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.
I recently got to playing with the Navy Augoror on pyfa. I was stunned at what you could get for your isk.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the HAC 'rebalance' is completely insufficient considering their expected cost. My theory is that CCP Rise thinks the improved resist profile on T2s is going to make them worth the money.
For small gang (<6) with logi, it might just. But as i said, Kil2's theories seem to be gaining a lot of traction. He is, after all, their "PVP consultant".
ReplyDeleteHe hasn't been in a WH brawl or one of the giant blobfest C5 evictions where its all blap dreads and Vigilants, so the model is for low sig, high(ish) resists, mobile warfare kiting. Resists only benefit logi gangs...and I still can't fathom the active rep bonus on the Vaga. Like...when is that ever going to be useful for something with barely 500 DPS with Hail, and gimped range with barrage?
=) Hey Trinket i just today saw the link to your blog-was reading the pages and then WTF!..i saw "Kuklinski".
ReplyDeleteI remember that engagement well-total derp there-the bomber uncloaking next to the Sleip saw my bowels drop....i knew i was loitering and showboating waaay too long but it had been a boring session up to then(i gotta say i dont get angry over losses since a long time-missed kills aye).
5 chars. i run-you got the composition correct-and ya when it heads south it tends to really be a bloodbath =)
I glad i found your blog-makes good reading.
Thanks. :)
DeleteI only run 2 chars, I'm not that good at multitasking on one screen.
I've got you added as a contact - if there's anything going down I'll let you know.