Wednesday 12 October 2011

Taurean Eltanin v Darius Carnifex (part 1)

 

The hunt:

When I first wrote up this post, I titled it "Vengeance v Dramiel". However, before publishing the post, I had a couple of other fights with the same pilot, and I thought it was worth linking them together as they share some common threads. Hence the unusual title.

I encountered Darius for the first time when I jumped into Jovannion from Aeschee. He was in his Dramiel, and I was in my Vengeance. He was flashy, and I was flashy. You see where this is going, I hope.

So we engaged each other. In truth, he engaged me, as he was kiting fit and he was in no mood to get close. Darius opened fire, and launched his drones.

Being unable to target the Dramiel, I proceeded to target the drones. I destroyed one or two before they were recalled, and at that point the fight developed into a stalemate. He couldn't break my tank (or even my passive shield regen), and I couldn't get a scram on him, no matter how much fancy flying I tried.

I was fairly relaxed about the fight because I knew I could simply de-aggress and leave; had we been at a belt, I would have been stuck until help arrived, but this was not the case. Instead, I used the opportunity to practice my manual piloting. I managed to get an overheated web on him a few times, but never a scram. I could hit him with my Javelin rockets, but he would simply pull range until his shields regenerated.

Eventually, Wolf jumped in with his own Dram, and I invited him to have a go at Darius. Wolf was in a slower build, though, and with no web he could not hold Darius in place. After relaunching his drones Darius started eating away at Wolf's tank, but I quickly put a stop to that with my rockets. Without the drones, Darius could not break Wolf either.

Eventually, Wolf and I got bored and warped off (evading Wolf meant that Darius could not actually keep either of us pointed, so we did not have to use the jump gate).

Now my initial writeup ends here, because I don't usually comment on the character of my opponents unless it is in a positive way. However, what followed has some significance in the light of later events. You see, Darius started talking smack.

Not particularly creative or crude smack, but smack nonetheless. He denigrated the Tuskers and the fighting prowess of our corp, as well as our own moral fortitude for "running away". More bemused than anything else, I simply told him that he could not break our tanks and we could not catch him, so we would all probably enjoy spending our time doing something else.


Afterthoughts:

This was my first real fight against a Dramiel, and I can't say I was too terribly impressed. Sure, the ship was fast, and it was certainly irritating to fight, but from where my Vengeance sits there are plenty of ships that can kite me all day.

At the time, I did not understand what Darius thought he would achieve by acting out in local. In the light of subsequent events, however, I now think I have a pretty good idea...

6 comments:

  1. Damn it now I want the next part.

    Was in the same position last night, its pretty damn dull when your getting kited by a Dram that cant break your tank. Eventually he warped off in my fight but for the 5 mins he was shooting me I was bored stiff.

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  2. Well Drams arent known for devistating DPS, its just usualy complained about because its little risk pvp. Since you can get 100kms off the fight in seconds and gtfo.

    I have got drams in structure tons of times but never killed one to date

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  3. Jesus I hope you get his dramail. I'm not going to look at your Killboard, that would ruin the suspense.

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  4. Well, you can count me in as one of many who have been inspired by your blog to come back to eve from a PVE perspective and try my hand at PvP.

    I've been in the game for just over a year and had almost zero PvP action. I was doing the mission thing, I joined a corp here and there that promised training and excitement and 0.0--none of which happened, of course. Though I will say that those corps were full of great people who I've become real life friends with.

    I did the Incursion thing and made a bunch of ISK. Every time I've tried my hand at PvP, I find myself mostly dead, though occasionally I I get lucky and pull off a win.

    Anyway, I'm starting a variation of the Punisher Plan. Tomorrow. For me, it's the Kestrel Plan. I know it's a terrible idea. But so is taking on a higher class ship that you shouldn't be able to kill. Almost all of my skill points are invested in Caldari stuff and missile skills, so I want to play to what strengths I have.

    Plus, I just like the aesthetic of the Caldari ships. Especially the Kestrel.

    I've not been able to play much for the last 4-5 months because of real life stuff, but things have magically changed for the better, and I have a better job, live in a better city, and have much more free time than I had before.

    So here we go. I had all the shiny stuff that you get from doing a lot of incursions and missions for ISK. I'm selling all of it. I have probably 2.5-3 billion ISK worth of faction gear and fancy PvE ships. That's all going away tomorrow.

    I've been following this blog and several others for months now when I didn't have time to actually play. I've learned a lot, but nothing you read gets you over that first several encounters where you have no idea what you're doing and just end up dead.

    So I bought 20 Kestrel hulls, fitting for all kinds of insane experimental stuff, and rigs.

    We'll see how things go.

    I'm determined to get at least 5 kills out of my 20 Kestrels, and the above-class kills needed to qualify for the Tuskers. Because that's really what I want to do: be a Tusker. I know recruiting is closed.

    You guys and girls are awesome.

    So cheers!

    I'll keep a blog of my exploits around and occasionally post a link if that's okay. Frankly, I think that if I can be a successful Caldari PvP pilot, I should be able to be a pretty good PvP pilot in general.

    But that's a huge if.

    Thanks for the inspiration!

    -Tron Flux

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  5. Good luck, Tron!

    I look forward to reading about your exploits.

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