Crime & Punishment

Fighting outnumbered always makes things more fun :)

And the best way to do that is to seperate them in one way or another. And it seems like you learned alot about that in the slasher/rifter fight.

Yes, I sure did learn a lot. I think a faction frig will make it easier. You need to be able to capitalise on very short windows of 'gank opportunity' before they realise they are overextended so need to be able to pile it on asap. I'll keep trying - it's only ISK!

I actually think that they got rules against talking in local because they dont want it to cause trouble, but can't really remember.

A nice tip if you want to ransom is to convo the person and then roleplay as a pirate. It will reduce the chance of them throwing a tantrum since they will now view you as a pirate and not a griefer. This will ofc only work against ppl who aren't really used to pvp in this game.

If I were you, I would probably switch one of the magstabs for an EANM. It will greatly increase the tank and the dps loss wouldn't really be that big since you have already stacking penalties (2 mods + rigs) on damage.

This is a lengthy post but I wanted to represent a fairly typical solo lowsec experience.

I undock from my Eszur home station in a blasty Incursus, warp to a safe in the middle of the system and check d-scan. A Stiletto and Venture show up but are not in any of the plexes or asteroid fields. Not much going on here so I check dotlan and set a waypoint to a hot system half a dozen jumps away. I warp to the gate but on the way a new pilot enters system, d-scan suggesting he is in a Breacher. The Stiletto is still on scan but the Venture has disappeared. Cancel that jump.

The Breacher is on the gate that I land at. I don’t know why he has lost his cloak but he doesn’t run away. In my experience frigates are unwise to aggress on a gate due to the insane tracking of the gate guns and since he is not criminal I don’t want to engage. I, on the other hand, do have criminal status. Still, the Breacher seems unwilling to pick a fight although he is clearly interested and is slowly approaching.

By this time I have looked him up - a 2010 player who almost certainly has better skills than me. But so does everyone so what the hell! I decide to tempt him a bit by doing a slow manual align then warp to the closest Novice plex. I adjust d-scan to 150,000,000 km and see that he has taken the bait (if you can call it that). But he has landed short of the gate and is about 20 km away. If he is fit with a long point and MWD I could be in trouble but I decide to go for him anyway.

Video: http://youtu.be/l5GiUYLTNsg

My overheated afterburner makes short work of the distance and I close on quickly, switching on the overheated scram, web and guns as soon as possible. I have good range control so I turn the heat off on everything except the guns as I start chipping away at his shield. His drones and rockets are hitting me hard but nothing my reps can’t take care of. And so he dies but gets his pod away.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=20605789

GFs in local (props to PlayerName by the way, and no that’s not a typo) before I head back to the station for repairs. Then I head towards my waypoint, checking each system as I go.

A few jumps out I find a Kestrel, Rifter and Slicer in the system. The Slicer and Kestrel and in the same plex so I leave them to it and warp to the Rifter. But the Kestrel has had the same idea and jumps into the plex just ahead of me. If they are in the same corp it will be difficult…

But the Rifter is a spineless farmer and warps away. Or, to be fair, maybe he just doesn't want to fight two frigates at once. I suppose that could be true. Regardless, that leaves me with the Kestrel. I lock him up, chase him down and start applying the deeps. And then after a while I remember I have a drone and set him free.

Whew, what a tank! I will win eventually (I think) but he has some serious shield hp. Nevertheless I keep at it and then check short d-scan.

Oh. Slicer.

In that moment I realise that I have failed to put the fairly simple puzzle together. Slicer and Kestrel in the same plex plus full shield Kestrel equals bait Kestrel.

I align away from the Kestrel to lose the point but by the time I am far enough away the Slicer has landed with a long point and MWD. And I'm screwed.

Oh well. "gf all", I say in local as I warp my pod away and get the same in return. Win some, lose some but it is all good fun.

Admittedly, lowsec is occasionally dead, by which I mean I can only find farmers. But that is the exception in faction warfare regions, especially if you are guided by dotlan or the map. Two good fights in 15 minutes after undocking. Seems reasonable to me!

Oh boy, this multiple-ships caper is a real rush.

I had spotted a few guys in system from the same corp in a Catalyst, Incursus and Kestrel. Things had just wrapped up with a Punisher in the Novice plex (props to Kravasher Prime for a gf by the way) when I saw the Incursus on d-scan. I was already warping out to the station for reps but it looked promising for another fight. I dropped a bookmark a few million from the plex on the way out and came back to it after repairing.

All three ships were on the plex 5 degree scan. I was not keen on the Catalyst but he soon warped away, unable to enter, leaving the Incursus and Kestrel either in the plex or on the gate. Or perhaps using a sneaky safe nearby. Multiple T1 frigates, and they are young characters into the bargain. Let’s go!

Video: http://youtu.be/tzKfVH5Ef7I

I warped into the plex and saw that the Kestrel was 12km from my position. I figured he was probably rocket fit at that range and my main concern about a kiting LML Kestrel was alleviated. The Incursus was much closer and I guessed blasters.

What would you do?

Well, I burned straight for the Kestrel with overheated afterburner. I figured the Incursus sitting at zero would have trouble applying the dps before I could kill the Kestrel but that the Kestrel would be hitting me the entire time if I went for the Incursus first.

The Kestrel went down reasonably fast and the Incursus only caught up with me when I had broken the Kestrel’s hull (Navigation skills, people). So far so good. The Incursus had started hitting me now but I still had enough paste in my repper to handle him. The blaster Incursus is SOOO much fun.

I didn’t get either pod but some GF’s in local led to me sharing a couple of favourite fits. They were just getting their feet wet in PvP so many props to Leigh Loo and Walker Greaves. I chuckled at his last line: “Thanks for all the tips. And for blowing me up.” Haha!

And the most important thing? I even remembered to use my drone!

Set drones to 'Aggressive'

May work in Plexs but watch on gates are your Drones Engage the Sentry guns :D

I prefer to set drones on passive so it doesn't **** up and give me agression timer when I try to split something over a gate. You can often trick ppl into thinking that you agressed by launching drones. But if your drones are agressive you will be agressed when the enemies are opening fire against you.

Knife fight in a closet. Fast, brutal,and done.

Good analysis. Thank you!

Though that certainly doesn't hurt, I'm sure.