The hunt:
I was wandering around Aeschee and the adjacent systems when I received a convo from Tawa Suyo. You may remember Tawa from this post.
Tawa had intended to take my advice and join Blood Money, but since they closed down he's been bouncing around on his own. He told me that he had wanted to be cunning and track me down from my killmails but "that doesn't work when you don't kill nowt!"
Actually, I'd been sick for the past week. Usually, this would increase my computer time, but fickle fortune had struck me down with an infection that included eye strain as a symptom, and looking at a computer monitor for any length of time caused a great deal of distress.
Still, he'd found me now, so I offered him a fight. He did not fancy his Rifter's chances against my Vengeance (and I can't say that I blame him), so I told him where he could find one of my corpmates in a Rifter. Of course, I also told Kaal to expect company.
Tawa and I made our way to Jov, where Kaal was roaming, and we all joined fleet for ease of communication. Before they could start fighting, though, a juicy target appeared on D-scan; could this wandering Crusader be tempted into a fight?
Kaal and Tawa warped to the sun and started a fake fight, complete with smack talk in local, while I warped to a deep safe. The Crusader was not interested, though, so eventually Kaal and Tawa went at it for real, with predictable results.
We all chatted while Tawa reshipped; he wants to focus on Gallente ships but he thinks that fitting the T1 frigates is too difficult. He's looking forward to the Taranis, though, which seems like a solid ship.
From there, we began to roam. It was not a planned roam, of course, but target after target appeared and disappeared, leading us on like fairy lights. We picked up several other Tuskers along the way, and another guest, who is interested in joining us.
Eventually, our scouts spotted a flashy Curse coming down the pipe towards the main fleet. Kaal had most of us warp off scan while he waited at the gate in his Rifter. When the Curse appeared, he launched a full attack.
Now, there was nothing to stop the Curse simply burning back to the gate and leaving; Kaal's lone Rifter was no threat. However, he might just appear easy enough to kill that the Curse would aggress, stranding him in this system for 60 seconds. We collectively held our breaths.
What the Curse intended is unclear. In the end, he hit Kaal with a neut, but not drones. He must have wanted to warp off, and hoped to make Kaal drop point. It was enough, however, to count as aggression, so all the prealigned frigates hit the "warp to" button, and landed on the unsuspecting Curse.
Kaal ordered an immediate overheat; the Curse would undoubtedly try to deagress and leave, which meant we only had 60 seconds of time on target. It was enough.
2011.08.07 19:16:00
Victim: Jifftoolabahh
Corp: The Nightshift
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Curse
System: Onne
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 12572
Involved parties:
Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Damage Done: 1861
Name: Skyler Hawk
Security: -8.5
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Curse
Weapon: Hammerhead II
Damage Done: 3127
Name: nalanthii
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Ishkur
Weapon: Warrior II
Damage Done: 2950
Name: Kaal Redrum
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Damage Done: 2428
Name: Tansyaster
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket
Damage Done: 2067
Name: Tawa Suyo
Security: -0.2
Corp: Ministry of War
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rifter
Damage Done: 139
Destroyed items:
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Photon Scattering Field II
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I, Qty: 2
RADAR Backup Array II
Power Diagnostic System II
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Large Shield Extender II
Heat Dissipation Field II
Dropped items:
Invulnerability Field II
Damage Control II
10MN Afterburner II
Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I, Qty: 3
Power Diagnostic System II
Large Shield Extender II
Hornet EC-300, Qty: 10 (Drone Bay)
Warrior II, Qty: 6 (Drone Bay)
Valkyrie II, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)
We also managed to capture his capsule, but we ended up destroying it because he had been podded recently and had no implants in his current clone.
Afterthoughts:
A fun little roam, with a nice profit at the end of it; Kaal arranged the loot split and we all came away with 5.5 million ISK and a nice killmail.
It was good to hear from Tawa again, too. I often give new players "the chat" after I turn their ship to vapour, and I rarely find out if it does any good. Tawa seems to have taken things onboard, and has been enjoying some pvp success, with both above class kills and some 1v2's under his belt.
Ey lad, you mocking t' north?
ReplyDeleteI love my damage on that killmail. Fear my ability to land 25km out of targetting range and be using arty...
Yeh, my comments on the gallente T1s was also about skills needed. Ignoring the incursus (because I'm not a big fan of it and it makes my point easier to do so, altho to a certain extent it still applies), it's not just a case of difficulty fitting. While the Tristan certainly has issues with powergrid/cpu, even with all Vs, it's the mixed sources of damage. Drones, hybrids, missiles. The amount of skill training required to do something similar to a rifter pilot just takes so much longer. While there are some very nice fits for the Tristan that I'd like to go 'back' and try once my SP are higher, the ability to do so much more _now_ in a Rifter makes me fly those.
I know it's a cliche to fly Rifters as a beginner, but it's a cliche for a reason. It's flexible in terms of fit, it's very capable and it requires so many less skill points to get out there and play while training the core skills that will serve you well whatever you later fly.
Also, predictable? In that fit maybe, it's a lot better at extended fights (generally vs bigger ships), but I do want a rematch in a different setup (or 3) at some point ;)
What is this? You'll Rifter 1v1 Kaal but not me, Tawa? I feel....rejected :(
ReplyDeleteAs always, Taurean, great write up. I am curious - just how many Vengeances do you have stocked up? Do you have any plans to fly anything else....ever? ;)
Keep up the good fights!
Up t'North checking in .......
ReplyDeleteSo, I decided to train Amarr *spit* frigs up to 5 - lets see what this Vengeance can do. Got 20 of them to burn through :)
Nice read.
MB.
Mocking t' north? Surely you jest! "Nowt" is an awesome word, and I intend to use it as often as possible.
ReplyDeleteAs for Vengeances, I try to make sure I have about five fully fit Vengeances in the hangar at all times. If I fall signifcantly below that, it's time for the alt to head to Jita. Five is a convenient number because that's how many frigates fit easily into my hauler.
While I do intend to fly other ships eventually, it won't be for some time. My goal has been to find a ship I enjoy flying and then max it out. In this way I can close the difference between me and older characters. I'd rather fly one ship well than a dozen ships poorly.
So, for example, I have perfect cap skills (in my Vengeance), and by the end of this month I will have perfect dps skills (in my Vengeance). By around the beginning of October I will have all the core skills to V, and I will be starting on the support skills (ie, they provide a benefit, but a minimal one, such as the shield skills).
Once those are finished (around December) I will be flying a Vengeance as well as it can possibly be flown (player skills aside). At that point, I'll probably start a similar plan with a second ship.