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.

The Pirates life for me

So people all over eve that I have talked to, and especialy posts on the forums are convinced by the myth that lowsec pvp is dead and not really fun, or not “real pvp”.

So I will explain why I will be a pirate in eve till the day ccp runs low sec into the ground completely.

The open Sea

The number one main benefit to being a pirate is the freedom. Pirates fly what they want and can find a use for most ships in the game, from R1fta who are masters of frig and dessy low sec combat, to the normal roaming small BC gangs, to solo BSs and command ships, kitchen sink gangs, Blopsing, and carrier station games. I also may have corp management who set guidelines for me, but they are generally happy as long as I’m active and killing stuff. They don’t care if I take a gang off into a wormhole, piss in their cheerios, piss off every major alliance in 0.0, or if I carebear it up doing sites, or if I have a family diner and cant make a roam.

The customers

I’m in easy reach of high sec for miner ganks and supplies from trade hubs if I’m desperate, I’m around the corner from 0.0 entrances which tend to be great places to get pvp, and finally all the other pirates, high sec people looking for quick pvp, and 0.0 people who cant find pvp in the over inteled channels of 0.0, all somehow meet in the middle which is low sec.

The eye in the sky

Gate guns and lack of bubbles makes gate camps rare, though defiantly not nonexistent. You can usually get back to gate when jumping into a gang, since insta scram frigs wont risk getting killed by gate guns. This also lets slightly smaller fleets engage slightly larger fleets since gate guns love to one shot people who GCCed drones, and can easily wreck a ship if your lucky enough that they are also shooting your primary.

The calm Waters

While low sec can be very dead from time to time, it also can be very busy, but some times I like roaming low sec and knowing I am on of the few that call it home, that finds its freakish mix of mechanics and people appealing, and no one will bother me unless I bother them first. You make your own fun where you find it, and if you die, you died doing what you wanted, not for because you where told to save a moon you care nothing for.

The feeling

You are masterless vagabond, doing good and evil as you see fit, riding the adrenalin rush of solo and small gang pvp where you know your every choice matters, and your wingmen know your ability and trust in it. And we all enjoy those feelings at some level. I’m most certainly not saying everyone should move to low sec, or that everyone would like the pirate lifestyle, but to many turn their nose up to it before seeing the jem under the dirt.

In a nutshell, low sec keeps it simple, and simple lests you enjoy the most out of your game

Fly dangerous my friends

“Red till your purple”

Living as a pirate in Molden Heath for as long as I have, you tend to know all the normal faces in the area and know what they may be flying and or doing. Because you know who should be there, its easy to pick up on who’s not, and if your new guests are to big for you to handle its not out of bounds to ask some of your local enemy’s for help, because even though they love to kill you, most pirates like a new challenge more than killing the same people over and over. Of course just because a group in the area is in the same profession, it doesn’t mean they have the same professionalism. I know plenty of pirate groups that will lie like a dog to get an ibis kill, because it makes them feel like real men. I know better than some that lying is a HUGE part of EvE, but some times its just uncalled for, while exceptions may vary I think you all can think of at least one time it more than just your ship that the other guys lied or tricked you, not because you’re a soft baby, but because you thought better of them.

So I operate under the strict rule of “red till you’ve turned purple.” Which means, don’t trust anyone until they’re in fleet with you. While your far from safe even then, the majority of pirates I know wont even get in fleet with you unless their serious about flying along side you. I realize this isn’t how it is for everyone, but I find I is true the majority of the time for low sec community’s, and even if they don’t relies the rule exists they operate under it unconsciously.

I fly with Gunpoint Diplomacy in fleet all the time, but I know if I were sitting next to them out of fleet, they would shoot me without another thought.