To Syndicate, and BEYOND!

Skadi's Call has moved. Yeah, I am surprised by it too.

We have relocated to Syndicate, and are currently with the I-RED, a very good group of people and friends who have long been assisting our humanitarian efforts in the Republic. So far, so good; we are getting settled in, going on fleets, learning our way around the region, and getting to know the locals.

The locals being assorted russians, a few OKish combat corps and alliances... and Rote Kapelle.

I met one of Rote Kapelle on my first day in Syndicate, and we had a proper Wolf vs Wolf fight. My MWD, plateless fit went down to a 2 gyro, 400 plate/C tye SAR, AB fit Wolf flown by Namamai of Rote Kapelle, though she had entered structure when I went down. Not bad for a wolf with less tank, DPS, and range control!

Her fit got me thinking. I like no plate, as frankly, I fly the Wolf more like a heavy interceptor than a "in your face" brawler, and speed is life; the ability to string gangs apart, pull tacklers away, and all means that I have to keep my MWD... most of the time.

Namamai mentioned that her wolf was very, very good for killing Sabres. I like killing Sabres. I have built a new fit that I will report more on after some proper testing, an AB fit; others have done well with ABs in 0.0, in the right sort of fights, so why not? I will give it a go!

Undeterred, I have been part of several gangs and had some hilarious times, including a Scimitar that a pilot donated (By ejecting from it after being tackled, haha!) to me last night, fully fitted! Thank you! I have been wanting to learn to fly logistics, and now I can, and not cost myself a dime. It will be properly resupplied and renamed, and placed in service for SKDI.

Today, I had a fun fight versus a Slicer and Retribution, with a Hawk also in system. I was sort of hoping the Hawk would approach (He was in the corp with the Retri pilot) when the fight began, but he did not. So, 2 up, 2 down, loot scooped (What there is of it... their fits were odd, shown here and here. Kudos to them for taking the fight, and hope to see more of them.

I  think I am gonna like it here... not to mention, the rumors of Ishukone having some connection to the development of insorum...

Ava, out!

CCP Strikes Again

Well, the Wolf cant buy a break. Since the AF changes, its been a bit behind the curve compared to the Enyo, Vengeance, and of course, Hawk and Harpy, but it was still the sexiest looking ship ever to take to the skies.... until, CCP.

Yesterday CCP decided to make the sexy, sleek, 10-AC turret armed Wolf and make it into a rusty, dumpy, skinny sad little thing, with much fewer guns modeled on its hull, a horrid paint job.... and the models of the guns are about 1/5 the size they once were. No. Seriously. Its that bad.

Here is my old love;

And the new... thing....

What the hell? The gun models have ALL been relocated and shrunk to ridiculously tiny size, the hull shape has been drastically changed, and the paint job has gone from sexy silver to.... rusty. Bad. Rusty. I guess CCP wasnt happy having it be behind the curve, they decided to make it look like shit too.

A few of my all time favorite shots of my ship. RIP baby. It was awesome while it lasted.

CCP... what was wrong with the old model?

Ava

Destruction (And Sexism) in Heild.

So. This is a first for me, but, here we go.

Somedays, I have off days, as I stated in an earlier post. It happens. I do dumb things, run into people who are simply better than me, or both. I dont claim to be an expert; as a matter of fact, at the beginning of this blog, I explicitly stated that I am learning as I go, and the blog's entries reveal that.

I lost a 1v1. It happens, right? Korvus Falek, a member of Black Rebel Rifter Club, was so proud of it he posted about it on his blog... if you want to read the entry, its here so you can see for yourself. Hey, thats ok, I have a blog and post stuff about my fights too, right? Well... please read the entry. You may notice some differences.

I decided to reply, and dispel a few of the inaccuracies in his post, with regards to my wolf, myself, and what I do in EVE.

First. Lets compare fits....mine. This was my actual lossmail from the fight.

I was heading to null to rat/pew, so I was running an MWD, which is not my normal choice; an AB allows me better range control and permits fitting a T2 DCU. My TE/Gyro combo gives me good range vs those who kite at the edge of scram range and gives me more damage beyond about 6k than 2 gyros. I was also in a 10 million isk clone, running 2 +2s and a 3% small projectile damage implant.

The fight itself? I started off dealing early damage, and let him catch me... you know, like I have stated several other places in this very blog that I always do. I wasnt trying to "Kite", I have a scram. Even if i could do so (Which i have said elsewhere, in this blog, that I am bad at) I likely would have had a long point fit, eh? Yes, the blog he says I he read through, and wouldnt point out all the stuff I write that is "wrong". Must have been a thorough read. When I went down, he was in low armor, repping well... I suspect he used Exile, though it may just be the normal repping rate of an A type SAR.

So. By KITERS, i mean those things, such as Hawks and Vengeances who tend to stay at the edge of scram range, 7-8k, beyond the effective range of a fit without a TE.

Now... his fit.

Sheesh! Thats stout! 330m isk frigate, with im guessing a head full of slaves and possibly, as i mentioned, Exile.
I dont know that this was the exact fit, but similar; web/scram/AB, and definately a faction fit.

I had an MWD, which makes my ability to counter rocket damage, already basically horrid when webbed, even worse. It was a bad matchup, but a fun fight nonetheless. I was in a convo with him (we had fleeted, so he didnt have boosts or anything ) and he mentioned to try an AB. Yeap. I know. Anyway, he says I got "mad" and left when he started "epeen waving"... lets see....


---------------------------------------------------------------
  Channel ID:      (('fleetid', 1122610806817L),)
  Channel Name:    Fleet
  Listener:        Ava Starfire
  Session started: 2012.05.14 14:31:42
---------------------------------------------------------------
[ 2012.05.14 14:31:56 ] Ava Starfire > SS?
[ 2012.05.14 14:31:56 ] Korvus Falek > rdy for warp in when you are
[ 2012.05.14 14:32:02 ] Korvus Falek > roughly
[ 2012.05.14 14:32:03 ] Ava Starfire > Ok, warp to you?
[ 2012.05.14 14:32:22 ] Korvus Falek > yeah
[ 2012.05.14 14:32:25 ] Ava Starfire > ok
[ 2012.05.14 14:32:30 ] Ava Starfire > if is dualrep
[ 2012.05.14 14:32:31 ] Ava Starfire > i will cry!
[ 2012.05.14 14:32:36 ] Korvus Falek > lol
[ 2012.05.14 14:37:09 ] Ava Starfire > =(
[ 2012.05.14 14:37:51 ] Ava Starfire > Well
[ 2012.05.14 14:37:53 ] Korvus Falek > hehe gf
[ 2012.05.14 14:37:58 ] Ava Starfire > Just means I dont fight vengeance anymore
[ 2012.05.14 14:37:59 ] Ava Starfire > meh
[ 2012.05.14 14:38:08 ] Ava Starfire > 2nd wolf i lost today and nothing to show
[ 2012.05.14 14:38:22 ] Ava Starfire > how about fight in something that isnt a veng?
[ 2012.05.14 14:38:33 ] Korvus Falek > only ship i fly tbh =P
[ 2012.05.14 14:38:37 ] Ava Starfire > Well
[ 2012.05.14 14:38:43 ] Ava Starfire > I just wont fight it anymore
[ 2012.05.14 14:38:52 ] Ava Starfire > MWD wolf simply cant beat it
[ 2012.05.14 14:39:05 ] Ava Starfire > dosent help im in a shit 10m isk nullsec clone atm either
[ 2012.05.14 14:39:47 ] Korvus Falek > hehe use something other than mwd =P
[ 2012.05.14 14:39:59 ] Korvus Falek > a wolf can beat a vengeance
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:06 ] Ava Starfire > I was heading to null
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:06 ] Korvus Falek > but not my vengeance =P
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:07 ] Ava Starfire > =P
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:11 ] Ava Starfire > You all distracted me
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:18 ] Ava Starfire > Ok, epeen measuring time i guess
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:20 ] Ava Starfire > bye

Hmm. I said "MWD wolf cant beat vengeance" (which it may or may not be able to) but lets call attention to this line:

[ 2012.05.14 14:39:59 ] Korvus Falek > a wolf can beat a vengeance
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:06 ] Ava Starfire > I was heading to null
[ 2012.05.14 14:40:06 ] Korvus Falek > but not my vengeance =P

That's pretty smug, and is the reason I left the convo. Now, looking back, I admit I was in a mood, and as eve smack/chestbeating goes, this wasnt that bad... however, the blog post he wrote is much, much worse than just about any local smack I have ever seen. I dont smack, denegrate people, or point out anything wrong they do in a negative way, and I certainly dont make any sort of claims that I am some sort of frigate savant. After killing someone, I will usually (if they seem new to pvp and/or eve) offer some tips. Often, I give new pilots isk for frigs. I try to encourage people. I dont see any reason to chestbeat or proclaim awesomeness OOCly in a video game; it's a video game, after all. I suppose not everyone does that. Hey, its ok, its a big game.

I refit (with an AB and plate, a fit i run sometimes) and returned to fight him again, only getting intercepted (And losing, ack! My luck!) to a rail daredevil, only due to my own stupid; the DD had dipped into struct when I died, had i loaded barrage, would have forced him off. Korvus was at the sun during the fight, watching.

I noticed he didnt mention that in his entry?

RL intervened, I didnt have time to come back a third time to try again. I plan to soon.

So, lets recap; I lost a fight. Someone makes a rather condescending, smug, and sexist post about how awesome he is, and how dumb I am, on his blog. I replied. I'll let you readers be the judge; please, read both entries, and just decide for yourselves. Yep. I lost the fight.

Im pretty sure I know which one of us is the loser.

Ava

Oh, and Korvus? I excuse you, hun, you're a man. Or male of some sort, anyway.

Nullsec and Me (And impending FW changes)

How time flies!

Having gotten my fill of 1v1s in Angel Creo-Corp Plexes (and other places) the last 2 or so months, I began to get a little bored. Faction War is in a somewhat sad state; unpopular impending changes will make it so that enemy militia cannot dock in space controlled by the opposing force (pretty dumb) that one can earn FW LP for plexing (I am ok with this change) and a few other tweaks, such as upgrading your controlled systems by spending LP... basically, its gonna be sort of like sov null. I think. Anyways, yeah, its unpopular... but militia combat has degenerated into blob vs blob of the worst sort, and it is very, very difficult to solo, at least without a lot of frustrating losses. Ill have to work on this.

Anyways, enough complaining about FW. I decided to begin poking about in nullsec, so I fitted up my trusty wolf and headed off to Great Wildlands, for a bit of good-ol roaming. My standard fit, with an MWD, of course, a fit that I now fly virtually all the time. A wolf with an MWD has a tough time vs scram fit cruisers (Most of them) so I narrow my target selection some, but I gain a lot of kiting ability, the ability to counter kiters much easier, and the ability, most importantly, to pull gangs apart and/or GTFO.

1st trip in, I spot a wolf and thrasher at the 9SNK gate in BVIP. I figure theyre together, camping the small bubble i see on Dscan, when I see GFs in local and the thrasher pilot's pod! Hmm. I debate for a moment, and during that moment the Wolf must have repped up, as he was at almost full SHIELD by the time I landed (I debated for a while... first time in null, haha)

I warp to a safe above the gate, and see the wolf sitting next to the bubble... and right next to the thrasher wreck. I load fusion and warp down to the wreck, scramming him and lighting him up, pulling to 8k range. He was pretty slow responding, and he exploded before I hit armor. I pop the pod for good measure, and scoop up my loot... quite a haul, better than I am used to! I drop my loot in Egbi and roam around, but everyone i meet is either in vagabonds/canes/cynabals or in cloaky haulers or bombers.

Here is a funny part of null. Its very empty. Like, emptier than losec. At least GW is. I guess M-M and the other station systems have more activity, and I will begin poking around there shortly, but 99% of the time, I was alone in each system, leisurely ratting and making safes to evade bubbles. Yes, safes.

Bubbles come in 3 flavors; 1) a Warp Disruption Field generator attached to a heavy interdictor. These mean burn out, or back to the gate, as hictors mean gangs. I have yet to see one.

2) A probe that a Sabre (or other interdictor, though no one flies anything but sabres) launches. These mean burn back to the gate, burn off... or kill the sabre. That last option is almost a certain pod loss if you lose, but we're in null, we should be in cheap clones anyway. No guts, no glory! Load EMP or plasma, heat everything, and see what happens. The standard kite at edge of scram range dosent work vs sabres, so try to get close for max gank. Sig radius, fit, and a bit of luck will decide this fight.

3) Drag bubbles. These are bubbles that people place in line with celestials (like other gates) so that when someone warps to the gate, they are "dragged" 50-60k off the gate, into the bubble. NEVER warp directly to a gate unless 1) youre sure it isnt bubbled 2) no one else is in system or 3) you want to kill whats camping the bubble. Make safes at odd angles near gates; 150k is too close, i preger 250-300. We shall see why in a few minutes. Warp to the safe, THEN down to the gate... or down to the bubble, if you want to kill what is camping it!

Later on, I engage a thrasher in a belt, and what do you know, I lost? I started my repper late AND this person had fit a TE and loaded barrage; methinks he read up on me. Wonder where he could have done that... GFs were shared, and I skulked off home.

A few days later, I see a Claw, Catalyst, and Drake in OPI. Hmm. There are 3 gates in this system... and one was camping each gate. Now, I could have slipped past that Drake easy as pie, but we're not here to slip past anyone, are we? I wanted that Claw and Cattie. I warp to within 30k of the gate the cattie was on, and aligned, MWD off, to the sun. Predictably, the Claw lands, burns toward me, and dies gloriously, getting WAY too close to me on his approach. He popped in 2 shots. The Catalyst, strengthened by the company of his corpmate on field, had also by now burned toward me, and I opened up on him, reducing his ship to slag. Terrible fit, by the way... by now, the drake has landed, and I quietly ignore it as i scoop the loot and bounce, not wanting to chance a drake that wasnt pointing me from 20k in an MWD fit wolf. 2 down, off I go home. Good fight.

This trick with picking gangs apart and isolating tacklers or members with gate aggro/warping at ranges is one I am loving, and the fights are far more fun than old fasioned 1v1s in losec. Can I do it? How long should I stay around? What should I kill first? How do I split them? Do they have something that can web/scram/ecm me? These questions and many more run through my head, but I am loving every second of it. And I am getting a bit more confident....

I am ratting and a Capital Punishment Cyclone keeps following me. For hours. Sigh.

Ok. Pirates. Im going to share a tip. If, in the first 2 hours, someone hasnt commited to fighting you, because your ship is blatantly something they cannot fight (Most cyclones are active tanked with scrams, yuck!) maybe ship down and/or go find someone else. Im glad he didnt... he called a friend!

I jump into UNJ, with the intention of leaving him behind, when I see he has a corpmate in a dramiel on the gate... oh! Hmm... cant fight this close to gate. I pray and warp to my bubble evasion safe, 250k above the gate. I manage to warp off as  the Dramiel begins to target.

And then it merrily burns at me at 4700 msec.

Oh, happy day. I align to the gate and light my MWD. Dram is coming closer... closer... and points me when I am 180k or so off. The cyclone still has not jumped in. At this range, I know he can jump and warp to his corpmate as soon as I redbox (As this dram was in no danger of killing me anytime soon) so I wait until i see her straight behind me... 27k away.

Perfect.

Stop my ship, wait for speed to hit 75%, and immediately reversed direction and burned straight at her. Scram on! I open up with plasma, the cyclone jumps in... she is dualproped, which means her AB is still on... gotta leave my MWD on or she will get away. Her shield evaporates, followed quickly by armor and hull, and a Dramiel Goes to heaven! The cyclone is landing... ack! I align to the sun and burn away, warping off, leaving the bewildered duo behind. Dram killed, Cyclone evaded, though I was unable to get the somewhat meager loot, it was a pulse pounding, if short, fight.

I am loving nullsec, folks. I recommend you hop in a cheap JC, grab your favorite MWD inty or AF, and head out there. Who knows... maybe we'll meet each other, eh?

Ammo, the Wolf, and the current state of frigate PvP.

Well, how time flies.

Me, Kalaratiri, and Tabor have split from Teraa Matar and formed a new organization, Skadi's Call, to focus more on small gang and solo combat. Teraa Matar are great people, and theyre a great organization... a decision I make with a heavy heart. Ailing health also led to the decision, as TRA was growing large (by my standards, 25 or so members!) and I was having a difficult time managing it. Kikia, my friend, good luck. You'll need it with that batch.

To the matter at hand; the Wolf! The current state of frigate and  AF combat, especially in the warzone, is: kiters. Loads of them. Falloff and Artillery Wolves, Hawks and Hookbills with TDs, Vengeances, even rail Ishkurs and Enyos. This has led me to change my fit once more; I now run one gyro and one TE. This gets me 12k falloff with high damage ammunition, and 18k!! with barrage. Kiting wolf? Go away or die. I have more tank than you.

The question of what ammunition to use is one I face every time i enter a fight, and thankfully, I have developed a good set of guidelines. Of course, ammo selection is infinately more complicated when more than 1 target is involved, but hey, that is part of the fun!

First; anything which kites beyond scram/web range gets barrage fired at it. The only things which will do this often are slicers, certain rifters (who will have a TD) certain firetails and dramiels, who will also have a TD, certain wolves, and Hookbills. Speaking of Hookbills, a new theme is LML hookbills with MWD, long point, and THREE sensor damps. Thankfully, as they dont want to get too close, you can usually slip from point range. If not... well, we cant kill everything, 100% of the time, now can we? I am jealous of those midslot options, but at least outside the warzone, hookbills are not that common.

Barrage is also used on Hookbills or any other T1 frigate which kites inside web range with a TD, as their resist profile isnt as complicated as among T2 ships. Webbing/TDing arty jaguars, while rare, also get beat up with barrage. Anything else, I will use a short range, high DPS ammo; Fusion, EMP, or Phased Plasma, and always RF variants. Rail Enyo? Inside web range? Stick with fusion, same with ishkur. Outside? Get barrage loaded quick.

Versus enyos, ishkurs, jaguar, and wolf, I use fusion, unless one of the above conditions is met. I also use it on that rare occasion where I fight a armor hurricane (never ends well, I try anyway!) or rupture.

Versus harpies, hawks, and sometimes vengeances, I will load EMP. Yes, a hawk or harpy which dual EMP rigs will have a slightly lower overall EHP profile vs Fusion. However, in the off chance they do not, which is common, EMP is a much better choice. I generally use Plasma on vengeances, but EMP is a good choice, as any vengeance (save Dual SAR fits) WILL have plugged the thermal hole. The profile is still very close, however.

Versus retribution, usually vengeance, and all T1 who are not TDing me and are inside scram/web range, ie, Daredevils, Destroyers, Rifters, Comets, etc, I use Plasma. Learning who has what, and when to swap ammo types, when not to, is a trick that comes with time. However, the above is a good guideline; I keep short range ammo loaded when i am on my way in. If i need to swap  to barrage, odds are the incoming DPS is fairly light, and I will have time to do so.

AFs, our usual targets, can be broken into 2 groups; those which kite our 2 midslot wolf, and those which melt our face off, cause we cant web them away. What do we do?

Group 1, kiters, consist of Hawks, Vengeances, and certain Wolves and Enyos. These are things we want to get as close to as possible. Vs the rocket boats, keep your AB on, and use approach, as any speed we can get will help mitigate damage a bit. Try to start if possible at 0; i will warp around and force them to chase until I get them to land on me at 0-10, and then do my all to land solid early damage, depending on falloff and that initial DPS advantage to win me the fight. If it is a kiter who isnt using rockets, ie, a wolf, often I just shut my AB off to conserve cap for my repper. They will often die before they realize how hard I am hitting and wont have time to align out. Kiting wolves tend to not fit DCUs... which is why I dislike them.

Group 2, things which melt our face. This is the Harpies, Enyos, Ishkurs, and most Jaguars. These, I will do my all to start at 20-30k and begin landing damage long before they can respond. As I have said before, it is Kiting, but with intent to be caught; if you do this too long, theyll just bail. Early damage is how I beat enyos and harpies, and I honestly dont think I can kill one if we start at 0 unless I am very, very fortunate. Always heat that repper as soon as they land scram, as the hurt is coming.

Group 3 is other Wolves and Retributions. Most of these wolves will be plated, and will either have 150s and/or a plate, and no TE, so i am faster and have better range. Sit at 7-8k and kill them with impunity. Retribution? If you need me to explain how to kill a Retri in a wolf, you should probably fly something else. A wolf will simply win with better speed, and much better resistance against its damage.

Finally, Hail. yes, Hail! When do you use it? Should you?

With our TE and our newfound tracking bonus, a Wolf with hail has better tracking than it did with EMP before the changes... you know, when I was killing every DD and Dramiel with 200s? Yep.

Hail's range sucks. Its tracking sucks. But, it has a place. When?

Vs anything with low explosive resists and that is also webbing you. What? When its webbing you? Did you hear that right? Why? We're moving slower??!

That is the point. You are moving SLOWER. An unwebbed wolf, say, fighting another wolf or a dual MSE jag, will be outtracking its own guns without very, very careful range management. Even vs a target bigger than you, say, a rupture that for whatever reason dosent have a web, you will do less damage if youre orbiting at 500-1000 with AB on with hail, than you will with fusion.

Weird, eh? Honestly, I use hail for one purpose; ratting. I have tried it in combat vs other frigs, and I dislike it. That being said, Darkstar Pwnyouall from my good friends at Black Rebel Rifter Club, swears by it! He uses it vs Harpies, Enyos, and Jags, as I said, anything with lowish EXP resist and a web, and he has great success with it. I may look into it in further detail sometime, but for me, 4 ammo types is enough to manage.

Notice, I didnt link any kills. That isnt because I dont have any, far from; the past 6 weeks have been epic. I just have decided to focus less on "look what I killed" and more on "This is what I do" for the moment. Others do the storytelling much better than me anyway.

Off to get a cup of tea and figure out what I want to do this afternoon. Fly it like you stole it!

Ava

Relearning my craft

Well. How a couple months changes things.

Recently, Assault Frigate producers have upped their capabilities somewhat, which means that my beloved Wolf needed some changes. The new wolf has a 5th low slot, +10 CPU, a MWD sig bonus of -50%, and a 7.5% tracking speed bonus per level. Outstanding... right?

Well, yes and no. All AFs have enhanced capabilities now, and the one which seems to be rising to the top is the Enyo; it now mounts a stasis web, meaning that kiting it, once my standard tactic vs them, using my falloff range to my advantage, is now impossible. I now must stand and fight, and the things are everywhere. Literally, everyone is flying these things.

I tried my old standard of now 5 lowslot resist/active tank, with ambit and collision rigs (no longer need that metastasis rig, the wolf's tracking is now outstanding).

I lost to every Enyo I fought.

Back to the drawing board. Hmm.

I tried a plate/repper/DCU/kin plating/gyro fit, with collision + exp resist rigs. Still no go. Lost to every Enyo.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board.

Im sparing everyone the details here, as these fights all went the same way; me trying to land early damage, doing some, but simply melting once the enyo was in range. Generally, the Enyo was in low armor or high structure when I went down. There were some pretty frustrating evenings for me, but, I love this ship, and I have gone through this before. There is a good fit to be found; just need to tease it out.

A word on the fit that some are flying, with good success; 280mm artillery, with MWD and 24k point. This fit requires 2 fitting mods, a coprocessor AND a MAPC. It does amazing volley damage, is a good kiter, and works very well for alphaing tacklers and bouncing. I will try this fit, but do not see it becoming my standard fit, as it does have a narrow engagement range (ie, things it can engage and hope to win). Also, im a terrible kiter pilot. There, I said it!

I played with an MWD fit, anticipating problems with the above type of wolf, but 1)  theyre not that common, 2) i can probably drive it away with barrage anyway, and 3) MWD gets me dead faster vs everything else. So, AB fit it will be. I will not give up my 200s, as I require their range and punch, and an active tank is a must for me, due to the number of prolonged, running fights I wind up in.

I also want more DPS and a solid resist tank, and prefer to avoid a plate.

Not asking much, am I? Well... a friend, and rival, Sovai, has been helping me stay motivated by repeatedly blowing me up. This led to me debating if the best defense might simply be an outstanding offense? A wolf with more bite than I am used to?

[Wolf, Ava Wolf]
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
Small Nosferatu II
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S
200mm AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Fusion S

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II

Centii C-Type Small Armor Repairer
Gyrostabilizer II
Gyrostabilizer II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Pseudoelectron Containment Field I

Small Anti-Explosive Pump I
Small Anti-Kinetic Pump I


The numbers?

Speed: 923 m/sec, which is slow, but armor rigs do not harm my align time. B type fits, and gets me 1008 msec. Not great, but tolerable.

Gank: 273 dps with fusion/pp/emp, 314 heated. An even 9k falloff range, 13.5k with barrage; should be able to drive most kiters off or kill them. Outstanding DPS, solid range.

Tank: 7.5k EHP, with 93/77/62/54 resists. Reps 60 dps, 78 with std exile, 86 with exile + heat. Solid, slightly less exp resist than my old fit, better kin resist, more armor. Good.

Cap Stability: 1m30s running all; not great, but tolerable. AF fights almost NEVER last this long. Nos is a must, and upgrading to a C-type will be something which I likely do once I am sure I will use this fit for a while.

I met and fought Sovai's wolf a few times; she runs a 150mm/400 plate fit, with solid resists. When using fusion, I won handily (we fought to structure, as killing one another was becoming expensive), with hail... well, my next post will be an examination of hail, barrage, and fusion in different scenarios. Lets just say I still prefer fusion. I dueled her Enyo and spanked it handily, and then, a man in local asks me for a 1v1.

With an Enyo.

Sovai wishes me luck and off I go, loading fusion, preheating my repper, AB, and guns. My goal is to land damage from 15k, allow him to approach (if i never do, he will just run!) and hopefully have him too deep in armor once he begins dealing heavy damage to me that he cant recover. Kiting, in a sense... but kiting with intent to be caught.

I never dropped below 80% armor before a series of heavy hits reduced the Enyo to scrap iron!

Good fight, good fight. Still new in the testing phase, and subject to change, but my Wolf certainly isnt done harassing my fellow pilots yet, not by a long shot!

Next to come, as I have said, I will examine the merits and drawbacks of fusion, hail, and barrage, and hopefully decide, once and for all, when to fire which at what!

Fly frosty!

Meh. When it all goes wrong.

So. Ever have one of those bad strings? Yeah?

Wow, am I ever in one. I guess everyone has these days... or I hope they do, anyway. I never hear of people like Wensley, Miura Bull, Alex Medvedov, or Lady S. having em... but I guess they do? I dunno. Been an expensive few days.

Roaming around in my wolf a few days ago, I encounter a member of Black Rebel Rifter Club in Hadozeko, one of my favorite corps to fight, in one of my favorite systems. He asks if  I would like a 1v1... I say sure, and off we go. Him in a Jag, me in a Wolf... and down I go. Arty Jag, 2 webs. God damn, do I hate anything with 2 webs. I did ok... I had fusion in (Jag, what i always choose) and he was in structure, but down i go. Bah.

He nicely offers a rematch, and I manage to win the second one... barrage. Valuable lesson... should have just swapped ammo types. I guess I know now, and a bit of information learned is good news.

He asks to fight again, in a brawling fit Jag this time, and I say ok... and down I go again. B type Jag, and tanky as hell... resist rigs, plus, I suspect, a blue. Had broken his tank about the time I went down, I capped out. Second fight ive lost in the last few days where a C-type nos' extra range would have let me take some range and deal some pain beyond his high-damage area. Ok... another bit of information learned, and now a nagging question. Can my wolf kill a B-type Jaguar? I suppose Ill find out, sooner or later.

Next day, roaming around with some friends in the warzone. We kill some cruisers, a dessie, and got a nice kill on a deadspace fit Omen Navy Issue! We scoop the loot, and then engage a drake...

I have always known MWDs on Wolves in losec get me killed. Lemme tell ya... a HAM drake proved, once again, that MWDs, at least for me, are a very bad idea. Yeah, 3rd wolf lost (and a comet, blech... that dosent count, never flown it before!) in 2 days.

It has to change sometime, yeah?

A friend gave me a Daredevil... oooh, finally, a ship I can fight in Minor FW Complexes with! I fit it out with... well, here is my rather rapid lossmail. I managed to kill a Merlin who i knew had a friend in a coercer, and when the coercer landed, and began to fire Beam Lasers at me, i thought "Cake! Beams. No problem." I burned toward him, scrammed, webbed, orbiting at 1k... and it keeps hitting me. Keep in mind, I was orbiting at almost 1k/sec (my speed was 1429 without heat. Yeah, LG snakes, 1-5) and I am thinking, "Well, sooner or later, he has to start missing". Yeah. Never happened. So I traded a 120m DD for a 10m Merlin. Urgh. Dumb.

I fit out a firetail, head back out, bump into the Merlin pilot who is now in a Hookbill... and promptly lose my new Firetail, to (of course) a fucking 2-web Hookbill. He never went below 1/2 shields. So, what did this loss teach me?

To never try to convince myself the Firetail is an actually useful ship ever again. The thing is a piece. Even if you dual web it, you must plate it to have ANY semblance of tank, and youre still slower than dualweb Hookies, plus, youre even more vulnerable now to Slicers. The things DPS output is a joke (Of course, the hookbill has 3 bonused weapons, all others have 2... plus 5 mids. Balance, CCP? WTF?) and slicers kite it all day long, every dessie kills it, and anything it can engage simply runs from it. Sure, a TD firetail may be ok vs slicers, who will just run, but is less than useless vs hookbills. DD may be the answer, but is 4x the price of actually useful faction frigs like the slicer and hookbill.

So, yeah. I am feeling a little blue just now. To top it all off, CCP just announced their proposed Assault Frigate changes which will do much more harm than good to my favorite class of ships, as well as send me back to the start of the learning curve. As it sits, Hawks, Enyos, and Vengeances will be dominant. Due to the hybrid changes, the Rifter is now back-seat to the Merlin, and the Firetail sucks.

Sad time to be a Minmatar frigate pilot. Sigh.

Hopefully things look up soon.

Ava