A couple of kills and a bug.

Hi everyone,

So I was out yesterday evening so got my EvE time during the day. This is both good and bad.

It's good because I get to go out solo and experiment with things without having to turn down fleets and stuff.

It's bad because you don't have anyone to chat to or generally arse around with because most normal people are at work and don't get online till later in the day.

So I launched my Dramiel (of course) and headed into K-B where I know 0utbreak have a warp disruption bubble and I thought I would camp it for a little while on my own, creating a nice warp in 180km from the bubble and 200km from the gate. It was slow going and I could of probably roamed around a bit but was feeling lazy.

I caught a Reaper on the bubble and blew him to bits. I always think it's worth killing newb ships... especially in Null as you never know if they are carrying a shiney mod or something. I carried on camping and saw a Dramiel on scan. Seconds later he landed in my bubble and I went down for the fight.

We both engaged our scrams at the same time and started the slow dance of death, I think it was about 50-50 in damage... Until a Cynabal Pirate Cruiser suddenly appears and we both disengaged and started motoring away. The Cynabal took some pot shots at me from (what I thought) was 60km away.

Now this is where the BUG comes in. A couple of times over the last few days, and then again with this Cynabal the distance and speed part of the overview stops working. So the Cynabal which was showing as 60km from my Dramiel doing 5m/s on the overview was actually doing over 2km/s and was 16km from my Dramiel and had me pointed. Fuck!

I burnt away from the Cynabal in the opposite direction to the other Dramiel and managed to warp out in 16% structure. Gf's were offered in local and a bit of friendly banter ensued.

After repairing and challenging the Dramiel pilot to a 1v1 in my Jaguar, which he refused, I jump back into K-B and go back to my ninja spot. A few minutes later a Crusader Amarr Interceptor appears on scan and moments later lands in my bubble.

I warp to the Reaper wreck (which I had left there as a convienent 'warp to' point) and engage the Crusader. He first tries to run for the gate but soon realises he won't make it so engages. It is a close fight as I accidently orbit at 500m with Barage loaded but remedy that mistake and take the Crusader out.

While we have been fighting a Kestrel has warped to the gate 50km or so away and starts burning towards where I am now looting the Crusader wreck. I am in deep armor (in a shield tanker) but decide to try my luck against the Kestrel.

I orbit close with my AB on to try and minimilise incoming damage from the guys rockets. As I bleed into structure the Kessie is still at 20% shields so I disengage and tacitically retreat (read: run screaming like a girl) out of range and into warp. I have again survived, this time at 38% structure. I hang out for a bit and wait for my shields to repair themselves.

I head back to my spot to find the Kessie pilot has disapeared and a Flycatcher is in the middle of tacking down a Manticore. I think about making a run back to D87 and repairing before coming back to try and take out the Flycatcher myself, then I look in the 0utbreak channel and see Ziggy is online.

I tell him what is going on and he jumps into a Cynabal to back me up against the Interdictor who is now off the gate looking at some wrecks.

At this point I have full shields but no armor and 38% structure remaining. I wait for Ziggy and when he lands on gate I warp to the wreck the Flycather is closest to and get point and start engaging... and he starts to melt. Ziggy gets one shot off on him but otherwise it's a solo kill. I finish the engagement with 70% shields. I didn't know Flycatchers were so squidgy. I will definelty be marking those down in the 'solo'ble' column!

I hung around for a little longer but 30+ man fleets started rolling through K-B and D87 so I decided to call it a night and start getting ready to go out. All in all... A good day in my book.

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

P.S Only 54 shopping days till Christmas!!

Looking for small gang PVP

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping that I have finally sorted out the virus warning thing that comes up on this damn blog everytime someone tries to read it. There is no virus as far as I can see though I do admit to not being the most anal about computer security.

Anyway, last night I logged on, undocked my Dramiel and got invited to a fleet as the screen resolved. Saiyon and Amber Shouna were in local and inviting me to come pew with them.

Now to explain this, I will point you to the EvE O forums and this post here. Back? Ok good lets continue.

So Saiyon and friends had agreed for me to FC for them and give them a first hand view of low-sec PVP from and 'experienced' pilot (LOL) and we had agreed to meet up in Isho and head out from here.

As I undocked I hit scan and, ignoring the now friendly Arbitrator and Maller, I notice a Wolf on scan. Still in the 10 sec undock timer I narrow the Wolf down to the sun and engage warp.

Saiyon is, at this second, telling me to jump on mumble (which i didn't have) and supplying me with and address and port etc. Dropping out of warp I am 20km from the Wolf so start closing in while telling Saiyon and Amber to warp to me without warning of what I am doing. Understandably their reactions are a little slow and the Wolf is tearing through my shields while I am slowly messing up his Armor... to slowly...  and I had to make a run for it.

As I ran my fleet mates landed and the Wolf bailed. Good fight Duke Thunderhorse of Black Rebel Rifter Gang. =)

(P.S Durzo, I saw your comment and will be looking you guys up soon for a chat)

So after Saiyon changed out his fit I started heading off to Mara to poke around a bit. I jumped in and saw a Caracal on scan and got Saiyon and his mates (now joined by Fang Tang in a Vexor) to hold in Hasama. As I was trying to narrow the Caracal down a Heron dropped combat probes and scared him out of Mara. Damn it!

Noticing Htrag of CBS in his Nighthawk and his links alone in local I called the gang in and get them to a safe spot on the Dantumi gate while I go in to try and scare up a fight.

On the gate as I jump in is a Drake, Daredevil and Rifter. I start burning off them and decide to do a little solo trick here. I watch the Daredevil start burning towards me and lowered my speed to slightly faster than the Daredevil to try and get him off the gate and more importantly away from the Drake.

Playing with my speed I manage to pull a 90km range on the Drake with the Rifter 30km off me and the Daredevil 10km off. I slow slightly and let the Daredevil get a scram on me. I hit full speed and orbit and activate everything I have.

We're dancing in the ring of death and he has his web on me slowing me down and hitting me hard with his Neutron blasters while I have loaded Fusion ammo and start stripping his armor away at a good rate.

The Rifter has closed and has now joined in the fight, with another web on me and compined DPS of a Neutron Blaster Daredevil and a 150 AC fit Rifter, this fight could go either way.

My shields are gone as the Daredevil explodes and I immediatley switch to the Rifter. I am now in deep armor and watch carefully as first his shields and then as he hits half armor I hit structure. This is going to be close. My Damage control does it's job and the damage definetly slows, just enough for me to finish the Rifters armor and strip his structure till only a pod sat in the middle of a wreck.

I finish the fight with no shields, no armor and 86% structure not to mention some fleet members who didn't get in on the kills. Whoops...

The Drake is still around but by now I have brought my fleet mates into Dantumi, he bails and heads to Ossa.

We check out the local systems finding nothing then head back up the pipe through Isho, noticing Duke is still out in his Wolf, and towards Tama.

Unfortuantley we find very little on the way to Tama. A couple of BS's we couldn't take (Scorp and Machariel) and a Rifter who didn't want to play.

As we hit Tama RL interrupted my carefully laid EvE plans. My 1 year old boy woke up needing some milk and cuddles to go back to sleep.

Sorry I didn't get any kills for you guy Saiyon, Amber and Fang. I promise that when we go out over the weekend I WILL get us a fleet kill and not be totaly selfish ;-)

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

The return of the solo pvper

Two posts on the same day you guys are so spoilt (if anyone even reads this anymore with that damn virus warning)

So anyway my last entry was quite down hearted but this one is much more upbeat. First of I decided to go on another roam today, this time in my Dramiel. I also decided to head to an area that I have called home and still think of as my spiritual birth place, Ishomilken.

So I started out and couldn't find a decent fight in the 20+ jumps down to Isho so headed straight to one of my old favourite hunting areas, Mara.

On jumping into Mara I noticed a Hurricane on scan. I have fought Hurricanes in Dramials before and always come off very much dead. However I decided to take a look as he was in a belt with wrecks out.

Warping in I get the tackle on a neutral Hurricane and start bringing his shields down expecting to either get jumped or neuts to be slammed on me. Nothing happens accept he tries shooting me with 425ac's which miss me over and over again.I realise that my guns are doing very little against this guys shield and open a convo with him. I ask um for 50 million ISK ransom which he says he doesn't have so the fight gOSS on. Being so far from the rest of my Corp means I have no help to call in so when a Ferox comes on scan I ask him to come in and help me.

The Ferox pilot laughs at me and thinks I am baiting him to his doom... Good idea but I could really do with some help!

Then Htrag of Carebear Stare enters local. Now he is a very hostile red from a Corp I have had problems with in the past but I tell him in local where I am and in he comes to help me finish the Hurricane off. Big thanks go to Htrag of CBS on this one.

Looking at the killmail I realise why I couldn't do it alone. That is one tanky little Hurricane!!

After this fight I go back to Isho and find a ratting Catalyst and then chase a Rifter around till he dies in a ball of flame.

Then a Rifter opens a Cyno in Isho and I kill that in a old Drake I have had for about 2 years! I warp from the kill to a belt where a damn Rapier uncloaks and cyno's a Redeemer onto my ass, I manage to get the rapier into hull before I go pop!

Heading back out in my Dram I kill a Burst and log off with a good feeling, maybe lowsec isn't dead, maybe I just haven't been looking in the right place!

Fly dangerous o/

Mail

P.s sorry for not having any funny pictures at the moment. I'm blogging from my iPod touch while either on the toilet or in bed, only chance I get to squeeze one out... So to speak ;-) lol

End of Sabatical - First kill

Evening all!

So a good first few hours. Jumped into my new support fit Vexor Gallente Cruiser and decided to go looking for a solo fight to see if it could hold it's own.

Making my way out of Ishomilken I headed up towards one of the most dangerous, and fun, systems in all of EvE and one where I knew I would atleast get a fight when I got there, if not on the way!

Had a few hits on the way down to Old Man Star but nothing that I could pinpoint outside of a POS so I carried on my way down.

One jump out is a system called Heydieles. A good place for a fight. Scan was showing 16 people in local. A few bigger ships on scan that I would have to try and avoid and a few smaller faster ships I would love to get a tackle on.

I decided to make it easy. Picked a random belt 40+ AU from the Abune Gate and off scan from most areas and initiated warp. I kept spamming the scan button on the D Scanner to see what was around and found there was a Thorax in the same system as myself. I tried to locate him to 180 degrees just to see where he could be. I was still in warp and hit scan in the direction of the astroid belt I was heading for and realised he was either in the belt or in a safe very close.

Upon landing the Thorax was less than 10km from me so I targeted it and activated the warp scrambler. I closed on his ship, remembering to activate my Damage Control II (for once) and got nice and close. I jettisoned my 5 Hammerhead II drones and activated 4 Medium Neutralisers and a Medium NOS to suck the Thorak dry of cap and basicaly end any active tank he may have.

My drones made short work of his armour and hull and soon he was in his pod. Have to admit that he was quick to get the pod away so I don't have my first pod kill yet but I will continue to work on it!

A little light chat between me and my new reader:

[18:26:37] EVE System > Channel changed to Heydieles Local Channel
[18:29:17] Bensonius > GF
[18:30:17] Mail Lite > gf
[18:30:31] Bensonius > meh, thrown together fit from what was available in system
[18:30:49] Mail Lite > Not bad tho. First Solo with this fit so not bad
[18:30:51] Bensonius > how the hell fits auto cannons on a thorax, know what i mean :)
[18:30:59] Mail Lite > lol
[18:31:19] Bensonius > either that or small rails :)
[18:33:00] Bensonius > nice bio btw
[18:33:06] Mail Lite > lol thanks
[18:34:30] Bensonius > tell me, was i the first kill in your support vex?
[18:35:02] Mail Lite > Indeed you were, going to be writing that one up in a few hours
[18:35:34] Bensonius > nice, mail me a link and mention lol fit for the thorax :)
[18:35:54] Mail Lite > Will do, should get some haha's
[18:35:58] Mail Lite > ;-)

So with out futher hesitation: THE LOL FIT THORAX!

Thanks Ben and hope you become a follower of the blog ;)

Fly dangerous! o/

Mail