Surprise! those Drifters where fire ants

I find that the easiest way to win in warfare is to surprise your opponent. This was true back when I played the 40k tabletop game, and this is defiantly true in eve. In 40k it was a bit easier by taking a unit and having them do something completely out of character to their skills, in eve it is far harder to pull off. People in eve are far more suspicious especially if you have been around the block a few times, if you are acting odd or stupid, and your not less than 2 months old, most people assume your bait. A popular way to surprise people is the evil hot drop, while extremely surprising I never really thought it was fair, it would take almost imposable amounts of intel gathering to know if a Cain in a belt is cyno fit, with a gang on the other side. Many more fair or reasonable ways to surprise people have been used and can be effective, such as out of character ship fits, or gangs hiding on the other side of a wormhole instead of a gate.

So the other day I was roaming around with a friend and jump trough a gate as forward scout in my nano cain, when grid loads I see a BC, like 4-5 T1 cruisers, and 1-2 frigs on gate. At this time I was not GCC nor was I -5 or lower, so they could not shoot at me without taking GCC themselves. This I sillily assumed they wouldn’t do since T1 cruisers and frigates don’t hold up to gate guns well. So I burn back to gate at 0 to see what they where up to, when suddenly I’m scrammed and webbed by almost ALL of them! The shear suicidal maneuver knocked me off balance and made me make a stupid move, I shot back instead of jumping trough the gate, then promptly called my friend to jump in to help when I saw myself melting like butter. I was able to take down a Rupture, Brutix, and rifter with my friends help before going down myself. Unfortunately gate guns killed a few cruisers before we could even whore on the mails, and the rest warped off.

I wasn’t mad at all, actually I thought it was the most hilarious thing I had seen in awhile, an entire fleet dying just to kill me. I talked to them afterword and they said they where finishing up there long roam and wanted to go out with a bang. I have to respect that; especially considering I was just finishing up an hour roam with no kills myself at the time. Hopefully ill see them again some time.

Cant cure stupid, or my addiction to eve

 

So late last night I see a call for help to take down a Freighter afk 15km off a gate that would lead to high sec, traveling 0ms. I jump in my Tornado, knowing I would bring a good amount of freighter busting DPS, while begin fast enough to get away of shit hit the fan, and it was a trap. Most people where extremely sceptical that it was a trap but a few of us went out regardless and fought said freighter, off gate not moving. So with cautious glee we proceed to dismantle it, watching local for the trap to spring. it got into 30% structure and not a peep from local so I over heat and watch as a giant piggy bank break open in front of me. Sadly it wasn't the richest piggy bank, but I did snag a pair of night stalker goggles before having to warp off before the gate guns got a chance to pop me.

Unfortunately while the Pirate intel channel if for joint pirate ops consisting of people that normally would be killing eachother, accidents do accrue. Darkstar pointed me right after the freighter went down thinking i was not apart of the joint op, so i had to unfortunately kill him to save my own ship. because of this miss understanding and because Darkstar was the one to find the frighter he got the majority of the loot as compensation, and I also sent him some isk. Sorry bro, but I didn't want to lose my ship either.

In other news I started a corp for me and a few of my friends to fly in while in low sec since I was tired of being in an NPC corp. Its called "Plausible Deniability." 

Ask And you Shale Recive

Battle #1

So I was roaming around Molden Heath in my shit fit solo tempest, when I see a call to arms broadcasted in the pirate intel channel. It seams DeePee had laid eyes on a Choke Point nano gang coming up the pipe and he was trying to get a fleet together to trounce them asap. Well I was right next door so I “x” up and head over in the ship I have and wait on the gate they where headed for. I was quickly joined by a few more of Gunpoint and others, and I volunteered to jump in and be bait. Well I jump in to see their gang sitting at zero on the gate I just came trough. I start to burn back to gate, and they start aligning off, I report this and I was told to grab something, So I point a Tornado, so they all burn back to gate and jump trough into my friends waiting arms and the fight began. After waiting off my agro counter I jump in as well and join the battle, missing out on the first Cynabal kill, but soon getting on the next. This was quickly followed by a Diemost, a Drake, the tornado, and finally a Myrmidon. All our side lost was a Brutix, and an unfortunate Cynabal who got held down long enough for gate guns to kill him.

Battle #2

This may be the second battle, but its more of a battle that leads up to battle #3. There was a drake sitting on a gate in low sec I passed trough, looking all aggressive and baity, but  was in a good mood from the last fight so I ask one of my friends in “Gunpoint” to back me up if things went sour. Hes says yes and I aggress the Drake in my solo armor tempest (which biggest resist hole is sadly kinetic) and take gate guns and now his return scram, web, and HAM fire... oh dear. I'm holding up badly and I call for my friends back up and he warps in, in his Geddon and we take him down seconds before his alt in a falcon shows up. I immediately warp out in structure, but My friend stays for a moment to loot the field I think just as another unrelated drake jumps in. It proceeds to shoot him forcing him to jump trough the gate into the arms of another nano shield gang where he is quickly pointed and unfortunatly killed.

Battle #3

So after getting killed my friend rouses up the “Gunpoint” guys and wants revenge, so we all go out quickly in a kitchen sink fleet and find them right where we left them, but about 50km off gate in 3 Drakes and a Cain. Regardless we engage, and start burning for them, they spread out and we tackle what we can, killing two of their Drakes, while the other Drake and Cain getting out in a hurry. So we warp back to our station to rep up and enjoy the revenge we had, when we see a lone drake on the undock AFK, so we bump him off station and gank him in seconds which made us laugh all the harder.

Battle #4

After licking our wounds and waiting of our GCC, I say casually in coms that it would be nice if another gang would come wandering along for us to also kick in the teeth today. Low and behold 5 min later a report of a “Take it deep” fleet of 2 Domis and a Typhoon where headed our way, so we all jump out in mostly DPS ships and warp to intercept them, which we manage in the next system, tackling them, and luckily they decide to stay and fight. We quickly take down their active tank drone boats, starting with the both the Domis and finishing off with the Phoon. They then cried in local that we blobed them, and while I admit we had a superior force, 6 on 3 isn’t really a blob. Regardless it was a great end to one of the best small gang pvp days I have had in a long while.

Side Note:

In other news, one of my favorite eve blogs “Flight of dragons” ended recently, the writer is having RL issues and has left eve for the foreseeable future. I offer up a exotic dancer and a beer to his memory of badass blogging and piracy.

 PS: 

 I know very well I'm hardly a good writer, i just tell things roughly as I see it, but I would defiantly not mind if anyone wants to tell me ways i could improve my blog. such as maybe going in more detail on how I'm maneuvering around the fight, or a after thought on how it could have gone better for me or my opponents.

The Escalator of Death

(An escalator of death is the term I use in EvE for when you are fighting a larger group of opponents but they are warping into the battle sporadically. So you only really have to fight 1-2 at a time, and all their dps cant come to bear. Where if they where all on the field at once they would make short work of you.)

I found out that my good friend Dark Threat had returned to EvE awhile ago, and since neither of us had each other in contacts, neither of us knew the other was on to say hi. (I blame Dark, he left my old friend chat channel.) I saw him chatting in high sec local a few days ago and convoed him, and we got caught up one what each of us had been up to. I then invited him down to low sec to pirate with me and we have had a bit of success in the last few days.

The first roam we went out together, we both went out in stabber fleet issues, one of my favorite ships to pvp in. To start our roam I decided to check the static frig plex in Heild where many solo or small gang pirates in the area like to fight. After flying around the system a bit, we determined that ‘Black rebel rifter club’ was warping in and out of the plex with some rifters, so we warp to it in our fleet stabbers to find nothing. We figured they had warped out at seeing us on scan, so we decide to sit there for a moment and see if they came back. After a minuet or so, a rifter warps in on us and I zap it in a second, it was closely followed by a shield rupture warping in at 0, where it found our armor ships with scrams and webs far outmatching it. When I went back out a hour or so later to try it again solo, my own friends in ‘Gun Point’ where there, this time with a bit more than I could handle, but at least I took one down with me. (My friends in Gun Point are as likely to shoot me as anyone else when I’m not on a roam with them)

Yesterday Dark and I tried the same thing again, in a cain and a wolf this time since I had yet to replace my Fleet stabber. I warped to a celestial near the frig plex and told Dark to warp to me then the plex, but he instead warps straight to the plex and calls out that there are a few targets there, so I warp immediately in to save him. This is where the Escalator of death starts. Initially in the frig plex was 2 rifters at 0, and a stiletto far at range, who all where apart of ‘Rifta’ but about the same time I landed a ‘Rifta’ thrasher landed with me, and I called Dark to switch primary over from the rifter he was killing to help me get rid of the thrasher. Not exactly sure what happened at this second, because I slew the thrasher solo and the rifter dark was killing warped away, he must have dropped point before even locking up the thrasher, oh well. At this time the stiletto had closed range on me to about 2k, and a fire tail had landed with us, so I switch primary over to the fire tail and he goes down fairly easily, quickly followed by the stiletto. During this time another thrasher and a Jag had landed, and started raping dark, I switch my dps over to the thrasher as fast as I could but Dark went down. I aline out knowing that by myself I would have trouble with the remaining rifter and jag if they could hold me down long enough for ‘Rifta’ to warp something big in on me, so I poke the rifter to death and seeing that im doing little damage to the jag I over heat my newts, newt him out and warp to safety. It was an extremely exhilarating fight, and even tho dark died we still came out on top.

Later on one of my gun point friends challenged Dark and I to a cruiser 2v2, dark had just bought an armor Rupture, and I had a shield one in station so we agree and we all warp to top belt from different locations, Dark warps to 0 and I warp at 20km, shortly after both our opponents warp at zero in a Thorax and a Rupture at 0. I call the thorax primary and we commence to thump him, but dark is also getting hit hard, and they surprisingly go down at the same time, so the battle then switches to a 1v1 of two nano shield ruppys with full health, I had barrage loaded the entire fight and I find out later that he started with Phased plasma. He started out doing more damage to me, but my speed and range started causing his damage to falter, so he switches to barrage as well, but at this point I had pulled way ahead. I was in about 10% shields when he started to drop into structure, but at this point I was almost capped out from nanoing around and he over heats his MWD and gets out of point range and warps away, was a close fight and Gfs where put in local by all.

 Dark Threat > lol at the rat in the km

 Dark Threat > he was km whoring

 Now for a short recap of what I was doing before this, I have been quite busy with my job and the holidays so I was mostly greifing in high sec with the skunkworks. Killed a few incursion mom sites to get the incursion bears up in arms, then started up our old incursion bear ganks killing another good 40bil in a week, tho it got boring fast so we will save if again for a later time. But now im out in low sec again for awhile and that has got my blood pumping enough to actually start writing my shitty blog again, Woot!

Tr3 Battle Cruisers PVP Performance

(Disclaimer: the new Tr3 Battle cruisers stats are subject to constant chance, my commentary as of now is biased of the stats currently available for player use on Sisi, I will repost my review, or edit this one once the official stats are released, though I feel we wont see allot more change in them unfortunately.)

Ill start with my findings from worst to best.

Talos: 

The Talos, as it stands right now, is a Megathron with almost no tank. I engaged may of them on sisi, and even flew it myself, and its main flaw is it seams to die before it can bring its tremendous DPS to bear. I don’t have any rail skills so I asked a friend to try out a sniper fit for me, he tried a few sizes of large rails, and while it was easy to get great ranges out of them with T2 range ammo, they still lacked allot in DPS (hopefully the hybrid turrets buff helps with this when the wither expansion comes out.)

At the moment I am kind of torn between if the Talos should be armor or shield tanked for the blaster setup. On one hand, the shield tank lets it become quite agile and fast, and get the most out of its DPS, yet it has little tackle ability. On the other hand the armor tank allows for adequate tackle, but you become to slow to get the tackle on the target your going after.

Naga:

I like the naga, or more I want to like it, it had allot of potential in its first stats to give Caldari a high DPS face melting ships, but now I’m not so sure. (At least its still sexy as hell) CCP kind of snorted a little crack giving it a split weapon bonus, it can have a full rack of 8 blasters, or 8 rails, or 8 torps, yet each only get 1 ship bonus, and that bonus is to range making it little reason to lvl up the BC skill for it. I flew the blaster Naga and the torp naga a bit on sisi, way more than any of the others because I tried to make it work. Nagas just get Powned by all the others except for blaster Talos's if you can kite them, because the Naga put out the lowest actually DPS, not that on paper DPS torps lie to you about. I did kill quite a few destroyers and frigates in a armor tanked Naga, but that just because they never expected it to be fit with 2 webs and 2 target painters. The rail Naga shoots much farther than the Talos, but dose less damage and has less tracking so fuck that.

The Naga can fit an ok tank and dish out ok dps, but you need someone else to tackle and target paint for you, like a Rapier, and at that point might as well just fly a stealth bomber.

Tornado:

Hay its winmatar! Yes, once again winmatar strike again, the tornado is a amazing ship, it’s like a shield tempest on crack, just without the newts. It can be shield fit with auto cannons for a great mid range brawler, be armor fit with autocannons and have enough mid slots for plenty of tackle and maybe even e-war. Its fast as hell, and the artilary fit hits like a alpha Maelstrom. I actually didn’t fly this particular ship on sisi a ton, most my friends did that for me. It out performs the Talos and the Naga by miles, and is extremely easy to fit unlike the Naga, and sometimes the Talos. It really has a little of everything much like most Mimatar ships.

The tornado is much like a poor mans Cynable, or a ninja tempest, i expect to see ALLOT of them this winter. just don’t expect it to beat any Tr2 BC with in 20k.

Oracle:

You would think the Tornado would be my top pick, but no, that goes to the Oricle, I flew this ship almost as much as the Naga, not because I was trying overly hard to squeeze good out of it, but because I raped so much face it got addictive. I warped into a battle area with a Tornado, a Talos, and a Rook, killed them ALL with ease and went in search or more prey. With its current DPS bonus, great tank, and more than enough fitting to put a 1600mn plate, MWD, and 8x mega pulse lazars, I was putting on a world of hurt at 50+k with scorch loaded, and the occasional time a Talos or Tornado came in trying to get under my guns, I switch to Conflag and wasted them in seconds.

Unlike the rest I wouldn't even consider putting long range guns on it, or being silly and shield tanking it, The pulse laser fit with a 50k ehp armor tank could probably kill a drake or a cain with ease.

Personally I really hope CCP buffs the Talos and the Naga before they are released or I doubt you will see much of them unless its seconds before they explode.
If you would like me to share some of the fits I tried, or found exceptionaly potent, just ask.

A little More on Incursion Ganking

So in what time I have had to play I have joined my bro and the Skunkworks in their merry making of killing incursioners, and without much time or effort I have wracked up quite a list of faction BS kills. The skunk works, as of right now, are up to 206 incursioners killed, which equals out to almost 120 bil in ships and assets killed, that’s 2 titans, or over $4000 in plexs

But mostly what I want to show you is a video taken while ransoming a incursioner in a Mcah. It is the most hilarious ransom I have ever seen or participated in. Enjoy

 

As always the skunkworks killboard can be found here

Incursioner Massacre - A Post from my Bro

 For Sansha!

Ok so I have personaly been very busy and unable to play eve of late (which happened right after I declared my frigate challenge unfortunately) but my younger brother who also plays EvE, and stayed in Skunkworks, has been telling me some very funny storys about how Skunk Works has declaired war on incursioners.

Aparently one of the Skunk Works most nitorious players "Slimy Worm" got into griefing incursions and killed about 10 bil worth of ships, because of this the incersioners pooled some money together and got a very good Merc corp to war deck the Skunk Works. In response to this all of the SW dropped corp (made an alt corp called "Go Petition Blizzard") and proceeded to also grief incersioners. They have only been doing it for about 5 days and have already killed over 45bil worth of ships, collected about 6 bil worth of loot, and ransomed about 3 bils worth of isk. One of their better kills

I dont know about you but almost 10 bil in kills a night is pretty bad ass for a group of 3-10 peoples efforts a night. Right now the mile stone they are shooting for is 60bil (aproximatly a titans worth of isk) in 7 days. I'll report more on it in the future.

Hopefully I will have time for eve in the future and rejoin Black reble rifter club and continue my frigate chalenge