I will start this by saying I play EVE a bit differently than Blood union, but that does not devalue what they do and how they do it. You have to respect the aspie-like traits that allow a group of guys to sit in their dark post-Communist era tenements hooked up to the internet via whatever passes for a connection in kamchatka (Sputnik, I guess) for hours on end in a presumably Vodka-fuelled rage-rolling marathon to seed 3 caps at a time into a target system. I mean, I couldn't do it, and not just because I don't have friends.
Consider that this is how they get their killboard to look flash.
It is not strictly PVP, in the w-bro sense of e-honour and facing off in the rare occasions you get fights, with 60 T3's per side and 120 Guardians or whatever. I mean, when you basically alpha dreads off the field, it's just ganking.
Does it make it wrong? No. it just means that Blood Union has a core group (or indeed probably a couple of such groups) who rageroll into a C5 or C6 where they can - for now - get a feel for a regular cap escalating bear den, and they stuff in a bunch of caps and subcaps (really, a couple of HICs is enough), log them off and then pull a gank. If that's the way you want to play the game, then so be it.
Hwever, there's now been two evictions of some of the apparently elite WH PVP corps from C5's they have in great fits of hubris and ego named Valhalla and Olympus. Well, I say two evictions even though Whale Girth hasn''t technically lost everything yet, but lets be honest - it's like a well-oiled Russian death machine with rentboy Lazerhawks fluffer support, versus a herd of cats who set about becoming defeatist layabouts at the first sign of trouble.
It seems there's a list of people Blood Union want to evict, and basically, it's the whole of EVE's C5-6 community. It will be interesting to see how they go at it, and good luck to them. In a way I hope they achieve serial evictions because there are a huge number of overly pretentious corps where one or two people create a lot of content for carebears.
Perhaps this is a bit of bittervetness coming out, but certainly when people want to do wormholes they want to do C5-C6 because it's a way of printing ISK, affording the shiny ships, and getting involved in zomg huge battles populated by massive lists of 250 Tengus and the like. No one wants to explore the other options of J-space, other ways of living, fighting and dying.
However, the reality is that because the majority of people are really only interested in the ISK and the ganks, when you get faced with Blood Union or a group of hardcore yak-fondling madmen hell-bent on total scorched-earth destruction, suddenly everyone's stashing their ships in hisec and rolling over in defeat. To give the Russians credit, I've seen more than an Anglo average of them fight like crazy bastards when Anglopones would be blubbing on the batphone and if that fails, SDing the lot.
This, really, is what sets Blood Union apart, and why I'm predictingan orgy of massive evictions just because they can do it. Indeed, if they've set themselves a goal of evicting every notable WH alliance from their twattishly named systems, it's the Russians who will achieve this. Anyone remember the DRF?
Hopefully this will result in a more dynamic cascade of alliances - like VOC's latest alleged move - moving down to what is, essentially, more secure low-class space. However, i'm not looking forward to stupid huge blobs of T3's dickarsing about hisec like the bad old days of Narwhals. but if Putin comands it, it will be so.
Friday, 30 May 2014
Wednesday, 28 May 2014
The Lonely Ships
Do you ever need to move gigantic amounts of EMP S from Jita to Hek? Do you ever feel the need to haul an unfeasibly large stash of Cap 800's from Efa to Todifrauan all in the one ship? Then look no further than the Hoarder!
Today's latest offering is from some Minmatar NPC corporation, aka CCP Fozzie's dope-addled brain, which created a ship with a special cargo hold capable of carrying unfeasibly large amounts of a commodity that you can already carry unfeasibly large amounts of in any ship cargo hold!
Can you not fit 50,000 Scourge Rage heavy missiles inside of your Tengu's ammo bay? The ship is 1.5km long and yet has a volume the size of a small one-bedroom apartment (350m3) devoted to carrying missiles. It can fit 50,000 missiles inside this unfeasibly small cargo bay, which makes each missile 0.007m3, which is to whit, the size of a box of fucking tic tacs.
Or maybe you're a Naglfar pilot who is worried about XL EMP ammo consumption for your Quad 3500mm Gallium artillery. Fear not, for your 3.5 metre wide shells take up 1/8th of a cubic metre. Which is pretty cool because clearly they are only 8 milimetres long (because one shot fills 4 barrels). Think EMP XL gym mats.
So CCP Fozzie has created a hauling ship which can carry 50,000m3 (or whatever, it's irrelevant) of cargo, allowing you to carry an unfeasibly large amount of boxes of tic-tacs and gym mats.
Leaving aside the hilarious nonphysical dimensions of abstracted game mechanics in a completely fantastical space ships online game (though it is funny to consider), and taking this suspension of disbelief in its stride, do you actualy need to haul this much ammo from point A to point B?
No.
The usage stats from Battleclinic are instructional. Only 22 Hoarders per month are being destroyed in killmails linked on Battleclinic, which may not be the full amount I grant you, but it's still the only graphically presented numbers I can get my hands on.
The verdict is in - you can already cram far too many tictacs and gym mats into the minuscule cargo holds of your spaceships. You can carry so many that you don't feasibly need to take extreme detours out of your way to buy ammo - hell, most ships I own die before I need to buy ammo. That includes PVE chariots, because of sentry drones.
I have previously accused the Hoarder of being the ugliest ship in EVE. Now it is clear it is also the most useless. I have 6 of them, from back in the day when it was just yet another slightly useless box in space with dimensions and capacity midway between a hauling frigate and an Iteron 5.
It is clear that the Hoarder has been balanced out of existence, not because it isn't unique, but because its source of uniqueness is in a role which no one needs filled. It's an ammo hauler looking for a dire shortage of cap 800's to fill, in a universe where even dreadnaughts can carry ammunition which is mindbogglingly thin.
Today's latest offering is from some Minmatar NPC corporation, aka CCP Fozzie's dope-addled brain, which created a ship with a special cargo hold capable of carrying unfeasibly large amounts of a commodity that you can already carry unfeasibly large amounts of in any ship cargo hold!
Can you not fit 50,000 Scourge Rage heavy missiles inside of your Tengu's ammo bay? The ship is 1.5km long and yet has a volume the size of a small one-bedroom apartment (350m3) devoted to carrying missiles. It can fit 50,000 missiles inside this unfeasibly small cargo bay, which makes each missile 0.007m3, which is to whit, the size of a box of fucking tic tacs.
Or maybe you're a Naglfar pilot who is worried about XL EMP ammo consumption for your Quad 3500mm Gallium artillery. Fear not, for your 3.5 metre wide shells take up 1/8th of a cubic metre. Which is pretty cool because clearly they are only 8 milimetres long (because one shot fills 4 barrels). Think EMP XL gym mats.
So CCP Fozzie has created a hauling ship which can carry 50,000m3 (or whatever, it's irrelevant) of cargo, allowing you to carry an unfeasibly large amount of boxes of tic-tacs and gym mats.
Leaving aside the hilarious nonphysical dimensions of abstracted game mechanics in a completely fantastical space ships online game (though it is funny to consider), and taking this suspension of disbelief in its stride, do you actualy need to haul this much ammo from point A to point B?
No.
The usage stats from Battleclinic are instructional. Only 22 Hoarders per month are being destroyed in killmails linked on Battleclinic, which may not be the full amount I grant you, but it's still the only graphically presented numbers I can get my hands on.
The verdict is in - you can already cram far too many tictacs and gym mats into the minuscule cargo holds of your spaceships. You can carry so many that you don't feasibly need to take extreme detours out of your way to buy ammo - hell, most ships I own die before I need to buy ammo. That includes PVE chariots, because of sentry drones.
I have previously accused the Hoarder of being the ugliest ship in EVE. Now it is clear it is also the most useless. I have 6 of them, from back in the day when it was just yet another slightly useless box in space with dimensions and capacity midway between a hauling frigate and an Iteron 5.
It is clear that the Hoarder has been balanced out of existence, not because it isn't unique, but because its source of uniqueness is in a role which no one needs filled. It's an ammo hauler looking for a dire shortage of cap 800's to fill, in a universe where even dreadnaughts can carry ammunition which is mindbogglingly thin.
Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Wolf Rayet PVE
Some friends of mine inhabit a C2 with O477 static. The last couple of days they have been connected to Wolf Rayet systems full of sites, and have settled in for some hardcore bearing and ISK farming.
Their initial instinct - as is everyone's - when you connect to a WR is to deploy the armour BS (/Paladin) and Guardian fleet for bearing. This plays exclusively upon the system effects which buff armour resistances. Tanking with 2 Guardians is super-easy, everyone has big buffers and high resists, etc etc.
Fucking yawn, I said. Take Enyos, Vengeances and Wolves, and 2 Execqurors. it will be faster, a hell of a lot more fun, and you'll make more ISK.
In explaining it, I pointed out that the Enyo in a C3 WR does 520 DPS cold, trucks along at 2.7km/s, has a sig radius of 27m and has 10.5K EHP or more. It does the same DPS as a Tengu, costs 10% as much, and takes a tenth the damage or less.
They were skeptical because the typical experience is that Sleepers completely obliterate anything with a small buffer the instant they touch grid.
They finally dropped the 35M a pop on their AF's (those who could fly AFs...), grabbed an Astarte for unnecessary links, and a couple of T1 logi, and the reviews are in:
"This is too easy."
"LOL, the BS did 5 damage."
"We should have done this earlier."
"Did we flip that site in 4 minutes?"
I won't claim that BUGRY was the first, ever, to do RR AF's, but we were certainly the ones who perfected the art, back before AF's were buffed and before small RR's were a thing or T1 logi cruisers were awesome. We used to run 5 Ishkurs with A-type small remote reps (they used to sell for 300K a pop) and/or armour Harpy or Wolf. Vengeances weren't favoured because the DPS was low and the Ishkur could do DPS with drones from 50km.
We used to run AB fits, but nowadays after the AF buff, the sig radius doesn't blow out too much and the extra speed really helps. Add in 66km Execquror reps, and it's pretty much a recipe for win.
The other system effects where RR AF or the AF/Exec gang does well include Cataclysmic (especially the RR AF) although your DPS is lower, resulting in slower grinding, and magnetar where the raw DPS buff really helps you churn sites.
Oddly enough, AB fit RR AF also does OK in C3 Black Holes because you get 55% more speed for free and the nerf to gun and lock range is an insignificant nuisance except in the Oruze Construct, where a 100km truck to fight results in wasted time.
The moral of the story? If you are going to run sites as a group, often the most exciting wayy to do it is to reduce your safety margins and push the comfort zone. You'll learn a thing or two, and develop skills beyond the ordinary. It will also, sometimes, be more efficient.
Their initial instinct - as is everyone's - when you connect to a WR is to deploy the armour BS (/Paladin) and Guardian fleet for bearing. This plays exclusively upon the system effects which buff armour resistances. Tanking with 2 Guardians is super-easy, everyone has big buffers and high resists, etc etc.
Fucking yawn, I said. Take Enyos, Vengeances and Wolves, and 2 Execqurors. it will be faster, a hell of a lot more fun, and you'll make more ISK.
In explaining it, I pointed out that the Enyo in a C3 WR does 520 DPS cold, trucks along at 2.7km/s, has a sig radius of 27m and has 10.5K EHP or more. It does the same DPS as a Tengu, costs 10% as much, and takes a tenth the damage or less.
They were skeptical because the typical experience is that Sleepers completely obliterate anything with a small buffer the instant they touch grid.
They finally dropped the 35M a pop on their AF's (those who could fly AFs...), grabbed an Astarte for unnecessary links, and a couple of T1 logi, and the reviews are in:
"This is too easy."
"LOL, the BS did 5 damage."
"We should have done this earlier."
"Did we flip that site in 4 minutes?"
I won't claim that BUGRY was the first, ever, to do RR AF's, but we were certainly the ones who perfected the art, back before AF's were buffed and before small RR's were a thing or T1 logi cruisers were awesome. We used to run 5 Ishkurs with A-type small remote reps (they used to sell for 300K a pop) and/or armour Harpy or Wolf. Vengeances weren't favoured because the DPS was low and the Ishkur could do DPS with drones from 50km.
We used to run AB fits, but nowadays after the AF buff, the sig radius doesn't blow out too much and the extra speed really helps. Add in 66km Execquror reps, and it's pretty much a recipe for win.
The other system effects where RR AF or the AF/Exec gang does well include Cataclysmic (especially the RR AF) although your DPS is lower, resulting in slower grinding, and magnetar where the raw DPS buff really helps you churn sites.
Oddly enough, AB fit RR AF also does OK in C3 Black Holes because you get 55% more speed for free and the nerf to gun and lock range is an insignificant nuisance except in the Oruze Construct, where a 100km truck to fight results in wasted time.
The moral of the story? If you are going to run sites as a group, often the most exciting wayy to do it is to reduce your safety margins and push the comfort zone. You'll learn a thing or two, and develop skills beyond the ordinary. It will also, sometimes, be more efficient.
Monday, 26 May 2014
Deimos? Nope, nope, nope.
I have been running 5/10s in Lowsec for cashzors. Sometimes, 200M/hr sometimes a mere 30M ISk, depending on the drops. My choice for doing this is a T1 cruiser and a T1 logi cruiser on the alt, because of the cheaps.
Nearly every single time, I kid you not, some smartass comes along in a Deimos. Either they dock up and grab probes or their mate gets probes, and they come along trying to gank me. Yesterday I decided to take the fight, which i shall not be doing again.
There's a reason the Deimos is the solo HAC of choice (and Ishtar is the gang andd fleet HAC of choice). DPS, permarun MWD, and twin-rep tank (MAR/MAAR). You get 1002 DPS, 650 DPS active tank for 2.5 minutes and 2700m/s OH.
My problem is, I shoould have clued in to the Deimos proliferation sooner and done the EFT research on it before taking a fight in a pair of ships which, literally, you cannot even ever have a spitballs chance in hell. 450 DPS Omen, with a RR tank of about the same? No chance, ever.
In fact, your only chance of ever cracking a Deimos is oddly enough the Nereus. I should know, as I am #1 Nereus user in all of EVE according to zkillboard (with RTS Avalanche a close second, though it is noted he will have full Tengu links for even more hilarious tank).
But this raises some interesting balance issues, as I'll show. The trend is there - you never get assaulted by a Sacrelige, you never see solo Zealot, you absolutely never see solo Cerb (lol, seriously) or Eagle (luls). Why? You simply cannot get the same performance out of any of the HACs.
Zealot has a pathetic 450 DPS and can only tank and spank for about 1m 50s and is 250m/s slower than the Deimos (which gets an extra mid for web, so it's game over for kiting). So it has half the DPS of the Deimos and cannot crack the MAR/MAAR tank before it vapes. GG.
Sacrelige is still a Sacrelige - it is even slower at 1500m/s, it does 500 DPS, and can tank 500 DPS with a MAR/MAAR setup. It gets a web and a neut, which may - just may - tip the balance if it doesn't melt within the time it takes to cap the Deimos out. I wouldn't try it. Similarly, plate/MAAR setups also suffer from an inability to withstand the Deimos's extreme DPS and cannot crack it's extreme tank.
We'll ignore the Eagle and Cerb entirely. Both are incapable of fitting any form of tank sufficient to shed the Deimos' DPS (not even with ASBs), and are also both slower than the Deimos, which inevitably ends up with a dead Caldari HAC. The bleagle can do a respectable amount of DPS (520), but it isn't up to 650 DPS for >2m 30s.
We'll ignore the Munnin - it's not a solo boat by any means - so our last great hope is the Vagabond. Here, finally, you have a HAC with the base speed necessary to not get caught by a Deimos (2430m/s), the capacitor not to cap out while firing its guns or running a rep (XLASB ftw?) but...420 DPS is not necessarily going to top off the Deimos. The Deimos can perma-tank 350 DPS, and you'll be fighting deep in falloff with autocannons.
So, all in all, is the Deimos overpowered? Yes. Clearly it dominates the solo HAC space by a significant margin. The problem is not any of the individual components. Individually it's OK to have 2m 30s capacitor and a 650 DPS tank, or permarun MWD and being faster than your foes. Or you can have a huge local tank and 1000 DPS. But put it all together and you can run down almost any HAC, and you can survive that one HAC you cannot run down for long enough to blaze his ASB charges, at which point he will have to withdraw.
So now you know - never take a fight with a Deimos. It will 99% likely be a MAR/MAAR fit, it will run you down without capping out, it can tank whatever you throw at it's tiny sig radius (oddly, scramming it is counterproductive!), and it will melt your face.
Nearly every single time, I kid you not, some smartass comes along in a Deimos. Either they dock up and grab probes or their mate gets probes, and they come along trying to gank me. Yesterday I decided to take the fight, which i shall not be doing again.
There's a reason the Deimos is the solo HAC of choice (and Ishtar is the gang andd fleet HAC of choice). DPS, permarun MWD, and twin-rep tank (MAR/MAAR). You get 1002 DPS, 650 DPS active tank for 2.5 minutes and 2700m/s OH.
My problem is, I shoould have clued in to the Deimos proliferation sooner and done the EFT research on it before taking a fight in a pair of ships which, literally, you cannot even ever have a spitballs chance in hell. 450 DPS Omen, with a RR tank of about the same? No chance, ever.
In fact, your only chance of ever cracking a Deimos is oddly enough the Nereus. I should know, as I am #1 Nereus user in all of EVE according to zkillboard (with RTS Avalanche a close second, though it is noted he will have full Tengu links for even more hilarious tank).
But this raises some interesting balance issues, as I'll show. The trend is there - you never get assaulted by a Sacrelige, you never see solo Zealot, you absolutely never see solo Cerb (lol, seriously) or Eagle (luls). Why? You simply cannot get the same performance out of any of the HACs.
Zealot has a pathetic 450 DPS and can only tank and spank for about 1m 50s and is 250m/s slower than the Deimos (which gets an extra mid for web, so it's game over for kiting). So it has half the DPS of the Deimos and cannot crack the MAR/MAAR tank before it vapes. GG.
Sacrelige is still a Sacrelige - it is even slower at 1500m/s, it does 500 DPS, and can tank 500 DPS with a MAR/MAAR setup. It gets a web and a neut, which may - just may - tip the balance if it doesn't melt within the time it takes to cap the Deimos out. I wouldn't try it. Similarly, plate/MAAR setups also suffer from an inability to withstand the Deimos's extreme DPS and cannot crack it's extreme tank.
We'll ignore the Eagle and Cerb entirely. Both are incapable of fitting any form of tank sufficient to shed the Deimos' DPS (not even with ASBs), and are also both slower than the Deimos, which inevitably ends up with a dead Caldari HAC. The bleagle can do a respectable amount of DPS (520), but it isn't up to 650 DPS for >2m 30s.
We'll ignore the Munnin - it's not a solo boat by any means - so our last great hope is the Vagabond. Here, finally, you have a HAC with the base speed necessary to not get caught by a Deimos (2430m/s), the capacitor not to cap out while firing its guns or running a rep (XLASB ftw?) but...420 DPS is not necessarily going to top off the Deimos. The Deimos can perma-tank 350 DPS, and you'll be fighting deep in falloff with autocannons.
So, all in all, is the Deimos overpowered? Yes. Clearly it dominates the solo HAC space by a significant margin. The problem is not any of the individual components. Individually it's OK to have 2m 30s capacitor and a 650 DPS tank, or permarun MWD and being faster than your foes. Or you can have a huge local tank and 1000 DPS. But put it all together and you can run down almost any HAC, and you can survive that one HAC you cannot run down for long enough to blaze his ASB charges, at which point he will have to withdraw.
So now you know - never take a fight with a Deimos. It will 99% likely be a MAR/MAAR fit, it will run you down without capping out, it can tank whatever you throw at it's tiny sig radius (oddly, scramming it is counterproductive!), and it will melt your face.
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Epic thread derailment
Wormholes are a funny place. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that 99% of the time people wait around for content to be created (duh) and then it's all batphones and blue balls and once a month, tops, you get a "gudfite" which ends up as a video on the forum where people come together to nerdrage, troll, sperge and basically use it as an advertisement about how awesome and elite wormhole PVP is, and join my C5-C5 corp now, you'll be the best.
So, people do.
The problem is, self-important primadonnas rule the roost andd there's a looosely held belief that as long as you aren't a giant farmatron, you can sit in your bonused C5 wormhole, call it something edgy like "Nova" or "Valhalla" or something, and bingo-bango you'll be left alone as long as you bring the "gudfites". You don't get the "gudfites" sometimes unless there's an eviction underway, however, at which ppoint in time you begin a giant whingenaught thread.
Then some clown comes along and derails it into a discussion about Incarna space-barbies clothing. >.<
So, people do.
The problem is, self-important primadonnas rule the roost andd there's a looosely held belief that as long as you aren't a giant farmatron, you can sit in your bonused C5 wormhole, call it something edgy like "Nova" or "Valhalla" or something, and bingo-bango you'll be left alone as long as you bring the "gudfites". You don't get the "gudfites" sometimes unless there's an eviction underway, however, at which ppoint in time you begin a giant whingenaught thread.
Then some clown comes along and derails it into a discussion about Incarna space-barbies clothing. >.<
Saturday, 24 May 2014
Winmatar no longer winning
Are autocannons, and hence, Minmatar, in a bad place,
balancing wise?
The days of old where Minmatar was the choice du jour have
been changed by the meta of the game moving on, and serial rebalancing passes
aimed at fixing the other weapon systems. This perception is based on the olden days, before
blasters got buffed (cheaper fittings, null), rails got buffed (better everything),
beams got buffed (cheaper fittings) and pulses got buffed (optimal out the
wazoo). Say, 2011 or so, and before.
The truth, now, especially in the cruiser and BC field, is
that Minmatar are definitely a race you don’t want to fly. This even bleeds into
the HAC and T3 scene, and excepting web lokis, Huginns and Rapiers having their own special traits, you have to
go to Angel ships to really begin to pick up turret DPS and damage application
competitive with your enemies.
The opinion of Winmatar is they are mutable, speedy,
slippery kiting kings. True, Minmatar are – generally speaking – relatively fast
compared to, say, Caldari. But they no longer rule over everything. Ishtars outpace
nearly everything, Thoraxes and Deimos can run down most Minmatar ships, and
the ones which are left – the Stabber, Slasher – have such abysmal DPS that you’d
be better off going Gallente just on the off chance you’ll get a scram on the
foes and facemelt them.
This is not restricted to Minmatar
either – the HML is now by and large a weapon system even out of favour with
ratters. Much easier and time and cost effective to train Gallente cruiser 5
and get into HACs (Ishtar) than get into Tengus for ratting. No one rats in
Minmatar ships excepting the Vargur. No one.
This is a function of the weapons, not neccessarily the ship traits, which are in magnitude and type essentially similar to the other races' ship traits.
Medium AC’s are short range guns but, typically, are used
for fighting deep in falloff by kiting outside of scram range. Medium Artillery
has such atrocious tracking in anything but a real stern chase situation (in
which case, everything hits fine) that it cannot reasonably be used for PVP,
especially considering its cycle time is so long.
For alpha fleets, by which I of course mean Cynabal gangs or
massed Ruppy fleets, arty of course reigns supreme, but is being swiftly
overshadowed by Rail Thorax (Proteus) and Rail Moa (Eagle) gangs and fleets for
kite-brawl situations due to higher DPS, faster ammo swapping (5s from AM to
Spike, for instance) and better tracking.
The discussion of whether ACs and hence Minmatar are now the
weapons in need of a buff revolve around whether capless, damage selectable guns
can afford to have less paper and applied DPS than cap-hungry locked-type guns
such as lasers. This then becomes an equation where on one side you have
capacitor life of, for example the Pulse Omen, multiplied by DPS at any given range
within 24km, versus cap life and DPS of the Rupture.
Using a reasonably common shield kiting fit for either, the
Omen (442 DPS, 1m 40s cap) faces off against the Ruppy (423 DPS, 2m30s cap
life). Nominally the Rupture wins on paper due to the extra 30s of capacitor
life, which allows a stern chase to cap the Omen out and win right at the end
of the fight – ie; the advantage of capless guns, and in this case, paper beats
reality at ranges below about 10km, which is not generally a kiting situation.
However, take into account that the Omen is faster than the
Rupture (2018 m/s versus 1693 m/s) and it is unlikely the Rupture will get into
range until late in the battle to match the DPS of the Omen. This also ignores
the fact that if the Omen is fighting in the Ruppy’s falloff, particularly in
the range bracket of 15-20km, it can have up to 230DPS more than the Ruppy
because its optimal goes all the way to 20.4km.
Therefore, given the fact the Omen matches the Rupture DPS
in brawling range, is slower and can only ever catch the Omen after 1m 40s of
fighting, it is clear that the Rupture is at a complete disadvantage,
selectable damage or not. 30s of fighting in the 15-20km danger zone is enough
to see the Rupture vaped. Also, the Omen is cap stable with its guns firing
even at 0% capacitor, so it’s not like running its MWD forever actually turns
its guns off.
Similarly, if you try to kite the average blaster Thorax
these days, you might outrun him for a few seconds of free DPS but Null really
sorts out most of his problems too. Typical shield blaster Thoraxes go 2200m/s
meaning that with a stern chase from 25km it takes them at most 25s to catch a
shield AC Rupture – during which time the Rupture averages 100 DPS more than
the Thorax…and then gets scrammed and overhauled by the Thorax’s 700 DPS
blasters.
The same holds true for a Moa, which the Ruppy would be
attempting to kite, given it is marginally (100m/s) faster. However, the Moa
can pack double or even triple the tank and hence isn’t going to be threatened
immediately, and should hold it’s MWD for at least a minute of the engagement
to let the Ruppy cap itself out first. If you put a Rail Moa up against a AC Rupture, the Rupture
is in a world of hurt, with the Moa having double the tank and better DPS in
the sweet spot for kiting, the 17-21km window.
There isn’t much of a benefit to having capless guns, given
the Rupture only out-DPS’s blaster boats at kiting ranges, is slower than the
Thorax meaning it will get caught and murdered, and cannot necessarily count on
kitting the Moa before it runs out of capacitor and gets keel-hauled and vaped.
True, there is a large window open for skilled pilots to
turn this analysis on its head, but the reality is that the Omen is the kiter
of choice, followed by rail Thoraxes, Rail moas, blaster Thoraxes and then
Blaster Moas.
The solution I believe is to increase the optimal of AC’s
from 1.5km to 6km. Firstly, this actually differentiates their optimal from that of blasters. Secondly, this would give the Rupture a peak DPS in the 13km region
and push a hump of higher DPS out from 13-23km, and the tail of the curve at
23km-30km would be quite a significant 150-250 DPS (half of this being drones). This would allow your Rupture to begin engagements at 30km
and bank on the enemy overhauling it. By the time it gets run down into web
range by the Thoraxes, it will be significant through the enemy’s tank and can
turn around and fully engage in the 13km area of overheated webs, neuts, etc,
to finish the engagement.
Alternatively, we need to look at speed and tank. Speed wise, the Rupture needs its speed to rise significantly into the 2200m/s realm to allow it to more effectively maintain a set range from its competitors. This
is then a Stabber clone, a ship I haven’t talked about here because it can
actually kite…for a few minutes till it caps out (depending on whether you have a small cap booster fit, which people generally don't). In fact, the only ship I can
see working as a kiter is, ironically, the Bellicose, with HML and small cap booster
fits allowing permakiting. You cannot achieve it in practise because the shield
Thorax will run you down and does double your DPS within dissy range, so….whatevs.
Tank-wise it's arguable that making the Rupture a mini-Cyclone will not help it brawl in the 1-10km range. Even now an armour fit Ruppy will simply evaporate in front of a blaster boat (650 DPS Vexor, 700 DPS Moa, 750 DPS Thorax) and has such ppathetic DPS it can't really outcompete the Omen except with neuts, which become difficult to fit in the case of 1600 plate Ruptures. This also goes strictly against the current meta of mobility being king, and would see you trapped in a horribly slow, bloaty punching bag, at which point you fly the Maller anyway, or a bricked out Moa.
So, yes, there is a very strong argument that the Minmatar
and ACs are distinctly sub-par at the moment both at brawling – a Gallente and now Caldari
speciality thanks to 700 DPS Moa –and kiting. this even takes into account that typically, medium long range guns outside of the projectile world are now being used effectively for everything except raw alphafleet. In fact, the meta is so far in
favour of anything but Minmatar, that it’s almost urgent to address this
problem via a bit of a tweak.
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Racist fucks
The most annoying thing about EVE is often the American rednecks and white supremacist cunts.
Late at night, hopped up on moonshine and with the taste of their sister's dicks still fresh in their mouths, these fucking lowlife scum get online and head to Recruitment channnel and start telling what they consider to be jokes.
These include the old gold "What do apples and negroes have in common They both look good hanging from a tree."
Now, I am sure that the ISD guys have plenty of work to do on the forums, trimming people's catty insults and calming down itchy neckbeards.
However, this is a game played predominantly by adults who, firstly, should know better than to tell overtly crass racist jokes in a public channel. These supposed adults definitely know that, firstly, not everyone who plays EVE is white.
This probably annoys them, but they must know that their racism is reaching its intended audience, both the white guys who are too smart to speak up, and the black and Asian guys who are going to feel angered, shamed, disgusted or victimised by this crap.
This, then, shows that when someone tells such a joke in a public channel or indeed Local, anyone who is silent is complicit in allowwing racism to thrive in EVE Online. Surely, you may think, these guys are just drunk or hopped up on dope late at night, you have to expect that.
No. You fucking don't. There's no amount of drunk or stoned which would make me talk about "jewing" or dissing "niggers" in Local or Recruitment.
So, I will continue to report these fucktards until they get banned.
I will say, here, that in this regard, CCP will turn around a support ticket for racism inside 3 minutes. So, it pays to play fair, speak fair and not put up with this shit, either on the forums or off. Sure, they really ought to crack down on Recruitment from time to time in the AU TZ when all the neckbearded mouthbreathing cunts get on and turn it into a festering pile of shit. But that doesn't absolve everyone else in the channel from upholding decency too.
It is simply commonsense and good business for CCP to respond as harshly as possible to these asswipes, because there's only so many people who'll sign off Teamspeak ever night with a fervent "White Power!" and there's a hell of a lot of Japanese, Singaporean, Korean, indian, or just plain brown-skinned people who will pay their ten bucks a month and don't need to put up with 1800's attitudes in the 21st century.
What's in it for you? Well, if you aren't a white supremacist small-dicked cousin fucking inbred redneck fucktard, you get to play an adult game, with adults and not have to read atrociously racist bullshit.
I think that's worth a dozen support tickets a day.
Late at night, hopped up on moonshine and with the taste of their sister's dicks still fresh in their mouths, these fucking lowlife scum get online and head to Recruitment channnel and start telling what they consider to be jokes.
These include the old gold "What do apples and negroes have in common They both look good hanging from a tree."
Now, I am sure that the ISD guys have plenty of work to do on the forums, trimming people's catty insults and calming down itchy neckbeards.
However, this is a game played predominantly by adults who, firstly, should know better than to tell overtly crass racist jokes in a public channel. These supposed adults definitely know that, firstly, not everyone who plays EVE is white.
This probably annoys them, but they must know that their racism is reaching its intended audience, both the white guys who are too smart to speak up, and the black and Asian guys who are going to feel angered, shamed, disgusted or victimised by this crap.
This, then, shows that when someone tells such a joke in a public channel or indeed Local, anyone who is silent is complicit in allowwing racism to thrive in EVE Online. Surely, you may think, these guys are just drunk or hopped up on dope late at night, you have to expect that.
No. You fucking don't. There's no amount of drunk or stoned which would make me talk about "jewing" or dissing "niggers" in Local or Recruitment.
So, I will continue to report these fucktards until they get banned.
I will say, here, that in this regard, CCP will turn around a support ticket for racism inside 3 minutes. So, it pays to play fair, speak fair and not put up with this shit, either on the forums or off. Sure, they really ought to crack down on Recruitment from time to time in the AU TZ when all the neckbearded mouthbreathing cunts get on and turn it into a festering pile of shit. But that doesn't absolve everyone else in the channel from upholding decency too.
It is simply commonsense and good business for CCP to respond as harshly as possible to these asswipes, because there's only so many people who'll sign off Teamspeak ever night with a fervent "White Power!" and there's a hell of a lot of Japanese, Singaporean, Korean, indian, or just plain brown-skinned people who will pay their ten bucks a month and don't need to put up with 1800's attitudes in the 21st century.
What's in it for you? Well, if you aren't a white supremacist small-dicked cousin fucking inbred redneck fucktard, you get to play an adult game, with adults and not have to read atrociously racist bullshit.
I think that's worth a dozen support tickets a day.
Fuck Frulegur
All I will say is being unable to jump with "less than one second" and having to click a goddamn pop-up dialog which occurs often when you are PVPing is just plain fucking bad game design. Retards at star gates get to spam jump or spam warp without a po-up saying "hurr you can't do that, click OK to acknowledge!"
Plus, then you have a group of gate-camping wankers with instalock Lokis.
le sigh.
Guess that's all the fun taken out of a lowsec static for the next 18 hours, unless I can ninja-collapse it by logging on and flicking a BS in and out every hour.
Plus, then you have a group of gate-camping wankers with instalock Lokis.
le sigh.
Guess that's all the fun taken out of a lowsec static for the next 18 hours, unless I can ninja-collapse it by logging on and flicking a BS in and out every hour.
Saturday, 17 May 2014
wut
Medium Micro Jump Drives
No, Fozzie. No.
Read the damn thread on the F&I forum, I cannot just even right now.
No, Fozzie. No.
Read the damn thread on the F&I forum, I cannot just even right now.
Friday, 16 May 2014
Needs FRAPs ffs
I have played around with the idea of FRAPSing some of my engagements. often it would be kind of boring, but every so often it would be a highly entertaining affair which would perhaps show a few people a thing or two.
Last night on the roam, I was heavy scouting in SS Planet Dollaz 2 jumps into lowsec after the fleet had got welped in a BS engagement versus Snuff Box. I won't go into details on that, as I wasn't present on field, but suffice to say everyone was mid reshipping and I was YOLOing around.
I was hunting, or at least hoping to be hunted by, a Vexor. I know the Planet Dollaz can take a solo cruiser, perhaps two if they are bad and noobs. I was confident i could at least tackle him hard till someone came along to get backup point and DPS. My only problem was a guy in system in a Talos. I'd done the maths, and blaster Talos was 1100-1300 DPS of horror which would hand me a lossmail in seconds, so the objective was to get tackled by the Vexor and bleat on comms, whilst avoiding the Talos. Not an easy task in a hauler.
As it turned out, my "PI" milk run ended up on planet 3 POCO at zero, and a small distraction saw me on grid, not aligned, when the Talos landed. I immediately tried to GTFO...but it seems I warped into the side of the POCO and was bouncing off it. Ruh roh, raggy. Boy, did i bleat on comms. Girlishly, I may admit.
However, this is where the wish for FRAPS comes in. I was a mere 100m away from the Talos, and although he was hitting me hard (down to 10% shield!) I pulled out all stops. First off, was not to point him back until the exact last minute, in case it gave the game away. Second was to overload the Invul, big time. But most importantly was manually piloting around him in an orbit of 200-300m at the blistering speed of 150m/s. Even large blasters can't track that well, and that's what saved the bacon. Barely.
So. End result was a Talos who died to a huge gang, and a Nereus which didn't die to something that, reasonably, ought to have completely pwned the shit out of it in seconds.
Then we set about greening up the killboard, and it's kind of a luxury to be in a Q-ship. You get to point a Raven on gate with a scram and not get shot for the whole battle.
Last night on the roam, I was heavy scouting in SS Planet Dollaz 2 jumps into lowsec after the fleet had got welped in a BS engagement versus Snuff Box. I won't go into details on that, as I wasn't present on field, but suffice to say everyone was mid reshipping and I was YOLOing around.
I was hunting, or at least hoping to be hunted by, a Vexor. I know the Planet Dollaz can take a solo cruiser, perhaps two if they are bad and noobs. I was confident i could at least tackle him hard till someone came along to get backup point and DPS. My only problem was a guy in system in a Talos. I'd done the maths, and blaster Talos was 1100-1300 DPS of horror which would hand me a lossmail in seconds, so the objective was to get tackled by the Vexor and bleat on comms, whilst avoiding the Talos. Not an easy task in a hauler.
As it turned out, my "PI" milk run ended up on planet 3 POCO at zero, and a small distraction saw me on grid, not aligned, when the Talos landed. I immediately tried to GTFO...but it seems I warped into the side of the POCO and was bouncing off it. Ruh roh, raggy. Boy, did i bleat on comms. Girlishly, I may admit.
However, this is where the wish for FRAPS comes in. I was a mere 100m away from the Talos, and although he was hitting me hard (down to 10% shield!) I pulled out all stops. First off, was not to point him back until the exact last minute, in case it gave the game away. Second was to overload the Invul, big time. But most importantly was manually piloting around him in an orbit of 200-300m at the blistering speed of 150m/s. Even large blasters can't track that well, and that's what saved the bacon. Barely.
So. End result was a Talos who died to a huge gang, and a Nereus which didn't die to something that, reasonably, ought to have completely pwned the shit out of it in seconds.
Then we set about greening up the killboard, and it's kind of a luxury to be in a Q-ship. You get to point a Raven on gate with a scram and not get shot for the whole battle.
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Orthrus
Yesterday a threadnaught was started on EVE-O when CCP Rise announced the Orthrus.
I will leave you with this image to show you how OP this shit is going to be. OK, that's a full Tengu and Loki booster, but without any appreciable pimp, and considering it still has 175 calibration on it (hello T2 field extender rig or a Polycarb) we have 426 DPS at 85km with a 70km dissy and 4,776m/s. That is probably 57km dissy and 3,500m/s without OH, but still.
You can run down a ceptor and kill it, with Precisions, and run away if the ceptor tries to disagree with this situation.
Even without boosts, you'll have 45km dissy and 2,700m/s.
Even comparing just the raw stats to, say, an Arbitrator it's clear the Orthrus has a huge amount over our least-loved Amarr T1 cruiser. Sure, you'll be paying through the nose for the orthrus and want something special, but do you really need 325 extra powergrid, 170 capacitor, 7 sensor strength (!!), 45m/s base speed and overwhelming EWAR bonus of 50% extra disruptor and scram range?
I mean, you try fitting a 1600 plate to an Arbitrator and one medium neut. Good luck with that. The Orthrus can do it and fit 5 HML's and get actual DPS.
Its pretty ridiculous. I'm not expecting to owwn one for 3-6 months after patch day, because OMFG. But at least the guys in Pure Blind are going to be spending their entire eve career until 3rd June humping level 4's for LP's. Talk about a massive, massive payout to them.
ORTHRUS
Caldari Cruiser Bonus per level:
20% bonus to missile damage
Gallente Cruiser Bonus per level:
10% bonus to warp scrambler and warp disruptor range
Role Bonus:
200% bonus to missile velocity
50% penalty to missile flight time
Slot layout: 6H, 5M, 4L; 0 turrets, 5 launchers
Fittings: 900 PWG, 460 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 2950 / 2280 / 2100
Capacitor (amount / cap/sec) : 1550 / 3.16s
Mobility (Max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 245 / .48 / 9362000 / 6.23s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 25 / 25
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 50km / 300 / 7
Sensor strength: 21
Signature radius: 120
I will leave you with this image to show you how OP this shit is going to be. OK, that's a full Tengu and Loki booster, but without any appreciable pimp, and considering it still has 175 calibration on it (hello T2 field extender rig or a Polycarb) we have 426 DPS at 85km with a 70km dissy and 4,776m/s. That is probably 57km dissy and 3,500m/s without OH, but still.
You can run down a ceptor and kill it, with Precisions, and run away if the ceptor tries to disagree with this situation.
Even without boosts, you'll have 45km dissy and 2,700m/s.
Even comparing just the raw stats to, say, an Arbitrator it's clear the Orthrus has a huge amount over our least-loved Amarr T1 cruiser. Sure, you'll be paying through the nose for the orthrus and want something special, but do you really need 325 extra powergrid, 170 capacitor, 7 sensor strength (!!), 45m/s base speed and overwhelming EWAR bonus of 50% extra disruptor and scram range?
I mean, you try fitting a 1600 plate to an Arbitrator and one medium neut. Good luck with that. The Orthrus can do it and fit 5 HML's and get actual DPS.
Its pretty ridiculous. I'm not expecting to owwn one for 3-6 months after patch day, because OMFG. But at least the guys in Pure Blind are going to be spending their entire eve career until 3rd June humping level 4's for LP's. Talk about a massive, massive payout to them.
Sunday, 11 May 2014
A tingle of excitement
Yesterday, BUGRY.
Today, TALUN?
I hope this sees low-class wormholes fill up again with people who actually bring fights. Sure, you make big bank in C5's, but it's kind of a farm-all or fight-all scene, where small entities cannot survive by getting decent fights (and get blobbed hard by 30+++ Proteuses with 30% of the fleet Guardian coverage) and where monthly brawls get FRAPsed and written up on the forums like they are earthshattering events.
Meanwhile, you go about your business in the long grass at the low end of town, racking up more kills, more ISK killed, more fun, less vids, less e-peen.
No longer, I hope. TALUN were great fun. Poke the hornet's nest, harvest the tears, scuttle away when the content you created was too much.
Today, TALUN?
I hope this sees low-class wormholes fill up again with people who actually bring fights. Sure, you make big bank in C5's, but it's kind of a farm-all or fight-all scene, where small entities cannot survive by getting decent fights (and get blobbed hard by 30+++ Proteuses with 30% of the fleet Guardian coverage) and where monthly brawls get FRAPsed and written up on the forums like they are earthshattering events.
Meanwhile, you go about your business in the long grass at the low end of town, racking up more kills, more ISK killed, more fun, less vids, less e-peen.
No longer, I hope. TALUN were great fun. Poke the hornet's nest, harvest the tears, scuttle away when the content you created was too much.
Flight of the Planet Dollaz #2
I found some rats on a gate in lowsec and went ratting. In my Nereus, on gate.
Aggressed on gate by a Prophecy, I wander off gate, then back to gate. When the prophecy is bleeding into hull, I activate scram and web, to try to hold him for the gate guns to kill. He caps me out at just the wrong time, and my scram drops, allowing him to bail to a planet.
I follow, and so does a Goonswarm Vagabond. I scram the Prophecy, confident that eventually the Vaga will just kill him and then get bored kiting me and/or call for help to take me down, in maybe 20 mins.
timmy selby > battle neurs op
timmy selby > please nerf
timmy selby > Loroseco Kross
timmy selby > Plox
timmy selby > dont be a dick
Loroseco Kross > I'm not
Loroseco Kross > I didn't shoot either of you
timmy selby > neurs is to op
Trinkets friend > lol, you suck timmy
timmy selby > Holy shit
timmy selby > That reacher is unreal
timmy selby > u can tank 500dps
timmy selby > thast crazy
Trinkets friend > gf
timmy selby > gf
timmy selby > thast crazy
timmy selby > link ur fit
Trinkets friend > its sekrit
Loroseco Kross > 2 rite m8
Trinkets friend > I just wanna go to barlaguet and buy one thing
timmy selby > u couldnt break me
timmy selby > without gate guns
Trinkets friend > Gate guns could but i capped out at the wrong time for my scram
Trinkets friend > you got lucky :)
Loroseco Kross > Wait
Loroseco Kross > The Nereus was winning?
timmy selby > thats why i have neuts
Trinkets friend > yeah
Loroseco Kross > Hahahahaha
timmy selby > on the gate
Loroseco Kross > That's brilliant hahahaha
timmy selby > I got fucked
timmy selby > :L
timmy selby > gate guns tore me up
EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Aulbres
Aggressed on gate by a Prophecy, I wander off gate, then back to gate. When the prophecy is bleeding into hull, I activate scram and web, to try to hold him for the gate guns to kill. He caps me out at just the wrong time, and my scram drops, allowing him to bail to a planet.
I follow, and so does a Goonswarm Vagabond. I scram the Prophecy, confident that eventually the Vaga will just kill him and then get bored kiting me and/or call for help to take me down, in maybe 20 mins.
timmy selby > battle neurs op
timmy selby > please nerf
timmy selby > Loroseco Kross
timmy selby > Plox
timmy selby > dont be a dick
Loroseco Kross > I'm not
Loroseco Kross > I didn't shoot either of you
timmy selby > neurs is to op
Trinkets friend > lol, you suck timmy
timmy selby > Holy shit
timmy selby > That reacher is unreal
timmy selby > u can tank 500dps
timmy selby > thast crazy
Trinkets friend > gf
timmy selby > gf
timmy selby > thast crazy
timmy selby > link ur fit
Trinkets friend > its sekrit
Loroseco Kross > 2 rite m8
Trinkets friend > I just wanna go to barlaguet and buy one thing
timmy selby > u couldnt break me
timmy selby > without gate guns
Trinkets friend > Gate guns could but i capped out at the wrong time for my scram
Trinkets friend > you got lucky :)
Loroseco Kross > Wait
Loroseco Kross > The Nereus was winning?
timmy selby > thats why i have neuts
Trinkets friend > yeah
Loroseco Kross > Hahahahaha
timmy selby > on the gate
Loroseco Kross > That's brilliant hahahaha
timmy selby > I got fucked
timmy selby > :L
timmy selby > gate guns tore me up
EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Aulbres
Saturday, 10 May 2014
Trifecta of fail
Whenever I see a tractor in highsec, I probe it out if I have time. Todayy, I found my way through a very long chain to Iyen-Oursta and saw two tractors on scan. While i shuffled a few stolen Cyno System Jammer Array to Jita for sale (can't remember where I stole them from, but w/e) I probed down the tractors. One got scooped by some mission-runner, the other belonged to a guy in a Venture in a belt.
I loaded my prowler up and came back to Iyen-Oursta. I bumped the Venture off and decloaked my loki, beginning to shoot. The Prowler hockey-shuffled the Venture away from his stricken Tractor while i laid into it with an anemic cloaky Loki DPS. Eventually he realised what was happening, jinked away from the Prowler, and tried to come in for a scoop. A bit of a Loki bump, and that was looking like a no-go for him, so he warped off.
Now, my Loki fit is terrible at DPS (234) and OK at tanking (classified, but +800), so it was going to depend what he brought back whether I'd fight. I cloaked the prowler, figuring at least I could avoid random revenge ganking.
Surprisingly, he brought a Noctis, so i was thinking he would just be trying to go for a scoop, so first up was a bump. Then he shot at me, allowing me to murder him. I thought it was just a Nosferatu, but it appears he had smartbombs.
So of course, the first thing I do is scoot the Prowler in to bomb range and get him CONCORDOKKENED. Then I podded him.
Trifecta. Plus he also has a killright on him.
Sure, some dude may have bumped you off your tractor and killed it, but it's only a tractor unit. Don't turn 7M into 130M in losses.
I loaded my prowler up and came back to Iyen-Oursta. I bumped the Venture off and decloaked my loki, beginning to shoot. The Prowler hockey-shuffled the Venture away from his stricken Tractor while i laid into it with an anemic cloaky Loki DPS. Eventually he realised what was happening, jinked away from the Prowler, and tried to come in for a scoop. A bit of a Loki bump, and that was looking like a no-go for him, so he warped off.
Now, my Loki fit is terrible at DPS (234) and OK at tanking (classified, but +800), so it was going to depend what he brought back whether I'd fight. I cloaked the prowler, figuring at least I could avoid random revenge ganking.
Surprisingly, he brought a Noctis, so i was thinking he would just be trying to go for a scoop, so first up was a bump. Then he shot at me, allowing me to murder him. I thought it was just a Nosferatu, but it appears he had smartbombs.
So of course, the first thing I do is scoot the Prowler in to bomb range and get him CONCORDOKKENED. Then I podded him.
Trifecta. Plus he also has a killright on him.
Sure, some dude may have bumped you off your tractor and killed it, but it's only a tractor unit. Don't turn 7M into 130M in losses.
Friday, 9 May 2014
Phoenix revival a fizzer
There is a mixed bag of goodies in the Phoenix rebalance pass, as detailed on the F&I Discussion thread.
The resist bonus is overdue, and brings it in line with the Chimera, Rokh, Moa and Merlin as a hefty resist-bonused Caldari boat. This will greatly help the Phoenix's survivability in those situations where you don't immediately get primaried, aren't solo bashing a POS, or just happen to live in a C5 or C6 Pulsar, where this will really begin to shine. It will increase the active tank from a turgid 13K DPS tank (overheated) to around 18-20K (hard to simulate in Pyfa), or a sustainable 2900 DPS - enough to survive most POSs long enough to blap the defences and make the DPS sustainable. Not that it's a problem except for the odd low-class wormhole dread faced with solo bashing a proper deathstar - in its usual habitat, a 2900 DPS tank is more than enough, for you will have friends.
The change away from kinetic-only ammo is welcome, and definitely a bonus. The damage bonus swapping to ROF is also a bonus, given the promulgated percentage in paper DPS that is on the cards - 25% for Citadel Cruise, and 33% for Citadel Torps.
The indicated buff to Citadel Cruise and Torp missile parameters is welcome. 33% greater velocity is helpful, because now you won't be able to outrun them in a hauler (OK, a Prowler, but you get my point). Your cruise will now go 7km/s and your torps 3.4km/s - although range is the same, which is fine. You get dropped off grid and warp down to your target, so no change there.
There is also a bit of swapsies with the explosion radius and explosion velocity going up 38%, and down 14%, respectively for Cruise, and +75% and -50% for Torps. This is good, because it is really terrible right now, so any buff will help.
However, this is where it all falls apart. Explosion velocity for cruise goes from 45.7 m/s (base) to 63.06 m/s, and from 31.5m/s for torps up to a scalding 55.12m/s. This means that an unwebbed capital (its main prey, apparently) can only reduce 50% of the damage by moving about the field!
Then, of course, is explosion radius. 14% off the base for Citadel Cruise of 1225 leaves you at 1053. An armour fit Nid with Claymore gang links has a sig radius of 2,070. You get a meagre 4,650 of 6250 DPS out of a Phoenix now, using Cruise, versus a moving Nid. This represents 60% damage application. For Citadel Torps you also get around 4600 applied DPS right now, versus the same Nidhoggur - out of a theoretical 11,000, that's a pathetic 40% versus its main prey.
Simulating the new missile parameters via adding three T2 rigor rigs, you get close to 90% damage application from Citadel Cruise, and a better 70% using torps. This is bad news - even buffed your applied DPS versus a slow-moving carrier is less than 100%. Consider the transversal of a Nid orbiting a Moros (next to zero at any range) and you can see why no one should be or will be impressed by the new numbers on the Phoenix. Your tracking is so good on the Moros vs other caps, and the base DPS is already so high, you'd be mad to give that up for the crap shoot that missiles is.
The balance here is obviously avoiding making the citadel missiles so good that they become blapping machines - after all, there's no fancy flying you can do, no orbit speed or range, which will mitigate your damage liability when being shot at by missiles.
The thing is, as pointed out by wise poasters, who would design a missile to take down a target such that it only does 70% of the job?
The clear objective should be to give Citadel missiles of all flavours explosion velocities close to that of their targets - namely, 100-120 m/s. The explosion radius can also be adjusted, assuming infinite ISK for T2 rigs of course, to ensure that a battleship which is under way with an AB (300 sig, 350m/s) takes 50% damage.
If the Phoenix isn't made into a blapping machine, the improved missile velocity won't counter the alpha of all turret weapons. The key lesson here (as pointed out by the wise scholar Bagehi) is that on paper the Phoenix begins to look useful. However, it's only on paper.
My experiments with cruise missile Ravens and Typhoons has shown that TP's are king. Pushing the envelope hard enough requires triple rigor rigs and twin TP's, something only the Typhoon brings to the party, given its explosion radius buff takes care of the other half of the equation. The Raven can only rig itself 3 times, is a shield tanker so gives up midslots for tank (a fruitless exercise), and can't buff explosion velocity at the same time as sig radius. In essence, fast missiles are good in theory, but in reality if you're going to kill anything it's precise, high impact missiles, even if they hit a few seconds later. Remember, the missile velocity only matters for the first hit, not the second - DPS is flat.
Therefore, it would be better to take a leaf from the Typhoon's book. Give the Phoenix a 50% explosion velocity buff on the hull, ditch the missile velocity bonus and flight time nerf (it's irrelevant!), and tweak the ROF. This will result in a huge improvement in applied DPS versus moving targets (increasing the citadel ExVel to 90m/s, meaning 100% DPS vs moving unebbed caps, and torp to 77m/s, giving 80%) without unduly threatening lower-sig radius ships like battleships.
Of course, if you web and TP the shit out of something, pushing a BS sig to 2000 and keeping it below 75m/s, it will take the full alpha strike of the missiles. Big deal - you'll need a web loki, and at least 2-3 TP's, and rigor rigs, and have the enemy pinned down within the engagement range of the Phoenix - basically, only people silly enough to land within 50km of a torp Phoenix or 160km of a Cruise Phoenix. Plus, it must be pointed out, anyone in the same situation facing a Moros with a 2,000m sig and no speed, will most likely suffer a horrible fate as well.
That's my fix.
The resist bonus is overdue, and brings it in line with the Chimera, Rokh, Moa and Merlin as a hefty resist-bonused Caldari boat. This will greatly help the Phoenix's survivability in those situations where you don't immediately get primaried, aren't solo bashing a POS, or just happen to live in a C5 or C6 Pulsar, where this will really begin to shine. It will increase the active tank from a turgid 13K DPS tank (overheated) to around 18-20K (hard to simulate in Pyfa), or a sustainable 2900 DPS - enough to survive most POSs long enough to blap the defences and make the DPS sustainable. Not that it's a problem except for the odd low-class wormhole dread faced with solo bashing a proper deathstar - in its usual habitat, a 2900 DPS tank is more than enough, for you will have friends.
The change away from kinetic-only ammo is welcome, and definitely a bonus. The damage bonus swapping to ROF is also a bonus, given the promulgated percentage in paper DPS that is on the cards - 25% for Citadel Cruise, and 33% for Citadel Torps.
The indicated buff to Citadel Cruise and Torp missile parameters is welcome. 33% greater velocity is helpful, because now you won't be able to outrun them in a hauler (OK, a Prowler, but you get my point). Your cruise will now go 7km/s and your torps 3.4km/s - although range is the same, which is fine. You get dropped off grid and warp down to your target, so no change there.
There is also a bit of swapsies with the explosion radius and explosion velocity going up 38%, and down 14%, respectively for Cruise, and +75% and -50% for Torps. This is good, because it is really terrible right now, so any buff will help.
However, this is where it all falls apart. Explosion velocity for cruise goes from 45.7 m/s (base) to 63.06 m/s, and from 31.5m/s for torps up to a scalding 55.12m/s. This means that an unwebbed capital (its main prey, apparently) can only reduce 50% of the damage by moving about the field!
Then, of course, is explosion radius. 14% off the base for Citadel Cruise of 1225 leaves you at 1053. An armour fit Nid with Claymore gang links has a sig radius of 2,070. You get a meagre 4,650 of 6250 DPS out of a Phoenix now, using Cruise, versus a moving Nid. This represents 60% damage application. For Citadel Torps you also get around 4600 applied DPS right now, versus the same Nidhoggur - out of a theoretical 11,000, that's a pathetic 40% versus its main prey.
Simulating the new missile parameters via adding three T2 rigor rigs, you get close to 90% damage application from Citadel Cruise, and a better 70% using torps. This is bad news - even buffed your applied DPS versus a slow-moving carrier is less than 100%. Consider the transversal of a Nid orbiting a Moros (next to zero at any range) and you can see why no one should be or will be impressed by the new numbers on the Phoenix. Your tracking is so good on the Moros vs other caps, and the base DPS is already so high, you'd be mad to give that up for the crap shoot that missiles is.
The balance here is obviously avoiding making the citadel missiles so good that they become blapping machines - after all, there's no fancy flying you can do, no orbit speed or range, which will mitigate your damage liability when being shot at by missiles.
The thing is, as pointed out by wise poasters, who would design a missile to take down a target such that it only does 70% of the job?
The clear objective should be to give Citadel missiles of all flavours explosion velocities close to that of their targets - namely, 100-120 m/s. The explosion radius can also be adjusted, assuming infinite ISK for T2 rigs of course, to ensure that a battleship which is under way with an AB (300 sig, 350m/s) takes 50% damage.
If the Phoenix isn't made into a blapping machine, the improved missile velocity won't counter the alpha of all turret weapons. The key lesson here (as pointed out by the wise scholar Bagehi) is that on paper the Phoenix begins to look useful. However, it's only on paper.
My experiments with cruise missile Ravens and Typhoons has shown that TP's are king. Pushing the envelope hard enough requires triple rigor rigs and twin TP's, something only the Typhoon brings to the party, given its explosion radius buff takes care of the other half of the equation. The Raven can only rig itself 3 times, is a shield tanker so gives up midslots for tank (a fruitless exercise), and can't buff explosion velocity at the same time as sig radius. In essence, fast missiles are good in theory, but in reality if you're going to kill anything it's precise, high impact missiles, even if they hit a few seconds later. Remember, the missile velocity only matters for the first hit, not the second - DPS is flat.
Therefore, it would be better to take a leaf from the Typhoon's book. Give the Phoenix a 50% explosion velocity buff on the hull, ditch the missile velocity bonus and flight time nerf (it's irrelevant!), and tweak the ROF. This will result in a huge improvement in applied DPS versus moving targets (increasing the citadel ExVel to 90m/s, meaning 100% DPS vs moving unebbed caps, and torp to 77m/s, giving 80%) without unduly threatening lower-sig radius ships like battleships.
Of course, if you web and TP the shit out of something, pushing a BS sig to 2000 and keeping it below 75m/s, it will take the full alpha strike of the missiles. Big deal - you'll need a web loki, and at least 2-3 TP's, and rigor rigs, and have the enemy pinned down within the engagement range of the Phoenix - basically, only people silly enough to land within 50km of a torp Phoenix or 160km of a Cruise Phoenix. Plus, it must be pointed out, anyone in the same situation facing a Moros with a 2,000m sig and no speed, will most likely suffer a horrible fate as well.
That's my fix.
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Vale, Staticmapper, wormhole.es, wormnav.com
So, it seems that API based NPC kill information available to the above IGB based tools (also, Siggy, ExCAM) will be deprecated by CCP because the API is not intended as an intel gathering tool, and none of these tools are available in the client itself, hence it's an unfair advantage for those with Siggy against those without. Or something - FoxFour's logic about why is a little sloppy.
Now, given some people live in wormholes and don't even know about doubletap, cannot read up on eve-survival.org about how to run their sites, and do not add their targets to watchlist via using eve-who, I really doubt that using an out-of-game widget is unfairly advantaging someone.
I mean, yes, Siggy is a little unfair. Being able to see in real-time ratting, combat or derping occurring in any system you have scanned out within the past whenever, that's a little bit much. That, as pointed out by someone else, allows you to scan a chain and just leave Siggy running and wait for derp to occur, and you make your way down the chain to collect "PVP". The broken part is being able to see this whilst not necessarily in the system at the time.
However, the way I use Staticmapper, wormhol.es (or wormnav, which is now gone) is to gather intel on the patttern of behaviour. After all, you can remove out of game widgets, but it won't protect people who are too idiotic to crit their entrance or put an alt on it. For the people who are smart enough to do this, you need to lurk. To determine whether to lurk, especially in the AU TZ where activity is 10% of the EU/US, you need evidence of past activity spanning 48 hours.
Now, in k-space you get this via the map. Apparently this is going to remain, because it's in the client. It will also presumably remain for API pulling, too, eg DOTLAN will show 48 hours of NPC, jumps, ship and pod kills in a handy little graph. Take, just randomly for example 3BAD-Z. You can hopefully see a daily peak of ratting occurring as carebears log in and smash a few sanctums or havens in their cyno-jammed nullsec bear den. This is API generate information which someone can use out-of-game at any time to plan activities in game.
I don't get the logic that information should be only available in-game. Well, I do - but if so, CCP must remove the API info from k-space as well, effectively shutting down intel gathering except via the starmap in-game.
It is clear CCP wants to encourage gameplay by making people log in (and theoretically decide they want a 4 billion ISK ratting Nightmare and pay for it with PLEX, I think, is their idea) and not spend their time logged out trawling API information to decide when to log in or if to log in at all.
That is fine, however i question whether this is counterproductive. People play EVE as much on the forums (via recruiting, smacktalking) as they do out of game (at Fanfest, EVE Vegas, EVE Downunder, etc) or over a drink at the pub. This is a community thing, and a metagame, wherein the game occurs outside the game as well as in.
To be facetious in proving my point, for example, CCP could remove all EVE Wiki information, forcing you to show info on all items in-game and construct your own database, in order to construct pyfa or EFT. This way you'd have to do all your ship fitting in-game (mmm, tempting to PLEX up for that 'Mare!) and it would stop all those theorycrafters from creating the next great FOTM doctrine. This would be a pure MMO experience, everyone derping about in shitfit ships, aside from the guys who spend their lives logged in and who figure out how to fit their ships in-game.
It's ridiculous. So, too, is removing API kill info from w-space because you should do it for k-space as well, otherwise it is actually just a nerf to one third of EVE space.
Of course, CCP needs to articulate why w-space in particular doesn't get API support. Is it because of the great unknown? is it because they feel Siggy or ExCAM or other API tools are breaking immersion, or resulting in lazy gameplay, or an uneven playing field?
I don't know. But if my use of Staticmapper, Wormnav and wormhol.es is an unfair advantage, then so be it. They should nobble watchlisting, which is as effective at setting login traps as anything else.
I am connected to Lowsec, where you get Local and idiots and pirates. All I have to do to get pew pew, now, is go out my static and sit in top belt. I fear, however, that w-space is going to suffer, until someone finds a way around it or CCP puts features into the game.
Or maybe people will stop blobbing together in gigantic 200 man fag collection corps, hiding in the long grass of massed numbers and fleets with 50% Guardians, and do what w-space should be doing - small gang covert roaming.
Now, given some people live in wormholes and don't even know about doubletap, cannot read up on eve-survival.org about how to run their sites, and do not add their targets to watchlist via using eve-who, I really doubt that using an out-of-game widget is unfairly advantaging someone.
I mean, yes, Siggy is a little unfair. Being able to see in real-time ratting, combat or derping occurring in any system you have scanned out within the past whenever, that's a little bit much. That, as pointed out by someone else, allows you to scan a chain and just leave Siggy running and wait for derp to occur, and you make your way down the chain to collect "PVP". The broken part is being able to see this whilst not necessarily in the system at the time.
However, the way I use Staticmapper, wormhol.es (or wormnav, which is now gone) is to gather intel on the patttern of behaviour. After all, you can remove out of game widgets, but it won't protect people who are too idiotic to crit their entrance or put an alt on it. For the people who are smart enough to do this, you need to lurk. To determine whether to lurk, especially in the AU TZ where activity is 10% of the EU/US, you need evidence of past activity spanning 48 hours.
Now, in k-space you get this via the map. Apparently this is going to remain, because it's in the client. It will also presumably remain for API pulling, too, eg DOTLAN will show 48 hours of NPC, jumps, ship and pod kills in a handy little graph. Take, just randomly for example 3BAD-Z. You can hopefully see a daily peak of ratting occurring as carebears log in and smash a few sanctums or havens in their cyno-jammed nullsec bear den. This is API generate information which someone can use out-of-game at any time to plan activities in game.
I don't get the logic that information should be only available in-game. Well, I do - but if so, CCP must remove the API info from k-space as well, effectively shutting down intel gathering except via the starmap in-game.
It is clear CCP wants to encourage gameplay by making people log in (and theoretically decide they want a 4 billion ISK ratting Nightmare and pay for it with PLEX, I think, is their idea) and not spend their time logged out trawling API information to decide when to log in or if to log in at all.
That is fine, however i question whether this is counterproductive. People play EVE as much on the forums (via recruiting, smacktalking) as they do out of game (at Fanfest, EVE Vegas, EVE Downunder, etc) or over a drink at the pub. This is a community thing, and a metagame, wherein the game occurs outside the game as well as in.
To be facetious in proving my point, for example, CCP could remove all EVE Wiki information, forcing you to show info on all items in-game and construct your own database, in order to construct pyfa or EFT. This way you'd have to do all your ship fitting in-game (mmm, tempting to PLEX up for that 'Mare!) and it would stop all those theorycrafters from creating the next great FOTM doctrine. This would be a pure MMO experience, everyone derping about in shitfit ships, aside from the guys who spend their lives logged in and who figure out how to fit their ships in-game.
It's ridiculous. So, too, is removing API kill info from w-space because you should do it for k-space as well, otherwise it is actually just a nerf to one third of EVE space.
Of course, CCP needs to articulate why w-space in particular doesn't get API support. Is it because of the great unknown? is it because they feel Siggy or ExCAM or other API tools are breaking immersion, or resulting in lazy gameplay, or an uneven playing field?
I don't know. But if my use of Staticmapper, Wormnav and wormhol.es is an unfair advantage, then so be it. They should nobble watchlisting, which is as effective at setting login traps as anything else.
I am connected to Lowsec, where you get Local and idiots and pirates. All I have to do to get pew pew, now, is go out my static and sit in top belt. I fear, however, that w-space is going to suffer, until someone finds a way around it or CCP puts features into the game.
Or maybe people will stop blobbing together in gigantic 200 man fag collection corps, hiding in the long grass of massed numbers and fleets with 50% Guardians, and do what w-space should be doing - small gang covert roaming.
Monday, 5 May 2014
Astero - Achievement Unlocked
I am not as space-rich as some of the nullsec Elite, like eg; Dark Razer etc, who run eve bet. I don't have 80B ISK, or 200B ISK. I have single digit billions.
They say that the upper classes get rich on the toil of others; this is as true in EVE as it is in real life. However, unlike in real life, your betters do not kill you and steal your hours of gist and grind, build out your True Sansha pulse laser BPC and make around 350M ISK.
Today, Bob the Wormhole God gaveth to me and tooketh away from Ivan Pestrov.
I am not sure how long it takes to grind 800M of nullsec sites, but it takes 20 seconds to grind an Astero.
They say that the upper classes get rich on the toil of others; this is as true in EVE as it is in real life. However, unlike in real life, your betters do not kill you and steal your hours of gist and grind, build out your True Sansha pulse laser BPC and make around 350M ISK.
Today, Bob the Wormhole God gaveth to me and tooketh away from Ivan Pestrov.
I am not sure how long it takes to grind 800M of nullsec sites, but it takes 20 seconds to grind an Astero.
Sunday, 4 May 2014
I like these Prospects
News just in: I am buying another account, slewing my mining alt over to it, and training him Cyno 5 as soon as I join some kind of nullsec mining corp.
Suddenly, BLOPs in the guts of your mining flleet, thanks to the Prospect.
Wow. Very cool. Much ships.
Suddenly, BLOPs in the guts of your mining flleet, thanks to the Prospect.
Wow. Very cool. Much ships.
Nestor - Achievement Unlocked
The Nestor is, to my mind, basically the biggest white elephant ship in EVE right now. I mean, OK, it's nice to buy shinies and not use them, but using the Nestor in any environment for which it is intended is just plain silly. Lets be honest, it's meant for wormholes, but you wouldn't drive a Ferrari down to South Central with "fuck you cunts" written on the side, and for 1.5B ISk you may as well find alternatives.
However, there's nothing in EVE if not an oversupply of ISK and a dearth of commonsense and, perhaps, people who just like to helicopter dick their way around. In some cases, it's even the fact they believe it is embarrassing to die in a cheap ship, so they pimp it up.
I'm looking for a C3/U210 because when BUGRY lived in one, we got the best pew pew and had the most fun we ever had, as a corp. So I found what may be the system - unoccupied, all its moons bar one occupied by a blocking POS (caldari smalls) and an offline Minmatar medium with a bit of candy. Move in, and some other poor shmucks have made it impossible for you to get a siege POS in your system without at least a couple hours extra work.
So, while out baiting in Metropolis with my Nereus, I had my alt AFKing in the C3, ahead of actually bothering to put a POS kit together in Dodixie and get moved in. I tabbed over every now and then to hit d-scan, and then suddenly I had nestor, Domi, Tempest, Abbadon, Coercer and Noctis on scan, and a fresh sig.
It took a few seconds to remember what a Nestor actually was, and then I was off one set of comms and on to another to rustle up a batphone, while I dropped my Nereus in Dammalin and hoofed it to the entry. The only ship i had nearby was an Omen, and our gang numbered seven, with only one logi.
Going up against three RRing battleships with Domi and Nestor drones (~800 DPS each) with a solo Logi was going to be tough. Given we were all in cloaky, proby T3's, half of us were active shield tanked and lacked the DPS we ought to have, the plan was to bump the BS apart and get the cap transfers to drop, thereby nobbling the spider tank. We were then going to hold on with gritted teeth until another guy could bring a 600 DPS Legion in and hopefully crack them. The Oneiros was LASB fitted and technically survivable, but it was going to be hairy.
But for a 1.5B hull to get a killmail on, lord alone knows what pimp was on it, plus maybe 2-3 other BS and any rescue fleet....well, #YOLOSWAGSPACEDOLLAZ.
In the end, the other BS bailed and left the Nestor to its fate. He was very sporting about it, as he had paid 205M ISK to print the hull, and we didn't get welped.
It was, however, theoretically going to be a balls to the wall battle. I kinda wish they had stuck around and tried the RR and sentries.
However, there's nothing in EVE if not an oversupply of ISK and a dearth of commonsense and, perhaps, people who just like to helicopter dick their way around. In some cases, it's even the fact they believe it is embarrassing to die in a cheap ship, so they pimp it up.
I'm looking for a C3/U210 because when BUGRY lived in one, we got the best pew pew and had the most fun we ever had, as a corp. So I found what may be the system - unoccupied, all its moons bar one occupied by a blocking POS (caldari smalls) and an offline Minmatar medium with a bit of candy. Move in, and some other poor shmucks have made it impossible for you to get a siege POS in your system without at least a couple hours extra work.
So, while out baiting in Metropolis with my Nereus, I had my alt AFKing in the C3, ahead of actually bothering to put a POS kit together in Dodixie and get moved in. I tabbed over every now and then to hit d-scan, and then suddenly I had nestor, Domi, Tempest, Abbadon, Coercer and Noctis on scan, and a fresh sig.
It took a few seconds to remember what a Nestor actually was, and then I was off one set of comms and on to another to rustle up a batphone, while I dropped my Nereus in Dammalin and hoofed it to the entry. The only ship i had nearby was an Omen, and our gang numbered seven, with only one logi.
Going up against three RRing battleships with Domi and Nestor drones (~800 DPS each) with a solo Logi was going to be tough. Given we were all in cloaky, proby T3's, half of us were active shield tanked and lacked the DPS we ought to have, the plan was to bump the BS apart and get the cap transfers to drop, thereby nobbling the spider tank. We were then going to hold on with gritted teeth until another guy could bring a 600 DPS Legion in and hopefully crack them. The Oneiros was LASB fitted and technically survivable, but it was going to be hairy.
But for a 1.5B hull to get a killmail on, lord alone knows what pimp was on it, plus maybe 2-3 other BS and any rescue fleet....well, #YOLOSWAGSPACEDOLLAZ.
In the end, the other BS bailed and left the Nestor to its fate. He was very sporting about it, as he had paid 205M ISK to print the hull, and we didn't get welped.
It was, however, theoretically going to be a balls to the wall battle. I kinda wish they had stuck around and tried the RR and sentries.
Friday, 2 May 2014
Flight of the SS Planet Dollaz
Baiting is a skill. The lads at Swift Angels are getting good at it, but if I don't say so myself, I can thread a worm on a hook pretty damn well.
I got a secret Nereus fit off Johnny Twelvebore and tried it out a few days ago, where it pproved successful; it required not one, but two Deimos to break its tank. So when the weekly MATE roam out of Stacmon was scheduled to be shield cruisers, and this means Scythes, I of course offered to be bait. I strapped in to my Nereus, named Planet Dollaz, and went ahead of the fleet.
We started out by heading to Tama. Enroute a flashy Gnosis was sitting on gate as I landed and jumped. I followed and held cloak, just like a shitscared industrial pilot would. When I decloaked I burned for him - he was at zero on the gate, as you would be. Naturally he started shooting, and naturally, Planet Dollaz being how she is, he got me down to 95% shield. I got point and web, and called in the boys. Bazinga, one dead pirate.
We then got hotdropped by a Covops cyno-equipped Falcon and its gang of T3's. Of course, it was our own fault for shoosting the Falcon when he "accidentally" decloaked. However, as far as it goes, the Falcon made a boo-boo, because he died and we only lost 2 Scythes. 180M vs 50M is still a good haul, especially added to the 84M Gnosis. Of course, in all of this, I was not pointed. Not that the anaemic DPS of a small covops gang would really have taken down Planet Dollaz before I jumped.
So, on we went; several more things died on gates, but my pathetic lock time and slugggish maneuverability prevented both my death and whoring abilities.
The fleet got engaged by an armour gang in Heydieles and lost a few ships, so we toook a WH detour to Wicked Creek, and scuttled away from a Talos fleet, ending up in Minnie FW space.
Planet Dollaz was deployed, but people's d-scanning ability is shit, and their plexing alts are so focused on orbiting button that no one took bait at the planets. So I did what you never do in an Industrial.
I had found my way to Kourmonen and cross-jumped a 4 man gang; Omen, Scythe Fleet, Loki and Omen navy. They somehow didn't quite get the idea of Nereus bait, soo when I found them again in Sosala and it was only the Omen and Scythe Fleet on gate, I approached the Omen, locked it up and went suspect. I tanked the gate guns and both cruisers long enough to get the fleet through the gate, and we claimed the scalp of the Omen. We nearly got the Scythe Fleet as well, but no webs.
After losing a fight vs an industrial, those boys were angry. They came back for us and we took the fight on Ossoggur gate, in Amamake. This turned out to be the end-of-night welp; we downed a Vexor and Scythe Fleet for basically everything except a Stabber and the Nereus.
I think the problem here was that the fleet got wing-warped to 20km, and that included our logistic cruisers. The Tempest pilot did very well - he DPS'ed one and neuted the other flat, resulting in a classic split of the logi.
The other problem was that our Scythes were fit shittily. MSE's on a Scythe? Son, I am disappoint. No prop mod? Son, I am disappoint (though, to be fair, this dude's first time flying logi).
The purpose of logistics cruisers is to rep, not to be DPS boats. You need mobility, and to be honest, Scythes are very mobile with a MWD.
This fit is what they should have been flying, and getting out to 50km range ASAP (if not, ideally, warping in 50km from the fleet...just saying). Do it right, and you are an asset to the fleet. Be a propless, gutless punching bag...well.
[Scythe, DDA]
Capacitor Power Relay II
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Cap Recharger II
Large Shield Extender II
Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster
Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster
Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Hobgoblin II x1
Hammerhead II x4
I got a secret Nereus fit off Johnny Twelvebore and tried it out a few days ago, where it pproved successful; it required not one, but two Deimos to break its tank. So when the weekly MATE roam out of Stacmon was scheduled to be shield cruisers, and this means Scythes, I of course offered to be bait. I strapped in to my Nereus, named Planet Dollaz, and went ahead of the fleet.
We started out by heading to Tama. Enroute a flashy Gnosis was sitting on gate as I landed and jumped. I followed and held cloak, just like a shitscared industrial pilot would. When I decloaked I burned for him - he was at zero on the gate, as you would be. Naturally he started shooting, and naturally, Planet Dollaz being how she is, he got me down to 95% shield. I got point and web, and called in the boys. Bazinga, one dead pirate.
We then got hotdropped by a Covops cyno-equipped Falcon and its gang of T3's. Of course, it was our own fault for shoosting the Falcon when he "accidentally" decloaked. However, as far as it goes, the Falcon made a boo-boo, because he died and we only lost 2 Scythes. 180M vs 50M is still a good haul, especially added to the 84M Gnosis. Of course, in all of this, I was not pointed. Not that the anaemic DPS of a small covops gang would really have taken down Planet Dollaz before I jumped.
So, on we went; several more things died on gates, but my pathetic lock time and slugggish maneuverability prevented both my death and whoring abilities.
The fleet got engaged by an armour gang in Heydieles and lost a few ships, so we toook a WH detour to Wicked Creek, and scuttled away from a Talos fleet, ending up in Minnie FW space.
Planet Dollaz was deployed, but people's d-scanning ability is shit, and their plexing alts are so focused on orbiting button that no one took bait at the planets. So I did what you never do in an Industrial.
I had found my way to Kourmonen and cross-jumped a 4 man gang; Omen, Scythe Fleet, Loki and Omen navy. They somehow didn't quite get the idea of Nereus bait, soo when I found them again in Sosala and it was only the Omen and Scythe Fleet on gate, I approached the Omen, locked it up and went suspect. I tanked the gate guns and both cruisers long enough to get the fleet through the gate, and we claimed the scalp of the Omen. We nearly got the Scythe Fleet as well, but no webs.
After losing a fight vs an industrial, those boys were angry. They came back for us and we took the fight on Ossoggur gate, in Amamake. This turned out to be the end-of-night welp; we downed a Vexor and Scythe Fleet for basically everything except a Stabber and the Nereus.
I think the problem here was that the fleet got wing-warped to 20km, and that included our logistic cruisers. The Tempest pilot did very well - he DPS'ed one and neuted the other flat, resulting in a classic split of the logi.
The other problem was that our Scythes were fit shittily. MSE's on a Scythe? Son, I am disappoint. No prop mod? Son, I am disappoint (though, to be fair, this dude's first time flying logi).
The purpose of logistics cruisers is to rep, not to be DPS boats. You need mobility, and to be honest, Scythes are very mobile with a MWD.
This fit is what they should have been flying, and getting out to 50km range ASAP (if not, ideally, warping in 50km from the fleet...just saying). Do it right, and you are an asset to the fleet. Be a propless, gutless punching bag...well.
[Scythe, DDA]
Capacitor Power Relay II
Damage Control II
Power Diagnostic System II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Cap Recharger II
Large Shield Extender II
Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster
Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster
Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Hobgoblin II x1
Hammerhead II x4
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