Welcome to Flight of Dragons

Hello, and welcome to Flight of Dragons.

This blog started as a training journal, a way of recording my fights and analysing them so that I continue to improve as a pvper. It also helps me stay motivated, both because of the encouragement of others and because I can look back and see how far I have come. I hope to break the Battle Clinic top 10k one day, and (even more difficult) win the Tusker solo kill of the month competition. As of writing I am a long way from either of those goals, but this blog is helping me get there.

However, this blog also has a second (and originally unintended) function; it makes me part of the Eve community.

You don't need to be part of the community to play Eve, and playing Eve does not automatically make you part of the community. But I have come to find that the New Eden community - a real, player driven community, like the real, player driven economy - is part of what sets this mmorpg apart from all the rest. Being part of that community simply makes the game that much more enjoyable.

And so, long after my initial purpose has been satisfied, I continue to blog about my time in New Eden.

Of course, as this blog ages, there are an increasing number of old posts, and it can be difficult for new readers to catch up on where we are, and how we got here. This post, as well as serving as an introduction, is designed to speed that process up by summarising and linking key posts.


The Punisher Plan

It all started with the Punisher Plan. This was my effort to teach myself pvp by buying and losing 20 T1 frigates - in my case, Punishers.

The Punisher Plan is a record, then, of each of my first 20 pvp ships and the lessons I learned from losing them. If you are interested, feel free to read each battle report in turn - I especially recommend this if you are also new to pvp - but you can also read my 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter reports to get an idea of how I progressed.


The T2 Tour

After the Punisher Plan, I knew I wanted to find a frigate to specialise in by maxing out the relevant skills. This would allow me to effectively close the gap between myself and more veteran players. You can't get better than maxed skills, after all.

So I started on the T2 Tour, a search to find the right frigate. I have not recorded every fight, for reasons I give here, but my entries should give those interested a pretty good idea about how the various ships perform. I started with the Crusader, because so many of the relevant skills matched those I had been building to fly the Punisher, and then moved on to the Malediction.

After enjoying, but not loving, interceptors I then moved on to the Vengeance. I fell in love with this little boat, and for months I flew it almost exclusively.


Building skills

With my ship chosen, I began working on my relevant skills and piloting my little Vengeance around low sec, looking for fights. In my six month review I noted that I had been having some problems with target selection, so I am worked hard to bring back the focus and the discipline of the Punisher Plan.

Over time, however I began to focus more and more on profitable piracy, and I felt the limitations of the Vengeance. Being very slow, I would often fall victim to gate camps or gangs that a faster ship would simply have avoided.

As a result, I started flying Interceptors more often, first the Malediction, and then the Crow. Now, my Assault Frigates and Interceptor related skills are effectively at maximum.


Moving up to Cruisers

Shortly after really maxing out my frigate skills, real life forced me to take a break. I'm back in the command chair now, but my flight time is more limited than it was before. To compensate, I've started trying to record my fights, so the blog now includes video, although this simply supplements the the written portion, rather than replaces it.

I'm now working my way through cruisers, starting with the Arbitrator. At some point I will probably branch out and include the Caracal and Maller, after they have been buffed in the winter expansion.


The Tuskers

I am also a member of the Tuskers; they are part of what inspired me to play Eve. Many of my fellow Tuskers have blogs of their own, and you can find most of them in my blog list. If you are not familiar with their blogs, I would encourage you to give them a read.

Like many Tuskers, I almost exclusively fly solo, occasionally teaming up with my corp-mates to take on larger targets. This is a rather demanding play style, and anyone considering it may want to read my views on the subject here.