Arbitrator 01

The fit:


Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Medium Armor Repairer II

Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive (not called that anymore, I think)
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Navy Cap Booster 800
Warp Scrambler II
Tracking Disruptor II

Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Medium Nanobot Accelerator I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Medium Auxiliary Nano Pump I


These first five Arbitrators are going to be classic fits. After that, I'll try some of the shield Arbies that people have recommended. And after that, Arbitrators will hopefully be buffed, and I can work on new fits.


The fight:

I'd been roaming for a little bit in the space near Hevrice - nothing too arduous. I tried jumping in on a couple of Assault Frigates running FW plexes, but I did not manage to catch any. It got my heart pounding, though! I'd forgotten how my body reacts to EvE PvP.

Then a call came out over coms for backup against a Cyclone plexing in Loes. There happened to be a T1 cruiser gang around, so I joined their fleet and made best speed for Loes. I was the first to land on the gate (with FRAPS running, and everything ready to go) and I was asked to jump through and warp to the plex.

I hit jump, and everything froze. I informed fleet, and tried to unlock my computer, but I eventually needed to restart EvE completely. Thus, rather than jump in all together, with some e-war to mitigate damage, we arrived one after another.

Relogging, I joined the fight, jumping in at range. I hit the Cyclone with tracking disruption, and was asked to set my drones on clearing his drones, which I did. Unfortunately, our tackle had already taken too much damage, and was going down - the Cyclone's missiles were unaffected by my drones or ewar. I was therefore asked to make sure I was in position to take over tackle because I was the only other ship with a scram, and the Cyclone was hitting 1700 km/s when we let him activate his mwd.

Activating my mwd, I closed the distance fast, and managed to get my point onto him just before our tackle went down. I shut down my mwd, but I took stupendous levels of damage while it finished it's last cycle. I immediately activated my repair system, but did not (sadly) overheat immediately; I'd forgotten how much longer medium repair system cycles were than small repair system cycles.

I also started triggering my cap boosters, as all this mwd use and repair work had left me pretty low. As my mwd cycle dropped off, the damage lessened, and I hoped that I'd get into a tight orbit around him but, if memory serves, he also had me webbed, and so was able to prevent me from getting under his guns.

With the mwd off and the repair system finally overheated, I gave ground grudgingly, but it was still clear that he was going to break my tank within 30 seconds or so. I announced this on coms, and further tackle made arrived in system just in time to stop him warping off.

I had managed to hold point long enough for somebody else to arrive, but ultimately my poor Arbitrator blew to pieces.

It was enough, though, and the reinforcements took down the last third or so of the Cyclone's structure.

It was a brutal fight (albeit made worse by misfortune and the noobiness of yours truly), but lapotiere stood and fought against the wolves, making is work for our kill. Not to mention taking a few of us with him. I wished him a heartfelt "gf" while warping my capsule away.

Afterthoughts:

I'm not sure why my system crashed, but I can't help but look suspiciously at FRAPS. I've gone through session changes with FRAPS running before, though, so it might just have been bad luck. We'll see.

Disconnects aside, flying the Arbitrator is hard. There were a lot of modules to run, as well as drones to manage. Granted "heavy tackle" is not normally a job assigned to Arbitrators, but I know that I could have performed better than I did. I need to get on top of that module management, though.

If there is one thing I know I am going to hate about this fitting, though, it's how fast I burn through cap. I know that cap stability is a luxury most pvp ships can't afford, but this is so far at the other extreme (12 seconds, actually) that it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Yeah, that's a word.

While it's early days, my general first impression of Cruisers is positive - more so than Battlecruisers, and even some of the specialty frigates (such as Bombers). I'm less certain about e-war, though - I'm a tank and spank kind of pilot, and all this ewar vodoo is outside my comfort zone - but I'll ride this one out. However, I do think I'm going to start bringing my small and medium turret skills up to scratch. With the Caracal and the Omen being buffed, I could see myself moving sideways, rather than back to frigates.

I'm just sad that CCP did not give me a T1 Amarr missile frigate. Still, they did give me a drone frigate, so I can put my drone skills to good use on some cheap ships.