Well-i have been working a lot these past 10 days and have hardly been able to get online during the same times as the American contingent-its been late evening into the early hours of the morning down here in Sydney-Nlor has been on a couple of times and spent an hour or two flying around with Zee up round the Providence/Catch border area.
Zee has decided to leave Aurelius and ill be sad to see him go-genuinely-even tho’ you mostly communicate through typing away i always thought he a good fella and you’d get a good vibe.On our wee tour he was telling me a little why he was thinking of moving to another Corporation-one that is based closer to the Border area than Aurelius-wholly in 0.0 space(Aurelius’ AoO encompasses a few low-sec systems before you hit 0.0 which can be very frustrating as its not ideal for PvP unless you sitting in well buffered Battleships or Battlecruisers as defence against Sentry guns).Anyways-i think im right in surmising that he is looking for more frequent “Corp/Gang/Fleet Combat Ops.”…..when i was flying with him the day before he left and he explaining it to me he was making a lot of sense about his reasons and i wish him all the best right up in the trenches.
When i have been on its been the very late evenings down here in Australia so there been no-one on from Aurelius except Nlor a couple of times-i tried some plexing-did some ratting….meh!…i spent best part of two years doing that and i cant face it anymore except when i need a fast injection of isk…so i have decided to go all out and commit to PvP for the next few weeks at least.Since joining AuF and moving to 0.0 i have found myself involved in PvP on a fair few occasions-some alliance and Corp. roams but nothing regular..either its the TZ thing working against it or the W space expedition took me out of the area for a good long time…i would take the Falcon on solo roams round the active systems but this was always just Recon. work-making warp points-figuring out how the ship flies..getting used to jumping through Gate Camps…watching other engagements while cloaked to see what was what but it definitely think its something you need to do regular and not just be a dilletante…practice-learn from mistakes-learn what works.
Sooo…how i been doing?
Up until yesterday i thought i was doing GREAT!!….first solo kill!!-well,i didnt get the KM but im treating it as my 1st solo!…in Citadel had a report of a solo red attacking a Ratter in system GN7…the Blue guy lost his Battlecruiser by the time i got there but there was info. that the Red had jumped to the next system F-DTOO a system i know well and knew that it was a dead -end so i set up on the gate to F-DTOO in GN7 and waited.I had no intel on what Boat the Red was flying but was expecting something like a Vagabond.After a couple of minutes i saw the gate flash and the Red appeared on my overview panel….amazingly he had landed about 5000m away from where i was stationed so i hit lock and had him snared and Warp Scrambled in seconds- and amazingly not a Vaga but a Taranis Interceptor..as i realised this guy was gonna be fast i hit the MWD and started moving towards him trying to keep him in my 9000m Scram range…hit my Jammers….sent out the Drones…and started launching Navy Heavies at him……………ehhhhh hold on?….Navy Heavies on a Falcon??!!….you lying scumbag Ajax-now i know you making this up you noob.
Ahhh…did i forget to telll you about my new Boat?-i finally bit the bullet and got myself a ROOK.Anyway-more on that later.
So yeah-the Taranis was heading for the scrapyard..i lost warp scram at one point for a few seconds but the pilot mustnt have realised it and i was able to close again and re-tackle him.He was Scrammed Jammed Droned and Shelled and i hadnt taken a single hit.
Why didnt i get the KM?….when the ‘Ranis was in about 20% structure another Blue appeared on the gate in a Pilgrim-he let loose his drones and got the KM after doing something like 100 damage…same thing with the pod..i had the pod scrammed and the buggers drones took that as well.At the time i dont think he even realised it and i certainly didnt..got a “GJ:)” message from the blue in local but was only after a couple of minutes and an empty combat log box that the penny started to drop.
Anyways-I’M counting it as my first solo so yous can all get stuffed!!
For a few minutes i thought about Convoing the Blue guy and calling him a poaching sonofabitch-he also from LFA which as an Alliance i cant be doing with as a rule-but thought that would show a distinct lack of decorum and on checking out the Blues bio and record i saw that he didnt even have ANY kills at all-not even blobs-so looks like this was his first ever.
As for the Ratter losing a BC to a Taranis?….this Red Pilot was no noob-he has somethin like 700+ kills and 100 losses and the BC guy was exclaiming in local later that his BC “wasnt set up for PvP!”
-I laughed.
Now…the Rook.Its a Blackbird on Steroids.
5 Launcher slots-7 Mid slots and 3 Lows.5 heavy Missile Launchers…a full rack of Racial Jammers(4-one for each race) Large Shield Extender,Invulnerability Field
(or Warp Scrambler),Microwarpdrive,BCU2,Signal Distortion Amp. and a PDS2(bah!!-gonna have to get advanced weapon upgrades to lvl 4 or 5 so i can drop this and get another Amp or BCU in).
I have been resisting getting one of these boats for a few months now-figuring i wanted to focus solely on ECM and the Falcon but as i told in my last post i am getting seriously jaded with Miss Falcon and her delicate ways-so i thought what the hell ill try the Rook.As of today ive had one 4 days and been in on 6 kills with it.
I love this boat!!
Ahem-ok i gotta own up now-i have lost 2 in 4 days too! hahaha.
However,in my defence only one of those losses i feel i can be blamed for-i went to the aid of another Ratter in Ziriert System who was being attacked by a solo Pilgrim-i got to the belt at 50km and immediately slammed a Jam on the Pilgrim,broke his locks and the Ratter was able to warp off to safety….now…defender of the weak and foolish job done i should have just warped off myself buuuut…i was 50km from this guy and feeling Ballsy-after all a Pilgrim isnt a Curse right?!I started hitting him with Heavies and his Shields pretty much melted and then started pounding on his armour which although wasnt melting i could see it was going down at a respectable rate…i had him Jammed but started to think…this guys just gonna warp off…so i hit the MWD and started burning the 50km towards him-BIG Mistake…as i approached i could see he had his drones out-out go mine too but i figure im well enough tanked to survive especially if i keep laying on the damage he not gonna last too long….he doesnt warp off and i get to 9000m and fire up the Warp Scrambler….now 50km MWD eats up your Cap and i noticed i was down to a 1/4 Cap left-not great but hey…this guys perma-jammed and if it goes bad ill just warp off ok…then in an instant i see my Cap disappears completely…huh?….the Jammers all close down and i find myself locked and Scrammed…wtf??!……Neutraliser Drones!!!!….whether ive just fcuked up so bad and handed myself on a plate and this guy cant believe his luck or as soon as he saw me MWD he knew i was giving him a golden opportunity i dont know but whatever-im dead in the water….reaching him with 1/4 Cap left has let his drones drain me out in record breaking time….with no Jam he turns whatever weapons he has on me and just pummels me into scrap.
Needless to say since then i have re-adjusted my overview settings to now show “FFS AJAX ITS THOSE NEUTRALISER DRONES GTFO!!!!!!!!!!”
Fair and square i messed up there-not a bleedin’ word of thanks in Local or Convo. from the neut. ratter whos ass i saved neither…grrrr!!!
The second Rook to go down…hmmmmm….i kinda think i gonna shovel some of the blame onto an unknown blue here(probably an LFA guy lol)…to keep it short engaged a Crusader on a gate in QBL system and i knew there was a blue gang on the other side…a couple of volleys of Heavies knocked the Crusader into 1/2 armour(the Rooks lock times are astounding) but he warped off..i let the aggro timer expire and jumped through the gate to where this blue gang was stationed.A minute later the Crusader jumps through….someone in blue gang lets up a Bubble….everyone is caught inside this bubble as id stayed cloaked after jumping-checking out the Blue gang composition and watching Citadel………….then the system spikes with Reds entering from another gate…in seconds there are at least 8 or 9 Red ships pounding away and im stuck uncloaked in the bubble….i figure that i was called Primary as i know i have 4 boats jammed at one time but the boat lasts maybe 15-20 seconds as i take damage from the rest.
Ah well…C’est La Guerre.
Soo…im seriously liking this Boat when all is said and done-as long as im careful about what targets i go after-to fit the Scram i have had to drop something from a mid-slot which so far has been the Invulnerability Field but a change in my thinking from “this is a Falcon with Launchers” to “this is a Cerberus with ECM” has seen me drop the Inv. Field,Signal Distortion Amp and the 2 Particle Projector Rigs for a small (0.4 something) drop in Jammer strength and around a 10km drop in Optimal and replace them with a DCU2 an EM Shield Rig and a Bay Loading Accelerator Rig to almost double my EHP and ramp up my missile spamming goodness even further …. with anything Cruiser sized and below i will probably have a go at solo-Curses and Pilgrims are a no-no as far as i am concerned for now! but i am desperate to snag me a Rapier..i hate those little fckers so will probably fire up on one of them whenever i see one without thinking things through first!
-and die.
Recon 5 finishes in 4 days time which gives me ANOTHER 30% boost to ECM Jammer strength to take it just under 14.0 then its Thermodynamics for overloading and another 20% bump to the Jammers and then the Advanced Weapon Upgrades for about 15 days so i can drop that PDU2 and get the SDA fitted again.The very last ECM skill i can train to 5 would take me 27 days and give something like a 0.45 increase in Jammer strength-i’d like to go for it just so i can truly say “i AM maxed out” but its not worth it atm.
Im supposing after that i should train T2 Heavy Missiles-its only somethin like 8 days training time-for a Caldari Pilot i suppose not having T2 Heavies sounds like insanity but once id got into a Battleship i just skilled up all the Missile Support and Targetting skills to mostly 5s and left the Heavies on the shelf for Cruises and Torps.
With faction shells i get respectable DPS and i have been reading that in fact Faction shells in practice are better than T2 due to having better “explosion radius” or something(i know what it is and how it works just cant remember the exact term atm)…the T2 launchers ROF bonus is the only reason i can see for training but again in practice my support skills are almost so complete that i can spit these Heavies out at a hell of a rate with a “Limos” Launcher-”Arbies” are just too expensive for the rate at which i go through boats!- and once Recon 5 is done the secondary role bonus is gonna see the Shells ranging out to approx 120km………Anti-Falcon Rook anyone??
There been a few other engagements during the week pre-Rook….Falcon jammed a couple of targets that went bang and amazingly survived!.Took the Scorpion out solo and had a great time…its a great Boat too….tried to save ANOTHER ratter from an Ishkur but was just too late…got a jam on the Ishkur let him come to me..i think he was going to have a serious pop at me with his Drones…let him get to 25km then set all 3 T2 Heavy Neuts on him….he fled.Same thing with a Vagabond-spoke with the Vaga pilot in local and he was liking it a lot….definitely a WTF! moment for him…sucked him dry in seconds.Mind you later on i lost the Scorp. at a gate-because of a Curse and a Rook…kudos to the 2 Pilots tho’…they got me really good….the Curse musta had an ECCM module active as i had 5 jammers on him and not one would fire-my own ECCM was saving me from the Rooks jamming attempts but the Curse was doing a good job of draining my Cap-i fired up my 3 Heavy Neuts on him but as the cycle came to its end i panicked at how low my own cap was getting and turned them off-although they awesome Mods they are very Cap Heavy….if id let them continue another cycle i have a feeling the Curse itself woulda been drained-as it was he drained me…lost my ECCM module-Rook was then able to Jam me out-Cerberus appeared and i was subjected to a lengthy pounding by all 3 and a couple more that were there…prolly a Rapier!!!!!
Lesson for the week?
Stay the fcuk away from Curses and Pilgrims.
WTB-Curse.
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