Destroyers - The Shoe Horned Ship CLass

My favorite class of ships in game, I may have mentioned a few times in the past is cruisers. Cruisers contain a balance of DPS, speed and slots for tank or Ewar, Also relatively cheep. Retribution has breathed new life into that class, but there is one ship class I have always wanted to love that I feel is getting more and more boxed in, Destroyers. The out lining problem with destroyers, is that CCP tells you right out they are the ultimate frig killer, which can be damn true, but its like CCP is unconsciously driven to keep them just that. Destroyers in my opinion are the pour mans way of dealing with AFs, who’s extra tank while maintaining agility makes them even better frig killers and they can take on most above class ships as well. Destroyers are by far now the slowest pvp ship class besides battle ships and armor BCs. Cruisers now outpace them, with a little effort, frigs far outpace them, and AFs and BCs can reach close enough speeds that a dessy is likely not to escape. One additional problem is that everyone sees a destroyer, and usually try’s to avoid them with their frigates for dear life, because they know without thinking that you are there to kill them above all others. At least cruisers or AFs could be looking for any ship class, but the destroyers game plan is written all over their face.

Now with CCP Fozzies mission of teiracide, all ship classes are being broken down into specific "roles", but dessys roles are still only anti frigate and gank boat. We even just got handed a new set of four destroyers, but instead of making them fit another role, they made them fill the same role as the old ones, just using different weapon systems. In my opinion while I think the new dessys are fun, is kinda lame. That also brings us to T2 destroyers, CCP may claim they haven't got around to rebalancing the T2 versions yet, but I’m not 100% certain they will, since they seam to be shoehorned into being suicidal 0.0 SC bubblers and usually die in their own bubble. Not to mention costing a whopping 50 mil for about a Merlins EHP, and CCP seam ok with that role. Over all while dessys can shoot at bigger ships and win, and they do have great dps for a frigate sized ship, they are overall under used and lack vision.

A few ways I would try to liven up the destroyer class would be to first introduce roles, make the old Dessys faster with a little less DPs, and make the new ones tankyer with a bonus to some form of Ewar. Give the Algos a bonus to Ewar effectiveness of drones, the Talwar a bonus to web range, so it goes out to about 15kms, the Dragoon newt range out to about 15kms, and the Corax a big bonus to lock time or something. This will make the two roles a little more unique, but not really to far from the direction they where leaning anyway. Next Make the T2 interdictors have FULL T2 resists that their cruiser HAC versions have, one additional low or mid slot, and make their base stats more like that of the current destroyers. Next make a new Class of T2 Dessys based off the new destroyer models that can fit a single Warfair link modual, with a decent tank, Keeping their Ewar bonus, but reducing their damage output. This will Give frig gangs a link ship or two to take out on frig roams, without having to drag along a T3 cloaky cruiser. I think frig, and Dessy gangs deserve their own dedicated fleet command ship, so they can stay mobile and will also be able to survive on grid once CCP Fozzie fixes off grid boosting. Finally I wouldn’t mind a 3rd T1 dessy class similar to Tr3 Battle cruisrs, A dessy class able to fit 2 Medium guns, with low sig, low ehps, and 400% bonus to their weapon system damage, but a reduction in rate of fire, which should still make them mighty fine gank boats, but maybe not too OP. I’m not exactly sure what this class would be needed for, but just imagining a mini dreadnought makes me smile. Make Destroyers good at killign frigs, but dont make it their full tiem job.

EvE Retribution - A stealth Pirate buff?

 Eve retribution has been released, and with very few bugs and or extended down times, I am dully impressed I have to say, eve retribution is shaping up to be one of my favorite expansions yet. "But Beck there are very few new features, just a bunch of rehashing." If that’s what your thinking you fail to see the diamond in the ruff. Here is the list of changes that has positively affected my life as a pirate with Eve retribution, and likely allot of pvpers besides pirates.

1: Gate guns no longer shoot drones! - This means that no longer will drone boats be gathering dust for pirates whom wish to take gate guns. Previously gate guns would all but insta pop your drones leaving drone boats out over half their dps.

2: Gate and station guns are no longer persistent - This means if you take gate guns then warp off and come back to a gate they will no longer hoot at you as long as you don’t commit a crime again. Previously frigates whom GCCed had to stay docked or avoid gates in fear of being insta poped, and even cruisers had a hell of a time. No longer, go kill someone, then continue your roam as soon as your ready!

3: GCC is no longer as it was, if you commit a crime, you just become a suspect which means people can shoot you, (for pirates not much will change there) which means you can go suspect on a high sec gate, de agro and jump trough and no more concordadoken!

4: The tracking camera is by far the most awesome UI feature ever! No more fighting the camera to Dsca, watch where a target warps, or to keep a target in your sights, click on them on the overview and watch as you keep perfect track of their every move!

5: A second line of targets! Ever been an RR/dps domi? r shoot a friendly you where supposed to rep by mistake? Well add friends to the second target lien up and almost never have that problem again! Logis rejoice

6: All the T1 cruiser and frig buffs across the board will make pvping in smaller ships not only more fun, but more affordable while still packing a punch! Some of my new cruisers reach BC dps easy.

7: The targeting icons and item tips are way easier to read and helpful, getting info faster and when the target icons flash brighter red for more damage helps you register threats better.

8: Bounty’s finally make sense and if you get a big enough one on your target can make killing them an even better payoff. Also can be set by corp or alliance heads on local enemy’s to encourage the younger members to go after them

Some negative things

1: The limited engagement timers are only 5 min, which is much shorter than the previous 15 min personally agro timers.

2: Gate guns not shooting your drones means they are shooting your ships more, you used to be able to set out drones to kinda let the gate guns chew trough them so you could tank a bit but no longer, but no more.

3: The camera tracking can bug out some times and make it harder rather than easier to track a target lol

4: That Damn safety button! I hate turning it off every time log in! Hate it!

5: Podding people isn’t worth going old GCC, so we are podding way less.

6: The removable of 1-2/10 DeD plexs has kind of killed allot of the activity in the systems that used to hold them, which is seriously sad.

Over all almost everything in the expansion is a net positive to pirates, and it wasn’t even meant for us.

Now in the Top 10!....thousand

  

  So after Reading Rizzles post about his BC stats I decided to go take a look at mine, TEXN has its own kill board, and Dred uses Eve-kill so I haven't even looked at BC for quite awhile.  What I found when l looked was something I had wanted to happen for a long time, but awhile back stoped caring about. I am as of Oct 22 2012, in the top 10k pvpers on BC. Which no matter how many people whine that BC is not the best kill board, I think its the most used even slightly above EvE-kill. I always wanted to be in the 10k on BC and ahve that little red line track my progress, some meaningless mile stone saying im a decent pvper, especialy since im a pirate and allot of my killes are with less than 5 people. While I think of my self as an acomplished pvper, who had dabbled in solo and large fleet pvp, I wont claim to be a supurb pvper but I enjoy it allot and i fly with some good guys in TEXN and Dred. So Even tho im pretty stoaked about this, just reemmber its not about being the best, its abotu havign fun on the journey. 

     Speaking of awsome pirate pvp, watch Sard Caids Twitch channel, hes been play testing some of the new ship balances on the test server. 

Rep That Breached Bulkhead!

So yesterday Must have been armor rep day because it starts out with Me and Coild taking out a pair of dual rep SFIs along with Kira in a shield Cain down into Great Wildlands in search for some fights. We get down to NDQ where Republic alliance like to hang and try to provoke them into a fight. At first they wouldn't leave their station, which is normal, but then they got a few more people online and they started brining 5-6 guys to the gate and trying to snag us. Luckily we where way faster than them and would pull range, in which they would just jump back into NDQ and wait for us to provoke them again. We pull back to SL- and wait for a couple of people from our alliance to head down and assist us to even out the numbers. Suddenly Coild reports that there is a Domi headed to SL- from NIH and we should tackle it when it jumps into us, which we do. We where hoping to kill the Domi quickly in case he was associated with RA but the good news was that he was alone, the bad news was he was tanking us quite well. We had him tackled a ways off the gate and he didn’t seam to have a prop mod so he decided to agro on me. While not a big deal his bonused Hammerhead IIs actually hurt a bit. He eventually crept back to gate and deagressed, and we started cursing because eh was at half armor still, when bam! his armor and structure melted in 10seconds. We can only assume he fianly caped himself out under pressure from the Cains newts and his constant reping. What we found in the wreak, and on the kill mail was a treasure trove of faction. While not super expensive mods he had about 400mil of faction on him and a good chunk had dropped! woot! Our help arrived right after the Domi died and we made another run at RA but they had rallied some Logi pilots and it was no longer a feasible fight even with +2 on our side. We roamed awhile more and went home after COiled lost his SFI trying to bait some BCs on a gate.

In the middle of the evening Sugar had a planed frig team fight planed with a small carebear corp wanting to try out some pvp so I went over and helped with that. it was a blast and you can read more on her blog, here: Low Sec Life Style

Later I get some intel that a flashy Prophecy is headed trough Egbringer where I live, so I undock my Talos and go hunting for him, following him into the next system, where he held his cloak quite awhile. When he dropped his cloak I did aswell and pointed him, he started moving to gate so I did aswell, but that was just a trap to get me into scram range, which I fell for. Lucky for me the talos was brawling down his thick armor tank faster than he was killing my shield tank. I was actually able to hold the Prophecy and pull damage long enough for a few people to show up and whore on the mail. I’m such a nice guy lol.

A bit later right before I was going to log, Fried told me he had a Cyclone on scan in Ubties and I told him I would head over in my SFI to help him if he needed it. It seams Coilded was also in the area because he jumped into Ubties in his vigilant right when I landed on the gate. Unfortunately the Cyclone had moved on but Coild and Fried had a pair of Myrms on scan and a Executioner. Coild finally got them narrowed down to a belt and warp in on them, landing at range. They gave chase and Friend and I warped in to assist, Friend and I went after one Myrm while Coiled went after the other one 30k away. It took us a bit to break the Myrms triple rep tank but we eventually did, and luckily they Myrm I was on primaried me, and not Fried’s Cain. After killing the first Myrm we burnt over and helped Coiled kill the second, especially since his Vigilant was starting to run low on HP. It was a great loooong fight; Myrms are truly beasts when they only have to tank three ships. GFs where tossed in local and we all went home and logged.

All in all I saw 12 armor reps fitted to ships yesterday, thats 11-12 more than I normaly see, and they say armor tanking is dead.

Time is of the Essence

So yesterday I start the day off by taking one of THCs new members out on a roam in two armor Ruppys. The good thing about armor Ruppys is they have about 40k ehp, which is similar to the tank of a shield BC, so they are able to take on said shield BCs in a pair. They lack some of the DPS but make up for it in speed and small sig. So we roam around a bit, and get a Drake on scan in Aedald, seemingly doing some sites though we never got a good fix on him before he left to Audester. Feeling froggy I giver pursuit, and we spend the next bit chasing him a few jumps back and forth before he finally jumps straight into Kira, my fleet mate and warps to a site beacon in Keno. We warp after him and find him happily ratting like nothing was going on, along with a Jag from his same corp. We tackle the Drake and lay into him, the Jag warping out immediately. (abanda-bro much?) The rats are helping us a bit, and thats good because he has a hell of a thick tank, as most pve Drakes sport. He shoots back at me and actually starts doing very decent damage, likely due to having T2 launchers and not skimping on the BCSs. but we kill him with me only in half armor, and we happily warp off with our loot.

We continue our roam around the loop, when we get a intel report from my notoriously trigger happy corp mate Coiled, that a Nano BC/cruiser gang had tackled a carrier at the sun in Egbringer, and that he had warped in at range and whored on the mail, lol. He asked us if we wanted to form up a fleet to fight the gang, but it was an off time for our alliance so he also went and asked the GP/CI guys in Bosena. He eventually rallied enough troops and they came down the pipe. I had gotten back to Eg and reshipped into a Talos, when I noticed most the gang hanging out on my station, likely enjoying the fruits of their kill and chilling. I report this to our incoming aide and they suggest I draw their fire, but a Talos isn’t very suited for taking hits especially since I would have to GCC on station to get their attention, so I switch to an ASB tempest and undock and GCC on their drake. It takes them a bit but they finally wake up and get the balls to tackle me on station, where I yell for the back up to come in and we where able to kill the majority of them, only losing Space Gals Naga.

(Heres the battle report, tho it has all of them listed on our side for soem reason)

At this time take a nice long break, but when I come back I notice in the CI intel channel that they are all in a buzz about forming up for something, so I jump back on their coms to find out whats going on. It seams that RA had killed a small Hash fleet down in 7Q, in a large armor BS gang with Guardian support, and Deepee was forming a Ahac gang to go down there and try to get a good fight out of them. My Ahac Deimos was unriged atm so I was forced to refit my solo armor stabber into a makeshift Ahac. (Which once fit for it is a great Ahac) I chill in Egbrigner, because our fleet was heading through there on the way to 7Q to take the long way, and maybe get behind the fleet, but our scout in 7Q reported that the RA fleet had entered low sec trough Khabi, so we turn around and head the fastest way to Khabi. We get there just about the same time the RA gang lands back on 7Q gate, and we engage them, taking GCC to promote a fight. Unfortunately their logi reps where too strong for us to break it seemed and it was taking us forever making head way on any tank, yet they never agroed back. They eventually jumped gate, and ran like hell back up to EO2 where they docked up for 30min while we camped their station and we smacked them in local. During this given break in the fighting Deepee got a few anti BS dreads in place in case they came back out in their BS fleet to ensure we could break trough their Guardian reps. Eventually RA undocked, and warped to the 8YC gate where we promptly followed and engaged them again, this time them engaging back. It seams they had spent that 30min refitting half their BSs with newts to cap out our logi, tho it was only working mediocrely. Our cyno gets in place and we jump three dreads in who quickly start blaping BSs, especially since the two FCs where flying duel web Ashimus which where making the primary’s easy pickings for the dreads tracking. The deagress in sight of our dreads and half their BSs and all their Logi escape. We congratulate ourselves on a job well done and cyno the dreads out and go repair in EO2 station. We here just about to leave 0.0 when we get word that the same fleet we had fought was reshipped into a shield fleet with scimi support and was on its way back to fight us, so we turn around and meet them once again on the 8YC gate in EO2, both sides engaging right away. This time RA seamed confidant thinking we no longer had dread support because they cynoed out, but our dread where still on the ready and fuled, so half way trough the fight we dropped the cyno again and dreads came in, but since we didn’t blow our laod so soon this time we where able to get the majority of their fleet to committed to run, only their logi and a few BCs escaping. While it was two separate engagements, since it was in the same spot, against the same people, and the blood hadn’t slowed all the way down from the first fight, it felt like one big fight, and one of the best I have had in awhile. We don’t get many 20v20 fights with logi support in the MH area. We mozzy back to home grinning to ourselves at a job well done.

(The battle report combined of both battles, sadly because it happened in the same system the fights didnt seperate themselves.)

Most the time in the Ahac gang the SFIs where sent around like wild men trying to gettackle or DPS on recons, which was fun but annoyign all at the same time, makes me wish it had more range.

Later on that night some of the THC guys had scanned down an Abaddon and Onerous doing a site in Enner and we ran over to help them catch it. While the Abaddon was easy to catch, his onerous buddy wasn’t. We had no scrams so where where forced to chase him quite a ways in two Cynables, both of us on the verge of caping out when he went down. Turning back around to help finish the Abaddon off.

And then after debating the new crime watch changes for a while I logged bringing a end to a long day of pvp small gang carnage.

Giving out a Thrashing

 

So I have been hanging out with my friends from Drednots allot more of late, i have to work in the mornings more often so have less time to say up late and roam with my corp. Luckily Drednots gets on a bit earlier so I usually have time to hang with them. Drednots live in Uplinger which is apart of a two system low sec pocket that sees allot of noob traffic and even some mid size gangs because uplinger is the closest low sec to Rens, one of the larger market hubs.

So yesterday we had a few interesting fights in Uplinger and neighboring Yishmon. First it starts off with a loanly noob thrasher, I was warping around the belts in system and get a thrasher on scan, so I begin the hunt. He seamed to be warping around the belts and it took me a bit to land in on him in my condor, I immediately tackled him and began to open fire. Unfortunately for him, not only was he out classed in skill, but since he had landed first the belt rats where hitting him fairly good, and due to him not fitting a prop mod as you will see in a moment there was no escape. I convoed him afterward like i normally do to help teach noobs better fits and practices, because I strongly believe in trying to help 

 noobs and keep them in the game. Unfortunate he wasn’t very accepting of my help, and I don’t even think he really understood English to well; regardless he came back 30min later in the same fit and was killed by a member of Dreadnots. 

Next fight we had was Vs a new resident of Uplinger by the name of Valtanax. He mostly sits on the top station and looks threatening but doesn’t do allot, we did kill him previously in the week in a Cain, but today he was playing around on the undock in a cyclone so i undocked a heavy tackler harpy and start bumping him. I fully expected him to engage me on station where my friends from dreadnots would have to GCC on station to help me, but to my surprise he warps to the planet and i warp after him, landing about 20k from him, and we burn toward each other and i het hard tackle on. I call the back up in but the cyclone has some good and bad points to it, one it has 3 med newts, so my cap was so low that only my nos was keeping my point running, couldn’t even shoot my guns, the good news was he had no web and 425 guns so he couldn’t hit me, but his drone’s where. So after secondary tackle got on him I was forced to warp out, but I at least got on thekill and got the hero tackle. Shortly after a Arty wolf came to kill me on a planet and I tried to get tackle on him with my overheated MWD but to no avail he was just slightly to fast for me and I had to warp out but i did get a warp in for my friends even if I didn’t get on the mail.

Finally a bit later one of Dreadnots reports a Ex Terra Ferma fleet sitting on the high sec gate in Yish, so I quickly propose we get into armor BCs especially Brutixs if we have them, and we get two Brutix and my Prophecy together, with a pvp student of mine in an armor thrasher, and of course Chig in a tackler AF as always. (Would ruin his rep if he flew anything else I hear lol) So we send in the thrasher to scout them and he reports they are in there but they jumped to high sec shortly before we where ready to make a move. Since Terra firma had a few POS in Yish they hang there quite often so we are hopeful they will return, and we send our thrasher into high sec to see if they are still around since he hasn’t ruined his sec yet. He reports one in local being a Harb on the low sec gate, so we jump in and warp to the high sec gate thinking of GCCing on the Harb on gate if he decides to jump in. We didn’t want to fight their main gang on a gate with gate guns, but against a single BC it would be easy. To our surprise what jumps in is a Terra Ferma ORCA! (Our scout having reported +1 Terra Ferma but not that an orca was the +1) We shout in glee and proceed to GCC all over the Orcas face, killing it in short order as Terra Ferma comes running back in with their Harb, Ishkur, and Ishtar, but none of them tackling us as we finish off the Orca and warp to a safe. After waiting off our GCC we send our scout back to the gate to check on their fleet which is all back in force swarming around the gate like a bunch of bees. Our scout tried to bait them to a planet but for some reason they weren’t having any of it, but suddenly they burn their frig up to him about 180k off gate and warp the rest of their fleet in on him, him quickly calling for us to come save him. We warp in and immediately primary the Ishtar, while decent tank it was killing our tackler and was the shiniest target on grid. We then switch to the Harbinger, we put our drones on the Ishkur and he seams to have not warped out and went down from the drones, The FC called drake next primary but due to the fact that the Naga was really fucking me up I politely requested it be next primary and it went down fast. We finished up with the drake and looted the field. We only lost our Tackler and my student in his Thrasher, though I did finish in 15% structure. We where all ecstatic over how well the fight went and agreed it was a very even close fight that got our blood singing in our veins, especially my student who said it was one of his most exciting moments in eve.

Remember All you pirates out there, take a protoge out with you today, they are eves future and what not.

Fail Scout

  

     So last night a few corpies and me decided to put up a lazy camp in 9snk like we occasionally do, since it’s a 0.0 entrance rather close to our home system. 9snk is in Great Wildlands, which is a really useless and quiet 0.0 with a almost non existent population. Most the people that live there, live in E02 which has another entrance close to Rens trough Kabi, and that entrance is allot more likely to be camped. Because of our entrances low traffic level, I make a verbal comment in coms about how we likely wont catch anything besides some frigs, and if we are lucky a ratting BC. 

     Well I volunteer to bring my Heretic as our bubbler, because no one else had a dictor or Hictor, and while I have a broadsword I have been advised against using it till i have Hictor 5. WonderPets brings a Cynable and CW brings a tackling Hawk. I head into Bvip and go to a off grid pounce above 9snk, waiting for the rest of fleet to catch up, Pets jumping in and deciding to kill a rat on the low sec gate. We get a +1 in local and Pets says it wisent from low sec, so i hit my Dscan toward the 9snk gate and get a Manticore on scan, deciding to warp down to the gate in case he has some friends coming behind him. After waiting a moment i decide to jump on into 9snk and have a look see, as soon as grid loads i see a orca land on gate and jump into bvip! I immediately start yelling on coms for pets and anyone who can get here to get on the 9snk gate in bvip because an Orca just jumped in. Pets warps as I reproach the gate and jump back into Bvip, my grid loads on the other side just to hear pets claim he saw the orca cloak as he landed, so I bubble up and we start orbiting the gate at various ranges passing drones back and forth, eventually CW in his Hawk shows up and Doug in a drake. We orbit the gate trying to declaok the Orca for almost 10min starting to wonder why he didn't declaok yet, Orcas arnt small. We notice that the Manticore who jumped in shortly before the Orca is in the same corp and we wonder if he may have been able to web the orca into speed warping to a safe and Pets just thought it cloaked because it disappeared so soon, Pets insisted it hadn't so we keep looking when another 5 min later it finally declaoked 7 k off gate, WTF?! We get tackle and being an orca with a scram and 23 webs on him he couldn’t make it the last few k to the gate and we eat him alive. The Orca pilot was nice enough to offer us 200mil to let him go, be we politely declined. I bubbled up to catch the orcas pod about the time the Orcas Manticore friend decloaks to try and shoot us or maybe the wreak and he gets vollyed. A moment later while we are looting and slapping each other on the back, a legion lands 15k off gate on the edge of the bubble I put up for the Orca. He emidiately cloaks but i have a good bead on him and decloak him easy, everyone grabbing tackle, unfortunately he’s AB fit and its obvious he’s going to make the gate so a few of us start to de agress, but to our surprise the Legion points and shoots me, moments before getting to the gate, aggressing him. His first shot took me to half shields but after that I was able to get under his guns and he died in a fire. After shaking off our shock we go repair our ships and mods and resume our gate camp, easily killing a falcon and later a Myrmidon who put up one hell of a fight and almost killed Pets Cynable. We also had a zealot jump into our camp but he was also AB fit and got back to gate in structure and escaped.

     But seriously, that manticore scout did a piss pour job, I relies I wasn’t on the gate when he came in, but he should have saw me on scan, and maybe could have assumed I was on my way to the gate, telling his Orca buddy to wait up till I left or something. Also that Legion is one of the first PVE fit T3s that wasn’t covert ops fit nor interdiction nullified, I’m sure he will fit different next time. I also got quoted how we wouldn't get much trafic in 9snk and how i ended up being dead wrong all night.

Adequate Tackle

  

  So a few months back when the price increase was in full bloom, and fleets in eve where moving more and more away from armor fleets, our long 4 hour roams started switching to mainly just Cains and drakes, with a few slightly more expensive ships like Cynables and Slepnirs tossed in. This was all and good because we had enough dps to kill most things, But with more and more people using the New Tr3 Battlecruisers, more people having loki links every damn where, and the lack of hard tackle on shield BCs, we where having more trouble catching targets then killing them. I have suggested equipping half our BCs with light webbing drones, while it wont slow someone down a ton, they are fast, go out to 50k, and are not usually expected till they slow them enough for us to get some newts and scrams on. We haven’t implemented this ploy yet, but instead, of late a few others and I have been flying more tackle-orientated ships, me personally having a Lachesus and a Huggin at my disposal.

     So Last night we formed a fleet up, I brought my Huginn, we also had two interceptors, a light dicter, aswell as a Cynable for fast tackle. Still would have been nice to have to have a Lach or a Curse with us, but it was a bit more tackle than we normally have, not to mention we had a Slepnir with a interdiction warfare link in, so our tackle range was extended. So the FC plotted a rout in and out trough low sec and 0.0 and we started speeding down the pipe. Not seeing much of anyone till we pop out of Etherium reach and catch a terrible fit Cain on a gate in low sec. We then start burning up the pipe to BWF-ZZ sending a few tacklers in who spotted a Vaga 200k off gate, they shook their sexy squishy asses at the Vaga and got him t warp down to the gate and engage, Sug in a Cain able to apply newts to make sure it wasn’t getting away as the rest of the fleet jumped in and killed it. We then bounced around system trying to see if any of the inhabitants where active or we could catch any of their traffic. While sitting on a gate we had a tengu warp in at 150 and slowly start burning toward us, when it got to about 70k the FC sent our interceptors up to tackle it, also sending me up with m webs that could reach out to 60k. We where able to capture him and kill him with relative ease. (why he thought burning in to play with us was a good idea, who knows) The interceptors got most the credit, but I think my Huginn was the real star of catching him since he was 100mn afterburner fit and no scram was going to stop him from burning off our fleet for ever.

    Wee then turn around and head back into low sec over to Messoya, where we had a Drake and a Myrm jump into us, and once again the huggin stopped them both from getting back to the gate by cycling my webs between them. We had a 2^nd drake jump into us but he had a cloak fit and was able to pull off the cloak aline trick and get away. While we where waiting off our GCC our interceptor pilot who didn’t go GCC stayed on the gate when the cloaky drake came back, our interceptor jumping with it into the next system, and since the drake was a -5 pilot he was able to get a point on him before he could cloak, holding him for us to jump in and kill him. We then roamed down to the BRT entrance of great wildlands and down and toward 7Q-BZ, but not seeing anything till we got into 7Q- where we found a Slepnir and T3 cruiser gang sitting on the Khabi gate. We tried to engage them, but they ran from us and we lost them when they jumped into high sec where we couldn’t follow. At this point we decide to head home when we have an armor kitchen sink gang land on us in Aedald, in a Navy Geddon, Mega, Naga, Myrm, Ashimu, Curse, and a Onerious. They where able to get us split on a gate when we killed their Naga, the rest jumping trough and the ones in our fleet not aggressed jumped trough and where able to snag their Myrm and the Navy Geddon. We gave chase after the rest of the fleet but they where able to dock up and slip away after we lost interest in them.

 Moral of the story is, adequate tackle gets you more kills than all the dps in the world (unless your in a alpha nado fleet lol)

Clearly Out Classed

There are times when you jump into a gate camp and you get that sinking feeling when you know your going to die, but being outclassed in that sense is more in the, you just got blobed or raped moment. Out classed in a more conventional sense is when two fleets land and you have a feeling that you can win this, even if it will be hard, then part way trough you realise your not going to win, not because they have more number, but they just have superior tactics, links, ships, and fits, your just simply outclassed.

Well Last night  we went out on a roam in a standard mix of shield BCs, packing a few more cyclones than normal because we decided to forgo a logi. We make our way slowly up past Bosena and then down toward Skarkon, chilling on the Skarkon gate in Enner, waiting to see if our scout could find anyone, when we got a report that a Zealot was jumping into us. We attempted to catch it on the Enner side but he was shield nano fit and made it back to gate in an instant, the other half our gang trying on the other side but he burned out of point range too quickly. So we warp our fleet to the planet he had headed too, not finding him there, so we wait a moment to cool off our GCCs and get everyone together. Suddenly a stiletto lands near us, moving in and orbiting us, none of us really able to hit him, tho we wernt that concerned till the Zealot lands 30k from us. We started burning toward the Zealot but it had already started to burn away, moments later a Tr3 BC group lands near the Zealot and the fight was on. Unfortunately the stiletto kept switching its scrams between our ships, which while not stopping us long, had us seriously slowed down. The Tr3 obviously had loki links because they where far quicker and longer point range than normal and they where destroying us quickly with their high Dps. I was able to get a scram on a Tornado for a second, and while it didn't hold him long it slowed him enough for us to kill him even tho he got out of scram range. I went down shortly after that and a few of our remaining ships warped out, us all going back to Heg to lick our wounds.

We all quickly switched into heavy missiles drakes and a logi, and a token nano tempest to go back to Skarkon and give them what for. but by the time we got back they where long gone. With a shrug we continue our roam trough Metropolis, into the forge and out to Akora, where we ran into a pirate red flashy BC gang, jumping trough a gate into us, we where able to snag one slow armor cain, bringing it down. When a  Gypsy band Tengu gang with a cynable, curse, link loki and a cynable land on the gate with us, we try to give them a fight but they where able to just stay at range and where taking little to no damage. While they where unable to really keep us held down they did manage to kill one of us while we de-agroed and jumped trough the gate. We then had a running fight trough five systems trying to get away from them. but their thick tanks, fast ships and good fast tackle locks kept us from making much progress in getting away. they finally where able to newt out one of our drakes off a gate and kill him, agressing them Long enough for the fleet to finally get away. Our FC was extremely distort over this running fight because we where unable to fight them but he didn't want to leave anyone behind to get the fleet get away, even tho it ended up happening regardless. We where simply out classed for a second time, but at least we didn't lose the entire fleet.

 

Once again we drag out feet back to Hegfunden and decide to set up a camp and send a few scouts our around MH to look for targets. After awhile we get a report of an Ivy leage gang headed tward hield from egbringer caught our attention. we where in mostly Shield BCs but with 2 armor BS tossed in, and me in a logi to keep the shield BCs alive under gate guns. Maraner jumps into the Ivy gang and GCCs on them, getting all their agro and the rest of us jump in. Ivy had 1 drake, 2 cruisers, and a bunch of dessys and frigs, with plenty of ewar. Their Ewar was called primary and I put reps on our domi immediately because he was taking damage fast. unfortunately i was a shield logi repping a armor BS, with 15 people on him and gate guns, so my reps where only delaying the inevitable. Our only hope was to take them off the field to save the domi. it was a long fight with Maraner cursing at me in all manner of fasions, me over heating my reps on him till they where almost burnt out. tossing a rep or two at our Orical in gang, when it got to low shields at one point. Finally we killed the last of them and Maraner was saved in 10% structure. We went home after looting, feeling a bit better about the night.

Yeah killing eve uni is like kicking puppys, but we have always enjoyed killing them, nad it doesn't stop them from coming back for more. Tho if you have some time you should check out the comments on their kill board. they are sooo full of lies and crap, half the comments never happened, and are just there to make their losses or kills sound more impressive. here ill quote one from last nights battle.

LSC formed an introduction fleet from Aldrat. I donated my Drake to the class. We attempted to tackle a fleet in Heild, almost broke the BS tank before my tank finally gave in. I was the largest ship in fleet, in a Drake BC, newb pilots from Aldrat. We had this BS into 10% structure and he had ECM and 3x Logi keeping him up. I was laughing the entire time. Great job guys.

Yeah.... we had one logi, me, and I was only slowing the damage defiantly not saving him. and we had absolutely no ECM. tho I'm glad he had fun. Oh and while i got on 1-2 kills, being the logi meant I was to busy trying to stayed de-agroed and watching peoples health bars to whore on to many.

Rage Reloaded, Rage Quit?

    So about a week ago a Alliance called "Rage Reloaded" moved into our home system of Hegfunden, they where mostly EU time zone so we never really ran into them much accept the few of us that do some marketing and such in the morning. Well some of our leadership talked to them and told they while we enjoyed neighbors, we didn't put up with anyone making their home in our system. A couple days after that they erected a large POS in our system and we immediately made plans to take it down. We waited a few days so when we put it into reinforced it would come out on the weekend. While chasing them out of our space was one goal, we figured that when the POS came out of reinforced it would possibly give us a good fight as POS bashes have done in the past, on both the agressing and defending sides. So on Thursday night we dropped a handful of dread on the POS, along with a pair of carriers and a few BSs to help defend the dreads. the POS had hardeners and guns and some ecm but we where able to reinforce it in a relitively short time frame. Unfortunately one of their CEOs logged on and came to the POS, seeing our fleet and doing a bit pf POS gunning. Once the POS was reinforced the stront timer had it coming out in 1-D 16-H, so we set a CTA and went to bed.

    Well this morning a good many hours before the POS was to come ot of reinforced, one of our alliance mates when to go check on the tower ... and found nothing. confused he reported it in chat and a few of use double checked our bookmarks and the moons on the planet looking for the POS. After abotu 20min of looking we decided it was completely gone, we did alittle research and found out that Rage Reloaded alliance and the corps where all disbanded and no longer existed. So the only explanation we could come up with is that if there was no corp in control of the POS that the POS just simply disappeared out of existence at downtime with the corp. This kinda pissed us off aswell as confused us because we had never heard of this exploit before, nor did we know why someone would do it just to save themselves a POS loss mail. So it seams Rage Reloaded, rage Quit. Anyways our CEO sent in a petition and we shrugged our shoulders and went and broke up a bubble camp in BVIP, killing a pair of SFI first and second

Taking down a giant

Im not the biggest frig pilot out there, I appreciate their style of pvp, but i just not a huge fan of their crunchy small hp. My pirate friends mentioned in previous blogs, especially Orewell love to small gang pvp in frings though so i have been joining them allot of late. So today I grab my trusty Sentinel, since its a great fleet support ship for frig gangs, and head up to Heild to hang out with them. We had previously in the evening tangoed with an AF pair,  Burzrujat, and Pinkameana Diane-Pie. We killed Burs wolf, then took a break for awhile, when I undocked this time in my Sentinel we went poking around the same area, but with little juck on targets. Chig went into Hrobar and saw that pinkamena was out in her Retribution again, after looking around for a bit he got a tempest on scan, and with Bur being one of the only others in local assumed it was him. Ore and I got ready on Hro gate while Chig hunted the Ret down, tacking it off a planet. Ore and I jump in and warp to Chig, who reports that the tempest has landed and it is Burz, i was instructed to go after the ret with my newts and TDs while the others went after the tempest and got tight orbits. We take out the ret quickly, followed by the tempests drones, myself picking up  a tight orbit around the tempest as well, TDing him and token newting him, while i let my drones do most the work. He cycled his heavy newts between the 3 of us, but with me cap boosted and three of us and only 2 heavy newts we never lost point. He was taking forever to go down with our combined dps of 300, but Chig convoed him and was keepign him occupied so he wouldn't think of self destructing on us, we had a few BSs do that to us in the past. finally we break his shield buffer and nibble trough his remaining hp and are rewarded with a well earned kill and alittle loot. While frig warfare isn't my fav, its fights liek those that really get your blood pumping, taking down a ship many times your size with a handful of frigs.

Capital Punishment in ATX breife overview

 CCP Soundrave listen to this while reading lol

Ever Since I joined eve and saw the EvE Alliance tournament 6 I wanted to participate in the AT some day. I have in my Corp history been in a few alliances that could have or did participate in the AT, but not while i was in them, and at my skill lvl I would have not been chosen to fly anyway. I have been flying with CP off and on for close to two years, and while being a small fun alaince they have always had their sights on having fun in the AT and making a name for pirates everywhere. They had participated in a few previous ATs, #6or7 and #9. Doing ok in the far past one, but getting rickrolled last year in the prelims. (I was off on my honeymoon so didnt get to participate or even watch live)

So this year we are just as enthused about getting in, got our spot trough the auction at a very reasonable price to ensure our entrance, and started makign plans. We practiced allot of 6v6 fleet ideas and waited for the tournament to come. 

    

     Our first Match was against Suddenly Spaceships. Likewise low/0.0 pirates, but with past AT torny experience in other alliances. We brought In a close to standard Talos brawler set up, but where simply out brawled by SSs terifying Vindi dps.

Match 1

The Vindis+Kronos 90% web ends up being a great set up that won the marjority of matches. The one thig we could have done differently is to load Null into all our Talos and wear a few of their ships down at range. Maybe kill a few smaller ships, giving us more points to make it into the 3rd round easyer.

    Our Second Match was against Veyr Colective. I know little about them but I assume they just wanted to have some fun in the AT, alittle liek us but way less experianced in ship fittings. We end up bringing a Cyclone/AF brawler setup that is way under points so we can even have a chance of getting into the 3rd round. To our luck Veyr brought all 50pts in a Vargur/AF setup, not even tryign to get to round 3, givign us full points if we defeated them. 

Match 2

It ends up the Veyr Collectives Vargurs where subpar fit and we where able to get a flawless victory over them, not lossign a single ship, getting us enough points to get into the 3rd round, about 3 above the cut off. (We where acused of payign Veyr off to throw the match but as we pointed out, why would they bring 2 expensive marauders to justt throw a match, BCs would ahve dose it just as well.)

    Our third match, or the first match of the group stages, was against Verge of Colapse. (the alaince winner in the end mind you) I also know little about Verge but know they had done well so far in tory and have a decent rep. So we feild a Slep/Cyclone/merlin set up including 1 Macharial, which in retrospect looks allot like our normal roaming gangs. I actualy got to participate in this fight, my dream finaly come true, even tho i was in a merlin lol. Verge brought a HAM-tengu/AF set up.

Match 3

We end up having a very decisive victory vs verge even tho 95% of people in eve voted against us for the win. In my opinion I think their battle plan was poor against us, and our AFs where able to wolf gang against their frigs and take them down unaposed, while Verge was focused on our first Slep. only losign it and one frig. (Once again we where slighty acused of dirty dealings but thats just laughable considerign we were the ONLY team to deafeat Verge in the AT)

    Our forth match was against FEARLESS. We where extreamly determined to win this match so we could get into the semi finals, so we brought our Flag ship in a high dps armor set up, FEARLESS bringing dule vindis in a similar armor set up.

Match 4

We may have had a Flagship, but their fleet was just better well rounded with way more dps, and they defeated us with ease.

    Our fifth and final match was against Goonswarm. We had to win against Goonswarm and then pray that FARLESS beat Verge for us to go onto the Semi finals, but we where confident and hopeful. I once again participated in this round flying a Harpy, in our Slep/AF fleet. Goon brought a high ECM team with a couple Sleps tossed in to get some dps.

Match 5

Goon swarms ECm ended up being to effective and most of us reported after never getting a single lock. But, bringing a ECM set up in the critical part of the AT was more of a stupid dick move than a winning set up, because we where able to keep a few of our ships alliance and deny them full points because of their terrible tackling and dps power. Goons even offered us 5bil to suicide our ships, which we refused. So in my opinion Goons knocked themselves out of the torny simply by not bringing a set up that could actually win with full points like they needed.

Over all We where of course extremely disappointed to be out of the AT, especially to Goons in an ECM team, but we got much farther this year than previous ones, and we will be back next year. I got to participate in an AT and have fun with my alliance and that’s all that matters to me. Also I hope it haunts Verge and everyone else that the underdogs of CP where the only ones able to defeat them. 

If you have any questions or comments about us and or the AT feel free to ask, also we have reopened recruitment lol

"Notice: The player you are trying to invite to fleet is trying to kill you"

So yesterday, I was out roaming with some corp mates when we hear that there is a small BC gang of about 3-4 people passing trough low sec. We call out that we would head that way, and our corp mate whom found them decided to fight them in his thorax, hurting one of them good from what he said but dying in a sexy ball of fire. So we meet up with a few more corp mates and sent a proby into the last system they where reported safed up with GCC, to see if they can find the gang. He yells out that he had scanned out a drake in a mission so we decide to go in and try to kill him. I was in my trusty SFI, Cur was in a Nado, and Wolfman was in a Loki and his proby tengu alt, Wolf heads on in and I land shortly after going in trough the acell gate aswell. Cur lands a bit later and yells that a cain had landed next to him nad pointed him before he could get trough the acell gate, so I head back to the mission entrance to try and save him, landing in time to scram the cain but not in time to save Cur. At this point Wolfman had engaged the rest of the cains fleet that had gone on into the mission, so I go back in to help him out. I help him finish off a Harb, chase down a thorax, kill a kitsune, and a drake, Wolfmans loki being in 60% armor. While this sounds like a fairly nice victory on our part, only losing a Nado, unfortunately the pirate gang we had killed where acquaintances of mine. Not of my corps, just friends I hang with occasionally in my alliances quiet time. There where no hard feelings fortunately and gfs where said to be had by all them. I was actually told they tried to invite me to their fleet when I landed on grid, then where confused when I stated shooting them lol.

I really love my stabber Fleet Issue, ill have to do an article highlight for it later.

Today I fleeted up with one of “high rollers” the pirate friends I killed last night (good to know there was defiantly no hard feelings) and we went out on a long roam. Low sec was dead as hell, but as I was waiting on a gate I had a “Take it Deep" gang land on me and force me through the gate, where on the other side their Lachesis tackled me with a faction scram and web, I made a few runs for the gate but I was mostly dead in the water. Luckily I was in a XL-ASB cyclone and was comfortably tanking them till I decided I wasn’t going to get away, and laid into the Lach, which was already under a bit of pressure from the gate guns, Killing him moments before I died myself. It ends up his faction fit Lach was 3-4x as expensive as my Cyclone, so I came out happy about the whole thing. I fitted up another cyclone and went and helped my friend kill a Jag. (More like whored on the jag kill, but hay he whored on the Lach lol.)

340mil latch for a Cyclone, that’s dying in style bitches, and for my blogs name it’s a really hard task to do.

(Farming FW) Space old Macdonald must be rich

So being a space pirate, I make a continues effort not to get involved in any of the big politics and happenings in eve, and try not to jump on bandwagons, unless of course its something I helped develop. (like the incursion massacre of winter 2011-2012) but soon after Inferno I heard that there was something “majorly” wrong with the new faction warfair system. At first I heard that people where flooding FW because it was fun again, but I soon found out, while it was way more popular and there was allot more pvp to be had. It wasn’t because of “fun” new mechanics, its because the capture sites where a joke and could be done in a 3 week old alt in a frig, even the large sites. While this was still mostly forums talk and most people I knew had heard nothing about it, I decided to make an alt and join FW for the hell of it. I figured I would put these rumors to the test and if they where true make me a pretty penny while at it(being a low sec pirate doesn’t net me much of an income) and if they proved false, I could try some of the pvp.

I’m happy to inform you all that the rumors are true. I was able to make 800,000 lp in 3 days time and cash it in at T4 victory level control LP store prices, earning me about 1-bil after selling all the goods, and that doesn’t include the 100 navy Hookbills I sold for 5 mil a pop to friends, and the items I kept for my own personal use. In a week I am easily able to earn a few million LP and still get on my main for some pvp.

Lets make one thing clear, I am 100% behind the fact that CCP needs to fix this problem. And will not lose any sleep when they do and I sell my alt. But until then I think ill save for a few capital ships with this easy income.

Now on to how it’s done!

• First get any frig, almost any at all, T1, T2, faction, doesn’t matter. It needs to have an after burner, a cap stable rep, and alittle buffer and/or resists against the rats. I also like having a few nanos on mine for avoiding pirates and camps.
• Second, go into an enemy controlled system and hit your system scanner, a list of sites will appear after it’s done. These are separated into 4 types, Minors, Mids, Majors, and Major unlimited. Minors are usually worth 10k LP, Mids 15k lp, Majors 25k lp, and Major unlimited 30k lp. The amount of LP can be higher based off your militas victory level, and if the site is a more advanced of that size. The smallest are called outposts, the largest of each size are called strongholds, and there are 3-4 sizes between the two.
• Third, warp to a site and you will land on an acceleration gate that will take you into the site, except major unlimited sites don’t have an acell gate. Go trough the gate and then burn to the capture point. Orbit Minors at about 7k, mids at 15k, and majors at 25k to capture them. Your rep and sig tanking will allow you to tank the site usually with no problem. Tho in the minor sites they hit you decently so you may have to pull range once or twice to top your tank off. It’s that simple, just rinse and repeat.
• Lastly anyone can warp to the sites, even pirates, and especially enemy malita pilots. Thanks to CCP its almost impossible to get caught in a site tho, just have your Dscan range set to very close and watch it closely, usually anything that comes on scan is after you, but that doesn’t mean you have to run yet, because when you or they come trough the acell gate, they land about 70k from the capture point, which means you usually have more than enough time to warp out before they get to you. I don’t recommend pvping with an entire sites agro, and a pve fit, but some people do. I prefer to just go to the next system, do a site and by the time you come back the enemy is almost always gone.

So now that you know how easy it is, it’s up to you if you make an alt of your own, or use this info to rage on the forums and help change it. I suggest both, but that’s just me.