
    220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M

    Medium Nanobot Accelerator I
    Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
    Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I

    ReplyDelete