The Wolf, 200mm Autocannons, and me. (( This marks the point where I decided to STOP flying plated wolves, and to STOP using 200s with no tracking mod. Lesson learned. ))

It never fails.

If I undock and roam around in a Rifter, everyone I encounter will be flying assault frigates. If I undock in a Wolf or Jaguar, everyone will be in frigates. Yeah, yeah... I do find fights, even ones, relatively often, so it cannot be as bad as it seems, but... this phenomenon does happen more often than I care to admit. Which sometimes leads me to quickly reship and search for a fight.

I was bouncing around the warzone in my trusty Rifter, having just had yet another Imperial Navy Slicer decline to engage me in Lulm, when, in Bosboger, I saw a Jaguar on scan. As I was nearing the end of my roam, I decided to run to Abudban, grab my 400 plate Wolf, and have a go.

I have long suspected that unbonused 200 mm guns, with no tracking mods, would be bad news, and the Wolf's lack of a web would only make this worse. My Wolf was fit with 200s and a rocket launcher, a B-Type Afterburner and a J5B Scrambler, and 400 plate, Damage Control II, Gyro II, and an A-type reactive layer, providing me 2191 armor at 54% explosive resist. Not bad at all. My rigs, a T II burst rig and a ancillary current router, to get all of this to fit... and herein lies the problem. (( Dumb gun/rig choice was dumb.))

The Jaguar pilot is an older pilot, with a rather impressive record of nearly 10:1 according to the records I saw. We engaged, and I quickly determined he was flying a nasty dual-MSE fit, with AB, scram, neutralizer, and 150s. He began to orbit quickly, and opened fire, and I quickly returned fire, as one of the best fights I have had in a long time commenced.

The Jaguar's 150s, better tank, and higher speed all combined to slowly whittle my non-regenerative tank down, while my 200s experienced severe tracking issues. I was flying manually,  doing my best to turn with him, which did serve to lower transversal and allow me to get some fair hits. His 150s, however, were simply able to track better, as when I lowered my transversal, I also lowered his.

[ 2011.08.10 10:31:18 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight heavily hits you, inflicting 226.6 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:18 ] (notify) Turbular Knight (Jaguar) has started trying to warp scramble you!
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:20 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 142.1 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:20 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 77.2 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:20 ] (notify) You have started trying to warp scramble Turbular Knight (Jaguar).
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:22 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II lightly hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 113.6 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:22 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight hits you, doing 182.3 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:24 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 6.3 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:24 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 48.5 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:24 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II barely scratches Turbular Knight (Jaguar), causing 28.7 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:26 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight heavily hits you, inflicting 199.4 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:26 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 184.4 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:27 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 108.8 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:28 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 6.3 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:28 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 158.6 damage

As you can see, my damage and hits were not bad early on, but already, due to tracking, my damage was lower than his. At this point in the fight, we found a steady state orbit, where our hit quality both suffered, but the fact that his dual MSE tank regens, while my plate does not, allowed him to outlast me... especially when my tracking really began to work in his favor.

[ 2011.08.10 10:31:40 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 57.9 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:41 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II barely scratches Turbular Knight (Jaguar), causing 119.8 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:42 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 115.8 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:43 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II barely scratches Turbular Knight (Jaguar), causing 49.3 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:44 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 5.8 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:44 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight hits you, doing 169.7 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:45 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II barely scratches Turbular Knight (Jaguar), causing 125.0 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:45 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 91.9 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:47 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 83.5 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:47 ] (combat) Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II misses Turbular Knight (Jaguar) completely.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:48 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 5.5 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:49 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight barely scratches you, causing 72.2 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:49 ] (combat) Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II misses Turbular Knight (Jaguar) completely.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:51 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight heavily hits you, inflicting 173.1 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:31:51 ] (combat) Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II misses Turbular Knight (Jaguar) completely.

Those missed hits? Yep. That is likely what cost me the fight. Add in the fact that my rockets were doing next to nothing for me (a neut would have served me far better) and this combined to result in my Wolf going down with him at half armor.

Well, any fight we can walk away from, having learned something, is a good one, right? Well, I have said before that unbonused 200s track horribly, but, me being a little cocky at times, figured “well, I can make some manual tweaks and land good hits”. Yeah. Dumb.

Is the Wolf capable of beating this Jaguar? Well, I think so, yes. The 400 plate fit, with the A-type reactive plating, 150s, and a neut, would have had as much tank, landed more consistent DPS, and would have been neuting the whole time... shutting his AB down, however briefly, would have allowed me time to land some rather solid hits, pull a bit of range. The 200 AC/400 plate fit requires that a rig slot be sacrificed for a current router rig. The 150 fit can run either an ambit or a metastasis rig in that slot, adding to applied DPS.

With better tracking.

[ 2011.08.10 10:32:29 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II barely scratches Turbular Knight (Jaguar), causing 26.2 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:32:30 ] (combat) 150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight misses you completely.
[ 2011.08.10 10:32:31 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II barely scratches Turbular Knight (Jaguar), causing 42.9 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:32:32 ] (combat) <color=0xffbbbb00>Your Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket hits Turbular Knight (Jaguar), doing 6.0 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:32:32 ] (combat) <color=0xffbb6600>150mm Light AutoCannon II belonging to Turbular Knight hits you, doing 113.9 damage.
[ 2011.08.10 10:32:33 ] (notify) Ship is out of control

The fight lasted for about 1 min 15 seconds, a long, long time for a frigate fight. The tank on the Wolf, lack of repairer aside, performed quite well. The selection of guns cost me this fight... and a rather expensive loss.

Sometimes, a bad fit is simply a bad fit. This was a bad fit.

Sigh... if only the Wolf didnt look so incredible with those 200s onboard...