Vengance v Drake & Stabber

The hunt:

I don't know what it is about Drakes, but I find them really hard to resist. So when I saw one in a belt that was only four months old, I decided to warp in and try my luck. After all, this was likely to be my last Molden Heath roam, and it would be fantastic to end the campaign with a great kill.

I landed right on top of him, and I had preloaded Gremlin Rage during my warp, so we immediately pointed and webbed each other. I saw my rockets start to do a respectable level of damage to his shields, and thought I might be able to break his tank.

Things started to go wrong, though, when he launched a flight of Hobgoblin II. These started inflicting heavy damage, and I discovered that Rage rockets are absolutely not the sort of rocket you want to have loaded when clearing drones, even if you web them first. It took about five volleys for me to clear the first drone. I switched back to regular rockets ASAP.

By the time I was reloaded, I was about halfway into my armor. Still, if I could clear the drones I could probably stabilise. He had a web, and so his missile damage was pretty good, but I was reasonably sure I could tank it while my cap held.

I cleared the last of his drones at about 25% armor. Looking at the rate of damage, I thought I could stabilise, so I started targeting him again. Unfortunately, the Drake seemed to have had similar thoughts, and he called in backup in the form of a Stabber.

I'm happy to say that I didn't panic, and I think I reacted well. As the Stabber landed and pointed me, I immediately turned in to the Stabber and began orbiting at 500m. The Stabber did not seem to have a web (although the Drake did), so there was a reasonable chance that I could get under his guns. Of course, my reduced speed would mean taking more damage from the Drake, but with the web on me it was not as much of a reduction as it might have been. [Edit: It looks like I was mistaken; Thrash tells me the web was on the Stabber, not the Drake. The main thing, though, was that there was only one web, meaning I could still get under the Stabber's guns.]

Over heating my repair system, I was gratified to see that the Stabber's damage was greatly reduced by my orbit. Unfortunately, his initial damage had taken me into structure; things were now very touch and go.

I don't know if I could have turned things around if the situation had remained as it was, but once I saw the Stabber start to neut me, I knew it was a lost cause. With my cap already depleted from running the repair system for so long, it did not take him more than a cycle or two to cap me out.

Interestingly, his one neut did not actually stop my repair system completely; I was able to get a cycle off from time to time, thanks to my regen. However, with two ships shooting at me, and already being in structure, he did not have to shut down me down completely; with no margin for error, slowing me was enough.

2011.06.21 05:31:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Heild
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 3214

Involved parties:

Name: Thash Hirarashi (laid the final blow)
Security: 3.5
Corp: The Cursed Navy
Alliance: Important Internet Spaceship League
Faction: NONE
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 2936

Name: Roberthihiho
Security: 2.0
Corp: The Cursed Navy
Alliance: Important Internet Spaceship League
Faction: NONE
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 199

Name: Arch Angel Hijacker / Archangels
Damage Done: 79

Destroyed items:

Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Gremlin Javelin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 33
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
Hammerhead I, Qty: 4 (Cargo)
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 3
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 372 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 528 (Cargo)
Phalanx Javelin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 99
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Hammerhead I (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
1MN Afterburner II


Afterthoughts:

Warping my pod out, I left a "gf" in local and began the trip back to Atlar. On my final jump, from the gate to the station, my pod landed an unprecedented 2km from the docking circle. And despite the early hour, an artillery fit Hurricane was camping the station. Like a slow motion car wreck, he sent me to update my clone.

Terrible luck aside, there was a clear lesson here about fighting drones. I thought I was being clever by preloading my best ammo against the Drake, but all I really did was give him 30 seconds of free hits as I ineffectually combated his drones.

Instead, I should have jumped in with Caldari Gremlin. I would have been doing decent damage to the Drake, but I could have dealt with his drones much more swiftly. There was plenty of time to upgrade to Rage after the drones were taken care of - it's not as if any ammo was going to make this a quick fight.

I'm happy with how I handled the addition of the Stabber. With better skills, and a stronger start, I actually think this fight could have been salvaged. However, I don't have better skills, and (as I have posted elsewhere) I need to stop biting off more than I can chew. The day may come where Drakes across New Eden fear my Vengeance, but that day is not today, nor any time soon.