Crime & Punishment

Thanks for sharing that tip

Well, it’s been a long time between drinks. I fired up the old client and jumped into an Enyo. It looks like an Incursus so how hard can it be?

I play around with a few fittings and, whilst I think the rail Enyo is probably a better solo ship I start with a Blasty version since I’m a bit rusty:

[Enyo, Zappity’s Blasty MWD range]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Void S
[empty high slot]

Small Processor Overclocking Unit I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I

Plus the lonesome Hobgoblin II which I forgot in EFT. Good fit? No idea but it looks fun. I am going after other Assault Frigates or Destroyers or Cruisers or basically anything larger and slower than me. I am not too worried about being scram-kited since the TE lets Null hit out to the edge pretty effectively. Kite-scrubbing Condors (et al) will still be a problem though.

I spy a Thrasher in a plex and decide to pay him a visit. He warps away as soon as I land. Huh, I was expecting a fight there based on the killboard. Maybe my Enyo is scary! Let’s not get carried away, though. I warp to my safe, align back to the plex and try the old ‘wait until he appears on the 90 degree scan before hitting warp’ trick. I could have sworn I landed the scram when we touch down together but unfortunately he manages to sneak away. Before giving up entirely I try the log off trick from within the plex, only to find that you are dropped at the gate instead of inside.

Oh well, let’s see what happens in the next system.

An enticing Rupture, that’s what! And a decent pilot if the board is anything to go by. Lured by the thought of a cruiser kill I warp into the plex. He is sitting 15 km from the beacon so I burn to him with a couple of overheated MWD cycles before tackling and going into a close orbit, hoping to get under his guns. He sets his drones onto me so I sick my lone but valiant Hobgoblin on him in return.

Now one big problem with this fit is that cap is really tight. I am constantly juggling the modules to keep him in range and tackled without ruining my cap. And yet I manage to get him into armour with some of my own shield remaining, and then into structure. My reps are still going strong so it looks like I have this one in the bag!

And then my guns burn out. Oh bother.

Well, you can’t win them all and I definitely lost this one. That was REALLY annoying - entirely my fault and a nice kill lost. I was too busy watching my cap and not used to the longer time it takes to burn through a cruiser. The pilot is friendly and we part ways after a bit of chat. Oh well, there’s always next time…

Double post.

Hehe, sometime Soon!

---

So, one destroyer down. Let’s see what else is around. I repair my ship from the last fight and undock from the station in Augu. What do I see? I see an Omen and a Condor in different plexes. I head for the Omen.

I land in the plex and spot the Omen about 30 km away, orbiting the beacon. I haven’t looked up the killboard so I have no idea how the Omen is likely to be fit. I guess there is a chance that I might be blapped on the way in so I burn at an angle with an overheated MWD. He immediately sends a hordes of drones my way so I unleash Hobby the Mighty as I move in.

I manage to get under his guns in a tight orbit after I disengage my MWD. With most of his damage coming from the drones I decide that damage application is a higher priority than mitigation so I ignore the drones and continue chipping away at him with Void. But then he turns his armour reps on and I immediately wonder whether I should have targeted the drones. But no, I am hitting him harder than he is hitting me and I think the AAR will be able to deal with it when the paste runs out.

The AAR paste runs out just as my volleys start breaking into his hull between rep cycles. And then the module starts the one minute reload cycle. You will be shocked to hear that I forgot to disable the auto-reload! Sixty seconds is a VERY long time for a frigate. I watch in desperation as my armour disappears and the hull is slowly ground down. Surely this stupid repper is bugged - it feels more like ten minutes! But finally the thing stops flashing. 40% hull. I overheat the repper and set it going. And so the Omen dies to the Enyo. Ha!

Kill: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21440122

Stressful. Bloody AAR auto-reload. It is my NEMESIS!

I have to admit that my hands were shaking just a little after that one. That’s my excuse for failing to check d-scan before looting his wreck, anyway. So when the Condor lands, unannounced, I have little chance of escaping it’s horrid clutches. And zero chance of surviving when the Vagabond and Firetail (piloted by the Omen pilot - good on him) pile on top after a minute or so. Oh well - a fair exchange I reckon!

My Black Frog order of Enyos and other tasty ships hasn’t arrived yet so I hop into a blasty Comet to test the waters. Barely a jump out of Eszur finds a worthy adversary in an Algos, loitering on a gate. He follows me through and approaches the gate, clearly wanting a fight.

He is heading in my direction so I wait under cloak until he gets closer before decloaking. I have to wait for him to aggress because of the nasty gate guns but once he does my blasters start to make short work of his tank.

Unfortunately, I forget to unleash my drones. Honestly, what a noob. And, unlike with the Enyo, they are a significant part of my DPS. I remember them when the low armour alert sounds and the fight ends with him in low structure. How annoying - I would have won that if I hadn’t stuffed up. But I guess that goes for most fights…

Loss: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21442190

I replace the Comet with a rail version and go hunting again. This time I come across a Firetail who wants to play although I am a little wary since there are so many others in the system. Sure enough, a Slicer lands shortly after we start to fight. I initially think he is from the same corp but he scoots out of point range immediately and just watches. For a while.

As I finish off the Firetail (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21442802) the Slicer approaches and locks me up before I can flee. Along with the Slasher and Arbitrator who have decided to join the party. I doubt I am getting away from here so I scram and web the weakest ship (the Slasher) who by happy coincidence is also the closest.

He explodes when I am at half structure (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21442465) and I am able to warp my pod away soon after. A reasonable exchange, I think.

Loss: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21442464

Lowsec is dead today. Well, it is dead except for cloaky stabbed farmers who don’t count. So I hop into my explorer character who has decent scanning skills as well as being a general spreader of suspicion and distrust due to her name. ‘Innocent Scout’ soon finds a wormhole and www.wormhol.es informs me that this is a C3 with lowsec static with a predominantly EU timezone corp in residence.

I conduct a brief cloaked reconnaissance: safe spot made (check), no ships on scan anywhere in system (check), one tower plus one forcefield (check), five signatures including the wormhole and numerous anomalies. Oh, I remember these from my pre-PVP days! And I’m sure I still have a Tengu pilot somewhere. And a Noctis pilot!

I scan the signatures down and find that they are all Mag or Radar sites, meaning that the only wormhole in the system is (currently) the lowsec static. So I send the Tengu and Noctis into the hole and safe them up. My cloaked scout is innocently watching the lowsec hole (well, listening to it actually) while the Tengu runs a couple of anomalies. D-scan, missiles, d-scan, missiles, d-scan, check for new sigs (oh, they just appear on the whatsit now), d-scan… You get the picture.

It’s pretty boring compared to solo PvP. But when lowsec is dead there is a certain satisfaction to getting it ‘right’ in terms of security, fits, salvage etc. And I love the extra J-space bite that no local provides.

I wonder what the sites in C4s are like.

I am holidaying in Hevrice! The Tuskers and Stay Frosty are both based here so I soon find that it is just as easy to find fights in Cal/Gal as it is in Ama/Min. My trusty Incursus soon defeats a Republic Fleet Firetail (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21636574) and a Breacher (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21636573) before losing to another Incursus (but only by 8% hull! http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21637382).

But the most interesting fight of the day happens a few jumps away. As I am leisurely killing another Incursus (http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21637702) I notice an Atron land with with malicious intent 50 km away. He burned toward me as soon as the other Incursus pops but, as I am already aligning out, he didn’t manage to snag me. I reload, repair and set out again immediately.

The E-UNIsta in the Atron clearly wants to play and follows me to the Novice plex like a little puppy. He lands 40 km away from the gate (just to taunt me, I am sure) but I still see that he is railgun fit. Let’s see… I disappear into the plex and immediately warp away to the adjacent Small, knowing that he was unlikely to enter the plex with my fearsome blasters waiting at the beacon.

I land at range (20 km) and set the d-scan to short. 42 seconds later the d-scan shows him approaching. Sure enough, he lands 2km away from me and by the time he figures out what is going on I have him tackled, webbed and melting.

“hehe, gf”, I write as he goes down. “gf you squirrly sonofabitch!” is the reply. I give him his loot back and go on my merry way. That was satisfying! http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21637701

I fitted the vampy Enyo up and set a waypoint for Oicx, a hotspot in the map.

[Enyo, Vampy Ions]
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste

1MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I

Light Ion Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Ion Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I
Light Ion Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S
Light Ion Blaster II, Antimatter Charge S

Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Ancillary Current Router I

A few jumps out I found a kitey Firetail, Hookbill and Algos. I don't think they were a team (well, they certainly didn't act like one) and I managed to have a private meeting with the Algos. It didn't last very long - I think he was a new player but he didn't choose to convo. Oh well, his loss.

Kill: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21654673

I repaired, reloaded and undocked to the sight of a Vexor in the medium plex. A process of elimination identifies it as belonging to a unista but I'm not biased. I warp into the plex to find him sitting on the beacon.

I unload everything onto him except the scram. I guessed by his proximity to the beacon that he was not fit for kiting and that he would not be frightened off by a mere frigate. Hmm, a lot of guessing now that I think about it.

Anyway, I was right. I controlled range (i.e. right on top of him in a close orbit) and kept the pressure up. When his armour started to dip I slapped the scram on and turned off the heat from the guns for a while. We crept lower and lower together, both entering hull at about the same time.

I was watching his hull closely as we both dipped below 25%. I kept telling myself that he was dropping faster than me and didn't align out for pod-saving for fear of giving him better tracking.

And then, one of EVE's nastiest sound effects: "Your capacitor is empty." He had exactly ONE bar of hull left when the message came. I couldn't believe it.

And then my drone popped him.

I couldn't believe that, either! Nearly burnt out across the board, running low on Void, nanite paste long gone from the AAR, and only 6% hull left! Easily one of the best fights I have ever had. Thanks Mr Unista, gf.

Kill: http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=21654648

I love this.

I'm not sure people would laugh at you so much as they would envy the fights you're getting. I wish you're attitude towards PvP and having fun were more common. o7