Scheduling some flight time.

Although things have been quiet on this blog, things have not been quiet in real life. That is both good and bad.

Part of the reason I have been so busy is because I have been taking a series of courses after work to drive my career forward. All the studying for exams has left me with little free time, and what time I do have I try to spend on my family.

However, I recently applied for an exemption for my next course (which was due to start in September) because it covers an area of work that I have a great deal of experience with. That exemption was just granted, so I ought to have a little EvE time between mid-September and mid-December.

Not a lot of time, mind you. But some.

See you in space.

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.

The next steps.

I'd like to thank everyone who left a comment on my last post - they were very heplful, and gave me some much needed perspective on my choices.

In the end, I decided to go with the Arbitrator. I've got a couple of reasons for that.

First, the Arbitrator happens to be one of the most awesome looking ships in the game outside of the frigate class. It looks the way I've always thought a starship (as opposed to a spaceship) would look, right down to the hangar bay in the nose. It's only become more beautiful since the V3 treatment. I'm going to love flying it.

Second, the Arbitrator simply opens more doors in both the long and short term. As fun as hunting frigates in a Caracal sounds, at the end of the day I'm just hunting frigates. In a cruiser. While I won't turn up my nose at below class kills, limiting myself to below class kills exclusively is just not my style

So, my shopping alt has purchased a stack of 20 Arbitrators, and Red Frog Freight will be delivering them to Ranellies. In all likelyhood, I won't be getting into them (or EVE generally) until the end of the summer, but that's just fine - Amarr Cruisers V alone is going to take about 20 days. And then my drone skills could use some love.

In the meantime, I'll probably make the odd post or two about fits for comments and criticisms. EVE FNG's Arbitrator guide has been very helpful, but as ever I'm probably going to mangle his good advice and come up with something suboptimal and "unique".

An update.

Wow, it's been three months since my last post, and it's been a crazy three months. Very, very busy, but very, very productive.

Still, things are easing off a bit. Not enough that I can actually play any EVE, but enough that I can think about playing EVE. And CCP is doing all it can to lure me back. Have you seen the sexy new missile effects? Of course you have! And did you know that UK subscriptions can now be paid in GBP? Which, with the current state of the Euro, that means I'd be getting my subscription at 25% off over the old price.

Soooooo, I've, ahem, resubscribed.

No, I won't be playing EVE, but I will be skill training. I'm maxing out my last Nav skill first (they were mostly maxed out for the Vengeance, but my MWD skills languished), and then I'm going to be doing some more ship training.

And that's where I've got some decisions to make.

You see, I feel like I've "done" the small ship thing. I've had dozens and dozens of kills in T1 frigates, Assault Ships, and Interceptors. I've messed about with Bombers. I've flown Covert Ops to scan down ships. The only thing I haven't really done with frigates is Electronic Warfare, and everyone largely agrees that these ships are a waste of time. So, when I start playing again, I'd like to use a slightly larger hull.

Now, in my ideal world, I'd be flying Khanid ships like the Sacrilege or the Heretic. Sadly, my wallet does not allow me to lose such ships, so I'm going to be flying something T1. I'm no big fan of turrets, though (and I'd have to invest loads of time in just getting my gunnery skills up to par), so I'm left with a few obvious choices: Drake, Caracal, Arbitrator.

I'm going to put the Drake aside for now. I can actually fly one already, and I have one in my hangar for those times that the corp needs to form a BC fleet. But I want to focus on a roaming ship, and the pilots I know that focus on BCs generally roam a very small area, because BCs don't travel well on their own (they get camped fairly easily). I'm not yet ready to give up the 30+ jump roams that I've been used to as a frigate pilot.

And if I'm honest, I like flying a non-standard ship in pvp. Drakes, along with the Hurricane, are about as standard as you get.

That pushes me towards a cruiser hull, and neither the Caracal nor the Arbitrator are turret ships. The Arbitrator is beautiful ship, and the Amarr Cruiser skills would translate VERY well into a Sacrilege or Pilgrim at some point. Being armor tanked, however, it's not got the best ability to navigate gate camps, nor a particularly strong tank. Ewar would be something completely new to me, though, which might make things interesting.

The Caracal, on the other hand, moves in a completely different direction. Accepting that it's purely a frigate hunting ship, it can actually engage on gates and stations because of it's hefty tank and missiles (drones don't do so well under station guns!). That tank also helps me burn back to gates, and those shield skills help boost my Drake.

I'm going to have a think over the next few days, but my Nav skill finishes on Sunday, so I need to make a decision by then. Comments regarding the pros and cons of these cruisers as solo low sec roamers are welcomed.

By the way, it feels good to be back, if only in a small way.

The journey's end.

As some of you will know, I've cancelled my EVE subscription.

My reasons involve real life, rather than any dissatisfaction with New Eden. And for those who worry about that sort of thing, it's not even that anything bad, exactly, has happened in my real life. It's just that my family and I have made some decisions which, although good for us in the long term, mean that I won't be playing EVE in the medium term.

And of course, that means this blog won't be updating any more.

I'm not very good at "goodbyes" (is anyone?), so I'll simply say that it has been an absolute pleasure flying and blogging my way through New Eden, and EVE is easily the greatest MMO I've ever played. I hope, one day, to come back to it.

As people have occasionally found my blog helpful, I shall leave Flight of Dragons running for the time being, but my Starcraft blog will be taken down in due course - there are simply so many other ways to get Starcraft info that nobody is going to miss it.

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~Theodor Seuss Geisel

Oh, the frustration.

Sometimes, my killboard looks a little empty. No wins, no losses.

But that doesn't mean I'm not active. There's a ton of stuff that just doesn't show up on a killboard. The following encounters, for example, all took place over the course of a single evening.


Crow v Hurricane

I logged in for an hour after work and found a Hurricane sitting in a belt in Adirain. I didn't think I was likely to win, but there was a chance that he was artillery fit, so I jumped into the belt.

As it turns out, he had autocannons. I hit about 50% shields on the approach, but then actually managed to get under his guns - he was missing nine out of every ten shots. He also had a flight of light drones, though, and I was fairly certain that I could not clear the drones fast enough to avoid exploding (although I have rockets, it takes a few volleys to down a drone if it isn't webbed), so I bailed.

We both wished each other a "gf", and the pilot confirmed that he did indeed fly artillery fit Canes some times. Luck of the draw, and all that. He also complemented me on my approach, which was nice of him, as I'd been feeling like I really screwed it up. Apparently, just surviving an approach against an auto 'Cane gets you points.


Crow v Jaguar

After waiting out my GCC, I engaged a Jag in Jov. I approached, took control of the fight, and started beating on his shield tank. He tried very hard to close with me, but my speed advantage was enough that he stood no chance at all.

After he hit 50% shields, though, his two buddys show up in a Falcon and a Nemesis (wtf?). I laughed, and left when the first jamming wave hit me.


Malediction v Tengu

After dinner, I log back in and probe down a missioning Tengu in Jov. I come back in a cap boosted, active tanked Malediction (all the other Tuskers were too far from home to participate, so I needed a fit that could tank the Tengu's damage while I solo'd it), and jump into the mission.

The acceleration gate puts me 160 km off the Tengu. I'm fast, but not that fast. He warps out, while I sit in the mission, chatting with Dian. He doesn't come back.


Afterthoughts

I've posted about the less cinematic aspects of solo roaming before. Here, I had three potentially awesome fights, and yet I ended the day with nothing to show for my efforts but some heat damage and a repair bill. Such is a pirate's lot.

This sort of thing happens reasonably often. The Crow (and the Malediction before that) has given me the ability to escape fights that I would otherwise have lost (which is probably all of the above, if I'm honest).

It's a mixed blessing, however. On one hand, I'm able to engage in fights that really push me, without always having to pay the "stupid tax" that comes with trying to solo above class ships. On the other hand, "almost" rarely makes a good story. These fights are the pirate's equivalent of a fisherman's "one that got away".

Low activity warning.

Just letting everyone know that there probably isn't going to be much posting this week. I was working over the weekend, and what little spare time I had went into racking and bottling a large batch of home brew.

I did spend an hour in New Eden (being able to log in only after the Tusker's Titan kill), but the only target I found was -9.9 Ares that resolutely refused to engage me.