Vengance v Drake & Stabber

The hunt:

I don't know what it is about Drakes, but I find them really hard to resist. So when I saw one in a belt that was only four months old, I decided to warp in and try my luck. After all, this was likely to be my last Molden Heath roam, and it would be fantastic to end the campaign with a great kill.

I landed right on top of him, and I had preloaded Gremlin Rage during my warp, so we immediately pointed and webbed each other. I saw my rockets start to do a respectable level of damage to his shields, and thought I might be able to break his tank.

Things started to go wrong, though, when he launched a flight of Hobgoblin II. These started inflicting heavy damage, and I discovered that Rage rockets are absolutely not the sort of rocket you want to have loaded when clearing drones, even if you web them first. It took about five volleys for me to clear the first drone. I switched back to regular rockets ASAP.

By the time I was reloaded, I was about halfway into my armor. Still, if I could clear the drones I could probably stabilise. He had a web, and so his missile damage was pretty good, but I was reasonably sure I could tank it while my cap held.

I cleared the last of his drones at about 25% armor. Looking at the rate of damage, I thought I could stabilise, so I started targeting him again. Unfortunately, the Drake seemed to have had similar thoughts, and he called in backup in the form of a Stabber.

I'm happy to say that I didn't panic, and I think I reacted well. As the Stabber landed and pointed me, I immediately turned in to the Stabber and began orbiting at 500m. The Stabber did not seem to have a web (although the Drake did), so there was a reasonable chance that I could get under his guns. Of course, my reduced speed would mean taking more damage from the Drake, but with the web on me it was not as much of a reduction as it might have been. [Edit: It looks like I was mistaken; Thrash tells me the web was on the Stabber, not the Drake. The main thing, though, was that there was only one web, meaning I could still get under the Stabber's guns.]

Over heating my repair system, I was gratified to see that the Stabber's damage was greatly reduced by my orbit. Unfortunately, his initial damage had taken me into structure; things were now very touch and go.

I don't know if I could have turned things around if the situation had remained as it was, but once I saw the Stabber start to neut me, I knew it was a lost cause. With my cap already depleted from running the repair system for so long, it did not take him more than a cycle or two to cap me out.

Interestingly, his one neut did not actually stop my repair system completely; I was able to get a cycle off from time to time, thanks to my regen. However, with two ships shooting at me, and already being in structure, he did not have to shut down me down completely; with no margin for error, slowing me was enough.

2011.06.21 05:31:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Heild
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 3214

Involved parties:

Name: Thash Hirarashi (laid the final blow)
Security: 3.5
Corp: The Cursed Navy
Alliance: Important Internet Spaceship League
Faction: NONE
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 2936

Name: Roberthihiho
Security: 2.0
Corp: The Cursed Navy
Alliance: Important Internet Spaceship League
Faction: NONE
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 199

Name: Arch Angel Hijacker / Archangels
Damage Done: 79

Destroyed items:

Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Gremlin Javelin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 33
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
Hammerhead I, Qty: 4 (Cargo)
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 3
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 372 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 528 (Cargo)
Phalanx Javelin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 99
Small Armor Repairer II
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Hammerhead I (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
1MN Afterburner II


Afterthoughts:

Warping my pod out, I left a "gf" in local and began the trip back to Atlar. On my final jump, from the gate to the station, my pod landed an unprecedented 2km from the docking circle. And despite the early hour, an artillery fit Hurricane was camping the station. Like a slow motion car wreck, he sent me to update my clone.

Terrible luck aside, there was a clear lesson here about fighting drones. I thought I was being clever by preloading my best ammo against the Drake, but all I really did was give him 30 seconds of free hits as I ineffectually combated his drones.

Instead, I should have jumped in with Caldari Gremlin. I would have been doing decent damage to the Drake, but I could have dealt with his drones much more swiftly. There was plenty of time to upgrade to Rage after the drones were taken care of - it's not as if any ammo was going to make this a quick fight.

I'm happy with how I handled the addition of the Stabber. With better skills, and a stronger start, I actually think this fight could have been salvaged. However, I don't have better skills, and (as I have posted elsewhere) I need to stop biting off more than I can chew. The day may come where Drakes across New Eden fear my Vengeance, but that day is not today, nor any time soon.

Vengeance v Stabber

The hunt:

I was roaming through some of the dead end systems of Molden Heath when I spotted a Dramiel and a Stabber on D-scan. While I might have tried to hunt down the Stabber, I was not comfortable doing so with a Dram in system, and I turned back to resume my roam.

Just before I jumped out of the system, however, I received a convo from the Dram. It turns out that the Dram was from Gunpoint Diplomacy, whereas the Stabber was a 9POOL ship. Gunpoint and the Hatchery are at war, so the Dram was keen to pin down the Stabber, but so far had not had any success in doing so.

The Dram suggested that we fleet up, and I act as bait. If the Stabber tried to jump me, the Dram would warp in. I accepted his offer, but only after an explicit agreement that we were not going to fire on each other (you know what happens when you assume...).

My new fleet-mate reccomended warping to a plex entrance. It would make my presence in the system look natural, and he also believed that the Stabber was trying to ambush frigs attempting the plex.

I took his advice, and, sure enough, moments after I landed the Stabber arrived.

I had expected the Stabber to land at zero and try and break my tank ASAP; after all, the only thing I needed to do in order to escape was activate the accelleration gate. Instead, though, he landed at 20km, and proceeded to kite me.

While I could not come close to matching his speed, I knew that running a mwd was cap intensive and Minmatar ships are not known for their strong cap. So I trundled towards the Stabber, trying to run him to ground.

My main concern was the damage I would take in the process - I had zero transversal - but this turned out to be a non-issue. Whatever sacrifices the Stabber had needed to make to nano his ship, dps seemed to be one of them; he had difficulty breaking my passive shield regen, let alone my armor repper. If I had to guess, I'd say that the Minmatar long range ammo has a significant explosive component.

Being from different corps, the Dram and I were not on Vent together, so our comms were limited. I confirmed that the Stabber had jumped in and pointed me, and that I was being kited (so could not land point). I did not have time to explain my strategy - running him to ground - before the Dram landed.

Unfortunately, the Dram was afterburner fit, so although it may have been capable of catching the Stabber, it could not do so before it simply warped away.

Our trap sprung to no avail, we went our separate ways.


Afterthoughts:

To my surprise, I was in absolutely no danger throughout this fight; there was simply no way the Stabber could break my tank. I would have liked to see how long he could keep running away, though.

Of course, there was nothing to stop him simply warping out when he got low on cap, so I would probably have left my repper turned off to let him think that I was buffer fit and that he was winning.

On the other hand, this fight was a timely reminder of the dangers of being kited. I have been working on my missile skills, but a short break to bring some of my nav skills up may not be a bad idea. With perfect skills I can squeeze another 100m/s out of the Vengeance, which is about an extra 15%.

Vengeance v Drake

The hunt:

Another day, another roam. Some times you have to really look for the fights, and other days the opportunities just fall into your lap.

In this case, it was a Drake looking for trouble. He was sitting in a belt, and so I jumped in to say hello.

I kept my orbit wide to reduce his damage, and opened fire with Gremiln Rage. He must have been active tanked, because his sheilds did not seem to drop.

Equally, I was tanking his damage just fine. We were both having a fine old time wasting some ordinance against each other (it was pretty clear that neither of us could break the other) when the blob landed.

Yeah, Eve Uni. About two dozen of them. They had a long point interceptor, and he locked me down while the others jumped in. One ship and one pod later, I'm updating my clone.



Afterthoughts:

I have to admit that this loss bothered me more than any other I can think of. I suppose it's because I have foolishly thought that Eve University was somehow different from other Eve corps. I mean, I expect the Hatchery to blob me. It's what they do and they make do bones about it. Same with SKRUB and TORAH. And when I see those guys enter local I get the hell out.

Eve Uni, though, I have always given a special status to. First, I've never agressesed Eve Uni, ever. They teach newbs how to play, and I don't particularly want to mess with that. I know they run "anti-pirate" roams, but I always thought that this was about clearing gate camps - and let's face it, everyone wins when gate camps are cleared, even the pirates.

So when I saw Eve Uni enter local, I assumed that they would leave two guys having consensual pvp alone. And you know what happens when you assume...

It took me a long while to figure out that I was not mad at Eve Uni; they're just looking for an easy gank, same as 90% of the Molden Heath population. No, I was mad at myself for being stupid enough to buy the PR and let it cost me a ship and a set of implants.

Next time, I'll know better.

A tale of two escapes

 

I had an experience the other day that really underscored both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Vengeance. It started with a hauler entering local in an otherwise empty system.

Being familiar with the area, I knew that there was one particular planet that PI types favoured, and so I immediately warped to that Customs Office at zero. I then began orbiting the customs office at 1000m.

Sure enough, the hauler droped out of warp about 30 seconds later, but he must have warped to 20km, because he was some distance off. Equally, I was at the furthest part of my orbit, so I had about 14km to cover before he was in overheated point range.

Overheating my mids, I burned towards him. About 1000m before I could land point, however, he managed to align and warp off. I had simply been too slow.

If I had been in a Malediction, or even a Crusader, I would have been able to point the hauler, and the kill would have been mine. As it was, I was left empty handed, with nothing to show for my troubles.

Frustrated, I jumped out of the system and immediately found myself in the middle of a very large gate camp; about 20 ships of various classes.

From bitter experience I know that a camp this size always has at least one instant-lock point ship, so warping out was a non-starter. I had to burn back to the gate and hope.

Overheating my afterburner and repair system, I started back for the gate once my session change timer was up. I was instantly pointed, and soon I was the sole target of the entire gate camp. Fortunately, my course meant that I had at least some transversal velocity relative to most of the camp, but the incoming damage was staggering.

My little Vengeance weathered the storm, though, and I jumped back into the previous system with my hull intact. I don't know that I have flown any other ship that could have survived that camp.

And that's the point. That's the tradeoff a Vengeance pilot makes. He's less of a hunter, but more of a survivor than his fellow frigate pilots.

What a fun little ship.

Vengeance v Rupture

The hunt:

I can be a little slow. Having just been blown up by a Rupture, you might think that I would avoid Ruptures for a little while - at least until my skills improved. Apparently not.

I was cruising around the Molden Heath loop, looking for trouble. I found it in the form of a Rupture, who was either ratting or pretending to rat. I warped to zero to find out which it was.

It seems he was looking for a fight too, and he liked his chances. He moved into me before I had even landed, and pointed me immediately. He launched his drones and opened fire.

Turning my repair system on, I moved into a 500m orbit. I overheated my rockets and turned my attention to his drones, determined to be less clumsy than last time.

As I worked through his drones I kept an eye on my capacitor; seeing that it was largely stable I gathered that he did not have a neut. I also seemed to have gotten under his guns, despite the web. The only thing he could hit me with were the drones.

And they were now all dead.

After the initial rush of combat, things settled into a grim routine. Unable to hit me, I simply wore away at the Rupture's tank until he eventually exploded. I can only imagine the frustration the other pilot must have felt, lashing out at his enemy but unable to land a solid hit.

2011.06.05 15:53:00

Victim: Koskica
Corp: Ordo Drakonis
Alliance: Nulli Tertius
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rupture
System: Osvetur
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 5107

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -7.5
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Foxfire Rage Rocket
Damage Done: 5107

Destroyed items:

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Barrage M, Qty: 340
Damage Control II
Small 'Knave' I Energy Drain
Stasis Webifier II
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Medium Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II, Qty: 3
Medium Projectile Ambit Extension I
Barrage M, Qty: 4200 (Cargo)
Republic Fleet EMP M, Qty: 3000 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Barrage M, Qty: 340
Gyrostabilizer II
Small Energy Neutralizer I
Warp Disruptor II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Dual 180mm AutoCannon II
Warrior II (Drone Bay)

The pilot ejected right before the Rupture exploded. With my point still mid cycle on the Rupture, I was not even able to try and stop him. A useful trick.


Afterthoughts:

Combat is often a one sided affair. There is no trick and counter trick, the numbers simply add up in favour of one person and they win. Despite having been blown up by similar ships, I don't think I was in any real danger during this fight.

Indeed, after destroying his drones, it was rather like fighting a well tanked hauler. Granted, I could have done something stupid, like let my transversal drop, but the fight was mine to lose. So much comes down to how each ship is fit.

Interestingly, I see from the killmail that the Rupture had an mwd. However, he he made no attempt to kite me. I'm not sure how fast this particular fit is, but I suspect that it would have been worth it for him to try, if only to keep my transversal down until his cap ran out.

I also see that he did have a neut. Either he forgot to turn it on or a single small neut just does not make much difference to a cap rigged Vengeance.

Vengeance v Rupture

The hunt:

As with the Crusader and the Malediction, I was keen to put my Vengeance through it's paces and find out what it was made of. When I saw a Rupture ratting in a belt, I checked local for his reinforcements (he was in a local pvp corp) and jumped into the belt. He had called his ship "shieldruppie", which practically guaranteed that it was armor tanked. Still, I went with foxfire, just to be safe. If I got under his guns I could always change ammo later.

I landed right on top of him, and immediately established point. I also turned on my afterburner and moved into a 500m orbit to try and disrupt his tracking.

He turned on at least one neut, a webifier, and launched a wave of Warrior II drones. I started webbing and shooting his drones and he began trying to hit me with his main guns. I knew that the repper would not be much help, so my hope was to clear the drones and then keep under his guns while I wore him down.

I tried to keep up with all the different targets and all the info I was trying to process. It was a lot to take in, though, and I was sloppy. In trying to keep up with all the different targets I accidentally targeted him from time to time rather than his drones, which slowed the rate at which I cleared his Warrior IIs.

While I was able to keep my afterburner going, I was able to make him miss about half the time, and give him poor hits the other half. Once my afterburner dropped, however, he began to consistently land poor hits. I did not turn my afterburner back on, because I was hoping to get off a repper cycle; even with my incomplete skills, my cap regen is pretty good.

Somehow, though, I never managed to get off rep cycle, but I did clear several of his drones before I reached half armor. He recalled his remaining drones, and then relaunched them, along with the additional ones in his drone bay. I clumsily got back to work on clearing them.

I finally managed to clear the drones just as my armor gave out. I turned my attention to the Rupture, but his lowgrade hits were adding up, and fell into structure; I did not last long after that.

2011.06.05 08:47:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Hrokkur
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 2645

Involved parties:

Name: Aeth Gemulus (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Hatchery
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: Dual 180mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2645

Destroyed items:
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 60
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Small Anti-Thermic Pump I
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I
1MN Afterburner IICaldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 688 (Cargo)Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)

Dropped items:
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 60
Damage Control II
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Small Armor Repairer IICaldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 400 (Cargo)Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 348 (Cargo)
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)

I warped out, dropping an enthusiastic "gf" in local.


Afterthoughts:

I really wanted to know about this fight from the other side, so I convo'd the Rupture, who was happy to chat.

It turns out that he was using two small neuts (staggered) which is why I never got a rep cycle off. With only one, my cap regen probably would have pulled me through. Still, I should have reacted better when I saw I was not getting rep cycles off and reengaged my afterburners; it would have cut down on the damage I was taking from his guns. Apparently, with capless weapons and an armor buffer, a Rupture can maintain two small neuts indefinitely, so it's something I'm going to need to take into account when attacking cruisers.

I was very, very clumsy when it came to selecting and executing targets, and that is something that I HAVE to work on, but I suspect it will come with practice. I'm certain I could have cleared all his drones before half armor if I had been less of a mess and actually overheated my guns (I had been saving overheat for the Rupture).

However, targeting the Rupture, even accidentally, did provide me with some more food for thought. I tore through his shields without even trying, and even got about 15% into his armor. With more time, and better skills, the fight was very winnable.

And skills is the issue. With my current fit and all skills at V, my Vengeance is cap stable at 52% (even with only a T1 cap rig), has 9937 ehp, a cruising speed of 818 m/s and a dps of 92. With my skills, it has only 5.75 min of cap, 9165 ehp, a cruising speed of 762 m/s and a dps of 84. So, cap aside, I'm flying my Vengeance at only 92% capacity.

While I won't know until I try it, I suspect that it is very, very difficult to keep a top skilled, cap rigged Vengeance capped out. Assuming I learn from my mistakes and keep my afterburner on, my higher speed will make me even more difficult to hit, and increased dps clears drones faster and kills my opponent more swiftly.

So despite the loss, I'm actually quite encouraged by the whole thing. The Vengeance went up against a pvp fit cruiser and did nauseatingly well, despite my poor skills and atrocious mistakes.

I think I'm going to like Assault Ships.

Fitting a Vengeance

My last post generated a number of very interesting comments, so I thought I would elaborate on the thought process behind my fit, and why I chose it over some of the other excellent fits out there.


Active v Buffer

As Azual points out, the Vengeance is capable of an enormous passive tank. I have not done the EFT work myself, but I can believe 20k+ is possible; my active fit is over 10k.

However, a buffer means plates and armor rigs. The Vengeance is already a slow ship - a very slow ship - and slowing it down even further does not appeal to me. Equally, if I'm going to be kited then I would like to be able to endure the damage until they get bored or my backup arrives. A buffer tank cannot do that the way an active tank can.

If the Vengeance had sufficient range to eliminate the problem of kiting, then the reduced speed would not be much of a problem; it's already too slow to effectively give chase to anything. But because of the range limitations on rockets, I'm just not comfortable with a passive fit.


Single rep v Dual rep (or Web v Booster)

A single rep fit can afford to devote a midslot to ewar, whereas a dual rep fit needs a cap booster. For short, intense fights the dual rep fit is obviously superior. Whereas my single rep fit can tank the gate guns long enough to gank a cyno ship, the dual rep fit can kill the ship, get the pod and loot the wreck without even breaking a sweat.

This fit also overcomes one of a frigates biggest weaknesses: neuts. With a cap boosting fit the repper and point can be maintained for a significant period, which makes fighting large ships with neuts much more feasible. My single rep fit devotes one rig slot to a capacitor control circuit in part so that I can try and keep my modules (sans repper) running under a neut. That's rig slot that is not going towards my tank or dps.

However, as with the buffer fit, the dual rep fit is not as sustainable as the single rep fit, which is cap stable with reasonable skills. And while faster than the buffer fit, it's still slower than many of the ships you are likely to fight. Without a web, many of those ships will simply disengage when they realise that they can't break your tank.

And, for rocket ships, webs do more than simply keep the enemy around; they also improve your dps by reducing your target's speed. This effect is noticeable (albeit less significant) even against large ships, as I discovered first hand in my Rifter & Malediction v Drake fight. So although the dual rep fit gets an extra damage rig, it is losing some part of its potential dps to its target's increased speed.

Dual prop fits

One fit I have not experimented with is the dual prop fit. It would have all the disadvantages of the single rep fit (smaller active tank) and the dual rep fit (trouble keeping ships in point range, losing dps to target speed), and cap would be even more of an issue (because of the mwd).

However, it is also probably immune to kiting. Rockets can hit anything in scram range, and a mwd means that even if you cannot catch the ship kiting you, the chances are you are still fast enough to burn out of disruptor range with a few sharp turns.

Anti-thermic pump v other rigs

This is an issue that I've thought a lot about. Plugging the thermal resist hole is something that greatly improves the EFT tank on any type of Vengeance. In reality, though, many fights will not involve thermal damage, and in those fights the rig is wasted. Is it better to rig for something else, such as dps, which is useful in all fights? Assuming a non-armor rig, you would even see a slight speed boost.

Right now, I'm happy closing the resist hole, but I can see strong arguments for rigging something else as well.


Advanced modules

I completely agree that the Vengeance, and any other assault ship, is worth fitting out properly. Such robust base stats make assault ships fairly forgiving platforms, which is exactly what you want if you are going to spend several million on a single mod.

However, I'm not going to go down that road unless my skills are pretty close to maxed out. Deadspace mods get better with improved skills, and I'm not prepared to risk that kind of money on a single ship unless I know I can fly it to its full potential.

Vengeance v cyno ships (and station guns)

The fit:

4 Rocket Launcher II

Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

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

Small Anti-Thermal  Pump
Small Capacitor Control Circuit I

This is my basic Vengeance fit. Without high Assault Ship skills I need the capacitor control circuit to keep the repper running for a goodly time, but I would be tempted to switch it for a damage rig if I decide to invest heavily in the Vengeance.


The hunt:

One of the first things I wanted to do was test the Vengeance's legendary tank. Granted, I only had Assault Ships III,  but I had heard very good things about what this ship was capable of.

As a frigate pilot, one of the most frustrating things about low sec is the way I am forced to ignore targets that are sitting within range of gate or station guns. Given enough time, I can try and bump them out of range, but this is a very tedious experience, and all that effort can be wasted if the afk pilot returns to his computer (or a larger hunter appears to steal the kill).

The Vengeance, I hoped, could overcome this little problem. I therefore decided, with some trepidation, to run a test attack on a cyno ship.

Essentially, I jumped in on a cyno frigate, immedately pointed them, and overheated my guns. While I was shooting at them, and getting shot at by the station guns, I overheated my repair system and aligned to a celestial. As soon as the cyno ship popped, I warped out.

Actually, this seemed to work very well. I didn't even dip into structure.


Afterthoughts:

I am very impressed by the Vengeance's tank. With maxed skills, I would be willing to try going for the pod as well as the ship, and also trying to grab the cyno beacon. With my skills, that's simply out of the question. Being able to pick up those cyno beacons, though, would be a nice little source of extra income.

The Vengeance also seems to be sitting in a size/tank sweet spot. I can get in, tank the gate guns, and get out before the carrier can even lock me. I wouldn't want to try the same thing in a cruiser.

Malediction: a review

The Malediction is an odd ship, and ill suited for it's intended role. Unlike other fleet interceptors, the Malediction cannot actually target out to the limit of it's point range, which means that part of it's role bonus is  wasted with a T2 warp disruptor.

Equally, it's chosen weapon system, rockets, can't reach further than 15km, or 20km if you are prepared to rig exclusively for range. This means that, alone of the fleet interceptors, it cannot actually engage the enemy at the limit of it's (already curtailed) point range.

It's also rather strange that a ship designed to fly beyond the range of enemy guns would get a tanking bonus.

However, all of that suits me just fine; I like to get up close and personal and the Malediction's bonuses make it a pretty good ship for that job. It's almost as if some designer misfiled the Crusader and the Malediction - each would have been better at the other's role.

Unlike the Crusader, the Malediction can pack a web, which means it retains it's relative speed advantage when webbed. The tradeoff is that the Malediction has a lower base speed than the Crusader, but it is still "fast enough."

With cap independent weapons, the Malediction can also support an active tank better than the Crusader, and has a utility high for a nos. While still fairly fragile - it is an interceptor, after all - it can be surprisingly resilient if you keep your speed and transversal up.

Of course, I can't talk about the Malediction without talking about rockets. The pro's and con's of missiles over turrets are well known, and I won't rehash them here. However, I really enjoyed using rockets for another reason; time management.

When I open fire with turrets I need to be constantly checking to make sure that slight changes in range or tracking have not begun to undermine my damage. Checking this requires me to look at my combat log for several entries; because there is a random factor attached to turret hits any one result could be misleading, so that "miss" might not mean you can't hit, just that you were unlucky with that shot. The opposite is also true, and your "hit" might have been a fluke that will not be repeated at this range and angular velocity.

So every time I want to check my dps I have to spend several seconds focusing on the combat log, seconds I am not spending looking at my armor, cap, modules or opponent. And my dps needs to be checked regularly in a highly mobile fight.

Not so with rockets. A quick glance at the most recent entry will confirm that I am in range and hitting for full damage. If I'm not hitting, I won't see an entry. Simple.

I value this timesaving feature of missiles far more highly than the ability to choose damage, and it makes up for all the shortcomings (carrying ammunition, high reload time, lower damage, etc) because it allows me to actually focus on flying my ship and reacting to my opponent.

The advantages of using rockets, combined with the natuaral qualities of the ship, make the Malediction a hull that I very much enjoy flying. It's not without issues - the damage is pretty anemic (granted, my skills are far from maxed out) and it folds very quickly if it cannot rely on speed/transversal - but I've had suspect they are issues I could learn to live with.

Without having tried assault ships I can't be certain that it's what I want to fly full time, but I certainly see it being my go-to ship whenever I want to fly an interceptor.

Malediction v Exequror

The hunt:

I was roaming around, looking for another fight, when I managed to find an Exequror at a belt. Warping in, I saw that he had (very sensibly) pulled the rats a long way from the warp-in point, so I was nowhere near him.

Unfortunately, he had pulled them too far. By warping to one of the wrecks, I was able to land on top of him, and establish a point. Falling into a tight orbit, I opened fire.

He launched drones, of course. Here, at last, was the drone test I was looking for.

My response was clumsy. I was not used to having so many targets to deal with, and I felt a little overwhelmed. Still, I started webbing and shooting at his drones and I was gratified to see that I could destroy them after a few volleys.

With the damage starting to add up, though, I turned on my nos and started pulsing the repper. If I could kill the drones before they got me, I would win. Otherwise, I would be destroyed; I was in no mood to retreat from this fight.

The damage was too much for my repair system to deal with completely, but it did slow the damage down. My opponent clearly realised that the survival of his drones would be the deciding factor, and he started to put serious effort into micromanaging them. When I targeted one he would recall it before it could be destroyed, and release it (or a fresh one) when I started on another drone.

In the end, my cap gave out. Without the repair system, his drones made short work of me, and I wished him a hearty "gf" as I warped my capsule out.

2011.05.30 14:37

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Malediction
System: Aedald
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 3144

Involved parties:

Name: K'Roa T'Jal (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.61
Corp: Critical Mass Inc.
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Exequror
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 3144
 
Destroyed items:

Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 25
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Armor Repairer II
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 50
E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Rocket Launcher II
1MN Afterburner II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)


Afterthoughts:

I'm going to write a post specifically about rockets, so I won't say too much here. I was pleased that I was able to hit and destroy his drones, though, and if I actually had decent missile skills then the result might have been very different.

Of course, there is a very sensible argument here about not flying ships I'm not properly skilled in, and that's a good argument. However, the whole point of the T2 Tour is to give me an idea of which ship I want to become properly skilled in. This fight had let me see another side of the Malediction, and I now felt ready to move on to the next ship.

Malediction v Stabber

The hunt:

My fight with Valgore against the Drake had been a great deal of fun, but I had yet to really test the Malediction's solo engagement envelope. Clearly, with only three missile points the Malediction was not going to be soloing any decently fit battle cruisers, but what about their smaller brethren?

As luck would have it, I spotted a Stabber jumping around Atlar, and I decided to cautiously give chase. I say cautiously because local was fairly full, and many of them were from a local pirate gang; I did not want to end up jumping into another trap.

So when I managed to get a fix on the Stabber the first time I jumped in at 100km to get a fix on the pilot. Hitting "get info", I immediately jumped out again so as not to cause him alarm.

Taking a look at his vitals while in warp, he was not obviously affiliated with any of the local gangs, and he seemed legit, rather than some one's out of corp alt. Time to try and find the fight.

The Stabber kept on the move. I was not sure exactly what he was doing; sometimes he was at belts, sometimes at planets. Only as I continued to track him did I learn why; I was not the only hunter.

Wherever the Stabber went, there was an assault ship not too far away. Sometimes, when I tried to jump in on the Stabber, I would find myself landing shortly before the assault ship. At first I thought that I might need to defend myself, but the other pilot did not seem to interested in me. I imagine he (probably correctly) assumed that he could not keep me in a fight I did not want, and I (probably correctly) assumed that my half-baked missile skills were not up to taking down a well flown assault ship.

Eventually, though, my higher warp speed and align time began to work to my advantage, the assault ship fell further and further behind, while I kept getting closer and closer to the Stabber.

As I gave chase, I began to notice that there were certain places that the Stabber kept returning to, so when I next saw a scan result in that general direction I took a chance; rather than narrow down the scan, I simply jumped to the recurring destination.

Fortune, as they say, favours the bold; I landed right on top of him.

Immediately pointing and webbing him, I opened fire and waited for the drones. These, however, never materialised, and I soon found myself evading the Stabber's return fire completely.

Still, breaking his tank was going to be a slow process, and somewhere behind me was an assault ship. I opened up a ransom channel.

Now, I had given ransoms a great deal of thought since my last ransom attempt, and I had decided that I did not like the "traditional" ransom structure. Basically, it seemed like a whole lot of work.

On vent, I'd been able to listen to other Tuskers ask advice on ransoms, and hear the responses. People often have formulas based on age, hull cost, etc. Everyone tries to strike a stressful balance between getting a ransom at all (not too high) and getting ripped off (not too low).

This model of ransoming seems like fantastic way to kill all the fun in pvp, so I had decided to do things my own way. I would tell my victim that they could make me one, and only one, offer for their ship/pod, and that I would either accept or reject that offer. This would shift the stress of working out the ransom to them; all I had to do was decide whether I preferred the money or the killmail! It seemed pretty perfect.

So when this chap responds to my convo, I quickly lay down the rules; one offer and one offer only. He suggests 6 million for his ship, and I prefer the killmail. Easy.

He tells me to make a counter offer, but rules are rules. He had had his shot; now I wanted my killmail. It did not take as long as I thought it would.

2011.05.22 20:33:00

Victim: Damien Miles
Corp: Mercenarius Mercded
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Stabber
System: Atlar
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 21467

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -5.6
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Damage Done: 5426

Name: Gistii Impaler / Angel Cartel
Damage Done: 16041

Destroyed items:

Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 120
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 160
Stasis Webifier I
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon I, Qty: 4
Assault Missile Launcher I, Qty: 2
Damage Control I
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 630 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Medium Armor Repairer I
Medium Shield Booster II
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 480
50mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 4380 (Cargo)
Hornet I (Drone Bay)

Thanks to the fantastic lock speeds on interceptors, and FNG's sage advice, I was able to snag his pod. Again, I told him that he had one, and only one, opportunity to purchase his implants from me. This time he decided that he could find 90 million ISK, and I decided that I was willing to forgo the killmail.

With the ransom paid, I let his pod go, thankful that we had not been interrupted by the assault ship.


Afterthoughts:

Looking at the killmail, I began to have some regrets - I'm a bit of a softy that way. As ecstatic as I was over the size of the ransom, which would effectively pay for all the ships I had lost so far on the T2 Tour, I remembered, not too long ago, when I had sunk the majority of my assets into my +4's, and I wondered if I shouldn't have accepted less from such a young player.

I decided that I wanted to help him out - he had been polite throughout - so I convo'd him again. I wanted to give him some advice about surviving low sec and give him some of the ransom back. Unfortunately for him, he left the ransom channel before I completed my first block of text.

I convo'd him again, and he said "what do I have to do to get rid of you?" and left the channel. My patience was wearing thin - I had been polite throughout too - so I thought I would send him an in-game mail. That way he could see that I had good intentions.

That's when I found out he had blocked me.

I suspect there is a serious lesson in here for me somewhere. I have been helped hugely by the Eve community, and by my reader's in particular. I have been given advice, support, ships, modules and even ISK. This generosity has made me very keen to give something back to the community, and hence my attempt to return some part of the ransom to a new player.

However, just as my attempted generosity towards the miner I fought during the Punisher Plan did not go as intended, neither did my effort to return some of the ransom. Instead, I just ended up feeling stupid for even trying. I'm not sure what to take away from all this, but perhaps I need to change my approach.

All that aside, I was very happy with how the Malediction performed against an above class vessel. While I was disappointed by the lack of drones - I really wanted to test my rockets out against them - I certainly can't complain about the outcome.

Interestingly, the Tusker reputation apparently reaches even new players. At one point he had second thoughts, fearing that I would take the money and kill him any way. When I pointed out that I was a Tusker, he paid up.

Rifter & Malediction v Drake

The hunt:

I was eating dinner when I heard the call.

Was anyone near Atlar? Well, yes, but I was in the middle of my dinner. Better let someone else get this one.

But there was nobody else, and Valgore Muerte had managed to land point on a Drake in his Rifter. He couldn't break it's tank, and he was running low on ammo.

I hate to see a call for help go unanswered, and I also have a soft spot for people that try to kill Drakes in T1 frigates. So I put my dinner to one side,  told Valgore my Malediction was six jumps out, and that I was on my way.

About three jumps before I reached him, Valgore had to drop point and run. He likes shield buffer fits and the Drake had switched to an alternate ammo (we assumed javlin missiles), which increased his dps against Valgore significantly. With his buffer gone, he had been unable to hold the Drake in place.

However, having seen off the pesky Rifter, the Drake seemed in no mood to leave the system, and it warped to a different belt, presumably to go on ratting.

Arriving at the final gate, I let Valgore know that I was ready, and he jumped back in on the Drake. Jumping through the gate, I immediately warped to Valgore and landed my own point. I settled into as wide an orbit as the range on my rockets and nos would allow, opening fire with gremlin rage rockets. I also put up my web, to maximise my dps.


The fight:

The Drake, quite reasonably, seemed to feel that what had worked once would probably work again, so he targeted Valgore first, aiming to strip away his buffer and drive him off. We all traded blows for awhile, each trying to break our target's tank. As the Drake reached about half shields Valgore's EMP finally gave out and he had to switch to phased plasma. Moments after that, his buffer failed and he was forced to retire from the field again.

Alone with the Drake, I began taking significant damage from his missiles, so I started up my repair system. I was gratified to find that I could permatank his damage, albeit with difficulty. To do so, I was forced to drop my web in order to keep my cap up, which gave the Drake far more freedom to maneuver.

He took advantage of this by making abrupt course changes. I think he might have been hoping I would move beyond scram range (In a Malediction? Good luck with that.), but what it actually did was throw me out of nos range. I could not afford to miss any cycles if I was going to keep pulsing the repair system, so I tightened my orbit to compensate. Of course, this in turn brought my speed down and increased the Drake's dps. I needed to strike the right balance between speed, cap and incoming dps, and that meant constantly adjusting my orbit and range.

Some time shortly before Valgore was able to jump back in, I ran out of gremlin rage. Being completely new to the whole concept of carrying ammunition, I had taken some forum advice and stocked up on two reloads of everything, which gave me a total of 300 gremlin rage rockets. This was very clearly not enough, but it's all I had on board. I switched over to foxfire rage, and continued firing.

With neither of us able to target the Drake's resistance hole, we knew there was no longer any chance that we could handle the Drake on our own. With all the other Tuskers in Hevrice, it was time to reach out to the locals. Gunpoint Diplomacy was the obvious choice.

In addition to being home to several former Tuskers, Gunpoint are generally very good pilots. You don't need to roam Molden Heath very long to realise that the RANSM ticker means a great deal; good fights and good players.

So Valgore contacted the Gunpoint pilots he knew, and I sent a message to Dian Lung; although she had recently left Gunpoint, she was back in the area to roam with her old corpmates for the day.

The responses we got were generally positive, and we were told that help was on the way. Then things got very, very quiet; someone up the chain had taken charge, and plans were being made that did not directly involve us.

As we continued trading blows with the Drake, Valgore got a bit of a break. The Drake was focusing everything he had on me, and his maneuvers became more erratic; if I suspect he knew that at this stage we would have called for backup, and that his days were numbered. Unfortunately for him, I was able to continue tanking his damage. Active tanks for the win.


The flight:

Finally, local spiked. I couldn't tell how many players had entered the system; my chat window only holds about 15 entries. Anything more than that to a low sec player is "way too many".

Everyone knew something was about to happen, but Valgore and I were not quite sure what. And then, all of a sudden, my overview was filled with flashy red; Gunpoint had arrived!

Which of course meant that we were potentially in deep, deep trouble.

Other pirates, I suspect, will instinctively understand what Valgore and I were thinking, but not all of my readers are pirates, so I'll try and explain.

High sec pilots often view low sec pirates as a co-operative block, but this is simply not the case; we fight each other all the time. I've tried (unsuccessfully) to take on Gunpoint pilots in the past, and they have tried (unsuccessfully) to kill me on a number of occasions too.

Admittedly, there is a certain level of mutual respect among some of the (better) pirate corps, but it's more professional courtesy than any kind of alliance. Equally, co-operation is not unheard of when targets too large to be dealt with alone present themselves. However, this co-operation is not to be taken for granted, and whether intentionally or not, we had not been given any reassurance that we were not also targets.

With a massive Gunpoint fleet landing on us, Valgore's orders were simple. "Get out. Get out." Any thought of an orderly handover of point on the Drake went out the window; I simply warped to the sun, and then bounced to a safe spot.

As I warped out, I saw hell being unleashed on he hapless Drake. I've never seen a carrier hotdrop, but I imagine it feels a lot like what I saw. There was no escape for him.

2011.05.22 19:35:00

Victim: Celestis 234
Corp: Empyrean Warriors
Alliance: The Obsidian Front
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Drake
System: Wiskeber
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 63753

Involved parties:

Name: Valgore Meurte
Security: -9.7
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Damage Done: 18546

Name: Willem Revolati
Security: -10.0
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Deimos
Weapon: Hammerhead II
Damage Done: 9095

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -5.5
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Damage Done: 8078

Name: FeistyOne
Security: -9.9
Corp: Twisted Inc.
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Proteus
Weapon: Proteus
Damage Done: 7304

Name: CraftyCroc
Security: -9.8
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Stabber Fleet Issue
Weapon: Stabber Fleet Issue
Damage Done: 5435

Name: Chewlookinat
Security: 3.6
Corp: On The Cloth
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 3295

Name: Dian Lung
Security: -3.7
Corp: Ikaruga.
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Caldari State
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 2217

Name: Alex Medvedov
Security: -10.0
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: Jaguar
Damage Done: 2130

Name: Shtang Lord
Security: -10.0
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Zealot
Weapon: Zealot
Damage Done: 1893

Name: Vanderie
Security: -9.7
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Guardian
Weapon: Warrior II
Damage Done: 1519

Name: Slamby
Security: -0.2
Corp: On The Cloth
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Harbinger
Weapon: Harbinger
Damage Done: 1390

Name: Thorasine (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 858

Name: masty
Security: -8.3
Corp: The Executioners
Alliance: Capital.Punishment
Faction: NONE
Ship: Lachesis
Weapon: Warrior II
Damage Done: 596

Name: Xulgar
Security: -9.4
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 562

Name: Laktos
Security: -9.4
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Harbinger
Weapon: Harbinger
Damage Done: 488

Name: Dirty Protagonist
Security: -10.0
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Guardian
Weapon: Warrior I
Damage Done: 347

Name: Angel Impaler / Archangels
Damage Done: 0

Name: Ariartus
Security: -10.0
Corp: Gunpoint Diplomacy
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Sacrilege
Weapon: Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Invulnerability Field II, Qty: 2
Damage Control II
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 192
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 5
Ballistic Control System II, Qty: 2
Large Shield Extender II

Dropped items:

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 1049 (Cargo)
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Warp Disruptor II
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 32
Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 192 (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 2
Ballistic Control System II
Large Shield Extender II
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 129 (Cargo)


Afterthoughts:

Giddy with excitement after our narrow escape, (well, I was giddy, Valgore may be made of sterner stuff) Valgore and I waited in my safe until Gunpoint had left the system before heading back to Atlar for fresh ammunition. It had been an awesome fight, with highly technical flying and an exciting finish. Valgore was especially pleased that he had managed to put the most damage on the Drake while flying a Rifter, and I was quite happy with the number three spot.

Ammunition is clearly something I need to carry more of, though. While two reloads might work against frigates, taking on larger targets requires deeper reseverves, so I will probably move up to four reloads of rage rockets.

I am very happy with the Malediction's ablitiy to tank the dps put out by the Drake, although I have to weigh that against the Crusader's ability to go on shooting without reloading for about an hour. In this case the ability to keep a point on the Drake was key, though; my ability to dps was secondary.

I'm also impressed with Gunpoint's ability to muster such a large response at short notice. While obviously overkill (one battle cruiser would have done it, frankly), as displays of power go, it was pretty effective.

Malediction v Griffin et alia

The hunt:

Actually, I wasn't hunting; I was playing musical ships.

My hauler alt had just brought some Maledictions and fittings to Gelfiven for the next stage of the T2 Tour. Rather than risk them all to the perils of lowsec in a defenceless hauler, I had decided to fly them each from Gelfiven to Atlar individually with my main.

Because this was just meant to be a short journey, I had thrown together a buffer fit rather than an active tank - I was more concerned about the npc police than I was about other players.

As I was docking one of my Maledictions, I noticed a cyno going up right next to the station. There is nothing unusual about that; because the Hatchery "owns" Oddelulf, Atlar is used by a number of jump freighters on a regular basis.

However, this cyno was set up by a flashy, which meant I could actually attack him without fear of the gate guns! It was too much to resist and I immediately altered course and engaged.

As pretty much everyone but me would have figured out by this point, it was a trap. Two of his corpmates undocked (uncloaked?) in T3 cruisers as soon I engaged.

Now, there was still a bit of a delay between my attack and them turning my ship into a cloud of vapour. Most Malediction pilots would have used that time to destroy the defenceless Griffin. I, however, had brand new rocket skills, so I did not even have the dubious comfort of taking someone with me.

2011.05.18 19:11:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Malediction
System: Atlar
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2284

Involved parties:

Name: Tul Kezad (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: Friends Of Harassment
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Legion
Weapon: Heavy Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 864

Name: Dr Narud
Security: -9.9
Corp: Friends Of Harassment
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Loki
Weapon: Loki
Damage Done: 1420

Destroyed items:

Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Damage Control II
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 44
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Rocket Launcher II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 88
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)


Afterthoughts:

Clearly, there is a lesson here about not attacking obvious bait and not using weapons you are not properly trained in. Both are valuable lessons, but I think I'll pass on the first one. I admit that this is the second trap I have fallen into in as many days (see my last Crusader fight), but better that than missing out on fights because I'm terrified of what might happen if I engage. Even I, however, will admit that a dash of added caution goes a long way. I should at least have realised it was a trap, even if I engaged anyway.

And I'm totally on board with the whole rocket skills thing. Need to do something about that ASAP.

In an interesting twist, the Griffon that I attacked seems to have annoyed one of his larger corp mates shortly after my attack run, because BC has given me the following killmail.

2011.05.18 19:14:00

Victim: TrustTheDwarf
Corp: Friends Of Harassment
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Griffin
System: Atlar
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2091

Involved parties:

Name: smartshogu (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Corp: Friends Of Harassment
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Absolution
Weapon: Heavy Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 1278

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -4.4
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship:
Weapon: X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Damage Done: 813

Destroyed items:

Liquid Ozone, Qty: 50 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Cynosural Field Generator I

How odd.

Crusader: a review

After having flown the Crusader in a variety of situations and in a handful of fights, I'm ready to move on. For any other new pirates, however, here are my thoughts on the Crusader.

In many ways, the Crusader is an unremarkable ship, with middle of the road dps and tank for it's class. What is exceptional, though, is it's high base speed and four low slots.

This pretty much tells you all there is to know about the Crusader, because everything else flows from that point. It has standard interceptor bonuses to mwd and the tracking to actually hit things while moving at speed. And because it packs energy turrets, Scorch allows it to engage targets beyond web and scram range (although range enhancing mods or rigs certainly help). The Crusader was, literally, designed to fill a mwd/kiting role, and by all accounts it fills that role admirably.

Of course, I was flying it all wrong. While I enjoyed the speed, trying to fight at close range meant that I was throwing that advantage away; with only two midslots the Crusader cannot counterweb, and so loses it's relative speed advantage. It's just not a brawler - it should avoid damage, not absorb try to endure it.

When I first finished with the Crusader I was certain that I did not want to end up flying that kind of ship. Further exposure to that way of flying (via the Malediction) has softened my views, though. It's simply not what I am used to, and I suspect I have developed a bit of a comfort zone.

That aside, and while I am reserving judgement until I have some other T2 ships to compare it to, I'm not actually a huge fan of the Crusader. If I want to fly a laser vessel in that fashion, why would I not just fly a Slicer? Sure, the Crusader is faster, but for most thing the Slicer is fast enough, and has much higher dps and range.

Still, the Crusader is an excellent ship, provided you are willing to fly it the way it was designed to be flown.

Crusader v Rifter et alia

The hunt:

It had been a slow day in Molden Heath, and I had wandered beyond my usual stomping grounds in search of a fight.

A few jumps out of Molden Heath I spotted a Rifter sitting in a belt. Outside of my patch, I did not recognize the pilot or his corp, but I did want to try my Crusader against another Rifter.

Now, although the Crusader is a T2 frigate, a well fit and well flown Rifter is more than capable of taking it on and winning. Obviously an experienced pilot, I also had no idea how quickly he might be able to call for assistance. I would have to hit hard and fast.

Warping to the belt, I landed within point range of the Rifter, and immediately settled into a tight orbit. Although I would suffer higher damage, the Rifter would have a relative speed advantage if he was packing a web, and I did not want it to be easy for him to disengage.

Activating my mids and overheating my guns, I tore into the Rifter, but my opponent immediately returned the favour.  No hesitation or delay; he was as fast on the draw as his sec status suggested. I started up my repper, and it was clear that this was going to be a close race.

He seemed to be active armor tanked, and my heart sank as I saw how little progress I was making against his armor. I was not able to dwell on the matter for long, however, as two more Rifters landed in the belt.

The first newcomer landed right on top of me and immediately started to attack. The other pilot was about 40km off; he was out of the fight for the moment.

At this point I overheated my afterburner and tried to burn away, but with two webs on me, it just was not going to happen.

2011.05.17 18:31:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Crusader
System: Aralgrund
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 2516

Involved parties:

Name: WayCharles
Security: -9.9
Corp: Mountain Militia
Alliance: Mountain Sprouts
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rifter
Damage Done: 2144

Name: xxxAlloxxx (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.8
Corp: Mountain Militia
Alliance: Mountain Sprouts
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 372

Destroyed items:

Small Energy Burst Aerator I
Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 2
Small Energy Collision Accelerator I
Small Energy Transfer Array I (Cargo)
1MN Afterburner I (Cargo)
Scorch S (Cargo)
Medium Shield Booster I (Cargo)
Small Armor Repairer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Proton S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Small Shield Transporter I (Cargo)
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 2
Damage Control II
ECM Burst I (Cargo)
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Heavy Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Heat Sink II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 2
1MN Afterburner II

Warping my pod out, I left a "gf" in local. They had sprung their trap well, and flown their ships perfectly.


Afterthoughts:

My reaction to the two additional Rifters dropping in was all wrong. I was never, ever going to get away with two webs on me, and trying to do so distracted me from doing what I should have been focusing on: taking someone with me.

What I did not notice (until too late) was that I had broken the cap of the first Rifter. Thanks to my Amarrian cap skills, my repper was going strong, but he was deep into armor. I had a real opportunity to kill him, but my attempted flight had taken me out of Multifrequency range, and I did not notice this for several seconds.

I switched to Scorch, but I exploded just before he reached hull. If I had stayed focused, I probably would have killed him, especially as maintaining my transversal would have meant taking slightly less damage from my target.

So, with the same skills, ship and situation, a veteran pilot would probably have come away from this encounter with a killmail. I reacted poorly, and came away with nothing as a result.

Part of the problem is that I have focused so much on what is happening to me that I have not ever really considered what is happening to my opponent. I saw that my opponents tank was holding and assumed that there was nothing I could do. I did not consider his cap situation - largely because my own cap tends not to be an issue.

Some real food for thought here, and if I can properly absorb the lessons of this fight I will be a far better pilot.

Crusader v Rifter

The hunt:

I was working my way around the Istodard cul de sac when I spotted a Rifter ratting in a belt. It was a 2009 character, though, so despite his T1 hull I expected that he would be a tough pilot to beat, and if he had a web I would simply have to hope I could burn through his tank before he burned through mine.

Of course, if he had no web then I might be able to avoid most of his damage by flying in his falloff. As he was ratting, the odds of him having no web were fairly decent.

I warped into the belt, landing about 30km away from him. Seeing this, I assumed that he would just warp out, but I burned towards him anyway, hoping that my cunning ship name - Asteroid (Veldspar) - would allow me to avoid notice for a short time. It all depended on how he set up his overview.

Increadibly, I managed to reach him and land my point! I set my orbit to 7km, and opened fire, burning through his shields. As his armor began to melt, it became clear that he could not tank my damage for long, and he had not even switched his fire from the rats to me yet.

Unfortunately, while I had know that my own speed would throw my 7km orbit out wide, I had neglected to consider just how fast a Rifter can move when it wants to. Whether by accident or design, the pilot accellerated away in the opposite direction of my own movement, and our relative speed moved him out of point range. I moved to correct, but it was too late; the Rifter warped out.


Post battle review:

The pilot convo'd me after the fight and we started talking. It seems that although the character was 2009, he had been inactive for most of that time; the pilot was essentially new to Eve. We chatted, and I gave him some pointers about surviving in low sec, starting with ratting in more lucrative belts and properly setting up his overview - it turns out he had not seen me until I opened fire.

Friendly chat aside, the loss was entirely down to my piloting. I'm not used to a) trying to kite, or b) flying at those relative speeds. My natural inclinations, backed up by my time in the Punisher, is to get as close as I can and latch on like some kind of demented bulldog, trading blows at blank point range, and basically refusing to die.

None of that means that I should not try to improve my kiting/high speed skills, but it's clearly not something that comes naturally to me.


Lessons for the future:

It upsets me more to let the enemy get away than it does getting blown up. This suggests that I should commit more heavily to my fights.

Crusader v Iteron Mark III

The hunt:

While running the Molden Heath loop, I noticed an unfamiliar industrial on D-scan. When you consistently move through the same territory, you start to recognize the non-combat ships that are parked permanently behind force fields; this was not one of them.

Quickly using the D-scan to find the industrial, it appeared, unbelievably, to be sitting in a belt. I would have thought it was bait, except there was no obvious backup in the system. Still, there was always the possibility that help was on the other side of the next gate.

The opportunity was too good to pass up, however, and I immediately jumped to the belt at zero. As I landed I spotted the Iteron about 25km off the warp-in point, so I overheated my point and afterburner and hit approach. The Crusader responded beautifully, it's engines roaring into life, and the distance quickly narrowed.

As I approached I was able to examine the target more closely. He actually appeared to be mining in the belt, and did not seem to be pre-aligned. As the distance between us plunged, I established point and opened fire.

With backup possibly on the way, and the ever present risk of warp stabs I immediately overheated my guns and settled into an orbit that kept me within optimal for Multifrequency and well within my tracking bracket. I then kept a careful eye on local, which remained quiet.

For all my concern, the ship did not seem to be bait or to have warp stabs equipped. It also had no tank to speak of, and soon popped.

2011.05.12 17:03:00

Victim: Kajisora Thiesant
Corp: Center for Advanced Studies
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Iteron Mark III
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 2064

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -2.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2064

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold I, Qty: 2
Radiant Hemorphite, Qty: 59 (Cargo)
Mexallon, Qty: 136 (Cargo)
Golden Omber, Qty: 1332 (Cargo)
Zydrine, Qty: 64 (Cargo)
Tritanium, Qty: 1477 (Cargo)
Pyerite, Qty: 591 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Miner II
Expanded Cargohold I
Isogen, Qty: 481 (Cargo)

Up until now I have avoided targeting pods, even when they have sat before me, afk and mine for the taking. Largely, this is because I had not wanted to deal with the drop in sec status, but a few things had changed.

First, I now had a basic hauler alt trained up. This made dealing with the sec hit much less intimidating. But I was also running low on cash, and ransoming pods could potentially be a source of income. I was also conscious that I had a target of 25 campaign kills to meet.

Of course, this pilot was not afk, and I knew going into the fight that I would have to be fast to catch the pod. The Crusader's impressive lock time would help, but I had gotten my pod out of enough fights to know how hard it could be to catch someone who was serious about escaping.

Fortunately, FNG has written a fantastic guide to catching pods here. So right before the Iteron exploded, I killed my speed and had my finger hovering over my scrambler hotkey. As soon as the pod appeared on my overview I activated my scram and locked him down.

I contacted the pilot and asked if he was interested in saving his pod. His response was negative, and very rude, which left me no choice but to send him back to his clone vat - my first pod kill.


Post battle review:

For whatever reason, I don't seem to be finding "fights" right now, and I have fallen into the role of a ganker. This is not an intentional shift, and I hope that changes soon.

Still, the Crusader's ability to cover distance swiftly probably earned me a kill that the Punisher would have missed. Equally, the excellent lock time probably helped me catch the pod. I'm certainly enjoying this additional performance.


Lessons for the future:

I managed to pull off a pod kill on my first attempt - largely due to FNG's guidance. I need more practice at this, but it seems an auspicious start.

Crusader v Ibis & Station Guns

The hunt:

This was another one of those "fights" that arose because of the challenge presented by the circumstances rather than the challenge presented by the actual target.

In this case, I had spotted an Ibis that was afk outside a station. If I were to engage, the station guns would destroy me, but the smug complacency of the pilot irritated me, and I found myself wishing that I had a larger ship nearby just to teach him a lesson about low sec.

As I did not have a larger ship nearby, however, I needed to improvise. In other words, I rammed him. Over and over again.

By using the approach command alternately on the Ibis and the station I was able to ping-pong between them. Every time I hit the Ibis his speed would spike to about 450km/s, and he would drift a good kilometer or so.

For reasons known only to the programmers, sometimes I would miss my target, despite the fact that I was not doing anything different; there are only so many ways to hit the "approach" button.

Eventually, however, I managed to push the Ibis outside the range of the station guns. Feeling rather pleased with myself, I blew him up.

2011.05.11 20:55:00

Victim: BON Argos
Corp: EvilMoon Nations
Alliance: Shadow of xXDEATHXx
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Ibis
System: Skarkon
Security: 0.0
Damage Taken: 385

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 385

Destroyed items:

Civilian Miner
Civilian Gatling Railgun

Dropped items:

Tritanium (Cargo)


Post battle review:

Again, not much of a battle, but a cute little technique for those AFK station huggers you just have to kill. A bit time consuming, and I certainly wouldn't bother doing it again for a rookie ship.

Nice to know it works, though.


Lessons for the future:

Another tool for the tool box.

Crusader v Jaguar

The hunt:

I had been feeling a little unsatisfied with my recent fights. None of them had really let me get to know what the Crusader was made of. I needed to throw it against a wall and see what the pieces looked like.

So when I saw a Jaguar at a belt I was happy to warp in on him and pick a fight - a fight I fully expected to lose.

I started by making my orbit as tight as possible; the Jaguar has range bonuses so there was no point trying to kite him, but my tracking was much better than his.

I started chewing into his shields. It was a predictably slow process thanks to his natural resists, and he soon returned fire, stripping away my own shields and starting into my armor. I overheated my guns, and turned on my nos/repper.

At first, he had trouble landing solid hits. I'm not sure he expected me to get so close, and his own move towards me made my life a bit easier. It did not take him long to realize his mistake, though, and his web allowed him to pull range again, and get the tracking under control.

After that it was just a matter of time.

2011.05.09 20:25:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Crusader
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 2567

Involved parties:

Name: AcidMar (laid the final blow)
Security: 4.9
Corp: Desperate Venture Company
Alliance: RED Citizens
Faction: NONE
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2345

Name: Angel Defeater / Archangels
Damage Done: 222

Destroyed items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II
Small Energy Metastasis Adjuster I, Qty: 2
Small Armor Repairer II
Heat Sink II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Scorch S (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Gatling Pulse Laser II, Qty: 3
Damage Control II
Imperial Navy Multifrequency S, Qty: 4
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II
Scorch S, Qty: 3 (Cargo)


Post battle review:

Feeling much better, I had a long think about the fight. I was actually fairly impressed by the Crusader, as it had managed to reduce a shield tanked assault frigate with an innate 75% EM resist to about 20% shields before popping. I had not expected to do that well.

That said, it was clear that the Crusader was going to have trouble against anything with a web - at least as long as I fit it to fight within web range. As the Crusader relies on speed, anything that slows it down is going to hurt it pretty badly.


Lessons for the future:

As a general rule, webs are bad news for speed tanked ships. It sounds obvious, but I've not really flown a speed tanked ship before.

Crusader v Hoarder

The hunt:

Sunday morning is a special time for Eve players.

All across New Eden, PI players send their little hauler alts to customs offices deep in low sec to collect their loot, confident that the vast majority of pvpers are still snug in their beds, hung over from the carnage of Saturday night.

And largely, they're right. But occassionally, when my schedule permits, I like to get up early and log on to play with the haulers. This was just such a Sunday.

The big pve pocket in Molden Heath is the Istodard cul de sac. With only one way in, and that being only a single jump from high sec, the pve corps have a pretty easy time keeping tabs on the pirate gangs, and from time to time I have even seen them fleet up to break a gate camp. As carebears go, their low-sec game is pretty decent.

But I don't fly in a gang.

And so it was that I was able sneak into one of these systems and wait patiently. This was before I was flashy, you see, and so my name in local was not the warning light it is today.

All at once, three haulers entered the system, and I gave them a few moments to start warping to their destinations. Scanning one of them down to a particular cluster, I immediately jumped to the customs office at zero.

2011.05.08 07:37:00

Victim: Reginald Nachtewolfe
Corp: Pator Tech School
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Hoarder
System: Half
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 1918

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.9
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 1918

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold II, Qty: 3

As he exploded, I quickly jumped away from the customs office so that a destination scan by one of the other haulers would not give them any warning. Unfortunately, this backfired on me - another hauler landed just as I hit warp.

He saw the Crusader. He saw the wrecked hauler. I saw a system empty so fast you'd think they were all flying interceptors. With the locals on the alert, the morning's fun was over.


Post battle review:

Another fight that did not really stretch the Crusader, although I do have to say that I am loving the increased warp speed and excellent lock time. Being able to virtually insta-lock targets that have no intention of sticking around is very, very nice. And warping to your target before they have time to finish their business is also very useful.


Lessons for the future:

Not much to take away with me here, except perhaps that you can sometimes cover more ground by staying where you are. It irks me that the second hauler got away.