Retribution: First impressions

Crime & Bounty Hunting: 

What I've seen of Retribution so far, I really like. The new targeting reticules are really slick, and the new criminal/suspect markers are very intuitive. A huge thumbs up to CCP there.

However, I wish CCP would have programmed some memory into the security selection button. I know this is designed to keep carebears and new players safe, but I just know that I'm at some point I'm going to forget to take myself off safe mode after logging in (or more likely, a disconnect) and the inability to shoot first will get me killed.


The new Arbitrator:

This is a really interesting one. What do I do with another 25 CPU and an extra low slot? I initially thought about adding another EANM II for extra tank, but the truth is that my fleet Arbitrator rarely takes fire as it is (and when I do take fire, I'm never pointed, so I can warp out), so the extra tank seems like a waste.

I then considered a damage mod for more drone dps, but Sule came up with a much better idea: a Signal Amplifier.

Now, the weakness of the fleet Arbitrator (besides it's low speed) has always been it's low lock range. In fact, some of my fits have dropped the an Ewar rig for a targeting range rig to allow me to actually make use of the range on my TDs in fast moving fleet fights. A Signal Amplifier would give me an even bigger boost, allowing me to drop said rig if I chose. And as a bonus, my targeting speed goes up, allowing me get those TDs into the fight that little bit faster. If that were not enough, the extra targeting slots are useful if I want to throw ewar drones on an additional target or two.

As a final change, I took out one set of ewar drones (now that ewar has been nerfed a little) for some salvaging drones - no more orbiting a warpable wreck while trying to salvage!

I took this new fit on a corp roam yesterday. A poor connection forced me to bail before we hit any serious action (I was taking about 60 seconds to load grid, and we were playing gate games with a couple of gangs around OMS), but in the skirmishes we did have, I was very happy with the new fit. I look forward to flying it more often.


The new destroyers:

I've not had a chance to fly the new destroyers, but I certainly bought a Dragoon and a Corax. I'm not sure how exactly I'll fit them up (I'll play around with them once I get my EFT updated), but I'm looking for them to do things that my frigates can't. This probably means something with high dps. Watch this space.


Other news:

This will probably be my last post for December, as I'm going to be on a long holiday this month, and I'll be spending all that time with family. However, when I get back, I should have Recon V trained, and I'm selling off some excess hulls to pay for a Curse/Pilgrim.

I'm also looking at changing the kinds of hull I fly. In the past, the only real way for me to combine armor and missiles was expensive Khanid ships (oh, how I long for a T1 Khanid ship - Oh, CCP, if you love me at all, please bring me a bright, shiny, Khanid T1 hull*). However, with drone skills I'm also able to fly a number of T1 Amarr ships, and my (slowly) improving shield tanking skills are also letting me fly T1 Caldari. This being the case, I'm now flying fewer expensive ships solo (reserving T2 for gangs and the like), which has prompted me to  clear out my back-stock of assault ships, bombers and interceptors, keeping back only one or two of each type.

As noted above, this will allow me to pick up one or two "toys" for more elite gang work on Tusker roams, which will hopefully make for some interesting posts.

*If you recognize the poem that inspired this line, you win the interwebz (one day only).

Tuskers v Rennfeuer

Several of our members are keen wormhole hunters, and thanks to these pilots, the Tuskers generally know, at any given time, exactly where the wormholes in Hevrice and the surrounding areas lead. On this particular day, we found a wormhole leading to nullsec, so an impromptu HAC fleet was assembled, and yours truly flew fleet ewar again.

It was the same half fit Arbitrator from before, and I was eager to do my bit to ensure that the enemy hit us no harder than a particularly undernourished school-girl. To quote Fezic from Princess Bride, "My way's not very sportsman-like."

We jumped through the wormhole. This was actually the second roam that day, the first having been a BS fleet, and now the reason why we were limited to HACs; nobody wanted to get trapped deep in null.


The fight:

Our scouts had already located the enemy, so finding the fight was easy. However, this fight was to work out very differently from the last one.

Instead of a brawl, our engagement turned into a running fight. This, in and of itself, is not too remarkable; the Tuskers are quite used to running fights. What we are not used to is the fact that we were not the ones running - they were!

They had an Oracle fleet, along with some ewar. They burned away, forcing us into a stern chase, while they used their range to fire on us. Clever fellows.

Now, what made this fight interesting for me was the speed at which everyone was moving. The Oracles were cruising along comfortably at 1600m/s, whereas my Arbitrator only does about 1100m/s. I had also warped into the fight at a respectful range, as the Oracles had a strong ability to pick me out if I strayed too near. This meant that by the time both sides disengaged, I was 160 km from the Oracles, and unable to bring my ewar to into play!

Both sides warped out with a few kills scored.


Afterthoughts:

This is an obvious issue for fleet ewar - I need to keep up with the fleet! Unfortunately, the obvious way of doing so (losing the 1600mm plate) will just get me alpha'd. Apparently the Arbitrator will be getting a speed boost this winter, which it clearly needs.

It's also an interesting distinction between logi and ewar. Logi need to be within range of the friendly fleet, but ewar needs to be in range of the enemy fleet. While hanging out with the logi is reasonably safe, in running fights like these I need to break away and act aggressively to close the distance between my ship and the enemy dps.

I'm also still working on my final fit, but right now I've boosted the targeting and TD range with rigs, so next time I should at least be able to participate for more of the battle. I will also consider burning away from the fight once I lose range, so that I can warp back in again on my fleet mates.

Despite the speed problem, it was a fun fight, and I look forward to running fleet ewar again.

I can also say that I would strongly recommend a stint as ewar to anyone wishing to become an FC. I've learned more about fleet engagements in two fights as ewar than I did in dozens of fights as tackle. Seeing the big picture puts everything into perspective.

Tuskers v Null Sec

As promised, I've got some Arbitrator fleet engagements to write about. I won't go into every last movement of the fleet, but I will focus on the parts where I feel learning points arise. If my recollection of these events is a little fuzzy, it's because I did not FRAPS it - I'm not risking a DC when I've got corp-mates counting on me.

The fight:

There were about a dozen of us, mostly in armor HACs, but with me flying an Arbitrator, and two logi to back us up. I'd just grabbed something from the corp hanger, and it mostly consisted of a strong buffer tank, a prop mod and three TDs. Very much an unfinished fit.

We had taken down the occasional BC that had wandered into us, but we had yet to really find a proper target. However, our scouts were telling us that this was about to change, and that there was an enemy gang in our path; numerous BCs backed up by several Guardians. While I am unclear on the number of Guardians (I think it was about four), it was clear from the initial report that we probably lacked the dps to break the logi chain, and most of our pilots had brought dps drones rather than ewar drones, leaving us little chance of breaking their lock with ewar.

Still, it sounded like a fun fight. They outnumbered us, although not by too much, and they had heavier ships. Positioning would be key, and so we warped to gate, putting the HACs in close and the logi further back (for positioning purposes, the Arbitrator is a logi). When they jumped through, the HACs would brawl it up, and keep the BCs locked down and unable to hit the logi. Their logi, on the other hand, would have to sit in the middle of the fight.

Honestly, we have some really good FCs in the Tuskers, and the plan sounded really solid. However, it was dependent on the enemy jumping into us, confident of their weight in ships and pilots. It turns out, though, that for some reason the gang decided not to jump into our cunningly laid battleground.

Realising that we would have to take the fight to them, we all approached and jumped through the gate. They  clearly had eyes on us, however, because they immediately sprang their own ambush, warping to the gate as soon as we jumped through.

Fortunately, we have members in corp who compulsively spam their Dscan, and so we saw them coming before they started landing on grid. Acting fast, Sule ordered us to jump to a particular belt at range, and we managed to all get off the gate before they could land and point anyone.

On landing at the belt, the logi and ewar (ie, me), immediately burned straight up, putting as much distance as we could between ourselves and the landing point. When the enemy fleet followed us to the belt, they landed among the HACs, with the logi again at a distance. Although it had required some quick thinking and fancy footwork, our original plan was intact.

What followed was a massive brawl. I piloted around the fight at about 60km, always aligned to something, and kept two Hurricanes and a Vigilant pinned down by reducing their optimal and falloff by about 80%. I like to think that at least one of them tossed their keyboard across the room in frustration.

Our logi pilots were brilliant, largely keeping the fleet in one piece, except for poor Dian, who was primary when a Falcon uncloaked and disrupted our rep chain temporarily. It cost them the Falcon, though.

Beyond that, the fight was a bit of a stalemate. We tried switching our dps around, but their Guardians were able to keep up. Similarly, our own Oneiros, combined with the dps hit they were taking from my TDs, were enough to counter their damage. We probably would have pulled out, but they had a few of our own tackled, and we don't like to leave people behind if we can help it. So we stayed.

Eventually, a third party lit a cyno, and we found ourselves hot dropped.  Everyone scattered, and nearly all Tuskers got away. The other side was less fortunate, and we scored some killmails that we would otherwise have missed.

Bidding them all a "gf" (they'd fought smart and willingly engaged us in a belt, after all), we turned for home.


Afterthoughts:

I completely accept that this was a very easy first fight for me as a new ewar pilot - which is exactly what I needed. Nobody tried to kill me, and I was able to focus on maneuver and ewar without distraction.

What I saw, I really liked. I looked at the enemy fleet with completely new eyes - as a tackler, you are just trying to stay alive while pinning down the primary. This is almost the definition of tunnel vision. As ewar, I'm looking for the strongest members of the enemy fleet, and trying to take them out of the fight. It was great fun.

However, it also gave me a chance to find some of the limitations to the Arbitrator. To begin with, my TDs have a much longer range than my actual ship does. I would have liked to hang out with the Oneiros, so we could offer mutual protection to each other from drones and interceptors (alright, so I could protect them while they keep me topped up), but that was not possible. My targeting skills are maxed out, and both my low and mid slots are spoken for. Getting more targeting range with therefore involve rigging, and I'll be putting together a dedicated fleet fit soon.

In the high slots, range mods for my drones seems sensible. Fleet fights often require me to warp and short notice, so while I carried a range of drones when flying solo, I feel like I want to carry multiples of only a few kinds of drone, and probably small drones at that - the larger ones spend a lot of time traveling between targets, and I can carry fewer of them.

On that note, it seems like a mix of Warriors (fast), ECM, and repair drones would be best. I know repair drones are not great, but as a frigate pilot I know that there are some targets that need topping up that logis don't have time for. And, as this fight taught me, sometimes the logis can't help. Perhaps those drones would make a difference. Something I'll have to test.

Arbitrator 04.01

The hunt:

I was roaming, as usual, and due to time constraints I kept myself fairly local. Several times I encountered a Vexor running faction warfare plexes, and seeing this as the perfect opportunity to test my Arbitrator, I kept trying to jump in.

Unfortunately, the pilot was always some distance off the gate, and every time I jumped in, he'd warp off to a station and log out. I'd see him again ten minutes later, one system over, doing another plex.

After repeating this pattern about three times, I switched to my Crow, jumped into his plex, overheated my point and mwd, and actually managed to catch him. From there, it was a simple matter of outrunning his Hobgoblins and evading his guns while chipping away at his tank.

Eventually, he exploded.

I had a video of the fight, but it cut off half way through because the partition I had FRAPS on ran out of space. And watching me kite a Vexor down is going to be about as interesting as watching paint dry if you don't get to see an explosion at the end. So no video today.


Afterthoughts:

I could have posted this as a standalone Crow v Vexor fight, but I chose to post it as an Arbitrator fight. Why? Because the fact that I couldn't kill the Vexor in an Arbitrator is just as important as the fact that I could kill the Vexor in a Crow.

I'll be honest, I'm not liking the Arbitrator as a solo boat. It just doesn't let me do anything new. I'm a pretty decent frigate pilot, and I can reasonably attack most frigates or cruisers (and some battlecruisers) in just an interceptor - active tanks are the only thing that I really struggle with, and I can escape from those fights fairly easily.

With that in mind, I'm not really sure what the Arbitrator offers in a solo environment. I'm not saying it can't be a decent solo boat (pilots I respect have sworn by it), bit I'm not feeling that it fits my roaming and fighting style. I don't bait, and I don't camp; I go on long roams and try to catch lone pilots before they know I'm there. Ship handling (keeping range and transversal) is the single most important factor in my fights.

So I don't see myself flying a solo Arbitrator much more. Instead, I'll be looking to explore the Arbitrator in a fleet role, as that does offer something that an interceptor does not.

Of course, because I'm posting about a week or so behind my flying, and I make this claim secure in the knowledge that I've already flown in a couple of gangs as fleet ewar, and am very much enjoying the role. It's what Arbitrators were made to do, and they do it well. I'll have some posts coming up all about that, so expect to see plenty more Arbi action, just not in solo fights.

Arbitrator 02

Edit: I've largely convinced youtube to behave, and the above video can now be viewed in HD. It's not perfect, but it's leaps and bounds better than what it was. I'll try and improve the base recording (FRAPS) if I can do so without lagging out during a fight. For those on limited bandwidth, these posts should be able to stand without the video, which is intended as a bonus.


The hunt:

I'd had to go to a board meeting on Saturday, which mean I really only got to play on Sunday (I had to travel to and from the board meeting, and by the time I got back I was to wiped out to play). I got up early, though, and went for a roam that probably lasted about two hours.

I roamed fruitlessly, however. I'm learning to hate my scram, as I missed three targets that were within the range of a long point when they warped out. The Arbitrator is no faster than my Vengeance, and if I'm going to slowly chug towards escaping targets, my Vengeance does that just fine, but with less of a reputation (some people in local told me specifically that they would not fight because I was in an Arbitrator). I even hurled myself into a fight with two destroyers, assuming I would die in a fire, only to have them run out on me.

With the roam a bust, I logged out for down-time, and came back on later in the day. I spent another hour or so roaming, and played tag with some guys in OMS, but still nothing. I was jumping through Heydieles, though, when I spotted a Rifter at an FW site.

Local was packed, and I was pretty sure he would have buddies. He was the only one at the site, though. Perhaps I could sneak up on him? Unlikely, but I wanted a fight, so I warped to the gate.

The Rifter was sitting there, outside the plex, prealigned. As I landed, he activated the gate, and jumped in. Now, I knew it was a trap, and hitting my D-scan told me that there was at least one Stabber Fleet Issue within 14 AU that had not been there before, as well as another Rifter. I could bail, but what fun would that be? I activated the gate.

Landing on top of the Rifter (I guess his plan was to hold me in place?) I snagged him with my overheated scram and hit "approach". Removing the overheat, I hit him with my medium neut, and then the small neuts. I then deactivated the medium neut (did not want to cap myself out needlessly) and unleashed a flight of Warrior II.

Got all that? Yeah, it was a very busy few seconds. And that's when I remembered to turn on FRAPS, and the video starts.

0:00 - I've got three neuts running, and my scram. The TD is NOT running, because I don't think it will help (I'm not going to get under his guns) and I don't think I need it. There is another Rifter in the plex, but he's too far away to be an immediate threat. D-scan tells me I have company coming.

0:01 > 0:04 - Stabber Fleet Issue lands, followed by a Rupture and another Stabber Fleet Issue. Yep, this is going to be as painful as I thought it was going to be.

0:07 - Despite thinking "I'M GONNA DIE!!1!!!!1", I some how manage to watch my modules, and I turn off the third small neut. At this point he ought to have been capped out, and I'm just keeping him shut down. I don't notice at the time, but I'm not actually pointed; running just wasn't on my mind.

0:15 - The Rifter goes down, but the other cruisers have managed to point and web me, and are starting to open fire. I've still not got a firing solution on the Rupture, and things are about to go wrong very, very fast.

0:19 - This is my big failing for the fight. It's only now that I actually start targeting the next ships, and cruisers target much more slowly than my old frigates (equally, I used to use auto return target, so I don't have the habit of lining up further targets). I don't think it would have made an ounce of difference to the outcome of the fight, but it's a really obvious learning point I can take from this. Equally, I should have switched drones out, because my Warrior IIs are not what I need against cruisers. My TD is still not active, but being webbed and scrammed (with the enemy at blank point range) I'm pretty sure that my TD was simply not going to do anything relevant.

0:26 - Taking fire from all three cruisers, I go down in flames, but warp my pod out. The start to finish of my armor damage was about 8 seconds - even if I had turned my repair system on, it would not have finished a cycle.

So, a fast and furious fight, with me taking out one Rifter, but losing my Arbitrator to his friends. BC tells me I came out ahead in points, but barely.


Afterthoughts:

Well, I really enjoyed seeing the video, and being able to go through that second by second felt really useful. Feedback on the new format is appreciated.

In hindsight, there was probably less of a trap than I thought (or a different trap). There was only one Rifter on scan when I jumped, yet when I landed on the gate there was one Rifter at the gate, and (unbeknownst to me) a second Rifter in the plex. I'm guessing that the Rifter in the plex was the one I scanned down, while the Rifter on the gate was another hunter, who, playing tackle for his gang, just happened to land on the gate at the same time as me.

Offensively, I was amazed out just how totally I shut down the Rifter. I've fought cruisers in frigates before, and I've never thought it that big of a deal - it's just something that any Tusker takes for granted. But being on the other side of that fight is pretty eye-opening; he never stood a chance, and went down very fast.

Defensively, the Arbitrator is clearly great it 1v1 fights, but this build lacks the resilience to brawl it up. I miss that aspect of combat, and I could see myself getting into the revamped Maller, if I can get my turret skills up. Or a revamped Caracal. But then, I've always loved tanky ships.

As I noted earlier, though, it was really frustrating to be roaming in such a slow ship but with such a short point. I'm wondering how I might find a faster, longer pointing Arbitrator. Perhaps with guns and defensive (as opposed to offensive) neuts. Something to work on.

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.

Fitting an Arbitrator.

Amarr Cruiser V finished this weekend, so I'm now working on drone skills. In the mean time, though, I've been turning my attention to finding an Arbitrator fit that I like.

In my last post I linked to FNG's Arbitrator guide, in which he recommended three basic fits; an ab/scram fit, an mwd/scram fit and an ab/web/scram fit. Each fit had a different purpose, and different strengths and weaknesses.

The first fit is an above class killer. The afterburner keeps the sig radius low, and the scram shuts of the mwd of the battleship/battlecruiser you are targeting. Combined with tracking disruption scripts, they (theoretically) can't hit you, and you beat them down.

My problem with this fit is that it is very, very slow. This affects me in two ways. First, I can forget about trying to evade gate camps - I can neither burn out of tackle range, nor burn back to the gate. I just have to hope there is no camp. Second, I have to land pretty much on top of my target in order to catch them, which means belt ratters and mission runners get a free pass.

Ultimately, not the fit for me, despite my love of above class kills.

The second fit is an on par crusher. Designed to kill other cruisers, the scram shuts down the enemy mwd, while your active tank reps the incoming damage. I like this fit a lot, but any frigate packing a web will have complete control over the range of the engagement. Sure, you're capping them out, but it's easy to squeeze off an afterburner cycle through the neuts if you have decent skills. And there are way more frigates out there than cruisers.

The third fit is a frigate gang killer. Packing a massive buffer tank rather than an active tank, the Arbitrator therefore fits a web in order to completely dominate frigates. Sadly, jumping into a cruiser specifically to kill frigates seems pretty dull to me.

So what do I want?

The above fits have given me a lot to think about. I know I want an mwd, both because I'm an active hunter and because I want to avoid camps. But I also want to keep a broad range of targets open to me. I also prefer active tanks because I go on long roams and dislike docking in unfamiliar stations (assuming they are even available).

My starting point will probably be the second fit, because it seems the most balanced of the three, but I'm definitely going to play around with things.

If I fit nos instead of neuts, can I fit a web rather than a cap booster? Would a disruptor over a scram allow me to engage BC's with range disruption script?

I don't know, but I look forward to finding out. I'll have specific fits planned out before I actually jump into an Arbitrator.