Malediction v Probe

The fit:

Rocket Launcher II x3
Salvager I (offline)

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disruptor II
Cap Booster II

Damage Control II
Small Armor Repair System II
Adaptive Nano Plating II

Small Rocket Fuel Cache Partition I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thruster I

I only carried five Cap Booster 75's in the Booster itself; there were no reloads in the cargo hold. In part this is because the Malediction already has a restricted cargo capacity, and I need some space for loot and salvage. However, it's also because the Booster is not meant to be running through the whole fight, but rather to give me the extra cap I need to rep incidental damage; if I need to reload the Booster, I probably should have bailed some time ago.


The hunt:

The fight itself was not particularly meaningful - even the best fit Probe is not going to give a well piloted Malediction a run for it's money. And in this case the pilot was new, trying his hand at low sec exploration without understanding the basic rules for surviving low sec.

What I did enjoy was the ability to warp in at range while still landing an immediate point. I had him scanned down to the sun, but I could not know the range. My point covers nearly 60km, however, so I can jump in at 30 or 70 km and still cover half of the standard warp-in zone. In this case I warped in at 30km, and found him sitting about 25 km off me.

I started applying my dps almost immediately, and ignored his request to ransom his ship.

2011.12.16 14:35:00

Victim: Shin VanKaundur
Corp: The smiling syndicate of Hari kari
Alliance: Shadow of the Apocalypse
Faction: None
Destroyed: Probe
System: Lisbaetanne
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 560

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Foxfire Javelin Rocket
Damage Done: 560

Destroyed items:

1MN Afterburner I
Salvager I
Prototype ECCM Radar Sensor Cluster (Cargo)
Gatling Pulse Laser I (Cargo)
Charred Micro Circuit, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Thruster Console (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Core Scanner Probe I, Qty: 6
Core Probe Launcher I
Codebreaker I
Inertia Stabilizers I
Small Energy Transfer Array I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)

However, I did manage to catch his pod, and I ransomed it for 3 million ISK. Another case, sadly, where a new player has plugged in a "free" implant that he does not have sufficient funds to actually save/replace. I suppose the killmail would have provided some bragging rights, but I'd far rather have some ISK - I'm perpetually space poor, and I've got a whole new line of ships that I want to be getting into, which requires some up-front spending.

Afterthoughts:

Not too much new to say about this fight; it was not particularly challenging. However, it did underscore just how useful the speed and point range of the Malediction is when hunting small, fast, and elusive targets. My Vengeance might have a wider theoretical target envelope, but the Malediction is far better at finding (and bringing to battle) it's smaller range of targets.

After the fight I had a chat with the pilot about how to survive in low sec. It's a talk that I've had with dozens of pilots now, and it changes only slightly (based on whether the pilot is looking for pvp or pve). I've half a mind to write up a basic low sec survival guide, but I appreciate that the people who read this blog are pretty salty, and don't need a guide of that type. The people who do need it probably don't read this blog.