Crow v Malediction

I've been having connection issues for the past week, which has meant no EVE and no updates. Hopefully, I get that sorted soon. In the meantime, here's another old fight I pulled out of my draft posts folder.


The hunt:

After chasing around a Talos in my Crow, having a Rifter flee from me, and generally being avoided like the plauge, Lacal told me about a Malediction looking for a fight in Vif, just of the Lad gate.

I jumped in, and quickly scanned the Malediction to a belt. I jumped in at range, and closed the distance fast.

I could tell from his speed that he was AB fit, which meant a scram. So I settled into an orbit and opened fire, whereupon he would race towards me. I'd pull range to avoid getting scrammed, and he'd zip out of weapons range while repairing the damage he had taken. Rinse and repeat.

Having flown the Malediction extensively, I was not surprised by his point range, and managed to keep evading him for about 10 minutes. However, as he kept repping up to full armor, I was no closer to winning than he was.

Now, the smart money, the profitable money, would be to just leave, but after such an intense maneouver fight, I did not want to just let this go. So I decided on a risky move. I'd load close range ammo, overheat, and charge into range. While the Maledicition was a tanky ship, so is my Crow. I had a decent chance of overloading his repair system and taking the win. After all, I had a higher dps than him, and probably a bigger buffer (he was too fast for a plated fit).

On the other hand, my shield tanking skills are still weak. And without my mwd, he'd be doing full damage with his rockets, while mine would still suffer "tracking" penalties.

Despite the risk, this was the only way to end such an awesome fight. I charged in.

It was a very close battle. I think I took him by surprise, as I took out most of his armor buffer before he overheated his repair system. In the end, though, my weak tanking skills made the difference, and I was the one leaving a wreck in system.


Afterthoughts:

I spent some time chatting with the pilot after the fight, and (ironically) he reads this blog, and was flying a Malediction inspired by one of posts. Heh. That'll teach me.

Apparently, I was also very, very close to burning out his repair system when I went down, so decent tanking skills might have swung things my way. It's good to know that my "cunning plan" was not completely off the wall.

Despite the loss, I was really happy with the fight. My opponent flew superbly, and it's one of those close fought battles can still give me the shakes. Absolutely fantastic.