The hunt:
Usually, when I'm looking for targets I head south. This takes me through some real hot spots, like Aeschee and OMS. On this particular day, though, I went north to Ouelleta.
Warping to a hunting safe, I scanned the system, which is very small. There was a Merlin sitting in a belt, and a number of Heretic Army pilots in local, either cloaked or docked up. Obvious bait is obvious.
Nevertheless, I decided to warp in on the Merlin; if you avoid everything that looks like bait you miss a lot of good fights. And this was bait I could probably kill, at least.
Preloading Gremlin Rage, I jumped in on the Merlin and found him sitting at zero. I set my orbit to 5km; I wanted to keep my speed up against his rockets and in the falloff of his blasters. I kept him webbed and pointed, and set to work.
However he was fit, his tank was solid! Still, I had him at about half shields before we were joined by a Slicer and the Taranis. Overheating my repair system, I tried to buy enough time to take at least one of them with me.
As the fight continued, I kept an eye on the two dps ships. Both were keeping me at range, but not so much I did not think I could snag one. Still, the Merlin was not going down easy, and I was at about 20% armor when he exploded.
2011.07.28 13:21:00
Victim: Endureth
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: B A N E
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Merlin
System: Ouelletta
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3693
Involved parties:
Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.8
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Gremlin Rage Rocket
Damage Done: 3046
Name: Serpentis Watchman / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 647
Destroyed items:
Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 194
200mm AutoCannon II
Warp Scrambler II
Rocket Launcher II
Small Core Defence Field Extender I, Qty: 2
Stasis Webifier II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Damage Control II
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 27
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Nanite Repair Paste, Qty: 30 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Fusion S, Qty: 260 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Republic Fleet EMP S, Qty: 500 (Cargo)
Dropped items:
200mm AutoCannon II
Rocket Launcher II
Medium Shield Extender II
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 27
1MN Afterburner II
I then turned my attention to the Taranis; he seemed easier to catch than the Slicer, who simply did not need to come as close. Unlike his friend, the Taranis seemed to have very little tank, so after I pointed and webbed him, I began to tear into his ship.
My repair system could not keep up with the incoming dps, despite the destruction of the Merlin. My armor kept dropping, and the Taranis dipped through shields and then armor. Unfortunately, my hull gave out while the Taranis was at about 50% structure.
2011.07.28 13:22:00
Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Ouelletta
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3366
Involved parties:
Name: Heimotz
Security: -9.8
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: B A N E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Imperial Navy Slicer
Weapon: Imperial Navy Slicer
Damage Done: 1698
Name: Cactus Juice (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: B A N E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Taranis
Weapon: Light Neutron Blaster II
Damage Done: 1217
Name: Endureth
Security: -10.0
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: B A N E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: Stasis Webifier II
Damage Done: 451
Destroyed items:
Damage Control II
Rocket Launcher II
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 40
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Dropped items:
Small Armor Repairer II
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 3
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Gremlin Javelin Rocket, Qty: 200 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 40
1MN Afterburner II
Warping out my pod, we all wished each other a "gf" in local.
Afterthoughts:
Looking at the killmail, the Merlin was set up to be all tank, including healthy EM resists. Very clever, and clearly why it took me so long to kill him.
Focusing on the Merlin when his friends showed up was a mistake, albeit an understandable one. His dps was negligible, and his tank was ridiculous. If I had switched focus to the Taranis right away, I could have permatanked the remaining damage while I came back to the Slicer and the Merlin.
In other words, if I had prioritised my targets more effectively, I probably would have come out the winner. Instead, I made the same mistake that other people make when they focus on me in a gang, and I wasted much of my effective dps for little benefit. I've got to come to grips with the fact that many fights are more than simply managing your ship and modules; such things are important, but outside of 1v1s they are only a small part of the overall skillset.
Still, I'm pretty pleased that I managed to take someone with me in a 3v1.
To say it was 3v1 I don't think you did bad at all!
ReplyDeleteIn my (albeit limited) experience I've started assuming that everyone I fight will have patched up their resist hole, much like the Merlin did with the EMP rig.
In these conditions I've opted to use ammunition that deals damage against what their second worst resist would normally be as it would now be their worst resist after rigging, if that makes sense.
Sounds like an accurate assessment - it's a common mistake (we all make it) to stick with our original target even after circumstances change and another target becomes preferable.
ReplyDeleteOn Cable's suggestion - it's my experience that shield tankers most commonly fit 1 EM rig and 2 extender rigs, mainly due to resist rigs being so cheap. Armour tankers seem to patch their Explosive hole much more rarely, usually opting for 3 trimarks, since there is little to no pricing difference.
Because of this, I find thermal is usually the weakest resist on a t1 shield tanker, while explosive is still usually the weakest for armour tankers.
Obviously, this only applies to PVP-fit ships - PvEers generally don't rig for resist, they rig for cap or regen (although they may fit rat-specific hardeners too).
When I fit shield ships, I usually opt for 2 em resist and 1 thermal resist rigs, letting me use that extra midslot for a second extender, or maybe some EWAR, or worst case, an invuln field.
ReplyDeleteWhen I armor tank ships, I typically go beyond the 1 explosive rig and with supplement that with some sort of resistance plating, EANM, or hardener. Some ships are just a given to use Explosive ammo against, and following the standard one-patch method just doesn't cut it. It helps that I can't usually fit the t2 gyro in place of that resistance plating anyways.
I agree with the others, sometimes it is tough too give up on that target especially once you have put some damage on them. However a ranis can put the hurt on fast if you are in their optimal and safest to clear that threat out asap.
ReplyDeletePersonally for me I generally fly a Caldari ship so I don't switch ammo type since my skills will generally give me such a huge boost to kinetic that it offsets the resist difference. I have just started to fly Min so I will start to mess around with damage types. As others have stated expect most people to be plugging up the EM hole for 2 main reasons. Dram/Cyn/Min use Republic Fleet EMP like 90% of the time and Amarr use Scorch 90% of the time. So between these three factions 90% of the time it is EM damage.