Hello hello!
September and October were both very, very quiet for me; September i got a couple kills, and October I only went out once, and that was to test my Wolf against the Rail Ishkur of Sard Caid a couple times. Good fights, close, but, the Wolf was outdone. Bah!
However, a pilot from one of my favorite organizations, Black Rebel Rifter Club, asked me for a 1v1 in local. Evidently, he had hoped to fight me for some time. I said ok, and that I would go get a T1 frigate, as he was in a Rifter, and Wolf vs a Rifter, frankly, isnt much of a fight. He was generous enough to give me a Rifter to fight him in, which I took, fitted to my liking, and had a fun, old fasioned Rifter brawl! Good fights were shared, I scooped the loot, docked, repaired, and left pod... and kept thinking back to the Rifter.
Everyone had been saying the Rifter was past its prime. I believed them... but kept thinking on it. So, today I decided to go out for a little roam in that same Rifter. I flew to Bosena, picked it up, and had a fight against a Slasher within just a few minutes. Now, the Slasher has come a long way, with 4 mids, as much turret damage as the Rifter, and much higher speed. I expected a TD, and for him to kite me at the edge of scram range. What i found, however, was an ASB fitted Slasher that died after cycling his ASB only twice, driving the point home that I do not believe ASBs are viable at the frigate level. They just do not rep enough per cycle, at least not with T1 resists. Good fights were shared, I docked, hopped back in my Wolf, and poked around Heild for a while.
Sard Caid was in local, fighting with Black Rebel Rifter Club, and I took the opportunity to just watch him fight; my 2-mid wolf left me feeling less than optomistic about fighting the 4 or 5 r1fta in local at once, and they were careful to not seperate. After a bit, I decided to go get my Rifter, figuring maybe the lesser T1 frigate would encourage them to take a few more risks.
I never made it back to Heild.
In Oddelulf, I found an Atron, Slasher, and Incursus poking about. The Incursus pilot, a member of another of my favorite groups, the Tuskers, fought the Atron and Slasher, then agreed to fight my Rifter. I had heard about how nasty the Incursus was, and have even flown it myself a couple times, but I formulated a plan...
I load barrage and keep at range, shooting from about 7k. I had heated my web at the start of the fight, to slow him down on the way in... I guess... no idea why i did it. Anyway, I did. Slowly, so slowly, the Incursus begins to enter armor, and slowly, so slowly, I am chewing it down... when suddenly, I am taking heavy damage. In my stupidity,I had burned the web out! As I enter low armor, the Incursus enters structure... bang, bang, into structure I go... he is low structure... rep cycle... low structure... and boom! Good fights are shared, I scoop my loot, and dock to repair my burned up mods, my hull damage, and my crispy guns. One of the best frigate fights I have had in a long, long time!
I fight him again, a bit later, in a shield fitted rifter, which also goes down, but who does quite well; he forced me to stay at range to evade his neut, and he did quite solid damage, me being in low armor when he went down. Not bad for a 125mm fit Rifter vs mine, with 200s!
Long story short, the Rifter is still here. Rifter vs Incursus is a good, close fight, as it should be, and a variety of fits still seem quite viable for it. T1 frigates have been boosted and are now very varied, and a lot of fun. I will be rolling around in this Rifter for the forseeable future; its cheap, its fun, and it still seems to be working just fine to me. Destroyers will be far more difficult, but meh, its a Rifter. It has SOME limits, right?
Hope to find a rail fit Merlin, maybe a Tormentor, and a proper kiting Slasher to give this a proper go. Until then;
Fly it like you stole it!
Ava
