Hunting for Pew Pew

First Implants

2011-12-01T17:30:00.007+01:00

There he was, 2000m from the station slowly crawling in.

Victim: Mad Morris
Corp: Friends Of Harassment [.SPAM]
Destroyed: Capsule
Name: Panthe Tek (laid the final blow)

Destroyed items:
Ocular Filter - Standard (18.1mio ISK)
Neural Boost - Standard (17.9mio ISK)

Big up for this patch!

Next on the wish list: mount his corpse for display on my ship's front.

Rixx Javix is following you on Twitter!

2011-08-10T16:12:00.000+02:00

Today I got mail notification out of the blue.

Rixx Javix @RixxJavix is now following you (@panthetek).

Just when you think you are at peace with the universe, this happens.

How did he find me?
What did I do?

T2 items you should avoid using

2011-05-25T16:58:00.132+02:00

There are so many PvP pilots who use the 1mn MicroWarpdrive II, or ECCM II. When looking at Killboards, it makes me grind my teeth. They're actually worse than their Meta-variant counterpart in various aspects and equal in others. Of course, sometimes the top metavariants are impossible to afford, so what is this about?

We all know the Medium Unstable Power Fluctuator, the Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler or the Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor for millions and millions of ISK. Usually we just rejoice when they fall into our lap.

But sometimes the meta-variants actually are better and cheaper. Here's a small motivational list, by no means complete, ordered by how much it makes me angry to see them fitted on the ship of a say-so experienced pilot.

T2 Module	Best Named Meta-variant Module	Comment
1mn MicroWarpdrive II 1.01mio ISK	Catalyzed Cold-gas I Arcjet Thrusters 0.08mio ISK	There is no reason on God's green earth to intentionally gimp your ship with the T2 MWD. It needs more grid and cpu, it uses up more capacitor when activated, and as a result you hit a dead cap earlier. The only bonus, namely more total capacitor capacity, cancels itself out by the amount it needs to activate per cycle. Extremely rare allowances are heard to be given for dual-prop frigs to get that 1% more for a stable cap. But no, not for you.
10mn MicroWarpDrive II 1.6mio ISK	Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I MicroWarpdrive 0.05mio ISK	Did I not insult you enough yet? Well then, guess what. The same thing applies for Cruisers and Battlecruisers. If you're using it for kiting you'll run out of cap earlier, if you're using it for stationary fleet fights at gates in some heavily tanked ship you'll won't need the 2% more stable cap since you'll have a cap booster installed anyways. If you're using it for kiting with a cap booster you will get more MWD cycles per cap charge used from the meta-variant. Making the tiny bit extra capacitor regeneration of the T2 negligible.
ECCM - Radar II 1.25mio ISK	Prototype ECCM I Radar Sensor Cluster 0.07mio ISK	This is valid for all the racial ECCM modules, the Amarr radar just serves as an example. The meta variant needs significantly less CPU and a bit less cap to activate. The sensor strength boost is the same. Better than T2 in all aspects.
Small Energy Neutralizer II 1.2mio ISK	Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I 0.9mio ISK	The same value for less money. New: now with less cpu and powergrid flavour! Since small neuts are often fitted on Frigs and Cruisers alike, over time the benefit of this choice could net you enough money to buy a shiny new faction convertible.
Small Nosferatu II 1.3mio ISK	Small Diminishing Power System Drain I 0.7mio ISK	The meta-variant gets you the same cap bonus. It needs less powergrid to fit, has the same range, and it costs less. Proven better in all aspects again, yey, saving money for the convertible!
Heavy Energy Neutralizer II 2.2mio ISK	Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I 0.25mio ISK	The only battleship mod in the list. Even with the skill Energy Emission Systems trained to V, reducing cap usage of neuts to a minimum it is still better to use the cheap meta variant for less powergrid and cpu usage, and equal performance at a lower price. Do I sound like an Indian salesman or what? Was this racist?

I'm fine with all the other Tech 2 modules though. Great stuff, you'll get your money's worth, recommend it to your families.

It's just, on a particular note, one meta item really gets me going every time. Dear Rifter pilots, please stop fitting Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters on your ship. Unless you really, really want to throw it away to bait for an - IT'S A TARP!

Capital Killmail

2011-05-23T23:51:00.005+02:00

Thanatos Carrier: Increasing the sensationalism of this post by factor 100.
Somebody else took that picture, cough.

I had my capital killmail cherry popped and I didn't even know about it? Wtf!

http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=8376909

Yeah it's not fitted, minnie pilot's fault. I must have warped out my interceptor due to the supporting fleet (bravely, under heavy fire, with 1% structure left) before it exploded.

Damn those hectic nights in Militia !

Suddenly killmails - what changed? Part 3

2011-05-19T15:33:00.001+02:00

Edit 19/05/2001:
Blogger crashed and lost data, and even though they said so on Twitter they failed to restore all the lost posts. Then I fought back by restoring this lengthy post from memory, bit by bit. So, what have you been up to in the last 2 weeks?
That also means the quiz for the Claw is back on, see the bottom of the post.

Welcome to installment no. #3 of Suddenly Killmails. As in the parts before and before that let's focus on what you can do to get solo kills in todays high-tech, highly trained pirate low-sec environment, without getting blobbed to death by implant-hogging, T3-boosting, group-hugging freaks.

Both previous installments were dedicated to honorable 1v1 fighting. For one because you have no blob to call for backup, because you're a cool kid, and of course because you would never do such a horrible thing. Well maybe not.

This installment however is intended to be used as a guide when there's no juicy solo targets around to gank. Let's assume for a moment that all that is floating around is obvious bait, you know it, the bait knows it, everyone in local knows it, and you know you will get blobbed to Rens and back if you dare to engage. So we will alter the rules of engagement.

This situation often presented itself to me in highly frequented systems like Amamake. This installment is about cleaning high-density solar systems of unwanted space junk, either motivating them to leave or converting them into neat killmails. Henceforth called:

Cleaning up the Space Lanes, or Sniping 101

Zealot: Often fielded Fleet-Sniper-HAC, which is the fitting we're adapting

What you need:

Sniper HAC
Covert Ops (~~optional~~, ~~highly recommended~~, mandatory)

Starting with the most important part, the Sniper HAC. By pure number-crunching the Zealot is preferrable by a small bit. Other people swear on the Muninn and it's nice alpha damage. Since I have the most practical experience with a Zealot I'll focus on what I know. Near insta-lock targeting times combined with 340dps over 136km is a good instrument to kill bait from a distance. Which results in the hostile blob warping in too far away to be a danger, or being surprised not warping in at all. Which is a great time to lean back and smoke some pipe weed.

[Zealot, Cleaning up the spacelanes]

Heat Sink II

Heat Sink II

Heat Sink II

Signal Amplifier II

Tracking Enhancer II

Tracking Enhancer II

Tracking Enhancer II



Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive

Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution

Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution



Heavy Beam Laser II, Aurora M

Heavy Beam Laser II, Aurora M

Heavy Beam Laser II, Aurora M

Heavy Beam Laser II, Aurora M

Heavy Beam Laser II, Aurora M



Medium Ionic Field Projector I

Medium Ionic Field Projector I

Since this tactic works, or is supposed to work without tackle an enemy target can easily warp off when the first 2-3 salvos don't kill it. On Frigates and Shuttles this tactic works just fine. Even more so if the enemy is multi-boxing, has baited for a long time, is busy shouting at his fleet mates to warp in at what distance, or doesn't pay attention continously.

So your standard tactic includes a cloaked CovertOps in the target area. This is where you multiboxing does not just come in handy, it is essential. Scanning an area with D-Scan even in a 5 degree beam will not tell you how far the potential target is away from your warp-in point or bookmark. If you warp in at a pounce spot 300km off a stargate, measure the distance from the target to the next warp-lockable object and warp in at 100km, your target will see you coming for a long time and can react appropriatly before you can fire your first salvo.

Covert Ops, or Your Scout

Cheetah: The CovOps with the fastest base speeds for moving to warp-in points while cloaked (654m/s).

Step 1, you have your HAC in a safespot, repeatedly checking you're not being probed down. Meanwhile you search for targets in your CovOps. How to fly a cloaked ship and reduce the chance of getting exposed is a lot of material for another chapter, the Unwritten Extensive Compendium To Elude Your Enemies. Until then let us assume you know how not to die in a cloaked ship. If you do know, please let me know too?

Step 2, you found a target. The first step will be moving in your CovOps to a maximum of 90km of your target, and stabilize after that. The easiest way to stabilize is by using the "Keep Distance" command. Then it's time to look at what angle your HAC will come from.

If you like to always fire from maximum distance it's best to exit warp in one line with your CovOps to your target. For example, start your warp near the same celestical your CovOps did before he spotted the target, then you will exit in the same angle making distance calculation easier while having zero risk of uncloaking your little helper. So when your CovOps is at 90km, you click on it in fleet and warp to it at 10km distance, and can rely on exiting warp at 100km to your target. Don't tell anyone I copied that complex example from the Amarr University Of Advanced Mathematical Studies.

Step 3, engage spider fingers to activate all modules simoultaneously like in Ghost in the Shell. The enemy has seen you and the clock is running. The faster you are now, the better your chances of success. This message is sponsored and brought to you by Keyboard Shortcuts™.

Overheat your laz0rs before you exit warp
When exiting warp, activate both sensor boosters
Target your enemy
Fire your laz0rs and provoke unfair/range/nerdrage comments in local
Align to your bookmark/celestial of escape
Fireworks?

Depending on what you engage you might want to use that MicroWarpdrive. Slower speed means you will hit better, especially smaller targets. On the other hand a Dramiel burning for you might motivate you to a few overheated MWD cycles to buy you a few seconds time during which you can shoot more / find the bookmark you were aligning to with great haste.

If you pull this off as a pirate in Lowsec, here is a bit of yarr wisdom. The small time window needed for Frigates and Shuttles to pop allows you to engage within range of sentry guns on a non-criminal/non-war-target. The Zealot sniper HAC is a glass cannon which will shatter and explode after taking very few hits. To make this more exciting, it has no drones. But it is totally manageable to warp off in deep armor/high hull after a frigate, foolishly believed protected by sentry guns, explodes.

PS: For you needy bastards that don't have enough with 136km, here is what I undock from my hangar when things are a bit more demanding. First one who guesses it's effective range correctly (and thus the EVE max range) and posts it into the comment section wins a Claw.

[Apocalypse, Long arm of the law]

Heat Sink II

Heat Sink II

Heat Sink II

Heat Sink II

Signal Amplifier II

Reactor Control Unit II

Reactor Control Unit II



Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution

Sensor Booster II

Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range

Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range



Tachyon Beam Laser II, Aurora L

Tachyon Beam Laser II, Aurora L

Tachyon Beam Laser II, Aurora L

Tachyon Beam Laser II, Aurora L

Tachyon Beam Laser II, Aurora L

Tachyon Beam Laser II, Aurora L

Tachyon Beam Laser II, Aurora L

Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I



Large Energy Locus Coordinator I

Large Energy Locus Coordinator I

Large Energy Locus Coordinator I





Hornet EC-300 x5

Warrior II x10

Search terms that brought people here

2011-04-20T15:30:00.000+02:00

Because it's so funny to go through search engine hits that directed readers to this rarely updated, low quality, time waster wannabe-blog, I thought I'd share it with you.

Panthe
Well. What puzzles me most is how do you know my name? Are you from the CIA?

Endless Space
Space is endless, you're right on. Technically EVE has only 5.201 solar systems though, adding another few hundred or so wormholes to that.

Space Lonely
Say what now?

Revan Neferis
Say who now? I've never even heard that name, nor written about it. According to this he's a swedish player active back in 2006. Google says there's also a cocktail by that name, check your nearest bartender for the recipe. I bet it's delicious.

Eve Online Kronos
A while back a 30bil Kronos got suicided. I didn't think people would care.

Best Amarr Solo Pvp Shit Cheap
I'll not be offended and simply rephrase that to 'ship cheap'. You can die in cheap Amarrian ships with great pleasure, referencing to the Punisher. Maybe that was what the 'shit' search term was for. It's capabilities are somewhat limited so when you've had enough of that, ask google for the SAR Rifter. It's life-changing! Like the iPhone 4 for hipsters.

Harbinger EVE
I concur, there is a Harbinger in EVE. If you came here for fittings, you've come to the right place - I have something in the works that, taking recent blogging activity into account, it will be published by 2013. I recommend the lazy approach by subscribing to the RSS feed.

The 0 Meter Radius
If you're looking for an option to 'set manual orbit' to 0 meters, you will be disappointed. The only way to get closer is manual orbiting, achieved by wildly double-clicking in empty space.
The second possible meaning of the 0 meter radius could be the invisible sphere around every big and small object, that determines your 'real' distance to it. This is solely used for interaction (jump, dock, etc.) as well as weapon ranges. This distance is not used for collision detection, best experienced on Caldari Ishukone stations with huge undocks. If you're into scientifics, here's plenty of it. A good read for veterans too.

Warp Disruptor Overload Start
I strongly recommend it.
Seriously, in reference to the incredible Navy Slicer.

Nano Battlecruiser

2011-03-25T18:53:00.000+01:00

System: Sarum Prime
Sec Rating: 1.0
Panthe Tek's Sec Status: -2.19

Note to self:
Nano-BCs and Faction Navies do not mix.

My first POS bash

2011-03-04T20:14:00.000+01:00

My Apocalypse in deadly afk-mode.

Get Battleship.
Rape it with an anti-peeveepee capstable fitting.
Load Multifrequency L crystals.
Hit F1.
Go afk.
Take a shower.
Have dinner.
Watch an episode of Scrubs with your girlfriend.
Watch another.
Watch another.
Visit your computron, check your screen and notice that the tower's shield health bar has possibly moved by a pixel, not sure if it did shrink or grow.
Watch an episode of Scrubs with your girlfriend.
Watch a movie with your girlfriend.
Watch a second movie your sleeping girlfriend would not watch with you.
Fall asleep.
Wake up.
Stretch.
Go brush your teeth.
Check your screen to see the shield health bar has fallen below 15%.
Whee, time to log!
Go get a good night's sleep.

Shooting Gallery

2011-02-28T15:38:00.000+01:00

Yey, what's that? There's 8 unpublished drafts in my blog. Long walls of text, shiny pictures, linky links, funny quotes. That's like 50.000 words. It's all there, why did I never push the publish button? That's right, I wanted to iron out that one detail that I then forgot about when I started to work on my next post.

I bet every blogger has a graveyard like that and refuses to admit it. Admit it, now! But it does not matter. The reign of zombie posts is over, behold! For it is time for resurrection.

Resurrection I say !

Back in in the day of September, 2010. Considering statistics for a moment, the weather was probably bad. I undocked in Amamake for some fun without any big plans, to roam some systems for the heck of it. Hopped into my Zealot for a quick snoop around.

Zealot: My current sniping instrument of choice.

However, in local mattbucci complained he didn't have enough ammo to bring down a tackled Maelstrom in the top belt. Hello, bait? But no fleet came to the rescue. So I helped to liberate the crew of the Maelstrom by helping the Rupture to kill it, all from a safe distance in my sniper HAC - just in case the Rupture turns on me too, this being Amamake and all.

One D-Scan later somebody baited with a Burst at a station, on 20km auto-orbit. I sniped it too and checked what was coming - nothing. The character was only one day old, and the Burst was cheaply fitted for probing and analyzing/hacking complexes. I guess before it popped it belonged to one of the seasoned Amamake guys to bait something in, much like this fella.

Burst: 1-day-old character, disposable bait

D-Scan, check. An Osprey. That guy was weird. "MINING IN MY AMAMAKE?" Targie McRed said. "I'm cool with that." he added. Well, apparently I'm not cool with weird ships cause I have troubles analyzing their intent! This guy was something else, I locked him, started orbiting and gave him 2mins to warp off. He chose not to and continued mining, while I was in my paper-thin Navy Slicer. Because I thought it was a mean trap with 20x Ogre II drones waiting to spew forth from it's dronebay, I chickened out and came back in a cruiser - and he still didn't warp off. So out of disrespect for my pew ships, I blasted him. He fitted it like a true T2 mining vessel. This being Amamake, I wonder what he was thinking?

Osprey: awesome boni for confusing your enemy.

After that I started chasing an innocent Incursus at the Huola gate in Amamake - I love chasing frigs in drone boats - I lock him up, he locks me back and I chase him off 30km off the gate while he seems trying to flee with his Afterburner on. 30km off the gate I believed I had good chances to drone-him-to-death before he could get back to the gate. I was just about to launch my drones when ... three ships warp in on me at 10km distance. Big ships. Are they here for the gate, or for me? I get targeted multiple times, yellow boxes turning red. Alright, that answers that question. This time this guy got me. Legion, Armageddon, Loki. Overkill, thrice? The nice part is how long it took them to pop my Arbitrator. Combined dps of a Tech 3 and one Battleship: lengthy 30 seconds. See the comment below, lesson learned besides "obvious bait is obvious": never leave home without 1600mm Tungsten.

Arbitrator: the drone ship that still surprises me.

What followed was not a gf everyone. Local chat says:

El'Tar > nice tank lol

Panthe Tek > no, you just suck at dps.

Drek Grapper > hehe

Back to daily Amamake business, after fleeing in my pod from the notorious Rank #1 Battleclinic player El'tar/Garmon.

Hulkageddon IV

2011-02-25T19:59:00.002+01:00

Man the guns! - hulkageddon4.machine9.net

Yesterday was hard work, paired with nervousness and anxiety. In retrospective, it was a blast. And not just the picture of a decreasingly low framerate when CONCORD decides to pop 7 ships at once, anti-aliasing seems to make a doo doo and two out of four times the client slowly crashes in agony. Thank god the warp-in-pointing, loot-scooping, cov-opsing son of a gun character was on my second client that steadily held the line.

Other than that preparations were pretty straight forward. Get a destroyer or cruiser, fit it with the cheapest weapons, low-range max-damage ammo and damage enhancing modules you can find, obtain platinum insurance, and be ready to repeat the same thing in 15mins. Cause that's when CONCORD gets amnesia and you're free to kill again. Because you were such a good boy!

A tiny 222dps for just 0.3 million a pop.

Normally, serious suiciders would fit artillery on Minmatar vessels to alpha the shit out of whoever dares to mine during these holy days. We however are not serious people. During the roughly 14 seconds time window we had before CONCORD arrived it was max-dps-overload-anything-yes-even-the-toaster! Then alpha just didn't matter.

Behold, for it is time to present the booty. With so many warnings out and about you should think everyone is hiding in their holes. The directional scanner begs to differ. The system was Sharhelund (0.6).

After one got ganked the others continued to still mine away in the system, zero communication.

There were so many juicy targets to choose from. Even different mining ship types, to spice up our lifes further. We kept things tight though, held steady, and engaged Hulks only. For it is said, they are the fruit that hangs highest - they are the juiciest. Within only 2 hours 5 Hulks fell.

Killmails
Hulk #1
Hulk #2
Hulk #3
Hulk #4
Hulk #5

Combat Log

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:01 ] (notify) Keeping Mr Wharf's Hulk at range (2000m)

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:05 ] (warning) This action is an attack on your target. Attacking this target is a crime, will result in a security status penalty for you and will bring CONCORD to enforce the law by destroying your ship. CONCORD will kill you! Do you wish to proceed with this dangerous action?

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:06 ] (notify) For initiating combat your security status has been adjusted by -0.1578.

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:06 ] (notify) Panthe Tek, Criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:07 ] (combat) Your group of Medium Pulse Laser I is well aimed at Mr Wharf [FUCKT](Hulk), inflicting 152.3 damage.

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:12 ] (combat) Your group of Medium Pulse Laser I is well aimed at Mr Wharf [FUCKT](Hulk), inflicting 140.7 damage.

[ 2011.02.22 19:51:44 ] (notify) Medium Pulse Laser I deactivates as Mr Wharf [FUCKT] Hulk begins to explode.

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:17 ] (notify) For your part in the destruction of a Hulk your security status has been adjusted by -0.6315.

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:19 ] (combat) CONCORD Police Captain barely scratches you, causing 431.7 damage.

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:19 ] (combat) CONCORD Police Captain lightly hits you, doing 500.5 damage.

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:20 ] (notify) CONCORD Police Captain has started trying to warp scramble you!

[ 2011.02.22 20:30:28 ] (notify) You are already managing 0 targets, as many as your ship's electronics are capable of. <-- lol Cop ECM

[ 2011.02.22 20:30:30 ] (notify) Your ship is realigning its magnetic field, please wait a moment. <-- wtf

[ 2011.02.22 21:34:26 ] (notify) Ship is out of control <-- Police I-Win-Button

[ 2011.02.22 20:30:30 ] (notify) The ship you are piloting does not have targeting systems installed. <-- haha

Oh look, there is wreckage starting to show through!

CONCORD powers up the chain reaction ...

So many 'splosions! This is where the client rolls a dice wether to crash or not.

The dice rolled generously. Combat eggs to the rescue!

If Lady Shaniqua would see this she'd pop me a new one. KRIMINALZ!

Thank you to the locals from Wensley's Rifter Drifter channel. It's nice to be cheered on. Fun fact: Battleclinic now gave me the title Empire Dweller.

And the best part, we didn't even register for Hulkageddon. Consider it a free gift to be purged from thy unholy mining vessel during the days of God Hulkageddon. On a similar note: new record suicide?

Faction Warfare

2010-11-23T12:46:00.001+01:00

Prologue: Thank you Sobczsynski for asking me about an article on Faction Warfare. Getting asked can actually get me motivated!

Q: What does a solo PvP guy in Low-sec motivate to participate in Faction Warfare?
A: More targets to shoot at.

To me Faction Warfare (FW) is a new experiment to bling bling up my EVE life. Every time I login I look at my wallet and decide to either go a) PvP or b) earn money to PvP. Thankfully I'm currently losing very few ships (oh God now I jinxed it!) so I always go for option a).

Recently I've joined the Amarr Empire and fight in the regions Domain (Amarr), The Bleak Lands (partially contested), Heimatar (Minmatar), against Minmatar and Gallente pilots during European timezones.

Overview of my corner of the Amarr/Minmatar conflict, with heavy focus on: Kourmonen, Huola, Auga, Siseide, Amamake.

As a PvP'er always on the hunt in Low-sec means spotting targets in belts when I'm flying Frigates, and sometimes on gates when I'm in in a Battlecruiser or bigger. The obvious downside of this behaviour is that only willing targets come to belts in the first place, aka "I'm looking for a fight too!". As much fun as it is to fight a worthy opponent, the additional "... and surprise! I brought all my bored friends with me, everyone only warpdisrupt to get on the killmail!". That's the part that's not so much fun.

Also in Low-sec, I barely ever find good targets in belts anymore. Maybe it's because I've upgraded my ship choices too much. Which brings us to non-consensual PvP at Gates and Stations, aka face rape. Opening a wide new world of (sometimes unwilling) targets, but without the hurtful reminder of sentry guns, that's what Faction Warfare does for you. Camping gates sensorboosted to hell and back and shooting war targets (WTs) is the first stage of fun that previously was unthinkable, the second stage is roaming fleets hunting other roaming fleets of random sizes.

Fighting at gates without a heavily tanked Battlecruiser is a new experience for me, so that's how the big guys in Nullsec feel when fighting at choke points. Being able to use Interceptors at jump gates is just swell. If you look to get into FW then gate mechanics should appeal to you, aggression timers and the likes, since that is where most of the fighting occurs. Again, just like in Nullsec minus bubbles minus POS bashing.

No global criminal flag either as long as you engage WTs, and no security standing loss. Thus traveling through Highsec remains possible and some FW fleets do that to fall into the back of an unsuspecting enemy fleet they're chasing. Had that scenario this weekend and a few people had to stay behind in Low-sec, so keeping the mark above -2.5 is a plus sometimes.

On the other hand, there are fulltime pirates who also engage in FW to multiply their amount of potential targets. They still have -10 sec status and participate in random FW fleets, they just can't travel into Highsec which is everyone's own decision making.

The plus side is they can also keep shooting the odd "neutral" ship that intended to travel through, while all the other FW guys keep their cannons silent like there is an unwritten rule about it. It's weird but it seems to be very common to only engage WTs and let innocent bystanders (the best targets!) get away unscathed. So if you're a pirate with plenty of firepower and tank, the killmail will say solo kill :)

Theoretically Faction Warfare is possible in Highsec due to no CONCORD involvement plus a tiny bit Navy involvement, but in reality fleets almost always fight in Low-sec. That's just how it is. While you are in Highsec it's not recommended to go after money-making endeavours with your FW character, since any ship can tackle your mission runner / freighter at jump gates.

Sometimes trade hubs get camped by enemy fleets so always keep your eyes open, and never fly anything slow over long distances that you have no eyes on (means scouting alt). For transport I always use my neutral alt, my main travels Highsec in an Interceptor when I have no scout. Everything else which aligns slowly is risky. That's why when I decide to travel in larger ships I fly them heavily stabbed. Also a reason why I see FW pilots here and there using Heavy Interdictors with focused scripts overcoming the stabbing problem. Keep that in mind if you plan to jump your battleship into hostile territory.

Fleets

Our gatecamp in Huola of about 15 ships, and a rich guy brought a Phantasm (lower left, peek peek).

Sometimes during prime time there are kind FCs that place their fleet in the Fleet Finder. That basically means inviting every voluntary newcomer and still having a core of experienced players with you who know the ropes, where it's best to gatecamp, have a CovOps prober ready for FW plexers, and generally have the experience to tell you what (not) to do.

The opposite of that are closed fleets that only consist of one or few player corporations who try to keep things pro, and keep newcomers out of it. Personally I'm in an NPC corp (24th Imperial Crusade) without leadership or structure, and I enjoy not only the 0% tax rate. The corp chat is idle but the lack of leadership and corp fleets has it's boons: free will and online times.

The previously mentioned open fleets mainly take place on Friday and Saturday from around 20:00 EVE time onwards. I witnessed two very talented FCs doing their work and I'm looking forward to next weekend to join them again. It's great that some people step up and take the risk of making the wrong call and get it right, fleets would be crap without a good FC.

There also are differences to 1v1 PvP when it comes to your choice of ship. Normally the slogan "fly what you can lose" always applies. However as a regular PvP'er one has preferred ships that can go bananas fitting-wise, some of them faction ships with expensive faction fittings. In a 1v1 duel it can make all the difference when the cap runs 1min15sec longer because somebody fitted a faction MWD.

Also, most of the time in a 1v1 fight I have an exit strategy if things should go south. Be it superior speed to escape, or neuting the cap (and point) dry, or a flight of ECM drones. There usually is a way to bug out when the target's friends arrive. And now for something completely different: On that note I would like to give my kudos to skirmish Rifter pilots who fight as if there we no tomorrow. They come home in a pod, or not at all. Bit of Japanese traditions there, a flag of the rising sun bound across their forehead.

In fleets however one does not fight 1v1. Sounds like child's play to grasp that simple thought. It isn't, at least not for me. There is no exit strategy in a fleet vs fleet battle except to hit the warp button when the FC tells you to and pray you're not tackled. No ECM drones work on multiple tacklers. There is no superior speed if you're tackled either. I've seen well tanked Battlecruisers explode in far less than 10 seconds. Just made poof, not even time to align. Basically you could say there wasn't even need for a point. An Interceptor flying in front of his own fleet to land a good tackle on an expensive ship might not survive two seconds if the enemy fleet primaries it. Even though I normally love Navy Slicers and the ranged damage they can deal, tackling is nothing I would do flying a Slicer. It's like bringing a Maybach to a Crash Derby.

Ship choices in fleets is a broad topic that one could go into in the most deep detail, however it is far too big for a small blog post that deals with Faction Warfare. Maybe some other time when I get a clue what the heck I am talking about.

Generally I like to think I should fly ships that I can afford, divide that amount by 3, and then fly the ship that comes out of it. In my case that's roughly a T2 fit Malediction. In our fleets I sometimes see Lokis, Proteus and Zealots, but I would risk that only if I was a) extremely bored and suicidal and b) have at least double the cost of the ship still in my wallet. Tip: T3 ships always get primaried. Murphy's Law applies here, try to look unimportant and the enemy might not waste bullets on you.

So to start off when I freshly join a fleet I try to get a look at the composition. Since that cannot be seen in the fleet window I travel to the current ralley point in a fast ship and look what's what. Once there I usually see plenty of DPS and very few tacklers. So again I jump into a Malediction class Interceptor. Weaponwise basically helpless but a point with 30km range and a non-heated velocity of 5700m/s with my skills and cheap implants. And the rocket patch is still to come with Incursion. Finally, one year after I trained Interceptors I can finally put it to good use.

Malediction, fast and ... the list ends here.

It can feel a bit like understatement to fly a tiny tackler when I have so many other ships in my hangar - namely T2 Battlecruisers and Battleships - trained and fitted with none but mad intent. But when the fleet has tons of DPS and only two or three Interceptors at the ready I don't have room for wrong decisions. Nobody asks me to but I try to bring what's needed the most. Often I see combat ceptors in fleet fitted for more dps and hence slower speed when I know a fast tackle will decide if the fight even happens. Some of the Minmatar Frigate pilots I saw were travelling at mad speeds in Rifters (!), suggesting implants and skirmish fleet boosters besides a heated MWD. It took me quite a while catching them in my Malediction.

My best fleet fight so far took place this past Saturday night when someone on comms declared he had a Legion, Raven and Drake probed out in a plex. The FC held the fleet in an adjacent system to Siseide and sent in three Interceptors, including me.

We met the prober at a station and were fleet-warped towards the complex. Coming out of warp we expected one warpgate but there were three! A bit stunned, a quick scan with my directional revealed them in line with the bottom gate. I quickly relayed the scan results on comms and seconds later the FC gave the command "warp! warp!". Entering the warp tunnel I landed maybe 20km away from the Legion. Switching to a 26km orbit around it I was never so happy to announce "point!" on comms. Another guy tackled the Raven, and in came the rest of the fleet. The Legion popped quickly, check out it's PvE fit.

You could say I have been enjoying FW quite a bit. Linkage for reference, 9 kills on Saturday November the 20th.

Suddenly killmails - what changed? Part 2

2010-10-21T13:01:00.000+02:00

We continue from part 1 where I described the Navy Slicer as my favorite Amarrian frigate craft, and how to fit and use it effectively. On I go in the most difficult task to pass on the little PvP knowledge I gathered over the last one and a half years to new aspiring PvPers. May you not make as many mistakes as I did. This time the topic concerns cruisers and since I'm mainly trained for Amarr, it concerns a rather cheap and particularely effective one. In most cases it wins against the Omen and Maller in a 1v1.

Arbitrator

Arbitrator: My Yarrbitrator's manual says: target, activate all modules, scoop loot

While the bonuses on Tracking Disruptors are often overlooked this handy cruiser has saved my life with it's TDs on more than one occasion. Something other inexperienced cruiser pilots found out by no longer landing any hits on my 1600mm Tungsten armor. None at all. This is what I mean when I say effective, no compromises, speedtanking or nano-stuff.

25% bonus to Tracking Disruptor effectiveness at level V

Then there's the main weapon, drones. More drones. MOAR DRONES! Haha, Gallente style. Having mentioned that you will never run out of drones especially vs frigates, they also are my single and only weaponry.

50% bonus to drone hitpoints and damage at level V

Fitting: I sometimes replace the web with a second TD to keep a second foe disrupted, or have more bonus on one target

Tactics

In my experience alot of pilots have attacked my Arbitrator without knowing what they are getting into. Needless to say, that's an advantage. When they're staying far away and kiting use optimal range disruption scripts, so that they have to come close to land hits. With frigates the tracking disruption scripts might be more effective at range since they almost always have high transversals, as long as you leave your MWD turned off for a small signature radius.

When they come in close, always switch to tracking speed disruption scripts. Experienced pilots will web you and click the 'keep at range' button rather than 'orbit' allowing them to place hits on you since transversal velocity is basically at zero.

Important side note: if you do use two TDs do not ever load two different scripts resulting in tracking and optimal range reduction. Instead, use no scripts, meaning unload them - that way both TDs will give you a slightly higher bonus on range and tracking disruption combined.
Against enemy cruisers the Hammerhead II drones work best for me. Taken that Valkyrie II do explosive damage which usually is the resistance hole in T1 ship armor, however the damage modifier of Hammerheads is much higher and thermal damage is the 2nd most reliable damage type against T1 ships. Knowing that, some pilots specifically fit against explosive damage which you can circumvent by targeting their thermal resistance hole using Hammerhead/Hobgoblin drones. They even work well against shields and armor at the same time.

Against frigates I always start off with Warrior II's. If you can web him you can swap to Hobgoblins for more (theoretical) damage, again resistance-dependant. Keep in mind that the maximum speed of the Warrior II drone is 6300m/s. That sounds like alot but I've witnessed a Dramiel orbiting me at 15km with less speed than that and my Warrior drones couldnt catch it, or apply any damage to it at all. That lead to a long fight of drones vs drones for over 5 minutes, and a stand-off. That's bad when the Dramiel is capstable at MWD speeds and can wait for friends to arrive. The same thing applies to all Interceptors.

Often the enemy will try to shoot down your drones. So you pull them in and launch them again. The good news is that since drones have such a small signature radius it takes the enemy forever to lock them up again, meaning plenty of time to apply dps before you have to pull them in again.

The huge drone bay let's you assemble a nice variety of drones up to medium size, make use of it however you wish. I personally see 5x Hammerhead II, 5x Warrior II and one set of light or medium ECM drones as the barebone.
Your second support modules and also the reason why the T2 cruiser variants Pilgrim and Curse have bonuses on these: Energy Neutralizers. I always pre-overheat all high-slots before the actual fight starts, and once I see an effect like the enemy ship's warpscram/web deactivating or heat levels get critical I turn off two small neuts to become capstable myself, and keep the enemy's capacitor dry.

From that moment on out it should be smooth sailing while your drones work their way towards your loot.
The only disadvantage of this ship is disengaging when your target reveals it has a welcome committee waiting just for you. And his friends, and his momma. When you're outgunned then warping away is basically not going to happen due to slow speed/long align times, the curse of all Amarrian armor ships. Except with huge luck your target is a frigate, it has already run out of cap and it's warp disruptor has turned off which is rarely going to happen. Or your ECM drones activate before you get pointed a second time. So going in usually means risking the ship, win or lose, no hit-and-run guerilla tactics here. Just going in and hoping the other guy explodes first. Of course very manly, too. He who does not offer GF then really is a twat.

Attack:

Omen, Vexor, Osprey, every turret-based ship up to cruiser-size. Possibly Harbinger, Shield-Hurricane at extremely low orbit (not tried).

Don't attack:

Rupture, Dual-Web Maller (observe max speed before attacking), Dramiel (see Warrior II), missile boats

As a closing comment I'd like to quote local chat when I was baited into attacking an Incursus frigate at a gate, only then getting fired upon by an Armageddon, a Loki and a decloaking HAM-Legion. Speaking of overkill the fight still lasted a good 40 seconds. Also, the person leading the ambush was ranked #1 on BattleClinic at the time.

El'Tar > lol, nice tank

Panthe Tek > no, your dps just sucks

Revan Neferis > hee he

Corp Night: Gate Camp

2010-09-25T17:01:00.027+02:00

It was one of those nights when everybody had carefully planned to keep one particular day free of any real obligations, late work, caring for social contacts and reachability via mobile phone. Also we had depleted our spending money for new, shiny ships. Grimm faces were looking at each other over the edge of black laptop displays. This is it. The night we were undocking in Battlecruisers to our first very own gate camp. A gatecamp of Doom™!

Our gang consisted of the usual suspects, Gogn in his Drake without a point or MWD - I believe he raped his mission runner for this operation without telling us. Kolibril piloting his refitted PvP Drake, beautifully fit with point, passive and massive tank, HAMs of destruction, all there. And another shady fellow, vmp5 in his brand new spankin' ultra-tankin' Myrmidon. Three reppers and two cap boosters is just madness, plus drones and their grandparents drones and their sister's sister drones until the bay was full. Then there was the slowest, least tanked ship of them all. Calculated by my own EFT warriorishness it could neither defeat the Drake nor the Myrmidon in a fair 1v1. It was my less than one day old Harbinger, buffer tanked to hell and back - bought and fitted for a medium fortune. Next time, I promised myself, I'll cut short on the armor wax. Little did I know that my ship would not make it to it's first birth-day, emphasis on the day. That's always the best part, knowing up front that things are going to go really bad for us. Shit hitting the fan. Meeting the Big Kahuna. In retrospective, I just love that moment when reading a story.

Harbinger: My armored, triple-trimarked buffer of death

We undocked in Amamake while knowing that only bigger gangs would dare to attack us now. So that left only 4 of 5 known gangs in the area. Since there is no such thing as boring operational security in my world I can freely spill whatever beans I seem entertaining. Such is that we chose the Osoggur gate to camp for the time between 18:00 to 19:59. If the unwary reader does not know, this gate is different from normal Low-sec gates since it connects Amamake with High-sec. Boo-yah, one wrong jump and you're in the hands of Concord. Impending doom! Hence, if any prey would arrive trampling from this gate it would likely have grased in the rolling plains of local market hub Rens, thus being more fat and rewarding than the local herd.

So we warped to zero at Osoggur gate, spread out a little around the 0 meter radius so we'd cover more area - and then we waited, with pre-overloaded Warp Disruptors with 28.8km range, looking good. Then we killed some stuff. Weird enough, Gogn without a point killed more than the rest of us with a point. He had a great time, laughing at us that is. Drake mission runner arrrrrr, I hate Drakes! Then, with GCC, Gogn jumped through the Osoggur gate, I don't remember why of if there even was a why. Boy it was fun to see him get ganked by Concord! Justice had prevailed. He was reshipping when we popped an Iteron V and he missed out on the killmail. Justice had prevailed twice.

So we waited a bit longer for more booty to cross our ways. Well, booty came but it refused to turn belly-up. In fact, it had brought so much other booty with it that I had to scroll down in the overview. You know things are bad when you have to use the scroll-down button. Red booty, flashy booty everywhere. At this point our overview was an endless list of impending failure and doom. Doom I say! Gogn's Drake popped, then vmp5's Myrmidon managed to warp out. Then Kolibril's Drake became a loot pinata. Surely impressed by my insane piloting skills the flashy herd of booty did not deem it nessecary to point my Harbinger. Hah, I showed them! While I was aligning to a safe and continously bumping into the gate, very convincingly keeping me from aligning by it's vast presence, I thought hah the gate showed me! After perhaps 20 seconds of flinched eyes, a still mouse cursor and maybe one lone thought strolling through the emptiness of my brains in forms of tumbleweed some local booty had the brains to point me. They outwitted me! I demand you turn your belly upside-down I said, while I was spam-clicking my Pod to safety. Oh dear Lord, we have been stampeded.

Next time, Battlecruiser Gate Camp Part Two - more carnage and this time evading huge enemy gangs, perhaps losing a bunch of T2 ships to really screw our wallets over! Stay tuned.

0 unread messages

2010-09-24T08:11:00.001+02:00

There is nothing much to report on the pew pew end, so instead I'll tease you with the smallest of other victories I have accomplished. There is doing PvP, and there is reading about PvP to learn and expand your horizon. Often have I recommended to read this feed and that feed collection, and today - behold! - over the course of three intense weeks of reading some well known CK's blogpack was reduced from 321 unread messages to something less.

CrazyKinux' BlogPack: 0 unread messages.

Ahmahgad ! I feel so small now.

PI

2010-09-16T15:14:00.002+02:00

What's this? Carebear topics in my pew pew blog!? It's a helpful PvP topic, allow me to elaborate swiftly.

Planetary Interaction: Even easier ISK than I thought.

One of the most painless ways of getting iskies to spend on shiny PvP ships is producing POS fuel in PI. That's not new. What's new? A seasoned pilot told me that parallel PI action on all 3 characters of one account is allowed by CCP. He himself is doing 6 accounts which makes up 18 characters producing POS fuel in zero sec. My goodness, the amounts of money flowing in.

The training time for PI on a fresh character is around 9 days without implants. I'm doing PI on one character to finance myself a few extra ships. That character produces somewhere above 15mio per week by going through a 10mins click-fest per day, namely activating the extractors for another 23 hours run. Multiply that by 3 characters and then multiply again by the number of your accounts. Behold, iskies!

I'm off doing just that.