Spot the Difference?

Ok, two kms for you here:

http://www.eve-hellfleet.com/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=143057

http://www.eve-hellfleet.com/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=143061

You'll notice that the first one is me killing a thorax and the second is me being killed by the same pilot in a Vexor. Both fights that easily could have gone the other way, let me explain.

First fight, against the thorax, I'd seen him on a gate so knew he had medium blasters fitted. He warped to a belt and I followed, landing pretty much at zero. Tracking script from the td kept his guns off me, while my guns and drones made light work of the ecm drones he had dropped. After they were gone, my ishkur ripped him to pieces. This is an example of what I like doing: flying against a bigger target, getting under its guns and slowly chewing through it.

Second fight didn't go quite as well. I'll list the mistakes I made in the fight:

1. Forgot to switch script. He was small gun fit so I went to kite, but left the tracking script in. His guns were therefore able to hit me; while the optimal range script would have kept me safe.
2. Drones ran amok. Against another drone boat, you really need to win the drone battle and I lost control of mine for 10 seconds or so, in that time they could have taken down at least one of his drones.
3. I set orbit too far out. Outside of nos range, and in a blank clone (from suicide ganking op), I couldn't keep my rep going long enough to take his light drones down.

To answer my own question: in the first kill I used tactics I've spent months developing and they paid off; in the second these went out of the window and I lost the fight.

In other news, I led a fairly successful suicide gank op last night. 5 Mackinaws, 3 Hulks and an iteron mark IV at the cost of only a few dessys and a couple of disco battleships. Was a really fun op and the directors present agreed to make it a regular event. Better get me some more disco-geddons :D

The Jaguar Diaries

I was planning on continuing my AF posts by ranting on how much I hate the enyo, but then the Jaguar happened. Only finished Minmater frig V a few days ago, and already I've lost three of the things. Four kills with them though, so I'll go through them all.

First Jag met her end to a team of a taranis and an Enyo, a risk that comes with flying solo is that not many others do.

Second jag managed to do this before a manual piloting error on my part caused it to die (I flew into a building). Originally we had a 3 man gang: thrasher, jag and gank vexor but the cyclone made mince out of my wing mates. Had it tackled for a good 10 minutes before a secondary tackler arrived (Kaal reshipped) and then a friendly drake landed.

Third Jag had a bit more luck. Firstly, I probed down a missioning cyclone and when he logged off mid combat I blew him up. I then decided to take for a long roam down past wiskeber. Engaged a raven and a drake solo (because sanity is overrated amIright?). A stabber fleet issue landed at range and I aligned out and warped off. However, the stabber pilot was willing to call a temporary truce to take down these two carebears, which they weren't all too happy about judging from local. Scored a third kill when a tristan decided to engage me on a gate.

However, on my way over to see the EVE gate (and hopefully kill/ransom some tourists) my jaguar met an unfortunate end to a gate camp.

Overall then, I've been charmed by the jaguar. Over the next few weeks, I plan on carrying out some tests of tactics and fits in friendly 1vs1s with alliance mates. Kaal tells me its impossible, but I think I've figured a way of taking down an ishkur with (relative)ease. This means that I'll probably fail epically but it'll be fun.

Until next time o/

Veng is fine, just fix the damn roflkets.

I'm known in HellFleet as somewhat of an AF addict, you may be able to tell this from my last post where I basically jacked off over my favourite (the Ishkur) for a couple of paragraphs. And I stand by most of what I said, ishkur's a brilliant ship. No I will not buy a vexor.

However, my 2nd favourite AF has a few tricks that the Ishkur can't pull. Introducing: UBER DPS

[Vengeance, UBER DPS]

Damage Control II

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Small Armor Repairer II

Small Armor Repairer II

1MN Afterburner II

Warp Scrambler II

Small Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 200

150mm Light AutoCannon II, EMP S

150mm Light AutoCannon II, EMP S

150mm Light AutoCannon II, EMP S

Small Nosferatu II

Small Anti-Thermic Pump I

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I

Had some debate with Cyber Ten about the cap booster, with him maintaining that a web is better. However, I'd like to see his veng do what's happening in the picture above. Jumped through a gate to meet a 7 man frig gang, who promptly pointed, webbed and even tded me. Activating my tank and burning for the gate, I realised that I was actually tanking the oncoming damage, without heat or taking a booster. I did, briefly, think about attacking but then a couple of decent shots by their jag (I think) hit my armour pretty hard (but nothing a couple of overheated rep cycles couldn't handle).

Overall, therefore, the Veng is a pretty sweet ship. However, its main flaw is the primary weapon system that ccp assigned to it: rockets. Now, when a ship does more damage with a secondary (in this case autocannons) then with the one its meant to use I'd say that something's gone wrong. (tl;dr: FFS CCP FIX ROCKETS XD)

Anyhoo, had some fun recently with my 'geddon. Had the dubious honour of bringing down Ka Jolo, the ceo of Tuskers, after his gang engaged our bait. Was fun. He was as awesome about it as I'd expected and I'm going to stop talking now before I look like a screaming fan girl.

Until next time o/

A little Ishkur lovin'

Ah my beloved Ishkur. Three ion blasters, two flights of Warrior IIs. Long pointy-thing that no one can explain the purpose of. Sexy green paint job. (/emote starts drooling)

I've had some fun in this ship, tackling as part of a large(ish) gang, baiting larger ships to engage me on gates, 2vs2 alongside eviwyn against another af+frig pair and as part of AF roams.

Fitting-wise, I follow Turelles's excellent fitting which can be found here. On occasion, for example if I'm flying as tackler, I'll drop the tracking disruptor for a web. I've heard people make the argument for using a MWD instead of an AB, but frankly I can't see a benefit: gimps your cap and makes you vulnerable to scrams.

Yesterday, I fought a 1vs1 against another Ishkur pilot. We fleeted up and he warped to my safe. Observing the velocity of his ship, and using the handy 'look at' function, allowed me to deduce that he was mwd and rail fit.

I had no way of catching him, however his hobgoblins were no match for my blasters and flight of warriors so his main bulk of dps was quickly eliminated. I'd love to be able to post a tasty km here, but when I turned my drones on him he quickly warped away. For me, this is the main argument against the nano-ishkur, while its speed and added mobility give advantages in many situations it simply cannot put anywhere near the dps down that a blaster build can.

However, I'm a believer that strength comes from flexibility so I do fly a range of urrm.. other assault frigates. Namely, the Amarrian Vengeance and Retribution. I fit my veng as a dual-repped tackler and my retribution for AF-gang dps support. Neither of them can replace the ishkur as my main ship though: the Veng is slow with poor damage output; the retribution only has one mid slot.

All-in-all, I love my Ishkurs. I'm currently finishing up my training for T2 medium pulses (allowing me to fly my harbinger more often on fleet actions), then I plan on taking a detour to pick up interceptors. Its between the Taranis and the Crusader for me at the moment, with the ranis slightly taking the lead. After that, its onto t2 large pulses and maybe, dare I say it, the long road towards carriers and dreads.

Until next time, when CCP FINALLY GET THE DAMNED SERVER BACK UP

o/

Herr Direktor*

As you may be able to tell from the title, I got made a full director of Hellhounds earlier this week. Cyber Ten's still showing me some of the ropes, and there's still a load of menus that I have no idea what they do (if anything).

Last week I FINALLY topped the KB for kills (this week I'm joint top with the awesome Eviwyn check her blog out, its far more interesting than mine and has PICTURES :D). I know its not a big thing, but I've been trying to top the KB since I joined up, and pretty much every week I lead until Friday: where upon someone else logs in and leaves me in the dust.

Its been an interesting week on the piracy front. I was 'democratically' chosen to FC a couple of roams out of our base in Brin. Now, I've FCed before but that was back in my old corp where I was the most experienced at low sec piracy and so felt more confident in that role. Its a bit different for me over in HellFleet, where I frequently fly alongside people have been playing for years (some of them since beta).

Regardless, it was a quiet roam. Only action we had was when a thorax engaged Kaal on a gate. Could've gone worse I guess, considering what happened the next day.

Lesson learnt: Do NOT warp to the top belt in Amamake. It was a fun roam though.

Today my ishkur exploded against a rupture, I was doing fine until he managed to neut me so hard that I couldn't even fire my blasters or keep point. However, Evi and Jayde managed to bring him down so it was all ok I guess.

Next, we teamed up with a few guys from Devious Decorum to hit the Roughnecks. I was a little bit apprehensive about this as I was that my usual mixture of frigate variants wouldn't work, as they don't pack enough buffer to last until the carrier could get reps on it. Looking through my hanger, I settled on my old bait/camping maller: 22k in raw armour, with all resists over 75%. Cyber ten baited in his Abaddon and it wasn't long until the Roughnecks took the bait.

We only managed to net two of them:

http://www.eve-hellfleet.com/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=72027

http://www.eve-hellfleet.com/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=72026

Annoyingly, I'd fitted a short range point instead of a long range one so their Claymore was able to escape :(, alongside their harbinger and another ship that I forget.

From local, they weren't too happy about that :D

It was nice to be out blobbing the Roughnecks for once and having capitals backing us up. We got invited on a battlecrusier roam with the DVDC guys but we had to turn down: RL was catching up with us (plus, personally I don't typically keep one in hanger).

"LOL" kill of the week:

http://www.eve-hellfleet.com/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=72017

None of the others could keep point, except my Keres (which does terrible dps, but was able to keep point at 25km and damp him out of lock range). Eventually, we got our act together and managed to get webs and additional points on him.

Things are getting interesting round Essence and I'll keep you updated as to events.

Until next time, fly safe o/

(* Kaal did a hilarioius German Accent on vent calling me this)

Breaking Even

Yaarr?

Anyhoo, today I was stupid and got my gate camp busted by two Bastards. They graciously offered to let me go for 25m, far below even the cost of my harbinger's hull. If there's one thing I've learnt its that sometimes you're better off to swallow your pride and pay then have to go get a new ship.

Smarting from that I set course back to our holiday home in Brin. My scout (urrm.. myself) had probed down a hurricane who was missioning. Hungry for some action I warped to the acceleration gate. Disaster! The bumbling covert ops had decloaked and my target had escaped.

But then again, missioners often come back. And come back he did, to find 'Vidi vici veni!' (Translate it) sitting there waiting for him. Now a proper pvp fit hurricane spells death for pretty much any frig outside of a dram, lucky me he's a missioner eh?

I lock him up, scramble his warp drive, disrupt tracking on his guns (medium guns can hurt) and we both launch a flight of warrior drones. My guns and drones make short work of his drones, allowing me to focus fire on breaking his tank. From the looks of it, he's fitting an active shield tank with a booster. At this juncture I open comms:

[23:46:51] von Diel > 50m

[23:47:03] Chel MocTran > Haha my shi[p isnt worth that fool

[23:47:09] von Diel > ok

[23:47:19] Chel MocTran > Try 20 and youve got a deal

[23:47:32] von Diel > 30

[23:47:41] Chel MocTran > Again, more than its worth

[23:47:54] Chel MocTran > 20 only saves me 5

[23:47:58] von Diel > mate, I want to know where you're buying your canes from lol

[23:47:59] Chel MocTran > including insurance

[23:48:06] von Diel > ah good point insurance

[23:48:09] Chel MocTran > Make em

[23:48:12] Chel MocTran > :P

Well, I don't think he's taking me seriously.

[23:48:15] von Diel > aH

[23:48:17] von Diel > well

[23:48:18] von Diel > I dunno

[23:48:24] von Diel > 20 is fairly low for a bc

[23:48:28] von Diel > no deal sorry

[23:48:31] Chel MocTran > Meh your choice

I open fire again, ripping through his armour and into the structure.

[23:49:00] von Diel > ok

[23:49:06] von Diel > 25?

[23:49:15] Chel MocTran > Haha, alright

[23:49:23] Chel MocTran > give me a sec gotta transfer funds from alt

[23:49:32] von Diel > you got 30 seconds

At this point, as seems a trend when I'm ransoming people, a couple of new people enter local. Fearing its a trap, and as the dictated 30 seconds are up I resume fire. Suddenly wallet flash:

[23:50:11] Chel MocTran > Transfered

[23:50:22] von Diel > lol just in time

[23:50:32] von Diel > have a nice day :)

[23:50:36] Chel MocTran > i wanna know where you get your clocks

[23:50:40] Chel MocTran > :p

[23:50:45] von Diel > lol

[23:50:52] von Diel > it was 49:32

[23:50:57] von Diel > and it turned 50 :P

[23:50:58] Chel MocTran > gw, saw youre probes

[23:51:05] Chel MocTran > Not sure why I warped back in

[23:51:10] Chel MocTran > : /

[23:51:17] von Diel > lol I was sure I'd missed you

[23:51:25] von Diel > cov ops hit the acc gate XD

[23:51:36] Chel MocTran > I saw

[23:51:53] von Diel > yeah, I gotta work on that lol

[23:52:11] Chel MocTran > Ah well, good hunting

[23:52:18] von Diel > fly safe o/

So it ends on relatively amicable terms. Kinda wish I'd got more, but overall it means I broke even today.

In other news I've been playing with my vengeance a bit. Had some fun duelling with the aforementioned Kaal Redum and his new Rupture. Once again, a nasty opponent for a frigate pilot. Round one I conclusively hammered him. Round 2, he was having coaching from ceo Cyber Ten and had learnt a few things from our last fight. There was a few moments where I was close to structure, but in the end I broke his tank. Then burnt my guns out 'cus I was paying more attension to micromanaging my reps and booster. But that was ok because he ran out of ammo.

I'm chalking that up as a win, despite not actually winning (if that makes sense?). The Veng isn't meant to be a solo boat, the fit I use is designed to hold down a ship and tank it until backup arrives. However, I will give that Kaal gave me a real run for my money and that he would have ripped my beloved Ishkur to shreds.

In other Ishkur related news, I finally finished Assault Ships V. I'm tempted to buy and pimp out an ishkur to celebrate... treat the old girl with some faction and complex modules. Who knows.

Also, after running some numbers whilst bored and camping I decided to buy a Dominix BPO and get back in the manufacturing game. Assuming prices hold, it should provide some reasonable income in addition to whatever else PI brings next week.

Until next time o/

A good fight

(Been a while since I've posted, haven't really had much to blog about. But, recently we've been messing about away from our usual home in Essence. Felt like writing up our last engagement, so enjoy :P. Different writing style to my usual posting, so lets see how this works out)

The fleet forms up outside our new office in Brinn, far from home. I'm captaining a shiny new Ishkur class assault frigate, easily my favourite ship: tough and hard-hitting, for a frigate. With me are a fellow Hellhound, flying his Harpy, and two of the Hellcats, both in dramiels. All four of us are waiting for the signal to move into the next system to support the fifth member of our gang: a recent addition to our motley crew, Kaal Redrum.

We're not the only gang hunting around here, and someone quickly takes the bait. Call goes out over comms that an interceptor is engaging Kaal. We rush to activate the jump gate and warp to support our comrade, but its too late: the interceptor is down, but his friends have arrived. Kaal's thrasher is no match for the combined fire-power of three cruisers. I'm the first to arrive on the field, so as usual they call me as primary. Immediately we get to work, scrambling the their warp drives and our commander calls the Caracal as our primary target, and our secret weapon uncloaks: a top of the line Rapier.

The Caracal collapses under the combined firepower of our five ships, but the shells from both of the gunboats are turning my armour into confetti. Even diverting maximum power to overload the nano-assemblers isn't enough. Klaxens sound as the last of my Ishkur's armour evaporates and another volley rips into her exposed hull.

Structural integrity 90%

70%

50%

25%

12%

C'mon baby, hold it together. We can do this.

12%

12%

12%

The rupture forms a beautiful explosion, and the repair system's final effort before it burns out absorbs the final volley from the stabber, which promptly erupts into flames. We hold the field, scoop what loot we can and return to dock. Its one of the many times I'm glad to have a good ship under my command and a great group of pilots flying under the same flag.

(tldr: we killed shit and I didn't die. Will try to update more often, as more eventful stuff will hopefully happen :D)