Monday, February 11, 2013
Fighting Outnumbered
FIGHTING OUTNUMBERED
Let's talk about some of the basics of fighting outnumbered. There are a few different ways to do this, but the main two are:
A) Hugely over-tanked ships that are able to tank multiple enemies at once
B) Kiting -- fighting at long distance, using agile ships with good damage projection.
Kiting is useful in more situations: you have mobility, and the ability to choose your fights. Overtanked ships generally lack a prop mod and are unscouted; you'll be locked in to the first engagement you stumble upon. I tend to lean towards kiting more, as it's one of the things that I'm best at.
That said, watch this video and try to pay attention to everything that is going on. The fight starts after a minute or two; I intentionally left the build-up part in, so you can see what's going through our heads. (It also gives some pertinent numbers with regards to what the two fleets had.)
I had just went two jumps away to scout something when my fleet reported a local spike. (If you ever report a local spike/change and you refer to it as "small" or "large", your FC is going to want to kill you; those terms mean nothing. Give hard numbers!) After I hear that there is a 10-12 man local spike, I turn around and head back to JH so we can set up and assess the situation.
FLEET COMPOSITION
When it comes to upengaging (taking on more people that you have), there are a few things you have to consider:
* First: Is your fleet mobile? If it is, you're able to fight outnumbered and just take kills until you have to leave.
* Second: Can you project damage effectively? This means applying damage at a range that your opponent can not. If you can project, then you can kill them as long as they stay on grid with you. Drakes used to be really good for this, but their recent damage nerf is painful. Tier 3 Battlecruisers are very good for this; they're very mobile, and they can all hit to 40k at a minimum.
* Third: The third thing to consider is enemy tackle, and to a lesser extent your own tackle. If you see lots of hostile tackle frigates and you can't get rid of them effectively, then you need to consider what kind of losses you're going to take in the process of killing them. (Assault Frigates, Interceptors, and Frigates are all considered light tackle.) The biggest thing to worry about though is recons; if a Falcon is on the field while you're trying to fight 5v20, then you're in a terrible spot. More commonly you'll see Rapier/Huginn and Lachesis/Arazu. These completely change the dynamic of the fight: if the enemy is able to point at 50-60km, then most of your BCs wont be able to warp out after their shields become low.
Gang/Fleet composition is something that many FCs don't understand. The easiest way to fix this is to just ask yourself: "What do I want my fleet to do?". If you want to just roam around and gank lone pilots, then compose with lots of light tackle, an interdictor, then cloaky recons. This will allow you to catch just about anything on a gate and neutralize it via long range webs, points, jams, and neuts (if you have a curse with you; it isn't designed to be fit with a cloak). What this fleet comp does not allow you to do is take on equal numbers of just about anything; this is not a fighting comp, this is a ganking comp. If you're looking for a good brawl, put everyone in hurricanes and one guy in a frigate and just go looking for trouble. If you want to be able to fight outnumbered, then you need to start thinking about good damage projection and mobility.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
With ATX just around the corner last year, I asked myself how I could try to get the pilots in my alliance to think about their piloting. I chose to run small BC gangs: 1-2 Drakes, 2-4 720mm artillery Hurricanes, and a Lachesis. (This was before Tier 3 BCs came out). We had no logi, so people had to manage range well and when their shields were low they'd either warp out, or lose their ship. Before every fleet went out I'd give a speech about what we were trying to accomplish. It went something like this:
"OK guys, this is a long range fleet. If you're inside 20km, you're doing it wrong. Drakes need to be up front, to screen for the hurricanes and web shit down. You need to be aligned at all times. If someone tackles you, tell us the ship type and pilot name so that we can take care of it. We have no logi, so if you are taking damage, soak up as much as you can, then warp out and ask for a new warpin. I need to know AUDIBLY whenever a recon goes off grid. If we lose long range points I need to know about it."
Then I'd harp on about communication for a while, and we'd roll out. This got people focused on grid positioning, individual piloting, and overall situational awareness. Here are a few examples of what this looks like when done right. We never had logi or ECM in any of those fights, and in most cases the enemy did. In that last fight the enemy had Four Falcons and four Basilisks.
VERSUS HARD KNOCKS
Now, time to go over the fight in the video. When I figured out their numbers, they had eight Tier 3 BCs to our three. They also had a Malediction and a Heretic. The Heretic isn't a large issue, because he'll die so quickly; the Malediction does pose a problem, since it'll be near impossible to kill if flown well. We just had to hope that he was either bad, or that our Cynabal would be able to take him down. Their overwhelming over 2:1 odds on BCs meant that we'd want to start from range and see who would split off of the group. This is tricky -- if you're too far off, they wont take the fight; too close, and you'll die in a ball of fire and self loathing.
There is such a thing as target priority in this type of a fight, but it's not a list of ship types, i.e. Talos>Tornado>Oracle>Naga. Priorities are based on opportunity -- kill tackle whenever you can, otherwise you're unable to warp off after losing shields. After that, in this case, simply call what's closest as primary. This works well in this case, because most of the Tier Three BCs have roughly the same threat value and tank value.
After the fight stabilizes, I dive in with my Sleipnir to try and attract their fire, and also get tackle on primaries. Normally when I FC skirmish fleets, I like an easy role so I can focus on what other people are doing so they don't die when they make mistakes. However, this gang was small, and I had some very good pilots with me, so that wasn't as necessary. I made two mistakes in this part of the fight: First, I over-repped about a single cycle. (Not huge, but it matters.) Secondly, I let inertia carry me a bit too close to a Talos. This wasn't catastrophic, because the people we were fighting were spread out and disorganized; but, if they had been grouped tighter, I would have died there. We still probably would have won the fight, but it would have been an unnecessary loss. Another thing to point out is that both Bob Shaftoes, and Dradius had to warp out and back during that fight. You'll hear Dradius asking for a good warp in at one point in the video.
I hope you enjoyed the video, and the read. If you have any questions please leave a comment and I'll respond as best as I can.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Syndicate Competitive League
About a year ago I ran a tournament called The Syndicate Alliance Tournament. It was a group of eight alliances around Syndicate that I brought together to do a double elimination ten man tournament. The rules were identical to the previous Alliance Tournament. I didn't do very much publicity because to me it was just to get practice for ATX. All in all it was successful, but a lot of work.
After the NEO tournament took place my friend Dradius approached me about helping him to put together a circuit style tournament for eve. I liked the idea, and being number number two on a project like this is a lot easier than being in charge. Things ramped up pretty fast. CCP has been amazing in offering us support. Seldarine from Suddenly Spaceships and the Goggle Wearing Internet Crime Fighters NEO team came on board and has been helping us immensely with art assets and points balancing.
The format for this tournament is eight team eight man double elimination tournament with each set being a best-of-three. What this means is that Team A is matches up against Team B and they do match one. After match one is over players get a short period of time to get back in to ships before they're moved back to the arena. First team to two wins takes the set. If you lose, you're placed into the loser's bracket and have another chance to fight your way into the finals. Where you place in the tournament gets you points that affect your position in the season.
We're going to be running tournaments once a month, or once every two months. A large benefit of this circuit style set up is that you, the viewer, get a chance to learn who the teams are, and it gives you a chance to follow your favorite team's progression throughout the season. The best-of-three format also takes a lot of the meta game and lucky counter setups out of the equation and really allows teams to show off their skill.
We now have our website up, which I will link at the end of the post, and we have some great ideas that we should have implemented hopefully by our first tournament, but if not by the second.
Firstly We have a page dedicated to listing teams, their story, and their players. Those teams and players will all link directly to the SCL killboard so you'll be able to follow their kills and their losses, and a brief description of every pilot. This is something that I'm working on, and it probably wont be done for a while.
Provided we can make everything mesh with Twitch.tv, we're going to have a bracket archive showing all of the matches that have taken place. By clicking on a match it will take you to the set and you can see each match in the best-of-three. Inside of this page you'll be able to click on each individual match and either go to the Vod or to the killboard link. This is a HUGE undertaking, so don't expect it right away.
Our forums are up, albeit mostly quiet at the moment. Feel free to register and ask us any questions you might have. If you're a competitor in the tournament, or you want to be some day, make sure to register with your in game name.
Staff is currently:
Dradius - Project Lead and Production Staff
GunniH - Web Design and Production Staff
Brent - Lead Broom Pusher, Production Staff, Commentator
Seldarine - Art, Commentator
Lazarus Telraven - Commentator
Check out the website at http://SyndicateCL.com/
First tournament is February 23-24th. We look forward to seeing you all there. If you have any questions, leave a comment!
After the NEO tournament took place my friend Dradius approached me about helping him to put together a circuit style tournament for eve. I liked the idea, and being number number two on a project like this is a lot easier than being in charge. Things ramped up pretty fast. CCP has been amazing in offering us support. Seldarine from Suddenly Spaceships and the Goggle Wearing Internet Crime Fighters NEO team came on board and has been helping us immensely with art assets and points balancing.
The format for this tournament is eight team eight man double elimination tournament with each set being a best-of-three. What this means is that Team A is matches up against Team B and they do match one. After match one is over players get a short period of time to get back in to ships before they're moved back to the arena. First team to two wins takes the set. If you lose, you're placed into the loser's bracket and have another chance to fight your way into the finals. Where you place in the tournament gets you points that affect your position in the season.
We're going to be running tournaments once a month, or once every two months. A large benefit of this circuit style set up is that you, the viewer, get a chance to learn who the teams are, and it gives you a chance to follow your favorite team's progression throughout the season. The best-of-three format also takes a lot of the meta game and lucky counter setups out of the equation and really allows teams to show off their skill.
We now have our website up, which I will link at the end of the post, and we have some great ideas that we should have implemented hopefully by our first tournament, but if not by the second.
Firstly We have a page dedicated to listing teams, their story, and their players. Those teams and players will all link directly to the SCL killboard so you'll be able to follow their kills and their losses, and a brief description of every pilot. This is something that I'm working on, and it probably wont be done for a while.
Provided we can make everything mesh with Twitch.tv, we're going to have a bracket archive showing all of the matches that have taken place. By clicking on a match it will take you to the set and you can see each match in the best-of-three. Inside of this page you'll be able to click on each individual match and either go to the Vod or to the killboard link. This is a HUGE undertaking, so don't expect it right away.
Our forums are up, albeit mostly quiet at the moment. Feel free to register and ask us any questions you might have. If you're a competitor in the tournament, or you want to be some day, make sure to register with your in game name.
Staff is currently:
Dradius - Project Lead and Production Staff
GunniH - Web Design and Production Staff
Brent - Lead Broom Pusher, Production Staff, Commentator
Seldarine - Art, Commentator
Lazarus Telraven - Commentator
Check out the website at http://SyndicateCL.com/
First tournament is February 23-24th. We look forward to seeing you all there. If you have any questions, leave a comment!
Friday, February 1, 2013
Dear Diary, Mood: Hungover
I sat down at the computer last night at about 9 o'clock with a 30 pack next to me. The only logical thing to do was to go roaming. After finishing up some business for the Syndicate Competitive League(SCL) I drunkenly put together a Megathron.
[Megathron, Drunk Roam Mega]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Coreli C-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Coreli C-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Damage Control II
Imperial Navy Large Armor Repairer
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Prototype 100MN MicroWarpdrive I
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Heavy Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 25
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Shadow Serpentis Medium Plasma Smartbomb
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Ogre II x5
96k EHP
1208 DPS (1339 with heat)
1106 M/S (1586 with heat) Keep in mind that I was in Low-Grade Snakes
234 DPS tank (303 with heat, and you always overheat a single rep)
I put the expensive bits on just because they were there when I when I searched for the vanilla variants and figured why the hell not. There might be a few more optimal setups for this, but I threw it together without opening EFT. It should also be noted that I flew this with low-grade snakes plugged in. What this fit allows me to do is have a decent buffer tank, but also have some on grid sustain by way of the Large Armor Repairer. The tracking bonus on the Megathron makes it more viable as a solo ship than most large weapon ships because you have a better chance of killing tackle. When you go out solo'ing mobility is king. If you're able to shape a situation just off of your mobility then you can take more engagements.
So I set out from TXW and decided to roam low sec. I set a course for Black Rise by way of Placid. The route was fairly quiet at first, then I jumped in to Vlillirier (you wont get system names for the whole night because I was very inebriated by the end of the roam) and an Algos and a Catalyst decided to agress me. I deployed drones and scram webbed the Algos and kept him at 7500 range. My guns don't do a huge amount of DPS at that range, but they track very well. He died almost instantly and I switched to the catalyst. I did the same keep at range and then wondered why in the hell he was dying so slowly after three shotting the algos. It turns out that if you forget to turn your guns on, you don't apply your damage very well. Once that problem was fixed he died in a timely manner.
After docking and repairing I headed to the Aldranette gate in Vllillirier. Once there I found a Stabber Fleet Issue and an Ishkur on gate. The Ishkur agressed me which led me to believe that he had backup. With that in mind I waited for the Stabber to agress and then jumped to the other side of the gate to see what fate awaited me. On the other side of the gate there was: Arazu, Thrasher, Cormorant, Vexor, and a Fed Navy Comet. Since I knew that I was free of the Ishkur and Stabber for sixty seconds I decided to take the fight. Looking back, another good option would have been to crash the gate again and take the fight on the other side. Drunken logic told me to take the fight as it was. I made one very critical mistake here that I'll chalk up to being drunk, and still not being used to the new low sec mechanics. I agressed the Vexor, who was not flashy, before he agressed me, giving me a criminal flag and gate guns. I kept at range 2500 on the Vexor and killed him pretty quickly then started focusing on what tackle I could before the reinforcements got in. I took down the thrasher next and at this point I was in about half armor but I was able to burn away. At this point the Ishkur and Stabber were in and I was fighting to get the single long point from the cormorant off of me, but he was too far for null to do any appreciable damage. At this point I switched to the Stabber and started killing him, but since he was outside of hard tackle range he tanked me fairly well. For a split second both points dropped, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to get out. I died shortly after.
Efficiency wise, it wasn't a good fight. But when I decided to drink a bunch of beer and head to low-sec in a Mega without a scout, efficiency isn't my top priority.
From there a friend of mine contracted me an armor Talos, which is a really fun ship that people don't expect.
[Talos, Drunk Roam Talos]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Disruptor II
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Warrior II x5
42.4k EHP
863 DPS (980 with heat)
1533 M/S (2159 with heat)
After taking delivery of that beast I set my sights on Tama. It was quiet on the way there, and when I jumped in there were only about ten in local so I decided to warp directly to top belt. Nothing doing in top belt so I warped to the station at twenty. Once I landed there was a Jaguar and a Caracal burning away from the undock. Here I made another stupid and drunken mistake. The Caracal was neutral, where as the Jag had a suspect flag. The proper thing to do is kill the jag, then kill the Caracal. I did the opposite, giving myself yet another beating via gate guns. After the Caracal died the Jag turned it's sights on me. I kept him double webbed and around 5k from me, but his ASB proved to be too strong for my relatively thin Talos.
I was kinda disappointed in myself for making such a dumb mistake, but being drunk you quickly forget such mistakes. I had a friendly Aussie go to Jita to pick me up a new ship. I told him to surprise me, and surprise me he did. He brought back a green and vertical machine of hatred.
[Myrmidon, Drunk Roam Myrm]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Ogre II x2
Hammerhead II x2
Hobgoblin II x1
Valkyrie II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
54.6k EHP (60k with heat)
941 DPS (1017 with heat)
1345 M/S (1912 with heat)
This ship is really good at one thing. Getting in people's faces and putting down the hurt. It's a lot of fun, and people usually expect tank, not gank out of a Myrm.
I left Tama because nothing was going on and I decided to head to EC-P8R. When I landed on the Aldranette gate in Nennamaila I found Grath Telkin in a Vexor. He jumped and I followed. That's a regional gate so the only way I had a chance of getting him is if he wanted the fight. On the other side there was also a Pandemic Legion thorax. Grath charged me right when I decloaked so I tried to keep him at about 2km from me. He melted before the Thorax was able to get on top of me. From there i just overheated my guns on the Thorax. When they were both dead I was left with mostly burnt guns and tank.
After repairing I took a leisure trip to EC and back and then Grath told me he wanted to 1v1. We met in Enaluri. He was in a high dps HAM Drake, which can beat me if piloted properly.
[Drake, Grath Telkin's Drake]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Large Shield Extender II
Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
[empty high slot]
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
68.5K EHP (77.1 with heat)
578 DPS (680 with heat)
1038 M/S (1470 with heat)
Now, as far as tactics for me...it's super fucking simple. Keep around 1k from him and overheat all of the things. On his end, it's a little more involved if you want to win. With only a marginal tank advantage, and a large DPS disadvantage, he needs to use his range advantage to win. The proper thing to do is to orbit me at around 7500 with me scrammed and webbed. This has me doing something around 600-700 DPS instead of over 1K. He knew this, but he didn't do it. I had about 20% shields left and a second solo kill on Grath Telkin to top the night off.
Overall a very fun roam, and the people watching my stream seemed to enjoy it as well. I had about 21 beers from start to finish and it left me feeling...less than optimal today. On the bright side, I'm the top Solo Killer in Pandemic Legion so far this month!
Hope you guys enjoyed it. More posts coming in a few days!
[Megathron, Drunk Roam Mega]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Coreli C-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Coreli C-Type Adaptive Nano Plating
Damage Control II
Imperial Navy Large Armor Repairer
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Prototype 100MN MicroWarpdrive I
Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Heavy Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I, Cap Booster 25
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Shadow Serpentis Medium Plasma Smartbomb
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Ogre II x5
96k EHP
1208 DPS (1339 with heat)
1106 M/S (1586 with heat) Keep in mind that I was in Low-Grade Snakes
234 DPS tank (303 with heat, and you always overheat a single rep)
I put the expensive bits on just because they were there when I when I searched for the vanilla variants and figured why the hell not. There might be a few more optimal setups for this, but I threw it together without opening EFT. It should also be noted that I flew this with low-grade snakes plugged in. What this fit allows me to do is have a decent buffer tank, but also have some on grid sustain by way of the Large Armor Repairer. The tracking bonus on the Megathron makes it more viable as a solo ship than most large weapon ships because you have a better chance of killing tackle. When you go out solo'ing mobility is king. If you're able to shape a situation just off of your mobility then you can take more engagements.
So I set out from TXW and decided to roam low sec. I set a course for Black Rise by way of Placid. The route was fairly quiet at first, then I jumped in to Vlillirier (you wont get system names for the whole night because I was very inebriated by the end of the roam) and an Algos and a Catalyst decided to agress me. I deployed drones and scram webbed the Algos and kept him at 7500 range. My guns don't do a huge amount of DPS at that range, but they track very well. He died almost instantly and I switched to the catalyst. I did the same keep at range and then wondered why in the hell he was dying so slowly after three shotting the algos. It turns out that if you forget to turn your guns on, you don't apply your damage very well. Once that problem was fixed he died in a timely manner.
After docking and repairing I headed to the Aldranette gate in Vllillirier. Once there I found a Stabber Fleet Issue and an Ishkur on gate. The Ishkur agressed me which led me to believe that he had backup. With that in mind I waited for the Stabber to agress and then jumped to the other side of the gate to see what fate awaited me. On the other side of the gate there was: Arazu, Thrasher, Cormorant, Vexor, and a Fed Navy Comet. Since I knew that I was free of the Ishkur and Stabber for sixty seconds I decided to take the fight. Looking back, another good option would have been to crash the gate again and take the fight on the other side. Drunken logic told me to take the fight as it was. I made one very critical mistake here that I'll chalk up to being drunk, and still not being used to the new low sec mechanics. I agressed the Vexor, who was not flashy, before he agressed me, giving me a criminal flag and gate guns. I kept at range 2500 on the Vexor and killed him pretty quickly then started focusing on what tackle I could before the reinforcements got in. I took down the thrasher next and at this point I was in about half armor but I was able to burn away. At this point the Ishkur and Stabber were in and I was fighting to get the single long point from the cormorant off of me, but he was too far for null to do any appreciable damage. At this point I switched to the Stabber and started killing him, but since he was outside of hard tackle range he tanked me fairly well. For a split second both points dropped, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to get out. I died shortly after.
Efficiency wise, it wasn't a good fight. But when I decided to drink a bunch of beer and head to low-sec in a Mega without a scout, efficiency isn't my top priority.
From there a friend of mine contracted me an armor Talos, which is a really fun ship that people don't expect.
[Talos, Drunk Roam Talos]
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Damage Control II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Stasis Webifier II
Stasis Webifier II
Warp Disruptor II
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Ion Blaster Cannon II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge L
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Medium Trimark Armor Pump I
Warrior II x5
42.4k EHP
863 DPS (980 with heat)
1533 M/S (2159 with heat)
After taking delivery of that beast I set my sights on Tama. It was quiet on the way there, and when I jumped in there were only about ten in local so I decided to warp directly to top belt. Nothing doing in top belt so I warped to the station at twenty. Once I landed there was a Jaguar and a Caracal burning away from the undock. Here I made another stupid and drunken mistake. The Caracal was neutral, where as the Jag had a suspect flag. The proper thing to do is kill the jag, then kill the Caracal. I did the opposite, giving myself yet another beating via gate guns. After the Caracal died the Jag turned it's sights on me. I kept him double webbed and around 5k from me, but his ASB proved to be too strong for my relatively thin Talos.
I was kinda disappointed in myself for making such a dumb mistake, but being drunk you quickly forget such mistakes. I had a friendly Aussie go to Jita to pick me up a new ship. I told him to surprise me, and surprise me he did. He brought back a green and vertical machine of hatred.
[Myrmidon, Drunk Roam Myrm]
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Heavy Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge M
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Ogre II x2
Hammerhead II x2
Hobgoblin II x1
Valkyrie II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
54.6k EHP (60k with heat)
941 DPS (1017 with heat)
1345 M/S (1912 with heat)
This ship is really good at one thing. Getting in people's faces and putting down the hurt. It's a lot of fun, and people usually expect tank, not gank out of a Myrm.
I left Tama because nothing was going on and I decided to head to EC-P8R. When I landed on the Aldranette gate in Nennamaila I found Grath Telkin in a Vexor. He jumped and I followed. That's a regional gate so the only way I had a chance of getting him is if he wanted the fight. On the other side there was also a Pandemic Legion thorax. Grath charged me right when I decloaked so I tried to keep him at about 2km from me. He melted before the Thorax was able to get on top of me. From there i just overheated my guns on the Thorax. When they were both dead I was left with mostly burnt guns and tank.
After repairing I took a leisure trip to EC and back and then Grath told me he wanted to 1v1. We met in Enaluri. He was in a high dps HAM Drake, which can beat me if piloted properly.
[Drake, Grath Telkin's Drake]
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Large Shield Extender II
Experimental 10MN MicroWarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher II, Mjolnir Assault Missile
[empty high slot]
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
68.5K EHP (77.1 with heat)
578 DPS (680 with heat)
1038 M/S (1470 with heat)
Now, as far as tactics for me...it's super fucking simple. Keep around 1k from him and overheat all of the things. On his end, it's a little more involved if you want to win. With only a marginal tank advantage, and a large DPS disadvantage, he needs to use his range advantage to win. The proper thing to do is to orbit me at around 7500 with me scrammed and webbed. This has me doing something around 600-700 DPS instead of over 1K. He knew this, but he didn't do it. I had about 20% shields left and a second solo kill on Grath Telkin to top the night off.
Overall a very fun roam, and the people watching my stream seemed to enjoy it as well. I had about 21 beers from start to finish and it left me feeling...less than optimal today. On the bright side, I'm the top Solo Killer in Pandemic Legion so far this month!
Hope you guys enjoyed it. More posts coming in a few days!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Dear Diary, Mood: Apathetic
Hey guys, thanks for tuning in. I've decided to make this blog just to put down some of the random shit that enters my head while playing video games. Most of this will be EVE related, but I will touch on other games from time to time. I have some thoughts about copying formats from other prolific bloggers, but I think I'll just wing this at first and see how it goes.
Who am I?
I'm Apathetic Brent. I started my EVE career some time in July of 2007 after my girlfriend's brother got me to make a trial. I care beared for the first few months on until...my corp was wardec'd and the inevitable occurred. Keep in mind that in 2007 killmails didn't show all modules on the ship. After losing my pride and joy I talked to the people who were killing us and asked them how to get in to PVP. The long and short of it was to hop in a Caracal and go to a low sec belt. After losing a few ships I became lucky enough to get on my first kill. With that, a PVPr was born.
The Dark Ages
After dabbling around on my own a bit and largely failing, I ended up joining a low sec pirate group and flying SPR drakes and thinking New Eden was mine. I played for a few months doing small gang stuff and learning the bare bone basics, then took a break for a year or so. When I came back I re-joined the old corp I was in (Knights Cross at the time) and continued to pvp. At some point I went to 0.0 and lived near Pure Blind and occupied my time by camping the Torrinos gate in EC-P8R. I don't remember the name of the Alliance I was in, but suffice it to say it was some shitty renter alliance that died years ago. I bounced around with the same pirate group again after that until I took another year(give or take) break. Most of this is me flying around with 90% tinted glasses on not really knowing what is going on. That brings me to a topic that I'm going to post about in depth, which is the evolution of a player in a game. Holy shit that's a horribly constructed sentence. Oh well, fuck it.
Now I dive in to where I really started cutting my teeth on PVP in EVE, The Militia. I joined Caldari Militia in September of 2009. This really marks the beginning of my journey towards being a good pilot. I made some good friends and really started to do small gang PVP. The reason I blossomed so much was because the PVP was so readily available. Caldari Militia was also the place of my first solo kill, and was really the birth of my love of the drake(I have around 600 kills in a drake). I started flying under GavinGoodrich, which at the time was the head FC for Caldari Militia. I started paying attention to how he FC'd and how he called targets and mentally took notes. After a while I decided to FC for my first time and the results were less than favorable. After a few months of practice I became the second most popular FC in the caldari militia. The funny thing is that I was still utterly terrible at eve at the time. From there about 100 of us decided to break off from the militia and create a null sec alliance.
A More Enlightened Time
Three very important things happened after we left the militia. The first is that I had a group of three friends(Gunniih, xoxFatcatxox, and Get'oFix) that were the cream of the corp from our group, and we started doing 2-4 man gangs every day. This really helped us all grow and a group, and also work on communication as small gang pilots(completely different than being in a medium/large gang).
Secondly, Garmonation 7(part 1, part 2, part 3). For anyone who has watched the video, you already know what I'm talking about. For those of you that haven't, it opened my eyes to a million new ways to PVP. A million new opportunities. A million new tricks. I literally watched segments of that video in slow motion just to see exactly what was going on. In the few months following me watching that video I racked up something like 200 kills in a dual prop taranis.
The third thing is something I will probably write an entire post about at some point, and that's Genos Roams. There used to be a channel back in 09/10 called Genos Roams. It was an invite only channel with some of the best pilots in the game in it(of which I wasn't one). The MOTD in the channel would just list a system, and time, desired ship types, and an FC. The three FCs I flew with in Genos Roams were Garmon, Gobbins(Admiral Goberius), and Fmercury. All of them were very good FCs, but each had their own personal style. Garmon was always super ballsy and did shit I couldn't wrap my head around that I later realized was brilliant. Gobbins was a hilarious Mario clone who was very innovative and had the singing voice of an angel. Fmerc was just an all around solid FC nothing flashy, just shit that worked. The first time I ever heard "burn to the sun" was in one of Garmon's gangs. It sounds stupid, but it opened my eyes to a very simple concept; you don't always have to brawl.
Leveling myself up, not my character
I took all of the small things that I had learned over the previous two to three months of flying with Genos and started putting it all in to practice. Over time I was able to start taking gangs that looked way too strong and win fights. Positional awareness and grid management started to feel as natural as breathing. From there I worked hard on becoming a good small gang fc.
Our null sec alliance that we created from the militia eventually failed, and the better parts of our membership joined Important Internet Spaceship League(BDEAL), who we had been flying with and fighting against for the previous month or so. My friends and I created a corp called Void. with the vision that we'd only have good pilots. We would not let any filler in. We would run internal fleets every night around 01:00 and then do alliance fleets later in the night.
Soon after the merger, Agony invited us to move to the new Providence(CVA had just been kicked out), and we were given our own pocket to live in. Words like "Thunderdome" and "Small Gang Paradise" were thrown out along with promises of beer and hookers. BDEAL moved in and quickly took a nasty turn. Going from syndicate, one of the poorest regions in all of eve, to true sov space tainted the well of BDEAL. People stopped pvping and were only focused on being space jews.
Hiatus
From there Void. broke off and moved to low sec, then one fateful day we all discovered the bane of our EVE careers. It's name...was League of Legends. Long story short, we all quit for playing eve and just played League. I ended up moving and was without internet for a year(Montana Problems).
After being gone for a year I decided to come back to EVE. BDEAL was a shell of its former self, and with all of the Void. members no longer playing, it was time to go shopping for a new corp. My list was short. I wanted to go to PODLA, Rote Kapelle, or Pandemic Legion. Podla offered amazing small gang pvp with some of the best pilots in the game. Rote Kapelle was the largest power house in all of Syndicate(smartest kid with downs syndrome). Pandemic Legion would have just allowed me to try a part of the game that I've never done.
I talked to Rote first, and that's where I landed. The offered me endless man love and pinkies in butt holes. The offer was too good to turn down.
I feel like that's a good stopping point because the "Time in Rote" post will be just as long if not longer than that. Expect to see that tonight or tomorrow.
PS too long didn't edit.
Who am I?
I'm Apathetic Brent. I started my EVE career some time in July of 2007 after my girlfriend's brother got me to make a trial. I care beared for the first few months on until...my corp was wardec'd and the inevitable occurred. Keep in mind that in 2007 killmails didn't show all modules on the ship. After losing my pride and joy I talked to the people who were killing us and asked them how to get in to PVP. The long and short of it was to hop in a Caracal and go to a low sec belt. After losing a few ships I became lucky enough to get on my first kill. With that, a PVPr was born.
The Dark Ages
After dabbling around on my own a bit and largely failing, I ended up joining a low sec pirate group and flying SPR drakes and thinking New Eden was mine. I played for a few months doing small gang stuff and learning the bare bone basics, then took a break for a year or so. When I came back I re-joined the old corp I was in (Knights Cross at the time) and continued to pvp. At some point I went to 0.0 and lived near Pure Blind and occupied my time by camping the Torrinos gate in EC-P8R. I don't remember the name of the Alliance I was in, but suffice it to say it was some shitty renter alliance that died years ago. I bounced around with the same pirate group again after that until I took another year(give or take) break. Most of this is me flying around with 90% tinted glasses on not really knowing what is going on. That brings me to a topic that I'm going to post about in depth, which is the evolution of a player in a game. Holy shit that's a horribly constructed sentence. Oh well, fuck it.
Now I dive in to where I really started cutting my teeth on PVP in EVE, The Militia. I joined Caldari Militia in September of 2009. This really marks the beginning of my journey towards being a good pilot. I made some good friends and really started to do small gang PVP. The reason I blossomed so much was because the PVP was so readily available. Caldari Militia was also the place of my first solo kill, and was really the birth of my love of the drake(I have around 600 kills in a drake). I started flying under GavinGoodrich, which at the time was the head FC for Caldari Militia. I started paying attention to how he FC'd and how he called targets and mentally took notes. After a while I decided to FC for my first time and the results were less than favorable. After a few months of practice I became the second most popular FC in the caldari militia. The funny thing is that I was still utterly terrible at eve at the time. From there about 100 of us decided to break off from the militia and create a null sec alliance.
A More Enlightened Time
Three very important things happened after we left the militia. The first is that I had a group of three friends(Gunniih, xoxFatcatxox, and Get'oFix) that were the cream of the corp from our group, and we started doing 2-4 man gangs every day. This really helped us all grow and a group, and also work on communication as small gang pilots(completely different than being in a medium/large gang).
Secondly, Garmonation 7(part 1, part 2, part 3). For anyone who has watched the video, you already know what I'm talking about. For those of you that haven't, it opened my eyes to a million new ways to PVP. A million new opportunities. A million new tricks. I literally watched segments of that video in slow motion just to see exactly what was going on. In the few months following me watching that video I racked up something like 200 kills in a dual prop taranis.
The third thing is something I will probably write an entire post about at some point, and that's Genos Roams. There used to be a channel back in 09/10 called Genos Roams. It was an invite only channel with some of the best pilots in the game in it(of which I wasn't one). The MOTD in the channel would just list a system, and time, desired ship types, and an FC. The three FCs I flew with in Genos Roams were Garmon, Gobbins(Admiral Goberius), and Fmercury. All of them were very good FCs, but each had their own personal style. Garmon was always super ballsy and did shit I couldn't wrap my head around that I later realized was brilliant. Gobbins was a hilarious Mario clone who was very innovative and had the singing voice of an angel. Fmerc was just an all around solid FC nothing flashy, just shit that worked. The first time I ever heard "burn to the sun" was in one of Garmon's gangs. It sounds stupid, but it opened my eyes to a very simple concept; you don't always have to brawl.
Leveling myself up, not my character
I took all of the small things that I had learned over the previous two to three months of flying with Genos and started putting it all in to practice. Over time I was able to start taking gangs that looked way too strong and win fights. Positional awareness and grid management started to feel as natural as breathing. From there I worked hard on becoming a good small gang fc.
Our null sec alliance that we created from the militia eventually failed, and the better parts of our membership joined Important Internet Spaceship League(BDEAL), who we had been flying with and fighting against for the previous month or so. My friends and I created a corp called Void. with the vision that we'd only have good pilots. We would not let any filler in. We would run internal fleets every night around 01:00 and then do alliance fleets later in the night.
Soon after the merger, Agony invited us to move to the new Providence(CVA had just been kicked out), and we were given our own pocket to live in. Words like "Thunderdome" and "Small Gang Paradise" were thrown out along with promises of beer and hookers. BDEAL moved in and quickly took a nasty turn. Going from syndicate, one of the poorest regions in all of eve, to true sov space tainted the well of BDEAL. People stopped pvping and were only focused on being space jews.
Hiatus
From there Void. broke off and moved to low sec, then one fateful day we all discovered the bane of our EVE careers. It's name...was League of Legends. Long story short, we all quit for playing eve and just played League. I ended up moving and was without internet for a year(Montana Problems).
After being gone for a year I decided to come back to EVE. BDEAL was a shell of its former self, and with all of the Void. members no longer playing, it was time to go shopping for a new corp. My list was short. I wanted to go to PODLA, Rote Kapelle, or Pandemic Legion. Podla offered amazing small gang pvp with some of the best pilots in the game. Rote Kapelle was the largest power house in all of Syndicate(smartest kid with downs syndrome). Pandemic Legion would have just allowed me to try a part of the game that I've never done.
I talked to Rote first, and that's where I landed. The offered me endless man love and pinkies in butt holes. The offer was too good to turn down.
I feel like that's a good stopping point because the "Time in Rote" post will be just as long if not longer than that. Expect to see that tonight or tomorrow.
PS too long didn't edit.
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