To illustrate the ridiculous position HACs have been put into via the cycles of 'rebalancing' I referred to Navy Faction cruisers. In particulaar you can fit a Navy Augoror for 590 DPS and 58K EHP. I bought one yesterday as a cheapass AHAC and a stand-in for a DPS T3 which wuldn'tcost me literally half of my cash. 93.5M ISK later I had a black-limned stormtrooper's helmet of doom. I named it Shitbrick.
To give you an idea of the carnage you will get up to in this ship I will link an engagement report.
It seems Kuklinski has 3 to 4 alts; he seems to camp wormholes with at least one Falcon (U93AJAX) and deploys a bait, then drops the hammer via a couple of Proteuses and decloaks and fires up a Damnation booster to make it all rather OP. If not this, then some variation on the theme. Quintaboxing is hard work.
A few days ago he pulled this on SWIFT, and fortuitously (he thought) his C2 connected again with SWIFT's last night, so he hopped back in and skulked about. But of course, SWIFT was on to him, so when they hopped in our comms I broke out the Shitbrick and went the whole 3 jumps to the highsec system.
Here, as usual, I will digress down a trouser-leg of logic. The usual way I like to wait out the call to arms in hisec is to trawl for trouble. Usually I will sit at the nearest celestial, aligned to the hole. I will probe the entry hole with an alt and drop BM's in a neighbouring system if needed, so that any scout doesn't associate the prober (who conveniently uncloaks off the hisec entry then leaves system) with the other toons lurking in system. The irony of describing this to the general public, on an EVE blog, is not lost on me. Nevertheless when waiting, I look for trouble, which in this case involved stealing 50Km3 of ore from a Rokh jetcan mining in system.
The SWIFT guys did their best at baiting. Double-taps, derping, doing sites. Eventually one got a convo from Kuklinski who had been talking about joining them. He made them aware he was aware of their rapier, falcon, etc, and wasn't going to take the bait.
Yeah, right. When you have your own Falcon alt, an OGB and believe you are king shit of w-space facing carebears (right or wrong; I do not judge) you only say these things to soften them up.
Sure enough, the friendly Sabre double-taps and then an SFI jumps through. Me, I'm derping about bumping the Rokh in hisec, so I am late to the party by about 45 seconds. Top damage dealer? Trinkets friend's NAugoror. Bleichrodt's pod: slaves. Whoops, should have taken the Flabber.
Then, as I'm out repping some heat, a Sleipnir follows. Seems Kuklinski is angry. Our Sabre keeps the hole interdicted (and runs out of bubbles...requiring one to be anchored) and we derp about. Kuklinski uses an alt to set a warp-in 250km off the hole and our proteus and a bomber begin the slowboating. We swap one of our three Falcons to a Rapier.
After bouncing out from the safe a few times to try alphaing the Sabre and shooting at my Naugoror a bit (mere paint scratches) the bomber is in position when Kuklinski lands 18km off him. I align, bomber hero tackles, and I land web and backup point.
Sleipnir goes down (top damage: Naugoror) despite Falcon alt (we have two...luls) and Falcon goes down (top damage: Naugoror). Kuklinski's pod? Slaves.
What have we learned? Well, it is pretty hard work coordinating two toons in PVP. I avoid it where possible unless in BS's. Doing four or five is bullshit hard - unless you ISBOX identical toons. Doing four or five when you get jammed and have to re-lock? Good luck, sunshine.
Secondly, we have learned not to underestimate the compact death-dealing no-nonsense evil which is the Navy Augoror. I only get 572 in-game DPS because my medium laser spec is at 3. Yet that's enough to blast gigantic holes in all manner of things while their bullets plink harmlessly against your armour and their Falcon jams drip off you like a rain of tears.
Over to you, CCP Rise, to top that with a HAC.
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Ittygeddon
Last night I spent 5 hours shlepping about w-space in my Panther. I refit it slightly, to the fitting outlined in Dark Alpha - minus the faction pimp. I'm not quite that rich at the moment.
The first thing we did was try to interdict a logistic operation between a C5 and highsec which was going on inside a C3/D845 system. Being proficient C5 dwellers they saw our Flycatcher land on grid and no doubt the Panther too, so a Daredevil turned up to spoil the party. When he slowed down to zero, I decloaked, SeBo'd up, and shot him to within an inch of his life. Close but no cigar.
We then went to camp a carebear hole one of our scouts had found, where we were expecting Retrievers in the grav. I jumped in and slowboated 120km off the hole. We bedded down and I listened to some KMFDM and awaited logins.As I spammed d-scan I saw the three Itty V's but somehow it didn't register until they jumped to hisec. Drats!
We had their inbound K162 scanned down, scouted and sussed inside of 5 minutes. C2 with A239/D382, with Foo Technologies and Foo holdings in residence. The CEO even has a blog. We read the blog, learned about scanning.
Being 5 jumps from Amarr, we knew they would be back. Fuel run was the likely mission. So we deployed a scout and followed them as they...autopiloted. having invested 1.5 hours in this already we persisted, and downtime came and went.
We relogged and SET HIM UP THE TARP. It would be, as it always is with haulers, overkill: Panther to alpha, Falcon to jam, cloaky neut legion, Arazu and Flycatcher sitting 80 off the hole to instabubble the moment they jumped in.
First action was an Imicus scouting from the K162 through to hisec. he double-tapped himself out in hisec which delayed proceedings, leaving his 3 Itty alts idling on a gate in hisec for 4 minutes. Passive targeted cargo scans revealed PI and even a POS tower.
The guy scouted the route back...and jumped into his home wormhole, leaving the target hole unscouted as he jumped his 3 Iterons into the hole....and squad warped them into the bubble.
We murdered them, pods and all. The Minni POS tower and some of the PI dropped.
The first thing we did was try to interdict a logistic operation between a C5 and highsec which was going on inside a C3/D845 system. Being proficient C5 dwellers they saw our Flycatcher land on grid and no doubt the Panther too, so a Daredevil turned up to spoil the party. When he slowed down to zero, I decloaked, SeBo'd up, and shot him to within an inch of his life. Close but no cigar.
We then went to camp a carebear hole one of our scouts had found, where we were expecting Retrievers in the grav. I jumped in and slowboated 120km off the hole. We bedded down and I listened to some KMFDM and awaited logins.As I spammed d-scan I saw the three Itty V's but somehow it didn't register until they jumped to hisec. Drats!
We had their inbound K162 scanned down, scouted and sussed inside of 5 minutes. C2 with A239/D382, with Foo Technologies and Foo holdings in residence. The CEO even has a blog. We read the blog, learned about scanning.
Being 5 jumps from Amarr, we knew they would be back. Fuel run was the likely mission. So we deployed a scout and followed them as they...autopiloted. having invested 1.5 hours in this already we persisted, and downtime came and went.
We relogged and SET HIM UP THE TARP. It would be, as it always is with haulers, overkill: Panther to alpha, Falcon to jam, cloaky neut legion, Arazu and Flycatcher sitting 80 off the hole to instabubble the moment they jumped in.
First action was an Imicus scouting from the K162 through to hisec. he double-tapped himself out in hisec which delayed proceedings, leaving his 3 Itty alts idling on a gate in hisec for 4 minutes. Passive targeted cargo scans revealed PI and even a POS tower.
The guy scouted the route back...and jumped into his home wormhole, leaving the target hole unscouted as he jumped his 3 Iterons into the hole....and squad warped them into the bubble.
We murdered them, pods and all. The Minni POS tower and some of the PI dropped.
Sunday, 28 July 2013
HAC-T3-Dread Nerf: the rock-paper-scissors of w-space
There are a lot of hurf-blurf shitpoasts on the Wormhole forum of EVE-O about the "put the T3's down like rabid dogs" comments of CCP and the feared inbound T3 nerf.
This is based on the statement that T3's should have the T2 technologies, but not do any one of them better than T2's. The promulgated HAC rebalance (a nerf, IMHO) of CCP Rise has sparked this latest bout of wormholer panty-wringing - and with good reason.
Part of this is that wormholers know what is good for tanking and what signature is all about - you have to in order to avoid being dread-blapped like a mosquito. So, when you are fighting small-gang dreads at close quarters without supers to blap the dreads, with plenty of pimp modules and pimp on the field, you often really do have to push T3's into the field as they have the low-sig high-EHP tanks which can survive Vigilant webs, TP's and a faction-TC'd blap Moros...at least for a couple of rounds.
The promulgated HAC buff puts this all at risk for two reasons. Firstly, HAC tanks will rely on kiting with MWD's. They will get a reduction in MWD sig penalty to assist them, I am sure Rise's thinking goes (I of course mean Kil2 who has clearly got no idea about w-space), in entering a heavy tanky kite niche. This, the thinking goes, will allow them to kinda play into the current meta with mobile Loki...er, Claymore...boosted logi-assisted T2 skirmish gangs and fleets. Secondly, HACs will maintain a set of peculiar abilities as a class which get very little enhancement - ndeed, their tanks aren't going anywhere. Aside from the Vaga which becomes, in essence, a T2 light Cyclone skirmisher. Again, Kil2 style.
When you add this poor buffer to a role which is based exclusively around mobile warfare (nanofaggotry and OGBastardry) and then stack six webs, a couple of TP's on them and sit them in front of a Dread, you have dead T2 cruisers. At 220-250M ISK a pop, it's just not looking worthwhile.
Of course, we have the whole "well, go AHAC sig tanking" to which one must say, "duh but why the MWD sig bonus?" and "what about sniper HACs and shield HACs?" And why not get tankier, gankier and cheaper faction navy cruisers to do the same job? You can get 650 DPS gank Scythe Fleets, why go for a Vaga? This is borne out by FW plex fights - it's navy cruisers, not HACs in the Mediums. That really says a lot about where the balance of power and ISK efficiency is at these days in the cruiser class.
The end result is that if HACs are rebalanced into Kil2's personal playthings, to fit his view of PVP and combat meta, and T3 cruisers get nerfed to "less than the equivalent"of these HACs, it throws up some very dangerous questions.
For instance, what will the meta in wormholes become? Dread blapping is not going away in w-space, even in low-end holes. People are entrenched enough in them that they are rich enough to field the requisite ingredients (Vigilant, Rapier for TP's and a Moros and logis) even in a C1. It takes all of 3 billion and 2 weeks to cook a Dread in a C1. In C5s and up, with the way big fights coalesce, its even more common. Reducing tank on T3's below HACs (which is currently sub-par to navy cruisers) will see people switch to navy BC's and Navy cruisers if HACs don't cut it. These will not stand up to dreads as a rule, so it'll be a case of blapping attrition to win the fights.
Remove dread blapping somehow and you definitely will need to adjust tanks downwards, because it's not possible to alpha through 250K EHP Protei, and just forget about it with logi or a triage carrier on the field.
The solution? Find some shtick for HACs which gives them a little something-something to redefine what a Heavy Assault Cruiser should be.
Two or three cruisers should fear a HAC landing on the field. Which means, the HAC needs something to put it a cut above. Speed? HACs will be slower than T1 cruisers, and that's fatal. Tank? HACs win some and lose some at the moment. Gank? It's not looking good. Sniping? Attack BC's win this one hands down. Active tanking? Uh..
Whatever happens - and I hope something does or we won't be seeing much from HACs for a while in w-space - it augurs poorly for w-space and the balance of power between dread blapping and T3's. Don't get me wrong - the Proteus needs taming, the 100MN fits need something as a drawback because they are absolutely retarded, the neut Legion needs a bit of a chill pill, the Command ship and T3s need to swap bonuses, and so many subs are just useless and need buffing....but overall, T3's are not rabid dogs. They just have a couple of poorly trained pit bulls in their midst.
This is based on the statement that T3's should have the T2 technologies, but not do any one of them better than T2's. The promulgated HAC rebalance (a nerf, IMHO) of CCP Rise has sparked this latest bout of wormholer panty-wringing - and with good reason.
Part of this is that wormholers know what is good for tanking and what signature is all about - you have to in order to avoid being dread-blapped like a mosquito. So, when you are fighting small-gang dreads at close quarters without supers to blap the dreads, with plenty of pimp modules and pimp on the field, you often really do have to push T3's into the field as they have the low-sig high-EHP tanks which can survive Vigilant webs, TP's and a faction-TC'd blap Moros...at least for a couple of rounds.
The promulgated HAC buff puts this all at risk for two reasons. Firstly, HAC tanks will rely on kiting with MWD's. They will get a reduction in MWD sig penalty to assist them, I am sure Rise's thinking goes (I of course mean Kil2 who has clearly got no idea about w-space), in entering a heavy tanky kite niche. This, the thinking goes, will allow them to kinda play into the current meta with mobile Loki...er, Claymore...boosted logi-assisted T2 skirmish gangs and fleets. Secondly, HACs will maintain a set of peculiar abilities as a class which get very little enhancement - ndeed, their tanks aren't going anywhere. Aside from the Vaga which becomes, in essence, a T2 light Cyclone skirmisher. Again, Kil2 style.
When you add this poor buffer to a role which is based exclusively around mobile warfare (nanofaggotry and OGBastardry) and then stack six webs, a couple of TP's on them and sit them in front of a Dread, you have dead T2 cruisers. At 220-250M ISK a pop, it's just not looking worthwhile.
Of course, we have the whole "well, go AHAC sig tanking" to which one must say, "duh but why the MWD sig bonus?" and "what about sniper HACs and shield HACs?" And why not get tankier, gankier and cheaper faction navy cruisers to do the same job? You can get 650 DPS gank Scythe Fleets, why go for a Vaga? This is borne out by FW plex fights - it's navy cruisers, not HACs in the Mediums. That really says a lot about where the balance of power and ISK efficiency is at these days in the cruiser class.
The end result is that if HACs are rebalanced into Kil2's personal playthings, to fit his view of PVP and combat meta, and T3 cruisers get nerfed to "less than the equivalent"of these HACs, it throws up some very dangerous questions.
For instance, what will the meta in wormholes become? Dread blapping is not going away in w-space, even in low-end holes. People are entrenched enough in them that they are rich enough to field the requisite ingredients (Vigilant, Rapier for TP's and a Moros and logis) even in a C1. It takes all of 3 billion and 2 weeks to cook a Dread in a C1. In C5s and up, with the way big fights coalesce, its even more common. Reducing tank on T3's below HACs (which is currently sub-par to navy cruisers) will see people switch to navy BC's and Navy cruisers if HACs don't cut it. These will not stand up to dreads as a rule, so it'll be a case of blapping attrition to win the fights.
Remove dread blapping somehow and you definitely will need to adjust tanks downwards, because it's not possible to alpha through 250K EHP Protei, and just forget about it with logi or a triage carrier on the field.
The solution? Find some shtick for HACs which gives them a little something-something to redefine what a Heavy Assault Cruiser should be.
Two or three cruisers should fear a HAC landing on the field. Which means, the HAC needs something to put it a cut above. Speed? HACs will be slower than T1 cruisers, and that's fatal. Tank? HACs win some and lose some at the moment. Gank? It's not looking good. Sniping? Attack BC's win this one hands down. Active tanking? Uh..
Whatever happens - and I hope something does or we won't be seeing much from HACs for a while in w-space - it augurs poorly for w-space and the balance of power between dread blapping and T3's. Don't get me wrong - the Proteus needs taming, the 100MN fits need something as a drawback because they are absolutely retarded, the neut Legion needs a bit of a chill pill, the Command ship and T3s need to swap bonuses, and so many subs are just useless and need buffing....but overall, T3's are not rabid dogs. They just have a couple of poorly trained pit bulls in their midst.
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Dark Alpha
I have been involved in an eviction in a C5 with C2 static this weekend. It has, of course, been a hell of a lot of camping and sharing imgur funnies and not a lot of PVP. Par for the course.
The C2 static has rolled up C2's with E545/N060 pairs (null/C5) twice, and we have had null connections a fair bit anyway. As an aside, just quickly, I've noticed a lot more null connections since Odyssey than I did before. Maybe it's just the observer effect, but it makes sense; more null connections equals more people wandering relatively safely from highsec, equals more exploration.
Back to the matter at hand.
Our visits to nullsec have gathered me two kills; one on my alt where I tackled a Cruor in my newest Cheetah fit (MASB) until it got blapped by the T3's. The other was a rather poorly fit Rattlesnake piloted by a nub. He was in system on undock, with a Domi, Talos and Ishkur, and warped to a belt right in front of me with 3 hostiles in system. We were certain it was bait, and gladly took it, because we were so, so bored. When we jumped into system, his mates docked and left him to die. GG, nulltards, gg.
In the vicinity were several jump bridges.
Camping JB's with arty Panthers is something I've wanted to do for ages. I've had misgivings about the whole thing; it's a very expensive way to do it, it is of course very risky (which is the whole point, of course) - the POS could easily get a scram off on you and pink sock you, hardcore.
However, the way most JB's are set up - to defend against hotdrops - provides an angle to exploit using MJD's and sensor boosters out the wazoo. With 3 arty Panthers properly set up you could easily be the one pink socking all manner of people jumping blind into the system.
The below, with requisite 3% implants, has a 5030 alpha, with 7.8s reload when heated (ie; 2 shots) and maths in its favour.
[Panther, Dark Alpha]
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Dark Blood Armor EM Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Thermic Hardener
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Large Micro Jump Drive
100MN Microwarpdrive II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
Caldari Navy Cloaking Device
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
Large Projectile Collision Accelerator II
Large Targeting System Subcontroller I
+ drones
The maths work like this;
JB anchored 20km outside POS shield
You sit 60km out from the JB
When the JB activates, you align out, faceroll F1 through F5 (Cloak, SeBo's, Guns).
Lock the target (3.7s on a cruiser) and shoot, then activate MJD
You get a second shot off about a second before you blink
You are now 180km away from the POS and if the POS has only small guns like they do, you are outside it's range, nearly out of dissy range (if its got scrams, just warp off), and if not targeted yet...you just cloak.
The C2 static has rolled up C2's with E545/N060 pairs (null/C5) twice, and we have had null connections a fair bit anyway. As an aside, just quickly, I've noticed a lot more null connections since Odyssey than I did before. Maybe it's just the observer effect, but it makes sense; more null connections equals more people wandering relatively safely from highsec, equals more exploration.
Back to the matter at hand.
Our visits to nullsec have gathered me two kills; one on my alt where I tackled a Cruor in my newest Cheetah fit (MASB) until it got blapped by the T3's. The other was a rather poorly fit Rattlesnake piloted by a nub. He was in system on undock, with a Domi, Talos and Ishkur, and warped to a belt right in front of me with 3 hostiles in system. We were certain it was bait, and gladly took it, because we were so, so bored. When we jumped into system, his mates docked and left him to die. GG, nulltards, gg.
In the vicinity were several jump bridges.
Camping JB's with arty Panthers is something I've wanted to do for ages. I've had misgivings about the whole thing; it's a very expensive way to do it, it is of course very risky (which is the whole point, of course) - the POS could easily get a scram off on you and pink sock you, hardcore.
However, the way most JB's are set up - to defend against hotdrops - provides an angle to exploit using MJD's and sensor boosters out the wazoo. With 3 arty Panthers properly set up you could easily be the one pink socking all manner of people jumping blind into the system.
The below, with requisite 3% implants, has a 5030 alpha, with 7.8s reload when heated (ie; 2 shots) and maths in its favour.
[Panther, Dark Alpha]
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
1600mm Reinforced Steel Plates II
Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit
Dark Blood Armor EM Hardener
Dark Blood Armor Thermic Hardener
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Sensor Booster II, Targeting Range Script
Large Micro Jump Drive
100MN Microwarpdrive II
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
1200mm Artillery Cannon II, Domination Fusion L
Caldari Navy Cloaking Device
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
Large Projectile Collision Accelerator II
Large Targeting System Subcontroller I
+ drones
The maths work like this;
JB anchored 20km outside POS shield
You sit 60km out from the JB
When the JB activates, you align out, faceroll F1 through F5 (Cloak, SeBo's, Guns).
Lock the target (3.7s on a cruiser) and shoot, then activate MJD
You get a second shot off about a second before you blink
You are now 180km away from the POS and if the POS has only small guns like they do, you are outside it's range, nearly out of dissy range (if its got scrams, just warp off), and if not targeted yet...you just cloak.
Friday, 19 July 2013
Tiercide industrials - Called it!
The recent changes mentioned in the Industrial Rebalance shows, again, that some of the ideas I put into the gestalt in this thread on the EVE-O forums, are coming to fruition.
I floated the idea of unscannable cargo holds. It got added to blockade runners.
I floated the idea of specialising the haulers with ore and mineral bays and they took it as far as ammo bays on the hoarder - which is awesome because Minmatar pretty much eat and breathe ammunition, so it stands to reason they'd have a need to haul millions of rounds of ammo around for their Maelstrom fleets.
That's 2/2, basically.
Good to see that good ideas (even if I say so myself) get picked up and used.
Now to put a Misasmos on a killmail...
I floated the idea of unscannable cargo holds. It got added to blockade runners.
I floated the idea of specialising the haulers with ore and mineral bays and they took it as far as ammo bays on the hoarder - which is awesome because Minmatar pretty much eat and breathe ammunition, so it stands to reason they'd have a need to haul millions of rounds of ammo around for their Maelstrom fleets.
That's 2/2, basically.
Good to see that good ideas (even if I say so myself) get picked up and used.
Now to put a Misasmos on a killmail...
Friday, 12 July 2013
Crickets Chirping
I join up with SEFEM's weekly Friday Roam through lowsec. Last week we went to Hagilur and I undocked my Nidhoggur and aggroed a gang of 14 on station. They were too busy frothing over at a carrier aggroed on undock that they didn't notice the 14 man armour BC gang pile into sytem and begin pushing their poop up their throats backwards.
This week it was nano Scythe Fleet theme. I suggested it as we have an evil arty Scythe Fleet fit, and promptly forgot to move mine to the staging system. Fortunately, I had a Raven, so I re-jiggered it for an MJD and baiting and took that as the bait for the nano gang.
I explained my backflip on the fleet doctrine as "well, I've had enough to drink that it's a good idea, it's nanoed (one rig = nano),no one will shoot you guys, and besides, you brought 2 ospreys I totally cannot die, ever. Plus I bought this years ago and never use it."
Thus I led the fleet through gates; Amamake, Siseide. We immediately went back to Hagilur, and Rancer, and everywhere. Not a single person went for the Raven. It's about the most shit PVP battleship, and they tend to die in a fire if you sneeze at them, but no. The closest we got was an AHAC/T3 pirate gang in Hagilur which showed interest until my fleet jumped in, then promptly wussed out.
I had to bail on the fleet after awoxing some GalMil Punisher who was awoxing another GalMil ship in Heydieles, nd popping a free-floating CalMil Exequror sitting at a disabled POS.Generally, there was simply nothing to shoot at this week, and nothing to be shot at by.
(not that I didn't lose a couple of Mauluses or wax an Oracle, but 4 kills and 3 losses in a week is pretty lame)
This week it was nano Scythe Fleet theme. I suggested it as we have an evil arty Scythe Fleet fit, and promptly forgot to move mine to the staging system. Fortunately, I had a Raven, so I re-jiggered it for an MJD and baiting and took that as the bait for the nano gang.
I explained my backflip on the fleet doctrine as "well, I've had enough to drink that it's a good idea, it's nanoed (one rig = nano),no one will shoot you guys, and besides, you brought 2 ospreys I totally cannot die, ever. Plus I bought this years ago and never use it."
Thus I led the fleet through gates; Amamake, Siseide. We immediately went back to Hagilur, and Rancer, and everywhere. Not a single person went for the Raven. It's about the most shit PVP battleship, and they tend to die in a fire if you sneeze at them, but no. The closest we got was an AHAC/T3 pirate gang in Hagilur which showed interest until my fleet jumped in, then promptly wussed out.
I had to bail on the fleet after awoxing some GalMil Punisher who was awoxing another GalMil ship in Heydieles, nd popping a free-floating CalMil Exequror sitting at a disabled POS.Generally, there was simply nothing to shoot at this week, and nothing to be shot at by.
(not that I didn't lose a couple of Mauluses or wax an Oracle, but 4 kills and 3 losses in a week is pretty lame)
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Captain Planetology
There is apparently a skill to ganking PI haulers.
First off, one must understand planets. Planets are distributed randomly in systems, including in wormhole systems. Some systems have a selection of everything (J144218, for instance, or our C4 with a plasma). Others lack a wide variety and may, eg, have only one of a particular kind.
Second, you must understand d-scan. Since the advent of tracking cameras this is easy-mode. Nevertheless, you need to be on d-scan when probing or lurking or just dicking about quaffing vino while waiting for something to crop up in Militia chat.
Whilst lurking a C2 (3 holes down the whore train) I was probing for the 0477 and B274, having come in a D382. Nothing presented on d-scan so I launched ze proabs and was hard at it. Move, probe, d-scan. Move, probe, d-sca...oh, hello badger mark II. Immediately move probes 30+ Au out of system, probe, d-scan for that POS I didn't bother.
Oh, fuck that. Just turn off 'use overview settings'and inspect ze planets. 3 Storm, 2 barren, 1 Temperate.
The key here is, you fucking warp to the temperate immediately. Why? Numbnuts the PI alt is doing his PI. He has 3 Storms and 2 barrens to choose from. That's a lottery. But if he wants to turn his poo into gold, he needs to drop past the Temperate.
So I warp at 10km (avoiding decloak) and he warps at zero...and is 30km away. Curse your fat-ass fatness, fucking customs orifice.
In this situation, you bank on them not having finished their ISk farming yet, and click 'look at'. You watch where the dude is aligning and align there, too. Wait for them to hit warp, and follow at 10km. Decloak 500km out and you land with 0 seconds of decloak targeting delay. Heat the point and AB and burn in for a bump.
The key is to get a decent bump, and know how to bump competently. This is why you land 10km away. This is why you land uncloaked - haulers are fat and won't get to warp before you nudge their carcass into the POCO. Often they pack stabs, and lots of them, hence the bump. You can handle one stab, as you are using a Cheetah of Doom (Tm) (you better be) and have a scram. But often they pack multiple, so you need bumps.
Then, its a matter of mashing d-scan. Often this is the time to warp your rape gang in if they have mates in system, as they will be shipping up to Tengus and Scorpion Navy Issues (oh, trust me, they do) to lay pain on your Cheetah. You need to see them coming in, so you can break off and save the Cheetah alt. Or drop point to latch on to the Tengu, as I normally do. They don't expect that shit.
Either way, hauler is fucked, the cavalry rides into Custer's Last Stand situation, and you have hilarious.
Tonight, I had everything in place except the rape gang, the Tengu's to gank, and the cavalry/custer sitch. Murdered a Badger Mk II in record time (surprise, magnetar) and then lurked the hisec for his replacement Badger. he fitted stabs and I didn't get a decent bump, so he escaped and struck up a convo:
Patience d'Eath > Not this time!
Patience d'Eath > :)
My Alt> You packed stabs
Patience d'Eath > yup
Patience d'Eath > 3x
My Alt > Guess you really like your planet poo
Patience d'Eath > lol! yes, yes I do. keeps my mains in plex
My Alt > I wouldn't rig a PI hauler, tbh
My Alt > If you do PI right, you don't need to haul much m3
Patience d'Eath > too many trips otherwise. that was the first time this alt's ever been popped in two years in here.
Patience d'Eath > and I make enough in a day to cover the costs so I guess it's a risk/laziness ratio
My Alt > People are slack on d-scan. Even before auto-tracking I can get a scram on most.
My Alt > True. Its not like I'm going to stop you from running PI. Just something to do to pass the time.
Patience d'Eath > I agree, but after a while of flying aroiund and never seeing anyone you become complacent
My Alt > (scram and bump works best ofc)
My Alt > Heh, on my main, I lurk prolific PI whores in an arty panther. Stabs don't work vs alpha.
Patience d'Eath > In your case, d-scan is higher on your list because you're hoping to run into someone.
My Alt > Well, off to lowsec again, and then to bed. 07
Patience d'Eath > cheers, and fly safe
My Alt > ditto. see you in two years, maybe!
Patience d'Eath > lol!
So there you have it, people. Alts killing alts over planet shit, and no one does it right, such that a dude can run a PI alt for 2 years and never even have someone make a pass at him. But now you know the method.
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