Active tanking is a fun, challenging and exhilarating PvP option available to pilots engaging in solo or small gang fights. There are two types of active tanking, shield or armor, which have different strategy associated to them. Both work on the same principle: to absorb incoming damage such that an engagement can be prolonged longer than what the other ships can handle. While this form of tanking has its limits, they are pushed back through investment by the pilot, either through skills, implants, consumable items or more expensive fittings. Some pilots who specialize in this form of tanking are known to regularly invest upwards of 10 billion isk or greater, not including alt accounts for gang bonuses, cap booster drops, or other benefits.
Most ship classes have a hull or two that excel at active tanking, however the greatest accumulation lie with battlecruisers and battleships. Battlecruisers have a class wide affinity for tanking, though some are more able to apply this than others, such as the Myrmidon or Cyclone. Despite this frequently seen bonus, these ships remain vulnerable due to bloated signature radius, requiring some kiting or range accumulation from targets to get the most out of the active tank.
Battleships don’t have the luxury of speed, and thus rely on brute regeneration for staying power. Battleship shield tanks frequently forgo a MWD due to slot constraints, lending to static combat on stations, gates, and occasionally elsewhere. Stations and gates are ideal, as even without a speed boost module ships can creep back to safety, jumping or docking. Active armor tanks typically don’t have this problem, as the low slots are the focus of the tank. Thus, they are able to fit an MWD, tackle and even EWAR in mid slots.
Shield tanks tend to have greater damage capacity, as their low slots are available for damage boosting modules. For the same reason armor tanks often deal less DPS, however the extra maneuverability afforded by the MWD lends them much greater flexibility.
There are several ways to drastically improve the effectiveness of active tanks. First, and perhaps the most available are combat boosters. There are a variety of drugs that affect many aspects of ship attributes, but two in particular are important to active tanking: blue pill and exile. Blue pill are shield tanking boosters, and exile the armor tanking variant. All combat boosters have a chance of drawbacks, but these penalties are minute compared to the added repair amount. Standard boosters, my drug of choice, add 20% to rep amount, and go for 3mil each with a good supplier. If you’re serious at all about using boosters, I highly recommend you ask around for a drug supplier, as their prices are much cheaper than those on market, and they often will deliver to you.
Implants play a large role in active tanking, as their bonuses are not stacking penalized and thus magnify tanking ability greatly. Additionally, it is a simple matter of escaping with your capsule intact in most fights within empire space, which unlike faction modules allow you to keep your enhancements after defeat. Of special notice is the Crystal line of pirate implants: these implants work together to yield in a large bonus towards shield repair amount. They take up slots 1-6 in the head: this means that when piloting with a pirate implant set, you have to forgo better training time with expensive learning implants for the benefit of the pirate set.
With patience, buy orders can be used in Jita to acquire a low grade Crystal set for 400-450mil isk. This investment shifts the shield tank to a beastly level, and is what really allows the shield tank to compete next to the utility afforded to active armor tanks by the MWD.
With implants, boosters and a fully rigged T2 fitting, battleships can tank a gank fit battleship until cap failure, an additional gank cruiser’s worth of DPS when overloaded. Battlecruisers vary more, as the scale of the tank is much more variable. Some are only capable of tanking a gank cruiser’s worth of DPS, while others, such as X-L booster fit Cyclones or triple rep Myrms are able to tank battleship level DPS for short durations. However, their lack of buffer and capacitor stability tends to make them pale against BS for heavy tanking situations.
What makes this type of tanking truly remarkable is its ability to adapt and recover in situations that passive tanks would eventually fail. This is seen best in small gang combat, where the limited number of combatants allows for an active tank to bleed buffer, and as combatants are destroyed or forced to retreat, the active tank is able to regenerate hit points. Thus an active tanker is able to hold the field, absorbing damage while maintaining tackle, drawing fire from more vulnerable gang mates, or holding aggression until the gang has arrived after which retreating through a gate or into a station.
Many pilots discount this ability, even going so far to completely ignore the possibility of an active tank on many ships. For instance, an active tanked Megathron is just as able as the Hyperion with dual rep setups, however as most pilots opt for gank setups, the massive tank often throws off opponents who have never experienced such fits before.
There are several strategies which allow the active tanker to excel. Given the nature of lowsec warfare, active tankers are often able to bait outlaws into engaging them on gates or stations, where sentries act as a mindless gang mate, shooting down drones and moving through criminal targets to apply steady damage. This can be expanded on by baiting part of the outlaw gang to engage on one side of the gate, jumping through the gate, and thus splitting the force. The active tanker can choose to attempt to pull the targets away from the gate by MWDing away, or reapproach the gate to repeat this. All the while, those pilots who have chosen to incur GCC will be softened by sentries.
The active tanker can also neglect to repair his ship to bait targets to engage. By forgoing repairs, the buffer often rapidly depletes due to the lack of buffer boosting modules. This can often entice targets to engage ships they would normally avoid, as once the targets are in range or if combined with the above tactic split apart, the active tanker can pick the enemy gang apart at their leisure.
There are two major banes to the active tank: capacitor warfare and overwhelming DPS. The active tank is only able to accommodate so much incoming fire before its ability to absorb overflow into the limited buffer is quickly overcome. Capacitor warfare modules remove the lifeblood of the setup, forcing intense management with repair modules paired with capacitor boosters. Mismanagement leads to waste, which is dire in situations where incoming damage is only barely bested.
Since January, I’ve flown iterations of most active tanked BCs and BSes: dual rep Megathrons, Dominixes, and Abaddons, X-L booster Maelstroms, Rokhs and Ravens, X-L booster Cyclones and triple rep Myrms. I’ve flown these regularly both in small gangs and solo, getting a feel for the setups while enjoying a fresh approach to EVE PvP. Over the next few weeks I’ll try to impress what each of these hulls is like to fly: their strengths, weaknesses and any additional quirks I was able to discover.
If any of my readership have questions pertaining to these ships, active tanking, costs or a preference in which ship I write about first, please comment. I'll try to answer all questions via comment or in a follow up post on the topic.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
don’t trust raxip
If he has an idea, question it. If he has a plan, take it apart. If he suggests you jump two battleships into a blob roughly 15 minutes after you’ve woken up from bed while you’re riding in your Crystal clone, just self destruct the ship and pod yourself. It’s more efficient that way.
Roughly 30 minutes before I logged in, Raxip had jumped a Brutix unscouted into nullsec, inspired by Club Bear videos that this would lead to enjoyable PvP against small gangs or solo targets. Unfortunately for him, the Polish alliance Yarr and Co have been active in the B-VIP pipe Raxip had decided to try first, and he didn’t make it far from the pull bubble the polacks snagged him with. So, thirty minutes later as I log in with bleary eyes to adjust skills and market orders, all I knew from what Raxip was telling me was that dudes killed his spaceship and needed to die. My morning addled brain decided to not question much and I headed over with a Rokh.
While I did have the presence of mind to log an alt scout on in B-VIP, Raxip’s constant prodding over voice comms meant I shouldn’t give a lengthy look at local numbers, ship types, so on of the camping force. So we jumped in hoping for the best. A force three times the size as the one that ganked Raxip before greeted us, as well as two carriers. I didn’t even have the presence of mind to swallow my blue pill booster before losing the ship, and hastily sent my pod towards the gate where I knew they had a pull bubble.
As I alluded to earlier, the same pod housing my 600mil crystal clone. Nothing quite like 750mil down the tubes twenty minutes after waking up to set the mood for the day.
Regardless, after our poddings we quickly reshipped, myself in a Rifter and Raxip in another active tanked Brutix, and set out to give the lowsec loop a try. Six jumps away in Skarkon I happened upon a Dramiel who after seeing me on a gate decided to warp to a nearby belt. Two can play this game; I warp my Rifter to the belt in pursuit, only to meet a Dramiel who doesn’t even bother to lock the Rifter before activating his afterburner and scoot away at 2km/s.
For the record, my 200mm plate fit Rifter flies at 1.1km/s. Dramiels are broken.
Anyway, I move on, jumping into Ennur to happen upon a Rifter on a gate. From the previous day’s fun I’ve become an outlaw, which allowed the opposing Rifter to engage at will. 150mm autocannons stitched lines of carnage across my frigate’s shields before I could even lock back: the day’s first decent fight! I return lock, set a wide 5km orbit path and return the favor, opting for barrage to bleed the enemy Rifter down.
It quickly becomes apparent that the opposing Rifter didn’t anticipate this response, and after a minute of orbiting at range my foe explodes, leaving me to discover a complete lack of barrage in his wreck, despite T2 autocannons. Two armor explosive resistance rigs meant I still had some trouble breaking his tank. A good fight overall.
Quickly moving on to sate the impatient Brutix flying behind me, I jump into Meildolf. An uncharacteristic number of pilots were in local, and I set to discovering their location. I eventually locate them on our outbound gate: a Myrmidon, Hurricane and Wolf camping the Illamur gate. In good humor from the previous engagement, I warp to the gate and begin orbiting, showing plenty of leg for the enemy gang to appreciate. They appreciate my outlaw status so much that both BCs engage, leaving the Wolf to catch me on the other side.
I jump through with the Wolf following, requesting Raxip to meet me in Illamur to deal with the Wolf. Raxip, two jumps out complies, leaving me with a rather mean looking assault ship to deal with. I opt to burn away, mindful that the battlecruisers next door have less than a minute before they’re able to jump through and join their comrade. I want enough range where the two battlecruisers will be some time in aiding the Wolf, however that’s a two edged proposition as it also means Raxip has the burn that far to aid me. Roughly 30km from the gate, the Wolf turns around to return to the gate, likely hearing from his friends that a Brutix is inbound. Raxip jumps through, followed immediately by the two enemy battlecruisers.
The enemy Cane decides to engage Raxip, who isn’t outlaw and incurs sentry aggression for his efforts. Uncertain that the Myrmidon would do so as well, and with an additional Harpy landing on the gate, Raxip continues to burn away as we’re both left guessing what the enemy gang’s true size is. The Harpy doesn’t give me much time to think, as it MWDs right into scrambler range and begins pounding me with 75mm railguns. I trade tackle and engage, holding the frigate down long enough for Raxip to burn into range and aid me. Evidently the Harpy had shot at Raxip as well, as roughly the same instant that Raxip burned into blaster range the Harpy lost its shields and exploded. The mail confirms that sentries saved my ass; I never knew a 75mm railgun fit could be so vicious against frigates!
With the Hurricane mauled by sentries itself and the Harpy down, the enemy gang burned back to gate and jumped into Meildolf. Sensing blood, we set to pursuit, following them through the gate and to what looked like a planet. Mid warp we caught a glimpse of their ships on overview, which meant they were in a mid safe rather than the planet itself. Hoping for the best, we decided to wait at the planet.
Our patience paid off, as after roughly half a minute of waiting the Wolf landed at the planet! We set to work, scrambling and webbing the frigate, while I tried my best to stay on the outer edge of scramble range. Even at eight to nine kilometers, the Wolf still stripped my shields in two volleys and was barely held off by an overheated SAR. Raxip and I had the assault ship in low armor before his two friends arrived, succumbing about the same time the Myrm and Cane resolved lock.
At this point it was a Brutix and a Rifter versus a Myrm and a Cane. Fortunately the Cane still had low armor from previous sentry aggro, however half a minute into hostilities Raxip called out he was being neuted heavily by both battlecruisers. This meant he didn’t even have enough cap to fire his blasters, which meant my little Rifter had to take down an armor tanked buffer Cane sitting at 20% armor and full hull. It wasn’t going to happen before Raxip exploded.
It was only a dozen seconds more after Raxip related his capacitor problems that he exploded, leaving me five kilometers away from both battlecruisers. I aligned to a celestial and began burning away, somehow avoiding the neuts Raxip had experienced while failing to overheat my afterburner. Regardless, I somehow managed to create enough distance to range the disruptors and warp out in half hull.
Raxip reships to a Raven he had nearby, and returns, however the two pilots decide to wait down GCC and leave for an adjacent highsec system. We manage to catch a Rupture from the same corporation in Illamur, though the full meta 0 fit and lack of two lowslots meant I could have soloed the cruiser with a full rack of civilian autocannons. We decide to call it a day shortly afterwards.
Roughly 30 minutes before I logged in, Raxip had jumped a Brutix unscouted into nullsec, inspired by Club Bear videos that this would lead to enjoyable PvP against small gangs or solo targets. Unfortunately for him, the Polish alliance Yarr and Co have been active in the B-VIP pipe Raxip had decided to try first, and he didn’t make it far from the pull bubble the polacks snagged him with. So, thirty minutes later as I log in with bleary eyes to adjust skills and market orders, all I knew from what Raxip was telling me was that dudes killed his spaceship and needed to die. My morning addled brain decided to not question much and I headed over with a Rokh.
While I did have the presence of mind to log an alt scout on in B-VIP, Raxip’s constant prodding over voice comms meant I shouldn’t give a lengthy look at local numbers, ship types, so on of the camping force. So we jumped in hoping for the best. A force three times the size as the one that ganked Raxip before greeted us, as well as two carriers. I didn’t even have the presence of mind to swallow my blue pill booster before losing the ship, and hastily sent my pod towards the gate where I knew they had a pull bubble.
As I alluded to earlier, the same pod housing my 600mil crystal clone. Nothing quite like 750mil down the tubes twenty minutes after waking up to set the mood for the day.
Regardless, after our poddings we quickly reshipped, myself in a Rifter and Raxip in another active tanked Brutix, and set out to give the lowsec loop a try. Six jumps away in Skarkon I happened upon a Dramiel who after seeing me on a gate decided to warp to a nearby belt. Two can play this game; I warp my Rifter to the belt in pursuit, only to meet a Dramiel who doesn’t even bother to lock the Rifter before activating his afterburner and scoot away at 2km/s.
For the record, my 200mm plate fit Rifter flies at 1.1km/s. Dramiels are broken.
Anyway, I move on, jumping into Ennur to happen upon a Rifter on a gate. From the previous day’s fun I’ve become an outlaw, which allowed the opposing Rifter to engage at will. 150mm autocannons stitched lines of carnage across my frigate’s shields before I could even lock back: the day’s first decent fight! I return lock, set a wide 5km orbit path and return the favor, opting for barrage to bleed the enemy Rifter down.
It quickly becomes apparent that the opposing Rifter didn’t anticipate this response, and after a minute of orbiting at range my foe explodes, leaving me to discover a complete lack of barrage in his wreck, despite T2 autocannons. Two armor explosive resistance rigs meant I still had some trouble breaking his tank. A good fight overall.
Quickly moving on to sate the impatient Brutix flying behind me, I jump into Meildolf. An uncharacteristic number of pilots were in local, and I set to discovering their location. I eventually locate them on our outbound gate: a Myrmidon, Hurricane and Wolf camping the Illamur gate. In good humor from the previous engagement, I warp to the gate and begin orbiting, showing plenty of leg for the enemy gang to appreciate. They appreciate my outlaw status so much that both BCs engage, leaving the Wolf to catch me on the other side.
I jump through with the Wolf following, requesting Raxip to meet me in Illamur to deal with the Wolf. Raxip, two jumps out complies, leaving me with a rather mean looking assault ship to deal with. I opt to burn away, mindful that the battlecruisers next door have less than a minute before they’re able to jump through and join their comrade. I want enough range where the two battlecruisers will be some time in aiding the Wolf, however that’s a two edged proposition as it also means Raxip has the burn that far to aid me. Roughly 30km from the gate, the Wolf turns around to return to the gate, likely hearing from his friends that a Brutix is inbound. Raxip jumps through, followed immediately by the two enemy battlecruisers.
The enemy Cane decides to engage Raxip, who isn’t outlaw and incurs sentry aggression for his efforts. Uncertain that the Myrmidon would do so as well, and with an additional Harpy landing on the gate, Raxip continues to burn away as we’re both left guessing what the enemy gang’s true size is. The Harpy doesn’t give me much time to think, as it MWDs right into scrambler range and begins pounding me with 75mm railguns. I trade tackle and engage, holding the frigate down long enough for Raxip to burn into range and aid me. Evidently the Harpy had shot at Raxip as well, as roughly the same instant that Raxip burned into blaster range the Harpy lost its shields and exploded. The mail confirms that sentries saved my ass; I never knew a 75mm railgun fit could be so vicious against frigates!
With the Hurricane mauled by sentries itself and the Harpy down, the enemy gang burned back to gate and jumped into Meildolf. Sensing blood, we set to pursuit, following them through the gate and to what looked like a planet. Mid warp we caught a glimpse of their ships on overview, which meant they were in a mid safe rather than the planet itself. Hoping for the best, we decided to wait at the planet.
Our patience paid off, as after roughly half a minute of waiting the Wolf landed at the planet! We set to work, scrambling and webbing the frigate, while I tried my best to stay on the outer edge of scramble range. Even at eight to nine kilometers, the Wolf still stripped my shields in two volleys and was barely held off by an overheated SAR. Raxip and I had the assault ship in low armor before his two friends arrived, succumbing about the same time the Myrm and Cane resolved lock.
At this point it was a Brutix and a Rifter versus a Myrm and a Cane. Fortunately the Cane still had low armor from previous sentry aggro, however half a minute into hostilities Raxip called out he was being neuted heavily by both battlecruisers. This meant he didn’t even have enough cap to fire his blasters, which meant my little Rifter had to take down an armor tanked buffer Cane sitting at 20% armor and full hull. It wasn’t going to happen before Raxip exploded.
It was only a dozen seconds more after Raxip related his capacitor problems that he exploded, leaving me five kilometers away from both battlecruisers. I aligned to a celestial and began burning away, somehow avoiding the neuts Raxip had experienced while failing to overheat my afterburner. Regardless, I somehow managed to create enough distance to range the disruptors and warp out in half hull.
Raxip reships to a Raven he had nearby, and returns, however the two pilots decide to wait down GCC and leave for an adjacent highsec system. We manage to catch a Rupture from the same corporation in Illamur, though the full meta 0 fit and lack of two lowslots meant I could have soloed the cruiser with a full rack of civilian autocannons. We decide to call it a day shortly afterwards.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
movement 2
Continued from we got movement!
A few chores and a meal later I was back online, arriving in time to respond to another muster to counter an anti-pirate force. Something Rotten had stirred up the Crimson Dragons alliance, which had formed a sizable ball of ships in Gonheim on the Istodard gate. With several logistics ships available, I undocked my only armor tanked battleship available, my reliable heavy neut plate fit Tempest and headed over to Istodard.
Arriving on the Gonheim gate in Istodard, I met up with the 520 gang, consisting of several battleships, three Guardians and Lt Graham’s Blackbird. Dirty Protagonist called for me to jump through and reapproach gate, which would hopefully prompt the anti-pirate gang to incur GCC. However recent action with the freighter had hosed my sec, and I was well into outlaw status. This fact didn’t change much and I jumped through the gate.
I was greeted by a wall of ships on my overview, easily double the size of the 520 gang on the other side of the gate. The anti-pirates lacked battleships and logistics, which should give the pirate force an edge in the engagement. I decloaked, began moving back to the gate while locking targets, waiting for the opposing force to begin aggressing. Aggress they did, a dozen odd ships obtaining lock and firing upon my Tempest in quick succession.
About the same time the enemy gang began firing upon me, I realized that I had miss-clicked my MWD, so instead of powering to the stargate, I was only 3km closer to my destination. Further, my fit was meant for small gangs rather than high DPS fleet engagements and had a LAR equipped rather than an additional plate or resistance module to enhance the buffer. Enemy DPS poured on, and I was already touching half armor by the time the gate began flashing with the arrival of friendly forces.
With gangmates decloaking, I meekly clicked the “Need armor” broadcast, however by the time Guardians began locking me I was already in structure, my battleship not long for life and unable to jump through into Istodard due to my MWD mismanagement. The Tempest popped shortly afterwards, though the gang was able to drop a few anti-pirate ships before they themselves disengaged and jumped through the gate.
Reforming, the gang then headed out two jumps to Oddelulf, warping to the Bosena gate. Bosena has been host to the remnants of COW had been evicted from nullsec, who now pass time regularly camping the highsec entrance gate to kill the unwary. One such gatecamp was currently in place, manned by two battleships, two battlecruisers, a cloaky T3 hull and a faction battleship. Baiting with a force of two battleships, we managed to snare a Dominix and Brutix, however the remainder was able to flee from the gate before tackle was established.
The next few hours was a gankfest, every 30 minutes or so another ship was found, probed, tackled and destroyed. A hurricane was found in Istodard, burning away from the Oddelulf gate. Once out of sentry range, Sieth Silverstein of 520 was able to tackle the lone BC with his Ishtar, allowing our reshipped gang to whore on the mail. An hour later Coffee located a group of battlecruisers missioning in Oddelulf, this time a Harbinger with a Hurricane salvaging behind it. The Cane had the misfortune of landing on the entrance gate just after our gang arrived to savage the Harbinger, preceeding his comrade in death by only two minutes.
Waiting down GCC from those kills, a Raven and Paladin decided to give missioning in lowsec a go, regardless of the half dozen GCC pirates in local, and on scan from his mission site. Coffee again proved his worth, scanning the marauder down in seconds and tackling the T2 battleship while the gang arrived at the entrance gate and began warping in. The Raven managed to flee before additional tackle had arrived, but the Paladin’s destruction was more than worth that sacrifice.
Amusingly, seconds after the Paladin went down, room wide aggro from the level 4 mission switched to Coffee’s Cheetah, which incredibly was able to tank the 30 odd NPCs with the aid of two Guardians to warp out with 17% structure remaining. Damage controls are vital on frigates folks, especially when running those higher level missions.
Little occurred over the next hour, so the diminished pirate force decided to roam, flying first to Atlar, then progressing down the pipe to Ennur, splitting off into Metropolis via Offikatlin. Here Coffee was able to spot several ships in space; a Myrm, Cane, Ishtar and Raven. Following close behind, I jumped my Sleipnir in, warping to the highsec gate where Coffee had located the opposing force.
The Hurricane and Myrmidon were chasing down a pirate Ishtar, the Raven holding on the highsec gate, lacking a speed module to follow the two BCs. Spying my Sleipnir the Ishtar warped off, the two BCs warping back to the gate to rejoin the Raven. I had warped my command ship to the gate at 50km to assess the situation, and had begun idling away towards a celestial. The Ishtar left local, heading deeper into Metropolis and missing the pirate gang in Tabbetzur.
After a minute of eying each other, the Hurricane decided to warp to a nearby planet, which I reported to my gang, and began aligning my Sleipnir to follow. Looking back to the overview, the Myrmidon had been busy as well, activating his MWD and burning at my Sleipnir at an impressive rate, closing the 60km between myself and the stargate to land tackle on my ship! Chagrined, I swapped from Barrage to Fusion while locking the enemy BC, calling for my gangmates to jump in.
I’ll touch on Sleipnir tactics at length in another post, however allow me to inform my readership of an often misunderstood fact about this vessel: it is not a frontline tanker. Yes, it has impressive resistances, and a hefty shield boost bonus to augment an active approach. However, it simply doesn’t have the capacitor or buffer to weather typical amounts of incoming damage for a lengthy period of time. Rather, that tanking bonus is better served mitigating damage incurred from skirmish range, 20-30km from target. At this range, the Sleipnir is able to apply its impressive arsenal effectively, provide tackle with a ganglink running or faction disruptor, and maintain range while remaining on the field applying bursts of MWD or shield booster, respectively.
Thus, scrambled off the gate with two angry, gank fit shield tanked battlecruisers (Great work switching to Fusion for that Myrm, Sard) slamming into my tank, I was sweating over my situation. The Raven had warped off the gate about the same time my gangmates began jumping in, likely to warp back in range to support his comrades. Meanwhile, under capacitor pressure from the Hurricane’s medium neuts, my DG X-L booster had quickly burned through my available reserve of capacitor, and a single medium cap booster can’t cycle 800 charges fast enough for sustained cycling of the shield booster.
Pirate reinforcements began landing just as my buffer was depleted and my Sleipnir began bleeding armor plate. Focusing on my tank, I neglected to mind my rack of autocannons, which had been set to overheat to burn down the Myrmidon. While I had smashed through the Myrm’s buffer and dip the opposing BC into armor itself, I burned out my guns in the progress. The two battlecruisers were sure to finish me off, especially with that Raven inbound and without my DPS to help.
Fortunately for me, Gooch of 520 decided to bring a Blackbird out on this roam, and managed to jam the Myrmidon, which was the only BC tackling me. I warped my command ship out with half my armor gone, quickly moving back into Tabbetzur and eventually into Ennur to repair my modules, and hopefully return to help out in the fight. The pirates managed on their own however, finishing off the Myrm and downing the Cane before the Raven was able to arrive.
Later still that night, the gang had reduced to Coffee, myself and Dirty Protagonist (DP). We had traveled back to the Istodard pocket, where we were able to find a Cane missioning in Gonheim, which was quickly dispatched by DP’s Cane and my Sleip. Thirty minutes later, DP sighted a Gentlemen’s Club Sacrilege in Oddelulf somewhere above a planet, which Coffee was able to probe down. I switched to a Huginn, and between my webs and DP’s autocannons we were able to gank the HAC before the pilot was able to return to the keyboard with his plate of toast.
The Sacrilege marked the conclusion to the day’s festivities, and we logged off for the night.
A few chores and a meal later I was back online, arriving in time to respond to another muster to counter an anti-pirate force. Something Rotten had stirred up the Crimson Dragons alliance, which had formed a sizable ball of ships in Gonheim on the Istodard gate. With several logistics ships available, I undocked my only armor tanked battleship available, my reliable heavy neut plate fit Tempest and headed over to Istodard.
Arriving on the Gonheim gate in Istodard, I met up with the 520 gang, consisting of several battleships, three Guardians and Lt Graham’s Blackbird. Dirty Protagonist called for me to jump through and reapproach gate, which would hopefully prompt the anti-pirate gang to incur GCC. However recent action with the freighter had hosed my sec, and I was well into outlaw status. This fact didn’t change much and I jumped through the gate.
I was greeted by a wall of ships on my overview, easily double the size of the 520 gang on the other side of the gate. The anti-pirates lacked battleships and logistics, which should give the pirate force an edge in the engagement. I decloaked, began moving back to the gate while locking targets, waiting for the opposing force to begin aggressing. Aggress they did, a dozen odd ships obtaining lock and firing upon my Tempest in quick succession.
About the same time the enemy gang began firing upon me, I realized that I had miss-clicked my MWD, so instead of powering to the stargate, I was only 3km closer to my destination. Further, my fit was meant for small gangs rather than high DPS fleet engagements and had a LAR equipped rather than an additional plate or resistance module to enhance the buffer. Enemy DPS poured on, and I was already touching half armor by the time the gate began flashing with the arrival of friendly forces.
With gangmates decloaking, I meekly clicked the “Need armor” broadcast, however by the time Guardians began locking me I was already in structure, my battleship not long for life and unable to jump through into Istodard due to my MWD mismanagement. The Tempest popped shortly afterwards, though the gang was able to drop a few anti-pirate ships before they themselves disengaged and jumped through the gate.
Reforming, the gang then headed out two jumps to Oddelulf, warping to the Bosena gate. Bosena has been host to the remnants of COW had been evicted from nullsec, who now pass time regularly camping the highsec entrance gate to kill the unwary. One such gatecamp was currently in place, manned by two battleships, two battlecruisers, a cloaky T3 hull and a faction battleship. Baiting with a force of two battleships, we managed to snare a Dominix and Brutix, however the remainder was able to flee from the gate before tackle was established.
The next few hours was a gankfest, every 30 minutes or so another ship was found, probed, tackled and destroyed. A hurricane was found in Istodard, burning away from the Oddelulf gate. Once out of sentry range, Sieth Silverstein of 520 was able to tackle the lone BC with his Ishtar, allowing our reshipped gang to whore on the mail. An hour later Coffee located a group of battlecruisers missioning in Oddelulf, this time a Harbinger with a Hurricane salvaging behind it. The Cane had the misfortune of landing on the entrance gate just after our gang arrived to savage the Harbinger, preceeding his comrade in death by only two minutes.
Waiting down GCC from those kills, a Raven and Paladin decided to give missioning in lowsec a go, regardless of the half dozen GCC pirates in local, and on scan from his mission site. Coffee again proved his worth, scanning the marauder down in seconds and tackling the T2 battleship while the gang arrived at the entrance gate and began warping in. The Raven managed to flee before additional tackle had arrived, but the Paladin’s destruction was more than worth that sacrifice.
Amusingly, seconds after the Paladin went down, room wide aggro from the level 4 mission switched to Coffee’s Cheetah, which incredibly was able to tank the 30 odd NPCs with the aid of two Guardians to warp out with 17% structure remaining. Damage controls are vital on frigates folks, especially when running those higher level missions.
Little occurred over the next hour, so the diminished pirate force decided to roam, flying first to Atlar, then progressing down the pipe to Ennur, splitting off into Metropolis via Offikatlin. Here Coffee was able to spot several ships in space; a Myrm, Cane, Ishtar and Raven. Following close behind, I jumped my Sleipnir in, warping to the highsec gate where Coffee had located the opposing force.
The Hurricane and Myrmidon were chasing down a pirate Ishtar, the Raven holding on the highsec gate, lacking a speed module to follow the two BCs. Spying my Sleipnir the Ishtar warped off, the two BCs warping back to the gate to rejoin the Raven. I had warped my command ship to the gate at 50km to assess the situation, and had begun idling away towards a celestial. The Ishtar left local, heading deeper into Metropolis and missing the pirate gang in Tabbetzur.
After a minute of eying each other, the Hurricane decided to warp to a nearby planet, which I reported to my gang, and began aligning my Sleipnir to follow. Looking back to the overview, the Myrmidon had been busy as well, activating his MWD and burning at my Sleipnir at an impressive rate, closing the 60km between myself and the stargate to land tackle on my ship! Chagrined, I swapped from Barrage to Fusion while locking the enemy BC, calling for my gangmates to jump in.
I’ll touch on Sleipnir tactics at length in another post, however allow me to inform my readership of an often misunderstood fact about this vessel: it is not a frontline tanker. Yes, it has impressive resistances, and a hefty shield boost bonus to augment an active approach. However, it simply doesn’t have the capacitor or buffer to weather typical amounts of incoming damage for a lengthy period of time. Rather, that tanking bonus is better served mitigating damage incurred from skirmish range, 20-30km from target. At this range, the Sleipnir is able to apply its impressive arsenal effectively, provide tackle with a ganglink running or faction disruptor, and maintain range while remaining on the field applying bursts of MWD or shield booster, respectively.
Thus, scrambled off the gate with two angry, gank fit shield tanked battlecruisers (Great work switching to Fusion for that Myrm, Sard) slamming into my tank, I was sweating over my situation. The Raven had warped off the gate about the same time my gangmates began jumping in, likely to warp back in range to support his comrades. Meanwhile, under capacitor pressure from the Hurricane’s medium neuts, my DG X-L booster had quickly burned through my available reserve of capacitor, and a single medium cap booster can’t cycle 800 charges fast enough for sustained cycling of the shield booster.
Pirate reinforcements began landing just as my buffer was depleted and my Sleipnir began bleeding armor plate. Focusing on my tank, I neglected to mind my rack of autocannons, which had been set to overheat to burn down the Myrmidon. While I had smashed through the Myrm’s buffer and dip the opposing BC into armor itself, I burned out my guns in the progress. The two battlecruisers were sure to finish me off, especially with that Raven inbound and without my DPS to help.
Fortunately for me, Gooch of 520 decided to bring a Blackbird out on this roam, and managed to jam the Myrmidon, which was the only BC tackling me. I warped my command ship out with half my armor gone, quickly moving back into Tabbetzur and eventually into Ennur to repair my modules, and hopefully return to help out in the fight. The pirates managed on their own however, finishing off the Myrm and downing the Cane before the Raven was able to arrive.
Later still that night, the gang had reduced to Coffee, myself and Dirty Protagonist (DP). We had traveled back to the Istodard pocket, where we were able to find a Cane missioning in Gonheim, which was quickly dispatched by DP’s Cane and my Sleip. Thirty minutes later, DP sighted a Gentlemen’s Club Sacrilege in Oddelulf somewhere above a planet, which Coffee was able to probe down. I switched to a Huginn, and between my webs and DP’s autocannons we were able to gank the HAC before the pilot was able to return to the keyboard with his plate of toast.
The Sacrilege marked the conclusion to the day’s festivities, and we logged off for the night.
Monday, July 12, 2010
we got movement!
The past few days have been incredibly active in Molden Heath, with multiple types of targets presenting themselves. This sort of constant activity from the region is uncommon, and deserves special notice. While it is tied in part to the COW and GC evacuations from nullsec into Molden, they only account for half of the available targets which have been braving MH lowsec.
Sunday began with a roam from Oddelulf, myself in a shield cane, Coffee in a Cheetah and Lt Graham in a Blackbird supporting. We shortly bump into a mixed 520 and SCONEs gang, which I decide to shy away from in hope of other targets. While we frequently fly together, RANSM hasn’t set blue status to the other pirate corporations in MH, to ensure we’ll always have at least someone to shoot at.
Pushing past Atlar and heading towards Skarkon, Coffee sights a Providence in space, parked at a POS oddly devoid of modules. Investigating, the modules are incapacitated, though the POS itself still has a force field. The Providence is adjacent to the tower, and a few ships, including a Rook and a Drake nearby within the field. I opt to hold our gang nearby in Meildolf, hoping that the POS would be taken down with only the skeleton gang supporting.
After ten minutes of waiting, little happens, with a few cruisers landing to begin repairing the incapacitated modules. While watching, we are joined by two friends from the Black Sinisters in frigates who were roaming nearby. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Dirty Protagonist of 520 asks for assistance in Oddelulf: an anti-pie gang has engaged the 520/SCONEs gang at a belt. RANSM and the B.S frigates quickly responded.
By the time we arrived the anti-pirate force was routed, and my force moved to apply tackle where we could and finish the opposing gang off. In this kind of situation, we had no time to join up with the 520/SCONEs gang, and thus it was rather confusing for my gang to deal with both friendlies and enemies both on overview. Lt Graham managed to jam a 520 Abaddon, which in turn reported my gang was engaging him. Once the anti-pies were down, the pirate gang switched focus to my cane, and rather than asking first they decided to speak with their weapons. My Hurricane dropped to friendly fire, though fortunately the rest of my gang was able to warp off before more mistakes were made.
While waiting down GCC, I moved my pod back to Egbinger, then jump cloned to Oddelulf, boarding a Sleipnir and sat in station for the last three minutes of criminal count down. During all the commotion, Coffee was still watching the freighter at the POS, which had started burning away from the force field. The freighter now had two Drakes and a Rook for support at the POS, plus a few T1 cruisers which continued to repair modules. With less GCC timer to worry about, the B.S pilots Alex Medvedov and Mister Torture began moving with Lt Graham back toward Ennur, where the freighter was located.
With my GCC timer finally finished, I undocked and began hurrying to meet up with the rest of my gang. By the time I jumped into Atlar, Coffee reported that the freighter had warped to the Tabbetzur gate and was likely heading towards high sec, two jumps away. We all began mashing warp to and jump buttons as quickly as possible to hasten our approach.
Following the freighter into Tabbetzur, Coffee began ramming the capital industrial ship with his Cheetah, however the difference in mass meant that the covops frigate was only able to slow the freighter’s alignment by a few seconds, every one of which absolutely necessary for the gang to catch up. By the time the Providence warped, Alex had arrived in Tabbetzur in a Jaguar, however Mister Torture and myself were still two jumps away in an Ishtar and my Sleipnir. This was going to be too close to call.
The two Drakes and Rook, which had pushed ahead of the freighter were already in Offikatlin, which was one jump from high sec, the freighter’s destination. One of the Drakes jumped back into Tabbetzur to support the freighter on the gate, while the other two ships remained waiting in Offikatlin. By the time the freighter finally landed on the Offikatlin gate, Sard was a jump out with Torture in Tabb, warping to the gate.
Coffee had jumped ahead to again delay the freighter once it jumped, however seconds dragged on as the freighter remained in Tabb on the gate. Coffee eventually burned back to the Tabb gate, mindful of the Rook and Drake which also were there waiting. Alex reported the freighter was trying to align to something, but between Alex’s bumps and the bouncing off the gate, it was stuck! The precious seconds this all took allowed me to jump my Sleipnir into Tabbetzur and begin warp to the Offikatlin gate.
The Drake in Offikatlin decided to ward off Coffee’s Cheetah, firing a volley of heavy missiles and forcing him to jump into Tabb. At roughly the same time I landed on the Offikatlin gate, which the Providence took as its cue to jump. Alex, Torture, Lt Graham (who had been on the gate with his Blackbird), the second Drake and myself all jumped into Offikatlin after the freighter.
Torture and I immediately decloaked our ships, myself overheating 425mm ACs to volley down the Rook. Torture didn’t even manage to lock the recon ship before I tore through the cruiser, three volleying the ECM ship off the field. The first Drake which had shot at Coffee took sentries to do so, and had warped off the gate. The freighter finally decloaked, and the pirate gang fell upon it, my Sleipnir first applying EMP, then reloading Fusion once the shields were down. The second Drake decloaked shortly after the Providence, and decided to whore onto his corpmate’s mail rather than fire on the GCC outlaws.
This went on for roughly 20 seconds, when the Drake which had warped off arrived back on the field, and with the second drake began firing on my Sleipnir. The low DPS from the Drakes coupled with sentry fire was just enough for my tank to keep up with while injecting 800 boosters, meaning the pirates could continue to burn down the freighter, which was just at 90% structure. Lt Graham and the pirates had to warp out several times in the following minute of combat due to sentry aggression; however my Sleipnir was a pillar the combined might of the Drakes could not displace, continuing to blast apart unresisting structure of the Providence as it labored to return to the Tabb gate.
Then the Providence exploded.
The Drakes dropped one after the other to my Sleipnir; the second trying to MWD away, to no avail. The next 20 minutes were spent gloating in intel channels, waiting on haulers to scoop the remains from the wrecks, and defend said wrecks from scavenging opportunists. One Thrasher learned the hard way to not touch wrecks he didn’t make himself.
Loot stowed, I eventually had to take a break, the remainder of my gang joining a 520 force trying to wreck someone near the Gonheim system.
Sunday began with a roam from Oddelulf, myself in a shield cane, Coffee in a Cheetah and Lt Graham in a Blackbird supporting. We shortly bump into a mixed 520 and SCONEs gang, which I decide to shy away from in hope of other targets. While we frequently fly together, RANSM hasn’t set blue status to the other pirate corporations in MH, to ensure we’ll always have at least someone to shoot at.
Pushing past Atlar and heading towards Skarkon, Coffee sights a Providence in space, parked at a POS oddly devoid of modules. Investigating, the modules are incapacitated, though the POS itself still has a force field. The Providence is adjacent to the tower, and a few ships, including a Rook and a Drake nearby within the field. I opt to hold our gang nearby in Meildolf, hoping that the POS would be taken down with only the skeleton gang supporting.
After ten minutes of waiting, little happens, with a few cruisers landing to begin repairing the incapacitated modules. While watching, we are joined by two friends from the Black Sinisters in frigates who were roaming nearby. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Dirty Protagonist of 520 asks for assistance in Oddelulf: an anti-pie gang has engaged the 520/SCONEs gang at a belt. RANSM and the B.S frigates quickly responded.
By the time we arrived the anti-pirate force was routed, and my force moved to apply tackle where we could and finish the opposing gang off. In this kind of situation, we had no time to join up with the 520/SCONEs gang, and thus it was rather confusing for my gang to deal with both friendlies and enemies both on overview. Lt Graham managed to jam a 520 Abaddon, which in turn reported my gang was engaging him. Once the anti-pies were down, the pirate gang switched focus to my cane, and rather than asking first they decided to speak with their weapons. My Hurricane dropped to friendly fire, though fortunately the rest of my gang was able to warp off before more mistakes were made.
While waiting down GCC, I moved my pod back to Egbinger, then jump cloned to Oddelulf, boarding a Sleipnir and sat in station for the last three minutes of criminal count down. During all the commotion, Coffee was still watching the freighter at the POS, which had started burning away from the force field. The freighter now had two Drakes and a Rook for support at the POS, plus a few T1 cruisers which continued to repair modules. With less GCC timer to worry about, the B.S pilots Alex Medvedov and Mister Torture began moving with Lt Graham back toward Ennur, where the freighter was located.
With my GCC timer finally finished, I undocked and began hurrying to meet up with the rest of my gang. By the time I jumped into Atlar, Coffee reported that the freighter had warped to the Tabbetzur gate and was likely heading towards high sec, two jumps away. We all began mashing warp to and jump buttons as quickly as possible to hasten our approach.
Following the freighter into Tabbetzur, Coffee began ramming the capital industrial ship with his Cheetah, however the difference in mass meant that the covops frigate was only able to slow the freighter’s alignment by a few seconds, every one of which absolutely necessary for the gang to catch up. By the time the Providence warped, Alex had arrived in Tabbetzur in a Jaguar, however Mister Torture and myself were still two jumps away in an Ishtar and my Sleipnir. This was going to be too close to call.
The two Drakes and Rook, which had pushed ahead of the freighter were already in Offikatlin, which was one jump from high sec, the freighter’s destination. One of the Drakes jumped back into Tabbetzur to support the freighter on the gate, while the other two ships remained waiting in Offikatlin. By the time the freighter finally landed on the Offikatlin gate, Sard was a jump out with Torture in Tabb, warping to the gate.
Coffee had jumped ahead to again delay the freighter once it jumped, however seconds dragged on as the freighter remained in Tabb on the gate. Coffee eventually burned back to the Tabb gate, mindful of the Rook and Drake which also were there waiting. Alex reported the freighter was trying to align to something, but between Alex’s bumps and the bouncing off the gate, it was stuck! The precious seconds this all took allowed me to jump my Sleipnir into Tabbetzur and begin warp to the Offikatlin gate.
The Drake in Offikatlin decided to ward off Coffee’s Cheetah, firing a volley of heavy missiles and forcing him to jump into Tabb. At roughly the same time I landed on the Offikatlin gate, which the Providence took as its cue to jump. Alex, Torture, Lt Graham (who had been on the gate with his Blackbird), the second Drake and myself all jumped into Offikatlin after the freighter.
Torture and I immediately decloaked our ships, myself overheating 425mm ACs to volley down the Rook. Torture didn’t even manage to lock the recon ship before I tore through the cruiser, three volleying the ECM ship off the field. The first Drake which had shot at Coffee took sentries to do so, and had warped off the gate. The freighter finally decloaked, and the pirate gang fell upon it, my Sleipnir first applying EMP, then reloading Fusion once the shields were down. The second Drake decloaked shortly after the Providence, and decided to whore onto his corpmate’s mail rather than fire on the GCC outlaws.
This went on for roughly 20 seconds, when the Drake which had warped off arrived back on the field, and with the second drake began firing on my Sleipnir. The low DPS from the Drakes coupled with sentry fire was just enough for my tank to keep up with while injecting 800 boosters, meaning the pirates could continue to burn down the freighter, which was just at 90% structure. Lt Graham and the pirates had to warp out several times in the following minute of combat due to sentry aggression; however my Sleipnir was a pillar the combined might of the Drakes could not displace, continuing to blast apart unresisting structure of the Providence as it labored to return to the Tabb gate.
Then the Providence exploded.
The Drakes dropped one after the other to my Sleipnir; the second trying to MWD away, to no avail. The next 20 minutes were spent gloating in intel channels, waiting on haulers to scoop the remains from the wrecks, and defend said wrecks from scavenging opportunists. One Thrasher learned the hard way to not touch wrecks he didn’t make himself.
Loot stowed, I eventually had to take a break, the remainder of my gang joining a 520 force trying to wreck someone near the Gonheim system.
Friday, July 9, 2010
peekaboo
It’s been some time since my last entry. Here’s a review of what I’ve been up to during the past five months:
• Active tanked battleships
• The Sleipnir
• Wardecs
• Combat boosters
• Pirate implants
• Logistics ships
I’m still based in Molden Heath, indeed making trips to other regions less frequently as I engage what’s available on my home turf. My corporation remains bone thin, though efforts at managing security status has allowed for forays into highsec space to engage war targets located there. I abandoned Aggressive Dissonance sometime in February, refocusing RANSM as a no blue lowsec PvP corporation. No hard feelings what so ever, as indeed I’ve missed having a reliable ‘big brother’ to call upon if something juicy comes around.
Along with combat boosters, I’ve been steadily skilling my main, finishing those ship skills whose hulls I find enjoyable to V (all sub caps bar T2 battleships and EAS). This has allowed me to enjoy command ships and logistics, which has led to some intensely enjoyable PvP over the past few months. Flying solo logistics in the form of Oneiros and Scimitars is a fun challenge in lowsec, while the Sleipnir is the nastiest ship I’ve flown for fast moving small gangs. Regarding the sleip: it’s fun to enjoy faction mods coupled with a skill intensive T2 ships. Their synergy is impressive.
With Aggressive Dissonance out of the picture, my PvP has shifted: nullsec is usually solo focused, while lowsec trends toward small gangs as I pair with local pirates to take on larger or elusive opponents. Something Rotten corporation, based out of Istodard, has become something of a sister corporation to my own, as it’s an odd day that I don’t have at least one member of theirs in my gang, or myself in one of theirs. Indeed, the leader of Something Rotten [520], Dirty Protagonist, has managed to draw the pirate population of Molden Heath together. While they still engage in combat with each other, pirate corporations are able to communicate intel and band together to take on intruding organizations, such as anti pirates and nullsec alliances on lowsec holiday.
Overall, I’ve been involved in a lot of interesting action, switching up the groove every few weeks to try out different tactics, fittings or ships in PvP. I look forward to sharing my experience with these experiments, as I feel I’m ready to resume posting entries again.
• Active tanked battleships
• The Sleipnir
• Wardecs
• Combat boosters
• Pirate implants
• Logistics ships
I’m still based in Molden Heath, indeed making trips to other regions less frequently as I engage what’s available on my home turf. My corporation remains bone thin, though efforts at managing security status has allowed for forays into highsec space to engage war targets located there. I abandoned Aggressive Dissonance sometime in February, refocusing RANSM as a no blue lowsec PvP corporation. No hard feelings what so ever, as indeed I’ve missed having a reliable ‘big brother’ to call upon if something juicy comes around.
Along with combat boosters, I’ve been steadily skilling my main, finishing those ship skills whose hulls I find enjoyable to V (all sub caps bar T2 battleships and EAS). This has allowed me to enjoy command ships and logistics, which has led to some intensely enjoyable PvP over the past few months. Flying solo logistics in the form of Oneiros and Scimitars is a fun challenge in lowsec, while the Sleipnir is the nastiest ship I’ve flown for fast moving small gangs. Regarding the sleip: it’s fun to enjoy faction mods coupled with a skill intensive T2 ships. Their synergy is impressive.
With Aggressive Dissonance out of the picture, my PvP has shifted: nullsec is usually solo focused, while lowsec trends toward small gangs as I pair with local pirates to take on larger or elusive opponents. Something Rotten corporation, based out of Istodard, has become something of a sister corporation to my own, as it’s an odd day that I don’t have at least one member of theirs in my gang, or myself in one of theirs. Indeed, the leader of Something Rotten [520], Dirty Protagonist, has managed to draw the pirate population of Molden Heath together. While they still engage in combat with each other, pirate corporations are able to communicate intel and band together to take on intruding organizations, such as anti pirates and nullsec alliances on lowsec holiday.
Overall, I’ve been involved in a lot of interesting action, switching up the groove every few weeks to try out different tactics, fittings or ships in PvP. I look forward to sharing my experience with these experiments, as I feel I’m ready to resume posting entries again.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
armageddon roulette
Recently I have finished training Amarr Battleships to V, as well as the associated Large Energy Turret skill to V. These two events mark the completion of a desire sparked over a year ago, after watching Kil2’s debut PvP video, Armageddon. In honor of Kil2’s incredible success with Amarr BS, as a PvPer and EVE showman, I decided to acquire a few geddon hulls to sample what the race’s BS line had to offer.
The Armageddon offers an incredible turret platform for its price. Large pulse lasers hit out to 15km with short range ammo, yielding maximum damage at the very edge of short range weaponry. This, along with enough bandwidth for five heavy drones allows the geddon to constantly kite opponents while inflicting sickening damage. Combined with a utility highslot to accommodate a heavy neut, and enough lowslots to fit a tank and damage modules, the geddon represents perhaps the greatest combination of gank and tank against price to fit versus any other ship in EVE. Its only glaring weaknesses, lack of midslots and low signal strength are easily offset by intelligent positioning and pairing with support to counter enemy ECM.
My first chance to use the ship came after an interceptor roam into Great Wildlands turned sour, losing my Taranis to a RE-AL gate camp leading my gang of ceptors through one of RE-AL’s home systems. Returning to Molden Heath after over an hour of roaming with nothing to show for it, I decided to switch from the Huggin I opted for after losing my Taranis to a geddon, and give the MH loop a spin before docking for the night. The BS’s capacity for damage and tank would come in useful over the next half hour.
First blood came from a missioning Hurricane returning to Istodard from Half, its novice fitting falling quickly under large laser pressure. Waiting down GCC, our gang of two Taranises and my Geddon moved onwards to Bosena, where we were able to lock down and eliminate another novice pilot flying a Rupture. Waiting down our second GCC within 20 minutes, several pirates in local decided to taunt us, warping speed fit cruisers at range to celestials we idled at, however refused to engage.
After several minutes of playing cat and mouse with a pirate Ishtar and Cynabal, we managed to catch an eager Cyclone at the top belt of the system, drawing it into a slugging match against my Armageddon. The Cyclone attempted to close range with my battleship to spoil the tracking of my large turrets, however without a webifier to counter my own, the battlecruiser was only able to idle after my BS, taking the full force of my laser arsenal. Under the capacitor pressure of my neutralizer, the XL-booster tank of the Cyclone quickly crumbled.
The next day found me again roaming Molden Heath in my geddon, this time with only a Cheetah for support. After several minutes of scouting, a small gang of battlecruisers were spotted in Istodard, idling in deadspace adjacent to one of the stations in system. While probing, I was contacted by a pirate in one of the public channels I frequent, and was joined by a T1 fit Hurricane just as my alt finished probing the target battlecruisers out of their safespot. I quickly warped my gang onto the unsuspecting Drake and Hurricane, calling the enemy Hurricane primary. The Drake managed to warp out, condemning his friend to an ignoble demise. Just as the Hurricane began entering structure, the Drake returned with another Hurricane, and the battle was joined in earnest.
As the first Hurricane exploded, I called the newly arrived cane primary, and suggested overheating our weapons to hasten his destruction. It was a race against time to down the second cane before my comrade bit it himself. The enemy cane opted for a hefty dual 1600mm plate tank, hardened by explosive and kinetic hardeners. This left his armor wide open for a laser based platform to exploit, forming a nightmare scenario as my Dual Heavy Pulse Lasers bore down at optimal range. The enemy Hurricane flashed brilliantly only seconds before my associate was destroyed himself.
With only the Drake and my Armageddon left on the field, I was left with the amusing scenario of trying to run down a BC with a BS. Neither of us had fitted a speed boost module, and for the next minute and a half, the Drake attempted to make range while my geddon did its best to keep up. Eventually the Drake tired of the exercise, closed range with my battleship and was hastily blown apart, its bloated signature radius easy pickings for my large turrets. Loot scooped, I entertained the BC pilots roughly an hour longer, idling about their home station and warping in at various ranges, trying to incite another conflict. They had escalated to battleships, and refused to engage my lone geddon under sentries. Eventually moving off, I managed to snag an outlaw Hurricane off a gate with the help of a few friends, adding to the day’s tally before taking a break.
Later that night, I was joined by Lt Graham who wanted to try ECM for the first time. We headed over to Heild, and with the system brimming with activity, set to work attempting to tackle something willing to fight. Our first victim was a speed fit Zealot, who decided to afk at a safespot in a system full of pirates, a feat he won’t repeat with that ship. Minutes later, we managed to engineer an engagement with a pirate gang in the system, using my geddon as bait. After spotting an Arbitrator on scan, I warped to a planet at 20km, and had Graham hold off grid aligned to my location. Sure enough, the Arbitrator arrived at my planet 20km from me, and quickly moved to tackle my BS. The Arbitrator’s tracking disruptors were countered by my heavy drone flight and energy neutralizer, and with Graham’s support the EWAR cruiser was in dire straights. Roughly half way through the Arbitrator’s tank, an additional two Hurricanes arrived at the planet, along with a Falcon decloaking 40km from my position.
Graham was unable to jam the Falcon first; however I managed to engage the recon ship with my drone flight before losing lock. Armor peeled off my ship steadily, and unable to acquire a lock my position was becoming more and more desperate. Incredibly, the Falcon lost his jams on our ships after three cycles, in fact losing his ship to the group of Berserkers I engaged him with half a minute earlier. With the enemy recon removed from the field, Graham was able to assert himself once more, and incoming damage dropped significantly.
It wasn’t going to be enough to win the fight however, as at least one Hurricane was able to maintain sensor lock on my geddon and apply devastating projectile ordinance across my ship. With the buffer on my battleship already depleted, my single LAR could not counter the DPS the pirate gang maintained. Aligning out, my only chance was to neut down the ships nearby and hope Graham could jam the rest and facilitate my escape. Incredibly, Graham kept failing with his racial jammer while a single off racial kept the second Hurricane placid. After a minute of jockeying, Graham’s Blackbird finally jammed both enemy battlecruisers and I made my way into warp.
As the only battleship in a small gang engaging in lowsec piracy, the experience hasn’t been without setbacks. Without support, a lone BS is easy pickings for groups of smaller ships to overcome, especially if enemy gangs maintain EWAR support as well. My first geddon loss was an attempt to bail out Graham, who has the worst of luck flying a blaster fit Ferox in lowsec.
Graham is able to find ideal ships to engage with his active tanked battlecruiser, however they always seem to have support nearby cloaked or off grid from his targets. Once he attempts to engage, the trap is sprung and he finds himself with little to do but watch his ship bleed out and die. This time, a Vagabond had managed to slip out of scrambler range, and summoned a Curse and Crow to down his beleaguered Ferox. Unfortunately, I was a system over off gate, having just destroyed a pirate Hoarder with my geddon. By the time I slowboated back to gate, jumped through and arrived on grid, Graham’s BC was bleeding structure and soon popped. I was then left with a two speed fit T2 cruisers and a Crow to contend with.
While the odds were entirely against me, I had a few advantages in the fight. The Curse neglected Tracking Disruptors in his fitting, opting for a stronger shield tank. This meant I would at least be able to hit out to disruptor range with my turrets, albeit without Scorch as I opted for a cheaper fitting. While the Curse was able to neut me, my heavy neut was able to do the same, and bolstered by a heavy cap booster far longer than the Curse could sustain under its effect. The Crow would lose all its capacitor immediately after venturing within 25km of me, and had to flee repeatedly from my approaching drone flight. Without Scorch crystals however, I wasn’t dealing enough damage to deter my aggressors, and was forced to rely on the hope I could neut down those ships still in range, disable their tackle and flee. Despite a second where I accomplished this task, I wasn’t able to jam warp in time, and lost the ship.
More recently, I had decided to engage the bait of a Bastards gang in Heild, destroying the Stabber they tempted me with though rapidly finding myself TDed by an Arbitrator, jammed by a Blackbird and under heavy fire from a pair of Thoraxes. With the help of a friend in a Jaguar and my drone flight, I was able to force the BB off grid, however by then the Thoraxes had established a tight orbit around my BS to foil my tracking, and the Arbitrator’s EWAR allowed him to range tank any return fire from my laser arsenal. Again, I was forced to attempt to neut down those ships tackling me, though an abundance of scramblers made this a futile effort.
Even with the two losses, the fitting I employed meant I was losing only 15 million isk a ship, while having a blast flying a battleship regularly in lowsec for the first time in over a year. The hull is so cheap and insurable that I can casually engage any force that seems approachable and treat resulting losses with flippant indifference. It’s truly a great ship for the risky small gang and solo combat I frequently engage in, able to fly alongside T1 hulls smaller than it with similar or even less ISK investment.
The Armageddon offers an incredible turret platform for its price. Large pulse lasers hit out to 15km with short range ammo, yielding maximum damage at the very edge of short range weaponry. This, along with enough bandwidth for five heavy drones allows the geddon to constantly kite opponents while inflicting sickening damage. Combined with a utility highslot to accommodate a heavy neut, and enough lowslots to fit a tank and damage modules, the geddon represents perhaps the greatest combination of gank and tank against price to fit versus any other ship in EVE. Its only glaring weaknesses, lack of midslots and low signal strength are easily offset by intelligent positioning and pairing with support to counter enemy ECM.
My first chance to use the ship came after an interceptor roam into Great Wildlands turned sour, losing my Taranis to a RE-AL gate camp leading my gang of ceptors through one of RE-AL’s home systems. Returning to Molden Heath after over an hour of roaming with nothing to show for it, I decided to switch from the Huggin I opted for after losing my Taranis to a geddon, and give the MH loop a spin before docking for the night. The BS’s capacity for damage and tank would come in useful over the next half hour.
First blood came from a missioning Hurricane returning to Istodard from Half, its novice fitting falling quickly under large laser pressure. Waiting down GCC, our gang of two Taranises and my Geddon moved onwards to Bosena, where we were able to lock down and eliminate another novice pilot flying a Rupture. Waiting down our second GCC within 20 minutes, several pirates in local decided to taunt us, warping speed fit cruisers at range to celestials we idled at, however refused to engage.
After several minutes of playing cat and mouse with a pirate Ishtar and Cynabal, we managed to catch an eager Cyclone at the top belt of the system, drawing it into a slugging match against my Armageddon. The Cyclone attempted to close range with my battleship to spoil the tracking of my large turrets, however without a webifier to counter my own, the battlecruiser was only able to idle after my BS, taking the full force of my laser arsenal. Under the capacitor pressure of my neutralizer, the XL-booster tank of the Cyclone quickly crumbled.
The next day found me again roaming Molden Heath in my geddon, this time with only a Cheetah for support. After several minutes of scouting, a small gang of battlecruisers were spotted in Istodard, idling in deadspace adjacent to one of the stations in system. While probing, I was contacted by a pirate in one of the public channels I frequent, and was joined by a T1 fit Hurricane just as my alt finished probing the target battlecruisers out of their safespot. I quickly warped my gang onto the unsuspecting Drake and Hurricane, calling the enemy Hurricane primary. The Drake managed to warp out, condemning his friend to an ignoble demise. Just as the Hurricane began entering structure, the Drake returned with another Hurricane, and the battle was joined in earnest.
As the first Hurricane exploded, I called the newly arrived cane primary, and suggested overheating our weapons to hasten his destruction. It was a race against time to down the second cane before my comrade bit it himself. The enemy cane opted for a hefty dual 1600mm plate tank, hardened by explosive and kinetic hardeners. This left his armor wide open for a laser based platform to exploit, forming a nightmare scenario as my Dual Heavy Pulse Lasers bore down at optimal range. The enemy Hurricane flashed brilliantly only seconds before my associate was destroyed himself.
With only the Drake and my Armageddon left on the field, I was left with the amusing scenario of trying to run down a BC with a BS. Neither of us had fitted a speed boost module, and for the next minute and a half, the Drake attempted to make range while my geddon did its best to keep up. Eventually the Drake tired of the exercise, closed range with my battleship and was hastily blown apart, its bloated signature radius easy pickings for my large turrets. Loot scooped, I entertained the BC pilots roughly an hour longer, idling about their home station and warping in at various ranges, trying to incite another conflict. They had escalated to battleships, and refused to engage my lone geddon under sentries. Eventually moving off, I managed to snag an outlaw Hurricane off a gate with the help of a few friends, adding to the day’s tally before taking a break.
Later that night, I was joined by Lt Graham who wanted to try ECM for the first time. We headed over to Heild, and with the system brimming with activity, set to work attempting to tackle something willing to fight. Our first victim was a speed fit Zealot, who decided to afk at a safespot in a system full of pirates, a feat he won’t repeat with that ship. Minutes later, we managed to engineer an engagement with a pirate gang in the system, using my geddon as bait. After spotting an Arbitrator on scan, I warped to a planet at 20km, and had Graham hold off grid aligned to my location. Sure enough, the Arbitrator arrived at my planet 20km from me, and quickly moved to tackle my BS. The Arbitrator’s tracking disruptors were countered by my heavy drone flight and energy neutralizer, and with Graham’s support the EWAR cruiser was in dire straights. Roughly half way through the Arbitrator’s tank, an additional two Hurricanes arrived at the planet, along with a Falcon decloaking 40km from my position.
Graham was unable to jam the Falcon first; however I managed to engage the recon ship with my drone flight before losing lock. Armor peeled off my ship steadily, and unable to acquire a lock my position was becoming more and more desperate. Incredibly, the Falcon lost his jams on our ships after three cycles, in fact losing his ship to the group of Berserkers I engaged him with half a minute earlier. With the enemy recon removed from the field, Graham was able to assert himself once more, and incoming damage dropped significantly.
It wasn’t going to be enough to win the fight however, as at least one Hurricane was able to maintain sensor lock on my geddon and apply devastating projectile ordinance across my ship. With the buffer on my battleship already depleted, my single LAR could not counter the DPS the pirate gang maintained. Aligning out, my only chance was to neut down the ships nearby and hope Graham could jam the rest and facilitate my escape. Incredibly, Graham kept failing with his racial jammer while a single off racial kept the second Hurricane placid. After a minute of jockeying, Graham’s Blackbird finally jammed both enemy battlecruisers and I made my way into warp.
As the only battleship in a small gang engaging in lowsec piracy, the experience hasn’t been without setbacks. Without support, a lone BS is easy pickings for groups of smaller ships to overcome, especially if enemy gangs maintain EWAR support as well. My first geddon loss was an attempt to bail out Graham, who has the worst of luck flying a blaster fit Ferox in lowsec.
Graham is able to find ideal ships to engage with his active tanked battlecruiser, however they always seem to have support nearby cloaked or off grid from his targets. Once he attempts to engage, the trap is sprung and he finds himself with little to do but watch his ship bleed out and die. This time, a Vagabond had managed to slip out of scrambler range, and summoned a Curse and Crow to down his beleaguered Ferox. Unfortunately, I was a system over off gate, having just destroyed a pirate Hoarder with my geddon. By the time I slowboated back to gate, jumped through and arrived on grid, Graham’s BC was bleeding structure and soon popped. I was then left with a two speed fit T2 cruisers and a Crow to contend with.
While the odds were entirely against me, I had a few advantages in the fight. The Curse neglected Tracking Disruptors in his fitting, opting for a stronger shield tank. This meant I would at least be able to hit out to disruptor range with my turrets, albeit without Scorch as I opted for a cheaper fitting. While the Curse was able to neut me, my heavy neut was able to do the same, and bolstered by a heavy cap booster far longer than the Curse could sustain under its effect. The Crow would lose all its capacitor immediately after venturing within 25km of me, and had to flee repeatedly from my approaching drone flight. Without Scorch crystals however, I wasn’t dealing enough damage to deter my aggressors, and was forced to rely on the hope I could neut down those ships still in range, disable their tackle and flee. Despite a second where I accomplished this task, I wasn’t able to jam warp in time, and lost the ship.
More recently, I had decided to engage the bait of a Bastards gang in Heild, destroying the Stabber they tempted me with though rapidly finding myself TDed by an Arbitrator, jammed by a Blackbird and under heavy fire from a pair of Thoraxes. With the help of a friend in a Jaguar and my drone flight, I was able to force the BB off grid, however by then the Thoraxes had established a tight orbit around my BS to foil my tracking, and the Arbitrator’s EWAR allowed him to range tank any return fire from my laser arsenal. Again, I was forced to attempt to neut down those ships tackling me, though an abundance of scramblers made this a futile effort.
Even with the two losses, the fitting I employed meant I was losing only 15 million isk a ship, while having a blast flying a battleship regularly in lowsec for the first time in over a year. The hull is so cheap and insurable that I can casually engage any force that seems approachable and treat resulting losses with flippant indifference. It’s truly a great ship for the risky small gang and solo combat I frequently engage in, able to fly alongside T1 hulls smaller than it with similar or even less ISK investment.
Friday, January 1, 2010
december
It’s been a long time with no writing. Fortunately for my audience, individuals within ERIS have taken to reading my blag and have been nagging me over vent to quit slacking. Forgive this gladiator his idling: my new year’s resolution shall be to forgo my scholarly and familial obligations to deliver to you quality PvP reports, analysis and stratgery on a daily basis. Well, something like that.
The time since my last post has been good to me. I’ve been able to form a rough basis of what I wish to do in the coming months. Intriguingly, my intentions for 2010 reach back to my explorations into PvP December of 2008, around when I first began this enterprise of small gang piracy and blagging. Hopefully this year I can maintain a tempo for myself that supports consistent action without the eventual EVE burnout which often follows.
Planned for the new year:
- Active recruitment
- Fitting/piloting experimentation
- Increased small gang activities
- W-hole exploration/exploitation
- PvP blagging competitions
- Lowsec PvP promotions
- RP writing
Further explanation with future posts. I hope everyone had fantastic winter solstice celebrations with friends and family, and are looking forward to this new year with as much elation as myself!
The time since my last post has been good to me. I’ve been able to form a rough basis of what I wish to do in the coming months. Intriguingly, my intentions for 2010 reach back to my explorations into PvP December of 2008, around when I first began this enterprise of small gang piracy and blagging. Hopefully this year I can maintain a tempo for myself that supports consistent action without the eventual EVE burnout which often follows.
Planned for the new year:
- Active recruitment
- Fitting/piloting experimentation
- Increased small gang activities
- W-hole exploration/exploitation
- PvP blagging competitions
- Lowsec PvP promotions
- RP writing
Further explanation with future posts. I hope everyone had fantastic winter solstice celebrations with friends and family, and are looking forward to this new year with as much elation as myself!
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